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Israel halts supply of aid into Gaza
Israel has closed its crossing points into Gaza to aid convoys, a security official told AFP on Sunday after the government accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire agreement had committed Israel to let in 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every day.
It had halved the amount as it accused Hamas of violating the agreement by failing to return all the deceased hostages in time.
It has so far also refused to reopen the key border crossing of Rafah, the only access point that is not exclusively controlled by Israel.
A famine was declared in and around Gaza City by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in August after a previous blockade of aid deliveries.
Key events
The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, as it carried out a series of strikes in the area, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire, AFP reported.
Major Yaniv Kula, 26, and staff sergeant Itay Yavetz, 21, “fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military said, the first Israeli fatalities since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
Here are the latest photos coming through the wires after Israel launched strikes in the city of Khan Younis on the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel halts supply of aid into Gaza
Israel has closed its crossing points into Gaza to aid convoys, a security official told AFP on Sunday after the government accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire agreement had committed Israel to let in 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every day.
It had halved the amount as it accused Hamas of violating the agreement by failing to return all the deceased hostages in time.
It has so far also refused to reopen the key border crossing of Rafah, the only access point that is not exclusively controlled by Israel.
A famine was declared in and around Gaza City by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in August after a previous blockade of aid deliveries.
IDF confirms it has begun ‘wave of attacks’ in southern Gaza
The Israeli military says it has launched a wave of airstrikes on southern Gaza as the fragile ceasefire comes close to total collapse.
The army said ‘massive and extensive wave of strikes’ were aimed at dozens of Hamas targets.
In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF (military) has begun a series of strikes against Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
Afternoon summary
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The fragile Gaza ceasefire edged close to total collapse on Sunday amid renewed Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including in the cities of Rafah and Beit Lahia, which killed and injured several Palestinians. Israel says the attacks were a response to Hamas gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade fire against its troops in Rafah. Hamas said that it was unaware of any incidents or clashes in Rafah, and accused Israel of a deliberate escalation. The events marked the biggest test yet of the US-brokered ceasefire.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered “firm action” across Gaza in response to the clashes, meeting defence minister Israel Katz and intelligence chiefs to instruct strikes on “terror targets”. The IDF said its forces were dismantling tunnels and “eliminating threats” in Rafah, describing today’s violence as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
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Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the territory on Sunday, including six in the north, as Israel said it may carry out further strikes after attacks on its troops in Rafah and Beit Lahia.
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Israel’s defence minister warned Hamas would “pay a heavy price” for any further ceasefire breaches, saying Israeli troops would respond “increasingly severely” if attacks continue. His comments come amid signs that parts of the Israeli government are losing patience with the truce.
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Hamas claimed to have located the body of another Israeli hostage, saying it intends to hand over the remains to Israel if “field conditions allow.” The group warned that continued airstrikes and shelling would make such transfers impossible. The IDF claim that Hamas withholding bodies of hostages violates the ceasefire agreement.
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Senior Israeli politicians have voiced growing scepticism about the ceasefire’s future. Hardline ministers Amichai Chikli and Avi Dichter said Israel cannot coexist with Hamas, while opposition leader Yair Golan urged a “decisive response,” accusing Netanyahu’s government of “failing to set new rules of the game.”
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Hamas dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”
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The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed “until further notice”, Israel has said, after the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world – and key to bringing aid into the destroyed territory – would reopen on Monday.
Hamas rejects US claim of planned Gaza ceasefire violation as “Israeli propaganda”
Hamas has dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said: “The US allegations are false and fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organised aggression against our people in Gaza.”
The comments came after the state department said late on Saturday it had obtained “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.” The US warned that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” without providing details of the alleged plan.
Hamas rejected the accusation, calling on Washington to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
The militant group said: “The facts on the ground reveal the exact opposite, as the occupation authorities are the ones who formed, armed, and funded criminal gangs that carried out killings, kidnappings, theft of aid trucks, and assaults against Palestinian civilians … confirming the occupation’s involvement in spreading chaos and disrupting security.”
Gaza civil defence says at least 11 killed in Israeli strikes
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday that at least 11 people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory, as both sides accused each other of breaching the ceasefire.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said six people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a group of civilians in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military told AFP it was checking reports of casualties. Earlier, a military official said Israel may carry out additional strikes after its forces targeted militants in Rafah and Beit Lahia, after three separate attacks on Israeli troops.
Israeli military says further Gaza strikes possible
An Israeli military official has said that more airstrikes could be carried out in Gaza, after attacks earlier in the day in Rafah in the south and Beit Lahia in the north, according to AFP.
“There is a possibility for more strikes,” the official told reporters during an online briefing, after the army said it had targeted militants responsible for three separate attacks on Israeli forces.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel
Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency, according to the country’s judiciary, in what officials described as the latest in a series of executions after the June war between Iran and Israel, AFP reports.
