Updates: Israel kills 3 in Gaza, Trump threatens ‘to go in and kill’ Hamas

For more on how Israel’s so-called exploding robots pose new threats to Palestinians who have returned to their destroyed neighbourhoods in northern Gaza, read our story here.

We also spoke with the son of detained Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti, who says the family fears for his life in Israeli prison. Read that interview here.

Or check out this video of a freed Palestinian prisoner who was reunited with his family in Gaza this week after he was told they were dead.

• Hamas said that the return of the remaining dead captives “may take some time”, as some of their bodies were buried in tunnels destroyed under the rubble of buildings demolished by the Israeli army.
• President Donald Trump warned that further US-backed intervention could be necessary if the Palestinian group fails to uphold its ceasefire commitments.
• In earlier comments, Trump threatened that if Hamas “continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them”.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza “will likely open” this Sunday, according to remarks carried by Italy’s ANSA news agency.
• The Israeli army carried out attacks in southern Lebanon, claiming it struck Hezbollah targets. Lebanese authorities said at least one person was killed and seven others injured.
• UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said that reports suggesting Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza this week show signs of torture “are extremely concerning”.
• The Palestinian Health Ministry said an 11-year-old was shot dead by Israeli forces in the town of ar-Rihiya, near Hebron, in the south of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian group has condemned today’s Israeli attacks across Lebanon as “a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions”.

Hamas also called on Arab and global leaders to condemn Israel’s actions.

As we’ve been reporting throughout the day, the Israeli military carried out a series of air and drone strikes on towns across Lebanon, including in the south of the country and the Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and seven others were injured in the attacks.

The UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) says that represents an increase of about 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

As we’ve been reporting, Israeli military and settler violence has soared across the occupied West Bank amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

In its latest update on the situation, OCHA said at least 71 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians were documented between October 7 and October 13 alone.

These attacks resulted in casualties, property damage or both, the UN agency said, while more than half of them – 36 in total – occurred in the context of the Palestinian olive harvest that began this month.

A prominent Democratic lawmaker in the US has announced he will return donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), highlighting the powerful pro-Israel lobby group’s waning appeal among Democrats.

Congressman Seth Moulton, who is challenging progressive Senator Ed Markey in next year’s midterm primaries, cited AIPAC’s support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the reason he is distancing himself from the group.

The move by Moulton, a centrist and a strong supporter of Israel, shows that backing from AIPAC is increasingly becoming a political liability for Democrats after the horrors Israel has unleashed on Gaza.

“In recent years, AIPAC has aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government,” Moulton said in a statement.

“I’m a friend of Israel, but not of its current government, and AIPAC’s mission today is to back that government. I don’t support that direction. That’s why I’ve decided to return the donations I’ve received, and I will not be accepting their support.”

Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Programme’s Middle East and North Africa director, says the UN agency is using “every minute” of the ceasefire to ramp up its work in Gaza.

“We are scaling up to serve the needs of over 1.6 million people,” Abdeljaber said in a video shared on social media, adding that WFP hopes to get nearly 30 bakeries and 145 food distribution points operating.

“This is the moment to keep access open and make sure the aid keeps flowing,” he said.

From #Rafah Crossing, @SamerWFP shares a moment of hope.
The ceasefire lets @WFP and partners scale up food, bread & nutrition aid for 1.6M in #Gaza reopening bakeries & distribution points.

Needs are immense. The ceasefire must hold. pic.twitter.com/Ol3Jn5XeHr

— WFP in the Middle East & North Africa (@WFP_MENA) October 16, 2025

The Palestinian group has said that the return of the remaining dead captives “may take some time”, as some of their bodies are buried in tunnels destroyed or under the rubble of buildings demolished by the Israeli army.

“The bodies of the Israeli prisoners that the resistance was able to access were handed over immediately,” Hamas said in a statement. Since the ceasefire agreement came into place last week, nine of the 28 deceased captives have been returned to Israel.

But the Palestinian group said that extracting the remaining bodies requires equipment and devices to remove the rubble, which are currently unavailable due to Israel’s ban on their entry.

“Therefore, any delay in the return of the bodies falls entirely on the Netanyahu government, which is obstructing and preventing the provision of the necessary capabilities,” the group said, reaffirming its commitment to the agreement and its “keenness to implement it”.

The UN estimates that 55 million tonnes of debris must be cleared before reconstruction efforts in Gaza can begin.

In Gaza City alone, more than 80 percent of buildings have been damaged following Israel’s relentless bombardment.

Residents face immense challenges as they attempt to clear rubble with limited resources and a lack of heavy machinery and equipment.

Watch our report from the city below:

President Donald Trump has said that additional bodies of captives held by Hamas were returned to Israel, but warned that further US-backed intervention could be necessary if the Palestinian group fails to uphold its ceasefire commitments.

