It’s just after 6.30am in Tel Aviv and Gaza and we’re pausing the blog here. We’ll be back soon with all the latest news. In the meantime, here are the key developments:
Israeli officials said that the ceasefire and hostage deal will not come into effect until Friday at the earliest, dashing the hopes of families who had hoped to see loved ones earlier. In a statement released on Wednesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said talks on the deal were continuing and that the hostage release “will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.”
Multiple news outlets later cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying that the halt in fighting would also not begin on Thursday, as had been widely expected. Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, citing an unidentified Israeli official, reported there was a 24-hour delay because the agreement was not signed by Hamas and mediator Qatar. The official said they were optimistic the agreement would be carried out once it was signed.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
The deal, struck after lengthy and complex talks mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, comes more than six weeks after the conflict began on 7 October, when Hamas launched attacks from Gaza into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 240 people hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned that “the war continues” despite the deal for a temporary ceasefire and release of some hostages. At a briefing on Wednesday, he also said part of the deal with Hamas stipulates that representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be allowed to visit the hostages that remain in Gaza after some of them are returned. The ICRC earlier on Wednesday said it had “not been made aware of any agreement…related to visits by the ICRC to the hostages”.
A coalition of aid agencies have warned that the four-day ceasefire left almost no time to provide effective humanitarian relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people. In a briefing on Wednesday, they argued the only effective response would be a permanent or durable end to the war and that it remained unclear if there would be sufficient access, particularly to the north of the strip, to allow anything beyond cursory relief.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have published the names of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, at least some of whom are expected to be released in an exchange with Hamas in Gaza for dozens of Israeli hostages seized by the militant group on 7 October.
The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed. The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they were in the dark about who would be released and when. Meanwhile, excitement is also growing for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank that their imprisoned loved ones may also be coming home.
More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza – including 50 from one family – were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air. Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef) has called the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” and said that the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “far from enough”. Catherine Russell, addressing the UN security council on Wednesday, also said that “all children inside the territory” were facing “what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis”.
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The funerals were held in Beirut on Wednesday for Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih al Mamari who were both killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement officially confirmed that five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, have been killed, amid skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border, according to AFP. Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on 7 October.
Israel’s military has said it intercepted a cruise missile near the southern port city of Eilat. Eilat is in the south of Israel at the northern tip of the Red Sea, and has previously been targeted during the conflict both by long range fire from the Gaza Strip and by Yemen’s Houthi forces.
The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment, foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries said on a visit to London on Wednesday.
Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas. During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked: “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.” He went on: “Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war: this is not war, it is terrorism.”
US Central Command says one of its destroyers shot down multiple drones launched from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen early on Thursday.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, central command said the drones were shot down “while the US warship was on patrol in the Red Sea”. No damage or injuries were reported to the ship or its crew.
Houthi rebels seized a cargo ship in the Red Sea earlier this week and have previously launched drones that were also shot down by US forces.
On the morning (Yemen time) of November 23, the USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen. The drones were shot down while the U.S. warship was on patrol in the Red Sea. The ship and crew sustained no… pic.twitter.com/TqXuaKsgwe
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) November 23, 2023
Updated
There’s been a lot of controversy over pro-Palestine marches in the UK. Here’s a piece by Daniel Boffey our chief reporter:
No 10 should not implement plans to amend the law on glorifying terrorism after the pro-Palestine marches as it would do “no favours” to police, MI5 or the probation service, a government adviser has said.
In a 15-page report submitted to the Home Office, Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said there was no need to respond to the marches with new terrorism legislation, adding that there was “good reason for caution” given both the risk of unintended consequences and the drain on limited state resources.
Ministers have said they want to tighten the law on glorifying terrorism after the conduct of a minority of people on the pro-Palestine demonstrations in recent weeks, including the chanting of the controversial slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, prompted calls for change.
Some view the words as antisemitic and as encouraging the destruction of Israel.
Here’s some more analysis from our correspondents Julian Borger in Washington, Jason Burke in Jerusalem, and Ruth Michaelson in Istanbul on how the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement came about:
The hostage deal that was finally agreed by the Israeli cabinet in the early hours of Wednesday was very similar in outline to what was on the table a month ago, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
In the intervening weeks, a lot has happened to turn the proposal to exchange women and children prisoners during a ceasefire into a near-reality.
Israel has mounted a ground offensive, seizing control of much of northern Gaza, and sending Hamas underground. The Israeli Defense Forces are now open to a tactical pause while decisions are made about how to move southwards.
Meanwhile, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been under acute and mounting pincer pressure: from the Biden administration, and internally from the hostages’ families and their sympathisers, who have waged a relentless public campaign to put the captives’ lives first.
Read more here:
Various news agencies have been taken on tours of al-Shifa hospital with the Israel Defence Forces.
Since Israel declared war against Hamas following its attack on 7 October, it has repeatedly accused the Islamic militant group of using Gaza’s hospitals as cover. It has paid special attention to al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, saying Hamas has hidden command centres and bunkers underneath the hospital’s sprawling grounds.
Associated Press has described how it was allowed access to Gaza on the condition that its journalist stay with the Israeli military convoy throughout the four-hour tour and submit all material to a military censor ahead of publication. It says there is no other way for foreign journalists to currently access the enclave.
The agency wrote that on the reporting trip the Israeli military unveiled what it claimed was a Hamas military facility under al-Shifa, showing to a group of foreign journalists what appears to be a subterranean dormitory. The news agency writes:
Dozens of soldiers escorted journalists through a narrow stone tunnel – which the military said stretched 150 meters (164 yards) to a series of underground bunkers beneath Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
The living quarters, located at the end of the tunnel, had an air conditioner, kitchen, bathroom and pair of metal cots in a room fashioned from rusty white tile. They appeared to be out of use.
Here is a picture from Reuters. The news agency explains that its images were reviewed by the IDF too as part of the conditions of the embed – but no photos were removed.
This picture from AFP was also taken during a controlled tour in Gaza and edited under the supervision of the Israeli military, according to the news agency.
Updated
West risks complicity in Israeli war crimes, Arab and Muslim ministers warn
The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment, foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries said on a visit to London on Wednesday.
The ministers are lobbying the five permanent members of the security council – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – to back a humanitarian resolution instructing Israel to allow UN agencies, and not the Israel Defense Forces, to check aid going through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza.
They say the proposal is in line with practice in Syria, and reflects their concern that Israel is determined to depopulate Gaza slowly by making it uninhabitable.
The call came as the head of Unicef, Catherine Russell, told the UN security council that the Gaza Strip was now “the most dangerous place on earth to be a child”, adding that four-day humanitarian pauses were not sufficient to “put a stop to this carnage”. A consortium of aid agencies also questioned what could be delivered to Gaza during the truce, due to start on Thursday.
The group of foreign ministers, from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria and Palestine, were in London for talks with the foreign secretary, David Cameron, before seeing the French president, Emmanuel Macron, later on Wednesday. They had already been to Beijing and Moscow.
A prestigious journal published by Harvard Law School has been accused of censorship after it refused to publish an academic article accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, allegedly because editors feared a backlash.
The Harvard Law Review, which is run by the school’s student body, declined the 2,000-word essay – titled The Ongoing Nakba: Towards a Legal Framework for Palestine – by a Palestinian doctoral candidate, Rabea Eghbariah, after it had been edited, fact-checked and initially approved.
The article, commissioned after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, followed by an Israeli assault on Gaza, would have been the first by a Palestinian scholar ever published by the review. The Intercept originally broke the story.
It argued that events in Gaza – where more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military offensive – met the terms of genocide as defined by the United Nations convention. The article also called for a legally recognised crime of “Nakba” (catastrophe), the Arab word used to describe the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes at the time of Israel’s founding in 1948.
Here are some of the most recent images coming to us from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Israel has been carrying out strikes on the south throughout the conflict, despite telling Palestinians to flee there for safety.
Lebanon's Hezbollah group confirms son of senior MP killed in Israeli strike
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has officially confirmed that five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, have been killed, amid skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border, according to AFP.
Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on 7 October.
It issued separate statements with the identities and photographs of four other fighters who were also killed.
As we reported earlier, a source close to the family said that Abbas Raad “was killed with a number of other Hezbollah members” in an Israeli strike Wednesday on a house in south Lebanon’s Beit Yahun.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.
Israel’s army said in statements Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets and sources of fire from Lebanon, including a Hezbollah “terrorist cell” and infrastructure.
Since the cross-border exchanges began, 107 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally. At least 75 are Hezbollah fighters but the toll also included at least 14 civilians, three of them journalists.
Seven Hezbollah fighters have also been killed in Syria.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to authorities.
The strike came just hours after the four-day truce in Gaza was announced between Israel and Hamas, which is a Hezbollah ally.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who visited Beirut on Wednesday, warned in an interview that if the Hamas-Israel ceasefire begins but “does not continue... the conditions in the region will not remain the same as before the ceasefire and the scope of the war will expand”.
A bit more on the delay to the ceasefire and hostage release courtesy of Reuters, which notes that neither side had announced time for either event, though an Egyptian security source told the new agency that mediators had sought a start time of 10am on Thursday. Reuters reports further:
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, citing an unidentified Israeli official, reported there was a 24-hour delay because the agreement was not signed by Hamas and mediator Qatar.
The official said they were optimistic the agreement would be carried out when it was signed.
“No one said there would be a release tomorrow except the media ... We had to make it clear that no release is planned before Friday, because of the uncertainty that hostages’ families are facing,” Kan quoted a source in Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as saying.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also been on the telephone, talking to his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in which the pair reaffirmed their commitment to preventing the further spread of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the State Department said according to Reuters.
Blinken also welcomed Saudi Arabia’s efforts to secure a durable peace agreement in Yemen, the state department said.
There have been fears of a regional overspill, as violence has broken out along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and US forces have been attacked in Iraq and Syria. Washington has blamed those attacks on groups backed by Iran.
This week Yemen’s Houthi rebels also seized a cargo ship in the Red Sea.
US President Joe Biden also spoke with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, to thank him for his “personal” role in reaching the hostage and ceasefire agreement, the White House said in a statement. It said:
The two leaders committed to remain in close contact to ensure the deal is fully implemented and to ultimately secure the release of all hostages.
They reiterated the importance of protecting civilian lives, respecting international humanitarian law, and increasing and sustaining humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
Qatar, where the political leadership of Hamas is based, played a key role in the negotiations. For more about its role check out our explainer:
US President Joe Biden has said that “under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” in a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the White House said in another statement. It continued:
He [Biden] also affirmed that under no circumstances can Gaza remain a sanctuary for Hamas where they can threaten Israel and Palestinians alike and imperil any pathway to a durable peace.
