Can the ceasefire hold?

[Alantraitor]

Hamas has only returned 9 out of the 28 bodies it agreed to return as part of the ceasefire agreement. The Israel government has threatened to reduce the promised aid supplies to Gaza in retaliation. Hamas have announced that it can't find the bodies of any more Israelis hostages, which has made some people question the future of the ceasefire.

Israel’s defence minister threatened on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas does not honour the continuing terms of the deal. On a more optimistic note however, the BBC reports that in a call with reporters last night, senior US advisers were downplaying the risk. The advisers said there was "understanding" to get all the live hostages, which Hamas did "honour".

We have a "mechanism in place", and are working with mediators to get as many bodies "as possible" out, they explained and, "We continue to hear from them that they intend to honour the deal."

Hamas says that specialist equipment will be required to find and retrieve the bodies of the other hostages and they are working with other countries to achieve this. Turkey, for example is in talks to send experts on body retrieval.

The BBC states that According to those advisers, the US government does not so far believe Hamas has broken the agreement by not yet retrieving the remains of remaining deceased hostages.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ckgzndpnjl1t

I agree. Its a nightmare situation.

What is the IDF doing in the West Bank in the first place? Why don't they go back to Israel?

You don't shoot unarmed people, especially kids. There really shouldn't be any debate about this. It's disgusting.

They aren't unarmed if they are throwing things that could seriously injure or kill you. I can only assume you are being deliberately simplistic.

Confirmed by the IDF that the body of the 10th dead Israeli hostage has been returned. Formally identified as Eliyahu Margalit.

For now, the ceasefire holds.

The 7 kids, 3 women and man on the bus that were all killed by Hamas as they made their way home did not throw anything!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/18/israel-has-violated-ceasefire-47-times-and-killed-38-palestinians-says-gaza-media-office

Apologies massive typo, these murder victims weren’t on Hamas, they were executed by the IDF as per the news reports. After the murder of these children, several Palestinians in the area were interviewed and asked about the yellow line - none of them were aware of its existence, where it was or that they should not cross it. Imagine someone deciding there is an invisible line near your house that if you cross you get murdered and not telling you about its existence or where it is, then shooting you in the head and blaming you for your own murder - it’s so insane - it’s like gaslighting on acid.

Controversial opinion (apparently): I believe a bus load of unarmed kids would not pose a risk to the most technological and best armed army in the world. I also believe the IDF can tell the difference between a small unarmed child and an adult militant. I believe setting up invisible perimeters and killing children who cross them is sociopathic.

47 violations of the ceasefire!!! Other disturbing revelations is that many of the recently returned Palestinian bodies are missing body parts. About 20 years ago Israel admitted to taking parts from dead Palestinians and it now appears there are questions about what exactly has happened to the Palestinian bodies and why they are missing organs. Apparently it will be difficult to determine as who knows what was a result of torture and murder and what was organ harvesting. Before you yell that other countries murder and steal organs too I am completely aware but it doesn’t make it an acceptable practice.

No one would have thought you meant Hamas as you never want to talk about the people Hamas kill, even other Palestinians.

You just talk about “children” on the bus as if it was a bus solely of children. It wasn’t. There were adults on the bus and they chose to drive straight towards the armoured tanks where the IDF are now stationed, ignoring shouts to stop. If it’s so unclear where the line is, how come there aren’t hundreds of Gazans crossing it every day?

The IDF are now putting up physical barriers along the line to prevent this sort of accident & yes - they should have been there from the start of the ceasefire. It’s a bad situation that you are choosing to make look worse than what it was. The IDF have withdrawn to the line that was agreed but that still doesn’t mean they are going to tolerate a bus driving towards them that could pose a potential threat to their soldiers. Hamas have a history of using vehicles packed with explosives as a weapon.

Why are you solely focusing on Israeli violations of the ceasefire as you call them (although the peace deal did not stipulate that the IDF could not defend itself from vehicles driving towards its soldiers once they had retreated). Have you anything to say about the violations committed by Hamas which include not returning only a small number of dead hostages & murdering other Palestinians?

No of course you won’t have anything critical to say about Hamas all you seem to want to do is defend or minimise their actions.

No army in the world, including the british army tolerates unidentified/verified vehicles driving towards them, in a high security context, who ignore calls to stop. Its ridiculous.

Agreed … and if anyone ends up causing the ceasefire to fail then it won’t be Israel but Hamas. The US state department released a statement yesterday saying they have “credible reports” that Hamas is planning an “imminent” attack on civilians in Gaza that would violate the ceasefire agreement.

This was reported by the BBC & other sources.

I just don’t understand why people in Gaza keep doing it, walking or driving towards Israeli soldiers who shout at them to stop.
It’s happened several times over the last week.

Exactly. I've lived in some places with pretty trigger happy security forces. Everyone knows you don't piss about with people with guns. If a soldier tells you to do something you do it and even though there isn't an actual demarcated line how could people not be aware that there was a security border that troops had pulled back to. Why go there?

