Closing summary
It’s just passed 4.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’re about to pause this live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. We will resume it later in the day. Here’s a rundown on the latest major developments:
The third exchange of hostages and prisoners between Hamas and Israel has taken place amid the four-day ceasefire deal. Israel said the militant group released 17 hostages on Sunday, including three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children. Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails, Israeli prison authorities said.
The releases bring to 63 the total number of freed hostages from around 240 taken to Gaza after Hamas’ 7 October attack, Agence France-Presse reports, while Israel has freed 39 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on each of three days since Friday.
One hundred and twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday, including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service said. “The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” Diaa Rashwan said.
Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone call with US president Joe Biden on Sunday that at the end of the four-day ceasefire, Israel will resume its military operations in Gaza with full force, Reuters has reported. However, the Israeli prime minister also said he welcomed the possibility of 10 hostages being freed for each extra day of truce.
Hamas said on Sunday that it was seeking to extend the truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israel.
A US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals and was now safe and free, US officials say. The tanker, carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, was identified as the Central Park by the vessel’s company. The officials did not identify the attackers. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
Hamas has announced that four senior commanders have been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, a commander in the north of Gaza. Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”.
A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
Israel’s military claimed to have killed five Palestinians overnight on Saturday as well as arresting 21 in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Funerals were held for those killed on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning.
The current state of aid in Gaza is “hardly enough for humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege of Gaza Strip”, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. Philippe Lazzarini told US CBS’s Face the Nation said on Sunday that a lot more aid was required than the 160 to 200 trucks’ worth crossing into Gaza daily over the past few days.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Monday, along with Israelis whose relatives have been held by Hamas in Gaza. Herzog’s office announced the meeting on Sunday night, saying: “In their meeting, the president will emphasise the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.” Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, did not respond to requests for comment through spokespeople for Tesla and X. The billionaire has been accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Israel’s Channel 12 said Musk would also meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday during the visit coinciding with the temporary truce.
Three college students described as being of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in the US city of Burlington, Vermont, on their way to a family dinner on Saturday evening.
Tens of thousands of people including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally. Johnson was joined by the UK chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march, which organisers billed as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century. Police at the march detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who is the former leader of the far-right English Defence League.
Updated
In case you missed this earlier, the family and friends of Emily Hand have spoken of their joy after Hamas released the nine-year-old Israeli-Irish girl from captivity in Gaza.
“Emily has come back to us,” her father, Thomas Hand, said after an emotional reunion at a hospital in Israel after her release late on Saturday
Emily’s family said in a statement:
We can’t find the words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days.
Later on Sunday her father gave an update on her recovery, saying:
She has lost a lot of weight, from her face and body, but generally doing better than we expected.
We’d like to thank everyone that has helped and supported us throughout this whole 50 days. It’s been great, we can’t do it without you.
Emily was initially feared dead after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, but was later counted among the hostages.
For Lisa O’Carroll’s full report, click here:
Updated
The latest three Thai hostages released by Hamas are in good health, Thailand’s prime minister has posted on social media.
Srettha Thavisin said:
I’m happy!
He also said in his post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday that from an initial physical examination of the three:
- Everyone is healthy. No one needed urgent medical attention.
- Everyone talks and walks normally.
- Mr. Wichian [Temthong] has abdominal pain when breathing deeply. Because you must be in an area where the air is difficult to breathe.
- Everyone is glad to be released. Overall, mental health is still good. Can talk normally
Srettha named the three Thais released as Surin Rae Sung Noen and Phonsawan Pinakalo as well as Wichian.
ดีใจด้วยครับ !
— Srettha Thavisin (@Thavisin) November 26, 2023
เมื่อ วันที่ 26 พ.ย.66 เวลา 20:36 (เวลาท้องถิ่น) ตัวประกันไทย ได้เดินทางโดยรถยนต์ถึงด่าน Kerem Shalom check-point
จากการตรวจสอบมีรายชื่อตัวประกันไทย 3 คน ดังนี้
รายชื่อคนไทยที่ได้รับการปล่อยตัว 3 คน
1. นายวิเชียร เต็มทอง
2. นายสุรินทร์
เกสูงเนิน
3. นายพรสวรรค์…
Seventeen Thai hostages have been freed by Hamas so far, Thailand’s foreign affairs ministry said, amid the prisoner exchange and ceasefire deal between the militant group and Israel.
The ministry said the released hostages would be brought back to Thailand as soon as possible.
For the remaining 15 Thai hostages, the Royal Thai government continues to exert all efforts towards their safe release at the earliest opportunity.
Updated
Syria says Israeli strikes put Damascus airport out of service
Israeli airstrikes on Sunday made Damascus airport inoperable just hours after flights resumed following a similar attack last month, a war monitor said, as state media also reported the attack.
“Israeli warplanes on Sunday afternoon carried out a new raid targeting Damascus international airport... putting it out of service again,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Agence France-Presse also reported it as saying the raid targeted the runways and that the sound of an explosion was heard from the direction of a military airport in the Mazzeh area on the other side of Damascus.
An officer and two other personnel were wounded in the strike that targeted “an air defence forces base in the Mazzeh area”, the observatory added later.
A military source said in a statement carried by state news agency Sana that about 4.50pm (1350 GMT) “the Zionist enemy carried out an air attack with missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan”.
The raid targeted “Damascus international airport and some points in the Damascus countryside”, putting the airport out of service and causing “some material losses”, it said.
Air defences “destroyed most” of the missiles, the statement added.
Updated
Jordan’s foreign minister has said he hopes a meeting of Mediterranean officials will help bridge a gap between Arab and European countries in calling for a humanitarian pause in Gaza to become a permanent ceasefire.
Ayman Safadi said on Sunday that the Israel-Hamas truce was holding up but that more effort was needed to reach at least 200 daily trucks bringing aid into the Gaza Strip, and for the pause in fighting “to immediately develop into a permanent ceasefire”, Associated Press reports.
The minister spoke AP on the eve of Monday’s Union for the Mediterranean gathering in Barcelona, Spain, that will bring to 42 delegations from Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, many of them represented by their foreign ministers.
Israel is not attending the meeting, which in past years has largely become a forum for cooperation between the European Union and the Arab world. But the meeting has taken on new significance since Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war with Hamas.
Jordan, a key Western ally, signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994. The countries maintain covert security relations and some business ties, but relations have cooled over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Safadi noted that while Arab nations have demanded the end of what he called Israel’s “aggression” in Gaza, most European nations have not gone that far, instead calling for a “humanitarian pause”.
“We need to bridge the gap,” he said.
An 84-year-old Israeli among the 17 hostages released by Hamas on Sunday was rushed to a hospital intensive care unit with her life in danger, the hospital director has said.
Elma Avraham “is in critical condition”, said Shlomi Codish, head of the Soroka Medical Centre in southern Israel. “She’s treated in our emergency department after serious neglect for the last several weeks while being held by Hamas,” Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying.
Avraham, an artist, was kidnapped along with others on 7 October during Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel.
According to Avraham’s son Uri Rawitz, who spoke to her on Sunday, she had not managed to lock the door to the safe room in her house when the attack happened.
Updated
Tens of thousands of people including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally.
Associated Press reports that Johnson was joined by the UK chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march to express solidarity with the Jewish community. Organisers billed it as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century.
Marchers waved Israeli flags and Union Jacks, and held placards reading “Never Again Is Now” and “Zero Tolerance for Antisemites”.
Sunday’s march was organised amid concerns about rising tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
“Anything which is associated with the Jewish religion now feel that they’re under attack and they have to look after themselves, have their own security,” said Malcolm Canning, 75, from London.
I never thought this would get to this stage in this country. And it’s very, very upsetting to see it.
Police detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the former leader of the far-right English Defence League, at the march. Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, was among crowds of counterprotesters who clashed with police during an Armistice Day march in London earlier this month.
Police said he refused to leave after he was warned about concerns that his presence would cause “harassment, alarm and distress to others.”
Israeli-linked ship safe after seizure off Yemen coast, says US
A US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals and was now safe, US officials say.
Reuters reports that the tanker, which had been carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, was identified as the Central Park by the vessel’s company. The officials did not identify the attackers.
One of the US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Sunday that the USS Mason warship had responded to the distress call and the tanker was now free.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on 7 October.
It followed a seizure of an Israeli-linked cargo ship by Yemen Houthis, allies of Iran, in the southern Red Sea last week. The group, which also fired ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel, vowed to target more Israeli vessels.
Central Park, a small chemical tanker, is managed by Zodiac Maritime Ltd, a London-headquartered international ship management company owned by Israel’s Ofer family. The Liberian-flagged vessel is owned by Clumvez Shipping Inc, data from the London Stock Exchange Group showed.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war – stay with us for all the latest developments
Amnesty International has reported “horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment” of Palestinians in Israeli prisons amid a “spike in arbitrary arrests” since 7 October.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International reported that since 7 October, Israeli forces have detained more than 2,200 Palestinian men and women. It added that testimony from released detainees and human rights lawyers, as well as video footage and images illustrate “some of the forms of torture and other ill-treatment prisoners have been subjected to by Israeli forces over the past four weeks”.
Those include “severe beatings and humiliation of detainees, including by forcing them to keep their heads down, to kneel on the floor during inmate count, and to sing Israeli songs”, said Amnesty International.
In a statement, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa regional director said:
Over the last month we have witnessed a significant spike in Israel’s use of administrative detention – detention without charge or trial that can be renewed indefinitely – which was already at a 20-year high before the latest escalation in hostilities on 7 October. Administrative detention is one of the key tools through which Israel has enforced its system of apartheid against Palestinians.
Earlier this year, Save the Children published new research that revealed that Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system face physical and emotional abuse.
According to the humanitarian organization, 86% of them are beaten and 69% are strip-searched. Meanwhile, 42% are injured at the point of arrest including gunshot wounds and broken bones, the children’s rights organization reported.
It added that some children report sexual violence while others are “transferred to court or between detention centers in small cages”.
Updated
Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in Casablanca on Sunday in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the suspension of diplomatic ties with Israel.
Agence France-Presse reports:
An AFP journalist reported Sunday that demonstrators in Casablanca waved Palestinian flags and demanded that Rabat suspend ties with Israel.
‘It is not a truce that we need, but a permanent ceasefire’ to give a chance ‘for peace, for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, with its capital in Jerusalem,’ socialist MP Nabila Mounib told AFP on Sunday.
She said she hoped to see ‘the return of all those exiled in the Palestinian diaspora’ and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Hassan Bahadou of the anti-normalisation alliance of leftist parties and Islamists that organised the protest said: ‘We also condemn the silence of negligent Arab regimes allied with the Zionist entity (Israel).’
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations had declined in recent years in Morocco, but have surged since the Gaza war broke out.
Moroccan cardiologist Safae Abderazzak told AFP she was demonstrating ‘to condemn the Israeli aggression against our Palestinian brothers and against our fellow doctors who are being tortured and martyred in Gaza.’
Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry received a call from US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Sunday to discuss obstacles threatening Israel’s truce with Hamas and ways to reach a comprehensive ceasefire, Reuters reports Egypt’s foreign ministry saying.
During the phone call, Shoukry stressed the need to build on the truce while implementing the United Nations security council resolution issued on 15 November which calls for humanitarian pauses that can allow aid into Gaza, the ministry said in a statement.
Updated
Red Cross confirms successful exchange of Hamas hostages and Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons
The Red Cross has confirmed the successful facilitation of the transfer and release of 17 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as 19 Palestinians who were detained in Israeli prisons on Sunday evening.
This marks the Red Cross’s third facilitation following the temporary truce established between Israel and Hamas earlier this week.
We have now successfully facilitated the release of 19 Palestinian detainees from Israeli places of detention.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 26, 2023
The ICRC was not involved in the negotiations. Our role has been to carry out this operation as a neutral intermediary.
We have now successfully facilitated the release and transfer of 17 hostages held in Gaza.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 26, 2023
The ICRC was not involved in the negotiations, and its role has been to facilitate the agreement as a neutral intermediary.
Elon Musk will meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Isaac Herzog in Israel on Monday, Channel 12 TV said on Sunday.
Reuters reports:
An Israeli source confirmed the visit by Musk, a billionaire who also runs Tesla and SpaceX. Spokespeople for Tesla and X, formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk’s visit coincides with a four-day truce in an Israeli war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
Netanyahu met Musk in California on September 18 and urged him to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech after weeks of controversy over antisemitic content on X.
Musk responded by saying he was against antisemitism and against anything that ‘promotes hate and conflict,’ repeating his previous statements that X would not promote hate speech.
During that visit, before the war, about 200 people protested efforts by Netanyahu’s right-wing government to curb the powers of Israeli courts. They gathered outside Tesla’s California factory, where the meeting took place.
Then on November 15 Musk agreed with a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory was speaking ‘the actual truth.’
The White House condemned what it called an ‘abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate’ that ‘runs against our core values as Americans.’
Updated
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described the humanitarian situation Gaza as “much worse than what I saw the first time”.
Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said:
“I went back last week to Gaza for the second time. The situation is much worse than what I saw the first time. Just to give you an example, I visited the vocational training center of UNRWA. We are sheltering 45,000 people there. I met a father with his five children. They live in a four square meter makeshift, basically sleeping on the floor, no mattress, no blanket. Winter is coming. And all of a sudden he is bursting into tears and saying, ‘Well, my dignity has been stripped,’ and his story is a story of hundreds of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip.”
In a phone call with US president Joe Biden on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that at the end of the truce, Israel will resume its military operations in Gaza with full force, Reuters reports.
However, he also said that he welcomed the possibility of freeing ten hostages for each extra day of truce.
Here are some images and videos emerging on social media of demonstrators in New York City on Sunday calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza where nearly 15,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the last seven weeks:
LIVE: OVER 1,000 JEWS AND ALLIES SHUT DOWN THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE ON THE BUSIEST TRAVEL DAY OF THE YEAR TO DEMAND A PERMANENT AND LASTING CEASEFIRE. cc @jvplive @jvpliveNY pic.twitter.com/elbWAo2jYU
— Jason Rosenberg (@mynameisjro) November 26, 2023
NOW: Hundreds of Jewish and allied New Yorkers - including @jvpliveNY, Rabbis for Ceasefire @rodfeishalom, dozens of JFREJ members, and more - are blocking the Manhattan bridge, saying: "President Biden, pick a side! #CeasefireNow, not genocide!" pic.twitter.com/FcgFdnHxOl
— Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@JFREJNYC) November 26, 2023
Protesters @jvplive Blocking several lanes on the Manhattan Bridge: “president Biden pick a side/ceasefire not genocide” 450,000 people cross this bridge per day. pic.twitter.com/9X9sfTlkjd
— hurwitz (@sophiehurwitz) November 26, 2023
Shutting down the Manhattan Bridge calling for a permanent ceasefire! pic.twitter.com/pbIVNsrZoY
— Sumaya Awad (@sumayaawad) November 26, 2023
UNRWA chief: current state of Gaza aid 'hardly enough for humanitarian response'
The current state of aid in Gaza is “hardly enough for humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege of Gaza Strip”, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Sunday.
In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that a lot more aid is required in Gaza.
He said:
Since … the beginning of the truce, we have seen a significant increase of trucks entering into Gaza. I would say on the first day we had an average of 40 trucks, which was far, far, far too little compared to the immense need in the Gaza Strip. And now I would say over the last few days, we had an average of 160 to 200 trucks crossing Rafah and entering into Gaza. Having said that, I do believe that the 200 are hardly enough for the humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege in the Gaza Strip, but we need also commercial flow.
Updated
Three Palestinian students were shot and wounded in Vermont on Saturday night, prompting the Palestinian foreign ministry to call for the “arrest, investigation, accountability and publishing of the investigation results”.
The students, who Palestinian officials identified as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ahmed and Kinnan Abdalhamid, were on their way to a family dinner when they were shot and wounded.
The head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, Husam Zomlot, said that each of the victims were wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh when they were attacked.
In a statement on Twitter/X, the Palestinian foreign ministry said that it “strongly condemned” the attacks and called on authorities to swiftly investigate the attacks and hold those responsible to account.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates// condemns the shooting crime targeting three of our students in America pic.twitter.com/mDgIrHxKP0
— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) November 26, 2023
The shootings, for which police have not announced any suspects or arrests, come amid a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiments across the US, in addition to antisemitism following the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas on 7 October.
Here is the full story on the attacks:
Updated
Hamas announced in a statement on Sunday that it is seeking to extend its four-day truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israel, Reuters reports.
The statement comes following three rounds of releases so far of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons over the last three days.
Here are some images coming through the newswires of Palestinians who were released from Israeli prisons entering Ramallah on Sunday evening as part of a truce between Israel and Hamas:
Updated
Palestinians in Ramallah are currently celebrating the release of Palestinians who were detained in Israeli prisons.
Live broadcast from Al Jazeera is showing Palestinians in Ramallah crowding around a Red Cross bus carrying several Palestinians that have been released, singing and waving flags.
More Palestinians released from Israeli prisons following third hostage release by Hamas - reports
More Palestinians are being released from Israeli prisons on the third day of the truce between Israel and Hamas, according to Reuters footage.
Earlier today, Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson from the Qatari foreign ministry which helped broker the deal, said that 39 Palestinian civilians will be released from Israeli prisons today as part of the exchange.
تنفيذا لالتزامات اليوم الثالث من اتفاق الهدنة، سيتم الافراج اليوم عن ٣٩ من المدنيين الفلسطينيين في مقابل خروج ١٣ من المحتجزين الاسرائيليين من غزة بالاضافة إلى محتجز يحمل الجنسية الروسية و٣ تايلنديين خارج اطار الاتفاق تم تسليمهم إلى الصليب الأحمر.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 26, 2023
Updated
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu has published the names of 13 out of the 17 hostages that were released on Sunday by Hamas:
Abigail Edan, 4
Hagar Brodutch, 40
Ofry Brodutch, 10
Yuval Brodutch, 8
Oria Brodutch, 4
Chen Goldstein Almog, 49
Agam Goldstein Almog, 17
Gal Goldstein Almog, 11
Tal Goldstein Almog, 9
Alma Avraham, 84
Adrienne (Aviva) Siegel, 62
Ela Elyakim, 8
Dafna Elyakim, 14
The other four hostages include a Russian national and three Thai nationals, according to Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari.
Their details are yet to be released.
In implementation of the commitments of the third day of the humanitarian truce agreement, 39 Palestinian civilians will be released in exchange for the release of 13 Israeli civilians from Gaza, in addition to a Russian national and 3 Thais who have already been handed over to…
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 26, 2023
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of the third group of hostages released by Hamas from Gaza on Sunday evening as part of a four-day truce:
Updated
Joe Biden reiterated his calls for a two-state solution, saying:
A two-state solution is the only way to guarantee a long-term security of both Israelis and Palestinian people, to make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike live in equal measure of freedom and dignity. We will not give up on working toward that goal.
Updated
“This is a day by day approach,” said Joe Biden.
He continued:
Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is being taken for granted but the proof that this is working … is in every smile, and every great tear we see on the faces of those families who are finally getting back together again. The proof is little Abigail. More than 20 other children, 18 years and younger, have been released …
They’ve endured a terrible ordeal. They can now begin a long journey.
Updated
Joe Biden said that he will continue working with regional partners to “expand the delivery of critical humanitarian assistance to help innocent Palestinians in need who are not part of Hamas”.
He added:
We worked urgently to take advantage of the pause to surge aid into Gaza …
We’re moving approximately 200 aid trucks in the Gaza each day, loaded with food, water, medicine fuel, and cooking gas. More is needed, but this deal is delivering life-saving results. Critically-needed aid is going in and hostages are coming out. This deal is structured so that it can be extended to keep building on these results.
That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza.
Updated
Joe Biden expressed his thanks to the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, saying:
I owe a special thanks to him in order to keep the hostage release on track and push for Abigail to be part of this release.
The US president added that his administration will “continue to remain personally engaged to see that this deal is fully implemented and work to extend the deal as well”.
Updated
Speaking of four-year old Abigail Edan, Joe Biden said that she has been through a “terrible trauma”.
“Today she’s free, and Jilly and I, together with so many Americans, are praying for the fact that she is going to be alright,” the US president said, referring to his wife Jill Biden.
Updated
“We are hopeful” that other Americans may be freed, said Joe Biden.
“There’s a lot more work to be done,” he added.
The US president also said that he’d like to “see the pause go on as long as prisoners are getting released”.
Updated
Biden confirms US hostage freed
“She’s free and she’s in Israel now,” Joe Biden said of four-year old Abigail Edan, a dual US-Israeli citizen, who was released by Hamas on Sunday alongside 16 other hostages.
“What she endured is unthinkable,” he said, adding that he expects additional Americans to be released by Hamas as well.
Updated
Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks on the hostages at 12pm ET, the White House said on Sunday.
The US president’s expected comments come as reports emerge of four-year old Abigail Edan, a dual Israeli-American citizen, being released alongside 16 other hostages held by Hamas on Sunday evening.
Updated
Twelve of the hostages are being escorted back to Israel by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in his latest update.
Hagari added that another hostage “landed in the hospital a short time ago”.
The other four hostages are now on their way to the Rafah border crossing.
יחידה מובחרת של צה״ל וכוח של השב"כ מלווים כעת בשטח ישראל את 12 החטופים השבים ארצה לבסיס חצרים.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 26, 2023
אזרחית נוספת נחתה בבית החולים לפני זמן קצר.
במקביל, ארבעה חטופים נוספים בדרכם למעבר רפיח.
Updated
Israeli military confirms 17 new hostages released
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari has confirmed the release of the 17 hostages held by Hamas on Sunday night.
Posting on Twitter/X, Hagari said:
A short time ago, representatives of the Red Cross handed over 12 hostages who had returned to Israel to a force of an elite unit of the IDF and a force of the Shin Bet near the border fence in the center of the Gaza Strip. After that they will make their way to the base premises. One hostage who returned to Israel was sent directly to the hospital.
לפני זמן קצר העבירו נציגי הצלב האדום 12 חטופים השבים ארצה לידי כוח של יחידה מובחרת של צה"ל וכוח של שב"כ בסמוך לגדר הגבול במרכז רצועת עזה. לאחר מכן יעשו דרכם לבסיס חצרים.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 26, 2023
חטופה אחת ששבה ארצה פונתה באופן מוסק ישירות לבית החולים >>
He added:
At the same time, four hostages returned to Israel via the Rafah crossing to Egypt, from where they will make their way to the meeting point with our forces in Israeli territory. IDF representatives regularly update the families of the hostages.
במקביל, ארבעה חטופים שבים ארצה דרך מעבר רפיח למצרים, משם יעשו דרכם לנקודת המפגש עם כוחותינו בשטח ישראל.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 26, 2023
נציגי צה״ל מעדכנים את משפחות החטופים באופן שוטף.
Updated
Key event
The Israeli military says 14 Israelis and 3 foreign nationals have been released from captivity in the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reports.
Members of the Red Cross transferred the hostages out of Gaza on Sunday evening, with some being handed over directly to Israel while others left through Egypt, according to the Associated Press.
The Israeli army said that one of the hostages was airlifted directly to an Israeli hospital.
Updated
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Joe Biden will be speaking with Benjamin Netanyahu today.
During an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Sullivan also said that there was “reason to believe” a US hostage would be released from Gaza today.
CNN is reporting a source confirming that dual citizen of US and Israel, Abigail Edan, is in the hands of the Red Cross.
Updated
Hamas says it has released 13 Israeli hostages, three Thai nationals and a Russian to Red Cross
Hamas said on Sunday they had handed over 13 Israeli hostages, three Thai nationals and one Russian to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Reuters reports.
On late Saturday night, Hamas released 13 Israelis and four Thai nationals. In return, Israel released 39 Palestinians that were detained in Israeli prisons.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent has sent 50 trucks of aid into “Gaza and the north”, the organisation announced on Sunday.
The aid delivery comes as part of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that also includes the exchange of 50 hostages held by Hamas as well as 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
🚛The Palestine Red Crescent continues to deliver aid to Palestinians in #Gaza and the North, by sending 50 trucks today.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 26, 2023
🫶 PRCS superheroes, both staff and volunteers, successfully distributed aid👏, reaching thousands in desperate need of life's essentials.#Humantarians… pic.twitter.com/RfXTX47mgC
Updated
AFP reports that a senior Israeli military official said IDF troops had caused significant damage to Hamas’s fighting force – made up of 24 battalions of 1,000 militants each – notably in the north.
“In some [battalions], we eliminated hundreds of Hamas terrorists and most of the battalion commanders,” he said.
“This harm is significant, it dismantles the ability of Hamas to fight right now, but also the ability to rehabilitate its military power after the war.”
He did not give a number of militants killed but said it was in the several thousands: “not 10,000, not 1,000, something in the middle.”
Updated
If you haven’t seen them, here are some of the video clips of hostages being released from Gaza by Hamas and reunited with their families in Israel, after having been abducted by the group on 7 October during its attack inside Israel which killed at least 1,200 people.
Ireland is not the only EU country to have attracted ire from Israel’s diplomats in recent days. Israel has also summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium for a rebuke over remarks made by the two countries’ prime ministers.
