This blog is closing, but you can follow our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and the expected ceasefire here on our new blog.
Here are some of the latest images coming to us over the wires from Gaza.
Summary
Here’s a recap of the latest developments, and our latest full report is here.
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”.
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 Kremlin on Wednesday hailed a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, going into effect on Friday, as the “first good news for a long time” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
It said humanitarian pauses were the only way to build efforts for a sustainable settlement.
The director of al-Shifa hospital, Mohammad abu Salmiya, is not under inditement and has not been accused of being a member of Hamas, the Israeli military (IDF) has told the BBC.
As we reported earlier, Abu Salmiya and other medics from Gaza’s largest hospital were detained on Thursday and transferred to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service for further questioning.
The IDF 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.
Meanwhile the medical director of the Indonesian hospital, Dr Marwan Sultan, told the BBC that the facility in northern Gaza was under heavy fire, with Israeli tanks firing every 15 minutes. He told the British broadcaster:
We cannot stay in rooms as windows are being hit. We are staying in corridors in the hospital. My office was targeted several times.
He said evacuation was not taking place over concerns staff could be detained.
The number of antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, has spiked significantly since the start of the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas on 7 October, authorities have said.
Police chief Myron Demkiw said 78 hate crimes had been reported between Oct. 7 and 20 November, compared to 37 in the same time frame in 2022, Reuters reported. The real number was undoubtedly higher since some people were hesitant to come forward, he added.
The number of reported antisemitic hate crimes in this period almost trebled to 38 from 13 last year, while those involving the Muslim, Palestinian and Arab population leapt to 17 from just one in 2022.
“The impact of the events in the Middle East on our city are ongoing and have escalated since 7 October,” Demkiw told a televised news conference.
Since the Hamas raid and subsequent Israeli retaliation, 25 people have been arrested and 64 charges laid in relation to reported hate incidents.
"(Hate crimes) can traumatize not just victims, but all members of the targeted community and beyond,” said Demkiw. Toronto has temporarily boosted the size of its hate crime unit to 29 from the usual six.
With around three million people living in Toronto, it is by far the biggest city in Canada, which has a population of just over 40 million.
German police have raided the homes of members and supporters of Hamas and another Palestinian organisation which are banned in the country. AFP reports:
Around 500 members of the security forces led the operation, with 13 places searched in the capital Berlin, the interior ministry said.
Four other regions were targeted to a lesser extent as police seized smartphones, laptops and various writings, the ministry added.
“We are carrying out action against radical Islamists,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said earlier on Thursday.
“By banning Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any apology or support for Hamas’s barbaric terror against Israel.
“Islamists and ant-Semites must not feel safe anywhere,” she said.
Germany on 2 November banned Hamas and Samidoun. According to official figures, Germany hosts an estimated 450 members of Hamas, proscribed as a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union, the US and Israel.
The ministry said that while Hamas members had not staged “violent action” in Germany so far, they had tried to raise funds to help the group overseas and “influence the social and political discourse in Germany”.
It said Samidoun on the other hand was “prone to use violence ... and denies the right of Israel to exist”.
130,000 litres of diesel to be delivered daily to Gaza during truce, Egypt says
Egypt has said 130,000 litres of diesel and four trucks of gas will be delivered daily to Gaza when a four-day truce starts on Friday, according to Reuters.
Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), also said in a statement early on Friday that 200 trucks of aid would enter Gaza daily.
The truce is expected to start at 7am (0500 GMT).
The Belgian city of Charleroi has condemned antisemitic vandalism after at least 85 Jewish graves in one of its cemeteries were damaged and objects stolen, AFP reports.
A gravedigger in a cemetery in the Marcinelle neighbourhood of the southern city discovered the damage in plots for Jewish tombs on Wednesday. An investigation has since been opened.
Paul Magnette, the mayor of Charleroi, said:
The place chosen and the theft of many stars of David leave little doubt on the antisemitic nature of the intentions.
In the name of the city, I fully condemn these abject acts.
He said he had asked the city’s administration to notify each family.
Only the cemetery’s Jewish section was affected, suggesting the antisemitic nature of the vandalism.
