Gaza death toll rises

At least 68,875 people have been killed and 170,679 wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza since October 2023, the Palestinian Health Ministry says, adding:

Israel returns bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza

Israel has handed over the remains of 15 Palestinians, a day after Hamas returned the body of an Israeli-American soldier. Health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed the news.

The return brings the total number of Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza as part of the ceasefire to 285, according to The Associated Press.

_{Fifteen bodies have arrived at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on November 5}

Majority of Palestinian bodies returned are disfigured, some handcuffed

There’s a huge difference between the Palestinian bodies and the Israeli bodies being returned.

When it comes to the Israeli bodies, we know their identity and where they were killed because Hamas has given all the details. But when it comes to the Palestinian bodies, most of them are unidentified despite the fact that many families are going to Nasser Hospital to try to identify them.

These Palestinians only have numbers on their shrouds, and no one knows who they are. Doctors say there are signs of torture, and most of the bodies have been disfigured. The doctors also say some of the bodies came handcuffed with ropes.

Bodies of Palestinians returned to Gaza by Israel under the ceasefire agreement earlier today were so badly decomposed they were difficult to identify, an official at Gaza’s Health Ministry has told Al Jazeera. The ministry official, head of the committee for the management of returned bodies, said one of the returned bodies was missing a head.

Health officials say efforts to identify the remains have also been hindered because Israel is not allowing DNA testing equipment into the Gaza Strip.

The number of bodies received by the Palestinian Health Ministry is 285, most of whom have not been recognised. Those who remain unidentified will be buried in a mass grave in Deir el-Balah.

Israeli army says it killed two Palestinians in central Gaza

The Israeli army says it has killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in central Gaza earlier today, claiming they had approached soldiers “in a manner that posed an immediate threat”.

In a statement, the military accused the men of crossing the ceasefire’s yellow line near Israeli positions and were “eliminated” shortly after being spotted.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed since the October 10 ceasefire began for breaching or coming too close to the so-called yellow line, which is the name Israel has given to the line behind which its forces have withdrawn. Little information has been given about the location of this line, and it is still being physically marked on the ground, presenting another deadly hazard for Palestinians.

Hamas transfers body of deceased captive to Red Cross for return to Israel

Hamas has handed over a coffin containing what the group says is the body of a deceased captive to the Red Cross to be returned to Israel, the Israeli military and Al Jazeera teams are reporting.

The transfer comes after Hamas retrieved the captive’s remains as agreed under the ceasefire deal. The body is the 22nd of 28 deceased captives to be returned under the agreement, leaving six to be returned.

Israeli forces, settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across West Bank last month: CRRC

Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the occupied West Bank last month, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

A Wafa news agency report cited CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban as saying that Israeli forces carried out 1,584 of those attacks, noting that those were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and el-Bireh (542), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401).

“The commission’s monthly report showed that the attacks included direct physical assaults, uprooting of trees, burning of fields and preventing olive pickers from accessing their lands, in addition to seizing property and demolishing homes and agricultural facilities, at a time when the occupation forces close off large areas of Palestinian land under the pretext of ‘security measures’, while settlers are being enabled to expand within them,” the report added.

Settler attacks, Israeli detentions continue across occupied West Bank

Attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers have continued overnight with the Wafa news agency reporting:

Settler attack injures elderly Palestinians near Hebron

An elderly Palestinian man and his wife have been injured after Israeli settlers attacked residents in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian media and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

Local activist Osama Makhmara told Wafa news agency that illegal settlers stormed the village of Shaab al-Batoum, beating up 75-year-old Mahmoud Mousa al-Najjar and leaving him with bruises.

He said settlers smashed furniture, destroyed household items and scrawled racist slogans on the walls of his home. According to PRCS, the man’s wife was also wounded in the attack.

Makhmara said that settlers from a nearby illegal outpost, backed by Israeli soldiers, also attacked nearby communities in Yatta, vandalising property, stealing belongings and keys from residents, and ransacking homes and livestock shelters.

Schools suspended in Tubas due to Israeli raid

An ongoing Israeli raid has led to the suspension of in-person classes at schools and kindergartens in Tubas in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Azmi Balawneh, Tubas’s director of education, said the decision was made as a result of incursions by Israeli soldiers into the city, towns and villages of the Tubas Governorate. The raid began at midnight.

Israeli forces demolish farms, kill thousands of chickens in West Bank raids

Israeli forces have demolished two Palestinian agricultural sites in the occupied West Bank, destroying a poultry farm and killing thousands of chickens, according to local officials quoted by the Wafa news agency.

In the village of Umm al-Rihan, west of Jenin, Israeli soldiers stormed a poultry farm, electrocuting 7,000 laying hens and demolishing their 1,000sq-metre (10,765sq-ft) structure.

