Closing summary
It’s turned 7.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’ll close this blog in a moment. Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war will resume soon, and in the meantime you can see all our coverage here. Here’s where things stand.
The first group of hostages were released by Hamas – 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Philippine national – on Friday. The 13 Israelis, who included very young children and older women, had reached their home country by early evening. The Thai ministry said it “will do all possible to expedite” the return of their nationals to Thailand. Israel has received a list of hostages who are expected to be released by Hamas on Saturday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says.
Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel on Friday evening. They consisted of 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones. Celebrations have been taking place in the occupied West Bank following their release.
The hostage release came as part of a deal that has brought about a temporary pause in hostilities, with the four-day ceasefire marking the first break in seven weeks of war in Gaza. Under the agreement, Hamas is due to free at least 50 of the about 240 mostly Israeli hostages it has held since launching attacks into southern Israel on 7 October in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. In return, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The families of the 10 Thai hostages released on Friday had been notified, Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs said, and the group was now with officials from the Thai embassy. The ministry also said there were now an estimated 20 Thai nationals who were still being held in Gaza.
US president Joe Biden said the chances were “real” that a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be extended. Biden said Friday’s hostage release was the “start of a process” and that he “will not stop” until all remaining hostages in Gaza were brought home. The deal reached by Israel and Hamas involved “extensive US diplomacy”, he said, adding: “It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well.” Biden also said he expected American citizens to be among the hostages who would be released.
Most of the Israeli hostages released by Hamas were said to be in good health after returning to Israel, the hospital receiving them announced. Schneider Children’s hospital, where four women and four child hostages were released, said doctors had conducted a preliminary examination and said they were all in in good physical condition.
Some 137 trucks of goods were offloaded by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reception point in the Gaza Strip on Friday. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said it was “the biggest humanitarian convoy received” in Gaza since 7 October. In addition, 129,000 litres of fuel and four trucks of gas also crossed into Gaza, it said.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos said on X that he was “overjoyed” to confirm that a Filipino, Gelienor “Jimmy” Pacheco, was among the first group of hostages released on Friday. Pacheco was working as a carer when he was captured by Hamas during the 7 October attacks.
The World Health Organisation has voiced concern about the fate of the head of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, whom Israeli forces detained over the facility’s alleged use by Hamas.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to gather in London for the latest demonstration calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The Metropolitan police will be on high alert and about 1,500 officers will be deployed for the protests on Saturday.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials. More are thought to be buried under rubble. At least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October, and more than 240 people taken hostage.
Updated
The war is paused, but it is not over.
There will be relief at the promised four days of quiet between Israel and Hamas, and there will be joy for the families waiting to be reunited with loved ones, thanks to Friday’s exchange of hostages held in Gaza for prisoners held in Israel.
But even if the ceasefire is extended, perhaps in return for the release of more Hamas-held captives, this war will not be over anytime soon. If anything, it is likely to intensify.
It is too big to stop now, it runs too deep. And it has already turned Israel upside down.
You only have to spend a few days in the country to see that. The war is everywhere.
In case you missed this earlier, Jonathan Freedland has spoken to survivors, displaced people and senior political and military figures about life in Israel before and after 7 October, and considers the longer-term ramifications:
WHO concerned for arrested al-Shifa hospital chief
The World Health Organisation has voiced concern about the fate of the head of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, whom Israeli forces detained over the facility’s alleged use by Hamas.
The WHO said in a statement that the chief of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, had been arrested on Wednesday along with five other health workers while they were taking part in a UN mission to evacuate patients, Agence France-Presse reports.
“Three medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and three from the ministry of health were detained,” the WHO said.
Since then two of the six have reportedly been released, but “we do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of al-Shifa hospital”, the statement added.
The UN agency called for “their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention”.
A spokesperson for the Israeli army said on Saturday that Abu Salmiya was being questioned. Doron Spielman said:
We are currently moving forward with... questioning him over the fact that he was the head of a hospital that was really sitting on top of an entire terror network.
How could he not know what’s happening? We have hostages that were on, you know, CCTV in his hospital.
The Israeli army, which raided the hospital last week, has alleged Hamas fighters used a tunnel complex beneath the facility. Hamas and hospital officials have repeatedly denied the claims.
During the WHO’s latest mission to the hospital on Wednesday – carried out in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent – 151 people were evacuated, including patients, their relatives and healthcare workers, according to the WHO.
Updated
Israel reviews list of Hamas hostages to be freed on Saturday
Israel has received a list of hostages set to be freed by Hamas from Gaza on Saturday, Israeli officials said, following the release of 24 hostages on Friday – the first of a planned four-day ceasefire.
Reuters reports that Israeli security officials were reviewing the list, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, after his government’s vow to work for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas in the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
The pause in the fighting was the first such break, with both sides saying hostilities would resume as soon as the truce ends. US president Joe Biden, however, expressed hope the pause could be extended.
The released hostages, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, were transferred from Gaza and handed to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, along with eight staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross in a four-car convoy, the organisation said.
They were then taken to Israel for medical checks and reunions with relatives.
Twenty Thais still captive in Gaza, says Thailand, after 10 freed
Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs said the families of the 10 Thai hostages released by Hamas on Friday had been notified, and the group was now with officials from the Thai embassy.
The ministry said in a statement.
This group will stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours, while RTE [the royal Thai embassy] will make all the necessary arrangements for their travel back to Thailand and their families as soon as possible.
The ministry has confirmed that 10 Thai hostages were released on Friday, not 12 as was initially suggested by Thai authorities.
.@MFAThai images of the 10 Thai hostages released on Friday. Families have been notified and the group is now with embassy officials. There are now an estimated 20 Thai nationals still being held (4 of the people recently released had not previously been confirmed as hostages) pic.twitter.com/Eb6PDvc4dY
— Rebecca Ratcliffe (@rebeccarat) November 25, 2023
The ministry also said there were now an estimated 20 Thai nationals who were still being held in Gaza. It was previously thought that at least 26 Thai nationals had been abducted, including the 10 people recently released. However, of the group of 10 released on Friday, four had not previously been confirmed as hostages.
The ministry thanked all governments and organisations who helped to secure Friday’s release, saying:
The Thai government would like to express, once again, its deepest appreciation to all of the parties from whom the Thai authorities had sought assistance and support, such as the governments of Qatar, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], as well as others involved in the immense efforts that led to this recent release.
We sincerely hope that the remaining hostages will be treated humanely and released safely as soon as possible.
Updated
Ferdinand Marcos 'overjoyed' at Filipino's release
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos has said on X that he is “overjoyed” to confirm that a Filipino, Gelienor “Jimmy” Pacheco, was among the first group of hostages released on Friday.
Pacheco was working as a carer when he was captured by Hamas during the 7 October attacks.
Marcos added:
He is now safely in the custody of officials in our Israel Embassy. I salute the work of the Philippine Foreign Service in securing his release, and once again thank the State of Qatar for their invaluable assistance in making Jimmy’s release possible.
Marcos said the search for a second missing person continued.
We remain concerned over the whereabouts of our other national, Ms Noralyn Babadilla, and are sparing no effort to locate and secure her if she is indeed found to be one of the hostages. We pray for the continued success of the truce and for all hostages to be released.
I am overjoyed to confirm that a Filipino, Mr. Gelienor “Jimmy” Pacheco, was among the first group of 24 hostages released by the Hamas yesterday.
— Bongbong Marcos (@bongbongmarcos) November 24, 2023
He is now safely in the custody of officials in our Israel Embassy.
I salute the work of the Philippine Foreign Service in…
Updated
Post 2 of 2
The Metropolitan police said officers would hand out leaflets to provide “absolute clarity” on what would be deemed at Saturday’s pro-Palestinian rally in London, where tens of thousands are expected to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said:
This sets out that anyone who is racist or incites hatred against any group should expect to be arrested. As should anyone who supports Hamas or any other banned organisation.
Organisers Stop the War coalition said such a measure was “intrusive” but asked anyone attending to avoid “any actions that might leave you or others around you open to arrest”.
The afternoon will also see a protest by Hizb-ut-Tahrir outside the Egyptian embassy. It is the first by the group since 21 October, after a video emerged showing a man chanting “jihad”, prompting an outcry from politicians.
A march organised by the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism is also due to take place on Sunday, with about 40,000 to 50,000 people expected to attend.
Updated
London police on high alert over major pro-Palestinian protest
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to gather in London for the latest demonstration calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
PA Media reports that about 1,500 officers will be deployed for the protests, which come amid the temporary truce in the war and Hamas’ release of 24 hostages, along with Israel’s release of 39 Palestinian prisoners.
The Metropolitan police will be on high alert in the capital, after a previous rally on Armistice Day saw scenes of violent disorder after counter-protesters clashed with officers.
The Met had come under severe pressure from politicians over the decision to allow that march to go ahead, with former home secretary Suella Braverman accusing the force of showing bias in favour of leftwing protesters.