Belgium has registered a rise in reported antisemitic acts and comments since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.
Police are monitoring more closely Jewish schools and places of worship.
Tens of thousands of Cubans have marched in front of the US embassy in Havana charging Israel was committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The march, led by President Miguel Diaz-Canel, and which moved along Havana”s seaside drive, the Malecon, where the US diplomatic headquarters is located, was the first of its kind in more than a decade.
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, now deceased, was famous for staging similar, but much larger demonstrations to protest US sanctions and meddling in Cuban affairs.
The crowd, sporting Palestinian flags and banners, chanted “free, free Palestine, Israel is genocide” and “up with Palestinian freedom” as it marched by the building and rallied nearby.
Communist-run Cuba has been a strong backer of the Palestinian cause for decades and has trained more than 200 Palestinian doctors. It does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
“We are here and it is no coincidence that we have marched in front of the United States embassy,” Anet Rodríguez, a university professor, said.
“The United States is one of the most responsible for supporting the State of Israel ... it is supporting a massacre of the Palestinians and international laws are being violated,” she said.
Updated
The Israeli military says it is investigating after a 12-year-old boy was shot dead near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.
The army said in a statement that soldiers had opened fire on “rioters” who threw stones during an “operation” in the town of Beita. “Thereafter, it was reported that a Palestinian minor have been killed. The incident is being investigated,” it said.
This is Helen Livingstone taking over from my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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.
Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages it has held since its 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.
Hamas is also set to release 23 Thai hostages it is holding in Gaza without any conditions, according to a report by the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site. The release of Thai hostages after Iran-mediated talks would not be connected to the deal reached by Israel and Hamas, the outlet reported on Thursday.
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 during 24 hours of frantic diplomacy. 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.
Israel and Hamas have exchanged lists of those to be released, and the first group of hostages held by Hamas – 13 women and children – will be freed on Friday afternoon, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Ansari said. Israel has notified the families of the hostages set to be released on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. The hostages are expected to be released at 4pm local time on Friday. Joe Biden said he has his “fingers crossed” that a three-year-old Israeli-American girl will be released on Friday.
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.
But 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 has 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 members of the Israel Defence Forces (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 Israel Defence Forces (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-run 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.
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 the new UK foreign secretary that the precondition for peace in the Middle East was the eradication of what Netanyahu 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”.
Updated
People in Gaza are 'losing hope in humanity', says UNRWA chief in renewed calls for long-standing ceasefire
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said a temporary truce in Gaza will allow the agency to reach people in need in northern Gaza, as he renewed a call for a longstanding humanitarian ceasefire.
UNRWA commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, in statement published today, said he had just returned from his second visit to the Gaza Strip since the war began. He wrote:
I bear witness to the unspeakable suffering of people. Since my first visit two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation has already become far worse.
He said the UN agency now hosts more than a million displaced Palestinians in its schools and premises across Gaza Strip, adding:
People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity. They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have.
The four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, set to begin on Friday morning, is “an opportunity to reach people in need including in the north and to start repairing civilian infrastructure”, he said.
I have just returned from my second visit to the #GazaStrip since the war began.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 23, 2023
I bear witness to the unspeakable suffering of people.
As we all anticipate the beginning of the much-awaited pause, I reiterate my call for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/VGZ1C866bT
Updated
Humanitarian agencies preparing to go into Gaza continued to build up stocks of desperately needed aid ahead of a four-day humanitarian pause that is set to begin on Friday.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) chief, Cindy McCain, said the agency was “rapidly mobilising to scale up assistance inside Gaza” once safe access is granted.
WFP trucks are “waiting at the Rafah crossing, loaded with food slated for families in shelters and homes across Gaza, and wheat flour for bakeries to resume operations”, she said.
Under the deal reached by Israel and Hamas, Israel will 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.
On Thursday, Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar, announced the ceasefire would start at 7am local time on Friday (0500 GMT). Increased aid for Palestinians would start to enter “as soon as possible”, Ansari said.
Just over 73 truckloads of WFP food aid have made it into Gaza since limited aid deliveries through the Rafah crossing with Egypt resumed on 21 October, the agency said.