The President affirmed his commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognized Egypt’s essential role in setting the conditions for that outcome.
Updated
Ceasefire also delayed, reports say
Multiple news media are reporting that the ceasefire will also be delayed, as well as the hostage deal.
An Israeli source told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that there would be no halt to the fighting in Gaza as long as there is no finalised timeline for the agreement with Hamas.
The BBC also reported that an Israeli government source said there would be a delay to the ceasefire, which had been expected to begin at 10am (0800GMT) on Thursday with the release of hostages expected to begin shortly after.
An Israeli official meanwhile told the news agency AFP early Thursday there would be no halt in the fighting between Israel and Hamas “before Friday”.
The reports come shortly after Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said late Wednesday that none of the hostages seized in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 would be freed before Friday.
US President Joe Biden “emphasized the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank”, in a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he welcomed the hostage deal, the White House has said.
In a statement, the White House said the two leaders discussed the pause in fighting, which “will allow for surging in much needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza”. It continued:
The Prime Minister thanked the President for his tireless efforts, and those of his team, to help broker this deal. The two leaders agreed that the work is not yet done and the President assured the Prime Minister that he will continue working to secure the release of all remaining hostages.
This is Helen Livingstone taking over from Léonie Chao-Fong.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
A senior Israeli official has said that the planned exchange of some Palestinians held in Israeli prisons for Israeli hostages in Hamas has been delayed until at least Friday. In a statement released on Wednesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said talks on the deal were continuing and that the release “will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.”
The first ceasefire in seven weeks of war in Gaza is due to come into effect on Thursday morning, officials from both Hamas and Israel have said. A four-day truce was announced early on Wednesday after days of feverish speculation and intense negotiations. Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials. It is not thought that the reported delay in the release of hostages will impact the ceasefire start time.
The deal, struck after lengthy and complex talks mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, comes more than six weeks after the conflict began on 7 October, when Hamas launched attacks from Gaza into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 240 people hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned that “the war continues” despite the deal for a temporary ceasefire and release of some hostages. At a briefing on Wednesday, he also said part of the deal with Hamas stipulates that representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be allowed to visit the hostages that remain in Gaza after some of them are returned. The ICRC earlier on Wednesday said it had “not been made aware of any agreement…related to visits by the ICRC to the hostages”.
A coalition of aid agencies have warned that the four-day ceasefire left almost no time to provide effective humanitarian relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people. In a briefing on Wednesday, they argued the only effective response would be a permanent or durable end to the war and that it remained unclear if there would be sufficient access, particularly to the north of the strip, to allow anything beyond cursory relief.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have published the names of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, at least some of whom are expected to be released in an exchange with Hamas in Gaza for dozens of Israeli hostages seized by the militant group on 7 October. An initial 10 hostages – children or elderly women – are expected to be released on Thursday morning.
The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed. The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they were in the dark about who would be released and when. Meanwhile, excitement is also growing for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank that their imprisoned loved ones may also be coming home.
More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza – including 50 from one family – were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air. Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef) has called the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” and said that the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “far from enough”. Catherine Russell, addressing the UN security council on Wednesday, also said that “all children inside the territory” were facing “what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis”.
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The funerals were held in Beirut on Wednesday for Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih al Mamari who were both killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has managed to avert a wider rebellion over the Gaza deal with Hamas among his far-right coalition partners even as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the firebrand national security minister, called it immoral.
Israel’s military has said it intercepted a cruise missile near the southern port city of Eilat. Eilat is in the south of Israel at the northern tip of the Red Sea, and has previously been targeted during the conflict both by long range fire from the Gaza Strip and by Yemen’s Houthi forces.
The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment, foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries said on a visit to London on Wednesday.
Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas. During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked: “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.” He went on: “Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war: this is not war, it is terrorism.”
There are reports that the son of a senior Hezbollah lawmaker was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon on Wednesday.
Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, “was killed with a number of other Hezbollah members” in an Israeli strike on a house in Beit Yahun, a source close to the family told AFP.
The official Lebanese government’s news agency reported that “an air strike launched by the Israeli enemy ... on a house in Beit Yahun killed four people”, and wounded others. It did not identify the victims.
In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, and that its troops and aircraft hit two cells that fired at Israeli troops or attempted to launch rockets into Israel, Haaretz reported.
Updated
Despite reports that the release of hostages may not happen “before Friday”, Al Jazeera is reporting that the ceasefire is still expected to begin at 10am (8am GMT) on Thursday.
The outlet cites its correspondent as saying:
The Israeli media is reporting that there was some sort of delay, but they did not elaborate on the discussions, neither did the national security adviser. But we do know that this deal has passed, it will go through, there will be that tentative temporary ceasefire that will start around 10am tomorrow, local time.
The latest remarks by Israel’s national security council chair Tzachi Hanegbi indicate that the release of some hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons has been delayed.
In the statement, Hanegbi said that contacts on the deal were continuing, and that the release of hostages will begin “not before Friday”. He did not give an explanation for the delay.
An Israeli political source told Haaretz that the delay is because Hamas has not yet submitted the list of Israeli nationals it intends to release. The source also said that Hamas has not ratified the ceasefire agreement with Qatar, which is supposed to guarantee all sides abide by the agreed terms.
Updated
No hostages to be released before Friday, says senior Israeli official
A senior Israeli official has said that the planned exchange of some Palestinians held in Israeli prisons for Israeli hostages in Hamas has been delayed until at least Friday.
In a statement, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said:
The release will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.
Updated
UN humanitarian chief says he hopes pause in hostilities will lead to longer-term ceasefire
The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has welcomed the agreement of a deal between Israel and Hamas.
Posting to social media, Griffiths said he hoped the agreement will bring some respite to the people of Gaza and Israel, and that it will allow grieving families to honour their dead and bury them.
He said he looked forward to the implementation of the humanitarian pause and “hopes it leads to a longer-term humanitarian ceasefire”, adding:
Humanitarian agencies are mobilised and ready to increase the volume of aid brought into Gaza and distributed across the Strip.
I welcome the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas.
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) November 22, 2023
I hope it brings some respite to the people of Gaza and Israel.
Humanitarian agencies are mobilized and ready to increase the volume of aid brought into Gaza and distributed across the Strip. pic.twitter.com/96AuubWDJY
Updated
US officials have a “working list” of 10 hostages that they believe are likely to be released from Gaza on Thursday, according to a report.
A source familiar with how hostages are expected to leave Gaza told CNN that the first swap is expected to take place at 10am local time (8am GMT) tomorrow.
Fifty Israeli hostages, including some with dual nationalities, are expected to be released over the four-day pause in hostilities with a minimum of 10 hostages to be released each day.
Each day, a group of hostages to be released would be handed off to the Red Cross, who will then take the group to a designated border point that will largely depend on the location of those hostages, the source said. Many of the first 50 hostages are expected to come out through Egypt, they said.
Every evening before the next day’s release, Israel and Hamas will give the Red Cross the list of hostage and prisoner names being released, they said. Hostages will be brought by the Red Cross to Rafah where they will be met by Israeli soldiers, who will verify that the hostages released are on the list.
The hostages will then be taken by helicopter to several designated hospitals in Israel, where their families will finally be able to see them in special areas that are closed to the public, the source said.
The first two days of the hostage release will be treated as a “testing period”, after which there is expected to be intense discussions about the potential second phase of the hostage release, they said, adding:
The first swap is the most crucial to see that the mechanism is working as was agreed.
Netanyahu says Red Cross will be able to visit remaining hostages held in Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the press conference just earlier, said part of the hostage deal with Hamas stipulates that representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be allowed to visit the hostages that remain in Gaza after some of them are returned. He said:
I expect the Red Cross to do its job, and to visit them all and to bring them the medication that they need.
The Israeli prime minister then read out loud verbatim the clause in Hebrew. The Times of Israel reported that the document he appeared to be reading from has not been published.
Netanyahu’s office claimed on Tuesday night that Israel had successfully negotiated the inclusion of a clause in the hostage deal for the ICRC to visit all the Gaza hostages who remain in Gaza after the deal.
But the Red Cross issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying it has not been updated about the plans, which directly involve its staff. The ICRC said:
Since October 7, 2023, the ICRC has continuously asked for the release of all hostages held in Gaza and their humane treatment. We haven’t stopped doing so and will continue as long as it takes.
Thus far, the ICRC has not been made aware of any agreement reached by both parties related to visits by the ICRC to the hostages. Should visits be agreed upon, the ICRC stands ready to visit. The ICRC does not take part in the negotiations between the parties to the conflict.
Updated
Israel’s supreme court has rejected a legal challenge to the hostage and ceasefire deal filed earlier today by the Almagor Terror Victims Association.
In its petition, the group requested that the court order the government to demonstrate that the deal does not endanger Israeli lives, and that having some but not all hostages released violated the right to equality, the Times of Israel reported.
But in a unanimous decision, the court ruled that only the government has the authority to make such agreements and that the court cannot intervene.
The decision paves the way for the exchange deal to go ahead starting tomorrow morning. Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
There will be a halt to Israeli air sorties over southern Gaza, with air activity over northern Gaza restricted to six hours a day. According to a Hamas statement, Israel has agreed not to arrest anyone in Gaza for the duration of the truce.
The deal includes a clause stipulating that for every 10 hostages that come home safely, there will be an additional day in which fighting is paused, up to a total of 10 days, and three times as many Palestinians in Israeli jails released.
The Israeli prime minister moved to his next point after talking directly about the hostages, saying that he and his cabinet have “very clearly” outlined the key objectives of the war against Hamas, declared after thye broke into southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October and slaughtered civilians.
“Eliminating Hamas, liberating our captives and making sure that post-Hamas there will be no threat to Israel,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference in Tel Aviv moments ago.
He said that the path to get the deal to release at least 50 of the estimated 240 hostages, mostly Israeli civilians was paved by the Israeli “military pressure against Hamas” and, second, political pressure.
“We were engaged in very tough negotiations in order to improve the conditions of this agreement,” he said.
He continued: “I just spoke to [US] President Biden and thanked him for responding to my request to work with the negotiators in order to improve the conditions of this agreement which eventually happened,” he said.
Joe Biden had already thanked the Qataris for mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Reuters and this blog reported.
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, further said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, where he just finished speaking, that last night his cabinet met to approve what he called phase one of the deal to see Israeli captives released by Hamas from Gaza.
“Since the beginning of the war I never stopped thinking about them, I never stopped thinking about you, their families. I heard from you about this constant terror that you are living [in],” he said.
He said that when he met with hostages’ loved ones they were holding pictures of their captive relatives close to their hearts. “We looked at every one of them,” he said.
Updated
'The war continues,' Netanyahu says
Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the war against Palestinian militant group Hamas goes on, despite a deal for a brief ceasefire and the release of some hostages taken in the murderous raid on southern Israel on 7 October .
“The war continues,” said the Israeli prime minister at a press conference now airing live on TV.
“We continue until we have achieved complete victory,” he said.
He has thanked allies for helping negotiate the deal with Hamas for the release of dozens of hostages from Gaza, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But he said Israel would not stop battling until all hostages are brought out of Gaza.
Updated
Netanyahu holds press conference about hostage deal
Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking now live on TV at a press conference to talk about the deal to agree to a temporary ceasefire with Hamas and a deal to release some hostages held in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister said he has just talked to Joe Biden, the US president, on the phone, thanking him.
Netanyahu said he is still working to get an agreement to release “all, and I mean all” hostages of the estimated 240 held by Hamas.
Initially, perhaps 50 are expected to be released, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The prime minster said that in speaking to families of hostages “I heard about the constant fear … the constant terror, the suffering and … anxiety,” he said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The first ceasefire in seven weeks of war in Gaza is due to come into effect on Thursday morning, officials from both Hamas and Israel have said. A four-day truce was announced early on Wednesday after days of feverish speculation and intense negotiations. Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
A coalition of aid agencies have warned that the four-day ceasefire left almost no time to provide effective humanitarian relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people. In a briefing on Wednesday, they argued the only effective response would be a permanent or durable end to the war and that it remained unclear if there would be sufficient access, particularly to the north of the strip, to allow anything beyond cursory relief.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have published the names of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, at least some of whom are expected to be released in an exchange with Hamas in Gaza for dozens of Israeli hostages seized by the militant group on 7 October. An initial 10 hostages – children or elderly women – are expected to be released on Thursday morning.
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, has arrived in Doha to meet with Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, to discuss the final details of the hostage deal, according to reports. Barnea’s trip to Qatar signals there are some details that Israel wants to finalise in the deal.
The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed. The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they were in the dark about who would be released and when.
More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza – including 50 from one family – were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air. Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef) has called the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” and said that the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “far from enough”. Catherine Russell, addressing the UN security council on Wednesday, also said that “all children inside the territory” were facing “what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis”.
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The funerals were held in Beirut on Wednesday for Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih al Mamari who were both killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has managed to avert a wider rebellion over the Gaza deal with Hamas among his far-right coalition partners even as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the firebrand national security minister, called it immoral.
Israel’s military has said it intercepted a cruise missile near the southern port city of Eilat. Eilat is in the south of Israel at the northern tip of the Red Sea, and has previously been targeted during the conflict both by long range fire from the Gaza Strip and by Yemen’s Houthi forces.
Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas. During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked: “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.” He went on: “Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war: this is not war, it is terrorism.”
Updated
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have said that an evacuation convoy for the wounded and patients from al-Shifa hospital has been stranded for five hours at a checkpoint separating northern Gaza from the south.
In a social media post, the PRCS said Israeli forces were “putting the lives of the wounded and patients at risk” by obstructing its passage.
🚨Five hours have passed, and the evacuation convoy for the wounded and patients from Al-Shifa Hospital is still stranded at the checkpoint separating North and South Gaza. Occupation forces obstruct its passage, conducting thorough inspections of ambulances, putting the lives of…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 22, 2023
Here are some images taken by Reuters photographer Ronen Zvulun, who visited northern Gaza with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Editor’s note by Reuters: Reuters photographs were reviewed by the IDF as part of the conditions of the embed. No photos were removed.
Updated
A New York political lobbying firm has offered to represent a halal street food vendor who was recently subjected to a sustained racist attack by one of its own consultants, a former state department official, in the latest encounter reflecting tension in the city over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Manhattan-based Gotham Government Relations firm said on Tuesday that it would cut all ties with Stuart Seldowitz, who worked in the US Department of State’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003 and later at the national security council during the Obama administration, after he was filmed harassing an Upper East Side street vendor.
In one widely shared video, Seldowitz is heard to ask the unidentified vendor: “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” In another, he states: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”
When the vendor says he doesn’t speak English, Seldowitz laughs and says, “That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart, because you’re ignorant,” before suggesting that the vendor will be deported to Egypt and tortured by intelligence agents.
“The mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents,” Seldowitz said in the video. “Does your father like his fingernails? They will take them out one by one.”
The vendor is heard asking Seldowitz to “please go” and saying that he would call the police.
An NYPD spokesperson told the outlet that they are aware of the videos and monitoring the situation but that no reports had been filed. The woman who posted the videos, who is believed to be a social activist and Columbia University graduate, said Seldowitz had been harassing the vendor for weeks.
The Swiss government has announced that it will bring foward a draft law that explicitly bans Hamas “activities” or support for the group in Switzerland.
In a statement, the government said the drafting of the law would be “the most appropriate response to the situation that has prevailed in the Middle East” since the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on 7 October. The statement continued:
The act will provide the federal authorities with the necessary tools to counter any Hamas activities or support for the organisation in Switzerland.
“The ban has the sole aim of preventing the terrorist activities of this organisation, and the people who support them,” the justice minister, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, told a press conference on Wednesday, AFP reported.
She said banning Hamas would make it easier to expel “dangerous people” and speed up criminal proceedings against “potential terrorists”.
The seven-member Swiss government is formed by ministers from the four biggest parties, and lawmakers in parliament are likely to back the draft law.
The hard-right Swiss People’s Party, the biggest in the country, has been strongly advocating for a ban.
The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed.
The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they are grappling with feeling both optimistic about the deal, and fearful that their loved ones may be left behind. The families said they were in the dark about who would be released and when.
Keren Schem said she feared the deal might collapse but that she was praying for the release of her daughter, Mia Schem, 21, who was abducted from the Supernova music festival. “It’s like Russian roulette. We don’t know who’s going to come out,” Schem, 51, said.
They’re talking about children and their mothers so I don’t think that Mia will come out today or tomorrow or even the day after. But I’m praying that she will because nobody really knows.
Eylon Keshet said he was afraid that his cousin, Yarden Bibas, 34, would be split from his wife, Shiri, 32 and their two boys, Ariel, four, and nine-month-old Kfir, who is thought to be the youngest hostage. Keshet said:
I’m afraid that this is what it means, but, unfortunately, I’m not optimistic from the very beginning that Yarden was held together with them because he was kidnapped separately from them and I don’t think Hamas cares much to reunite families.
Images from the newswires show preparation is under way for humanitarian aid and fuel to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt following the announcement of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
During the four-day pause in hostilities, aid and fuel is expected to reach the besieged Gaza Strip. Many of territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes, and more than 14,000 of them have been killed, according to Palestinian officials.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
Updated
Officials list 300 Palestinians to be freed under hostage deal
Palestinian and Israeli officials have published the names of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, at least some of whom are expected to be released in an exchange with Hamas in Gaza for dozens of Israeli hostages seized by the militant group on 7 October.
An initial 10 hostages – children or elderly women – are expected to be released on Thursday morning. While details are still unclear, a source at the West-Bank based Palestinian Authority told the Guardian that it is thought that 50 Palestinian women and children will then be dropped off at the Betunia checkpoint, near Ramallah, on Thursday afternoon.
As the families of abducted Israelis endure an agonising wait to see if their loved ones will be able to return, excitement is also growing for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank that their imprisoned loved ones will also be coming home.
Aseel Osama Shadeh, 17, was arrested earlier this month after carrying a Hamas flag to a protest at the notorious Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jeruaslem – an offence under Israeli law.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, 7,200 prisoners are currently being held by Israel, among them 88 women and 250 children 17 and under. The plight of prisoners is a key issue for Palestinians: at least four in 10 Palestinian men spend at least some time in their life in Israeli prisons.
The hostage swap deal has also shone a light on Israeli detention and sentencing practices in the Palestinian territories, where Palestinians are tried in military courts and minors are regularly imprisoned.
All but four on the list of 300 are from the West Bank and Jerusalem. Israel refused to release anyone sentenced for murder; most are held for stone throwing, damaging property, having contact with “hostile” organisations, as well as more serious charges including attempted stabbings and making explosives.
Many are held in administrative detention, which allows for pre-emptive arrest, on secret evidence, and six-month-long extendable stints in prison without charge or trial.
Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas.
During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked, “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.”
This statement referred to testimonies brought by the Israeli group, who shared their experiences of having relatives taken hostage by Hamas during the 7 October attacks, as well as the Palestinians with family members living in the targeted enclave.
Continuing his remarks, Pope Francis stated:
Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war: this is not war, it is terrorism.
In response, members of the Israeli delegation expressed their discontent, citing that there could be no comparison between Hamas, an organisation that employs civilians as shields, and Israel, which defends civilians.
Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, also criticised Pope Francis for placing everyone on the same level in terms of responsibility. According to Di Segni, the starting point should be recognised as the terrorism employed in a plan to exterminate Jews worldwide, while war is necessary for the defense of Israel and its people. Di Segni stressed that while there is suffering involved, the blame should be attributed to those truly responsible.
Meanwhile, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni addressed claims made by the Palestinian delegation during a press conference in Rome. They asserted that the Pope had recognised the ongoing “genocide” faced by the Palestinian people in their meeting. Bruni, however, refuted this claim, stating that he was not aware of the pope using such terminology. He clarified that the pope’s words during the general audience represented the dire situation experienced in Gaza.
The Palestinian delegation also invited the pope to visit Gaza, suggesting that his presence could help stop the war. In response, Pope Francis mentioned that it could be considered when circumstances permit.
Four-day ceasefire leaves no time to meet Gaza's needs, warn aid agencies
A coalition of aid agencies warned in a briefing that the four day ceasefire announced by the warring parties left almost no time to provide effective humanitarian relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
They argued the only effective response would be a permanent or durable end to the war and that it remained unclear if there would be sufficient access, particularly to the north of the strip, to allow anything beyond cursory relief.
Joel Weiler, executive director of medical charity Médecins du Monde, said “for a medical organisation, four days of pause is....band aid, not health care”, arguing it would be insufficient to time to diagnose and begin treating serious injuries or other medical conditions.
