We are now closing this liveblog, but our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war continues here.
Summary
It’s just past 6am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Hamas and Israel are expected to release more hostages and prisoners on Wednesday, the last day of the prolonged six-day truce. Israeli media have reported that Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has received a list with the names of the Israeli hostages that Hamas intends to release.
Egyptian media, quoting government sources, have reported that a preliminary understanding has been reached to extend the truce for two more days, under the same conditions that are currently being observed. Israel has said the truce could be extended further, provided Hamas continues to free at least 10 Israeli hostages a day.
US and Israeli spy chiefs have flown to Qatar for talks on how to extend the current truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages by Hamas. The discussions of the CIA director, William Burns, and the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, with the Qatari leadership are expected to focus on persuading Hamas to begin releasing the men among the remaining hostages.
Negotiations over a possible second extension of the pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages being held by Hamas now include men and soldiers, according to a report. Israel would not agree to any discussion on a new hostage deal before the current one is fully implemented and all women and children who are held hostage are released, the report said.
The latest exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails took place on Tuesday night. 12 hostages, including 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals, are now in Israel. The 30 Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday include 15 children and 15 women. In a statement, the Israel Prison Service said the 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention centre in Jerusalem.
There were reports that the West Bank city of Jenin had been raided by Israeli troops. Al Jazeera says that armed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters have taken place, with at least eight people injured. Christos Christou, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, said that the Israeli army “conducted an incursion on Jenin refugee camp.”
There were reports of some fighting in Gaza, depite the extension of the truce. Israel said a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. In a Telegram message on Tuesday, the IDF said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.” Hamas accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
The UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, will travel to Jordan on Wednesday for talks on the possibility of opening a second crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing, to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Israel. Since the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel came into force last week, about 200 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on a daily basis, but the amount is nowhere enough to need the needs of its population.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza. The truck, which was passing through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south, was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said on Tuesday. In a later post, it said Israeli forces prevented its emergency medical team from transferring a wounded patient to the hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
The population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday. “Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed,” it said.
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marocs has said he is “very happy” to announce that Noralyn Babadilla is now safely back in Israel, adding that “all Filipinos affected by the war have been accounted for”.
Noralyn, who was released on Tuesday, was the second Filipino to be released by Hamas. Filipino caregiver Gelienor “Jimmy” Pacheco was among the group of hostages released on the first day of the temporary truce.
Marcos said in a statement: “We extend our sincerest gratitude to Israeli authorities for facilitating Noralyn’s release, and for all ongoing assistance to Filipinos in Israel. Our gratitude also goes to Egypt and the State of Qatar for their crucial role in this process over the past several weeks.”
About 30,000 Filipinos work in Israel, mainly in the care sector. Most live away from the conflict areas.
Israeli military raid West Bank city of Jenin - reports
There are reports that parts of the city of Jenin, in the West Bank, have been closed off with checkpoints set up at routes into the city.
Al Jazeera says that armed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters have taken place, with at least eight people injured. They report that hundreds of Israeli troops have taken part in the raid, supported by more than 50 armoured vehicles.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has said that one of its medical teams was detained by Israeli troops outside a Jenin hospital, preventing them from transferring a patient with a gunshot wound in the leg to the hospital. They later said that the patient was arrested.
Christos Christou, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, is in Jenin and says that the Israeli army “conducted an incursion on Jenin refugee camp.”
In a video posted to X, he says that he has been trapped in the Khalil Suleiman hospital for more than two hours, while Israeli forces “operated in Jenin camp”.
I’m in #Jenin, the West Bank, #Palestine, where I was just visiting the @MSF team at the Khalil Suleiman hospital. While we were there, the Israeli army conducted an incursion on Jenin refugee camp. pic.twitter.com/RNF8JGdf8I
— Christos Christou (@DrChristou) November 28, 2023
List of hostages to be freed on Wednesday released - reports
Israeli media are reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has received a list with the names of the Israeli hostages that Hamas intends to release on Wednesday, the sixth group of hostages to be freed as part of the temporary truce.
The families of those on the list have reportedly been informed.
The chances of the truce being extended much beyond 10 days appear slim, analysts say.
One reason is that both sides are running out of hostages or prisoners whom they can free relatively painlessly. The Palestinians released from Israeli jails so far are mainly women and children. So, too, are the hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza. In the brutal calculations of such things, neither category includes “high value” individuals. Among the hostages, these would include military personnel. Among the prisoners, it may mean high-profile political leaders, those accused of very serious crimes and others thought to endanger Israel’s security.
One possibility is that the current ceasefire could be extended to include elderly and sick people among the remaining 180 or so hostages and the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. But that would postpone, not prevent, the coming trial of strength.
Nour Odeh, an analyst and commentator based in Ramallah, said that phase 2 would not be a continuation of phase 1. “[This] is when we get into the hardball. The civilian hostages is one thing, but the soldiers is another. Hamas have said all along they want ‘all for all’ [all the hostages for all the prisoners in Israel] but I don’t think [Benjamin] Netanyahu will accept such a high price.”
She added: “The likelihood of a resumption of bombardment and also a ground offensive in the south [of Gaza] continues to loom large.”
To reconcile the apparently conflicting goals of freeing the hostages and “crushing” Hamas, Israeli officials and many analysts say military pressure is the only way to force the organisation to make concessions – despite the cost in civilian life and harm to Israel’s international reputation.
Egyptian media reports that a preliminary understanding has been reached to extend the truce
Egypt’s Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper is reporting that a preliminary understanding has been reached to extend the truce for two more days, under the same conditions that are currently being observed. The paper has quoted Egyptian officials as its source.
Israeli officials confirmed to the Haaretz newspaper that the proposal was being examined, but has not yet been confirmed. Haaretz reports an Israeli source as saying the agreement on an extension depended on whether Hamas is able to release 10 additional Israeli hostages a day.
As we reported earlier, with fewer women and children remaining in captivity extending the truce may require Hamas to free at least some Israeli men for the first time.
The AFP news agency has reported on the testimony of some of the recently freed Israeli hostages, who have detailed the conditions of their confinement.
None of the hostages released under the truce have so far given any direct accounts of the conditions in which they were held and hospitals say they have been instructed to refrain from disclosing details.
However some details are slowly surfacing from medical professionals treating them, while relatives are offering more dramatic accounts of mistreatment and hardship.
Esther Yaeli, grandmother of 12-year-old French-Israeli boy Eitan Yahalomi, who was released on Monday, told the Walla news website he was held in solitary confinement for 16 days.
“The days that he was alone were horrible,” she said. “Now Eitan appears very withdrawn.”
His aunt, Deborah Cohen, said that Eitan suffered “horrors” at the hands of Hamas and described them as “monsters”.
She told France’s BFM TV: “Hamas forced him to watch films of the horrors, the kind that no one wants to see, they forced him to watch them.
Hagar Mizrahi, the head of the Israeli health ministry’s operations for returning hostages, told AFP that they had been held in “horrible conditions” and that “the medical consequences are pretty clear”.
“Some of the things that I’ve heard in recent days are heart-wrenching,” she added, offering no specifics. “They’re simply outrageous in every way.”
Ruti Munder, 78, said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
In one of the first interviews with a freed hostage, Munder told Israel’s Channel 13 television that initially they ate “chicken with rice, all sorts of canned food and cheese”.
They were given tea in the morning and evening, and the children were given sweets, but the food changed when “the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry”, she said.
Here’s where the temporary pause in fighting stands as Wednesday begins in the Middle East. Hamas and Israel are expected to release more hostages and prisoners today, the last day of the prolonged six-day truce.
Israel has said the truce could be extended further, provided Hamas continues to free at least 10 Israeli hostages a day. But with fewer women and children remaining in captivity, that may require Hamas freeing at least some Israeli men for the first time.
Attention now turns to Qatar which mediated indirect talks between Hamas and Israel that resulted in the ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Qatar hosted spy chiefs from Israel’s Mossad and the United States’ CIA. The meeting sought to “build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal”, a source briefed on the visits told Reuters.
The truce has brought Gaza its first respite after seven weeks of fighting and bombardment that has reduced much of the region to rubble. The temporary ceasefire has allowed about 800 aid trucks to enter Gaza and the first of three US planes with humanitarian supplies for Gaza landed in Egypt on Tuesday.
White House says Israel must avoid 'further displacement' of Palestinians in southern Gaza - reports
The Biden administration has told Israel that it must work to avoid “significant further displacement” of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza if it renews its ground campaign after the current pause in fighting, the AP news agency reported senior US officials as saying on Tuesday.
Separately, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the Israelis had been receptive when US officials have raised the issue.
The White House, seeking to avoid more large-scale civilian casualties or mass displacement like that seen before the current temporary pause in the fighting, underscored to the Israelis that they must operate with far greater precision in southern Gaza than they did in the north, said officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, according to AP.
The White House has begun to put greater pressure on Israel that the manner of the coming campaign must be “carefully thought through,” AP reports.
Kirby, told reporters separately, “Now you have an added population of hundreds of thousands more in the south that you didn’t have before [the Israelis] moved into Gaza City.”
“And so it’s even all that more of an added burden on Israel to make sure … that they have properly accounted for … the extra innocent life that is now in south Gaza.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israeli Defense Forces will eventually restart military operations after the conclusion of the current, temporary ceasefire.