Speaking on Thursday, McCain expressed hope that more fuel will be let into Gaza “so that our trucks can carry in much-needed supplies and that once again bread will be available as a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people every day”.
Updated
Hamas to release 23 Thai hostages unconditionally after Iran-mediated talks - report
Hamas is set to release 23 Thai hostages it is holding in Gaza without any conditions, according to a report by the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site.
The release of Thai hostages would not be connected to the deal reached by Israel and Hamas over the release of dozens of Israeli hostages held by militants as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, the outlet said.
The announcement comes after Iran-mediated talks between the Palestinian militant group and the Thai government, it said.
Qatari @alaraby_ar: Hamas is expected to release the 23 Thailand citizens that he took as hostages. The release *Is not connected to the hostage deal*.
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) November 23, 2023
According to the report, this was an agreement reached by Iran.
The Thai government has reportedly been in talks with Iran to secure the release of its 23 hostages held in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas terror attacks on Israel. It is the largest single group of foreigners held by the militant group, AP reported.
At least 32 Thai citizens were killed by Hamas on 7 October, according to Thai government figures.
Updated
Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, has discussed plans to evacuate wounded or sick Palestinian children and young people from Gaza tomorrow.
A group of 50 Palestinians are expected to be brought over from Gaza on Friday as part of Turkey’s third round of evacuation, Reuters reported.
Koca said three sick children had been brought from Gaza to Turkey on Thursday. The children – a two-year-old boy, and two girls aged nine and 10 – will receive treatment in Turkey, he told reporters. He added:
We expect the third evacuation to be tomorrow [Friday] and it will be an evacuation that will largely consist of children and young people.
Turkey has so far brought 150 people, mostly cancer patients and their companions, from Gaza to continue their treatment. It has also evacuated more than 100 Turks, Turkish Cypriots, and their relatives this week.
Updated
Israel has notified the families of the hostages set to be released on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said.
The first group of hostages held by Hamas – 13 women and children – are expected to be freed on Friday afternoon.
Updated
Gaza health ministry: 27 people killed in strike on UN school in Jabalia refugee camp
The health ministry in Gaza said 27 Palestinians have been killed in a strike on a school affiliated with the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
At least 27 people were killed and 93 wounded in the strike, AFP reported that a Palestinian doctor said.
There was no immediate word from the Israeli military.
The mother of two Israeli hostages held in Gaza has said she has been informed that her children will not be among the hostages released on Friday.
Maayan Zin said her daughters, 15-year-old Dafna and 8-year-old Ela Elyakim, were kidnapped by Hamas militants from their father’s house in kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October.
“I’ve been informed that Dafna and Ela are not on the list of the 13 hostages to be released tomorrow,” Zin posted to social media on Thursday.
This is incredibly difficult for me; I long for their return.
I've been informed that Dafna and Ela are not on the list of the 13 hostages to be released tomorrow. This is incredibly difficult for me; I long for their return.
— Maayan Zin (@ZinMaayan1007) November 23, 2023
I'm relieved for the other families and hopeful for the release of all the hostages.
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it was in contact with the families of the hostages after receiving “a first list of names” of those due to be released. It did not specify who was on it.
Updated
IDF says it has killed Hamas naval commander
The Israel Defence Forces (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.
It said Jalalah was “a senior operative in Hamas’s naval forces and was involved in directing several terror attacks by sea that were thwarted.”
Updated
Just two doctors are left to treat about 200 patients remaining at al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, according to the hospital’s head of plastic surgery.
Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati told NBC News that the situation at the hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, as “very, very difficult”. He said:
Most of the staff have left yesterday, except for two doctors, me and my colleague and one nurse all in the hospital.
His comments came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had arrested the director of al-Shifa hospital, Dr Mohammad abu Salmiya, on Thursday. He was arrested along with several other senior doctors as they were travelling with a World Health Organization evacuation convoy, according to reports.
In a statement, the IDF said al-Shifa “under [Abu Salmiya’s] direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre” and that Hamas fighters had sought refuge in the hospital.