The farm owner estimated his losses at more than 500,000 shekels ($130,000). The head of the village council said military vehicles and a bulldozer carried out the raid behind the separation wall near Ya’bad.

In Wadi Fukin, west of Bethlehem, soldiers demolished an agricultural room belonging to a local farmer, claiming it lacked a building permit.

The incidents follow footage released earlier this week showing Israeli settlers attacking a Palestinian hamlet in the South Hebron Hills and slaughtering sheep belonging to Palestinian residents.

Israel maintains siege on Tulkarem camp, bulldozes main road

Israeli forces have also continued their military assault in the northern occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, bulldozing roads at the entrance to the refugee camp, which has been under siege for 283 days.

According to Wafa news agency, bulldozers tore up the main road at the camp’s northern entrance, causing further damage to infrastructure already destroyed in previous incursions. Israeli forces have also kept displaced residents from returning, sealing all access points with concrete blocks and gates and turning homes into military posts.

Wafa said the nearby Nur Shams camp also remains blockaded for the 270th day. Residents attempting to protest their displacement were dispersed by soldiers at gunpoint.

More than 25,000 people have been forcibly displaced from the two camps since the start of the Israeli invasion, with thousands of homes damaged or destroyed and at least 14 Palestinians killed, including a child and two women.

Three Palestinians, including children, detained in latest Israeli raid on Tubas

Israeli forces arrested three Palestinians, including two minors, during a raid in the northern occupied West Bank city of Tubas, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Kamal Bani Odeh, the head of the group’s office in Tubas, said Israeli troops detained 17-year-old Abdulqader Dababreh and 16-year-old Ibrahim Khalil after raiding their family homes in the city. They also arrested 37-year-old Azzat Bisharat in the nearby town of Tammun.

He said Israeli forces stormed several areas overnight, including Tubas city, Far’a refugee camp, and the towns of Tammun and Aqqaba, in a roughly 12-hour incursion that involved home raids, searches and property destruction. Some homes were seized for military use, and residents were forced out, he added.

Israeli forces often carry out near-daily raids into Palestinian towns and cities. They are frequently accompanied by violent confrontations, mass arrests, and home demolitions.

CAIR urges Trump administration to restore sanctions over West Bank settler attacks

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the attacks on Palestinian farms in the occupied West Bank amount to “ethnic cleansing”, urging the Trump administration to restore sanctions on Israeli settlers.

“The olive industry is essential to the survival of Palestinians in the West Bank. These violent settler thugs, encouraged and supported by the Israeli government, are intentionally seeking to deprive Palestinians of their livelihood,” CAIR said in a statement.

“The Israeli government must be punished for its enabling of terrorist activity in the West Bank, which is ultimately designed to result in the ethnic cleansing of that illegally occupied land.”

Palestinian-owned farms across the West Bank have faced repeated settler attacks. The Palestinian Farmers’ Union, cited by CAIR, said it has recorded more than 50 incidents of violence or destruction since the start of October.

As we reported earlier, the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank last month.

Israel plans to build 356 new settlement units

Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing has published two tenders this week for the construction of 356 new housing units in a settlement southeast of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

The plan is to build 342 units across five compounds as well as 14 homes for reservists’ families in Geva Binyamin (Adam), according to Israel’s Peace Now movement, which added that tenders were issued in August for 4,030 housing units in the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel.

So far this year, tenders have been published for 5,667 settlement housing units, which is by far the highest annual total ever recorded. If all these homes are built, another 25,000 settlers could live in the occupied West Bank, Peace Now said.

The group, which backs a two-state solution, said that the Netanyahu government “is exploiting every moment in power to destroy Israel’s chances for a future of peace and prosperity”.

“The American president may have declared that there will be no annexation, but the Israeli government is doing everything it can to realise the annexation on the ground and turn Israel into an apartheid state,” it said.

Israel military strikes car in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has carried out a strike in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese and Israeli media reports that say the incident took place in the town of Burj Rahal. The Israeli army has not yet commented.

On Monday, Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded seven.

Lebanon says Israeli attack on car kills one person

The Israeli strike on southern Lebanon has killed one person and wounded another. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported the casualties in a statement that said an “Israeli enemy strike” hit a vehicle in Burj Rahal in the country’s south.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike hit a road and near a school, causing “panic and terror” among its students.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident but had earlier warned it would intensify its attacks on Hezbollah.

Israeli forces enter southern Syria’s Quneitra countryside

The Israeli army has entered the Quneitra countryside in southern Syria.