President Joe Biden has said he would like to see the pause – which has also allowed a surge of much-needed humanitarian aid to get into Gaza – continue as long as feasible.
Thai foreign minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara has said he welcomes the release of two more Thai hostages that had been held by Hamas in Gaza.
“Happy to personally welcome 2 additional Thai hostages just released and arrived at the hospital in Tel Aviv,” he posted on the social media platform X.
Nineteen Thai hostages have so far been released, while the foreign ministry says 13 more remain in captivity. There were 39 Thai nationals killed in the 7 October attack by Hamas.
Updated
Here’s more of what we know about the 10 Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Tuesday.
Ofelia Roitman, 77
On 7 October, Roitman’s family lost contact with her shortly before 10am, while she was in her safe room. That evening, when soldiers inspected her house, they found no sign of a struggle, suggesting that the Argentinian national had been abducted.
Her husband, hospitalised after a fall, was absent at the time of the attack.
Ada Sagi, 74
Sagi, who has lived alone in Nir Oz since her husband died of cancer, was abducted from her safe room.
Her son Noam Sagi, who lives in London, had no news of his mother until he saw a video online of a stranger in his mother’s garden. Ada, who suffers from asthma, had been due to visit him to celebrate her 75th birthday.
Noralin Agojo, 60
Philippines-born Agojo was abducted from Nirim, where she was visiting friends on 7 October along with her partner Gideon Babani, who was killed in the attack. Before her capture, Agojo called her brother Exo and told him he might not see her again.
Meirav Tal, 53
Tal was freed after the release of her partner’s two children, Yagil and Or Yaakov, on Monday.
Tal and the children’s father, Yair Yaakov, who remains in Gaza, were abducted when militants stormed their home in Nir Oz as they were hiding in a safe room. The children, who were staying with their mother, were taken into Gaza separately.
Rimon Kirsht, 36
Abducted from her home in Nirim, Kirsht was taken along with her partner, Yagev Buchstab, 34, who has not been released.
Kirsht sent her mother a voice message at about 8:30am on 7 October, a relative told the media. The message ended with the sounds of militants shouting and firing shots.
Hours later, when Israeli security forces asked residents of the community to gather, Kirsht and Buchstab were missing and their house was empty.
We’re getting more information on the Israeli hostages freed by Hamas on Tuesday. Ten Israeli women including a 17-year-old were released, Israeli officials said, as well as two Thai nationals. Their release was followed by the freeing of 30 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Here’s what we know about some of the hostages released on Tuesday.
Mia Leimberg, 17, her mother, Gabriela, 59, and aunt Clara Marman, 63
Mia, the youngest hostage released on Tuesday, her mother and aunt were all abducted from Nir Yitzhak kibbutz. Originally from Jerusalem, the Leimbergs were visiting Marman, Gabriela’s sister, when Nir Yitzhak was attacked on 7 October.
Marman’s partner, Luis Har, and brother, Fernando Marman, were also taken hostage and remain in Gaza.
Ditza Heiman, 84
The video of Heiman’s abduction in a car, alongside the testimony of a neighbour, was the only proof of life her family had until now. Living alone in Nir Oz kibbutz, the widow and former social worker had taken refuge in her safe room.
When friends attempted to reach the great-grandmother on the day of the attack, her phone rang for hours, until someone speaking in Arabic answered at around 4pm.
Tamar Metzger, 78
Metzger, a mother-of-three, and her husband, Yoram, 80, were abducted from their home in Nir Oz. She was released without her husband.
The US senate will begin consideration of legislation including aid for Israel and Ukraine as soon as next week, majority leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.
“I’m going to put them on the floor next week, hopefully with bipartisan support, because that’s the only way you can get it done,” Schumer told a weekly news conference.
Biden asked Congress last month to approve $106bn in national security funding, including aid for Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion, support for Israel after the 7 October attack and money for additional security at the U.S. border with Mexico.
But the funding has not been approved, raising concerns that funds for Ukraine in particular might never pass, particularly after the Republican-led House passed a bill including assistance for Israel, but not Ukraine.
Biden’s request to Congress included $60bn for Ukraine as well as about $14bn each for Israel and security at the border with Mexico.
Here’s a bit more from the G7 foreign ministers statement on the situation in Gaza.
The group urged Hamas to release all the hostages “immediately and unconditionally.”
It emphasised “Israel’s right to defend itself and its people” but underscored the importance of “protecting civilians and compliance with international law.” It also said the G7 was committed to a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.
The G7 foreign ministers cautioned against further escalation of the conflict. They urged Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis to cease threats to international shipping lanes and commercial vessels and release the Galaxy Leader commercial ship and its crew seized on 19 November.
Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries have said in a joint statement that they support the further extension of the pause and future pauses in order to increase assistance and facilitate the release of all hostages.
“Every effort must be made to ensure humanitarian support for civilians, including food, water, fuel, and medical supplies. We support the further extension of this pause and future pauses as needed to enable assistance to be scaled up, and to facilitate the release of all hostages,” the joint statement from the G7 said.
US national security council spokesperson John Kirby has been speaking at the White House.
Kirby says the Biden administration is working to extend the current pause in hostilities and that they hope to see more American hostages freed by Hamas.
The US believes Hamas is holding eight to nine American hostages after the release of a four-year-old girl in an earlier exchange. Kirby says that the US does not see any indication that Hamas militants are refusing to release further American hostages in order to use them as leverage.
Updated
The near-daily attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria have stopped since a truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
US forces in the two countries have been targeted with rockets and drones on more than 70 different occasions since mid-October. The US has blamed the surge in violence on Iran-backed forces.
“There have been no attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since November 23, since the operational pause began,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig Gen Pat Ryder told journalists.
The attacks have caused injuries to dozens of American personnel – who are in Iraq and Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State jihadist group – but all have since returned to duty.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The latest exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails took place on Tuesday night. 12 hostages, including 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals, are now in Israel. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed 12 hostages had been successfully released. The 30 Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday include 15 children and 15 women. In a statement, the Israel Prison Service said the 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention centre in Jerusalem.
Another 50 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails have been put forward as candidates for release after the hostage swap and ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was extended for another two days – including the high-profile activist Ahed Tamimi.
US and Israeli spy chiefs have flown to Qatar for talks on how to extend the current truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages by Hamas. The discussions of the CIA director, William Burns, and the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, with the Qatari leadership are expected to focus on persuading Hamas to begin releasing the men among the remaining hostages.
Negotiations over a possible second extension of the pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages being held by Hamas now include men and soldiers, according to a report. Israel would not agree to any discussion on a new hostage deal before the current one is fully implemented and all women and children who are held hostage are released, the report said.
The initial four-day truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended by two days, but there were reports of some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning. An Israeli shell was also reported to have landed inside Lebanon. Although Lebanon and Hezbollah are not formal parties to the ceasefire, there had been a lull in the conflict there once fighting had subsided in Gaza.
Israel has said a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. In a Telegram message on Tuesday, the IDF said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
Hamas has accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”. In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas urged mediators to intervene to reinforce the ceasefire, adding that Israel’s actions had led to retaliation by its fighters.
Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to end the truce deal after the incidents. In a statement on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir pressed the Israeli prime minister to “order the IDF to resume forcefully crushing Hamas”, adding: “We cannot wait for them to kill our fighters.”
The Israeli military is using the truce to “strengthen readiness” and is “preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas”, Israel’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, has said. “Today, the IDF is ready to continue fighting,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
The UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, will travel to Jordan tomorrow for talks on the possibility of opening a second crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing, to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Israel. Since the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel came into force last week, about 200 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on a daily basis, but the amount is nowhere enough to need the needs of its population.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza. The truck, which was passing through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south, was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said on Tuesday. In a later post, it said Israeli forces prevented its emergency medical team from transferring a wounded patient to the hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
The population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday. “Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed,” it said.
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.
Israel’s military and intelligence officials were given a highly detailed warning that Hamas was actively training to take over kibbutzim on the Gaza border and overrun military posts with the aim of inflicting substantial fatalities, according to reports in the Israeli media.
Hamas has invited Elon Musk to Gaza to witness the devastation of the Palestinian territory under Israeli attack. The invitation on Tuesday came after the hi-tech billionaire – accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his Twitter/X social media platform – accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect a kibbutz targeted by Hamas.
The US has sent the first of three military planes carrying humanitarian aid to Egypt to be brought into Gaza, a day after Joe Biden said he would be “taking full advantage” of the truce to get more aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
The relief flights will carry medical supplies, food and winter gear as Gaza enters its rainy season, and are the first by the US military since the conflict began on 7 October.
The first air force C-17 aircraft landed on Tuesday in Egypt with 24.5 metric tonnes (54,000lbs) of medical supplies and ready-to-eat food, the US Agency for International Development said, AFP reported.
The UN will take the aid from Egypt’s north Sinai region into Gaza itself, US officials said.
The White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement:
The humanitarian needs in Gaza demand that the international community do much more. The United States is committed to this effort.
These supplies “will save lives and alleviate the suffering of thousands in Gaza,” Sullivan said.
