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Hamas Hands Over Three More Hostage Bodies
A Palestinian woman walks through the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, November 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Hamas handed over bodies of three hostages on Sunday, even as the Palestinian terrorist group traded blame with Israel for violations of the tenuous truce that has mostly halted two years of war.
Israeli forces in Gaza received coffins carrying the bodies of three hostages, conveyed through the Red Cross, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. The remains will be transported to Israel for identification.
The bodies are expected to be those of three of the 11 hostages whose remains Israel is seeking from Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire. Israel has said Hamas has been too slow in delivering them; Hamas says it is working as quickly as possible under difficult conditions.
The issue has been just one of the disputes holding up full implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire in place since October 10.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed one man in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a militant who was posing a threat to its forces. Al-Ahli Hospital said one man was killed in the airstrike near a vegetable market in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.
“There are still Hamas pockets in the areas under our control in Gaza, and we are systematically eliminating them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
Hamas released what it described as a list of violations of the ceasefire by Israel. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, denied that Hamas fighters had violated the truce by attacking Israeli soldiers.
VIOLENCE NOT COMPLETELY HALTED
The ceasefire has calmed most fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities and more aid has been allowed in.
Hamas released all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held by Israel.
Hamas also agreed under the ceasefire to hand over the remains of 28 dead hostages in exchange for the bodies of 360 Palestinian militants killed in the war. Before Sunday it had turned over 17.
Meanwhile, violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 236 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has targeted scores of fighters.
The ceasefire was mediated by the United States, and both sides have appealed to Washington to halt violations.
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, met on Saturday with Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir during a visit to the region to discuss Gaza, the Israeli military said.
Netanyahu said any Israeli action in Gaza is reported to Washington. Hamas said the United States was not doing enough to ensure Israel abides by the ceasefire agreement.
About 200 US troops have set up base in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and help make plans for an international force to stabilize the enclave, as foreseen in later phases of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
There has been little sign of progress on the next stages so far, and major obstacles still lie ahead, including the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.