According to Syria’s state news agency, SANA, Israeli troops backed by two tanks and four military vehicles advanced into the town of Jubata al-Khashab and set up a checkpoint on the road to Ain al-Bayda in northern Quneitra.

Syria has repeatedly condemned Israel’s incursions and said it remains committed to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, which established a buffer zone between the two sides.

Syria says Israel has conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and 400 cross-border raids since December. Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government that month, Israel has expanded its occupation of the Golan Heights into the demilitarised zone.

European Investment Bank faces assessment in Israeli war crimes complicity case

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) says its complaint accusing the European Investment Bank (EIB) of complicity in Israeli war crimes has advanced to a formal assessment phase within the bank’s complaints mechanism.

“This development is not merely procedural. It is a political and legal milestone,” HRF said, calling it a “turning point” as a European institution is “forced to reckon with its complicity in grave breaches of international law”.

The complaint, filed on June 20, urges the EIB to suspend and investigate more than $1.1bn in investments linked to Israeli companies blacklisted by the UN for involvement in illegal settlements, including Bank Leumi and Electra.

HRF said the case “breaks new ground” by challenging an EU institution’s “financial complicity” in alleged war crimes, and called on the EIB to suspend ties with blacklisted firms. It also urged EU states and civil society to ensure public funds do not sustain settlement expansion or apartheid.

MBS reiterates Saudi support for Palestinians in letter to PA president

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has received a letter from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declaring Saudi Arabia’s solidarity with the Palestinian people.

MBS said his nation remained committed to the Palestinians’ pursuit of an independent state, Wafa news agency reported.

He added that Saudi Arabia would work with international partners to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Gaza and that Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel are released.

UN chief calls for Security Council mandate for any future Gaza governance

UN chief Guterres has said any governing institution established for Gaza would need a legitimate mandate from the UN Security Council.

Speaking at the World Social Summit in Doha yesterday, Guterres said: “What we believe is that, whatever entity is created in Gaza should have the legitimacy of a mandate from the Security Council.”

He added that local Palestinian police forces would need training, and that a transitional period should ultimately lead to the reunification of Gaza and the occupied West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

Still not asking what Palestinians want, they have no trust in the PA.

First phase of ceasefire ‘almost over’, but questions remain over next

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire is “almost over”, but questions remain over the implementation of the next stage, says Middle East and Gulf politics analyst Luciano Zaccara.

Hamas has said locating them amid the rubble of Gaza is proving difficult. Zaccara said, “I don’t think it’s because of a lack of political will; it’s a lack of capacity to find them.”

The analyst added that the next phase is fraught with difficulty, including the disarmament of Hamas and the use of an international stabilisation force to ensure the ceasefire holds.

“I think we have to be optimistic in the sense of the first phase being finalised — all of the bodies returned,” Zaccara noted. “But I’m not very optimistic about how to move to the second phase without a clear mandate from the UN Security Council resolution and without a clear agreement on how this international security force will work and who will be involved.”

There are still 6 (or 7, the 7th one returned hasn't been identified yet) bodies to be found, the 'easy ones' are always found first. Who knows how long it will take to find the last one.

That's what Netanyahu is banking on while the IDF is digging its heels in along the yellow line and continue destruction in the 58% of Gaza Israel now occupies while continuing to restrict aid.

Who are the remaining captives whose bodies are yet to be returned to Israel?

Hamas has said that in several hours it will transfer one of the seven remaining bodies of deceased captives to be returned to Israel.

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of the captives, the names of the remaining seven deceased captives are Lior Rudaeff, Meny Godard, Joshua Luito Mollel, Ran Gvili, Dror Or, Sudthisak Rinthalak, and Hadar Goldin.

Five of the captives are Israelis, while two were foreign nationals.

Mollel was a 21-year-old agriculture student from Tanzania who was working on a dairy farm at Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli media reports.

Sudthisak was a 43-year-old agricultural worker who was killed on October 7 near Kibbutz Be’eri, before his body was taken to Gaza, according to reports.

Four of the deceased Israeli captives were also killed in the October 7 attacks, while the fifth, Goldin, was a serving Israeli soldier whose body has been held in Gaza since he was killed in battle in 2014, according to Israeli reports.

Mamdani’s win is endorsement of ‘truth over silence on Gaza’

As Zohran Mamdani won the election to be the next mayor of New York, Ziyad Motala, a professor at Howard University’s School of Law, says in an op-ed for Al Jazeera that by electing Mamdani, voters endorsed public duty over donor loyalty and truth over silence on Gaza.

Mamdani’s historic win “is a signal that the old arithmetic of wealth and influence no longer guarantees power”, he added.

