Rights and Accountability 17 October 2025
Palestinians return to Gaza City, amid widespread destruction, after the Israeli army’s withdrawal on 14 October.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 16 October livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
On 10 October, the US-brokered third ceasefire came into effect, following two years and three days of Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Journalist Ayman Al-Hessi documented thousands of Palestinians once again returning to their homes in Gaza City and the north, many of whom were forcibly displaced by Israel over the last few weeks.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the civil defense, was greeted by reporter Saed Hasballah and passersby in the early hours of the announcement of a truce on 9 October, as Palestinians expected the bombing to stop.
Basal said, smiling broadly, “this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, for two years; two years of our people being exterminated, two years of our people being murdered. Today, Gaza is liberated from this occupation. Today, a ceasefire is declared. Congratulations to our people, congratulations to every child in Gaza.”
However, later that night on 9 October, just hours after people celebrated and tried to return home, Israeli forces bombed a building in the center of Gaza City, killing at least six and wounding many others, with more trapped under the rubble.Saed Hasballah reported from the scene, showing civil defense rescue crews trying to reach the dead and wounded.
The spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality, our contributor Asem Alnabih, spoke to Middle East Eye on 9 October as the Israeli army was still attacking areas across Gaza.
On 10 October, as the ceasefire was finally implemented, Palestinians continued to return to the north.Journalist Abdelqader Sabbah filmed footage for Drop Site News, saying, “People are returning to Gaza City any way they can – on foot, by motorized rickshaw, by truck – but the level of destruction is difficult to explain. Sheikh Radwan is destroyed, so is Tel al-Hawa, Nafaq street – many neighborhoods are ruined. But some features of life are returning.”
Journalist Bisan Owda documented the wreckage Israel left behind in the ruins of al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City on 11 October.Over the weekend, as they had agreed to do under the ceasefire terms, Palestinian resistance factions handed over all living Israeli captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross and began locating and preparing to transfer the bodies of dead Israeli captives as well.
Israel began releasing living Palestinian hostages from Israeli prisons and detention camps, who returned to Gaza in severe health crises, testifying to unbearable torture, sexual assault and sadistic humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards.
Photojournalist Shadi Abu Sido, who was kidnapped on 18 March 2024, during the Israeli occupation’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, spoke about his 20 months of Israeli torture.He says, “For two years I was starved, I went in starving and came out starving. They hung our bodies day and night, naked, abused and insulted us. They told us, ‘We killed your children. Gaza is gone.’”
Another freed hostage, 28-year-old Mahmoud Abu Foul, said he was brutally beaten and tortured after being abducted from Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2024.
Israeli forces beat him so severely in the head during interrogations that he lost his ability to see, Abu Foul explained.
During the siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2024, the Israeli army kidnapped everyone inside, including Abu Foul and the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who remains in detention despite indications earlier this week that he would be freed under the ceasefire terms.
On Thursday, 16 October, an Israeli court rubberstamped the extension of Abu Safiya’s arbitrary detention for six more months, according to Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights group.
No charges or evidence have been presented against him, making his detention illegal and politically motivated. Al Mezan added, “This decision strips away any pretense: Dr. Abu Safiya is a hostage, a bargaining chip in ongoing negotiations.”Over the past few days, Israeli forces also transferred dozens of dead bodies it had been holding to Gaza without any identifying information. Palestinian medical sources said that all 45 of the Palestinian bodies handed over by Israeli forces on Tuesday were blindfolded and handcuffed, indicating that “field executions” may have taken place.
Reporter Adli Abu Taha captured footage of bodies being returned to Gaza on Wednesday.In addition, track marks were found on some of the bodies, suggesting that they may have been run over by Israeli tanks.
Israel had complained that not all of the bodies of its dead captives had been handed over on Tuesday, and announced that it had begun a policy of collective punishment by restricting the amount of humanitarian aid it would allow into Gaza and refusing to open the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border.
Palestinian political officials had long emphasized that it would take time and heavy machinery to locate the bodies, since Israel has completely destroyed the areas where bodies had been buried and has still refused to allow in any vehicles to remove the rubble.
On 15 October, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, issued a statement saying that the group has met its commitments under the plan as it pertains to Israeli captives in Gaza. “The resistance has adhered to what was agreed upon and has handed over all the living prisoners it has and the bodies it can access,” the statement read.
“As for the remaining bodies, they require significant efforts and special equipment to search for and retrieve them, and we are making great efforts to close this file.”Nearly two dozen killed in Israeli attacks since ceasefire
Israel’s attacks on Palestinians have not stopped.
On Tuesday, 14 October, Israel killed at least nine Palestinians, including five in the Shujaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City.
Palestinians were injured by Israeli fire in Jabaliya, also in northern Gaza, on Tuesday, according to Gaza’s emergency services.
Israeli army attacks in Khan Younis killed at least one Palestinian and injured another.
Medical sources stated that three Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, including two who were killed in another attack on Shujaiya.
Four Palestinians were killed on Thursday, according to the health ministry in Gaza, bringing the total number of people killed by Israel since the ceasefire began to 23.
Saleh al-Jafarawi killed by Israel-backed gangs
Last week, we brought you several separate clips showing the 27-year-old journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi celebrating the truce, walking through the streets late at night announcing the ceasefire to residents who didn’t receive the news yet, and coming home to his beloved cat.
He uploaded this clip on 9 October, surrounded by his colleagues and vowing to continue the coverage even if the genocide continues:
On Sunday, 12 October, al-Jafarawi was killed, reportedly by armed gangs who have been collaborating with Israel, in Gaza City, as he was documenting the first days of the ceasefire and the extent of destruction Israeli forces left behind. He had been hunted by Israel during the last two years of the genocide, and had buried many friends and colleagues who were murdered in assassinations by the Israeli army.Saleh al-Jafarawi’s brother, Naji, was released from detention in Israel just hours after Saleh was buried by his relatives and loved ones.
Naji told reporters that he was tortured and beaten, and comforted Saleh’s mourning friends, including reporter Ahmed Kaheel.
Saleh al-Jafarawi was not only a dedicated journalist; he was also a talented singer.Last year, he sang a song called “Where Are You, O Humanity?” along with his friends and colleagues. It was recorded by journalist and poet Mohammad Al-Shaer.
Exactly two years to the day before his murder, Saleh al-Jafarawi, in a viral clip on social media, was filmed comforting an infant in the first week of Israel’s genocide, on 12 October 2023. According to the Gaza government media office, Saleh al-Jafarawi was the 255th reporter and media worker to be killed in Gaza since October 2023.“Trickle of aid”
As of 15 October, the Israeli army was continuing to restrict the amount of humanitarian aid, including food and basic supplies, into Gaza, in another clear violation of the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said that only a trickle of aid is reaching Gaza, including only 12 World Food Program trucks that entered the central areas. Under the agreement, at least 600 trucks are mandated to enter Gaza daily.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stated on Tuesday, “The risk of famine and malnutrition, and their devastating consequences, remains present in the Gaza Strip despite the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement.”
The rights group added that field monitors reported that Israel permitted the entry of only 173 aid trucks since the ceasefire began on 10 October, with limited quantities of fuel and cooking gas, food, supplies and some medical items.
No aid trucks were allowed to enter on Monday under the pretext of releasing Palestinian detainees, nor on Tuesday due to Jewish holidays, both in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Euro-Med said.
The rights group noted that the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza “is not a privilege granted by Israel but a binding legal obligation under international humanitarian law, guaranteeing civilians in wartime an absolute right to receive such assistance,” and that “any attempt to link food or medicine to political or security conditions constitutes a flagrant violation of fundamental rights, including the right to life, dignity, personal safety, health, food and water.”
Meanwhile, the sites used by the joint US-Israeli private killing fields masquerading as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were dismantled this week. Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from one of the sites near the Netzarim corridor on 11 October.
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Gaza and around the world.
In Gaza, a freed Palestinian hostage is carried on the shoulders of his community, still in Israeli prison garb, but singing and dancing. The clip was filmed by reporter Rami Saleim.
And music teacher Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha and his colleagues performed a song by the legendary Lebanese artist Marcel Khalife called “The Child and the Plane.”
Comments
It even violated the prisoner exchange agreement
Permalink Ahmad Hamdan replied on
The deal was supposed to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, but fewer than 200 of this group were freed. Some of the 250 released prisoners were serving long sentences and some of them had been kidnapped over the past two years and were not sentenced yet. There were also two Gazan prisoners who had been arrested a long time ago on criminal charges.
"Ceasefire"
Permalink Kate replied on
Is Israel allowed to slaughter unarmed civilians returning to areas controlled by Israel under the ceasefire terms? It seems to me that if the matter wasn't addressed in the agreement, they have every right to return. The matter smacks of the post-1948 Israeli policy of slaughtering Palestinians returning to their homes in what's now considered Israel. Regardless of agreements, Israel has no right to prevent their return any more than they did post-1948. Can we work on this in any way? Demand Arab governments. Qatar, Egypt etc, support the right? Continue to raise it in the U.N.?
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