About 100,000 people are expected to march on Saturday from Park Lane to Whitehall, as organisers rejected the label of “hate march” deployed by Braverman before she was sacked by prime minister Rishi Sunak.
Post 1 of 2
Updated
Most of the Israeli hostages released by Hamas were said to be in good health after returning to Israel, the hospital receiving them announced.
A statement from Schneider Children’s hospital, where four women and four child hostages were released, said doctors had conducted a preliminary examination and said they were all in in good physical condition, Associated Press reports.
A total of 13 Israeli hostages were freed on Friday and transferred to three separate hospitals across Israel. Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel on Friday evening.
Updated
Reuters has posted a video report on displaced Palestinians in Gaza saying they’re not being allowed to return north as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues.
A man beside a road in Khan Younis, in the territory’s south, says in the video, posted on X (formerly Twitter):
They didn’t let us go back to Gaza City to see our children. They’re young and don’t know their way ... No one knows what to do or how we will bring them back.
We are poor people, I got them food to eat. Our hearts are aching.
Gaza residents said the Israelis had dropped leaflets warning people not to return to northern Gaza Strip as a temporary ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas began https://t.co/4yk9LThC3u pic.twitter.com/aeBz26nOpg
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 24, 2023
As we posted earlier, Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians and wounded 11 others on Friday as they headed toward northern Gaza, Associated Press reported.
The shooting took place as hundreds of Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza were seen trying to head back to the north, despite warnings by the Israeli army not to attempt to return to their homes.
Witnesses said Israeli troops were opening fire on people trying to head north.
An AP journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah in the southern half of Gaza. The injured people had been shot in the legs.
For the families of the Israelis hostages freed by Hamas, there was happiness mingled with concern for those who remained in Gaza, Reuters reports.
“I am happy I received my family back, it’s allowed to feel joy and it’s allowed to shed a tear. That’s a human thing,” said Yoni Katz Asher, whose wife Doron and children Raz and Aviv were freed on Friday.
But I am not celebrating, I will not celebrate until the last of the hostages returns home.
Israeli leaders have sworn to free the rest of the hostages as the military pursues its invasion of Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ attack on 7 October.
For the moment, the hostages are being kept away from the media while their condition is assessed. And for those whose relatives have not come home, the wait continues in a conflicting swirl of feelings.
“The emotions are mixed emotions,” said Shelly Shem Tov, the mother Omer Shem Tov, 21, who had attended the outdoor Supernova dance festival that was targeted in the attack and was among those taken hostage. He was not among those released on Friday.
“I’m excited for the families who today are going to hug their loved ones,” she said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.
I am jealous. And I am sad. Mostly sad that Omer is still not coming home.
Hamas released the first group of hostages – 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Philippine national – on Friday, while Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Stay with us for the latest on the hostage releases and all other key developments.
Updated
Organisers of a march against antisemitism billed as Britain’s biggest since the second world war have demanded that the far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon stay away.
Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, has claimed to support the aims of the march through central London due to be held this Sunday.
Organisers say it will be the biggest protest against anti-Jewish hatred since the 1936 Cable Street protests against Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts.
Britain’s Jewish communities have suffered a large rise in antisemitism since the Middle East exploded into crisis after the Hamas attacks against Israel on 7 October. Police said up to 50,000 people were expected at Sunday’s march.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said:
Contrary to what Tommy Robinson appears to believe, the drunken far-right thugs who came to ‘protect the Cenotaph’ on Armistice Day, some of whom shouted ‘sieg heil’ or hospitalised police officers, are not allies of the Jewish community and are not welcome at our solidarity march on Sunday 26 November.
We look forward to seeing those who genuinely support our community and invite all of our allies to join us and march shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with British Jews.
On 11 November, Armistice Day, Robinson supporters were among those who attacked police after claiming to be protecting war monuments from pro-Palestine marchers.
The Met deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said:
Having spoken to the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Tommy Robinson is not welcome at the march on Sunday.
Police said they were aware that Robinson might try to attend posing as a reporter.
WHO 'extremely concerned' about safety of patients at al-Shifa after hospital director arrested
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is “extremely concerned” about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health worker remaining at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
In a statement published today, the WHO said it did not “have information about the well-being” of four health workers who have been arrested, including the director of al-Shifa hospital.
On Thursday, Mohammad abu Salmiya and other medics were reportedly arrested by members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as they were travelling with a WHO evacuation convoy.
The WHO said it participated in a “high-risk mission” on Wednesday, in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), to transfer 151 patients, relatives and health workers from al-Shifa.
During the screening process by members of the IDF, three medical personnel from the PRCS and three from the health ministry were detained, it said. The statement continued:
Two of the six detained health workers have reportedly been released. We do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of Al-Shifa hospital. WHO calls for their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention.
The IDF has confirmed Abu Salmiya had been arrested and transferred to the Shin Bet domestic security service for further questioning. It said that al-Shifa “under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre” and that Hamas fighters had sought refuge in the hospital.
Joe Biden says he expects "dozens more hostages, including Americans" will be released
The US president has said he expects American citizens to be among the hostages who will be released.
Posting to social media, he said:
Beginning today, under the deal reached between Israel and Hamas, fighting in Gaza will halt for four days.
13 Israeli hostages have been released along with several Thai nationals.
And we expect that dozens more, including Americans, will be returned to their families.
Beginning today, under the deal reached between Israel and Hamas, fighting in Gaza will halt for four days.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 24, 2023
13 Israeli hostages have been released along with several Thai nationals.
And we expect that dozens more, including Americans, will be returned to their families.
Updated
Protesters shouted “free Palestine” as Joe Biden took a stroll through Nantucket in Massachusetts with first lady Jill Biden on Friday.
The protest happened shortly after the president made a statement welcoming the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Here’s a clip:
Most of the Israeli hostages released by Hamas earlier today were said to be in good health after returning to Israel, the hospital receiving them announced.
AP reported that a statement from Schneider Children’s hospital, where four women and four child hostages were released, said that doctors had conducted a preliminary examination and said they were all in good physical condition.
An Israeli health ministry spokesperson confirmed that eight released hostages had arrived at Schneider Children’s hospital, adding:
This is a complex event, both medically and emotionally.
'Real' chance of ceasefire extension, says Biden; putting conditions on Israel aid 'worthwhile thought'
Joe Biden has said the chances were “real” that a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be extended.
The pause in hostilities, which began this morning and will initially last four or five days, was announced early on Wednesday and has raised hopes for a more durable pause in the violence.
The US president, speaking to reporters from Nantucket, Massachusetts earlier today, was asked whether the truce could be extended, Reuters reported. He replied:
I think the chances are real.
Asked what his expectations were, Biden said “I don’t know how long it will take,” adding:
My expectation and hope is that as we move forward, the rest of the Arab world and the region is also putting pressure on all sides to slow this down, to bring this to an end as quickly as we can.
He also said that conditioning military aid to Israel was a “worthwhile thought, but I don’t think if I started off with that we would have ever gotten where we are today”, AP reported.
Spain and Belgium’s prime ministers called for a “permanent ceasefire” on Friday at the Rafah border crossing, welcoming a four-day truce that paused fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“It is absolutely necessary to establish a lasting humanitarian ceasefire to reverse the catastrophic situation that the people of the [Gaza] Strip are going through,” said Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.
Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s prime minister, echoed Sánchez, saying: “The destruction of Gaza is unacceptable. We cannot accept that a society is being destroyed the way it is being destroyed.”
Here’s the clip:
Summary of the day so far
It’s midnight in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The first group of hostages have been released by Hamas – 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Philippine national – on Friday. The 13 Israelis, who included very young children and older women, had reached their home country by early evening. The Thai ministry said it “will do all possible to expedite” the return of their nationals to Thailand. Israel has received a list of hostages who are expected to be released by Hamas on Saturday, according to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
A total of 39 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel on Friday evening. They consisted of 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones. Some had not seen their homes for many years. Celebrations have been taking place in the occupied West Bank following their release.
The hostage release came as part of a deal that has brought about a temporary pause in hostilities. The four-day ceasefire marks the first break in seven weeks of war in Gaza and offers some relief for the 2.3 million Palestinians who have endured intensive Israeli bombardment, as well as for families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during the attack that triggered the conflict.
Some 137 trucks of goods were offloaded by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reception point in the Gaza Strip on Friday. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said it was “the biggest humanitarian convoy received” in Gaza since 7 October. In addition, 129,000 litres of fuel and four trucks of gas also crossed into Gaza, it said.
Under the agreement, Hamas is due to free at least 50 of the approximately 240 mostly Israeli hostages it has held since launching attacks into southern Israel on 7 October in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. In return, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials. More are thought to be buried under rubble. At least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October, and more than 240 people taken hostage.
Joe Biden said Friday’s hostage release was the “start of a process”, adding that he “will not stop” until all remaining hostages in Gaza are brought home. In a statement, the US president said the deal reached by Israel and Hamas involved “extensive US diplomacy”, adding: “It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well.”
Updated
Israel has notified families of hostages to be released tomorrow, says Israeli PM's office
Israel has received a list of hostages who are expected to be released by Hamas on Saturday, according to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu’s office said it has notified the families whose loved ones are set for release.
Updated
Helicopters carrying released hostages have arrived at several hospitals across Israel where they will be reunited privately with their families.
Updated
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described the release of hostages as “welcome news and an enormous relief”.
Posting to social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hoped all remaining hostages will be soon be released and reunited with their loved ones. He added:
While still in captivity, they must have access to any medical care needed.
This is welcome news and an enormous relief. We hope all remaining hostages will be released soon and reunited with their loved ones. While still in captivity, they must have access to any medical care needed.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 24, 2023
I am thinking of them and their families tonight.…
In the heart of Tel Aviv, several hundred people waited in the plaza now called Hostages Square.
As darkness fell the mood was melancholic but hopeful as people waited for a confirmation that 13 women and children held by Hamas had been freed as planned.
Then came a cheer as news of their release was confirmed.
People sang Shabbat or old folklore songs as they waited outside the Museum of Art, where among the most poignant displays was an empty dinner table, surrounded by 240 empty seats, representing each of the missing hostages, not just the handful in the slow process of coming home.
“I’m just looking at these pictures and seeing that Israeli children and women and whoever are coming back to their families. I mean, it’s amazing for us,” Gil Dickmann told the BBC, even though his cousin Carmel Gat was not going to be one of those released in the first wave.
Celebrations broke out in parts of the West Bank after a truce mediated by Qatar between Israel and Hamas led to the freeing of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Here’s a clip:
The World Health Organization has released the following statement on the joint UN missing transfers of critical patients from al-Shifa hospital earlier this week amid Israeli bombardment:
“On 22 November, in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, WHO participated in another joint-UN mission to transfer 151 patients, relatives and health workers accompanying them from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. The mission was undertaken following specific requests from health authorities and hospital officials in Gaza …
During this mission, the team transferred 73 severely ill or injured patients, including 18 dialysis patients; 26 patients with serious spinal injuries; 8 patients with severe chronic conditions; two in need of critical care; and 19 patients in wheelchairs. The patients were transported in 14 ambulances supplied and staffed by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and two buses, with 8 health workers and 70 family members accompanying them …
It took 20 hours for the team to complete the evacuation, including 6 hours at a checkpoint where the team and patients were screened by the Israeli Defense Force. This was despite an initial agreement to only screen participants at the origination point in Al-Shifa Hospital.
The screening process involved checks on the patients, their relatives, and the personnel; these included elderly, children and severely ill patients. Three medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and three from the Ministry of Health were detained.
After 6 hours at the security checkpoint, the convoy proceeded as the condition of some of patients was already deteriorating. Patients reached their final destination late at night.
Most of the patients were ultimately transferred to the European Gaza Hospital, with the dialysis patients admitted to Al Najjar Hospital. Both facilities are in the south of Gaza.
WHO is extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al-Shifa. Due to the limited time that the mission members were able to spend in the hospital and the urgency of moving the most critical, it was difficult to determine exactly how many remain.
Two of the six detained health workers have reportedly been released. We do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of Al-Shifa hospital. WHO calls for their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention.”
Updated
French president Emmanuel Macron has welcomed the release of the first group of hostages.
In a post on X, Macron said:
“We remain mobilized alongside the mediators to secure the release of all hostages. Special thoughts go to the French hostages and their families. They can count on our determination.”
I welcome the release of the first group of hostages. We remain mobilized alongside the mediators to secure the release of all hostages. Special thoughts go to the French hostages and their families. They can count on our determination.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 24, 2023
In a separate statement, the French foreign ministry said that the French government remains “mobilized for the release of French hostages within the framework of the agreement currently being implemented ... and we are working tirelessly to obtain that,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Updated
Here is video of what appears to be the moment that Hamas handed over the hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross earlier today:
This appears to be the first Hamas video showing the moment the hostages were handed over to the ICRC. (It’s being shared on Palestinian and Israeli social media - and by Israeli family members of those in the video). pic.twitter.com/xRYmppcEdH
— Bel Trew (@Beltrew) November 24, 2023
Red Cross says it facilitated release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison to Ramallah
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has released a statement confirming its successful facilitation of the release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison in the West Bank.
Posting on X, the ICRC said:
We have now successfully facilitated the release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison to Ramallah. We have managed to do so thanks to our neutral intermediary role.
We have now successfully facilitated the release of 33 Palestinian detainees from Ofer prison to Ramallah.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 24, 2023
We have managed to do so thanks to our neutral intermediary role.
Updated
The Spanish government has hit back at Israeli claims that Pedro Sánchez’s recent remarks on the conflict are “giving support to terrorism”.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, has called the Israeli government’s comments “totally false and unacceptable”, adding:
The ministry of foreign affairs is analysing the appropriate response that we are going to give - and there will be a response to these false, misplaced and unacceptable accusations.
Looking to the future, Biden urges an end to “this cycle of violence” and renews his resolve to pursue a two-state solution “where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side … with equal measure of freedom and dignity”.
The US president says:
Over the coming days, I’ll remain engaged with leaders throughout the Middle East as we all work together to build a better future for the region.
A future where this kind of violence is unthinkable. A future where all children … Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian Arab, grow up knowing only peace.
Updated
Joe Biden says the pause in fighting is a “critical” opportunity to deliver much needed food, medicine, water and fuel to the civilians in Gaza.
“We are not wasting one single minute,” he says, adding that he has been focused on accelerating the delivery of humanitarian systems to Gaza in coordination with the UN and the Red Cross.
More than 200 trucks carrying food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas arrived at the crossing point in Egypt into Gaza today, he says.
The fuel will be used not only to power the trucks delivering this life saving supplies, but for desalinisation for water wells for hospitals and for bakeries. Hundreds more trucks are getting in position as well, ready to enter Gaza over the coming days.
He says mechanisms have been put in place to prevent Hamas from diverting these supplies.
Biden says today's hostage release is 'start of a process'
Joe Biden says today’s hostage release is the “start of a process”, adding:
We expect more hostages to be released tomorrow. And more the day after, and more the a day after that. Over the next few days, we expect that dozens of hostages will be returned to their families.
He says that he “will not stop” until all the remaining hostages in Gaza are brought home.
Updated
Joe Biden says all of the hostages who have been released today have been through a “terrible" ordeal and that this is the “beginning of a long journey of healing”.
The teddy bears waiting to greet those children at the hospital are a stark reminder of the trauma these children have been through at such a very young age.
Today has been a product of “a lot of hard work and weeks of personal engagement'” he says, adding that he and his teams have been working “around the clock” to secure the release of the hostages since they were first taken captive.
Biden says he has spoken repeatedly with the Emir of Qatar, President Sisi of Egypt, and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to confirm the elements of the engagement”.
'It's only a start': Biden says hostage release deal involved 'extensive US diplomacy'
Joe Biden has begun delivering his remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza.
The US president says that beginning this morning under a deal “reached by extensive US diplomacy”, fighting will halt for four days to allow a pause for more than 50 hostages to be released. “That’s our goal,” he says.
He says 13 Israeli hostages were released this morning, including older women and mothers with their young children, some under the age of six.
Separately, several Thai nationals and Filipino nations who were kidnapped by Hamas have also been released, he says, adding:
It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well.
Updated
Biden to speak on release of hostages from Gaza
US president Joe Biden is about to deliver remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza.
We will be following his remarks live on the blog. You can also watch his address at the top of this page.
Celebrations have been taking place in the West Bank following the release of 39 Palestinian women and children detainees from Israeli jails.
A total of 39 Palestinian prisoners – 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones – were released by Israel on Friday evening. Some had not seen their families for many years.
In at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their families’ homes in Jerusalem, Reuters reported, citing witnesses.
Four German hostages released from Gaza, says foreign minister
Four German-Israeli dual nationals were among the hostages released from Gaza on Friday, German media reported.
The released hostages whose family members said they had dual citizenship were: Aviv Asher, 2; Raz Asher, 4; and Doron Katz-Asher, 34; as well as Margalit Mozes, 77.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, on the sidelines of a Greens’ party conference, confirmed four dual nationals were among those released, Deutsche Welle reported.
She expressed her thanks to Qatar for its role in negotiating the release as well as Egypt and the International Red Cross. She said:
I am immensely relieved that 24 hostages have just been released from Gaza, including four Germans, that a father, after 49 days of hell, of unbelievable anxiety, can finally hold his two little daughters and his wife safely in his arms again.
She continued:
There are still over 200 women and men, and especially children, in the hands of Hamas. Our thoughts are with them today and also with their families. As much as this day is a day of hope, it is not a day to breathe a sigh of relief.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari has held a news conference where he said the released hostages – 13 Israelis and 11 foreigners – have all undergone medical tests and are in good condition.