Zohran Mamdani has created history by winning the New York mayoral election. In his emotional victory speech, he singled out Donald Trump and rival Andrew Cuomo for his criticism as he promised anti start a new era for New Yorkers. Rifat Jawaid explains that Mamdani’s victory will positively impact the politics of the western world as ordinary voters seek to assert their power over politicians driven by urgent capitalism.

Thousands sign petition to cancel Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv football match

More than 26,000 people in the United Kingdom have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Thursday’s football match between British club Aston Villa and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, citing the latter’s alleged involvement in the “genocide in Gaza”.

The petition, launched by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was delivered to the Football Association (FA) at Wembley Stadium. It urges both the FA and European football’s governing body, UEFA, to cancel the fixture and “take steps to exclude Israel from international football”.

The petition said allowing Israeli teams to compete “obscures the reality of genocide in Gaza” and accused Maccabi Tel Aviv of being “directly involved” in Israel’s military campaign, including by sending care packages to soldiers.

It also said, in violation of UEFA and FIFA rules, the Israel Football Association includes teams based in settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

PSC added that “football teams from a state responsible for genocide and implementing apartheid have no place in international sports”.

Kuwait condemns Israeli violations against journalists in Palestine

Kuwait has criticised what it called “blatant assaults on press freedom” amid repeated Israeli attacks on journalists and media institutions in Palestine.

Speaking at the UN Fourth Committee on Media-related Matters, Abdulrahman al-Ajmi, second secretary at Kuwait’s mission to the UN, said Israel’s actions aim “to silence the free Palestinian voice and erase the harsh humanitarian realities” on the ground.

Al-Ajmi cited a sharp rise in such violations in recent months, including the killing of 15 Palestinian journalists in August, describing the incidents as “direct targeting” by Israeli forces in violation of international humanitarian law.

Two Palestinian journalists killed in October as attacks and incitement escalate, union says

The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate says at least two Palestinian media workers were killed and 10 others injured in October as Israeli forces and settlers intensified attacks on the press across the occupied Palestinian territory.

In its monthly report, the syndicate said satellite engineer Ahmad Abu Mutair and journalist Mohammed al-Munirawi were killed in Israeli strikes in central Gaza, while two relatives of journalists also died. It documented injuries to at least 10 journalists, including beatings, live fire and blast wounds in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The group said at least nine journalists’ homes were destroyed in Israeli bombardment, and media crews were blocked from coverage in more than a dozen locations across the West Bank, including olive harvest areas.

It also recorded multiple cases of field detentions, assaults and home raids targeting journalists, including the arrest of journalist Musab Qafisheh in Hebron, and noted growing settler violence and official Israeli incitement, including an army spokesperson labelling a Palestinian reporter a “terrorist” online.

The syndicate accused Israel of attempting to silence coverage of violations and said it will continue working with the International Federation of Journalists to pursue accountability through international courts, urging UN bodies to provide protection for Palestinian journalists.

Body of deceased captive has crossed border from Gaza, Israeli military says

A coffin containing the body of a deceased captive has crossed the border from Gaza into Israel, the Israeli military says.

It said that the body, escorted by Israeli troops, was on its way to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine for identification.

Recovering remains of captive held since 2014 expected to prove challenging

This latest body was retrieved after four full days of digging, of excavating in the Shujayea neighbourhood – a neighbourhood that has been under the control of the Israeli military for months.

Yet it took assistance from an expert Egyptian team and coordination with the Red Cross for Hamas to be able to locate and exhume this body.

This is the fourth body of a captive retrieved from that area. After this return, there will be six bodies of captives left in Gaza, including the remains of two foreign nationals, as well as the body of Hadar Goldin, who was killed in 2014.

His name has been the focus of a lot of attention in Israel, because it is estimated that it might be very difficult to locate and return his remains.

That’s significant because Israel insists it will not deliver on its commitments under phase one of the ceasefire agreement, and ease the restrictions on the crossings and so forth, until all the bodies are returned.

"On 1 August during the 2014 Gaza War, Givati Brigade Lieutenant Hadar Goldin reportedly was taking part in an operation to decommission a tunnel belonging to militants.^[20] Hamas militants reportedly emerged from a tunnel and attacked an Israeli patrol in Rafah.^[21] Killing two Israeli soldiers, the militants returned to Rafah through a tunnel, bringing the body of Goldin with them.^[22]"

Israel to return bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza in exchange for latest captive’s remains

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Israel will hand over 15 of the estimated hundreds of dead Palestinians from Gaza it holds, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports.

It is not known what will happen to the rest of them, she said.

As we reported earlier, officials at Gaza’s Health Ministry say the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel have been so badly decomposed that teams are struggling to identify them.

_{Bodies of unidentified Palestinians returned from Israel as part of the ceasefire deal are buried in a mass grave in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza}