Closing summary
It’s just passed 4.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’re about to pause this live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. We will resume it later in the day. Here’s a rundown on the latest major developments:
The third exchange of hostages and prisoners between Hamas and Israel has taken place amid the four-day ceasefire deal. Israel said the militant group released 17 hostages on Sunday, including three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children. Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails, Israeli prison authorities said.
The releases bring to 63 the total number of freed hostages from around 240 taken to Gaza after Hamas’ 7 October attack, Agence France-Presse reports, while Israel has freed 39 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on each of three days since Friday.
One hundred and twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday, including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service said. “The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” Diaa Rashwan said.
Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone call with US president Joe Biden on Sunday that at the end of the four-day ceasefire, Israel will resume its military operations in Gaza with full force, Reuters has reported. However, the Israeli prime minister also said he welcomed the possibility of 10 hostages being freed for each extra day of truce.
Hamas said on Sunday that it was seeking to extend the truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israel.
A US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals and was now safe and free, US officials say. The tanker, carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, was identified as the Central Park by the vessel’s company. The officials did not identify the attackers. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
Hamas has announced that four senior commanders have been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, a commander in the north of Gaza. Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”.
A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
Israel’s military claimed to have killed five Palestinians overnight on Saturday as well as arresting 21 in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Funerals were held for those killed on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning.
The current state of aid in Gaza is “hardly enough for humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege of Gaza Strip”, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. Philippe Lazzarini told US CBS’s Face the Nation said on Sunday that a lot more aid was required than the 160 to 200 trucks’ worth crossing into Gaza daily over the past few days.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Monday, along with Israelis whose relatives have been held by Hamas in Gaza. Herzog’s office announced the meeting on Sunday night, saying: “In their meeting, the president will emphasise the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.” Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, did not respond to requests for comment through spokespeople for Tesla and X. The billionaire has been accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Israel’s Channel 12 said Musk would also meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday during the visit coinciding with the temporary truce.
Three college students described as being of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in the US city of Burlington, Vermont, on their way to a family dinner on Saturday evening.
Tens of thousands of people including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally. Johnson was joined by the UK chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march, which organisers billed as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century. Police at the march detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who is the former leader of the far-right English Defence League.
Updated
In case you missed this earlier, the family and friends of Emily Hand have spoken of their joy after Hamas released the nine-year-old Israeli-Irish girl from captivity in Gaza.
“Emily has come back to us,” her father, Thomas Hand, said after an emotional reunion at a hospital in Israel after her release late on Saturday
Emily’s family said in a statement:
We can’t find the words to describe our emotions after 50 challenging and complicated days.
Later on Sunday her father gave an update on her recovery, saying:
She has lost a lot of weight, from her face and body, but generally doing better than we expected.
We’d like to thank everyone that has helped and supported us throughout this whole 50 days. It’s been great, we can’t do it without you.
Emily was initially feared dead after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, but was later counted among the hostages.
For Lisa O’Carroll’s full report, click here:
Updated