Both countries, along with Ireland and Luxembourg, have been calling on Israel to conduct its defence within humanitarian laws since the beginning of October.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he stood by comments that “it was a question of being humane” when conducting the offensive in Gaza.
Visiting the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday with the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, Sánchez said the “indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians” in the Palestinian territory was “completely unacceptable”.
Both leaders called for a permanent ceasefire in the war-battered territory, with the Belgian premier also denouncing the destruction in the Gaza Strip as “unacceptable”.
The Israeli foreign ministry swiftly summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium for a “harsh rebuke”, accusing them of supporting “terrorism”.
Updated
The demonstration against antisemitism in London is continuing, with a large crowd marching.
Pictures showed the far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, being led away by police. Organisers had told him he was not welcome.
Police later posted on social media to confirm an arrest at the event.
Officers working as part of the policing and security operation for the March Against Antisemitism have arrested a 40-year-old man on the Strand.
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 26, 2023
He refused to comply with a direction to disperse under Section 35 of the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.
Further… pic.twitter.com/gUtGCniSmg
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 4.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Prison authorities in Israel announced early on Sunday that they had released 39 Palestinian prisoners after Hamas freed 13 Israelis and four Thai nationals in the latest stage of a four-day ceasefire. Television footage showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed over the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday. Of the 13 Israelis released, six were women and seven were children and teenagers.
Egypt has received lists of a further 13 Israelis and 39 Palestinians scheduled for release on Sunday, the third batch in the four-day truce deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar. Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement that “The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” adding that 120 aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking.
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has confirmed that the administration expects an American hostage to be freed today, but did not confirm who it would be.
Hamas has announced that four senior commanders have been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, a commander in the north of Gaza. Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”.
A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
Israel’s military claimed to have killed five Palestinians overnight as well as arresting 21 in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Funerals were held for those killed on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said that three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.
Gen Herzi Halevy, the chief of general staff of the IDF, has said its forces will “return to fighting with full determination” after the humanitarian pause ends.
Unidentified armed individuals are believed to have seized the oil cargo vessel Central Park in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, a US defence official has said. The small oil tanker is managed by the Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime Ltd, a London-headquartered international ship management company, LSEG data shows.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has posted to social media to say that he has summoned the Irish ambassador to Israel for a reprimand, after what he said were “the outrageous words of the prime minister of Ireland”. In a tweet, taoiseach Leo Varadkar had said: “This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief.” The nine-year-old Dublin-born hostage was released from Gaza yesterday, after being abducted by Hamas on 7 October.
In London, a large group has gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice for a rally organised by the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism. The group of a few thousand waved Israeli and British flags and held placards reading “Never Again Is Now” and “Zero Tolerance for Antisemites”. The far-right former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was among those present. Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, had been asked to stay away by organisers.
London’s Metropolitan police has said it has launched an investigation after a journalist alleged she was verbally abused in an “intimidating” encounter while reporting at the pro-Palestinian march in the UK’s capital on Saturday.
Updated
It is understood that Ireland’s ambassador to Israel, Sonya McGuinness, will be asked to a meeting in Tel Aviv in the coming days to be told that Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, expects the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to clarify or apologise for saying nine-year-old Emily Hand was “lost” instead of kidnapped.
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, issued a statement saying that “words matter, especially in war when lives are at stake, and when there is an increase of extreme discourse”.
Updated
Unidentified armed individuals are believed to have seized the oil cargo vessel Central Park in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, a US defence official has said, Reuters reports.
The small oil tanker is managed by the Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime Ltd, a London-headquartered international ship management company, LSEG data shows.
Updated
Egypt confirms it has received lists of 13 Israelis and 39 Palestinians scheduled for Sunday release
Egypt received lists of 13 Israelis and 39 Palestinians scheduled for release on Sunday, the third batch in the four-day truce deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement.
“The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” Reuters reports the statement said, adding that 120 aid tucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that 120 aid trucks have been able to cross into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing on Sunday. It cites the Egyptian government media office.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, has been restating the Biden administration line on the extension of the Israel ground offensive to southern Gaza, as it is widely expected to do after the hostage ceasefire.
The US is insisting that the campaign in the south, where Gaza residents were told by the Israeli government to take shelter, should look very different from in the north, where there were mass civilian casualties. At the time the administration did not directly criticise the Israeli forces for their conduct in the north, but in his CBS News Face the Nation interview, Sullivan said there were lessons to be learned.
“The United States is hoping to see – and frankly what I believe Israel is hoping to see – is the conditions being set whereby any military action only takes place after civilians have been accounted for and have the opportunity to be in safety, to have access to humanitarian assistance, and to be out of the way of any military operation that is conducted.
“That’s the conversation we’re having with the Israelis right now. It’s a constructive conversation and the details of it will remain behind closed doors but the basic notion is that continuing military operations should learn lessons from the north, to be applied in any further undertakings.”
Updated
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has also had this to say about the prospects for the hostage deal:
There continues to be quite a bit of intensity around the logistics of the delivery of humanitarian assistance. That humanitarian assistance has been flowing for several hours this morning. The Israelis have indicated the list of Palestinian prisoners they’re prepared to release so that should be on track. We have every reason to believe that this will come together again today, as it has for the last two days. But implementation of something as intricate and complicated as this is difficult.
I have every confidence that ultimately all of the Americans and all of the individuals being held hostage will come home. We are determined not to rest until that happens. But whether or not this particular deal gets extended – that’s really up to Hamas, because Israel has been very clear as part of the deal, it is prepared to continue the pause and fighting for every day that Hamas produces an additional 10 hostages. So the ball is in Hamas’s court.”
Updated
In London a large group has gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice for a rally organised by the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism.
The group of a few thousand waved Israeli and British flags and held placards reading “Never Again Is Now” and “Zero Tolerance for Antisemites”.
PA Media reports that the far-right former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was among those present. Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, had been asked to stay away by organisers.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said on Friday: “Contrary to what Tommy Robinson appears to believe, the drunken far-right thugs who came to ‘protect the Cenotaph’ on Armistice Day, some of whom shouted ‘sieg heil’ or hospitalised police officers, are not allies of the Jewish community and are not welcome at our solidarity march on Sunday 26 November.”