Danila Zizi, Palestine director from Humanity & Inclusion, an aid organisation, said “it’s a kind of drop in the ocean if we don’t have fuel and we don’t have access” and complained that it was unclear what the arrangements were likely to be.
It is estimated 1.7 million people out of 2.3 million have been displaced by the conflict, many of whom are living in tents in the south of the strip, just as the weather is deteriorating. But there remain 200,000 to 300,000 civilians still in northern Gaza despite weeks of fighting.
Agencies present complained that there was no sign of other border crossings being reopened during the four day pause in fighting, leaving aid only able to pass through the crowded Rafah facility, in the south of the strip, where it meets Egypt.
“There is a logistic limitation into what can enter through the crossing,” at Rafah, said Chiara Saccardi, head of Middle East operations with ActionAid.
If you consider that in some of the shelters so you have 20,000 people sheltering and they have available one latrine for 650 persons, then you can only figure what is needed on the ground right now.
Only a long term ceasefire and security for aid workers could begin to meet some of the people’s urgent needs, she added.
Updated
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef), Catherine Russell, welcomed the deal agreed by Israel and Hamas for the release of hostages and a temporary ceasefire but said “much more needs to be done”.
Speaking to the UN security council on Wednesday, Russell said:
For children to survive, for humanitarian workers to stay and effectively deliver, humanitarian pauses are simply not enough. Unicef is calling for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire to immediately put a stop to this carnage.
She said she was concerned that further military escalation in the south of Gaza would “exponentially worsen” the humanitarian situation there, and said attacks on the south “must be avoided”. She added:
The true cost of this latest war in Palestine and Israel will be measured in children’s lives – those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it. Without an end to the fighting and full humanitarian access, the cost will continue to grow exponentially.
Temporary ceasefire in Gaza to come into effect on Thursday morning, say Hamas and Israel officials
The first ceasefire in seven weeks of war in Gaza is due to come into effect on Thursday morning, officials from both Hamas and Israel have said.
The four-day truce, announced early this morning, is slated to begin at 10am local time (08:00 GMT) on Thursday, an Israeli official told CNN today.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk also told Al Jazeera that the temporary cease-fire will start at 10am local time. Marzouk said the pause in fighting would cover “all regions the of Gaza Strip”, adding that “there will be no warplanes or air traffic in Gaza from 10am to 4pm”.
An Egyptian security source told Reuters that mediators wanted a start time of 10am on Thursday, with Hamas seeking a few hours from the start to begin freeing hostages.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
There will be a halt to Israeli air sorties over southern Gaza, with air activity over northern Gaza restricted to six hours a day. According to a Hamas statement, Israel has agreed not to arrest anyone in Gaza for the duration of the temporary truce.
Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, who visited southern Gaza last week, said she was “haunted by what I saw and heard” as she met with Palestinian children, families and Unicef staff on the ground.
She recounted seeing “tiny babies clinging to life in incubators” while visiting the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, while “doctors worried how they could keep the machines running without fuel.”
“In addition to bombs, rockets, and gunfire, Gaza’s children are at extreme risk from catastrophic living conditions,” she said, adding that “all children inside the territory” were facing “what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis”.
Russell said that water production capacity in Gaza had plummeted to just 5% of its normal output, with families and children relying on three litres or less of water per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene.
Updated
Gaza Strip is 'world's most dangerous place' for children, says UN agency
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef) has called the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” and said that the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “far from enough”.
Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, addressing the UN security council on Wednesday, said more than 5,300 Palestinian children have been reportedly killed in Gaza in just 46 days of war, adding:
That is over 115 a day, every day, for weeks and weeks. Based on these figures, children account for 40% of the deaths in Gaza. This is unprecedented. In other words, today, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
The UN agency has received reports that more than 1,200 Palestinian children remain under the rubble of bombed-out buildings or are otherwise unaccounted for, she added.
For the children who manage to survive the war, they are “likely to see their lives irrevocably altered through repeated exposure to traumatic events”, Russell said.
She said she was particularly concerned by reports of increasing numbers of displaced children who have been separated from their families as they fled south, or who have arrived unaccompanied to hospitals for medical care.
These children are especially vulnerable, and they urgently need to be identified, provided with temporary care, and given access to family tracing and reunification services.
Updated
Reactions among leading Israeli columnists on Wednesday reflected the continuing political problems that Benjamin Netanyahu is facing even as he tries to sell the deal.
Nahum Barnea, a journalist for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, suggested that “Israel has no choice but to pay the price” while linking the agreement with the failures of 7 October.
The alternative to forsaking the hostages a second time, after they were first forsaken on October, would have been far worse and far more dangerous. Beyond the price it could end up costing in blood and lives, it would have left an indelible stain on the Israeli government and the IDF.
Others were more damning still. Also writing in Yedioth, Yossi Yehoshua warned that Israel risked missing “an historic opportunity to fundamentally change the Gaza problem, and will not only pay for that in soldiers’ lives but by missing out on a better deal”, adding “we are jeopardising our most important war in recent decades. One man has to own all of this: Binyamin Netanyahu.”
On Kan Radio, Gadi Shamni, a former senior military officer, said:
I’m not sure that Netanyahu wants to win this war. This floundering might work for him.
Netanyahu already realises that he is going to be remembered in infamy as the man who with his own two hands moulded this crisis. The prime minister delayed the IDF [ground] manoeuvre for weeks – he didn’t believe in the IDF’s capabilities, and he chose to waste his time.
What Netanyahu wants, first of all, first and foremost, is to minimise the damage to himself.
Updated
The support from Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and his Religious Zionist party represented a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior allies.
Support for the hostage deal appears to have been clinched with the decision by Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, and by senior officials in the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency to back it, even if it meant slowing the pace of the offensive.
Talks around the truce in exchange for the release of hostages have seen Netayahu and his cabinet attempt to balance two competing concerns.
On one hand, support for an arrangement to release those held captive by Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza enjoys widespread public support, much of which has been galvanised by the campaign waged by the families of the hostages.
On the other hand, however, has been the concern that an agreement for a substantial ceasefire could mark the beginning of the end of Israel’s war against Hamas, a concern dismissed by Netanyahu as “nonsense”.
Justifying his support for a deal he had previously rejected, Netanyahu said:
Let me make clear: we are at war, and we will continue the war until we achieve all our objectives – eradicating Hamas, bringing back all our hostages and MIAs, and guaranteeing that there will be no figure in Gaza that threatens Israel.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, however, acknowledged that the deal – while moral – would inspire “understandable, painful and difficult misgivings”.
It is a moral and ethical duty that correctly expresses the Jewish and Israeli value of redeeming captives, and I hope that it will be a significant first step for bringing all the captives home.
Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to avert a wider rebellion over the Gaza deal with Hamas among his far-right coalition partners even as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the firebrand national security minister, called it immoral.
Three ministers, all from Ben-Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party, oppose the deal but members of the equally hardline Religious Zionist party were persuaded to support the deal after heated exchanges in an Israeli cabinet meeting late on Tuesday night.
The deal was made after weeks in which Netanyahu had been vocal in his opposition to any pause in Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, but there has also been mounting political pressure on the prime minister, who has seen his support among voters collapse since the 7 October massacre by Hamas.
But amid warning signs of political difficulties for Netanyhu, who depends on support from far-right parties to remain in power, Ben-Gvir heavily criticised the deal on Wednesday. “We don’t have the right to agree to separating them and only some of them returning,” he said. “And we definitely cannot accept an outline that sees the release of female and underage terrorists when we don’t get back everyone”, adding that the ceasefire benefited Hamas.
Leaks from the cabinet meeting suggested that Ben-Gvir had also said that the decision to back the deal threatened “generational damage that will come back to hurt us badly”.
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, has arrived in Doha to meet with Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, to discuss the final details of the hostage deal, according to reports.
Barnea’s trip to Qatar signals there are some details that Israel wants to finalise in the deal, including how it will be implemented on the ground and the exact time the pause in the fighting will begin, Axios reported. Barnea was the lead negotiator on the Israeli side.
The report cites Israeli and US official as warning that the next 24 hours will be “highly sensitive” and that “a lot can still go wrong”.
There are multiple reports that the pause in fighting will come into effect at 10am local time (08:00 GMT) on Thursday, but an Israeli official told the outlet that the time will be determined this evening.
In the occupied West Bank, people attended the funerals of six Palestinians who were killed in a Israeli raid on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the Israeli army stormed the refugee camp in the northern city of Tulkarm and briefly detained a 16-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his face.
A 26-year-old young woman “beaten by the Israeli army” had been transferred to hospital, the Red Crescent added.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces near the city of Qalqilia, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.
Updated
The British father of 12-year-old twins who were killed during the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel has spoken of his loss, saying the “unfathomable, unimaginable, unspeakable has happened to my gorgeous children”.
His son and daughter Yannai and Liel Hetzroni-Heller were killed at kibbutz Be’eri, where survivors described the Hamas assault as a pogrom.
In a statement issued in London via the police, PA Media reports Gavin Heller said:
I am utterly devastated by the news of my children’s deaths in Israel; it has broken me.
Yannai and Liel had their entire lives ahead of them, but they were cruelly and brutally murdered on that fateful 7 October. My life will never be the same.
There are no words that can ever or will ever explain this pain and brutality. The unfathomable, unimaginable, unspeakable has happened to my gorgeous children, and the world has turned against humanity.
There’s, for certain, no worse way to leave this world than to be violently murdered by a terrorist; all because they were Jewish.
Liel wasn’t even buried as there weren’t enough fragments of her. Her toys were buried instead of her body. Too few moments were shared with them and I cannot believe this is how their story ends.
May they both be at peace, together in heaven. All we can do now is pray that the world comes to its senses and understands that ‘never again’ is now.
Updated
Israel claims to have intercepted a cruise missile near Eilat
Israel’s military has posted to social media to claim that it has intercepted a cruise missile near the southern port city of Eilat.
In a message on the Telegram app and other social media channels, it wrote:
Following the report regarding an infiltration of a hostile aircraft in the area of the city of Eilat, an IAF fighter jet successfully intercepted a cruise missile that was launched toward Israel. No infiltration into Israeli territory was identified.
Eilat is in the south of Israel at the northern tip of the Red Sea, and has previously been targeted during the conflict both by long range fire from the Gaza Strip and by Yemen’s Houthi forces
US official confirms it will be pausing some surveillance drone flights over Gaza as part of Israel-Hamas deal
CNN has reported that the US and Israel will pause drone flights over Gaza for six hours each day during the temporary truce.
Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer gave the information to CNN, which reported:
The US military currently flies surveillance drones over Gaza to support Israel in its efforts to find the hostages. US officials have previously said that the American intelligence being gathered is not used for lethal operations. While the pause in Israeli drone flights had been previously reported, Finer’s comments are the first official confirmation that the US will also be taking part in the pause.
Updated
Al Jazeera has issued a statement strongly condemning what it says is “the horrific targeting of journalists” by Israel during the current conflict.
Writing that “the number of those deliberately targeted and killed in Gaza has now reached 60 journalists and photographers since 7 October”, the statement goes on to call on the international community to act:
Al Jazeera Media Network calls on international press freedom and Human Rights organisations to take the necessary measures to ensure the protection of journalists, enabling them to carry out their profession and urges them to condemn the systemic killing of journalists by Israeli forces.
Journalists in Gaza are making unparalleled sacrifices to reveal the true cost of the Israeli onslaught. Al Jazeera stands firm in its call for justice, accountability, and the safeguarding of the fundamental rights of journalists in conflict zones.
Updated
The Swiss government said on Wednesday that it has decided to propose a ban on Hamas.
Reuters reports that it said in a statement it was “the most appropriate response to the situation that has prevailed in the Middle East since 7 October”.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 4pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines:
Fifty women and children held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza since 7 October are to be released in exchange for a four-day ceasefire in a deal brokered by Qatar with the support of the US. According to Hamas, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and allow hundreds of aid trucks a day to cross the Rafah border with Egypt, providing humanitarian supplies to Palestinians in Gaza.
Over a hundred Palestinians in Gaza were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air ahead of the temporary truce. Lt Col Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesperson, told a briefing: “We still have probably, maybe a day-plus before this thing matures, and things can happen in that day. And I assume today is going to be a day of fighting in Gaza.”
The agreement pauses a war that has lasted more than six weeks so far. It has cost the lives of at least 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the government media office in Gaza, and more than 1,200 people in Israel, most of whom were victims of the surprise Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October. Unconfirmed media reports have suggested a ceasefire might start at 10am Thursday (8am GMT). The casualty figures issued during the conflict have not been independently verified by journalists.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the hostage deal was “the result of tireless diplomacy and relentless effort across the department and broader US government”. “While this deal marks significant progress, we will not rest as long as Hamas continues to hold hostages in Gaza,” Blinken said.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, is to make a regional tour following the announcement of the deal.
Israel’s military on Wednesday claimed that during its campaign in Gaza it has “exposed and destroyed approximately 400 terror tunnel shafts”. It said “Hamas has embedded its network of terrorist tunnels below population centres across the Gaza Strip. Many of the shafts leading to its tunnel network are located within civilian hospitals, schools and homes”. The claims have not been independently verified.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had sent 14 ambulances to evacuate patients from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The funerals were held in Beirut Wednesday for Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al Mamari who were both killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Six Palestinians were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the northern city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said.
Syria’s army said on Wednesday that Israel launched aerial strikes on outposts in the vicinity of Damascus but that nobody was injured or killed.
Jordan’s King Abdullah is going to Cairo today for talks with the Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, on how to end “Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians”, a palace statement said.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said he has been told by the Palestinian Authority that 40% of housing has been demolished in Gaza.
Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, saying both sides “suffer so much”. In comments likely to cause controversy, he said “Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war, this is terrorism”, without elaborating on what he was referring to as terrorism.
France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, has been critical of Israel, saying that there are too many civilian deaths in the conflict, adding this is “unworthy of a democracy”.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the UK, has announced additional funds to combat antisemitism domestically.
In the UK parliament in London earlier today the Palestine Solidarity Campaign staged a sit-in in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
🚨HAPPENING NOW - PSC is holding a sit-in at UK Parliament.
— PSC (@PSCupdates) November 22, 2023
Earlier today a temporary truce was called. Whilst it is welcome it is not a solution. We won’t stray from our demands. We demand a permanent #CeasefireNOW and an end to the siege of Gaza and Israeli Apartheid. pic.twitter.com/iUt2aJ6lbh
The UK government has, since 7 October, consistently called for “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict, rather than a ceasefire.
A Palestinian official has suggested to Reuters that the proposed swap of 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails may be repeated later this month.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said: “The second batch will follow the first batch. They would need four or five days to organise it … will involve 50 Israeli in return for 150 Palestinian.”
Israel has already offered to extend the planned four-day pause by a day for every additional 10 hostages handed over by Hamas.
Earlier today a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the military would be implementing an “operational pause” rather than a ceasefire. He could not confirm when the hostilities might cease, and said the army was awaiting further instructions from politicians.
Updated
Jason Burke is in Jerusalem for the Guardian, and offers this analysis of the announcement of an Israel-Hamas deal:
The consequences of the agreement are already rippling out across the region and beyond but those most immediately affected will be the people of Gaza.
Much of the north of Gaza has been made uninhabitable by the Israeli bombardment, and 1.7 million people have been displaced. All are now crammed into the south, which has been without adequate food, fuel, clean water, shelter and much else for almost seven weeks after Israel cut off supplies.
Any cessation of hostilities and promises of increased aid will provide only very partial relief to the shattered, battered and grieving inhabitants of the the territory.
One UN official who has spent six weeks living in a compound near Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, with his family, told the Guardian on Wednesday: “I wish that once the ceasefire starts it opens the way for political solution, but it’s not clear yet … It also it makes us think: what are we going to do when the war ends? Where to go when most of the people, and I am one of them, have lost their home? Where to live, when there is no infrastructure, no schools, no hospitals? It would take years just to remove the rubble.”
The deal will also provide only partial relief to the families of those 239 mainly Israeli hostages thought to be in Gaza. Even for families whose relatives are not immediately released, the deal offers hope. But for the families and friends of captured military personnel, possibly numbering about 100, there is the deeply distressing knowledge that these are the most valuable to Hamas and so will be the last to be freed.
Read more of Jason Burke’s analysis here: Gaza ceasefire deal brings relief but little hope of durable peace
Updated
Plumes of dust and smoke continued to rise on the horizon across the Gaza-Israel border on Wednesday despite Israel and Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire of at least four days to let in aid and release at least 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Israel is expected to release up to 150 Palestinians it is holding in jails.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the UK, has been giving a financial statement to British MPs. During it he expressed his “horror” in parliament at the attack on Israeli citizens on 7 October and the subsequent loss of life on both sides, while announcing additional funds to combat antisemitism.
PA reports he said:
I am deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism in our country, so I am announcing up to £7m over the next three years for organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities.
I will also repeat the £3m uplift to the Community Security Trust. When it comes to antisemitism and all forms of racism, we must never allow the clock to be turned back.
Updated
The Syrian army said on Wednesday that Israel launched aerial strikes on outposts in the vicinity of Damascus but that nobody was injured or killed.
The statement said the rockets were fired from the Golan Heights. Reuters reports that the statement gave no further details, and that the Israeli military declined to comment.
Updated
There are currently unconfirmed media reports of an Israeli strike inside Syria aimed at southern Damascus.
More details soon …
IDF: army waiting for final timing details of what it calls 'operational pause'
Dan Sabbagh is the Guardian’s defence and security editor:
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces emphasised on Wednesday lunchtime that the military would be implementing an “operational pause” rather than a ceasefire and that forces were still waiting on final details of the agreement.
Lt Col Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesperson, told a briefing that “our terminology is not ceasefire, our terminology is an operational pause”, so hinting that Israeli bombing could restart whenever the hostage exchange is completed.
Hecht said he was not able to confirm when fighting would stop or how a ceasefire would operate because orders have not been received from the country’s political leaders. “We still haven’t got the nitty gritty of this framework,” he added.
But Hecht did suggest the ceasefire might not begin in Gaza for over 24 hours from now. “We still have probably, maybe a day-plus before this thing matures, and things can happen in that day. And I assume today is going to be a day of fighting in Gaza,” he said.
Media reports in Egypt and Israel had earlier suggested that a truce would come into effect at 10am tomorrow (8am GMT).
Updated
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
It said it also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, being missing, detained, or injured.
On Tuesday, Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al Mamari were killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military said about the incident: “This is an area with active hostilities, where exchanges of fire occur. Presence in the area is dangerous.” The TV channel accused Israel of deliberately targeting its workers.
The CPJ says the journalist death toll comprises 46 Palestinians, and four journalists from Israel, and three from Lebanon.
Updated
Jordan’s King Abdullah is going to Cairo today for talks with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, on how to end “Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians”, Reuters reports a palace statement as saying.
An official told the news agency the talks will focus on how to turn a four-day truce agreed between Israel and Hamas into a permanent ceasefire that brings an end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and averts a humanitarian catastrophe.
Updated
Six Palestinians were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, AFP reports the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the Israeli army stormed the refugee camp in the northern city of Tulkarm and briefly detained a 16-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his face.
A 26-year-old young woman “beaten by the Israeli army” had been transferred to hospital, the Red Crescent added.
The Israeli army was still in the camp at mid-morning on Wednesday, an AFP photographer reported.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers across the West Bank since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, according to the ministry.
Updated
Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk has been appearing in the media in Israel with more details on the implementation of the Israel-Hamas truce, which he has said will come into effect tomorrow at 10am local time (8am GMT).
The Times of Israel reports that he said this to Al Jazeera, and that according to Israel’s Channel 12, Abu Marzouk said that most of the hostages slated to be released have foreign citizenship.
These details have not been confirmed by Israel.
There are also unconfirmed media reports that Hezbollah has said it is not a party to the Israel-Hamas deal, but will respect the truce if Israel does. Israel and Hezbollah fighters have been repeatedly exchanging fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel.
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or standing complicit in Israel war crimes and collective punishment, Arab and Islamic foreign ministers said on a visit to London.
The ministers are lobbying the five permanent members of the security council to back a new humanitarian resolution instructing Israel to accept that UN agencies, and not the Israel Defense forces, clear aid coming through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza. At the moment everything has to be inspected by Israel.
The delegation, led by representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Palestinian territories were in London for talks with the foreign secretary, David Cameron, before seeing the French president, Emmanuel Macron, later today. They have already been to Beijing and Moscow.
At a briefing in London they also called for the imminent humanitarian four-day pause to be extended to a total cessation of hostilities.
The Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, said: “It is absolutely necessary. It is in our opinion that we transition from temporary to an extended ceasefire, and go from there.”