Updated
Hamas has invited Elon Musk to Gaza to witness the devastation of the Palestinian territory under Israeli attack after the hi-tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect a kibbutz targeted by Hamas.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a press conference in Beirut on Tuesday:
We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility.
Musk’s appearance on Monday alongside the Israeli prime minister at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz 2 miles (3km) from the Gaza border where over 50 people were killed by Hamas attackers, also drew criticism from Israelis.
On 15 November, the founder of the Tesla electric car company and the owner of the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter tweeted and endorsed a post accusing Jews of “hatred against whites”, and the next day endorsed a post that said: “Everyone is allowed to be proud of their race, except for white people.”
The retweets were not mentioned on Musk’s visit to Kfar Aza, and the tycoon instead made remarks agreeing with Netanyahu’s portrayal of the war on Hamas.
“Those that are intent on murder must be neutralised,” he said.
The propaganda must stop that is training people to be murderers in the future. And then, making Gaza prosperous. And if that happens, I think it will be a good future.
Updated
UN aid chief to travel to Jordan for talks on opening second crossing into Gaza
The UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, will travel to Jordan tomorrow for talks on the possibility of opening a second crossing to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Israel.
Before the current Israel-Hamas conflict broke out, the Kerem Shalom crossing – located at the intersection of Israel, the Gaza Strip and Egypt – was used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza, Reuters reported.
Since 7 October, aid has only been allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, which was designed for pedestrian crossings and not trucks.
Since the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel came into force last week, about 200 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on a daily basis, but the amount is nowhere enough to need the needs of its population.
Griffiths, addressing UN member states on Tuesday, said he knew “that the people of Gaza need much more from us” but “there are constraints beyond our control”. He said:
We have said from start we need more than one crossing. The opportunity to use Kerem Shalom should be explored, and that will be topic in Amman.
The news agency, citing a western diplomat, reported that there was no prospect of opening the Kerem Shalom crossing for the moment, because Israeli troops are located in the area.
Updated
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said it completed the release of 11 Palestinian detainees from Israeli detention centres and has transferred them to Ramallah.
The ICRC typically only announces the number of individuals who the organisation was directly responsible for releasing.
The Israeli prison service has said it released 30 Palestinians from Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention centre in Jerusalem.
In our role as neutral intermediary, we’ve just facilitated the release of 11 Palestinian detainees, and their transfer to Ramallah.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 28, 2023
As a humanitarian organization, we did not take part in the negotiations that led to this operation.
Updated
A 14-year-old Palestinian who was released by Israel today said he witnessed beatings while he was detained in an Israeli prison.
Ahmad Salayme, in an interview with Al Jazeera, said:
The first day of the war there were a number of beatings, female inmates were beaten.
He said he had been told not to celebrate upon his release from prison, and that he was not allowed to leave his house, raise any banners or use a megaphone, “If I break any of these rules I will be taken back,” he said. He added:
We are very happy but our happiness is incomplete because we mourn those who are lost, those who are wounded and those who are missing.
Updated
The Israeli prime minister’s office has released a photograph of Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and her daughter Mia Leimberg, 17, who were both released by Hamas today.
Among those released from Gaza on Tuesday is also Gabriela’s sister, Clara Marman, 62.
The family were captured by Hamas militants from the kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the 7 October attacks on Israel.
Gabriela Leimberg is the director of an ecological ranch for adults with autism in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. She and her daughter, Mia, were visiting their family on the kibbutz for the holiday weekend.
Redemption of Hostages: Gabriela and Mia Leimberg, this evening, upon arriving at the meeting point in Israeli territory, in their first telephone conversation with their family. pic.twitter.com/JkYPlHFiHl
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 28, 2023
The son of Ada Sagi, 75, has confirmed that she is among the 10 Israeli hostages released by Hamas today.
British-Israeli Noam Sagi, who lives in London, was quoted by the PA news agency as saying that it was “a moment we have dreamt of and worked for every minute of every day” since his mother was taken from her home in the kibbutz of Nir Oz by Hamas militants on 7 October. He said:
It will be hard to believe it is true until we are able to embrace in person. Our first priority is my mum’s mental and physical health and we ask for time and space while we prioritise her wellbeing.
Seeing my mum will be a moment of unparalleled relief and joy for us personally but comes against a backdrop of unparalleled grief and sorrow for our community. For many families, including friends and neighbours, the tragedy is ongoing as long as their family members remain hostage, and the traumas they have suffered will leave scars that might never heal.
Updated
Negotiations over a possible second extension of the pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages being held by Hamas now include men and soldiers, according to a report.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency director, David Barnea, and the CIA director, William Burns, have flown to Qatar on Tuesday for talks on how to extend the current truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages by Hamas.
Barnea and Burns, as well as the Egyptian intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, are discussing initial ideas for a potential new deal that would see the release of men and soldiers who are being held hostage by Hamas, Axios reported, citing sources.
The intelligence chiefs and the Qatari prime minister are discussing the possibility of extending the pause by up to an additional three days in exchange for the release of another 10 hostages per day, the sources said. That could bring the total number of Israeli hostages released under the deal to 100.
During the meeting, Barnea told the meeting that Israel would not agree to any discussion on a new hostage deal before the current one is fully implemented and all women and children who are held hostage are released, an Israeli official told the outlet. They said:
It might be possible to reach separate agreements around other groups of hostages but Israel made clear it can only happen after the current deal is fully implemented and all women and children are released.
Israel believes Hamas is still holding 30 to 40 women and children, including about 20 women aged 21 to 50, it said.
Updated
More than 3,290 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, according to figures by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club.
The list includes 125 women and 145 children, a statement said.
At least six Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the conflict started, it said.
Israeli forces have arrested 168 Palestinians during the duration of the ongoing temporary truce alone, it added.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces have prevented its emergency medical team from transferring a wounded patient to the hospital in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
In a post on social media, the PRCS said its team has been detained for more than 40 minutes by Israeli forces in front of Jenin government hospital.
It said its emergency medical services team have been unable to transfer a patient with a gunshot wound in the leg to the hospital.
🚨 For over 40 minutes, IOF have detained the PRCS emergency medical services team 🚑in front of Jenin Government Hospital, preventing them from transferring a gunshot wound in the leg to the hospital.#Jenin#NotATarget #IHL pic.twitter.com/V2Yu9v0RUA
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 28, 2023
Updated
Earlier this month, the US Department of Education’s office for civil rights opened investigations into possible ancestry or ethnic discrimination at several universities, including Cornell, Penn, Wellesley College, Cooper Union, Lafayette College, the University of Tampa and Columbia.
Of those, at least five allege antisemitic harassment, and two allege anti-Muslim harassment. The office for civil rights said the investigations are part of “efforts to take aggressive action to address the alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination”.
But finding a line between legitimate protest and discrimination or hate speech has proven difficult for US university leaders, who are bidden to uphold academic and political speech freedoms in their charters.
Notably, a recent poll found that more than half of Jewish US college students said they felt unsafe. Muslim students at universities across the country have said the same.
While the House hearing is focused on antisemitism, there are also numerous claims of Islamophobia. Earlier this month, a professor at the University of Southern California was suspended after telling a group of students who had gathered to protest at the killing of more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza and to call for a ceasefire: “Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are killed.”
He allegedly walked on a list of names meant to memorialize those killed, which he said was accidental.
This post was amended at 5.58pm ET to include the full quote of the University of California professor for clarity.
Updated
The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three of the US’s most prestigious universities, are set to testify before a congressional committee next week on claims that antisemitic protests have taken place on their campuses, marking the latest window into ongoing tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
Next Tuesday, Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth will stand before the House education and workforce committee, a body chaired by Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina.
Foxx, in a statement introducing the hearing, which is titled Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism, said:
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen countless examples of antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses. Meanwhile, college administrators have largely stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow.
Foxx said college and university presidents have a responsibility to foster and uphold a safe learning environment for both students and staff.
“Now is not a time for indecision or milquetoast statements,” she added.
By holding this hearing, we are shining the spotlight on these campus leaders and demanding they take the appropriate action to stand strong against antisemitism.
IDF confirms latest released hostages 'are in Israel'
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed that the 12 hostages, 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals, released Tuesday by Hamas are in Israel, escorted by IDF special forces troops.
They are being transferred to helicopters and on their way to hospitals in Israel for medical check-ups.
Separately, the Israel Prison Service confirmed it released 30 Palestinians, 15 women and 15 children, from Israeli jails late on Tuesday in the fifth swap under an extended truce deal with Hamas militants.
In a statement, the service said the 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention center in Jerusalem.
Updated
Two Thai nationals were among the 12 hostages released by Hamas today, according to Majed Alansari, spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar.
In a tweet, he identified the nationalities of all 12 of those freed. Ten are Israeli citizens, all female, including three with dual citizenship, one Filipina and two from Argentina.
Update: hostages released from Gaza today are 12, 10 Israelis, a minor and 9 women, including a Filipina citizen, & 2 from Argentina. In addition, to 2 Thai citizens.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 28, 2023
Israel frees 30 Palestinian prisoners
The Israel Prison Service has said it released 30 Palestinians from Israeli jails late on Tuesday in a fifth swap under a truce deal with Gaza’s Hamas militants.
In a statement, the prison service said the 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer Prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention centre in Jerusalem.
Qatar earlier said 15 women and 15 children would be released.
Mediators are meeting in Qatar, meanwhile, to try to secure an extension of the five-day truce between Israel and Hamas that is set to expire on Wednesday.
Updated
US 'pausing' military drone flights over Gaza
The Pentagon said Tuesday that the US military has suspended flights of surveillance drones over Gaza during the truce that has led to the release of dozens of hostages held by Hama.
“In compliance with the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, we are not currently conducting those ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] flights. And so those have been paused for now,” spokesperson Brig Gen Patrick Ryder said at a press conference.
The drone flights were to aid the search for American hostages taken by Hamas, Reuters reported. Up to nine US citizens are still being held, the Pentagon says, and no Americans have been freed in the five batches of hostages released since the truce took effect.
Updated
Here’s a video clip from Gaza on Tuesday evening showing the release by Hamas of Israeli hostage Mia Leimberg, 17, carrying her dog.
المقاومة كل يوم تُبهر العالم #غزة pic.twitter.com/BYYb3kWDcW
— ahmad.ibraa (@ahmadibraa47) November 28, 2023
The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said on its Telegram account on Tuesday it had handed over “some civilian detainees” as part of the exchange deal with Israel, Reuters reports.
Al Jazeera TV broadcast footage of the handover process saying that members of both Hamas’s armed wing as well as Islamic Jihad were present at the scene.
An AFP journalist said they saw masked and armed fighters, some from Hamas and others from Islamic Jihad, hand over the 12 hostages to International Red Cross officials in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
Updated
Here are images of some of the Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Tuesday.
Updated
The Israeli prime minister’s office has named the 10 Israeli citizens who have been freed and are back in Israel today.
The list of the Israelis freed from Hamas captivity are:
Tamar Metzger, 78
Ditza Heiman, 84
Nora Babadila, 60
Ada Sagi, 75
Ophelia Roitman, 77
Rimon Kirsht, 36
Meirav Tal, 54
Gabriela Leimberg, 59,
Mia Leimberg, 17
Clara Marman, 62
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9.15pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The latest exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails appeared to be going smoothly on Tuesday night. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that 12 hostages, including 10 Israelis and two foreign nationals, are on their way to Israeli territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed 12 hostages had been successfully released. The 30 Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday include 15 children and 15 women, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said.
Another 50 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails have been put forward as candidates for release after the hostage swap and ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was extended for another two days – including the high-profile activist Ahed Tamimi.
US and Israeli spy chiefs have flown to Qatar for talks on how to extend the current truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages by Hamas. The discussions of the CIA director, William Burns, and the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, with the Qatari leadership are expected to focus on persuading Hamas to begin releasing the men among the remaining hostages.
The initial four-day truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended by two days, but there were reports of some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning. An Israeli shell was also reported to have landed inside Lebanon. Although Lebanon and Hezbollah are not formal parties to the ceasefire, there had been a lull in the conflict there once fighting had subsided in Gaza.
Israel has said a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. In a Telegram message on Tuesday, the IDF said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
Hamas has accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”. In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas urged mediators to intervene to reinforce the ceasefire, adding that Israel’s actions had led to retaliation by its fighters.
Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to end the truce deal after the incidents. In a statement on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir pressed the Israeli prime minister to “order the IDF to resume forcefully crushing Hamas”, adding: “We cannot wait for them to kill our fighters.”
The Israeli military is using the truce to “strengthen readiness” and is “preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas”, Israel’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, has said. “Today, the IDF is ready to continue fighting,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza. The truck, which was passing through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south, was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said on Tuesday.
The population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday. “Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed,” it said.
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has met with his Thai counterpart, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, and 17 Thai citizens who have been released from captivity in Gaza. An estimated 15 Thai citizens remain in captivity in Gaza. According to Cohen, 39 Thai citizens were killed during the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
Israel’s military and intelligence officials were given a highly detailed warning that Hamas was actively training to take over kibbutzim on the Gaza border and overrun military posts with the aim of inflicting substantial fatalities, according to reports in the Israeli media.
Updated
Red Cross confirms release of 12 hostages held in Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it has successfully facilitated the release and transfer of 12 hostages held in Gaza.
Our teams have successfully facilitated the release and transfer of 12 hostages held in Gaza.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 28, 2023
We have been able to carry out this operation thanks to our neutral intermediary role.
The freed hostages will be brought to a meeting point where Israeli forces will verify their identities, before bringing them into Israel via a side gate at the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It added:
The families of the hostages are being updated by IDF representatives with the latest available information.
Updated
15 Palestinian children and 15 women to be released by Israel today, says Qatar
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari has said that 30 Palestinian civilians will be released by Israel tonight.
The Palestinians who will be released from Israeli prisons tonight include 15 minors and 15 women, he said.
Update: Palestinians released from Israeli prisons include 15 minors and 15 women.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 28, 2023
Updated
12 hostages on their way to Israeli territory, says IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said that 12 hostages, including 10 Israelis and two foreign nationals, are on their way to Israeli territory.
An IDF statement reads:
According to the information provided by the Red Cross, 12 hostages, including 10 Israeli hostages and two with foreign citizenship, are on their way to Israeli territory.
The Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian has a list of the 10 Israeli hostages who have reportedly been released tonight:
The 10 Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity tonight: Ditza Heiman, Tamar Metzger, Noralin Babadila Agojo, Ada Sagi, Meirav Tal, Rimon Kirsht, Ofelia Roitman, Gabriela Leimberg and her daughter Mia, and Clara Marman. pic.twitter.com/y87Wc2tLw7
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 28, 2023
Updated
Israeli hostages including nine women and one child handed over to the Red Cross, says Qatar
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari has said that 10 Israeli hostages who were held in Gaza have been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The freed hostages include a child and nine women, he said. Among them is an Austrian citizen, two Argentinians and a Filipino citizen, he said.
In exchange, 30 Palestinian civilians will be released by Israel, he said.
In implementation of the commitment to the 5th day of the humanitarian pause, 30 Palestinian civilians will be released today in exchange for the release of 10 Israeli hostages from Gaza. Those released from Gaza include a minor, & 9 women, an Austrian citizen, 2 Argentinians, &…
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 28, 2023
Updated
Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to end the truce deal after the Israeli military accused Hamas of opening fire on its troops earlier today.
In a statement, Ben Gvir pressed the Israeli prime minister to “order the IDF to resume forcefully crushing Hamas”, adding:
We cannot wait for them to kill our fighters.
His statement came on a day of renewed tensions which saw both Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violating the truce agreement.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas targeted its soldiers stationed in the northern part of the Gaza Strip with three explosive devices. Hamas also accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire”, and said Israel’s actions had led to retaliation by its fighters.
The White House does not expect any American hostages to be released by Hamas from Gaza today, an official has told CNN.
Ten more Israeli hostages are expected to be freed on Tuesday. The handover of a fifth group of hostages from Hamas is believed to have begun in Gaza, as we reported earlier.
Updated
Women and children ‘at high risk of famine’ in Gaza, warns World Food Programme
The population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday.
The pause in fighting also allowed its teams to go into areas of the besieged enclave for the first time in a long time, it said. “What we see is catastrophic,” it said.
Samer Abdeljaber, WFP Palestine representative and country director, said:
Our team recounted what they saw: hunger, desperation and destruction. People who have not received any relief in weeks. The team could see the suffering in their eyes.
He said the pause “offered a window of relief” that he hoped “paves the way for longer-term calm”. WFP’s director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region, Corinne Fleischer, said:
Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed. The people of Gaza have to eat every day, not just for six days.
Updated
Israel must be held accountable in international courts for the war crimes it committed in Gaza, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, in a call today.
The pair discussed the “expectations of the international community regarding Israel’s unlawful attacks”, access of humanitarian aid into the enclave and efforts for a lasting peace, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency. It added:
During the call, President Erdoğan said Israel continues to shamelessly trample on international law, the laws of war, and international humanitarian law by looking in the eyes of the international community, and it must be held accountable for the crimes it committed in front of international law.
In a separate statement, Turkey’s foreign ministry said that the foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, would meet with his counterparts as part of a so-called contact group of some Muslim countries, formed by the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) this month to discuss Gaza.
Updated
Among the Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons who are slated for release today include 15 women and 15 children, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Twenty of those are believed to be from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera is reporting.
One of the detainees expected to be released is Marwat al-Azza, a Palestinian journalist who worked as a freelancer for NBC News. She was arrested by Israeli authorities on Friday.
On Monday, an Israeli court charged al-Azza with encouraging terrorism over statements on social media following the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Updated
Updated
So far, 150 Palestinian women and children have been released under the hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Monday’s releases brought the number of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza to 51, as well as 19 people of other nationalities. The deal contains a clause extending the ceasefire by 24 hours for every 10 additional freed Israelis, in exchange for 30 Palestinians.
The Palestinian prisoners released so far have been mostly teenagers accused of throwing stones or firebombs during confrontations with Israeli forces, although some have been convicted of attempted murder, including stabbings, and manufacturing explosives.
According to UN data, one in five Palestinians spends time in Israeli prison at some point after trials in a military court system with a conviction rate of more than 98%.