Updated
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has confirmed that the administration expects an American hostage to be freed today, but did not confirm who it would be. Sullivan told the CBS News programme, Face the Nation:
We do have reason to believe that Americans will be released today. At least one American will be released today. I cannot confirm who it will be or that it will absolutely happen because until we see an American out of Gaza, in safety and ultimately in the hands of their loved ones, we won’t have full confirmation.
CNN is reporting that “for the first time since the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel came into effect, an American citizen is expected to be on Sunday’s list of hostages set to be released”.
Earlier Haaretz reported that Hamas is also expected to release at least one hostage with Russian citizenship. It writes: “According to … sources, the release is part of a deal between the Russian government and Hamas, who sent representatives to Moscow earlier in the war.”
Updated
Rozan lives in Khan Younis in Gaza, and writes for us today:
Throughout Israel’s invasion, people in northern Gaza have been told to move to the “safety” of the south. But our day-to-day lives here are testament to the fact that in Gaza, nowhere is safe. As missiles fall, our house is filled with relatives, including lots of children – some of whom lost their homes nearby to Israeli airstrikes, others who have fled the bombardment in northern Gaza for the “safety” of the south. It was here in the south that I lost my closest relatives on my father’s side. Three brothers and their wives and children were struck by Israeli missiles, and their entire building was reduced to rubble. Only a few of them survived, mainly those who had gone out to buy supplies. They had no warning whatsoever, and no leaflets had been dropped in the area telling people to evacuate.
It has been a few weeks since they were killed; girls younger than me, with dreams bigger than this tiny strip we were born in. My father is still struggling to get over that. I don’t know if the rest of us have. We are still somehow dreaming of a lasting ceasefire. My cousins dream of returning to their homes. The children dream of going back to their bedrooms and their toys.
And yet, when we look around and listen to the news – which I admit is not very often, considering communication and internet access is scarce – it seems very likely we may lose this last remaining house too, or be driven out yet again, if we survive at all.
Read more of Rozan’s account here: Israel told us to move to south Gaza. Then it said it would bomb the south too. So where do we go now?
Updated
The International Committee of the Red Cross appears to have disowned earlier comments by its official Pascal Hundt to Sky News that he was “not confident” more hostages would be released today, by saying “all preparations for the next release continue to move forward”.
In a statement it said:
An earlier statement from an ICRC official was in no way an indication that the release operations planned for Sunday will not happen. All preparations for the next release continue to move forward. The operations are delicate and complicated and one can never be absolutely certain they will take place, given all of the complexities.”
Updated
AFP is reporting that a tanker linked to an Israel-affiliated company has been boarded off the coast of Yemen, citing the maritime security firm Ambrey.
Ambrey said that “US naval forces are engaged in the situation” after the incident involving the Central Park vessel owned and managed by a UK-based, Israel-linked company.
The boarding took place offshore from the Yemeni port city of Aden, with another vessel in the area reporting “an approach by eight persons on two skiffs wearing military uniforms”, Ambrey said.
More details soon …
Updated
Al Jazeera has had an interview with Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. It reports:
He says the armed group is committed to the four-day truce agreement and is willing to release all captives in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
He says the group is currently working on a possible extension of the truce together with international partners.
“Our priority is to stop the aggression against our people. We want to stop this genocide in Gaza,” he said.
Hamad has also condemned the US’s role in the war [saying] “They are always supporting Israel. From the beginning of this war, the US is their partner in this crime, in this ethnic cleansing.”
Al Jazeera reports that, asked specifically about US hostages, Hamad said it was looking to release all civilians regardless of their nationality.
Overnight the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for US president, Donald Trump, said that the reason no US-Israeli hostages had been released so far was because Hamas had “no respect for our country or our leadership”.
A senior Red Cross official has told Sky News he is “not confident” of more hostages being released today.
The network quotes Pascal Hundt saying that despite not being confident about more releases, the Red Cross has a team on standby. He was speaking from Gaza. He added that that the truce needed to remain in place because the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “so desperate”.
Updated
AFP has more detail on the commanders that Hamas today said had been killed during Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched its attack inside Israel on 7 October.
In a statement, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said Ahmed Al-Ghandour was a member of its military council and named three other leaders who had died, including Ayman Siyyam, who Israeli media reports said was head of the Brigades’ rocket-firing units.
“We pledge to Allah we will continue their path and that their blood will be a light for the mujahedeen and a fire for the occupiers,” the statement said, without saying when they were killed.
Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”, putting him on an economic sanctions blacklist.
The US state department described him as a former member of Hamas’ Shura council and member of its political bureau.
Ghandour “has been involved in many terrorist operations,” it said, including a 2006 attack on an Israeli military outpost at the Kerem Shalom border crossing which left two Israeli soldiers dead and four wounded.
That attack resulted in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Hamas for five years before he was freed in 2011 in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
London’s Metropolitan police has said it has launched an investigation after a journalist alleged she was verbally abused in an “intimidating” encounter while reporting at the pro-Palestinian march in the UK’s capital on Saturday.
PA Media reports Katherine Forster described herself and her crew being surrounded by people “all shouting” in central London after she admitted to a “persistent” man that she was reporting for GB News.
In a statement on social media, the police force said “The right of the press to freely report on protests is no less important than the right to protest itself. They should be able to do so without facing intimidation or aggression. Officers spoke with the journalist and her team following this incident. An investigation is under way.”
The UK prime minister recently sacked home secretary Suella Braverman – the equivalent of interior minister – after she publicly criticised London’s police for the way they were handling pro-Palestinian protests.
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza and Israel sent to us over the news wires:
The funeral is taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank of five Palestinians killed on Sunday by Israeli forces.
In a statement earlier Israel’s military claimed that “five terrorists were eliminated, 21 wanted persons were arrested” during its operation, and that air support targeted “an armed terrorist squad that endangered the IDF forces”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Here is the Palestine Red Crescent Society statement about the killing of a farmer in Gaza by Israeli forces earlier on Sunday. It said:
The association’s ambulance crews dealt with two cases a short while ago east of Al-Maghazi camp, east of the central governorate. Although the humanitarian calm has entered its third day, the Israeli occupation forces recently targeted two farmers east of Al-Maghazi camp, which led to the death of one of them and the wounding of the other.