He said if the west rejected the appeals of 2 billion people in the Middle East that would be a significant message, adding the UN had a choice in either containing Israel or being complicit in war crimes.
The Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said there was a huge gap between the 200 trucks a day to be allowed over the Rafah crossing under the agreement and the 800 a day needed.
The ministers are also conveying a broader political message to western capitals that, unless they do more to restrain Israel, a new generation of radicals will be born. One foreign minister said Israel was trying to create the conditions for a slow enforced migration from Gaza, saying :“We are near to a point of no return and the west has to wake up to what Israel is planning.”
The Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said the proposed UN humanitarian resolution would require Israel to follow procedures allowed at Syrian border crossings, where UN agencies check the aid inside convoys, rather than give Israel total control.
He said “the unspoken objective” of Israel was complete displacement from Gaza. He added Israel’s plan was to funnel Palestinians into a small safe area in southern Gaza is a prelude to a mass transfer out of Gaza.
The Indonesian foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, said Israel was systematically breaking the laws of war, and many were tired of the lectures from the west about international law.
Updated
Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital, has told Al Jazeera that the hospital has received more than 60 dead and about 1,000 wounded people since last night.
He told the news network:
Shelling and bombardment are increasing everywhere in the vicinity of the hospital. A lot of buildings have been badly affected. We need to keep in mind this hospital is now only one operating hospital from Wadi Gaza to northern Gaza. The medical teams are very tired. We don’t have a single drop of fuel. We work in the dark using handheld searchlights.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has told Army Radio ithat the process of Hamas transferring hostages back to Israel is expected to begin tomorrow. He did not offer exact details of how many hostages would be exchanged at first, or when.
Updated
Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, saying both sides “suffer so much”.
At the end of his weekly audience at the Vatican, AFP reports the 86-year-old pontiff revealed he had received two delegations, “one of Israelis who have relatives as hostages in Gaza, and another of Palestinians who have relatives held prisoner in Israel”.
“They suffer a lot and I heard how they both suffer,” he said, urging those gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray for peace.
“Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war, this is terrorism”.
He did not elaborate on what he was referring to as terrorism.
The Vatican said last week the pope hoped to show his “spiritual closeness” during the private meetings, which it said would be “exclusively humanitarian in nature”.
Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who yesterday cautioned against Israel striking any deal with Hamas, has posted to social media an image which appears to be Israeli soldiers inside Gaza displaying the flag of the Israel Border Police.
In the message, Ben-Gvir said “The flag of the Border Guard is raised proudly in the heart of Gaza – in memory of the soldiers of the Border Guard who fell. Keep yourselves heroes, eliminate as many enemies as possible and return to us in peace”
דגל משמר הגבול מונף בגאווה בלב עזה - לזכר לוחמי מג״ב שנפלו בלחימה הי"ד. שמרו על עצמכם גיבורים, תחסלו כמה שיותר אויב ושובו אלינו בשלום💚🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/u14AjijTyq
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) November 22, 2023
While world leaders welcome the announcement of a limited ceasefire and pause in hostilities that is expected to come into effect tomorrow, Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip. Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires.
Family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are giving a press conference after meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. You can watch it above. You may need to refresh the page to get the play button to appear.
Israel’s military has this morning claimed that during its campaign in Gaza it has “exposed and destroyed approximately 400 terror tunnel shafts”.
In a message posted to Telegram it said: “The Yahalom special forces unit of the Combat Engineering Corps has played a significant role in uncovering and destroying these shafts using various methods.
“Hamas has embedded its network of terrorist tunnels below population centres across the Gaza Strip. Many of the shafts leading to its tunnel network are located within civilian hospitals, schools and homes.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
The Hamas government in the territory claims that, since 7 October, Israel has killed at least 14,100 people, mainly civilians including thousands of children. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from inside Gaza.
Updated
Emmanuel Macron has said he welcomes the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, adding that France is “working tirelessly to release all hostages”.
In a social media post, France’s president said: “I welcome the announcement of an agreement for the release of hostages and a humanitarian truce. We are working tirelessly to release all hostages. The humanitarian truce announced should allow to introduce aid and rescue the civilians in Gaza.”
Updated
The funeral has been held in Beirut, Lebanon, for two journalists of Al Mayadeen, reporter Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al Mamari. They were killed yesterday by an Israeli strike in the south of the country.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has produced the deadliest month for journalists since statistics began more than three decades ago. Before yesterday’s deaths, reporters’ watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had already recorded the deaths of 48 reporters since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent Society says it is evacuating patients from al-Shifa hospital
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has posted to social media to say that it is in the process of evacuating patients from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.
In a post on Facebook it wrote:
14 ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, accompanied by the UN and Doctors Without Borders, arrived to evacuate patients and injured from al-Shifa hospital to hospitals in the South, where kidney patients will be transferred to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah and the injured will be transferred to the European hospital south of Khan Younis.
Updated
Israel’s military has posted to Telegram, saying: “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon. Among the targets struck were terrorist infrastructure and a military site in which Hezbollah terrorists operated.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The Kremlin on Wednesday hailed a ceasefire agreement in Gaza as the “first good news for a long time” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said humanitarian pauses were the only way to build efforts for a sustainable settlement, Reuters reports.
In comments this morning, France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, has been critical of Israel, saying that there are too many civilian deaths and this is “unworthy of a democracy”.
Speaking on France Inter radio she said the Israel-Hamas deal was “a moment of real hope”, and hailed “particularly the work of Qatar” in clinching it after weeks of tortuous talks.
Colonna also said that Israel must do more to protect the civilian population in Gaza.
“There have been too many deaths, we have been saying this for weeks,” she said.
Civilians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank also needed to be protected better after about 200 people there had been killed by Israeli settlers, Colonna said.
“This is unacceptable and unworthy of a democracy,” AFP reports she said.
Eight French citizens have been missing since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and for the moment, it is not known if all of them are being held hostage. “We have to distinguish between the cases that we are certain about and others,” Colonna said.
Among the hostages were a French adolescent boy, and also an adolescent girl for whom France had received proof of life by video, she said.
Meyer Habib, a French deputy whose constituency of French nationals abroad includes those in Israel, told Jewish community broadcaster Radio J on Wednesday that “one or two French people” were among the hostages to be released as part of the deal.
Updated
Oxfam GB’s head of policy and advocacy, Katy Chakrabortty, has described the Israel-Hamas deal as “a Band-Aid to a bleeding wound”, calling for the international community to “start the hard work towards peace for all Israelis and Palestinians”.
In a statement, she said:
It would be an optimism to see this as the beginnings of a road toward a permanent ceasefire – but that looks distant without concerted diplomatic pressure.
This pause of the relentless bombing and destruction that is causing such suffering to more than 2 million Palestinians is a welcome respite for the delivery of some humanitarian aid – but no more than that.
The next four days will be eaten up by a desperate emergency effort that can offer only very limited relief, not equal to the size of suffering and destruction and ultimately with no sustainability. This is a band-aid that will be ripped off a bleeding wound after four days.
The statement said that diplomatic efforts should include “tackling the core of the conflict: ending Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinian territory and the blockade on Gaza while also securing the release of all hostages.”
Updated
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has been told by the Palestinian Authority that 40% of housing has been demolished in Gaza.
After his four-day trip to Israel, Palestine, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan, he said he wanted to share his sense of “absolute urgency” in relation to the “dramatic situation in Gaza” and the “tenuous hope” about moving towards peace talks and enduring political solutions for the Middle East.
The figures from the Palestinian Authority “confirmed the worst fears” he said in relation to Gaza with Israelis indicating an intensification of military operations in the south of the Strip.
In a lengthy blog post, he also revealed that the Israel military had told him it plans to create a “small safe area along the sea in the southern part of Gaza” for the civilian population “in order to carry out the ground operations in the south” of the Gaza strip where more than 2 million live.
“This did not reassure me about the future course of events if we fail to achieve a rapid and durable de-escalation of the military operations,” he said.
He said his meetings with hostage families had made it “fully understandable the shock that Israeli society suffered” after Hamas’s attack and underlined the “absolute urgency of moving forward”.
He said he raised the hostages with everyone he met.
Updated
The Associated Press reports from Dubai that the International Committee of the Red Cross says it is standing by to assist any swap in the Israel-Hamas war.
It quotes the organisation as saying: “Currently, we are actively engaged in talks with the parties to help carry out any humanitarian agreement they reach. As a neutral intermediary, it is important to clarify that we are not part of the negotiations, and we do not make decisions on the substance of it. Our role is to facilitate the implementation, once the parties agree.”
Updated
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said that “nothing in the world can undo” the suffering of those who have been held hostage by Hamas, but that the Israel-Hamas deal was a “breakthrough”.
She added on social media that “the humanitarian break must be used to bring vital aid to the people in Gaza”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Some more detail on the prisoners that Israel has listed for potential freedom. Although the deal appears to allow for 150 to be released, Israel’s government has named 300 people.
A BBC analysis of the list reports that “most are aged 17 or 18, with the overall age range 14-59. The majority of the detainees – 274 of 300 – are male.”
The offences they have been accused of include “attempted murder, throwing a bomb, creating an explosive or incendiary object, throwing stones, contact with a hostile organisation, grievous bodily harm and arson on nationalist grounds”.
The Times of Israel reports that the government has revealed more of the mechanism around release, with “the war cabinet of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant, and minister Benny Gantz to decide on the identity of prisoners to be released in each phase.”
It notes that “any Palestinian prisoners on the list who have not been released by the end of the exchanges will not be freed”.
That suggests an anxious period of waiting ahead for Palestinian and Israeli families to see which hostages and detainees are cleared for return. Hamas is thought to be holding about 240 Israelis abducted on 7 October.
Updated
Gaza hostage deal: what we know so far …
It is 10am in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is what we know so far about the Israel-Hamas deal …
Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in return for 150 Palestinian women and children to be freed from Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire, both sides announced on Wednesday morning. The first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning, and the total number of hostages freed could rise.
A statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said the “lull” in Israeli military operations would be extended for an additional day for every 10 more hostages released. It did not say when the ceasefire would start, though in his address to his cabinet, Benjamin Netanyahu said the first hostages should be free within 48 hours of the agreement.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said early on Wednesday that the start time of the deal would be announced in the next 24 hours. It said the ceasefire will “allow the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs”.
