November 1, 2025: Ceasefire Faces Instability Amid Violations

This week was marked by numerous violations of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, challenging the optimism that civilians and leaders alike expressed following Trump’s negotiation of the deal.

While disputes between Israel and Hamas have been ongoing since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement, tensions escalated this week over Hamas’ delay in releasing the remaining deceased Israeli hostages still in Gaza.

Hamas offered multiple excuses for the delay, including that the destruction Israel inflicted on Gaza created challenges in locating the hostages’ bodies. Hamas also claimed that some of its fighters who had buried the bodies are dead, and others do not remember where they had buried them. Israel claims that Hamas knows the location of every hostage.

On Monday, the IDF released drone footage that it said showed Hamas members “removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby.” Then, according to the IDF, the Hamas members called Red Cross representatives and pretended to recover a deceased hostage’s body.

Hamas denied the allegations. However, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) later denounced what it called the “fake recovery.”

On Tuesday, tensions continued to rise when a shooting in Gaza killed an IDF soldier who was operating on the Israeli side of the “Yellow Line,” the boundary of IDF-controlled territory in Gaza. Hamas denied any connection to the shooting of the soldier.

That night, Israel deployed an intense series of strikes on Gaza that killed at least 104 civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 46 children and 20 women were killed, along with 250 people injured from the strikes. The bombardment hit homes, schools, and neighborhood blocks. The next morning, Israel announced that the strikes were on “dozens of terror targets and terrorists” and in response to Hamas’ violations. Israel also declared that it had resumed the ceasefire, but hours later, the IDF carried out another strike in Northern Gaza that it said targeted the organization of an imminent attack.

The situation seemed to calm down on Friday, when the ICRC transferred three bodies to Israeli authorities and 30 bodies to Gazan authorities. However, without providing further details, Israel said that the remains it received of the three bodies did not belong to any of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.

On a separate note, getting aid into Gaza remains a challenge due to Israeli restrictions. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office, only 24% of the agreed aid is entering Gaza.

This week raises serious uncertainty over whether the ceasefire will survive over the coming days and weeks, and especially regarding the next phases of the deal, which involve even more complicated issues like governance and disarmament. More will be seen as time goes on.