Before the swaps began last week, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said that 7,200 prisoners were held by Israel, among them 88 women and 250 children.
Many on the initial list of 300 potential candidates for release are held in administrative detention, which allows for pre-emptive arrest, on secret evidence, and six-month extendable stints in prison without charge or trial.
Israel has arrested an additional 3,260 Palestinians, including 120 women and more than 200 children, since 7 October.
Updated
Activist Ahed Tamimi among 50 jailed Palestinians listed for release by Israel
Another 50 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails have been put forward as candidates for release after the hostage swap and ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was extended for another two days – including the high-profile activist Ahed Tamimi.
Tamimi, 22, was on the list released by Israel’s justice ministry on Tuesday. The writer, part of a prominent family from the West Bank village of Nabi Salih, has been a symbol of resistance against the Israeli occupation for protest actions and confronting Israeli soldiers since she was about 11 years old.
Tamimi was sentenced to eight months in prison for slapping and kicking an Israeli soldier in 2017 after her 15-year-old cousin was shot in the head with a rubber bullet during a protest. The incident was filmed, propelling the then 16-year-old to worldwide fame.
She was re-arrested in November this year for alleged incitement on social media in the aftermath of the 7 October attack by Hamas. The Israeli military said she was suspected of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity. The arrest appears to be in relation to a post on Instagram from an account in Tamimi’s name referencing Adolf Hitler and vowing to “slaughter” Israelis.
The Tamimi family have maintained that Ahed did not write the post, claiming it was either from one of the many dozens of accounts impersonating her, or the result of a hack, which they said has happened before.
Their daughter’s potential release on Tuesday comes at a crucial time: her lawyer said that Israel had been planning to move Tamimi to administrative detention, three weeks after her arrest.
Updated
Yaffa Adar, the 85-year-old Israeli woman who was released from Hamas captivity last week, has been discharged from hospital today.
Pictures released by the Wolfson medical centre show Adar smiling as she walks out of the hospital to the applause of staff.
Adar was abducted by Hamas militants from the Nir Oz kibbutz on 7 October.
A video of her being driven towards Gaza in a golf cart, wrapped in a pink blanket and guarded by Hamas gunmen, became a symbol of the hostage crisis for many in Israel.
She has three children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. One of her grandchildren, Tamir Adar, 38, remains a hostage.
Updated
Hamas has begun handing over hostages to Red Cross – report
Hamas has begun the handover of a fifth group of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing Egyptian officials.
Updated
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza.
In a social media post earlier today, the PRCS said a fuel truck was entering Gaza City through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south.
The truck was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said. It was accompanied by 31 humanitarian aid trucks containing food, water and relief supplies, it said.
Since the beginning of the truce and up till Monday, PRCS crews have successfully delivered about 200 aid trucks to Gaza City and its northern region, it said.
🚨 Urgent: The Israeli Occupation forces are denying the entry of the fuel truck which was supposed to enter the north of the Gaza Strip a few moments ago.#Gaza#HumantarianAid
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 28, 2023
Updated
Another 20 hostages held in Gaza are ready to be released by Hamas within the next 48 hours, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al Ansari, has said.
Ansari, at his weekly briefing today, said the initial four days of the truce were “used to increase the number of hostages that are identified by Hamas”.
Updated
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has met with his Thai counterpart, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, and 17 Thai citizens who have been released from captivity in Gaza.
The 17 Thais released over the past few days are currently at the Shamir medical centre outside Tel Aviv. They are “in good spirits and ready to go home to their loved ones”, Parnpree posted to social media.
ตื้นตันใจและดีใจเป็นที่สุดที่ได้เจอพี่น้องคนไทยที่เพิ่งได้รับการปล่อยตัวเมื่อไม่กี่วันที่ผ่านมาครับ ทุกคนมีกำลังใจดี พร้อมเดินทางกลับบ้านแล้วครับ
— Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara (@drparnpreeb) November 28, 2023
Overwhelmed with joy and gratitude to finally meet our fellow Thais who were recently released just days ago. They are in good… pic.twitter.com/CCQL2htVTy
An estimated 15 Thai citizens remain in captivity in Gaza. According to Cohen, 39 Thai citizens were killed during the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
Thailand’s prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, is also set to visit Israel today, CNN reported, citing the Israeli foreign ministry.
Updated
The aunt of Eitan Yahalomi, the 12-year-old French-Israeli hostage released from Gaza yesterday, has said Hamas forced him to watch footage from the bloody 7 October terror attacks on Israel.
Eitan “lived through horrors out there,” Deborah Cohen told news channel BFM TV on Tuesday.
“Every time a child cried, they would threaten him with a weapon to shut him up,” she said, adding:
I wanted to believe that Eitan would be well treated. Apparently not. Those people are monsters.
Eitan was one of three French-Israelis freed yesterday alongside Erez and Sahar Kalderon. A total of 11 hostages were returned back to Israel on Monday.
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and CIA director William Burns are in Qatar for talks on extending the Israel-Hamas truce and releasing more hostages, officials have said.
A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that Burns and Barnea were in Qatar on Tuesday, AP reported.
Officials from Egypt, which has served as a mediator to talks alongside Qatar, joined the talks, they said.
The meeting was “to build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal,” a source told Reuters.
The outcome of the talks was unclear, they added.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv, as the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas is in its fifth day. Here are the headlines …
Hamas has accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
Israel says a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. It said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
The initial four-day truce has been extended by two days, but there were reports of some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning. An Israeli shell was also reported to have landed inside Lebanon. Although Lebanon and Hezbollah are not formal parties to the ceasefire, there had been a lull in the conflict there once fighting had subsided in Gaza.
Eleven more Israeli hostages were freed from Gaza on Monday in return for dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Hamas released the hostages – nine children and two women – late on Monday. All of them are from the Nir Oz kibbutz.
Shortly afterwards, a release of a further 33 Palestinian detainees – 30 children and three women – was confirmed by Israel’s prison authority. It was the last exchange under the initial ceasefire deal. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
Israel is expecting the release of 10 further hostages later today, with 30 detainees from Israel’s jails expected to be released in return.
An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas has said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry. Ruti Munder, 78, said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
Israel’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, has said the Israeli military is using the truce to “strengthen readiness” and is “preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas”.
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.
The Gaza health ministry says the dialysis unit at al-Shifa hospital has been reopened and is receiving patients.
It has been reported that the directors of the Mossad and the CIA have met Qatar’s prime minister in Doha to “build on progress” of the 48-hour extension to the truce.
Palestinian media reported that three people were killed by Israeli forces inside the occupied West Bank overnight.
Updated
Hamas accuses Israel of 'blatant breach' of ceasefire in Gaza, but says it is 'still committed' to it
Hamas is accusing Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
Associated Press reports that in a statement Hamas urged mediators to intervene to reinforce the ceasefire. The statement said Israel’s actions had led to retaliation by its fighters, without providing any further details.
Earlier, the IDF said that a number of soldiers were lightly injured after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations in the northern Gaza Strip”.
It claimed that “in one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
During the pause in fighting, Israeli and Hamas fighters are understood to be in close proximity to each other in northern Gaza. The truce is in its fifth day.
Updated
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Iran claims that the US has informed Tehran through intermediaries that it wants the humanitarian pauses in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza to become permanent and it cannot foresee a full military solution to the conflict.
The claim is made by the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, who says he was given the message via intermediaries, likely to be Switzerland. His remarks may be propaganda but also reflect a confidence in the Iranian regime that Israel is losing the war both politically and militarily.
It has been widely reported that the US has sent messages to Tehran stressing that it is not seeking a regional escalation of the conflict, but this claim by Iran goes further.
Amirabdollahian said: “We have been informed through intermediaries that in the last 10 days the US government and the White House have come to the conclusion that this kind of continued support for Israel is not even in the interest of US politicians and the White House, and that the US now has the necessary will to stop the Israeli regime’s war crimes, and [for] reaching a lasting ceasefire, sending humanitarian aid, preventing forced displacement and respecting Palestinian rights. We hope that this news that has been transmitted to us is true.”
He said the truth of the claim would turn on whether the humanitarian pauses become permanent. Amirabdollahian has been highly critical of the US continuing to supply arms to Israel while asking Israel to show restraint.
Amid signs of tension within the small but powerful group of countries that want to take a tougher line with Israel than the bulk of the Arab countries, the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, postponed a planned visit to Istanbul set for Tuesday. It had been expected he would propose that Turkey back specific measures against Israel. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had personally announced his Iranian counterpart’s first official visit to Turkey on his return flight from a summit between regional leaders in Riyadh on 11 November that was also attended by Raisi.
It is now agreed that the two leaders will meet at an unspecified date after the two countries’ foreign ministers have attended a meeting of the UN security council on Wednesday.
Updated
Israel’s military will carry out “incisive and deep investigations” into intelligence failures that preceded the 7 October Hamas attack, its chief of staff has said.
Responding to media reports that the IDF failed to act on intelligence gathering that suggested Hamas was planning an attack on kibbutzim near the Gaza border (see 14.17 GMT), Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said:
In the last few days, there has been talk about the conduct of the IDF and the military intelligence directorate prior to the events of 7 October. In view of the dire results, the interest in this is understandable.