Posting to social media earlier today, Mokhallalati said his own health is “very bad” and that he and his colleagues are unable to continue providing treatment to the patients at the hospital, adding:
Every day, patients die due to Israeli occupation forces occupying the hospital.
The situation at Al Shifa hospital is very difficult. Currently, there are around 150 patients, and only two doctors to treat them. One nurse and 3 volunteers
— Ahmed El Mokhallalati (@AMokhallalati) November 23, 2023
For 11 days, we lacked water, food, and medical supplies, except for two instances when the Israeli occupation army…
UN special rapporteurs working alongside the Human Rights Council have released a statement on Thursday expressing alarm at the “worldwide wave of attacks…against those who publicly express solidarity w/ the victims of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.”
The statement said:
“Calls for an end to the violence and attacks in Gaza, or for a humanitarian ceasefire, or criticism of Israeli government’s policies and actions, have in too many contexts been misleadingly equated with support for terrorism or antisemitism. This stifles free expression, including artistic expression, and creates an atmosphere of fear to participate in public life…
In other contexts, we also see a rise in antisemitic speech as well as intolerance, for those who support or are perceived to support Israel, or who express mere sympathy for Israeli suffering in the aftermath of the 7 October attack… This leaves little space for moderate views…
It is especially in times of conflicts and war that we need to uphold the universality of human rights, ensure the application of the rule of law without discrimination, and carefully avoid double standards.”
The World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus met with the Arab League Ambassadors Group in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating health situation in Gaza.
In a post on X, Ghebreyesus said that the group “agreed unfettered access is needed to ensure constant and enough health supplies.”
This morning I met with Arab League Ambassadors Group in Geneva to discuss the health situation in #Gaza and @WHO's efforts to provide health assistance. We agreed unfettered access is needed to ensure constant and enough health supplies. pic.twitter.com/L8FaXh3sBr
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 23, 2023
In an update on Tuesday, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that as the number of displaced Palestinians across Gaza continue to increase, UNRWA shelter installations are acommodating “far more people than their intended capacity.”
“The over-crowding is leading to significant spread of disease, including acute respiratory illness and diarrhea, raises environmental and health issues, and limits the agency’s ability to provide services,” UNRWA said.
The World Food Programme has so far reached around 760,000 people inside Gaza with emergency food and vouchers, the UN body announced on Thursday.
“We are doing everything we can to get food into Gaza and carry out life-saving initiatives that can help people cope,” Samer AbdelJaber, the director of WFP Palestine said.
In photos: WFP has so far reached around 760,000 people inside #Gaza with emergency food and vouchers.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) November 23, 2023
"We are doing everything we can to get food into Gaza and carry out life-saving initiatives that can help people cope," says @SamerWFP.
🔗https://t.co/J5y3SvP4hz pic.twitter.com/KdWZZwGwXZ
Achieving control over the northern half of the Gaza Strip will mark only the first stage in the Israeli campaign to destroy Hamas, the chief military spokesman said on Thursday, a day before a four-day pause in fighting was due to start, Reuters reports.
“Control over northern Gaza is the first step of a long war,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a regular news briefing.
“We are preparing for the next stages, we are looking forward in the coming days we will focus on planning and fulfilling the next stages of the war,” he added.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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 after days of speculation and has raised hopes for a more durable pause in the violence.
Under the agreement, Hamas will 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. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
The exchange of female and child hostages and prisoners was due to take place on Thursday but was postponed as last-minute logistical issues were worked out during 24 hours of frantic diplomacy. 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 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, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Ansari said. Israel’s prime minister’s office confirmed it has received an “initial” list of the hostages expected to be released at 4pm local time on Friday. Joe Biden has said he has his “fingers crossed” that a three-year-old Israeli-American girl taken hostage on 7 October will be released on Friday.
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.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the military will resume fighting against Hamas “with intensity” for at least two more months once the “short” temporary pause ends. He told troops to “organise, get ready, investigate, resupply arms, and get ready to continue” during the ceasefire. “This respite will be short,” he said on Thursday.