The freed hostages are being taken to Hatzerim airbase to complete physical and mental checkups, and to call their families, the Times of Israel reported.
The foreigners, from Thailand and the Philippines, will meet representatives of their nations, he said.
They will all then by taken by helicopters to hospitals, where they will meet their families, he said. He added:
We mustn’t forget this evening that each and every one of those returning home tonight still has a family member who has been murdered or has been held captive in Gaza.
He continued:
The sight of the hostages returning home and crossing into Israel gave us a great sense of relief and yet our heart goes out to all the other hostages still kept in Gaza.
UN agency says 137 trucks enter Gaza in biggest humanitarian convoy since start of war
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) has said 137 trucks were offloaded by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reception point in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
The UN was able to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance into and across Gaza during the humanitarian pause that has been in place since this morning, the OCHA said in a statement.
The offloading of 137 trucks of goods by the UNRWA reception point in Gaza makes it “the biggest humanitarian convoy received” since 7 October, it said.
Hundreds of thousands of people were assisted with food, water, medical supplies and other essential humanitarian items.
In addition, 129,000 litres of fuel and four trucks of gas also crossed into Gaza.
Twenty critical patients were evacuated from the north of Gaza, it said.
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Freed Palestinian prisoner says she is 'nervous and stunned' after release
A Palestinian woman who is among the first group of prisoners who have just been released from Ofer prison has said many of the released detainees need medical attention.
Marah Bakeer, who was arrested in 2015 when she was 16 years old, told Al Jazeera:
All of the prisoners suffered a high level of medical neglect [while detained].
She told the outlet that she was informed this morning that she was going to be released, adding:
I’m a little nervous and stunned; I can’t believe I’m out.
She added that she is looking forward to spending time with her family, and is considering enrolling in a university to pursue a degree in law.
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Israel has said it released 39 Palestinian prisoners in line with a truce deal that saw 13 Israeli hostages freed in Gaza earlier today, AP reported.
Qadura Fares, who heads an advocacy group for prisoners, said 33 prisoners freed in the West Bank were handed to a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The remaining six were being freed from a Jerusalem lockup, he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the release of hostages taken in the Hamas terror attacks on 7 October into Israel.
The Israeli prime minister, in a video statement, said:
We just completed the return of the first of our hostages: children, their mothers and additional women. Each of them is an entire world.
He added that the Israeli government is committed to the return of all hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 24, 2023
"We just completed the return of the first of our hostages: children, their mothers and additional women. Each of them is an entire world. pic.twitter.com/fDMqAVlicM
Here is a clip of a convoy of International Red Cross vehicles transferring captives held in Gaza to the Rafah border crossing and then into Egypt.
Qatar, which mediated the deal between Hamas and Israel, confirmed that 13 Israeli citizens, 10 Thais and one person from the Philippines have been released from Gaza.
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Buses carrying Palestinian detainees arrive at Beitunia checkpoint
Buses carrying Palestinian women and children who were imprisoned by Israel have been seen arriving at the Beitunia checkpoint following their release from Ofer prison as part of the hostage deal.
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Among the 13 Israeli hostages who have been confirmed freed is Hana Katzir, 76, who the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) had claimed had died in captivity.
In a statement earlier this week, a spokesperson for the PIJ’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, claimed that Katzir had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
International Red Cross vehicles have been seen arriving at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank to transport the expected 39 Palestinians.
Israeli security forces have fired volleys of teargas as thousands of Palestinians gathered outside the prison, where the Palestinians are expected to emerge any moment.
A total of 39 Palestinian prisoners – 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones – are expected to be released today.
From the Independent’s Bel Trew:
Meanwhile at Ofer prison- Red Cross vehicles have arrived to transport the expected 39 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel who are part of the hostage release deal. Israelis fired tear gas earlier at crowds gathered there pic.twitter.com/ZXgB8G0UZV
— Bel Trew (@Beltrew) November 24, 2023
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Four children and five older women among freed hostages, says Israeli PM's office
The Israeli prime minister’s office has published a list of the 13 Israeli hostages freed from Hamas captivity today:
Doron Katz-Asher, 34
Raz Asher, 4
Aviv Asher, 2
Daniel Aloni, 45
Amelia Aloni, 5
Ruth Munder, 78
Keren Monder, 54
Ohad Monder, 9
Adina Moshe, 72
Hana Katzir, 76
Margalit Mozes, 77
Hanna Perry, 79
Yaffe Adar, 85
Updated
Pedro Sánchez, whose recent comments have infuriated Israel’s foreign minister (see here), continued his pleas for a rethink of Israel’s offensive in Gaza while visiting the Rafah crossing in Egypt today.
The Spanish prime minister also said his country would be prepared to unilaterally recognise the state of Palestine if EU countries failed to do so in significant numbers. He said:
I reiterate that Israel has the right to defend itself, but within the parameters and limitations imposed by international humanitarian law. But this is not the case. The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, is completely unacceptable. Violence will only lead to more violence. We need to replace violence with hope and peace.
He also said:
I think the moment has come for the international community – especially for the European Union and member states – to recognise the state of Palestine. I think it would be important if many member states of the European Union did it all together. But if this is not the case, of course Spain will take its own decisions … We must offer Palestinian people a future of hope. It’s not just a question of finding a solution to the crisis in Gaza; Israel must be the first to take a comprehensive approach that also deals with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This will only be possible through the implementation of the two-state solution, including the recognition by the international community and Israel of the state of Palestine.
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Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has described the release of the first hostages as an “important first step”.
Posting to social media, he said Israel would “continue and do everything necessary” to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home.
עשינו צעד ראשון וחשוב - נמשיך ונעשה את כל הנדרש כדי להשיב את החטופים הביתה.
— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) November 24, 2023
זוהי חובתנו עבור החטופים, עבור בני המשפחות ועבור מדינת ישראל.
שבת שלום🇮🇱
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Israel releases names of hostages freed from Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have released the names of the 13 hostages that have been released from Gaza today.
The 13 hostages are now in Israeli territory, and are being escorted by special forces and the security services, Shin Bet, until they can be reunited with their families, the IDF said.
From the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian:
The 13 Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity: Margalit Moses, Adina Moshe, Danielle Aloni and her daughter Emilia, Doron Asher and her daughters Raz and Aviv, Hanna Katzir, Keren Munder and her son Ohad, Ruti Munder, Yaffa Adar, and Hannah Perry pic.twitter.com/x7uiizXdAB
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 24, 2023
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Updated
IDF confirms released hostages are inside Israel
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed that the Israeli hostages freed from Gaza are now in Israel and have undergone medical checks.
A statement from the IDF reads:
The released hostages underwent an initial medical assessment inside Israeli territory. They will continue to be accompanied by IDF soldiers as they make their way to Israeli hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families.
Axios’ Barak Ravid has shared the full IDF statement in English:
BREAKING: All 13 Israeli hostages are in Israeli territory, IDF and Shin Bet say pic.twitter.com/GJuk9uWJMB
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 24, 2023
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Israeli troops have fatally shot two Palestinians and wounded 11 others on Friday as they headed toward northern Gaza, AP reported.
An AP journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah in the southern half of Gaza. The injured people had been shot in the legs.
The shooting took place as hundreds of Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza were seen trying to head back to the north, despite warnings by the Israeli army not to attempt to return to their homes.
Witnesses said Israeli troops were opening fire on people trying to head north.
Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, told the news outlet that he decided to risk heading north to check on his home. “We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said.
The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.
Updated
Israel and Hamas have strong reasons not to extend Gaza ceasefire
Diplomats hope to announce plans to extend the four-day temporary ceasefire in Gaza well before it ends, but have to persuade the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he is not being lured into a trap that will extend Hamas’s rule in Gaza.
Lists of Hamas-held hostages have been drawn up going beyond the 50 captives expected to be released over the next four days. But those involved in the talks acknowledge the difficulties, including the likelihood that Hamas may seek the release of a proportionally higher number of Palestinians than the one for three ratio agreed for the first tranche of hostages. There are as many as 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including some serving multiple life sentences for murder.
As many as 10 days could be set aside for a rolling pause, but Qatar – which negotiated the deal between Israel and Hamas – has not set a cap. Netanyahu and his defence team said Israel’s military was already preparing to restart of hostilities after four days, a threat that is not unexpected.
The diplomats’ difficulty is that both sides in the war have good reasons not to extend the ceasefire. Hamas would lose leverage over Israel if all the hostages were released. It is also argued that Hamas cannot afford to make too many concessions without losing support to the other rival military groups operating in Gaza, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
For Netanyahu, the risk lies in being drawn into a ceasefire that leaves Hamas’s military structures intact – an outcome that runs counter to his vow that this battle is not a repetition of the four previous conflicts with Hamas in Gaza that left it in power. Netanyahu has called it a fight between barbarism and civilisation, so can hardly afford a conflict that does not lead to complete victory.
Read the full analysis by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here.