We will answer to this. We will listen carefully to each and every one of our subordinates and learn both what they thought and what they said.
The IDF, including the military intelligence directorate, failed on 7 October. There will be incisive and deep investigations, but now we must focus on fighting.
Updated
IDF chief of staff: military 'ready to continue fighting' and using truce to 'strengthen readiness'
Israel’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, has said the Israeli military is using the truce to “strengthen readiness” and is “preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas”.
In a press statement in northern Israel, Halevi said:
Today, the IDF is ready to continue fighting. We are using the days of truce as part of the agreement for learning, strengthening readiness, and approving the operational plans for the duration.
We are preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas. It will take time, these are complex goals, but they are more than justified.
The return of the hostages is a ray of light for all of us. It is also another testimony to the results of significant military pressure and high-quality ground manoeuvre. We created the conditions for the return of our citizens home. We will continue to do so.
Updated
Israel’s military and intelligence officials were given a highly detailed warning that Hamas was actively training to take over kibbutzim on the Gaza border and overrun military posts with the aim of inflicting substantial fatalities, according to reports in the Israeli media.
The claim made by Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday evening was based on leaked emails from the Israeli military’s 8200 cyber-intelligence unit discussing the warnings.
Those emails revealed that a senior officer who reviewed the intelligence considered the danger of a massive surprise attack by Hamas across the Gaza border to be “an imaginary scenario”.
The hugely embarrassing leak describes in shocking detail what would turn out to be key elements of Hamas’s planning for its massacre of 1,200 Israelis on 7 October, including that Israel spotters were aware of senior Hamas officials present as observers during training preparations.
According to the leaked emails, Hamas went as far as giving the mocked-up kibbutz used in training a name and even practised raising a flag over its synagogue.
Plans were also intercepted that discussed overrunning a border military base and killing all of its occupants.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report here: Israeli military had warning of Hamas training for attack, reports say
Emily Hand’s father, Thomas Hand, has spoken to CNN about the experience of reuniting with his nine-year-old daughter after she had been held captive by Hamas.
He told the US news network in Tel Aviv:
She’s coming out slowly, little by little. We’ll only know what she really went through as she opens up. I want to know so much information … but you have to let them, when they are ready, come out with it.
The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips. She’d been conditioned not to make any noise.
He also said that when asked how long she thought she had been held captive, she said she thought she had been away for a year. He said: “Apart from the whispering, that was a punch in the guts. A year.”
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Israel says 'number of soldiers lightly injured' after exchange of fire in Gaza Strip
The Israeli military has issued a statement saying its forces have come under fire in the Gaza Strip.
In a message posted to Telegram, it said:
Over the last hour, three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations in the northern Gaza Strip, violating the framework of the operational pause. In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.
A number of soldiers were lightly injured during the incidents. In both incidents, the troops were located in positions as per the framework of the operational pause.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Earlier, an AFP journalist reported that they saw an Israeli tank fire three times in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City as Palestinians attempted to make use of the lull to return to their homes. Reuters reports that a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said of that incident: “After suspects approached IDF troops, an IDF tank fired a warning shot.”
Lebanese state media has also reported that an Israeli shell landed on the Lebanon side of the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
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Haaretz is carrying some quotes from Dr Ronit Lubetzky, director of the children’s department at the Dana children’s hospital in Tel Aviv, about the condition of the children returned from captivity in Gaza.
It quotes her as saying: “The medical assessment included various problems, including orthopaedic problems and nutritional issues. Each child will receive a nutritional supplement according to the assessment.”
She also said that “social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists too, for those who need it” would be available to help the children “mark a return to a normal routine”.
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Palestinian media is reporting that three people have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces. The latest to be named is Omar Wahdan, who is said to have died after being shot during a confrontation this morning.
The funeral has been held in Beitunia today for Yassin al-Asmar, who the Palestinian health ministry say was killed during overnight clashes with Israeli troops at the Ofer checkpoint near Beitunia.
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Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al Ansari, has confirmed that military personnel held in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups will not be considered for release until all the civilian hostages have been freed.
“The current priority is the release of civilian hostages, women and children, then will come the turn of the military ones,” he said.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
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Jonathan Lis at Haaretz has reported a little more background information on the meeting in Doha that featured senior officials from the Mossad and the CIA. (See 11.48am GMT)
He writes:
The discussions are expected to deal with outlines for the release of additional hostages after the conclusion of the current exchanges. The parties are examining outlines for the release of the other hostages who are classified into separate groups on the Israeli side: elderly, female soldiers, civilians serving in the reserves, regular soldiers and bodies.
He states that David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, and William J Burns, the CIA director, met “the emir and top administration officials dealing with talks with Hamas” as well as Qatar’s prime minister.
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Both sides of the truce in Gaza reported some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Reuters reports that a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said: “After suspects approached IDF troops, an IDF tank fired a warning shot.”
Israel has issued pictures of its ground forces in the Gaza Strip today.
There was also a report earlier of an Israeli shell landing inside Lebanon. Lebanon and Hezbollah are not a formal party to the ceasefire agreement, but hostilities in northern Israel had ceased once the fighting had paused in Gaza.
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Reuters has a report that it has been briefed by a source that the directors of the Mossad and the CIA are meeting Qatar’s prime minister in Doha to “build on progress” of the 48-hour extension to the truce between Israel and Hamas.
Egyptian officials were also in attendance, the source said.
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Ofri Bibas, whose brother is being held hostage in Gaza, has made a public appeal for him and his family to be included in the batches of hostages expected to be released today and tomorrow.
Yarden Bibas is being held along with his wife, Shiri, and their four-year-old and 10-month-old sons Ariel and Kfir.
Bibas is quoted by the Times of Israel saying:
We’re talking to you today because tomorrow is the last day of the current ceasefire. At the moment they are the youngest hostages still remaining in Hamas captivity. We don’t know where they’ve been held. We’re really worried about the 10-month-old baby with formula as the main diet.
We call upon the Israeli government and Qatar and Egypt, everybody who is involved in these negotiations and this deal, to do whatever they can to include our family in this deal and to release them as soon as possible.
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The Gaza health ministry says the dialysis unit at al-Shifa hospital has been reopened and is receiving patients. In a brief statement on Tuesday, the ministry invited patients to resume treatment, Associated Press reports.
The World Health Organization says there are still 180 patients, including 22 on kidney dialysis, and seven health care workers at the hospital.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society says that since the temporary truce began it has been able to deliver 200 humanitarian aid trucks to Gaza City and its northern region.
Qatar is focused on further extending a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel beyond Wednesday, based on the group’s ability to continue releasing 10 hostages a day.
Reuters reports that the foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said that was his nation’s aim in a press briefing on Tuesday. Qatar could not validate the number of remaining hostages beyond the 20 to be released by Hamas on Tuesday and Wednesday, he added.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184.
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More people could die from disease than bombings in Gaza if health system not restored, says WHO
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said, Reuters reports.
She described the collapse of al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza as a “tragedy” and voiced concern about the detention of some of its medical staff by Israeli forces.
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Seven-year-old Lina and her family are sleeping on the floor of a tent outside al-Aqsa hospital, in central Gaza. They were forced to flee their home in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, when the war between Hamas and Israel broke out after the Hamas attack in southern Israel killed 1,200 people.
Now displaced, Lina and her siblings spend their time searching for food to buy, queueing for water and playing games. The Guardian spent a day with Lina on 9 November to see how children were surviving in Gaza. She told the film-maker Majdi Fathi how she wished she could sleep comfortably at night, without the sound of rockets and ambulances.
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Summary of the day so far …
It is approaching noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv as the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas enters a two-day extension brokered by Egpyt and Qatar. Here are the headlines …
Eleven more Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza in return for dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, as the two sides agreed to extend the existing ceasefire by two days. Hamas released the hostages – nine children and two women – late on Monday. All of them are from the Nir Oz kibbutz.
The Israeli hostages released on Monday evening included three with French citizenship, two with German citizenship and six Argentinian citizens. Osnat Peri, a kibbutz official, said their return to Israel after 51 days in captivity brought “a sigh of relief to our community, however we remain deeply concerned about our loved ones that are still held hostage.”
Shortly afterwards, a release of a further 33 Palestinian detainees – 30 children and three women – was confirmed by Israel’s prison authority. It was the last exchange under the initial ceasefire deal. Monday’s releases brought to 51 the number of Israelis freed under the truce, along with 19 hostages of other nationalities. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas has said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry. Ruti Munder, 78, said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
One of the Palestinian children released from an Israeli prison has told Al Jazeera he was beaten by Israeli guards last week and his hand and finger were broken. Mohammed Nazzal, a teenager originally from Jenin, said he was given no treatment in the prison in the Negev desert despite his injuries and had only had his arm put in a sling by the Red Cross after he was released.
A London surgeon has described witnessing a “massacre” unfold during 43 days spent under bombardment in Gaza, and said the destruction of the Palestinian health system was a military objective of the war. Speaking at a press conference in London, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah told of horrific scenes at al-Ahli Arab and Dar al-Shifa hospitals as they ceased to function and said he witnessed the use of white phosphorus munitions. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied using such weapons.