Israel’s army has arrested the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital and bombed at least 300 targets from the air, killing dozens of Palestinians. Mohammad abu Salmiya and other medics were detained, a colleague said, amid reports that members of the Israel Defence Forces (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.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said it is “deeply worried” about the director of its medical clinic in Khan Yunis, who it said was arrested by Israeli forces and whose whereabouts is unknown. Awni Khattab was arrested on Wednesday when a convoy transporting the wounded from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza went through a checkpoint that separates north and south Gaza, the PRCS said in a statement.
Gaza’s health ministry has resumed its detailed count of casualties from the Israel-Hamas war in the territory. The director of the health ministry, which is run by the Hamas-run government, said it has documented more than 13,000 deaths, and that 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.
David Cameron has met Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, during a visit to Israel, expressing hope that the planned temporary truce with Hamas would be an “opportunity to crucially get hostages out and get aid into Gaza”.
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”.
A spokesperson for the Qatari government has said a four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7am on Friday, after Hamas and Israel exchanged lists of people to be released from Israeli prisoners and hostages taken to Gaza.
Majed al-Ansari said he could not disclose how many Palestinians would be freed but that 13 people would be released by Hamas from Gaza. “All the women and children and those hostages from the same families will be put together within the same patch,” Ansari said.
Here’s a clip from his press briefing earlier:
Back in London, John Casson, David Cameron’s former chief foreign policy adviser in Downing Street, criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy, saying it was teaching hatred of Israel among Palestinians.
He also called for a change to the ageing leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
In his main critique, he argued it was right to say “we stand with Israelis and say ‘never again’ to facing the terrorist horror of the last month – that is not the same as to say we endorse and enable what prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners are saying and doing because the two things are at odds.
The current approach is not making the Israelis safe and secure for the long term but creating a traumatised generation of Palestinians and teaching them that Israel is their enemy and it is undermining the prospects of a two-state solution and deliberately dismantling it.
David Cameron has met Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, during a visit to Israel, expressing 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 the new UK foreign secretary that the precondition for peace in the Middle East was the eradication of what Netanyahu 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.
Cameron’s visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, came on another dramatic day surrounding the release of hostages, and Palestinian political prisoners.
Netanyahu insisted Israel would continue with its plans to destroy Hamas, saying:
We’ll continue with our war aims, namely to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas has already promised that they will do this again and again and again. They’re a genocidal terrorist cult. There’s no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel and the Arab states, if we don’t eradicate this murderous movement that threatens the future of all of us.
It is understood Cameron discussed the impact of the conflict on civilians and the need to take all possible measures to minimise civilian casualties, and urged the Israelis to take action to end settler violence in the West Bank. The UK foreign secretary highlighted the need to use Kerem Shalom border crossing to scale up scanning and inspections to get more trucks in to Gaza.
Israel to continue 'intense' fighting for at least two months after 'short' truce, says defence minister
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the military will resume fighting against Hamas “with intensity” for at least two more months once the “short” temporary pause ends.
Gallant, addressing troops of the Israeli navy special operations unit on Thursday, was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying:
What you will see in the coming days is first the release of hostages. This respite will be short.
He told troops to “organise, get ready, investigate, resupply arms, and get ready to continue” during the ceasefire, adding:
There will be a continuation, because we need to complete the victory and create the impetus for the next groups of hostages, who will only come back as a result of pressure.
“At least another two months of fighting is expected,” he added.
From the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian:
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to troops of the Navy's Shayetet 13 commando unit: "This will be a short respite, after which the fighting will continue with intensity, and pressure will be made to bring back more hostages. At least two more months of fighting is expected." pic.twitter.com/scMUZWOdlh
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 23, 2023
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Biden 'fingers crossed' that three-year-old American hostage will be released
Joe Biden has said he has his “fingers crossed” that a three-year-old Israeli-American girl taken hostage on 7 October will be released on Friday.
The US president, speaking to reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts on Thursday, said he was “not prepared to given an update” on the hostages in Gaza “until it’s done”.
Asked about Abigail Mor Edan, the three-year-old, Biden responded:
I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
From Axios’ Barak Ravid:
From pool:
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 23, 2023
Any update on Gaza hostages?
