By Elham Asaad Buaras
London, (The Muslim News): Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, part of at least nine people reported dead across the enclave since dawn, including six in Gaza City.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, condemned Israel’s continued killings following the ceasefire agreement. Writing on X, she said: “Again: Ceasefire according to Israel = ‘you cease, I fire.’ Calling it ‘peace’ is both an insult and a distraction,” adding that there must be “justice, sanctions, divestment [and] boycott until occupation, apartheid and genocide are over and every crime is accounted for.”
The violence rose during a major prisoner exchange. Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners, exiling 154 to Egypt. Hamas freed all 20 surviving Israeli captives and gave over four bodies.
Palestinians released from Israeli detention say they were beaten and humiliated, with one former detainee describing Israel’s Ofer Prison as a “slaughterhouse”. Yet two prominent Gaza physicians, Dr Hussam Abu Safia and Dr Marwan al-Hams, remain in Israeli custody.
Abu Safia, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, was abducted by Israeli forces in December 2024, while al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, was seized by an undercover unit outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) field hospital in Rafah in July.
Labour MP John McDonnell said he raised their cases with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, confirming that “the government is raising [them] with Israel.”
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that the Red Cross has received the bodies of 45 Palestinians from Israel, which are now being examined to determine the cause of death.
The UN reported that more than 300,000 people have moved from southern Gaza to the north as the ceasefire eased access restrictions. “From Friday until yesterday, our colleagues monitoring displacement recorded nearly 310,000 movements of people from southern to northern Gaza and about 23,000 movements in other directions,” said UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.
“Humanitarians are now able to move more easily in many areas, and so our teams are reaching people in places that had been cut off for up to several months. With the easing of movement and access restrictions in multiple places, we were able to pre-position medical and emergency supplies where they are needed most and assess key roads for explosive hazards.”
However, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that aid remains critically blocked. “UNRWA’s humanitarian supplies – food, hygiene kits, medicine, shelter items – are sitting in warehouses outside Gaza, banned from entering by the State of Israel,” the agency said on X.
“We have enough food for the entire population for three months waiting in Egypt and Jordan. There’s no more time to lose – we need a green light to start bringing in UNRWA’s supplies immediately so our teams can deliver them to people in need. The ban on UNRWA’s aid must be lifted.”
International response on ceasefire
Internationally, US President Donald Trump vowed lasting peace after signing a ceasefire deal with the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye. Among those attending the Summit for Peace in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was photographed alongside Trump and later praised the deal, suggesting the US President be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The role of President Trump has been absolutely fundamental and crucial in the process. Without President Trump, there would be no peace,” Infantino said.
Infantino said Trump had invited him to the summit, adding, “FIFA is here to help, to assist and to put ourselves at disposal for whatever we can do to make sure that this peace process comes to fruition and to the best possible end.”
His attendance followed calls for football to support peace efforts in the Middle East after pro-Palestinian demonstrations were planned at matches in Norway and Italy.
In Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that peace must not come at the expense of justice. “Peace cannot mean forgetting; it cannot mean impunity. Those who were key actors in the genocide perpetrated in Gaza must answer to justice,” he said in an interview with Cadena SER radio. Recalling his time with the UN during the Kosovo War, Sánchez said Spain and Europe would play key roles “not only in reconstruction but also in shaping a two-state solution and peace grounded in international law.” He did not rule out sending Spanish troops as peacekeepers.
Ireland also pledged “millions of euros” in additional aid for Gaza’s reconstruction. Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that Foreign Minister Simon Harris is preparing a major support package following Ireland’s decision to join the Emergency Coalition for the Financial Sustainability of the Palestinian Authority.
Harris will announce that a shipment of 1,500 tents bound for Gaza includes 750 from Ireland’s humanitarian stocks. The government has already committed an additional €6 million (£5.1 million) in humanitarian assistance, bringing its total contribution since 2023 to over €100 million (£85 million).
In Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto denied reports that he planned to visit Israel following the Gaza summit, insisting, “For decades, I have stood for Palestine. Since my youth, we have consistently supported Palestinian independence and its people.” Indonesia, home to more than 280 million people, is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
Attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in West Bank continues
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, illegal Israeli settlers uprooted over 150 olive trees and burned a Palestinian car on Tuesday. The attack in Bardala village destroyed perennial trees that are a vital source of livelihood for local families, part of a recurring pattern of settler violence targeting farmers during the olive harvest season.
Illegal settlers burnt a Palestinian vehicle in Beitin, eastern Ramallah.
Over the past two years, settlers have carried out 7,154 assaults, killing 34 Palestinians and displacing 33 Bedouin communities. Since the Gaza war began, wider violence in the West Bank has killed over 1,050 Palestinians, wounded 10,300, and led to more than 20,000 arrests, including 1,600 children.
In addition, in occupied East Jerusalem, far-right Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the second time in a week, in what the Islamic Endowments Council described as contributing to “the worst demolition of its historical and legal status in modern times”.
The council said Israeli authorities and extremist Jewish groups have carried out “flagrant and unprecedented violations”, including “large-scale incursions into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, desecration of its sanctity, and attempts to alter its Islamic identity” through rituals, chanting, and even animal and plant sacrifices inside the compound.
This new wave of violence continues despite the International Court of Justice ruling last July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal.
The human cost remains staggering. Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,869 people and wounded over 170,105. During the same period, more than 1,051 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.
[Photo: Destroyed homes by Israeli forces welcome Palestinians and they have to go through rubble to find their homes in the Akkad region in Khan Yunis, Gaza following the withdrawal of Israeli forces on October 14, 2025. After the ceasefire takes effect, civilians discover widespread destruction, with entire residential blocks and high-rise buildings reduced to ruins. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]