Aid agencies have welcomed the two-day extension of the truce in Gaza but voiced concern that the expected resumption of Israel’s attack on Hamas would lead to an even deeper humanitarian crisis among Palestinians. A particular concern was the impact on people in the crowded south of the strip, where about 2 million people are now living around Khan Younis and elsewhere. Many fled south after Israel demanded they evacuate the northern area around Gaza City last month.
Al Jazeera reports that 100 humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s state news agency has reported that an Israeli shell hit near the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab. While the truce deal does not formally include Lebanon or Hezbollah, weeks of shelling across the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel had halted after the pause of fighting in Gaza.
The office of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has announced that Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, will not be visiting Ankara as expected today. No reason was given for the change of plans.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will visit Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates this week to press for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and help secure the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
France’s helicopter carrier Dixmude has docked in Egypt and could start to be used for treating wounded children from Gaza later this week, the French defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said.
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Al Jazeera reports that 100 humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza today. It quotes Mohamed Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the UN Palestinian refugee organisation UNRWA, as saying:
At Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, people are lining up at the last working petrol station. Aid trucks are supposed to deliver gas to this station as people are using wood for cooking and keeping warm. Ambulances are also lined up hoping to fill up.
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The ceasefire has allowed residents who remained in Gaza City and other parts of the north to venture out to survey the destruction and try to locate and bury relatives. Footage from northern Gaza, the focus of the Israeli ground offensive, shows nearly every building damaged or destroyed.
Associated Press reports that a UN-led aid consortium estimates that more than 234,000 homes have been damaged across Gaza and 46,000 have been destroyed, amounting to about 60% of the housing stock. In the north, the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure “severely compromises the ability to meet basic requirements to sustain life”, it said.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza
That number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, and has not been independently verified by journalists. The health ministry has only been able to sporadically update its count since 11 November, due to the breakdown of the health sector in the north. It also says thousands of people are missing and feared trapped or dead under the rubble.
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The French helicopter carrier Dixmude has docked in Egypt and could start to be used for treating wounded children from Gaza later this week, the French defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on Tuesday.
“We have this ship, which has been transformed into a hospital and which arrived yesterday. It has 40 beds,” Lecornu told Europe 1 radio, Reuters reports. He said he hoped it could start receiving patients this week.
The Dixmude’s medical capacities have been adapted to create a military-civilian medical force, notably in paediatrics. With two operating theatres and 40 beds, the team could treat people with light injuries before they are moved to hospitals on the ground.
Paris has made available, if necessary, 50 beds in France for gravely wounded and sick children from Gaza, which could include cancer patients.
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Lebanon’s state news agency has reported that an Israeli shell hit near the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab.
Reuters notes that while the truce deal does not formally include Lebanon or Hezbollah, weeks of shelling across the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel had halted after the pause of fighting in Gaza was declared.
The office of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has announced that Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, will not be visiting Ankara as expected today. AFP reports that no reason was given for the change of plans. The two leaders are said to have spoken on the phone on Sunday.
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Monday’s releases bring to 51 the number of Israelis freed under the truce, along with 19 hostages of other nationalities. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
Associated Press reports that most of the hostages freed so far have appeared to be physically well. However, Elma Avraham, 84, was airlifted to an Israeli hospital in a life-threatening condition because of inadequate care, and Maya Regev, seized from the Supernova music festival, was seen walking on crutches on her release, with doctors saying she would require unspecified surgery.
The Palestinian detainees released so far have been mostly teenagers accused of throwing stones and firebombs during confrontations with Israeli forces, though some, such as Misoun Mussa and Israa Jaabis, were convicted by Israel of terrorism offences.
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France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, on Tuesday welcomed news that three young French children were among the hostages released by Hamas on Monday, saying they were in good health.
“We have indirect news and that news is good … It is a great, great relief,” Colonna told RTL radio, Reuters reports.
“Three French children were finally freed, now we must work relentlessly for the release of all the other hostages,” she said, adding that five French nationals were still missing or believed to be held hostage.
The released children have been named as Eitan Yahalomi, 12, and siblings Sahar, 16, and Erez Calderon, 12. Fathers Ofer Calderon and Ohad Yahalomi are believed still to be held in Gaza.
A relative of the Calderons, Ido Dan, has been quoted by Reuters speaking of the joy at their release being mixed with anxiety about their father.
“It is difficult to go from a state of endless anxiety about their fate to a state of relief and joy,” Dan said. “This is an exciting and heart-filling moment but … it is the beginning of a difficult rehabilitation process for Sahar and Erez, who are still young and have been through an unbearable experience.”
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Israel’s military has issued some more pictures of its troops operating inside the Gaza Strip during the temporary truce period.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, is making his first official visit to Turkey today, AFP reports. He will meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of Israel’s most outspoken critics since 7 October.
Erdoğan has described Israel as a “terrorist state” and called Iran-backed Hamas “a liberation group”, much to the annoyance of Tel Aviv. He has also suggested trying Israeli politicians and military commanders in the international criminal court in The Hague.
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Tareq Abu Azzoum has been reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza for Al Jazeera. He writes that with the extended pause in fighting “the main concern for people is trying to gain access to as many supplies – including food and water – and to get in contact with their relatives in the north, in case fighting resumes.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas has said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry, the Associated Press reports. She was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days. The news agency writes:
In one of the first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder told Israel’s Channel 13 television that she spent the entirety of her time with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, who celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity. Her account, broadcast Monday, adds to the trickle of information about the experience of captives held in Gaza.
Munder was snatched 7 October from her home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel. Her husband, Avraham, also 78, was taken hostage too and remains in Gaza. Her son was killed in the attack.
Initially, they ate “chicken with rice, all sorts of canned food and cheese,” Munder told Channel 13. “We were OK.”
They were given tea in the morning and evening, and the children were given sweets. But the menu changed when “the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry.”
Israel has maintained a tight siege on Gaza since the war erupted, leading to shortages of food, fuel and other basic items.
Munder, who was freed Friday, returned in good physical condition, like most other captives.
Freed hostages have mostly kept out of the public eye since their return. Any details about their ordeal have come through relatives, who have not revealed much.
Munder, confirming accounts from relatives of other freed captives, said they slept on plastic chairs. She said she covered herself with a sheet but that not all captives had one.
Boys who were there would stay up late chatting, while some of the girls would cry, she said. Some boys slept on the floor.
She said she would wake up late to help pass the time. The room where she was held was “suffocating,” and the captives were prevented from opening the blinds, but she managed to crack open a window.
“It was very difficult,” she said.
Munder said that on 7 October, she was put on a vehicle with her family and driven into Gaza. A militant draped over them a blanket her grandson had carried from home, which she said was meant to prevent them from seeing the militants around them. While in captivity, she learned from a Hamas militant who listened to the radio that her son was killed, according to the Channel 13 report.
Still, she said, she held out that hope she would be freed.
“I was optimistic. I understood that if we came here, then we would be released. I understood that if we were alive – they killed whoever they wanted to in Nir Oz.”
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Prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi on list of prisoners who could be released
Ahed Tamimi, who rose to global prominence after a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier went viral in 2017, is on a list of 50 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel’s justice department who could be freed in exchange for Israeli hostages.
Tamimi spent eight months in prison for the 2017 assault.
The now 22-year-old was arrested again on 6 November when the Israeli military raided her home in the occupied West Bank, accusing her of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity in an Instagram post.
Her family has denied that she wrote the post, saying she is frequently hacked online.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Israel had moved to incarcerate her under administrative detention.
Citing her lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, the Times reported that she faced indefinite imprisonment, without charges or trial, based on evidence that neither she nor her lawyer are allowed to see.
“I’m hopeless to defend her,” Hassan said.
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Another batch of 10 Israeli hostages are expected to be released by Hamas today, in line with the extension of the ceasefire. The Guardian has been keeping track of those released so far here:
Destruction of Gaza health system an Israeli 'military objective', British surgeon says
A London surgeon has described witnessing a “massacre unfold” during 43 days spent under bombardment in Gaza, saying the destruction of the Palestinian health system was a military objective of the war.
Speaking at a press conference in London, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, who will later give evidence to Scotland Yard, told of horrific scenes at al-Ahli Arab and Dar al-Shifa hospitals as they ceased to function and said he witnessed the use of white phosphorus munitions.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied using such weapons.
“Having seen this massacre unfold, the creation of an uninhabitable Gaza Strip was the aim and the destruction of all the components of modern life at which the health system lies was the main military objective,” said Abu-Sittah, who has a practice in west London and has worked in Gaza since 2009, as well as in wars across Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
When asked about Israel’s claims of being at war with Hamas and its denial of targeting civilians in Gaza, he said: “Statistically, it appears that the numbers tell a different story.”
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Some more images from the West Bank, where families have been celebrating the release of their loved ones – 30 children and three women – from Israeli prisons.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken to visit Middle East for third time since war started
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will visit Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates this week, a senior state department official has said on Monday, to press for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and help secure the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
It will be the third visit to the region by the US’s top diplomat since the war broke out on 7 October and comes as the US pressures Israel to extend the ceasefire further. Reuters reports:
The secretary will stress the need to sustain the increased flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, secure the release of all hostages and improve protections for civilians in Gaza,” said a senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Blinken will discuss what Washington wants to see in Gaza if Israel is able to eliminate Hamas and the need for an independent Palestinian state as well as attend the UN Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, the official added.