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Qatar says 39 women and children released from Israeli jails
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, also confirmed the release of 39 women and children detained in Israeli prisons.
كما نؤكد الإفراج عن ٣٩ من النساء والأطفال المحتجزين في السجون الإسرائيلية تطبيقا لالتزامات اليوم الأول من الاتفاق.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 24, 2023
13 Israeli citizens, 10 Thais, one citizen from Philippines released from Gaza, says Qatar
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said the International Red Cross has received 24 civilians detained in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on social media, Majed Al Ansari wrote:
Those released include 13 Israeli citizens, some of whom are dual citizens, in addition to 10 Thai citizens and a Filipino citizen.
نؤكد تسلم الصليب الأحمر ٢٤ مدنيا من المحتجزين في قطاع غزة بما يتضمن عدد المدنيين من النساء والأطفال في إطار اتفاق الهدنة الإنسانية، كما تم الإفراج عن عدد من المواطنين التايلنديين خارج إطار اتفاق الهدنة، وهم في طريقهم بصحبة الصليب الأحمر إلى خارج القطاع حاليا.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 24, 2023
كما نؤكد الإفراج عن ٣٩ من النساء والأطفال المحتجزين في السجون الإسرائيلية تطبيقا لالتزامات اليوم الأول من الاتفاق.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) November 24, 2023
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Tensions have been escalating outside Israel’s Ofer military jail in the occupied West Bank, where 39 Palestinians who have been detained in prison are expected to be released.
Under the agreement, Israel will release a total of 39 Palestinian prisoners – 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones, Palestinian authorities said.
The inmates, all of them from the occupied West Bank or Jerusalem, are expected to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Ofer prison.
Updated
Red Cross confirms 24 hostages released from Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that 24 hostages have been released from Gaza.
In a social media post, the ICRC said it was “relieved” to confirm the safe release of 24 hostages, and confirmed that it facilitated the release by transporting them from Gaza to the Rafah border. The statement continued:
It’s a tremendous relief that after enduring weeks of distress, they can finally reunite with their families.
We are relieved to confirm the safe release of 24 hostages.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 24, 2023
We have facilitated this release by transporting them from Gaza to the Rafah border, marking the real-life impact of our role as a neutral intermediary between the parties.
It's a tremendous relief that after enduring weeks of distress, they can finally reunite with their families.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 24, 2023
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Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has launched a furious attack on Pedro Sánchez a day after the Spanish prime minister urged Israel to rethink its offensive in Gaza, telling its president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians was “truly unbearable”, and that the response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month could not include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”.
Sánchez, who visited Israel yesterday with the Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo, also suggested that a ceasefire, a peace conference and the implementation of the two-state solution represented the best hope of ending the region’s cycle of violence.
But the visit has gone down very badly with Cohen, who has accused Sánchez and De Croo of spreading “false claims” and “giving support to terrorism”, and threatened the Spanish and Belgian ambassadors with “a harsh rebuke”.
אנחנו מגנים את הטענות השקריות של ראשי הממשלות של ספרד ובלגיה אשר נותנים רוח גבית לטרור ובעקבות דבריהם יוזמנו שגריריהם לשיחת נזיפה חריפה.
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) November 24, 2023
ישראל פועלת לפי הדין הבינלאומי ונלחמת בארגון טרור רצחני גרוע מדאעש שמבצע פשעי מלחמה ופשעים נגד האנושות.
אנחנו נחדש את הלחימה לאחר הפסקת האש…
Relations between Spain and Israel have been fraught over recent weeks after some far-left members of Sánchez’s previous cabinet criticised Israel’s reaction to the terrorist atrocities, suggesting it was committing war crimes in Gaza and calling for Netanyahu to be brought before the international criminal court.
Israel’s embassy in Madrid described the remarks as “deeply immoral” and accused some Spanish MPs of aligning themselves with “Isis-style terrorism”.
Spain responded with its own strongly worded statement that accused the Israeli embassy of “spreading falsehoods” about some cabinet members.
“In a full democracy, such as Spain, any political leader can freely express their positions as the representative of a political party,” the statement from the foreign ministry said.
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Red Cross vehicles seen carrying hostages from Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that its teams had started carrying out a multi-day operation to facilitate the release and transfer of hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinian detainees.
A statement from the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, Fabrizio Carboni, reads:
The deep pain that family members separated from their loved ones feel is indescribable. We are relieved that some will be reunited after long agony.
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Twenty-five hostages were released by Hamas on Friday – 13 Israelis and 12 Thais – as part of the deal, which has instituted a temporary pause in hostilities and is also due to see the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The 13 Israelis are now in Red Cross custody in Egypt, according to Israeli officials and local media reports.
Twelve Thai hostages were also released, according to the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, a new development that was not anticipated during feverish speculation in recent days.
The ceasefire marks the first break in seven weeks of war in Gaza and offers some relief both for the 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory who have endured intensive Israeli bombardment, and for families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during the bloody attack launched last month by Hamas that triggered the conflict.
Updated
Fifty hostages are expected to be released by Hamas during the four-day truce. However, the 12 Thai hostages released earlier on Friday are part of a separate deal negotiated by Hamas with Qatar and Egypt, according to Reuters. The 12 Thai hostages are all men, the agency reports, and are on their way to hospital in Israel, according to an official who spoke to the Associated Press.
Israel is expected to release 150 Palestinians under the deal. Thirty-nine – 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offences such as throwing stones – are expected to be freed Friday, Palestinian authorities said.
Updated
A dozen of the 26 Thai nationals taken hostage by Hamas in the 7 October attacks in Israel have been released, Thailand’s prime minister has said, reports Rebecca Ratcliffe from Bangkok.
Srettha Thavisin said on X that he had received confirmation of their release and that Thai embassy officials were going to pick them up. “[We] will know more information in an hour,” he said on Friday evening.
It had earlier been reported by the Al-Araby al-Jadeed news site that 23 Thai nationals would be freed by Hamas without any conditions, after weeks of negotiations by the Thai government, which last month met representatives of the militant group in Tehran in an attempt to secure their release.
At least 26 Thai nationals were being held by Hamas, while 39 Thai nationals have been killed, according to Thai officials. Three people remain in hospital.
Thousands of Thais worked in Israel’s agricultural sector prior to 7 October, and the Israeli government has said they make up the biggest group of foreign people killed or missing in the Hamas attacks.
The report by Al-Araby al-Jadeed had said the purported release was not related to the recent deal reached by Israel and Hamas to hand over dozens of Israeli hostages as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Updated
The Thai hostages who were the first to be released today have crossed the border into Israel and are en route to hospital, according to Haaretz. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify this.
First Israeli hostages cross into Egypt, local media reports
The first group of 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas have now crossed into Egypt after nearly seven weeks in captivity in the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel is reporting. The Hamas-linked Al-Aqsa TV has cited sources within the group who have also confirmed that the first batch of Israeli hostages have been handed to the Red Cross.
Updated
People wait for the arrival of a vehicle carrying hostages released as part of a deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
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Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s main events so far:
A first batch of hostages have been released nearly seven weeks after they were taken by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel. During a four-day ceasefire, Hamas plans to release 50 of the roughly 240 people it is holding, while it says Israel has promised to set 150 prisoners free in exchange.
A dozen of those released were Thai nationals, that country’s prime minister said. Srettha Thavisin said embassy officials were on their way to pick them up and would be in a position to confirm their names in time.
Local media reported that several Israelis were released. Some reports suggested they were handed over to aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, others that they were taken into Egyptian custody.
Hamas’s leader said he was committed to the four-day truce if Israel was. Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said this also extended to the deal to hand over people being held captive.
The four-day truce started in Gaza in the morning. Attacks stopped at 7am local time (5am GMT).
Aid trucks began entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt about 90 minutes after the ceasefire began. Two of the trucks, representing Egyptian organisations, sported banners that said “Together for Humanity”. Another said “For our brothers in Gaza”.
“The war is not over yet,” an Israeli military spokesperson warned. Avichay Adraee posted the message in Arabic on social media.
One woman was reportedly killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces raided the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza prior to the ceasefire. Al Jazeera cited Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza, as it reported that three people were arrested at the hospital, which has been forced to cease operations.
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Israeli hostages released, say local media
The first group of Israeli hostages – comprising women and children – have been released and handed over to aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Times of Israel reports.
The paper cites an Israeli official as it says the freed people are in ambulances on the way from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, to the Rafah crossing into Egypt. The families of the hostages are reportedly on their way to hospitals where they are all to be reunited.
Updated
Reuters has more on the Palestinians making their way back north towards their homes – even as Israeli armed forces drop leaflets warning them not to go back to an area it describes as still being a dangerous war zone.
The agency reports that many joyful but wary people are emerging from makeshift shelters at the start of the four-day ceasefire to begin the long journey.
In the southern town of Khan Younis, which has been housing thousands of displaced families including from heavily bombarded northern Gaza, streets were packed with hundreds of people on the move.