Biden: “I’m not prepared to give an update until it’s done”
Will three year old US girl be among those released initially?
Biden: “I’m keeping my fingers crossed”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said it is “deeply worried” about the director of its medical clinic in Khan Yunis, who it said was arrested by Israeli forces and whose whereabouts is unknown.
Awni Khattab was arrested on Wednesday when a convoy transporting the wounded from al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza went through a checkpoint that separates north and south Gaza, the PRCS said in a statement. It added:
PRCS holds the Israeli authorities responsible for the safety of Khattab, and we demand his immediate release along with other medical teams that are under arrest.
🚨PRCS is deeply worried about Awni Khattab, our colleague the head of Khan Younis Medical Center, #Gaza. Israeli forces arrested him and now his whereabouts are unknown. 📍The arrest took place yesterday while the convoy of the wounded from Al-Shifa Hospital was traveling… pic.twitter.com/amr9JoBewL
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 23, 2023
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In New York, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was interrupted when a group of pro-Palestinian protesters in jumpsuits covered in fake blood glued themselves to the street.
They carried a banner that said “Free Palestine” and “Genocide then. Genocide now” and were taken into custody, AP reported.
🔴 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Blocked By Pro-Palestinian Protesters
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 23, 2023
Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on 6th Avenue in New York City, according to multiple reports and videos from the scene.
CREDIT: Jenn Ryan via Storyful pic.twitter.com/w0IWWLp044
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Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has proposed halting government funding for the daily Haaretz newspaper, accusing the publication of “defeatist and false propaganda” against the state of Israel, according to a Times of Israel report.
In a letter to cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs, Karhi criticised Haaretz for its editorial stance on the war, and proposed that the state not enter into any new commercial agreements with the newspaper, halt all advertising in it, and block any outstanding payments from being made. He wrote:
Since the beginning of the war, my office has received numerous complaints that the Haaretz newspaper has taken a harmful line that undermines the goals of the war and weakens the military effort and societal resilience.
The letter comes after a report in Haaretz published on Saturday that said an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) helicopter that engaged Hamas militants at the Nova music festival on 7 October also fired on festival participants.
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Mohammad abu Salmiya was regularly interviewed as Israeli forces attacked Gaza after 7 October, describing a desperately overcrowded facility housing 650 patients and sheltering another 5,000. He described allegations that al-Shifa sat above a Hamas command centre as untrue.
Al-Shifa, the largest medical facility in Gaza, was surrounded and raided by Israeli forces over a week ago. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas ran a command and control centre from tunnels running near and under the hospital, although so far the evidence presented has fallen short of that.
The IDF took a group of journalists to visit the tunnels on Wednesday, and video reports appeared showing lengthy tunnels reinforced with concrete blocks. A bathroom and an empty tiled room with electric sockets could be seen on the footage, although its purpose could not be discerned from the filmed material.
Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s spokesperson, said on Wednesday evening the footage showed that “Hamas built tunnels underneath hospitals, used them to command their operations”, and accused the group of “using the protected status of the hospitals as a shield”.
Patients and civilians have since been gradually evacuated from al-Shifa and the hospital’s boss was among the last to leave, on a day in which intense fighting continued unabated across Gaza as the planned truce was delayed by at least a day.
A second hospital in northern Gaza, the Indonesia hospital, has now been evacuated at the insistence of Israel’s military, according to the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (Mer-C), which helped fund and build it. Gaza’s health ministry said the evacuation meant that 65 bodies at the facility remained unburied.
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Israel’s army has arrested the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital and bombed at least 300 targets from the air, killing dozens of Palestinians, as an agreed four-day truce was delayed until Friday.
Mohammad abu Salmiya and other medics were detained, a colleague said, amid reports that members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had seized them as they were travelling with a World Health Organization evacuation convoy.
“Dr Mohammad abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors,” Khalid abu Samra told the AFP news agency, while Gaza’s ministry of health demanded the WHO explain what had happened.
Several hours later, the IDF 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.
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The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has met Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to Israel today.
