Israel returns 30 slain Palestinians as fresh fire darkens Gaza's fragile calm

Thirty more bodies of Palestinians once held in Israeli prisons returned to Gaza on Friday — a somber procession of the dead crossing into a land still trembling beneath bombardment, the AL Jazeera reported.

Some bore the unmistakable marks of torture, their silence heavy with suffering. The exchange, overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross, took place beneath skies once again torn open by Israeli warplanes, as the fragile ceasefire frayed in the smoke of renewed attacks.

Despite the truce, Israeli fire claimed three more Palestinian lives that day: one man was shot dead and his brother wounded in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood; another perished under shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp; and a third succumbed to wounds from an earlier bombardment, according to the Wafa news agency.

In central Gaza, civil defence crews clawed through the rubble of the Abu Medein family home in az-Zahra, recovering yet another lifeless body — one among countless still entombed beneath the ruins.

Israeli warplanes roared once more over Khan Younis in southern Gaza, striking residential buildings and leaving smoke curling into the November sky.

Gaza children's silent trauma: 80% of young people show signs of 'severe trauma'.#GazaCeasefire #GazaGenocide‌#NationalUnityDay #राष्ट्रीय_एकता#AbhishekSharma #GazaCallsUs@UN @UNHumanRights @UNICEF@IntlCrimCourt @WHO @OIC_OCI
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— Mohammed Rafi (@Rafi_mohammed1) October 31, 2025

Hamas returns two bodies as Gaza reels under renewed Israeli fire

The return of the slain detainees forms part of the prisoner–captive exchange deal struck in early October. With Friday’s transfer, the total number of Palestinian bodies handed over has risen to 225, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Medical teams are now painstakingly identifying the remains — documenting, cataloguing, and informing families of their fate.

Doctors say the previous handovers revealed chilling details: bodies blindfolded and handcuffed, limbs severed, teeth knocked out, many charred or decomposed beyond recognition.

Israel still holds thousands of Palestinians, many without charge under “administrative detention”. Allegations of torture inside its prisons have long persisted — reports that have only intensified since the Gaza war began.

Under the US-brokered accord to pause Israel’s two-year assault, Hamas freed 20 living captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Israeli forces, in turn, began a partial withdrawal from urban Gaza. Yet even as the ceasefire took hold on October 10, death has not ceased its grim march.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Israeli attacks killed 104 people — among them 46 children and 20 women — according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The Red Cross confirmed that late Friday it had transferred three unidentified bodies to Israel, believed to be deceased captives. An Israeli military source told AFP the remains were sent to a “forensic research laboratory” for identification.

On Thursday, Hamas had returned two bodies of Israeli captives, bringing the total to 17 so far — not counting the three delivered Friday. The group has pledged to return all 28 bodies as part of the ongoing exchange.

But the search for the dead continues amid the devastation. Members of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and Red Cross officials scoured eastern Khan Younis on Friday, sifting through the rubble where thousands are still thought to lie buried.

Gaza ceasefire still under strain as Israel reportedly launches fresh strikes

Though Hamas appears intent on upholding the ceasefire, Israel has yet to reopen key border crossings or permit the full flow of humanitarian aid. Famine still stalks northern Gaza, declared earlier this year.

Reporting from az-Zawayda, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said that while a “new wave” of aid trucks had entered the enclave on Friday, their movement remained tightly restricted. “People are still struggling to get aid from UN warehouses,” he said. “For many here, the ceasefire is not only about food — it’s about survival, about rebuilding shattered homes.”

Meanwhile, diplomatic gears are turning elsewhere. Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan announced that a high-level meeting on Gaza’s ceasefire and its future would convene Monday in Ankara — bringing together several foreign ministers who met US President Donald Trump in New York in September. Discussions, he said, were underway to establish both a “Gaza task force” and a “stabilisation mission”.

But uncertainty clouds the horizon. “We are concerned whether the ceasefire will hold,” Fidan admitted.

In Jerusalem, former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin told Al Jazeera he doubted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would walk away from the truce. “This is something he committed himself to — mainly to President Trump — and I would be very surprised if he doesn’t go on with the agreement,” Beilin said.

Adding to the turbulence, Israel’s military justice chief, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, was dismissed after a video surfaced showing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention camp allegedly being sexually assaulted by soldiers. The camp, long notorious for rights abuses, has become a symbol of the deep moral rot critics say the war has exposed.

The Israeli army insists it is investigating “dozens of cases” but denies systematic torture — assurances that ring hollow for the families waiting by the border, receiving, one by one, the broken bodies of their dead.