“If they don’t behave, we will take care of it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He ruled out a US direct involvement, but said that “people very close, very nearby … will do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”

As part of the truce deal between Hamas and Israel signed last week, the Palestinian group released the living captives and the bodies of some dead captives it could access, saying that “significant efforts and special equipment” are needed to recover the rest of the bodies.

• As we reported earlier, Israel’s air force launched a series of air strikes in southern Lebanon. Residents in the areas of Mazraat Sinai and Ansar said the strikes were powerful and shook nearby villages.
• The Israeli army said it hit “several Hezbollah sites” near the village of Mazraat Sinai, claiming they were used by the group to restore its capabilities. It added that one of the targets was a quarry where Hezbollah produced concrete to rebuild its facilities that had been destroyed.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that six people were injured in the Israeli attacks.
• The country’s president issued a statement condemning the attacks, saying they constitute a “grave violation” of the ceasefire agreement signed last November by Israel and Hezbollah: “It confirms that Israel continues to violate its international obligations and use force outside any legal framework or international mandate, which requires an international stance to put an end to these reprehensible violations.”

Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza’s Health Ministry, has spoken to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic about the “clear signs of torture” found on the bodies of Palestinians that were returned to the Gaza Strip this week.

“One body shows signs of hanging with a rope still wrapped around the neck, blindfolds around the eyes and bound hands. That martyr was placed as is and sent to us,” Zaqout said from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Zaqout added that many of the bodies are unrecognisable, and only six killed Palestinian prisoners transferred from Israel have been identified so far.

Arab Barghouti, the son of popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, says his father is being targeted by the Israeli authorities in prison.

“We do fear for my father’s life. It’s not a crazy idea to say that the Israeli government is capable of actually killing and murdering prisoners inside prisons,” Arab told Al Jazeera in an interview from Ramallah.

Earlier this week, Arab told media outlets that Palestinian detainees who were released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal had reported that his father was beaten by Israeli prison guards last month.

Arab told Al Jazeera that this is the fourth time Barghouti – a prominent member of Fatah who is seen as a unifying political figure among Palestinians – has been beaten since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“They are targeting him,” Arab said. “They are trying to at least cause him a disability, not to be functional for playing a political role – because he is important for the Palestinian people and a unifying figure.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, says reports that Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza this week show signs of torture “are extremely concerning”.

“And as we’ve said many times, there will need to be accountability for all the violations of international law we’ve seen during this conflict,” Dujarric said during a news conference, without going into more specifics about the allegations.

As we’ve been reporting, authorities in Gaza say the bodies of Palestinians who were held in Israeli detention show marks of violence, including possible executions.

The Israeli army says it has killed a Palestinian person who it claimed had hurled an explosive device towards Israeli soldiers during a military raid in the city of Qabatiya in the northern occupied West Bank.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, at least 969 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The United Nations estimates more than $70bn is needed to rebuild Gaza.

From the air, it looks like a city erased. Entire neighbourhoods have vanished from the map two years since Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza began.

What were once homes, schools, hospitals, factories and power plants have been reduced to debris and dust. Thousands of Palestinians are now returning to ruins or rubble in a place that has lost the very fabric of daily life.

Economists estimate the cost of rebuilding at tens of billions of dollars – far beyond the capacity of Gaza’s shattered economy.

Watch the episode of Counting the Cost below:

Gaza’s Government Media Office says that, of those, three trucks transported cooking gas while another six brought diesel fuel into the Gaza Strip.

Those supplies were “designated for operating bakeries, generators, and hospitals, amid the acute shortage of these essential materials” due to Israel’s blockade and genocide, it said.

“We note that the quantities that entered remain very limited, representing only a drop in the ocean of urgent needs, and they do not meet even the minimum humanitarian and livelihood requirements of more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip,” the office added, noting that at least 600 aid trucks are needed per day.

The football club says it has been informed that no fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv will be allowed to attend a match next month in the British city of Birmingham, following instructions from the so-called Safety Advisory Group (SAG).

The SAG, which coordinates safety for matches at Villa Park, has “formally written to the club and UEFA to advise no away fans will be permitted to attend Villa Park for this fixture”, Aston Villa’s statement said.

“West Midlands Police have advised the SAG that they have public safety concerns outside the stadium bowl and the ability to deal with any potential protests on the night,” the statement continued.

Citing sources briefed on the matter, The Athletic had reported that West Midlands Police requested that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters not be allowed to attend the Europa League game “due to concerns over unrest”.

Israeli football teams have faced large protests at matches across Europe amid Israel’s war on Gaza, with a campaign to ban the country from European football gaining momentum.