Cameron, who earlier visited kibbutz Be’eri, the scene of some of the worst violence during the Hamas assault inside Israel on 7 October, told the Israeli leader in Jerusalem:
I wanted to come here in person ... to see just the true nature of the horrific attacks that you faced, I think that’s very important to do that and see that, we stand with the people of Israel.
He added that he believed the announcement of a truce between Israel and Hamas would be an opportunity to get the hostages out and to get aid into Gaza, adding:
I hope everyone who is responsible and behind this agreement can make it happen.
Netanyahu vowed to “continue with our war aims, namely to eradicate Hamas”, adding:
There is no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab countries if we do not eradicate this murderous movement, which threatens the future of all of us.
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Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian in Gaza, on helping a child suffering from toothache, marvelling at a family’s ability to laugh and sing, and how a simple scarf can allow you to dream of better times for his diary for the Guardian:
8am A woman I know once wondered about what life would be like if tears were coloured. If there was a specific colour for tears of joy, sadness, anger, despair and helplessness.
We have reached a stage where it is not a surprise to see someone crying in the street. They might have lost someone, they might have lost their home or maybe they have no place to go. The list could go on and on.
I leave early every day to start searching for anything useful. The shops open early to welcome all the lost souls. I call us the lost souls because we don’t know who we are any more. We had jobs, dreams and somewhat normal routines. Then suddenly we had to leave, and found ourselves in places we have never lived in before. Now we are facing the unknown. Our minds and souls are lost.
I see a man bringing a big bag with Saj bread. He starts calling out to let people know that he has something to sell. I run and reach him first. I ask him for some bread and pay him. Just like that. Then many people start running towards him. I take the bread – no, I hug the Saj bread – and pass through the gathering crowd. I have a big smile over my face. For almost half an hour I keep walking, not focusing where I am going. I’m just feeling happy.
A tear falls down my face, it does not need a colour. It is not a tear of sadness. We have reached a stage where getting bread easily is a victory, and it was a tear of gratefulness. I was grateful.
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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”.
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.
The response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”, Sánchez said.
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.
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Hamas confirms truce to begin at 7am on Friday
The armed wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam brigades or al-Qassam brigades, has confirmed that a four-day pause in fighting will begin at 7am local time in Gaza (0500 GMT).
During the truce, all military actions by al-Qassam Brigades and Israeli forces will cease, according to a statement on Thursday.
It added that Israeli military would stop flights over the southern Gaza Strip and would also cease flying for six hours daily, from 10am to 4pm over Gaza City and the northern areas.
The statement also sayss Israeli “prisoners, women and children under the age of 19, will be released”. Three Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, would be released for every Israeli, it added.
In addition, 200 trucks containing medical supplies would be brought into Gaza on a daily basis, along with four trucks containing fuel and cooking gas.
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Qatar says ceasefire to begin Friday 7am, 13 hostages to be released later that day
A four-day ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin on Friday morning, a day later than originally announced, after negotiators worked out 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, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar, which played a key role in mediating with Hamas, announced the cease-fire will start at 7 a.m. local time Friday (5 a.m. GMT.)
He said the two sides had exchanged lists of those to be released, and the first group of hostages held by Hamas – including 13 women and children – would be freed Friday afternoon. Increased aid for Palestinians will start to enter “as soon as possible,” al-Ansari said.
The exchange of female and minor hostages and prisoners was due to take place on Thursday but postponed as last minute logistical issues were worked out over 24 hours of frantic diplomacy.
The truce, which initially would last for four days, was announced early on Wednesday after days of speculation and has raised hopes for a more durable pause in the violence.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they have held since launching bloody attacks into southern Israel on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
There will be a halt to Israeli air sorties over southern Gaza, with air activity over northern Gaza restricted to six hours a day. According to a Hamas statement, Israel has agreed not to arrest anyone in Gaza for the duration of the truce.
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While this press conference in Doha has been going on, Israel’s prime minister’s office has confirmed it has received an “initial” list of the hostages expected to be released at 4pm local time on Friday.
It said: “The relevant officials are checking the details of the list and are currently in contact with all families.”
The Times of Israel is reporting that there has also been confirmation from Hamas that the ceasefire will last four days, and that 50 hostages will be released in total.
