WEEKLY UPDATE - 10.17.2025

Hamas releases hostages and reasserts authority in Gaza

On Monday, Hamas released the last 20 living hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross who handed them over to the IDF as part of their commitment to Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza. In response Israel released more than 1700 Palestinians that it had been holding without charges and another 250 Palestinians serving life sentences. Hamas also released the bodies of several hostages who died in captivity and claimed that it could not locate the bodies of the remaining 28 hostages who died in captivity. In at least two incidents over the past week, the IDF fired on and killed Palestinians it said had crossed the “Yellow Line” after its withdrawal from the main urban centers of Gaza.

Since Sunday, several reports emerged in the press and on social media of Hamas militants carrying out reprisal attacks against its rivals and influential families in Gaza. Hamas carried out firefights and public executions of rivals in Gaza City. According to Hasan Abu Hanieh, an Amman-based analysts who specializes in Islamist groups, Hamas is “re-establishing control” and will “be even more aggressive now to prove to the outside world that no one can remove them, that no force can challenge them.” Hamas officials justified the attacks claiming that it was cracking down on “criminals” and establishing order in the enclave. President Trump responded to Hamas’ actions threatening that if Hamas continues killing in Gaza, that war will return to the enclave. Earlier in the week he expressed openness to disarming the group violently if necessary.

On Wednesday, representatives of Israel and Hamas began negotiations over the second phase of President Trump’s 20-point plan. According to the Wall Street Journal mediators were discussing the possibility of sending roughly 1000 Palestinian police trained jointly by Egypt and Jordan to provide security in Gaza. According Egyptian FM Bad Abdelatty, fifteen Palestinian technocrats had been selected to administer post-war Gaza. Abdelatty did not disclose their names but said they had been vetted by Israel.

Around the Region

• North Africa:

  • Egypt and Greece reached an agreement on the fate of St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Earlier this year an Egyptian court ordered Greek months to vacate St. Catherine’s on unclear grounds which prompted international worries that the Egyptian government was planning to raze the UNESCO World Heritage Site to make way for a new tourism project at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The current deal guarantees “the character of the monastery in perpetuity” according to the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

  • Thousands of Tunisians protested in favor of closing an aging chemical factory in the city of Gabes. The protesters blamed the chemical plant for a host of health problems in the city. The protests turned violent after the crowds reached the gates of the factory and police fired teargas. According to Al Jazeera, dozens of local residents had been hospitalized due to pollution from the chemical factory.

• The Gulf:

  • The Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, announced that their military chief Mohammed al-Ghamari, had been killed. The statement announcing Ghamari’s death did not say how he was killed but indicated it was likely in an Israeli military strike.

  • Kuwait’s Ministry of the Interior said that it had dismantled a “terrorist financing network” associated with a banned party. According to Kuwaiti officials, it arrested individuals who were attempting to smuggle cash and medicine outside of the country to support a ‘terrorist party.’ They added that the individuals were using a pharmacy and a private hospital to support its operations.

• The Levant:

  • An explosion targeting a bus owned by the Syrian government killed at least four people on Thursday on a highway between Deir az-Zor and al-Mayadin. All four deaths were security personnel who worked at an oil facility in Deir az-Zor. According to Syrian state news several others were injured including civilians and oil facility workers. The attack occurred in an area where the Islamic State has been active but no group had claimed responsibility at the time of writing.

  • Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the collapse of the Assad regime. After the meetings in Russia, Sharaa expressed a conciliatory tone and a willingness to re-establish relations with Russia. Syrian sources told the BBC, that Sharaa would ask for Bashar al-Assad to be extradited to Syria so he could face trial for war crimes.

  • Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed his desire to begin negotiations with Israel to resolve the current situation in the country’s south. Since reaching a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, Israel has carried out near daily air strikes targeting Hezbollah. The Lebanese government pledged to disarm Hezbollah in August but later back-tracked on the commitment saying they lacked the resources to do so.

Recommended:

• “Saudi Arabia and the Tired ‘Whitewashing Trope’” Newlines Magazine

• “One Era Ends in Gaza, and another Begins” The Atlantic

• “The Vanishing Act: How Assad’s Top Henchmen Fled Syria, and Justice” New York Times