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Israel Returns 15 More Palestinian Bodies to Gaza as First Phase of Ceasefire Nears End

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are set up around Al-Aqsa University campus in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are set up around Al-Aqsa University campus in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 24, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Returns 15 More Palestinian Bodies to Gaza as First Phase of Ceasefire Nears End

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are set up around Al-Aqsa University campus in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are set up around Al-Aqsa University campus in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 24, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Palestinians on Wednesday, a day after Hamas returned the remains of an Israeli hostage. This is the latest exchange as part of a US-brokered ceasefire reached last month, whose first phase is winding down even as violence continues in Palestinian territories.

The remains of two hostages, one Israeli and a Thai national who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the war, are still to be returned.

Hamas said it's committed to handing them over even though the recovery is made difficult by widespread destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the militants of stalling after the last living hostages were released on Oct. 13 during the most urgent phase of the ceasefire, The AP news reported. 

Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian mediators met in Cairo earlier this week to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire.

That is expected to include deploying an armed International Stabilization Force, tasked with ensuring the disarmament of Hamas, a key demand of Israel, and developing an international body to govern Gaza and oversee reconstruction.

But major questions hang over nearly every part of the plan and the time frame for implementation of the fragile ceasefire that has held despite accusations of violations by both sides.

Palestinian bodies returned and hostage remains identified 

Gaza's Health Ministry said only 99 bodies out of the 345 Israel has returned have been identified. They say identifying the remains is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, Israel mourned the latest hostage to be returned by the Palestinian fighters, Dror Or. Israel's military said Or and his wife, Yonat Or, were killed by gunmen who overran their community of Kibbutz Beeri on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Before they were killed by the fighters, the couple evacuated two of their children from their burning house through the window, said the Hostages Families Forum. The decision ultimately saved the children's lives — Alma and Noam were abducted by the gunmen and released in a hostage deal in November 2023. 

In total, Palestinian fighters killed some 1,200 people across southern Israel and abducted 251 to Gaza in their Oct. 7, 2023 attack that kickstarted the war in Gaza. 

With the return of Or's remains, almost all of the hostages or their remains are out of Gaza. 

Hazem Qassem, the spokesperson for Hamas, said Wednesday that the group was committed to handing over the remaining two hostages and wrapping up the exchange. Writing on his Telegram channel, he called for mediators to pressure Israel to stop its “violations” of the ceasefire. 

Israeli troops shoot Palestinian man in Gaza 

A Palestinian man was killed when Israeli troops opened fire Wednesday on a group of people in central Gaza, a hospital said. 

At least two others were wounded in the attack that took place east of the Maghazi refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital which received the casualties. 

They were the latest casualties among Palestinians since a ceasefire deal brought the war to a halt in Gaza last month. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the report. 

Also Wednesday, the military said its troops struck a group of six fighters in the southern city of Rafah, killing one. The military statement said that the fighters had “most likely emerged from the underground terror infrastructure in the area." 

Since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 11, the Gaza Health Ministry said, 345 Palestinians were killed and 889 were wounded in the strip as of Tuesday. 

It said at least 69,775 Palestinians have been killed and 170,863 injured in Israel’s offensive in Gaza. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures, but has said women and children make up a majority of those killed. The ministry is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts. 

Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian officials meet on ceasefire  

Türkiye's intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met in Cairo on Tuesday with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Hassan Rashad to discuss advancing to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, a Turkish security official said. 

The talks also centered on intensifying joint efforts with the United States to strengthen the truce, according to the official who requested anonymity in line with Turkish regulations. 

The three also agreed to deepen cooperation with the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) to remove obstacles and prevent violations, ensuring the ceasefire is upheld without interruption, the official added. 

Indonesia prepares troops for Gaza stabilization force  

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation with a long experience in UN peacekeeping missions, is among the countries the US has discussed the ISF plan with, in addition to Azerbaijan, Egypt and Qatar. 

“We are now in the selection phase for the peacekeeping force,” Gen. Agus Subianto, Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces or TNI, told reporters Tuesday after a hearing with lawmakers in the capital, Jakarta. “Later, it’s planned that the mission will be led by a three-star general.” 

He said the contingent will form a composite brigade consisting of health, engineering and mechanized support battalions. TNI is also preparing supporting assets for the mission in Gaza, including three hospital warships, the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and a helicopter. 

Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin added that the final deployment awaits an official order from President Prabowo Subianto but “troops are already undergoing mission-specific training.” 

Prabowo has repeatedly declared that his country was ready to deploy 20,000 peacekeepers to Gaza at any time. 

The UN reported that Indonesia had been the fifth-largest uniformed personnel contributor, deploying 2,731 individuals on peacekeeping operations as of September. 

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Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.

Arab World

At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
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At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)

Two drone strikes in Sudan, one at a market in Darfur and the other along a road in Kordofan, killed at least 28 civilians, health workers told AFP Thursday.

The three-year war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen a recent uptick in near-daily drone strikes that kill dozens at a time.

On Wednesday, a strike hit a market in North Darfur state's Saraf Omra town, killing "22 people, including an infant, and injuring 17 more", one health worker at the local clinic told AFP.

"The drone hit a parked oil truck, which caught fire along with part of the market," said Hamid Suleiman, a vendor at the market, which serves Saraf Omra and the surrounding towns in the remote Darfur area.

Some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the RSF's strongholds in Darfur, another drone strike set fire to a truck travelling on a North Kordofan road in army territory.

"Six bodies arrived at the hospital yesterday, three of them charred, in addition to 10 wounded," a medical source at the local hospital in El-Rahad told AFP, blaming the RSF for the attack.

The civilians were travelling between the army-controlled towns of El-Rahad and Um Rawaba.

Drones from both sides have repeatedly attacked Sudan's central east-west highway, which runs through North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and connects Darfur to the army-controlled east.

Sudan's war has killed tens of thousands and left some 11 million displaced, in the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.