By Harun Nasrullah
London, (The Muslim News): The fragile ceasefire in Gaza appeared to be unravelling on Thursday after Palestinian officials reported at least three new fatalities from Israeli attacks and issued disturbing allegations of torture against detainees whose bodies were returned by Israeli authorities.
Medical sources in Gaza confirmed the deaths to Al Jazeera, though the circumstances remain unclear. The reports came alongside harrowing accounts from health officials about the condition of Palestinian prisoners’ bodies transferred to Gaza this week.
Munir al-Bursh, Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said in a social media post that the remains bore “horrific signs of torture and burns — evidence of atrocities committed in secrecy.” He described the victims as “bound like animals, blindfolded,” claiming they “were not buried but held for months in Israeli morgues, and many were executed after being tied up.” Al-Bursh called the situation a “full-fledged war crime.”
His account was corroborated by Mohammed Zaqout, Director of hospitals in Gaza, who told Al Jazeera Arabic that one of the bodies arrived with “a rope still wrapped around the neck, blindfolds around the eyes and bound hands.” He said many of the remains were unrecognisable, with only six of the 120 bodies returned so far having been identified.
At a UN press briefing, spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric described the reports of torture as “extremely concerning” and stressed that “there will need to be accountability for all the violations of international law we’ve seen during this conflict.”
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains acute. The territory’s Government Media Office reported that just nine aid trucks entered on Thursday, three carrying cooking gas and six with diesel fuel for essential services. The office said the supplies represented “only a drop in the ocean of urgent needs,” estimating that at least 600 trucks a day are required to sustain Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
Tensions also flared politically. US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Hamas, alleging without evidence 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.”
His comments stood in contrast to a televised address by Hamas leader Zahir Jabarin, who reaffirmed the group’s commitment to the ceasefire while rejecting “any form of international guardianship over our people.”
Meanwhile, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that the UK has ended its surveillance flights over Gaza, which had conducted more than 500 missions since December 2023. Defence Secretary John Healey said the flights were “tasked solely to locate hostages,” but the operations had drawn criticism from human rights activists, who argued the intelligence might have been shared with Israeli forces.
Violence continued in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces killed 20-year-old Mahdi Ahmad Kmeil during a raid in Qabatiya, and 11-year-old Mohammad Bahjat al-Hallaq, who was shot while playing football at his school in al-Rihiya. The Palestinian Prisoner Society reported 35 new detentions across the territory.
As the conflict’s death toll since October 2023 rose to 67,967, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa announced a $67bn, five-year recovery plan for Gaza. The project, developed with Arab and international experts, aims to rebuild the devastated enclave and restore essential infrastructure.
[Photo: Relatives mourn Palestinian Yusuf al-Yakubi at Nasser Hospital after his body is handed over by Israeli authorities to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) under the cease-fire and release all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners agreement between Israel and Hamas in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on October 17, 2025. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