Hamas confirmed an agreement had been reached, calling it a “humanitarian truce” in which 150 Palestinian women and children would be freed from Israeli jails. It said that expanded humanitarian deliveries were also part of the agreement, as well as a halt to Israeli air sorties over southern Gaza during the four-day pause, with sorties over northern Gaza restricted to six hours a day.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the hostage deal was “the result of tireless diplomacy and relentless effort across the department and broader US government”. “While this deal marks significant progress, we will not rest as long as Hamas continues to hold hostages in Gaza,” Blinken said.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the EU will seek to use the pause in fighting in Gaza to deliver more humanitarian aid to the territory. The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, urged both sides to deliver the agreement in full, saying: “This pause provides an important opportunity to ensure much greater volumes of food, fuel and other life-saving aid can reach Gaza on a sustained basis.”
The Times of Israel is reporting that the Almagor Terror Victims Association has said it will file a petition in Israel’s high court today against the hostage and ceasefire deal.
Israel’s military has said its campaign inside Gaza is continuing, amid reports that the air bombardment has intensified in the last hours. The IDF said its operation is “striking terrorist infrastructure, killing terrorists, and locating weapons”. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that “Israeli air raids have intensified during the last couple of hours across the Gaza Strip” and “conditions remain dire”.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, is to make a regional tour following the announcement of the deal.
Updated
Reuters reports that in a statement carried on state media, Jordan’s foreign ministry said it hoped the four-day pause in fighting will allow much-needed humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, and would be a step that would end the war and prevent the targeting of Palestinians and their displacement from their land.
Here is a little bit more of the statement from the British foreign secretary, David Cameron. Describing the Israel-Hamas agreement as “a crucial step” and urging parties to deliver the deal in full, he said:
This pause provides an important opportunity to ensure much greater volumes of food, fuel and other life-saving aid can reach Gaza on a sustained basis.
We have already doubled our aid commitment to Palestinians this year and will work closely with the UN to ensure it reaches those who need it.
He said the UK would continue to work towards a “long-term political solution which enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace” adding, “of course, we want to see all hostages released immediately, and families affected by the horrors of the 7 October terror attack reunited.”
Updated
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the EU will seek to use the pause in fighting in Gaza to deliver more humanitarian aid to the territory.
In the statement, Von der Leyen said:
I wholeheartedly welcome the agreement reached on the release of the 50 hostages and on a pause in hostilities. Every day these mothers and children are held hostage by terrorists is one too many. I share the joy of the families who can soon embrace their loved ones again. And I am so grateful to all those who have worked tirelessly through diplomatic channels in recent weeks to broker this agreement. I call on the terrorist Hamas to immediately release all hostages and allow them to return home safely.
The European Commission will do its utmost to use this pause for a humanitarian surge to Gaza. I have asked the Commissioner Janez Lenarčič to upscale further shipments to Gaza as quickly as possible to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Updated
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, is to make a regional tour after the announcement of the four-day pause in hostilities in Gaza.
More details soon …
Reuters reports that the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, has issued a statement about the Israel-Hamas deal, saying: “This agreement is a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I urge all parties to ensure the agreement is delivered in full.”
Updated
Israel’s military has said its campaign inside Gaza is continuing, amid reports that the air bombardment has intensified in the last hours.
In a statement posted to Telegram, the IDF said:
The IDF is continuing to operate in the Gaza Strip, including striking terrorist infrastructure, killing terrorists, and locating weapons. In the past day, IDF troops directed aircraft to strike terrorist infrastructure from which fire was carried out at the forces. A number of terrorists were killed in the strike.
IDF ground troops also conducted targeted raids in Sheikh Za’id in north-west Jabalya. During the targeted raids, Hamas spotters were identified in the area and killed.
Furthermore, over the past few days, IDF troops conducted targeted raids in the area of Beit Hanoun. During the operation, the troops located numerous weapons, AK-47 rifles, axes, and ammunition stored inside a civilian residence. IDF troops also engaged in combat and eliminated a number of terrorist cells.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Earlier Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting for Al Jazeera from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, told the news network that “Israeli air raids have intensified during the last couple of hours across the Gaza Strip” and that there were “fears that air raids may intensify today before the agreement takes effect.”
He also said “conditions for people here remain very dire” but that “the short-term pause will give a glimmer of hope to Palestinians who want to go back to their houses to check their lands and even pull the victims under the rubble.”
Updated
The Times of Israel is reporting that the Almagor Terror Victims Association has said it will file a petition in Israel’s high court at noon today (10am local time) against the hostage and ceasefire deal.
It writes:
Almagor demands to see the list of prisoners Israel is considering releasing as part of the deal.
The organization also demands to see all details of the commitments Israel is making to Hamas regarding restrictions on combat during the ceasefire period, including the cessation of intelligence gathering, as well as the delivery of fuel and other supplies which may help Hamas conduct terror operations against residents of Israel.’
Additionally, they call on justice minister Yariv Levin to disclose ‘the general commitments Israel is making to Hamas that have been given directly or through a third party.’
Updated
“We hope that there will be French people among the first batch of hostages to be released,” France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna told Inter radio this morning, Reuters reports.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group said five of its members were killed in US strikes in the Jurf al-Sakhar area south of Baghdad, in a statement posted on social media on Wednesday.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that a US warplane killed multiple Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq after they fired a short-range ballistic missile at American and allied personnel in the country.
It was the first time the US has announced a strike on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq since targeting Tehran-linked sites in Syria on three occasions in recent weeks, in response to a spike in the number of attacks on US personnel.
Updated
Dr Majed Al-Ansari, official spokesperson at Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs, has released a statement on the hostage deal, saying:
Both Israel and Hamas have agreed to this deal after weeks of intense negotiations. Qatar has led the mediation efforts in coordination with the United States and regional partners, for whom we express our gratitude.
Our focus is now on ensuring that both sides adhere to the terms of the agreement. The details include observing a four-day humanitarian pause to facilitate the release of a number of civilian hostages in exchange for prisoners detained in Israeli prisons. The deal can be extended if the release of further hostages can be agreed.
We hope this agreement is the first step towards de-escalation and securing a long-term ceasefire, followed by a comprehensive political process to end this decades-long conflict.
Updated
Israel provides details of Palestinian prisoners to be released
Israel provided details on Wednesday about Palestinian prisoners slated for release under a foreign-mediated deal to recover hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, a publication that appeared intended to allow for any last-minute legal challenges.
There must be a 24-hour waiting period before the hostage deal is implemented, to give Israeli citizens the chance to ask the supreme court to block the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to reports in Israeli media.
The list posted on the justice ministry appeared to include 300 prisoners, which is twice the jailed 150 women and children that Israel has agreed to free in the initial four-day pause.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, says the hostage deal was “the result of tireless diplomacy and relentless effort across the Department and broader United States government.”
“While this deal marks significant progress, we will not rest as long as Hamas continues to hold hostages in Gaza,” Blinken said.
Updated
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has welcomed the agreement between Hamas and Israel, Reuters reports.
Updated
If you’re just joining us, Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in return for 150 Palestinian women and children to be freed from Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire, both sides announced on Wednesday morning.
The Israeli hostages will be released over the period of four days, the Israeli government said.
The deal was confirmed by a senior US official, who told reporters that the freed hostages would include three Americans, one of them a three year-old girl. The official said that the first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning, and the total number of hostages freed could rise.
The ceasefire would be extended by a day for every 10 additional hostages released, the Israeli government said.
Israel will cease air sorties in southern Gaza and restrict them to six hours a day in the north, according to the Hamas account of the deal, which also says Israeli forces will not bring military vehicles into Gaza during the ceasefire, nor try to detain anyone.
Updated
Why has a hostage agreement been reached now?
Israel’s government has come under intense pressure domestically to make progress on returning hostages. Their families mounted a high-profile “bring them home” campaign, meeting members of the Israeli war cabinet on Monday night. The military assault on northern Gaza had resulted in only one hostage being rescued alive.
International pressure has also been mounting in response to the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza. Bombing by the Israeli military followed by the ground invasion have caused a civilian crisis: food, water, fuel and medicines are desperately short, 1.7 million people out of 2.3 million have been displaced, and only 10 out of 36 hospitals are functioning.
Last week, 68% of Americans said they supported a ceasefire, reflecting concerns in the US that Israel had gone too far in its military response.
Hamas is losing ground on the battlefield, as Israel’s forces have been able to capture large parts of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. Israel’s military claims to have inflicted heavy losses on 10 out of 24 Hamas battalions and its leadership is believed to have relocated to the southern end of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa reports that an administrator at the Indonesian hospital has received a text message saying, "“A special warning to evacuate the Indonesian hospital. The Israeli army has information about (military activity) inside the hospital, and the army is requesting an immediate halt to all military actions in the hospital. If military activity does not stop within 4 hours, the army reserves the right to engage in activity against military operations in accordance with international laws.”
The hospital administrator who spoke to Wafa said that the message had “created a state of panic” at the hospital.
The Guardian has not confirmed these reports independently.
Israeli military orders evacuation of Indonesian hospital – report
Mounir Al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza’s health ministry, has told Al Jazeera TV that the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City.
Israel said militants were operating from the facility and threatened to act against them within four hours, he said.
After al-Shifa was raided last week, the Indonesian hospital was the only facility in northern Gaza still treating patients, with dozens of those killed and wounded by Israeli attacks flowing in overnight to Monday, according to medics.
But since Monday the hospital has been targeted by Israeli forces. Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Israel was “laying siege” to the hospital.
“We fear the same thing will happen there as it did in al-Shifa,” he said.
What has been agreed?
Fifty women and children held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza since 7 October are to be released in exchange for a four-day ceasefire in a deal brokered by Qatar with the support of the US.
A US official said three Americans would be among those freed, including a girl who turns four this week, and that the first release should come by Thursday.
According to Hamas, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children, from Israeli jails and allow hundreds of aid trucks a day to cross the Rafah border with Egypt, providing humanitarian supplies to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel will cease air sorties in southern Gaza and restrict them to six hours a day in the north, according to the Hamas account of the deal, which also says Israeli forces will not bring military vehicles into Gaza during the ceasefire, nor try to detain anyone.
The ceasefire would be extended by a day for every 10 additional hostages released, the Israeli government said.
The agreement temporarily pauses a war that has lasted more than six weeks so far. It has cost the lives of 14,128 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the government media office in Gaza, and more than 1,200 people in Israel, most of whom were victims of the surprise Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October.
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US Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer has released a statement on the deal, saying he is “pleased and relieved”.
He adds that the agreement will also, “give the International Red Cross access to treat the hostages who remain in Gaza for the "first time since they were taken on October 7th”.
