Here’s what to know about the situation on Thursday, November 30, 2023:
Truce, prisoner and captive release
- Minutes before the extended six-day truce was about to expire, Israel and Hamas agreed on Thursday to further extend the ceasefire by at least one more day.
- The Israeli government said it received a new list of captives in Gaza to be released on Thursday. It did not specify the number of captives to be freed.
- Hamas released 16 captives in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners by Israel on Wednesday. So far, 210 Palestinian prisoners and 97 Israeli captives have been released.
- One of the captives released on Wednesday included dual Israeli-American national, Liat Beinin. US President Joe Biden expressed his determination to secure the release of Beinin’s husband.
- Prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi arrived in Ramallah on Thursday after being released from Ofer prison.
- Ruqayah Amro, one of the freed Palestinian prisoners, told Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid that female prisoners were threatened by Israeli guards with sexual assault.
Latest developments
- Israeli forces surrounded Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank at dawn on Thursday, according to Wafa news agency. They also obstructed ambulances and interrogated emergency medical workers.
- At al-Nasr children’s hospital in northern Gaza, medical teams found partially decomposed bodies of five premature babies, Wafa reported on Wednesday.
- Israeli forces shot dead a 21-year-old Palestinian outside Ofer prison, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, at dawn on Thursday, reported Wafa.
- Israeli forces on Wednesday killed two Palestinian minors – Adam Samer al-Ghoul, eight, and 15-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa – during a raid in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned the killing of the eight-year-old, deeming it an “execution in cold blood”.
- US military’s Central Command said it shot down a drone from Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen on Wednesday.
- On Wednesday, Hamas invited tech CEO Elon Musk to witness the destruction in Gaza, following his visit to Israel.
Diplomacy
- Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of the US Congress, called for a lasting ceasefire during a vigil outside the White House. She added that temporary pauses in fighting are not enough to end the suffering of the Palestinians.
- On his third trip to the region since October 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel. He said the Biden administration would like a further extension to the pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
- Israeli leaders are reportedly maintaining their stance on continued military operation in Gaza to “eliminate Hamas”. In his latest phone call with US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said military activity in the south of the enclave is “necessary”, according to US-based site Axios.
- On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council discussed Israel-Palestine and the two-state solution.
- As the European Union’s talks on sanctions on Hamas progress, France said on Wednesday that the European Commission should consider sanctions on Israeli settlers who have targeted Palestinians in the West Bank.
