US particular envoy to the Center East Steve Witkoff and Admiral Brad Cooper, the pinnacle of the US navy’s Central Command, visited an Israeli military publish within the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Fox Information reported, as US troops started arriving in Israel as a part of a drive that may assist oversee the ceasefire.
Witkoff and Cooper have been joined in Gaza by IDF Chief of Employees Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, as seen in a photograph printed by Fox Information.
Fox reported that the go to was to substantiate that the agreed-upon withdrawal as a part of the take care of Hamas was full.
Confirming the go to, Cooper, in a press release, mentioned he “simply returned from a go to inside Gaza to tell how we’re transferring ahead to ascertain a CENTCOM-led Civil-Navy Coordination Middle (CMCC) that may synchronize actions to help post-conflict stabilization.”
“America’s little kids in uniform are answering the decision to ship peace within the Center East in help of the Commander in Chief’s route on this historic second,” he mentioned.
“This nice effort shall be achieved with no US boots on the bottom in Gaza,” Cooper added.
A Palestinian man pushes his bike as he and others make their strategy to Gaza Metropolis by means of the Netzarim hall, from Nuseirat within the central Gaza Strip, on October 11, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
An ABC Information report, citing two officers, mentioned on Saturday that an American navy group of 200 individuals would arrive over the weekend, flying in from the US and different bases throughout the Center East.
Cooper arrived in Israel on Friday, following Witkoff, who had arrived a day earlier together with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, after spearheading efforts to safe the primary section of the ceasefire and hostage launch settlement between Israel and Hamas, which had been negotiated in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, over the earlier a number of days.
Trump is about to land in Israel on Monday morning and tackle the Knesset earlier than departing that very same day for an “out and in” go to, officers confirmed, amid the deadline for Hamas to launch the hostages below the Gaza ceasefire deal he helped safe.
Trump introduced Wednesday that the breakthrough deal to halt the combating was reached after the USA and mediators within the area pressured each Israel and Hamas to finish the two-year-long warfare sparked by the Palestinian terror group’s devastating October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
US envoy Steve Witkoff (third from left) and US President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (proper) flank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a cupboard assembly on October 9, 2025. (Maayan Toaf / GPO)
That push sealed an settlement on a primary section that will free the remaining dwelling Israeli hostages inside days in alternate for the discharge of near 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and a pullback of IDF troops in Gaza.
The Israel Jail Service mentioned Saturday that it had begun transferring prisoners to 2 jails forward of their launch as a part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The president’s preliminary 20-point plan requires Israel to keep up an open-ended navy presence inside Gaza, alongside its border with Israel. A global drive, comprised largely of troops from Arab and Muslim nations, could be liable for safety inside Gaza, although the timeline is unclear.
The IDF has mentioned it’ll proceed to function defensively from the roughly 50% of Gaza — most of which is exterior of city areas — it nonetheless controls after pulling again to the agreed-upon strains. In actuality, the IDF will not be holding all of that territory with floor troops, with lots of its posts positioned nearer to the Israeli border.
This map printed by the IDF on October 10, 2025, reveals the IDF’s deployment in Gaza following a ceasefire. (Israel Protection Forces)
Witkoff informed officers on Friday that the US would set up a middle in Israel to coordinate points regarding Gaza till there’s a everlasting authorities, in keeping with a readout of the assembly by an individual who attended it and obtained by AP. One other official who was not approved to talk to the media confirmed the contents of the readout.
The readout mentioned no US troopers shall be on the bottom in Gaza, however there shall be individuals who report back to the US, and plane may function over the Strip for monitoring. Egyptian, Qatari, Turkish, and possibly Emirati navy officers shall be embedded within the group, possible based mostly out of Egypt.
A special official who additionally spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to the media mentioned {that a} group — together with the US, Qatar, Egypt, and different nations and organizations — could be a part of a mission to find and establish hostage our bodies and keep away from earlier points with physique misidentification. It was unclear if the 200 US troops coming to Israel could be a part of that group or a separate initiative.
In the meantime, Israel is bracing for the long-awaited return of hostages saved captive for greater than two years.
“It’s been a number of nights that we will’t sleep. We would like them again and we really feel that the whole lot is simply hanging on a thread,” Maayan Eliasi, a resident of Tel Aviv, mentioned at a gathering on the metropolis’s hostage sq.. “I can’t heal. None of us can.”
Celebrations at Hostage Sq. in Tel Aviv as negotiators attain a deal to safe the discharge of all hostages from Gaza. October 9, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
Terror teams within the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, together with 47 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They embody the our bodies of a minimum of 26 confirmed useless by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave considerations for the well-being of two others, Israeli officers have mentioned. Among the many our bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Questions stay over who will govern Gaza as Israeli troops progressively pull again and whether or not Hamas will disarm, as known as for within the settlement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who unilaterally ended a truce in March, has instructed Israel might resume its offensive if Hamas fails to disarm.
“If it’s achieved the straightforward means — so be it. If not, will probably be achieved the exhausting means,” he mentioned Friday, pledging that the following stage would deliver Hamas’s disarmament.
In Gaza, reduction, reckoning
Tens of hundreds of displaced Palestinians loaded vehicles, carts, and bicycles with belongings and made their means again to their neighborhoods on Saturday, weaving by means of streets shrouded in mud as bulldozers started to claw by means of the wreckage of two years of bombardment.
Support teams have been making ready to scale up reduction work, one of many many challenges forward as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day.
“When individuals get there, they’re going to search out rubble. They’ll discover that their houses and their neighborhoods have been decreased to mud,” UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram informed The Related Press on Friday.
Palestinian ladies holding their youngsters make their strategy to Gaza Metropolis from Nuseirat, October 11, 2025. (Photograph by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Because the ceasefire appeared to carry, her group and its companions are urging Israel to reopen extra crossings and permit support to circulate into Gaza extra freely.
The Protection Ministry’s Coordinator of Authorities Actions (COGAT) mentioned that greater than 500 vehicles entered Gaza on Friday, by means of Israel’s crossings with the Strip, virtually twice the each day common, though many crossings stay closed.
The times because the announcement of the ceasefire have moved swiftly. Israel’s navy confirmed it had taken impact on Friday and mentioned the 48 hostages nonetheless in Gaza could be freed by Monday. A UN official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate particulars not but public, mentioned Israel additionally permitted expanded support deliveries beginning Sunday.
The steps mark key steps towards ending the warfare ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel. The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 66,000 individuals within the Strip have been killed or are presumed useless within the combating up to now, although the toll can’t be verified and doesn’t differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The combating has flattened total neighborhoods and displaced round 90% of Gaza’s greater than 2 million individuals, a few of them a number of instances.
This handout satellite tv for pc picture courtesy of Vantor, reveals a view of the destruction in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025. (Stephen A. Wooden/Satellite tv for pc picture ©2025 Vantor/AFP)
The dimensions of destruction will possible grow to be clearer because the navy withdraws to the ceasefire strains. Greater than three out of each 4 buildings have been destroyed, the UN mentioned in September, making a quantity of particles equal to 25 Eiffel Towers, a lot of it possible poisonous.
A February evaluation by the European Union and World Financial institution estimated $49 billion in harm, together with $16 billion to housing and $6.3 billion to the well being sector.
The demise toll is anticipated to rise as extra our bodies that couldn’t be retrieved throughout Israel’s offensive are discovered.