Schumer adds:
The fact that this agreement to pause hostilities and free hostages will allow additional humanitarian assistance into Gaza for the millions of innocent Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas is a positive development.
The Senate will continue working to pass additional humanitarian assistance for innocent Palestinians, and make sure that Israel has the aid it needs to defend itself to ensure Hamas can never again pose such a threat to Israel.
AFP reports that ahead of the cabinet vote, Netanyahu had faced a revolt from within his right-wing coalition, some of whom believe it gave too much to the Palestinian militants they have vowed to crush.
Hardline Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir signalled he would vote against the agreement, saying it should include the release of Israeli soldiers also taken by Hamas.
Israel’s hawkish Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said before the crunch meeting that he had won assurances that the deal would not spell the end of the war to destroy Hamas.
“Immediately after we have exhausted this phase”, he said, security operations would “continue in full force.”
In a statement, the Israeli government underscored that the truce agreement would not mean the end of the war in Gaza.
Israel “will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” a government statement said.
At least 14,128 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, have been killed Gaza since Israel’s unprecedented airstrikes began after 7 October, according to the government media office in Gaza. The latest death toll update includes at least 5,600 children and 3,550 women.
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Here is everything we know about the deal to release hostages from Gaza, pause fighting for four days and release Palestinian prisoners:
Biden thanks Qatar and Egypt for their 'critical leadership' in deal
US President Joe Biden has released a statement welcoming the deal for a pause in fighting and the release of hostages and prisoners. Biden thanks, “Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal”.
He adds that the deal, “should bring home additional American hostages”.
Biden says:
I welcome the deal to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist group Hamas during its brutal assault against Israel on October 7th.
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I thank Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal. And I appreciate the commitment that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government have made in supporting an extended pause to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza. […] It is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented.
…Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all released.
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Qatar says 'starting time of the pause will be announced in 24 hours'
Qatar has confirmed the four-day ceasefire, as well as the swap between Israel and Hamas, The Associated Press reports. The news agency is also saying that the start time of the deal is to be announced in the next 24 hours.
The statement early Wednesday morning from Qatar’s foreign ministry described the talks that produced the agreement as a mediation by Egypt, the US and Qatar for a “humanitarian pause,” adding that 50 civilian hostages will be released in exchange for “a number of Palestinian woman and children detained in Israeli prisons.”
“The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension,” the statement said.
“The agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement.”
It added that the ceasefire will “allow the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs.” It offered no specifics on that, however.
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The senior US official also said Hamas needed the pause in fighting in order to locate some of the hostages, meaning they may be able to identify and collect additional women and children to be released.
They also said a rigorous inspection regime would ensure the militant group did not use the pause to get more weapons, according to Reuters.
Officials hope the pause in fighting will also be observed in northern Israel where there have been clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
The total number of hostages freed could rise, a senior US official has said.
The deal was confirmed by a senior US official, who told reporters that the freed hostages would include three Americans, one of them a three-year-old girl.
The official said that the first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning.
“The deal has ultimately been structured to incentivise releases beyond 50,” the senior official said, adding that the agreement “is now structured for women and children in the first phase, but with an expectation for further releases.
Here’s our full report on the hostage deal:
Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in return for a four-day partial ceasefire, the Israeli government announced early on Wednesday.
The announcement from the prime minister’s office said the lull in Israeli military operations would be extended for an additional day for every 10 more hostages released. It did not say when the ceasefire would start, though in his address to his cabinet, Benjamin Netanyahu said the first hostages should be free within 48 hours of the agreement.
Hamas confirmed an agreement had been reached and added that 150 Palestinian women and children would be freed from Israeli jails.
“The Israeli government is committed to the return of all abductees home,” the government statement said in a WhatsApp message. “Tonight, the government approved the outline for the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 abductees – women and children – will be released for four days, during which there will be a lull in the fighting. The release of every 10 additional abductees will result in an additional day of respite.”
Three US citizens held by Hamas to be released as part of deal, US official says
Three Americans held by Hamas in Gaza are expected to be among at least 50 hostages to be released by the Islamist Palestinian group under the deal arranged with Israel, the US and Qatar, a senior US official said according to Reuters.
The three include a 3-year-old girl whose parents were among the more than 1,200 people killed in Hamas’ initial 7 October attack on southern Israel, the official said.
The official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it was likely that more than 50 hostages, largely women and children, will be released once a pause in fighting takes hold.
The hostage group will include two American women and an American girl named Abigail who will turn four on Friday, the official said.
Initial releases of hostages are expected within 24 hours of the deal’s announcement, with the first likely to be freed Thursday morning, the official said.
“I would say it’s at least 50 of the women and children over a period of four to five days,” the official said, without providing details of any other nationalities expected to be released.
150 Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of deal, says Hamas
Hamas will release 50 women and children under the age of 19 in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, the militant group has said in a statement seen by Reuters.
The statement said the two sides had agreed to stop all fighting for four days and that Israel had agreed not to attack or arrest anyone in Gaza during that period.
Air traffic would stop completely in southern Gaza during the four days and for daily six-hour periods in the north, Hamas said.
Hundreds of trucks would be allowed in carrying humanitarian aid to all areas of Gaza, it continued.
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Israel and Hamas agree four-day ceasefire and release of 50 hostages held in Gaza
The Israeli government has announced the deal for the release of 50 hostages, all of whom are women and children, over four days, during which there will be pause in fighting.
Groups of 12-13 hostages will be released per day, the Times of Israel reports.
Here is the full statement on the deal from the Israeli Government:
The Government of Israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. Tonight, the Government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages – women and children – will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held. The release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause.
The Government of Israel, the IDF and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza.
The Times of Israel also reports that there may be 30 more hostages released and that the pause in fighting could be extended “by a day for each group of 10 more Israeli hostages”.
Earlier, Israeli media, including Channel 12 news, reported that if the deal was approved, the first release of hostages is expected on Thursday.
The delay is because if the deal is agreed to, there must be a 24-hour waiting period before it is implemented, to give Israeli citizens the chance to ask the supreme court to block the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to reports in Israeli media.
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Opening summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Sullivan.
The Israeli prime minister’s office has announced that Israel’s cabinet has voted to approve a deal that will see the release of 50 hostages, women and children, over four days, during which there will be pause in fighting in Gaza.
Groups of 12-13 hostages will be released per day, the Times of Israel reports, and fighting may be paused for more days if more hostages are released. In return, 150 Palestinian women and children will be released from Israel’s jails, Hamas has said.
Here is what we know about the hostage deal approved by Israel’s cabinet:
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced early on Wednesday that Israel’s cabinet has voted to approve a deal that will see the release of 50 hostages, who are women and children, over four days, during which there will be pause in fighting in Gaza.
A government statement on the deal said, “The Government of Israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. Tonight, the Government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages – women and children – will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held. The release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause.”
Three Americans held by Hamas in Gaza are expected to be among at least 50 hostages to be released by the Islamist Palestinian group under the deal arranged with Israel, the US and Qatar, a senior US official said according to Reuters. The three include a 3-year-old girl whose parents were among the more than 1,200 people killed in Hamas’ initial 7 October attack on southern Israel, the official said.
The deal cannot be enacted until Thursday to allow time for Israeli judges to review potential legal challenges to the release of prisoners, the New York Times and reports, citing Israeli officials.
Groups of 12-13 hostages will be released per day, the Times of Israel reports, and fighting may be paused for more days if more hostages are released.
Hamas said that during the four-day truce Israel had agreed not to attack or arrest anyone in Gaza and that air traffic would stop completely in southern Gaza and for daily six-hour periods in the north. It also said hundreds of trucks would be allowed in to all areas of Gaza carrying humanitarian aid.
A senior US official said that three Americans including a girl about to turn 4 would be included among those released by Hamas. The official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it was likely that more than 50 hostages, largely women and children, would be released once a pause in fighting takes hold.
Israel believes Hamas could locate about 30 more Israeli mothers and children beyond the initial 50, the Times of Israel reports, and that the halt in fighting could be extended by a day for each group of 10 more Israeli hostages who are located and freed, the government official said. “Hamas is claiming it cannot immediately track down around 10 children taken from Israel during the shock October 7 attack,” the Times of Israel reports.
Axios reports that the deal also includes an agreement by Israel to allow “around 300 aid trucks per day to enter Gaza from Egypt” as well as additional fuel.
Only three cabinet ministers opposed the deal, Axios and Al Jazeera report. The ministers opposed each belong to the Religious Zionism Party.
Other key recent developments include:
At least 14,128 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the government media office in Gaza. The latest death toll update includes at least 5,600 children and 3,550 women, it said.
A US warplane killed multiple Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq after they fired a short-range ballistic missile at American and allied personnel in the country, the Pentagon said Tuesday. It is the first time the United States has announced a strike on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq since targeting Tehran-linked sites in Syria on three occasions in recent weeks, in response to a spike in attacks on American personnel.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it stands in solidarity with health workers at al-Awda hospital in north Gaza after three doctors and “a patient companion” were reportedly killed in an attack on the facility. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have said two of its doctors and a third health ministry doctor were killed after what it said was a strike on al-Awda hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said three doctors were killed in what it said was an Israeli strike on al-Awda, one of the last remaining functional hospitals in northern Gaza.
The WHO also confirmed that one of its staff was killed in Gaza on Tuesday alongside her six-month-old baby. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was a critical part of the WHO’s trauma and emergency team and had been part of the organisation since 2019, it said. She was killed when her parents’ house in southern Gaza, where she had evacuated from Gaza City, was bombed, the WHO said in a statement. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “devastated” by the news of her death.
The UN has warned that a “tragic … entirely avoidable surge” in child deaths is expected in Gaza, where on average a child is killed every 10 minutes. The UN children’s agency (Unicef) said the number of children dying could skyrocket due to the serious additional threat of a mass disease outbreak in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha has been released after he was detained by Israeli forces along with scores of other Palestinian men trying to leave northern Gaza, according to his friends and Israeli officials.
At least 52 journalists and media workers have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Tuesday, a Hezbollah-affiliated news channel said two of its journalists were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the south of Lebanon, near the boundary with Israel.
The European Commission has said it will continue to provide financial aid to Palestinians after an investigation found no evidence that the money was going to Hamas. The EU is the world’s biggest provider of assistance to Palestinians, with almost €1.2bn earmarked for 2021-2024.
The Scottish Labour party have formally backed demands for a full ceasefire in Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Anas Sarwar supported a motion put forward by Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, on Tuesday calling for an immediate truce, widening the Labour party’s divisions on the conflict.
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