The judiciary’s Mizan online news agency quoted Kazem Mousavi, the chief justice of Qom province, as saying: “The execution of this spy was carried out after confirmation by the supreme court and the rejection of his pardon request at Qom Prison.”
The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was hanged on Saturday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. Authorities said he had been in contact with Israeli intelligence since October 2023, was arrested early the following year, and had confessed to sharing confidential information online.
Iran, which conducts executions by hanging, is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.
Israel warns Hamas will “pay a heavy price” for any ceasefire violations
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has warned that Israeli forces will respond forcefully if Hamas attacks troops in Gaza in breach of the ongoing ceasefire.
“Hamas will pay a heavy price for every shot and every breach of the ceasefire,” Katz said in a statement. “If the message is not understood, our response will become increasingly severe.”
The Gaza health ministry has released photographs it says show “violations and signs of torture” on the bodies of Palestinians whose remains were recently returned by Israel.
The graphic images, seen by the Guardian, show bodies with plastic restraints visible around their wrists, consistent with being bound before death. Photos depict prisoners who appear beaten, bruised and blindfolded, with fabric still wrapped tightly around the heads of some of the deceased.
The release of the photographs follows earlier Guardian reporting in which Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons described severe mistreatment, including beatings, binding and exposure to extreme conditions during detention:
Hamas says it has located another hostage’s body, warns Israeli strikes could hinder handover
Hamas’s armed wing says it has found the body of another Israeli hostage, which it plans to hand over to Israel on Sunday if “conditions allow,” according to Reuters.
The group warned that any Israeli escalation could disrupt recovery efforts, after Israel confirmed it had carried out airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in southern Gaza amid renewed disputes over ceasefire violations.
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Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Former hostages Gali and Ziv Berman are pictured returning home at kibbutz Beit Guvrin on Sunday.
The 28-year-old twins, who were taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border, were held separately and said they were completely cut off from the outside world throughout their time in captivity before their release on Monday as part of the ceasefire.
Hamas armed wing says it is unaware of clashes in Gaza’s Rafah
Hamas armed wing has said that it was unaware of any incidents or clashes in Gaza’s Rafah, shortly after Israel said it carried out airstrikes in the area to remove what it deemed a threat after “terrorists” opened fire on troops, Reuters reports.
The Palestinian group reiterated it is committed to all that has been agreed upon including a ceasefire in all areas in Gaza.
UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has posted footage on social media from his visit to Khan Younis, showing widespread devastation following Israel’s military campaign in the southern Gaza city.
Fletcher’s video follows a week-long mission across Egypt, the Rafah crossing and central Gaza – documented in a diary published by the Observer.
Writing in his account, Fletcher described the scale of devastation as “staggering,” adding: “Nothing prepares you for Gaza – the scale of destruction, the density of loss, the quiet resilience in people’s eyes.”
He said that despite the ceasefire, “every inch tells a story of loss … Gaza is a wasteland. Roads choked with rubble.”
Fletcher, who has been coordinating aid convoys through Egypt, urged world leaders to keep the humanitarian lifeline open: “We owe it to those who have endured so much to move beyond the cycle of cruelty, terror and revenge.”
Israeli politicians cast doubt on government’s commitment to ceasefire
Following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza earlier today, more senior ministers have made remarks casting doubt on the government’s commitment to the ceasefire deal.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s diaspora affairs minister and a vocal hardliner, said: “As long as Hamas exists, there will be war.”
Another cabinet member, Avi Dichter, described the situation as “difficult and complex”, accusing Hamas of violating the truce on the assumption that “Israel will not resume fighting.”
He added: “The moment all the living hostages are in our hands, the conditions have changed. Israel will not give up on disarming Hamas.”
From the opposition, Yair Golan, leader of the centre left Democrats party, also called for action, saying on social media: “Hamas’s attack in Gaza requires a decisive response. Only in this way are the rules of the game set.”
Netanyahu orders ‘firm action’ in Gaza after attacks in Rafah
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed Israel’s security chiefs to “take firm action against terror targets in the Gaza Strip” after attacks in Rafah today.
Netanyahu issued the order during a meeting with defence minister Israel Katz and the heads of the Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, and the Mossad (foreign intelligence), the office said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that Palestinian militants fired RPGs and sniper rounds at troops operating in the Rafah area of southern Gaza. In response, the IDF said it carried out a series of airstrikes on “terror targets” in the enclave.
Israel army confirms air strikes in Rafah
The IDF has issued a full statement on today’s attacks in Rafah:
Earlier today, terrorists fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward IDF troops operating to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in the Rafah area, in southern Gaza, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.
In response, the IDF has begun striking in the area to eliminate the threat and dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.
These terrorist actions constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, and the IDF will respond firmly.
The statement did not mention the reported attacks in Jabalia and other parts of southern Gaza.
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