News blog on the situation in the Middle East
Truce violated? Hamas accuses Israeli army of shelling
Updated 10/18/2025 – 2:59 p.mReading time: 58 minutes
A Hamas authority accuses the Israeli army of violating the ceasefire. The Bundeswehr wants to support the peace process in the Middle East. All developments in the news blog.
The civil defense of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip alleged on Saturday that nine people had been killed by Israeli shelling in the city of Gaza. Together with the Red Cross, Hamas Civil Defense recovered nine bodies after the Israeli army fired on a bus carrying refugees east of the Seitun district on Friday, Hamas authority spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told the AFP news agency on Saturday. All victims therefore belonged to a single family.
For its part, the Israeli army said it had “identified” a suspicious vehicle that was about to cross the Israeli army’s line of withdrawal in the Gaza Strip. After warning shots, the soldiers “opened fire to eliminate the threat.” This corresponds to the ceasefire agreement concluded between the two sides.
In the agreement, Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas agreed on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in the Gaza Strip. So far, the ceasefire has been largely observed, but there have been a few incidents in which Israel cited a move closer to or crossing the “yellow line” as the reason behind which the Israeli army withdrew in accordance with the agreement.
A week after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After the conversation, Machado wrote on Friday evening on the online service X that Venezuelans know that achieving peace requires “enormous courage, strength and moral clarity” to “stand against the totalitarian forces that oppose us.”
Netanyahu’s office said after the conversation with Machado that the politician had told Netanyahu that she appreciated his “decisions and decisive actions” during the Gaza war against the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas. Machado also “lauded” the agreement to release the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
The Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas has handed over the remains of another Israeli hostage from the Gaza Strip to the Red Cross. The body was then handed over to Israeli security forces in the Palestinian territory, said the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Friday evening. The body will now be taken to a forensic medicine institute for identification.
