GAZA CITY, Palestine: Hamas’s armed wing said on Thursday it would hand over the remains of two Israeli captives under the US-brokered ceasefire, as renewed Israeli strikes killed over 100 Palestinians in what Gaza authorities described as a major violation of the truce.
Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said on its Telegram channel it would transfer “the bodies of two Israeli prisoners” at 1600 GMT.
The Israeli army and the Shin Bet security service said the International Committee of the Red Cross was en route to a Gaza meeting point to collect two coffins, in a joint statement.
Fresh Israeli strikes
Gaza’s civil defence agency and the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people in one of the deadliest nights since the ceasefire began on October 10, with dozens of children among the dead.
By Thursday morning, Gaza health officials put the wider toll since the truce began at more than 211 dead and hundreds injured.
Israel said it had carried out strikes after an attack that killed one Israeli soldier in the south of Gaza and that its forces had begun a “renewed enforcement of the ceasefire”.
Israeli authorities have accused some Gaza-based elements of breaching the truce, an accusation Hamas has denied.
Pace of returns and diplomatic pressure
Hamas has previously returned 20 living hostages and handed over the remains of 15 of the 28 deceased hostages it agreed to return under the deal, the group and other sources have said.
Hamas has warned that any escalation will impede search and recovery efforts for bodies buried under rubble.
Chris Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesman, told AJ+ that the terms of the deal — which require swift returns — were unrealistic given the scale of destruction in Gaza.
“There were so many bodies under so much rubble… it was going to be very difficult for anybody to deliver the bodies of the captives,” he said, arguing the timetable left the agreement vulnerable to collapse.
“The deal was set up to fail, right?”
Former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness spoke to @Dena about how the conditions of the ceasefire in Gaza don’t guarantee the access to aid that Palestinians need. pic.twitter.com/Clzjmzq2tk
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 30, 2025
The US and Qatar, which helped mediate the truce, said they expected the ceasefire to hold. Both countries urged restraint after the latest violence.
Since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry has reported at least 68,600 Palestinians killed and mass destruction across the territory.