Men, women and children carried their belongings in plastic bags, shopping bags and rucksacks. One family sat on the back of cart piled high with bags and pulled by a donkey. Some people looked up to the sky as if to check they were not in danger of attack from Israeli warplanes.
Ahmad Wael, who was trudging along with a large mattress on his head, told the news agency:
I am now very happy, I feel at ease. I am going back to my home, our hearts are rested, especially that there is a four-day official ceasefire, better than returning to live in tents. I am very tired from sitting there, without any food or water. There [at home] we can live, we drink tea, make bread using fire, and the oven.
Updated
Twelve hostages released, says Thai prime minister
The Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, says 12 hostages have been released. Posting on social media, he has said:
It has been confirmed by the security department and the ministry of foreign affairs that there are 12 Thai hostages already released. Embassy officials are on their way to pick them up in another hour. They should know their names and details. Please stay tuned.
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The Associated Press is reporting that hundreds of Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza could be seen walking back to the north on Friday, risking the trip after the ceasefire took effect.
However, two were shot and killed by Israeli troops, and another 11 were wounded. An Associated Press journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital.
Israel has encircled and attacked northern Gaza and pressured all civilians there to leave, which UN rights experts warn amounts to a forcible transfer, which is a crime against humanity.
Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, told the Associated Press he decided to risk heading north to check on his home.
“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said. “The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.”
Updated
Hamas chief committed to truce and 'hostage swap'
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader based in Qatar, said he is committed to the truce and ‘hostage swap’ deal as long as Israel is committed as well, Reuters reports.
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Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s latest events:
A four-day truce has been called in Gaza. Attacks stopped at 7am local time (5am GMT) and Hamas is due to release 50 of the roughly 240 hostages it has been holding. The militants claimed they had also secured the release of about 150 prisoners being held by Israel in return.
Aid trucks began entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt around 90 minutes after the ceasefire began. Two of the trucks, representing Egyptian organisations, sported banners that said “Together for Humanity”. Another said “For our brothers in Gaza”.
“The war is not over yet,” an Israeli military spokesman warned. Avichay Adraee posted the message in Arabic to Palestinian civilians in Gaza on social media.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez urged Israel to rethink its offensive. He told the country’s president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians is “truly unbearable”, and that the response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”.
One woman was reportedly killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces raided the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza prior to the ceasefire. Al Jazeera cited Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza, as it reported another three people were arrested at the hospital, which has been forced to cease operations.
The first Israeli women and children to go free from Gaza on Friday under a truce with their Hamas captors will be flown home under military guard, with measures meant to reduce the duress and attend to any immediate medical complications, Reuters reports.
Ahead of the release of the first 13 hostages, who have not been identified, Israel’s air force published images of dolls, colourful throw rugs and personal hygiene kits set up at locations scheduled to receive them by helicopter.
Hamas is due to deliver the group – who are among about 240 people held in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October killing spree in southern Israel – to neighbouring Egypt. In return, Israel will release 39 Palestinians from its jails.
“Today is the first light at the end of the tunnel,” an air force lieutenant colonel said in a video briefing. “We are all in this together.”
A military statement asked the public to respect hostages’ privacy. After landing in Israel, the hostages will receive preliminary medical care and be sent to several hospitals for reunions with their families.
An Israeli official said military transport helicopters would take part in the repatriation, suggesting they would pick the hostages up at an Egyptian airport – perhaps in El Arish, near Gaza. That has not been formally confirmed by Cairo.
The helicopter crews would include a commando squad, doctors and liaison officers with training in communication and counselling – the first Israelis to greet the former captives. The Israeli official said:
The personnel will introduce themselves by name, with a visible face and a smile, and maintain eye contact and distance in order to allow the caregivers and support teams to do their work in the best possible way.
Among other measures designed to reduce stress would be the issuing of noise-cancelling headphones, including for the children among them, “to make the flight experience easier and provide them with peace and quiet,” the official said.
Health officials have said separately that the hostages would receive psychological attention and specialised care for any who may have been sexual assaulted.
While the adults released can expect to be questioned by Israeli security officials for information about their captivity and the fate of the others still held by Hamas, the child hostages will be spared this, local media reports have reported.
Four hostages have been returned alive previously while a fifth was rescued by Israeli troops. Israel has recovered the bodies of at least two more. The condition and locations of the remaining hostages are unclear.
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Here are some of the latest pictures that have come in from the news wires:
Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike during the conflict, amid the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Updated
Israel’s fledgling rapprochement with Morocco, which had made steady progress in the three years since the two governments normalised relations, has been thrown into reverse by the deadly conflict in Gaza, AFP reports.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have returned to the streets of the north African nation, as Hamas officials claim the death toll from seven weeks of Israeli bombardment in Gaza has risen to nearly 15,000, mostly civilians.
The Israeli liaison office in Rabat was reportedly evacuated last month amid security concerns.
All flights between the two countries have been suspended since the 7 October attacks by Hamas, which Israeli officials claim killed at least 1,200 people, also mostly civilians.
Israeli visitors have disappeared from Moroccan tourism hubs such as Marrakesh and Essaouira, along with many of the restaurants opened to cater for them
“Overnight there was no one left,” said Michel Cohen, the French-Israeli owner of a kosher restaurant in Marrakesh that is now closed. “The Israelis that were there have left. They were very scared.”
Out of 14 kosher restaurants that had opened in Marrakesh since Morocco’s normalisation of relations with Israel in 2020, 12 have closed.
Updated
European security officials are seeing a growing risk of attacks by Islamists radicalised by the war, with the biggest threat likely to come from “lone wolf” assailants who are hard to track.
More than 10 intelligence and police officials in five European countries including Britain, Germany and France have told Reuters they are increasing surveillance of Islamist militants.
This will put a further burden on resources already stretched by dealing with perceived threats from Russia, China and Iran, in what London’s Met police chief, Mark Rowley, calls “one of the most challenging convergence of threats I have ever seen”.
A British security official has said the war in Gaza is likely to become the biggest recruiter for Islamist militants since the Iraq war in 2003, and that calls for attacks on Jewish and western targets have risen in Europe.
A German source briefed by intelligence services said the threat to civilians was the highest in Germany’s recent history, with dangers coming from Islamist militants, far-right groups and Russia.
Two Islamist militant attacks in France and Belgium last month killed three people, and these two countries plus Austria, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have raised their terrorism threat alert levels. Italy has reimposed border controls with Slovenia, citing the risk of militants entering the country.
“There is going to be a blowback that is going to be felt for years,” the British official told Reuters.
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We reported earlier that the Israeli military had said warning sirens were sounding Eilat, amid fears of a long-range aerial attack launched from Yemen. The country’s armed forces have now said it was a false alarm and there is no indication of any security incident, Reuters reports.
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France’s top diplomat, Catherine Colonna, has met the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, and the foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Beijing during a short visit focused partly on the Israel-Hamas war. Agence France-Presse (AFP) quotes her as saying:
For us, all the hostages must be released. All, and not just 50.
About 240 people were abducted during Hamas’s cross-border attacks on Israel last month.
Paris has said the conflict will be high on the agenda for Colonna and her Chinese counterparts.
“China is an actor with growing weight in the region” due to its strong relationship with Iran, a French diplomatic source said this week. “The first thing we expect from China in this conflict is to join its efforts with ours to ensure that we avoid any regional escalation.”
Beijing has recently sought to play a greater role in the Middle East, facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran and sending an envoy to the region to push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
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Sirens have sounded in Israel’s southern Red Sea resort of Eilat, warning of a possible long-range aerial attack from Yemen, Reuters quotes the country’s military as saying. Yemeni Houthis have previously launched drones and missiles at Israel in solidarity with Palestinian militants.
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In the crowded corridors of the European hospital in Khan Younis, exhausted doctors decide who among the huge influx of patients arriving from the north of Gaza should live or die.
Hundreds of casualties have moved south in recent days after the evacuation of hospitals in Gaza City, overwhelming medical staff already struggling with an acute lack of medicine, diminishing food rations and intermittent power and communications.
Injured people have joined thousands of displaced people seeking shelter and safety in medical facilities.
Paul Ley, an orthopaedic surgeon at the European hospital, said displaced people were sleeping in lifts, a small team was working round the clock in four operating theatres to amputate limbs infected after days without treatment, and there was an acute shortage of painkillers. Triage decisions had to be made instantly, which in one case meant leaving a 12-year-old child to die with only palliative care in order to preserve dwindling resources.
Ley said the hospital had received 500 patients evacuated from hospitals in northern Gaza in recent days.
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The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, is continuing his trip to the Middle East on Friday, meeting Palestinian leaders and committing the UK to a further £30m in aid for people in Gaza.
He will be in the occupied Palestinian territories, meeting Palestinian leaders and agencies delivering aid in Gaza and advocating adherence to the new agreement on all sides. Talks will focus on how UK efforts can help ease the suffering of Gaza’s citizens, who have been bombarded and besieged by Israel’s military, as more humanitarian aid is set to enter the territory amid the lull in fighting.