Blinken will continue to the Middle East after visits to Belgium and North Macedonia.
Since the shocking attack that started one of the bloodiest chapters in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Blinken has conducted high-stakes diplomacy with Israeli and Arab leaders to help ensure the conflict does not broaden, hostages are freed and aid is delivered into the Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian disaster has been unfolding.
This week, he will speak about the future of Gaza and the need for a permanent political solution to the long-standing conflict, after he spelled out Washington’s red lines on a visit to Japan earlier this month for how the strip could be governed if Hamas is defeated.
Blinken ruled out Israeli occupation of Gaza, permanent displacement of its people and reduction in its territory, although a clear plan has yet to emerge in talks with Arab states, Israel and Palestinian leaders.
The US diplomat “will discuss with partners in the region the principles he laid out in Tokyo for the future of Gaza and the need to establish an independent Palestinian state,” the official said.
Blinken landed on Monday evening in Brussels, where he will attend the Nato foreign ministers summit on Tuesday. He will be attending a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that is scheduled to take place on Wednesday in Skopje.
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One of the Palestinian children released from an Israeli prison has told Al Jazeera he was beaten by Israeli guards last week and his hand and finger were broken.
Mohammed Nazzal, a teenager originally from Jenin, said he was given no treatment in the prison in the Negev desert despite his injuries and had only had his arm put in a sling after he was released, by the Red Cross.
“They gave me nothing,” he said, referring to the Israelis. “I broke my hand, I can’t move my finger.” It was not possible to verify his account.
His mother, who stood next to him as he was interviewed, said she had had no idea of what was happening to him. “There were no calls, no visits, nothing,” she said.
According to UN data, one in five Palestinians spends time in Israeli prison at some point. Before the exchange of hostages and prisoners began last week, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said 7,200 prisoners were held by Israel, among them 88 women and 250 children.
Many on the list of 300 are held in administrative detention, which allows for pre-emptive arrest, on secret evidence, and six-month extendable stints in prison without charge or trial.
Israel has arrested an additional 3,260 Palestinians, including 120 women and more than 200 children, since 7 October.
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Two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, Haaretz reports
Two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.
One person was killed near the West Bank town of Beitunia, the paper wrote citing the Palestinian health ministry while another was killed in the nearby city of Ramallah it said, citing medical sources.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since 7 October.
Violence had also flared as Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians gathered outside Ofer prison, between Beitunia and Ramallah, to greet the prisoners released.
Separately Al Jazeera reported that two men were also taken to a hospital after both were shot in their legs by Israeli forces during the latest raid on the Deir Ammar refugee camp west of Ramallah.
Citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa, it said there were confrontations between Israeli forces and young Palestinians in the refugee camp, prompting the Israeli soldiers to fire live bullets.
During the raid, Israeli forces also surrounded the house of a Palestinian man killed in August and started excavation work around the building in preparation for a possible demolition, according to Wafa.
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Thirty-three Palestinian prisoners freed
Thirty-three Palestinians – 30 children and three women – have been released from Israeli jails following the freeing of 11 Israeli hostages from Gaza.
The Israel Prison Service said the prisoners were released from Israel’s Ofer prison in the West Bank and from a detention centre in Jerusalem, bringing the total number of Palestinians it has freed since Friday to 150.
Footage posted on Twitter showed crowds of Palestinians greeting the former prisoners as they arrived in the West Bank.
In East Jerusalem, 17-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Humus called his release “an indescribable joy” and kissed his mother’s hand as he entered his home.
Other footage showed former child prisoners joyfully reuniting with their families.
Young prisoner Omar Abu Mayaleh from the town of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem joyfully reunites with his mother after being released as part of a deal with the Israel occupation state. #Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/vvkmUNhfeD
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 27, 2023
Ceasefire extended by two days, US and Qatar say
The White House and Qatari negotiators have said the original four-day pause in fighting in Gaza, due to expire at 7am local time on Tuesday (0500 GMT), has been extended for two more days.
The US national security council spokesman John Kirby said that “in order to extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children”.
“We have an extension … two more days,” Qatar’s UN ambassador Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani told reporters after a closed-door UN security council meeting, saying both sides were to release more people. “This is a very positive step.”
Israel has not commented on any agreement to extend the truce but, in what may be an implicit confirmation, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the government had approved the addition of 50 female prisoners to its list of Palestinians for potential release if additional Israeli hostages are freed.
Israel had previously said it would extend the truce by one day for every 10 more hostages released.
While describing the extension as “a glimpse of hope and humanity,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said two more days was not enough time to meet Gaza’s aid needs.
“I strongly hope that this will enable us to increase even more the humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza that [are] suffering so much - knowing that even with that additional amount of time, it will be impossible to satisfy all the dramatic needs of the population,” Guterres told reporters.
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11 Israeli hostages freed, taken to Tel Aviv hospital
Eleven Israeli hostages, nine children and two women, were freed by Hamas late Monday and taken to a hospital in Tel Aviv to reunite with their relatives.
The fourth batch of hostages was made up of dual nationals of France, Germany and Argentina, according to Qatar.
The Israel Defense Forces named the 11 released on Monday as Eitan Yahalomi, Sharon Kunio, three-year-old twins Emma and Yuly Kunio, Karina Engel, Mika Engel, Yuval Engel, Sahar Kalderon, Erez Kalderon, Or Yaakov and Yagil Yaakov.
According to Haaretz, Diego Engel-Bert, the brother of Karina Engel-Bert and uncle of Mika Engel, 17, and Yuval Engel, 11 told Channel 12 News:
We are all here glued to the screen and full of happiness and longing. It’s good to have a chest to stop the heart from escaping. We’re starting to see a little light in the darkness we are in, waiting for them to come so we can hug. Just hug, no need to talk, everything else will come later.
In total, Hamas has released 69 of the about 240 hostages it seized on 7 October.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Thirty-three Palestinian prisoners, 30 children and three women, have been released from Israeli jails after Hamas released 11 Israelis – nine children and two women – kidnapped on 7 October.
The fourth exchange of hostages and prisoners came as officials from Qatar and the US confirmed that the four-day ceasefire had been extended by another two days.
The US national security council spokesperson John Kirby said that “in order to extend the pause, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children”.
Israel has not commented on any agreement to extend the truce but, in what may be an implicit confirmation, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Israel’s government approved the addition of 50 female prisoners to its list of Palestinians for potential release if additional Israeli hostages are freed.
Here are the key developments:
A deal to extend the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas by two days has been agreed. Hamas said it had agreed to the extension of the four-day truce by 48 hours after the intervention of Qatar and Egypt, the principal mediators for the initial agreement, and with the same conditions. The extension came after a frantic dash by mediators with just over 12 hours remaining before hostilities in Gaza were due to resume.
Israel has confirmed the release of 11 hostages from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Among those released include three-year-old twins, and all were kidnapped from their homes in the same kibbutz. It brings the number of Israelis freed under the truce to 50 – out of roughly 240 hostages captured on 7 October – along with 19 hostages of other nationalities. Israel has said it would extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released.
Thirty-three Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, 30 children and three women, were released late Monday. The release was marred by clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians awaiting the prisoners outside Ofer prison, with one Palestinian killed by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
There are widespread fears that any break in the conflict that has devastated swaths of Gaza and killed many thousands of civilians will only be brief. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, told troops on Monday that when fighting recommenced its “strength will be greater, and it will take place throughout the entire strip”. “You now have a few days, we will return to fighting, we will use the same amount of power and more,” Gallant said.
Aid agencies have welcomed the two-day extension of the truce in Gaza but voiced concern that the expected resumption of Israel’s attack on Hamas would lead to an even deeper humanitarian crisis among Palestinians. A particular concern was the impact on people in the crowded south of the strip, where about 2 million people are now living around Khan Younis and elsewhere. Many fled south after Israel demanded they evacuate the northern area around Gaza City last month.
More than 14,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, including 6,150 children and 4,000 women, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN has said. Thousands more remain under the rubble, he wrote in a letter to the UN security council on Monday.
The EU’s top diplomat has said that “Palestinian people cannot pay for the action of Hamas” as he urged for the truce in Gaza to be extended to a permanent one. Josep Borrell, at a press conference on Monday, said “it makes no sense to give food to somebody that will be killed the day after. We need to stop the bombardment.”
A London surgeon has described witnessing a “massacre unfold” during 43 days spent under bombardment in Gaza, saying the destruction of the Palestinian health system was a military objective of the war. Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, told of horrific scenes at al-Ahli Arab and Dar al-Shifa hospitals as they ceased to function and said he witnessed the use of white phosphorus munitions.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 57 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The conflict was already the deadliest on record for journalists.
A suspect was arrested on Sunday in the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont, the night before, police said. Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmed were on their way to Awartani’s grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner when they were fired on. Jason J Eaton, 48, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing on Monday. Joe Biden expressed horror at the shooting and reiterated that “there is no place for violence or hate in America”.
The far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been charged after attending a march against antisemitism in London on Sunday. The Metropolitan police said Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, has been charged with failing to comply with an order excluding him from the area of the march.
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