🚨عاجل: استشهاد مواطن واصابة آخر قبل قليل
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 26, 2023
🚑طواقم اسعاف الجمعية تتعامل مع حالتين قبل قليل شرق مخيم المغازي شرق المحافظة الوسطى
ورغم دخول التهدئة الانسانية يومها الثالث إلا أن قوات الاحتلال الاسرائيلي استهدفت قبل قليل مزارعين اثنين
شرق مخيم المغازي، مما أدى الى استشهاد أحدهم… pic.twitter.com/5PwMFcQwS4
Hamas reports four of its military commanders in the Gaza Strip have been killed
Hamas announced on Sunday the killing of four of its military commanders in the Gaza Strip, including the commander of the North Gaza brigade Ahmad Al Ghandour.
“Al Ghandour is the member of the military council and the commander of the North Brigade,” Reuters reports Al Qassam Brigades said in a statement published on their Telegram channel.
The IDF had claimed to have targeted Al Ghandour on 17 November, without claiming to have killed him.
Israel summons Irish ambassador over Varadkar's comment that hostage Emily Hand was 'lost' and 'found'
Isreal’s foreign minister Eli Cohen has posted to social media to say that he has summoned the Irish ambassador to Israel for a reprimand, after what he said were “the outrageous words of the prime minister of Ireland”.
In a tweet, taoiseach Leo Varadkar had said “This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief.”
The nine-year-old Dublin-born hostage Emily Hand was released from Gaza yesterday, after being abducted by Hamas on 7 October.
In his post, Cohen said:
Following the outrageous words of the prime minister of Ireland about the release of Emily Hand, who was kidnapped to Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas, I summoned the Irish ambassador to Israel for a reprimand.
בעקבות דבריו המקוממים של ראש ממשלת אירלנד על שחרורה של אמלי הנד שנחטפה לעזה ע"י ארגון הטרור חמאס, הנחתי לזמן את שגרירת אירלנד בישראל לשיחת נזיפה.
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) November 26, 2023
A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, Reuters reports. It cited the Palestinan Red Crescent Society.
Ireland has breathed a “massive sigh of relief” after nine year old Dublin-born hostage Emily Hand was release from Gaza, the taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
“Emily has come back to us,” her father said as Emily rushed into his embrace in an Israel hospital last night as part of a deal that
“We can’t find the words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days,” her family said in a statement.
The little girl was on a sleep over in a friend’s house in kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities worst hit by last month’s Hamas attack, when she was abducted.
Her friend Hila Rotem, 13, was also released last night but her mother, Raya Rotem, 54, is still being held captive.
Varadkar said: “An innocent girl who was lost has now been found and returned, and our country breathes a massive sigh of relief.
“For her family, these seven weeks have been a slow and cruel torture. We hope she will soon heal and recover from the traumatic experience in the loving embrace of her family,” he said.
His deputy Micheál Martin said that “after weeks of trauma” last night was a “precious and deeply moving moment” for Emily and her family.
Varadkar’s comment that the girl was “lost” has been criticised by Israel’s foreign minister for downplaying the fact that she was abducted.
Here are some further comments that have been released from Israel’s chief of staff, Gen Herzi Halevi. While speaking to troops he said that “we will return to our operations with determination” when the current pause in fighting finishes, in order to force “the continued release of the hostages and the complete dismantlement of Hamas”.
He also said:
I met many of you at the end of long hours of fighting both above and underground, facing complex challenges. In every encounter, I saw reflected in your eyes the magnitude of the moment, the fighting spirit and determination to achieve all the objectives of the war. I heard you tell me: ‘We want to fight until we return the hostages.’ And so we are doing just that.
Haaretz is reporting that Maya Regev, a released hostage that Hamas had seized durings its assault on the Supernova music festival, “will need to undergo surgery in the future”. It quotes the director of Soroka Medical Centre, where she has been taken, saying “we expect her to make a full recovery”. There were no further details.
Updated
Israel’s military has issued a statement about its activity in Jenin in the occupied West Bank overnight. In a post to social media, it said:
In the operation commanded by the 646th Reserve Brigade, five terrorists were eliminated, 21 wanted persons were arrested, a cargo laboratory was destroyed and an aircraft attacked from the air an armed terrorist squad that endangered the IDF forces.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Associated Press reports that Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank killed at least eight Palestinians in a 24-hour period, according to Palestinian health officials. [See 6.54am GMT]
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in Jenin, while three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli father and son at a West Bank car wash earlier in the year. In its statement Sunday, the military made no mention of clashes, nor of the Palestinian deaths, but said forces were still operating in the area.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli snipers were positioned on roofs and that military bulldozers were damaging roads and infrastructure. The reports could not immediately be independently verified.
The tense diplomatic relations between Israel and Ireland have continued this morning, with Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen aiming criticism at taoiseach Leo Varadkar, accusing him of losing his “moral compass” and “connection to reality”.
Varadkar had posted about the return of Emily Hand. Hand had initially been thought dead, and her family mourned for her, before it became clear she was being held in Gaza. Overnight Varadkar had written:
This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered.
This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered.
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) November 25, 2023
In a response this morning, Cohen has said:
Amelie Hand is not lost, maybe you have lost your moral compass and your connection to reality. Amelie Hand was kidnapped by a terrorist organisation worse than Islamic State after her stepmother was murdered. Amelie and over 30 other Israeli children were kidnapped by Hamas, and you are trying to legitimise it. Shame on you!
אדוני ראש הממשלה,
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) November 26, 2023
אמלי הנד לא נאבדה, אולי אתה איבדת את המצפן המוסרי שלך ואת הקשר למציאות.
אמלי הנד נחטפה על ידי ארגון טרור הגרוע מדאעש אחרי שאמא החורגת נרצחה.
אמלי ועוד למעלה מ-30 ילדים ישראלים נחטפו ע״י חמאס, ואתה מנסה לתת לגיטימציה.
תתבייש! https://t.co/CD5wIZKkTQ
Emily Hand had her ninth birthday as a hostage in Gaza, the day before she was reunited with her father. She appeared in good health in a photograph released with fellow hostage Hila Rotem, whose mother remains in Gaza.
“We can’t find the words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days,” her family said in a statement. “We are overjoyed to embrace Emily again, but at the same time, we remember Raya Rotem and all the hostages who have yet to return.”
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson has posted to social media a quote from Gen Herzi Halevy, the chief of general staff of the IDF. In the post, Halevy says:
The IDF fights valiantly and preserves the lives of its members and the values of the IDF. We were able to create conditions for the political process to release children and mothers. With the completion of the implementation of that path, we will return to fighting with full determination, with the aim of resuming the release of the abductees and dismantling Hamas.