The former prime minister is urging “all parties to continue to work towards the release of every hostage” after holding talks with the Iaraeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Thursday.
The temporary ceasefire began at 7am local time (5am GMT). The first 13 hostages – women and children – are expected to be freed by Hamas at about 4pm local time (2pm GMT). They are the first of 50 due to be released over the four days, according to Qatari officials. Hamas said 150 Palestinian prisoners would be released by Israel.
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The British daughter of a man who was kidnapped from Israel and taken to Gaza says her father would be “fighting to be at the back of the queue” of hostages to be released by Hamas.
Sharone Lifschitz told BBC Breakfast she did not know whether her father was dead or alive, only that he was taken to Gaza after being kidnapped from his home in the kibbutz of Nir Oz on 7 October. Speaking from Tel Aviv, she said:
My father spent 65 years building this community, we grew up collectively as children in my generation. If there is a queue, he is fighting to be at the back of the queue.
She said every hostage released was a “ray of light” in a “long and horrendous story”. Lifschitz’s mother, Yocheved Lifshitz, was released by Hamas from Gaza last month.
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The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has thanked Qatar and Egypt for their “intensive diplomacy” in helping to secure the pause in the fighting in Gaza.
The temporary truce came into effect early on Friday, setting the stage for the exchange of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Sunak tweeted: “This humanitarian pause is critical to end the terrible ordeal of hostages held by Hamas and get life-saving aid into Gaza.
“I want to thank Qatar, Egypt and others for the intensive diplomacy that has got us here. We will not stop until all hostages are safely returned.”
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People in Gaza are salvaging what they can as the guns fall silent.
Aid trucks have been pictured as they enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing hours after the start of a four-day truce.
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Aid trucks begin entering Gaza, Reuters reports
Aid trucks have begun entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt around 90 minutes after a truce began between Israel and Hamas fighters, according to Reuters TV footage.
Two of the trucks, representing Egyptian organisations, sported banners that said “Together for Humanity”. Another said “For our brothers in Gaza”.
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Pictures taken during the first hours of the truce have begun emerging from Gaza and the border area:
Advanced plans by Saudi Arabia to strike a peace deal with the Houthi rebels in Yemen are being jeopardised by Houthi attacks on Israel and this week’s seizure of an Israeli-linked commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia hopes it can maintain a firewall between the Yemen peace talks and the Houthis’ attacks on Israel, but in London and Washington there is pressure to redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, which would threaten any deal.
There are also reports that the US is willing to launch an attack on Houthi military sites in and around Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, as well as its port operations room, unless the ship seized on Sunday, the Galaxy Leader, is released.
Last week the Saudis summoned the official UN-recognised Yemen government for further talks in Riyadh to present a revised roadmap that would lead to foreign forces, including those from Saudi Arabia, leaving in six months. It includes a budget deal under which large sums would be transferred from the oil-rich south to the impoverished north, which is dominated by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Critics of the deal claim it empowers the Houthis, but Saudi Arabia, eager to exit what has proved to be an ill-judged military intervention in Yemen’s civil war, wants to end its engagement as quickly as possible.
Britain will provide a further £30m ($37.38m) of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said as he travels to the occupied Palestinian territories on the second day of his visit to the region.
Cameron will meet Palestinian leaders and aid agencies.
On Thursday, he met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he expressed hope that the truce with Hamas would be an “opportunity to crucially get hostages out and get aid into Gaza”.
In a statement on Friday, Cameron said:
We are hopeful that today will see the release of hostages, and I am urging all parties to continue to work towards the release of every hostage. A pause will also allow access for life-saving aid to the people of Gaza.
I am proud that a fourth UK flight carrying critical supplies landed in Egypt today, and I can announce new £30m of funding which will be spent on vital aid such as shelter and medical provisions.
It is vital to protect civilians from harm, and we are urgently looking at all avenues to get aid into Gaza, including land, maritime and air routes. The new pledge will double the amount of additional aid Britain has committed to Gaza since the conflict began in October.
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The hostage release is due to start at 4pm, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported, without citing a source.
It’s not clear who will be in the first batch to be released but there have been lots of reports about the possibility of Avigail Idan, an American child who turns four on Friday, being among them.
When asked about the possibility of her being among those released, the US president, Joe Biden, said: “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
Avigail was kidnapped from kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October during the Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post. Her parents, Roee and Smadar Idan, were killed while her two older sibilings survived by hiding in closets.
No soldiers are expected to be among the women released.
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'War is not over yet', Israeli military spokesperson warns
“The war is not over yet,” the Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has said in a message in Arabic to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said:
The humanitarian pause is temporary. The northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move north. For your safety, you must remain in the humanitarian zone in the south.
It is only possible to move from the north of the Strip to the south via Salah al-Din Road. The movement of residents from the south of the Strip to the north is not allowed and dangerous
⭕️Watch this important message from the IDF Spokesperson for Arab media, @AvichayAdraee, to the civilians of Gaza:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 24, 2023
”The war is not over yet. The humanitarian pause is temporary. The northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move north. For your safety,… https://t.co/OmtxDYHIK3 pic.twitter.com/4gaJDxgy5I
Prior to the ceasefire, Israel repeatedly bombed the south of Gaza despite telling Palestinians to flee there.
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Truce officially in place but sirens sound in southern Israel
Around 40 minutes into the truce it’s difficult to say whether it’s holding. The Israeli military (IDF) said sirens warning of potential incoming rockets had sounded in two Israeli communities near Gaza but there was no immediate confirmation that attacks had occurred or of any damage or casualties.
A CNN team in the southern Israel city of Sderot meanwhile reported “loud booms” that sounded like Israeli artillery fire landing in Gaza, up to 15 minutes after the ceasefire was meant to be in place. Smoke was also continuing to rise from Gaza, the source of which was unknown, the team said.
Hostilities appeared to have continued up until the last moment, with Israeli forces reportedly attacking the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza overnight, as well as striking a residential building in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
A BBC reporter also in Sderot noted an Israeli airstrike as well the sound of small arms fires, drones and mortars with less than an hour to go before the truce.
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Sirens sound in Israeli communities near Gaza border, Israeli military says
Sirens warning of potential incoming rockets have sounded in communities near the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military (IDF) has said in a Telegram post.
As we reported earlier it said sirens had sounded in a kibbutz near the Strip a couple of hours before the truce was due to come into effect. Fifteen minutes before the 7am start time it said sirens had also sounded in kibbutz Nir Oz.
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Our correspondent Jason Burke has interviewed Dr Paul Ley, a French orthopaedic surgeon at the European hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where conditions are dire. Here’s an excerpt from his story:
Ley said the hardest thing for doctors was to make triage decisions. “We do our triage … [asking] are we going to take this patient because they will have a good chance of surviving rather than doing desperate measures on a patient who will die in two or three days? That sounds nice on paper, but when you have to make the decision it is different. There’s a 12-year-old with 90% burns so we won’t treat him except for pain control that is not enough,” he said.
“We try to keep our heads cool and steady, but for local staff this is their families, friends, their people. They never want to amputate. They say: ‘I can’t do it any more’ and so I say: ‘OK I will do it, don’t worry,’ and you can feel the relief”.
Ley said he had been shocked at how passive many patients were, such as one 35-year-old woman whose husband and children had been killed when the family’s home was destroyed, and who appeared unmoved when told both her legs would need to be amputated. “So many just don’t care any more,” he said.
The truce should now theoretically be in effect, as the clocks have struck 7 am in Israel and Gaza.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have reportedly continued overnight, with Al Jazeera reporting an attack on a residential building in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
A BBC reporter in Sderot in southern Israel also noted an Israeli airstrike, drones and the sound of small arms and mortar fire coming from Gaza with less than an hour to go before the truce is supposed to be implemented.
It’s now minutes before it is due to take effect.
Israeli forces raid Indonesian hospital, Al Jazeera reports
One woman has been killed and three others wounded after Israeli forces raided the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza.
Another three people were arrested at the hospital, which has been forced to cease operations. As of Thursday, there were an estimated 550 patients remaining at the hospital, as well as 200 medical workers and at least 1,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering at the hospital, according to Al Jazeera.
Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), which helped fund the hospital’s construction told Al Jazeera the attack on the medical facility overnight had caused extensive damage. Speaking from Jakarta, he said:
Last night, Israeli forces attacked the hospital with tanks and destroyed all of the first floor. The damage was very bad.
Previously, they had attacked the third floor. They arrested at least three people. This is their way of taking over the hospitals before the ceasefire today.
Israeli forces surrounded the Indonesian hospital with tanks earlier this week, with doctors reporting that staff and patients were terrified. Here’s an explainer written earlier this week on the situation at the hospital:
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More Palestinian people, including women, were detained by Israeli forces as they tried to move south on Thursday compared to previous days, a monitoring team belonging to the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) has reported.