Re the statement released by the US state department about Hamas planning an imminent attack on Palestinian civilians, they say they have already informed other guarantors of the peace plan including Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

The statement warned, "Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire."

Which sounds like potentially other troops would go in to fight Hamas but not those from Israel, thus not officially breaking the peace plan between Israel and Hamas.

Because they are not giving them warnings, they are just shooting them or blowing them up with tanks. Do you think a sophisticated army can not tell the difference between a bus full of children and a bus full of adults. There was only one adult man, 3 women and 7 children - that is not likely to be Hamas militants. The have drones with cameras and sophisticated equipment, they know exactly who is approaching and can see that it is a family with the majority being children!

I find it hilarious that Israel’s arm chair soldiers keep spouting out that they have never heard me or any of the anti genocide posters criticise Hamas, we have all said on countless occasions that they are murderers and terrorists, is there some kind of agenda to this rehashed falsehood? What I have not seen is any criticism from any of you about the IDF, or how they returned bodies that were tortured and missing organs, returned prisoners so abused they were in wheelchairs, malnourished, blinded and disabled by torture. I have never heard any of you criticise snipers killing children, executing medics or targeting tents full of journalists. I have not heard you criticise the way hundreds of Doctors have been taken and held without charge, tortured and in at least one case tortured to death.

I am incredibly critical of Hamas and think they are murders, I am not critical of Hamas for not returning all the bodies immediately though. In this case they actually said before the ceasefire that they would require international help and specialist equipment to retrieve the bodies. There are at least 10,000 Palestinians under the rubble too that have not been retrieved.

Israel has sent in tons of weapons and vehicles to the militants since the ceasefire began (as exposed by Sky news who filmed loads entering the strip) but has not been sending in all the equipment to retrieve the hostages, it almost seems like they want a break down of the ceasefire. Do you think sending a group with ties to ISIS a load of weapons might backfire somehow? When Hamas kill these militants they are also getting more weapons so instead of disarming Hamas Israel are putting more weapons in the mix.

In a move that must come as a surprise to no- one Hamas have denied the accusations of "imminent attack".

They accuse Israeli authorities of funding "criminal gangs" and say they are performing their duty by pursuing those gangs to hold them accountable.

So despite the denial, it sounds a lot like they do intend to carry on killing Palestinians they believe to have collaborated with Israel to work against them.

It has been well established Israel are arming militants, I didn’t think anyone was disputing this.

https://news.sky.com/story/videos-show-fresh-evidence-of-israeli-support-for-gaza-militia-13451682

Hamas are predominantly killing militants but I know in at least one instance and likely more they have executed a militants family. They are not good people, particularly the leaders, but ordinary Palestinians should not be punished for their actions. Israel need to stop arming terrorists, arming Hamas was a terrible decision and arming this new militia is also really awful. It just brings more weapons into the hands of murderers.

So let me get this straight there is now concern for Palestinians when Hamas are killing them ? but none previously shown for the 67,000 Palestinians (predominantly civilians, 20,000 at least children) killed by the IDF??

Who are you talking to? Some of us have always cared about civilian Palestinians.

I’m not disputing that Isreal has armed militants in Gaza.

The issue is Hamas shouldn’t be seeking bloody retribution at a time when there’s a ceasefire in place. There is supposed to be a pause in fighting to allow aid to be safely distributed for one thing.

Ridiculous comment. Please just let Hamas be rightfully criticised.

I care about Palestinian civilians, for the record.

So far it’s holding
Two more deceased hostages were found yesterday and handed back and the one found on Friday has been identified

Im sure were all hoping there will be peace

The IDF have killed Palestinians since the start of the ceasefire but I’m hoping there will be no attacks on Israel because of that
There hasn’t so far.

As long as they continue to search for the hostages and the swapping of bodies continues I think it can hold.

Some diggers or machinery might help

Then we’ll see how negotiations ongoing pan out

You know Koala I just assumed that ‘line’ was actually marked out somehow on the ground
Now so much more makes sense

Exactly

and these actions should be seen as a contravention of the ceasefire
by Israel.
Israel has done it before during ceasefires. No sooner do they release detainees than they round up more in the West Bank and even those recently released.
Israel need to step back

Spoke too soon

• The Israel Defense Forces says it has carried out air strikes on Rafah after an attack by Hamas on its troops in Gaza
• The IDF has called the attack a "bold violation of the ceasefire"
• In response, Hamas says it is committed to the ceasefire and alleges that Israel "continues to breach the agreement"
• The deal struck earlier this month required the IDF to withdraw from parts of Gaza, but allows the Israeli army to remain in certain areas, including Rafah
• The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage
• At least 68,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry

The Israel Defense Forces has just released a statement, confirming the strikes in southern Gaza. Here it is in full:

Earlier today, terrorists fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward IDF troops operating to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in the Rafah area, in southern Gaza, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.
In response, the IDF has begun striking in the area to eliminate the threat and dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.
These terrorist actions constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, and the IDF will respond firmly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2kpx7yyq9pt

It's being marked out now with concrete yellow markers. So will be interesting to see if any more Palestinians try driving into the area. Hopefully not.