#عاجل رئيس الأركان الجنرال هرتسي هاليفي في رسالة الى جنود جيش الدفاع وقادته: جيش الدفاع يحارب ببسالة ويحافظ على حياة أفراده وقيم جيش الدفاع. لقد تمكنّا من خلق ظروف للمسار السياسي للافراج عن الأطفال والامهات. مع استكمال تطبيق ذلك المسار سنعود للقتال بكامل الاصرار بهدف استئناف… pic.twitter.com/Nr6rxTfwtf
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 26, 2023
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
The 17 hostages freed by Hamas late on Saturday included Maya Regev, the first of the hostages taken from the Supernova music festival to be released since Hamas fighters swooped on the event during their attack on southern Israel on 7 October, Agence France-Presse reports.
Regev, 21, and her 18-year-old brother Itay, who was also abducted from the festival, were shown tied up in the back of a pick-up truck in a video posted on social media after the attack.
“I am so excited and happy that Maya is on her way to us now,” her mother, Mirit, said in a statement released by the hostage families’ forum.
Nonetheless, my heart is split because my son Itay is still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
An Israeli police investigation into the Hamas attack on the music festival updated the death toll earlier this month to 364, according to Israeli media reports.
That figure would make up nearly one-third of all of those killed during the 7 October onslaught, the Times of Israel reported, citing Channel 12.
Earlier counts had placed the death count from the Supernova attack in Kibbutz Re’im at 270.
Israeli police reportedly believe that Hamas did not know about the festival before carrying out the attack.
Updated
The women of the Munder family, Ruti and Keren, knew that after everything that had already been taken from them, they could not afford to lose track of time.
So while they were held captive in Gaza with Keren’s nine-year-old son, Ohad, they counted the days as they dragged slowly into weeks and then a second month.
“They said that they tried to memorise the days,” said Rony Raviv, niece of Ruti, 78, and cousin to Keren.
They always knew what day it was, and what the date was. They knew that they were there for 49 days. They were together the whole time.
Raviv spoke to her relatives on the phone on Friday, hours after they were released as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Ohad’s emotional reunion with his father east of Tel Aviv on Friday has been posted online. Ohad, who turned nine in captivity, also spoke to a friend on Friday evening, and other friends planned to visit him on Saturday, Raviv said.
But all the newly released hostages were at the start of a difficult recovery. “They’re still in shock, all of them,” Raviv said.
For the rest of this report from Emine Sinmaz and Emma Graham-Harrison on how hostages’ relatives are glimpsing what their loved ones endured as first words are exchanged after their release, see here:
List of third group of hostages set for release goes to Netanyahu's office
Hamas fighters were set on Sunday to release a third group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a day after freeing 17 captives.
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had received a list of the hostages due to be released, Agence France-Presse reports.
The list was being checked by security officials, it said, and families of the hostages had been informed.
In a sign of the fragility of the exchanges, the last swap – on Saturday – delayed for hours after Hamas accused Israel of breaching its side of the deal that led to a four-day ceasefire.
Despite the dispute, Hamas released 13 Israelis and four Thai hostages late that night, officials said. Israel said it in turn freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinians in West Bank, says Palestinian ministry
Two Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces in Nablus and Jenin early on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight, Reuters reports.
Seventeen freed hostages arrive in Israel as 39 Palestinian prisoners released
Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second release of hostages from Hamas captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a deal briefly endangered by a dispute about aid delivery into Gaza.
Reuters reports the dispute was overcome by the mediation of Egypt and Qatar but that it threatened the truce to free captives, underscoring the fragility of the pact meant to release 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group and 150 prisoners held in Israeli jails over four days.
Television images showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed the hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday.
Six of the 13 Israelis released were women and seven were children and teenagers.
“The released hostages are on their way to hospitals in Israel, where they will reunite with their families,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Israel released 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 minors – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh municipality square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters witness said.
A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomatic moves said Hamas would continue the truce, the first halt in fighting since Hamas’ deadly rampage through southern Israel on 7 October.
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Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Adam Fulton. The top developments this morning:
Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals released from Hamas captivity arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second step of a crucial hostage deal, which briefly risked falling apart due to a dispute over the delivery of aid supplies into Gaza.
Television footage showed hostages on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after leaving Gaza, as Hamas handed over the captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross late on Saturday, Reuters reports. Of the 13 Israelis released, six were women and seven were children and teenagers.
Meanwhile, a bus carrying nearly three dozen Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrived in the West Bank early on Sunday. Hundreds of people greeted the Red Cross bus as it arrived in Al Bireh, Associated Press reported. Crowds chanted “God is great” on the arrival, while many chanted pro-Hamas slogans and held Hamas flags.
More on that story soon. In other key developments as it turns 8.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The UN said 61 trucks carrying medical supplies, food and water had delivered their payloads in the northern Gaza Strip as the pause in fighting allows aid to enter the territory. Another 200 trucks had been dispatched to Gaza from Nitzana in Israel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday, with 187 of them having made it past the border by the early evening local time.
Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian ministry of health said. A 25-year-old doctor was killed early in the morning outside his home in Qabatiya, near Jenin, it said. Another Palestinian was killed in el-Bireh, near Ramallah. Four people were also killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin, during an incursion by a large number of armoured vehicles into the town. Witnesses told Agence France-Presse on Saturday that the Israeli army was surrounding Jenin’s public hospital and the Ibn Sina clinic, and that soldiers were searching ambulances. They also reported heavy fighting with automatic weapons.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Israeli fire hit one of its patrols in the country’s south on Saturday, despite the Hamas-Israel truce largely quietening the Lebanon-Israel frontier. Around noon, a Unifil patrol was hit by Israeli military gunfire in the vicinity of Aitarun, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said. “No peacekeepers were injured, but the vehicle was damaged.”
Egypt said on Saturday it had received positive signals from all parties over a possible extension of the Gaza truce for one or two days, Reuters reported. Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said the country was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement over extending the four-day ceasefire, which “means the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails”.
The number of Thai nationals believed to be held hostage by Hamas has increased by two, Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs has said. This means that, after Saturday’s release of four more Thai hostages, a further 18 Thai nationals are still being held by Hamas.
The body of a Tanzanian student who went missing in Israel after the bloody Hamas attack last month was due to be returned home on Sunday, his family said. Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, was one of two Tanzanians reported missing after the 7 October attack.
In the UK, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in the latest major demonstration in the capital. Police were handing out leaflets to provide “absolute clarity” on what would be deemed an offence. It came after weeks of pressure on the force over the handling of the now-regular demonstrations.
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