• Israeli military kills two for approaching ‘prohibited’ area
• Tel Aviv extends arrest of army’s former top legal officer

KHAN YUNIS/JERUSALEM: Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday said it had received the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners under the US-brokered ceasefire exchange deal.

“The tenth batch of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs has arrived at Nasser Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip, numbering 15 martyrs,” the hospital said in a statement, noting that 285 bodies were received under the agreement in total.

They were returned in exchange for the latest hostage body handed back from Gaza on Tuesday, that of Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen. Under the terms of the US-brokered agreement in effect since October 10, Israel returns 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body it receives of an Israeli hostage who had been held in Gaza.

At the start of the truce, Hamas held 48 prisoners in Gaza — 20 alive and 28 deceased. The militants have since released all the surviving captives, as well as 21 of the deceased’s remains. The Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s rubble.

The group has repeatedly called on mediators and the Red Cross to provide it with the necessary equipment and personnel to recover the bodies.

Two killed by Israeli army

The Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinians who had approached an area it occupied in a “threatening” way. Gazan health authorities said that Israeli fire had killed a Palestinian collecting firewood.

Israel has continued to intermittently strike the Gaza Strip, although the degree of violence has diminished since the ceasefire allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes and more aid to enter. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities to behind a yellow demarcation line.

The ceasefire was mediated by the United States, and both sides have appealed to Washington to halt violations.

Arrest of legal officer extended

The detention of the Israeli military’s former chief legal officer, who was arrested on Sunday, has been extended until Friday, a police source said on Wednesday.

Advocate General Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last week over a criminal inquiry into the leaking of a video that appeared to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee arrested during the Gaza conflict.

Tomer-Yerushalmi, who said she was quitting because she had approved the video’s leak in August 2024, was briefly reported missing on Sunday, but was later found and taken into custody.

Police did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the source’s remarks to Reuters. The video surfaced during an abuse investigation that led to the Israeli military prosecutor filing indictments against five reservists, alleging severe abuse and injury of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison, included cracked ribs, a punctured lung and a torn rectum.

The inquiry drew condemnation from right-wing politicians, and protesters stormed two military compounds after investigators sought troops for questioning in the case.

A week after the break-in at the bases, a security camera video showing the moments of the alleged abuse was leaked to Israel’s N12 News.

It showed soldiers taking a prisoner aside and crowding around while holding a dog and blocking visibility of their actions with their riot gear.

Tomer-Yerushalmi said her actions were an attempt to fend off propaganda against the military’s legal department entrusted with upholding the rule of law. Rights groups have reported grave abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention during the conflict.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2025