Israel says the Rafah crossing into southern Gaza will be closed over Hamas’s failure to return the remains of all 28 dead hostages. The group is set to release four more bodies tonight. Listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Tuesday 14 October 2025 17:30, UK
Earlier today, Israeli officials said the Rafah crossing will remain closed tomorrow and humanitarian aid flow into Gaza will be reduced.
It is a direct response to Hamas failing to release the remaining deceased Israeli hostages held inside the enclave.
The Rafah crossing lies on the border between Egypt and southern Gaza. It is the territory’s only gateway to the rest of the world that’s not directly controlled by Israel.
However, it is under the control of Egypt as part of an agreement with the Israelis and the European Union.
Despite this, it has never operated as a normal, fully open border crossing.
Over the years it has been closed for days, weeks and months at a time. When it does open, it’s often intermittent and can suddenly close again.
The people of Gaza never know when it will open or for how long, making it impossible for them to plan around using it.
Israel launched a major assault on the city of Rafah in May 2024 as part of its military operations in Gaza, but was subsequently ordered to stop by the International Court of Justice due to the deteriorating humanitarian situation there.
Satellite images taken of Rafah last week show the city has been almost totally razed by military assaults over the past two years.
More than 150 of the Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas returned to Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
The EU’s foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas said yesterday that the bloc would “restart a civilian mission” to monitor the crossing.
Hamas has struggled to return the bodies of all the remaining Israeli hostages as it “never exactly knew the numbers” it had in the first place, military analyst Professor Michael Clarke says.
The group has so far handed over four bodies out of the 28 remaining in Gaza, with four more expected to be released tonight (see 16.56 post).
Speaking to presenter Jayne Secker, Clarke says the details were “always fuzzy at the edges” for Hamas after it took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attacks, making it harder to now organise their return.
“Some of them were taken by other groups, like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and by some gangs, some of which seem to have been sold to other groups as bargaining chips,” Clarke says.
“The whole thing was pretty chaotic around the edges. Even though they had these 251 people, most of them they could account for, but there were a good dozen or so that they couldn’t.”
All this is “deeply hurtful” to the Israeli public, Clarke adds, who have been so focussed on the hostages’ return throughout the war.
Watch the full interview here…
Hamas has told mediators that it will begin the transfer of four more deceased Israeli hostages at 10pm local time (7pm UK time), an official involved in the operation has told Reuters.
The militant group has come under significant pressure from Israel to hand over the remaining bodies.
It released four coffins yesterday, leaving 24 more in Gaza, but warned it would take time to locate some of the other bodies.
All the aid crossings into Gaza should be closed in response to Hamas’s failure to hand over the remaining hostage bodies, an opposition leader in Israel says.
Posting on X, Avigdor Lieberman says Hamas had decided to “test our limits” by “violating” the ceasefire agreement, which said all hostages, alive or dead, were to be returned by around midday yesterday.
“Israel must not hesitate or delay,” Lieberman said on X.
“An immediate and determined response is required, including the closure of all crossings to Gaza until our hostages and fallen are returned to Israel.”
Earlier, Israeli officials said the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza will remain closed tomorrow and aid flow into the enclave will be reduced over Hamas’s failure to return bodies.
Israel will continue to work “relentlessly” to bring its hostages home, the country’s foreign ministry says.
It says it expects Hamas to return the bodies of all the dead hostages and “immediately” take the necessary steps to do so.
Hamas has so far returned the bodies of four hostages, leaving 24 bodies remaining in Gaza. It’s indicated that locating the remaining bodies under the rubble in Gaza will take time.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been returning to their homes in Gaza this week to find nothing but rubble.
The war between Israel and Hamas lasted two years, but its effects on the landscape of Gaza will be felt for generations.
The images below show Palestinians across the enclave holding what few items they own and attempting to clean away the remnants of the conflict.
By Bethany Minelle, arts and entertainment reporter
An emergency vote on Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest has been called off after developments in the Middle East, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has said.
Contest organisers had scheduled “an extraordinary meeting of [its] general assembly to be held online” in early November after several countries said they would no longer take part in Eurovision if Israel participated.
The EBU said in a statement that after “recent developments in the Middle East” the executive board had agreed yesterday that there should be an in-person discussion among members “on the issue of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026”.
It said the matter had now been added to the agenda of its winter general assembly, which will take place in December.
Yesterday saw a major moment in the first phase of the peace deal, with all living Israeli hostages being handed over, while buses of Palestinian detainees were returned to Gaza.
But after Gaza’s health authorities reported that at least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in two separate incidents (see 10.26 post), Gazans are sceptical over whether the ceasefire will hold.
The families of 24 dead hostages are still waiting to have their bodies returned from Gaza.
Only four bodies were transferred by Hamas to Israel yesterday. It’s not clear when the remains will be handed over.
Here’s what we know about the four hostages whose bodies have been returned, while the families of others who have been declared dead await word from Israeli authorities on their whereabouts.
Who are the four hostages whose bodies have been found?
The bodies of Yossi Sharabi, Guy Illouz, Daniel Peretz and Bipin Joshi have been returned to Israel.
The Israeli military has officially identified the bodies of Illouz and Joshi.
The two men were both in their 20s when Hamas took them during the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in 2023.
Illouz, who is from Israel, was taken from the Nova music festival, while Joshi, a student from Nepal, was taken from a bomb shelter.
Israel said Illouz died from his wounds while being held captive without proper medical treatment, while Joshi was murdered in captivity during the first months of the war.
Sir Keir Starmer has paid tribute to the role that the UK’s national security adviser played behind the scenes in the first phase of the Gaza peace deal.
He added that the UK is offering its full support to the next phase, including the decommissioning of Hamas.
It comes after a row erupted after an interview with the education secretary on Sky News.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, called Bridget Phillipson “delusional” after she told Sky News the UK played a key role in the Gaza peace deal.
But yesterday, Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the UK played a “vital role” in a bid to smooth over tensions.
“In particular, I want to recognise the incredible input and tireless efforts of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell,” he added.
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