AGENCIES

Israeli forces killed 357 Palestinians during the first 50 days of the ceasefire, Gaza’s health ministry said yesterday, as the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the “peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.”

At least two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire outside the yellow line in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, a source at al-Ahli Hospital said.

In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli military helicopter fired on open fields near Qabatiya, south of Jenin. In an escalation Tuesday afternoon, soldiers imposed a curfew on residents and started conducting searches, arrests and field interrogations.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, at least 13 Palestinians were arrested during overnight Israeli military raids, reports Al Jazeera online.

Meanwhile, Israel said yesterday it would open the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt to allow residents to exit the Palestinian territory “in the coming days”.

“In accordance with the ceasefire agreement... the Rafah Crossing will open in the coming days exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”, COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement.

COGAT added that the crossing would operate under the supervision of the EU’s Border Assistance Mission, “similar to the mechanism that operated in January 2025”, when the crossing was briefly opened during a six-week truce.

Two European diplomatic sources told AFP they had originally been preparing for the crossing’s opening for pedestrians on October 14 after a similar announcement, before the opening was delayed.

Israel also said yesterday the forensic tests showed that the remains retrieved from Gaza the day before were “not linked” to the last two dead hostages held in the Palestinian territory.