In its latest update on the conflict, OCHA said that the team had documented family accounts of women being detained for hours or even days before being released. There were also cases of unaccompanied children and separated families moving south.
Israeli forces have been arresting some people as they move down the main traffic artery between north and south, Salah Ad Deen road, which has been designated a “corridor” by Israel, which has been urging people to leave the north, OCHA reported. It added:
IDPs [internally displaced persons] interviewed by OCHA reported that Israeli forces had established an unstaffed checkpoint where people are directed from a distance to pass through two structures, where a surveillance system is thought to be installed.
IDPs are ordered to show their IDs and undergo what appears to be a facial recognition scan.
Israel continued its airstrikes on Thursday, with Palestinian Wafa news agency reporting that dozens were killed in Israeli bombing raids in Nuseirat and its camp in the central Gaza Strip, and in Jabaliya in the north. Jabaliya has been the scene of days of heavy fighting on the ground.
Among those reported killed in Nuseirat was a photojournalist, Mohammad Moin Ayyash, and his family.
Another resident, Hosni Moharib, bursting into tears, told the Associated Press news agency that his wife and several children were killed and other relatives remained buried under the rubble when an Israeli strike levelled a residential building in Nuseirat. He said:
It exploded on the house, striking the babies and young children. Everyone in the house, they are all dead.
Sirens warning of incoming rockets were activated in kibbutz Nir Am near Gaza this morning, the Israeli military has said on Telegram. No further information was immediately available.
The truce is due to come into effect in just under an hour and a half and we’ll be watching to see if it is observed by both sides.
Here are some of the latest images coming to us from Gaza:
Whole world 'shocked' at images coming from Gaza, Spanish PM tells Netanyahu
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has urged Israel to rethink its offensive in Gaza, telling its president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians is “truly unbearable”, and that the response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”.
Sánchez’s blunt pleas came during a visit to the Middle East with the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, during which he called for a peace conference and reiterated that the creation of a Palestinian state remained the best way to bring peace and security to the region.
Speaking as he met Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday afternoon, Sánchez said Spain had repeatedly condemned Hamas’s “shocking acts of terrorism” and acknowledged Israel’s right to defend itself.
But he added: “Let me also be clear: Israel must abide by international law, including international humanitarian law, in its response … The whole world is shocked at the images that we see coming from Gaza every day. The number of Palestinians killed is truly unbearable. I believe that all civilians must be protected at all costs.”
Sánchez said “a serious and credible prospect for peace” was more necessary than ever. “Without a political settlement, we are bound to run again into a never-ending cycle of violence.”
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian in Gaza, has been keeping a diary for the Guardian. In case you missed the latest instalment, here’s an excerpt:
I am walking with Ahmad when we pass a bombed house. The house has collapsed and looks like a pile of giant Lego pieces. The surprising part is that there is one part of the house that is still perfectly fine – the kitchen and the room next to it on the second floor fell in one piece over the rubble. Even the kitchen sink is perfectly fine.
I stop for a while to look at the scene and think of the owners and how they would feel every time they pass by. I bet there have been a lot of happy moments in that kitchen, cooking meals for family gatherings, and maybe gossiping about what’s happening. The next room could be a playroom for the children or maybe a teenager lying on their bed thinking of their crush.
Then it hits me: did the residents of the house make it out alive? Or were they sleeping when it happened?
Read more below:
It is hoped the truce may offer Palestinians in Gaza some relief from the relentless bombardments they have endured over the past six weeks, which the Hamas government says have killed around 15,000 people.
For many families however, it comes too late. Fida Zayed, whose 20-year-old son Udai was killed in a recent air strike, told AFP:
The living here are the ones who are dead.
The last thing he [my son] said to me was that he was waiting for the truce on Friday. He asked me to prepare him a feast of rice and chicken.
I hope me and my children die here so we don’t have to mourn each other.
Truce expected to begin at 7am (0500 GMT), Qatar says
A four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin on Friday morning after negotiators worked out the final details of the deal, which will lead to the release of dozens of hostages held by militants as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar, announced the ceasefire would start at 7am local time on Friday (0500 GMT).
He said the two sides had exchanged lists of those to be released, and the first group of hostages held by Hamas – 13 women and children – would be freed on Friday afternoon. Increased aid for Palestinians would start to enter “as soon as possible”, Ansari said.
The 150 Palestinian prisoners to be released are also women and children but it was not clear when they would be freed.
The diplomatic breakthrough promises the first pause in seven weeks of war in Gaza and some relief both for the 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory who have endured intensive Israeli bombardment, and for families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during the bloody attack launched last month by Hamas that triggered the conflict.
Reports in Israel suggest the hostages will be released across the Rafah border crossing into Egypt and then be brought to Israel by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (ICRC).
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
A four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is expected to take effect at 7am local time (0500 GMT) with the release of the hostages expected to follow on Friday afternoon.
Israel and Hamas have exchanged lists of those to be released, with Hamas expected to free 13 women and children, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Ansari said. He did not specify how many Palestinian women and children will be released on Friday or when this would take place.
Israel has notified the families of the hostages set to be released on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. Joe Biden said he has his “fingers crossed” that a three-year-old Israeli-American girl will be released.
A four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7am local time on Friday (0500 GMT), Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar, has announced. The truce, initially lasting four or five days, was announced early on Wednesday and has raised hopes for a more durable pause in the violence.
The release of hostages is expected to follow on Friday afternoon. Israel and Hamas have exchanged lists of those to be released, with Hamas expected to free 13 women and children, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Ansari said. He did not specify how many Palestinian women and children will be released on Friday or when this would take place. Israel has notified the families of the hostages set to be released on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. Joe Biden said he has his “fingers crossed” that a three-year-old Israeli-American girl will be released.
Overall, Hamas has agreed to free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages it has held since launching bloody attacks into southern Israel on 7 October, under the terms of the agreement. 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.
In a separate agreement, Hamas is set to unconditionally release 23 Thai hostages it is holding in Gaza, according to a report by the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site. The release of Thai hostages came after Iran-mediated talks, the outlet reported on Thursday.
A special flight has evacuated 103 Russian nationals from Gaza, Russia’s emergencies ministry said early on Friday. In a post on Telegram, the ministry said the group flew to Moscow aboard a chartered Ilyushin-76 aircraft, Reuters reported. The post said 101 Russian nationals had been taken from Gaza to Egypt in the past 24 hours, bringing to more than 750 the total number of Russian evacuees. More than 650 had been flown to Russia, including more than 300 children.
The exchange of Palestinian and Israeli female and child hostages and prisoners had been due to take place on Thursday but was postponed as last-minute logistical issues were worked out. Sources close to the negotiations said Israel had presented a series of late requests for clarification of practical issues, and demanded the full identification of the hostages Hamas intended to release.
The diplomatic breakthrough promises the first pause in seven weeks of war in Gaza and some relief both for the 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory who have endured intensive Israeli bombardment, and for families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the military will resume fighting against Hamas “with intensity” for at least two more months. Addressing Israeli troops on Thursday, Gallant instructed them to “organise…resupply arms, and get ready to continue” during the “short” respite in fighting.
Israel’s army arrested the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital on Thursday, more than a week after it surrounded and raided the medical facility. Mohammad abu Salmiya and other medics were detained, a colleague said, amid reports that the IDF had seized them as they were travelling with a World Health Organization evacuation convoy. The IDF confirmed Abu Salmiya had been arrested and transferred to the Shin Bet domestic security service for further questioning. Just two doctors are left at al-Shifa to treat the remaining estimated 200 patients, the hospital’s head of plastic surgery has said.
Israeli forces bombed at least 300 targets from the air, killing dozens of Palestinians. Gaza’s health ministry said 27 people were killed in a strike on a school affiliated with the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that dozens had been killed in Israeli bombing raids in Nuseirat and its camp in the central Gaza Strip, and in Jabaliya in the north. Among those reported killed in Nuseirat was a photojournalist, Mohammad Moin Ayyash, and his family.
The IDF said it has killed the commander of Hamas’s naval forces in Khan Younis in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Amar Abu Jalalah was killed along with another member of the Hamas naval forces, the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.
More than 13,000 Palestinians have been recorded killed in Gaza since the war began, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The director of the health ministry, which is run by the Hamas government, said another 6,000 people have been reported missing and are feared buried under the rubble. Israel’s assault on Gaza followed the Hamas attack on 7 October which killed at least 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
UK foreign secretary David Cameron has met Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel, and expressed hope that the planned temporary truce with Hamas would be an “opportunity to crucially get hostages out and get aid into Gaza”. The Israeli prime minister told Cameron that the precondition for peace in the Middle East was the eradication of what he called the “genocidal terrorist cult” Hamas. His remarks gave the impression that Netanyahu is not currently interested in anything but a military solution to the future of Israel’s security.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has urged Israel to rethink its offensive in Gaza, telling its president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians is “truly unbearable”, and that the response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”.
