Oct 20, 2025, 2:02 PM EDT
Coffin transferred to Red Cross in Gaza, on its way to IDF
A coffin has been transferred to the Red Cross in Gaza and is now on its way to be handed over to Israeli troops, Israeli officials said.
Trump hints at 'action' if Hamas doesn't return hostage bodies
The bodies of 13 deceased hostages are believed to still be in Gaza.
Last Updated: October 24, 2025, 10:52 AM EDT
U.S. officials -- including Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner -- traveled to Israel this week for high-level meetings, discussing the next steps in the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by withholding the bodies of the remaining 13 deceased hostages thought to have died during or after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has said the return of the remaining bodies "may take some time" due to the destruction.
Key Headlines
- Oct 26, 2025, 10:52 AM EDT
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Here's how the news is developing.
Oct 20, 2025, 1:31 PM EDT
'Omer does not deserve to end up under the rubble'
Omer Neutra, who grew up on Long Island, is one of two deceased American Israeli hostages who remains held by Hamas, and his parents are desperate for his body to be returned.
“Omer does not deserve to end up under the rubble in Gaza. He needs to be brought home, and he needs to be buried with dignity,” his mother, Orna Neutra, told ABC News.
Hostage Families Forum
Orna Netura described the past week as “insane,” saying every night she and her husband have been given the news that a small number of deceased hostages will be returned. Only hours later, normally in the middle of the night, the couple gets a call to say it’s not their son.
Asked what it would mean to her to give her son a proper burial, she said she’s been imagining the moment that he’s brought back.
“I know I’m going to be devastated, but I also know it’s really necessary,” she said.
Omer Neutra was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces on Oct. 7 and his parents learned of his death more than one year later. Omer’s dad, Ronen Neutra, described him as a “fun loving kid” and a “born leader,” and said people “gravitated to him.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Oct 20, 2025, 1:19 PM EDT
Red Cross heading to retrieve coffin in Gaza
The Red Cross is on its way to a meeting point in southern Gaza to receive a coffin of a deceased Israeli and transfer it to the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency said in a joint statement.
Oct 20, 2025, 1:11 PM EDT
Trump threatens to 'eradicate' Hamas if they break deal
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to "eradicate" Hamas if the militant group breaks the ceasefire agreement.
"We have a little situation, relatively, with Hamas, and that will be taken care of very quickly if they don't straighten it out themselves, because they're in violation of their agreement," Trump said as he took reporter questions at a White House event with Australia's prime minister.
"We made a deal with Hamas that, you know, they're going to be very good, they're going to behave, they're going to be nice and if they're not, we're going to go in, we're going to eradicate them if we have to," Trump added. "They'll be eradicated, they know that."
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Trump was then asked if such a scenario would involve U.S. military on the ground.
"No, it won't be on the ground at all because we don't need to because we have many countries, as you know, signed onto this deal," Trump said. He claimed other countries would want to go in and combat Hamas, and that Israel would do it "in two minutes if I told them"
"But right now we haven't said that. We're going to give it a little chance and hopefully there will be a little less violence," Trump said.
