Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Friday, October 17, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Friday, October 17, 2025
IDF: Red Cross heading to Gaza handover site to collect body of hostage from Hamas
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
People and members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) watch as Palestinians use an excavator to dig deep into the ground, reportedly searching for bodies of hostages, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2025 (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Red Cross vehicles are now heading to a handover site in the southern Gaza Strip to collect a casket with the apparent body of a dead hostage, the IDF says.
Hamas did not identify the hostage whose body it says it is handing over.
The terror group said that it had “retrieved” the body today. Footage and images from earlier today showed Hamas operatives digging in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, with Arab media naming a hostage whose body was apparently buried in a tunnel in the area.
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