The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said 13 Israeli hostages are expected to be released tomorrow and this will be followed by a release of Palestinian detainees from Israel’s jail.
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The Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson has described the Israel-Hamas deal as “a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel”.
He has said that the criteria to prioritise hostages was humanitarian with a focus on women and children. He said he hoped there would be momentum generated by the deal to help everybody get out and “lessen the hardship of the people in Gaza through the humanitarian pause that is taking place”.
The press conference is taking place in Doha, where a 7am ceasefire in Gaza and a 4pm Israeli hostage release for Friday has been announced.
One question that has just come from a journalist in the room has been to have reassurance that all the hostages on the list for initial release are alive. The spokesperson said they are alive, but he also said he does not have verifiable information of the total number of hostages and their status.
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The Qatar foreign ministry briefing is being given by Majed al-Ansari. He has said a ceasefire will start in Gaza tomorrow at 7am local time Friday morning, and that the first hostages will be released at 4pm local time Friday afternoon. Thirteen Israelis are expected to be returned. This will be followed by the release of some Palestinian detainees from Israel’s jails. He has said for security reasons he cannot disclose the exact mechanics.
The Q&A portion of this press conference is being given in Arabic or English, depending on which media organisation has asked the question.
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Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Gaza is a war zone, and the delay in the plan was to ensure safety all round.
He said the lists and timings of release have only been agreed for the first day and that subsequent days will be announced as it goes along.
He says it is important that lines of communication stay open. He says the truce is a cessation of all hostilities, and could be broken by any resumption of hostilities, however it is defined.
He said he thinks they have reached a point now where they are ready to go on the ground and that there should be no further delays.
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The Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson in Doha has said they are unable to discuss for security reasons where hostages will be released to, but has said the Red Cross will be involved.
They have also said it is anticipated that Israel will make a Palestinian prisoner release tomorrow following the release of hostages. It is expected that 13 Israeli hostages will be released at 4pm local time tomorrow. He did not specify how many Palestinians detained by Israel would be released in the first instance.
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Qatar announces ceasefire will begin 7am Friday, first hostage release due at 4pm Friday
At a press conference in Doha, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has said the ceasefire will begin Friday at 7am (5am GMT) and that the first hostage release, of 13 hostages, will be at 4pm Friday (2pm GMT).
The spokesperson said they expect aid to start moving into Gaza through the Rafah crossing as soon as the ceasefire starts.
Hamas is believed to have seized at least 240 Israeli hostages during its 7 October attack inside Israel. The deal, drawn up between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, envisages that 50 Israeli hostages will be returned in exchange for a four-day pause in hostilities, and the release of 150 Palestinians held in Israeli detention.
It had been hoped that the first release could have taken place on Thursday, but last-minute hitches delayed the expected implementation of the ceasefire.
The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October killed at least 1,200 people. The subsequent Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip has, according to the health ministry there, killed at least 13,000 Palestinians, many of them children. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures issued during the conflict.
More details soon …
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Summary of the day so far …
Here are the latest headlines …
A long-awaited hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas won’t take effect before Friday, US and Israeli officials have said, dashing the hopes of families who thought captives may be freed earlier and prolonging the suffering of Palestinians under bombardment in Gaza. It was not immediately clear what caused the delay. The deal had been expected to come into force from Thursday.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
A Palestinian official told AFP on Thursday a delay in implementation of a truce in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Hamas was due to “last minute” details over which hostages would be released and how. The Wall Street Journal, citing senior Egyptian officials, reported that a failure to exchange lists for the swap and disagreements about access for the Red Cross have caused the delay.
The Israeli military confirmed today that the director of al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip had been held for questioning. Muhammad Abu Salmiya was reportedly detained with other medical staff while heading to the south of the Gaza Strip. In a statement the IDF said: “In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further questioning.” The Palestinian health minister, Mai Al-Kayl, said the arrests showed that Israel was flouting international humanitarian law.
The Israeli military (IDF) says it struck more than 300 “Hamas terror targets” in total over the past day. In a Telegram post the IDF said it had struck “military command centres, underground terror tunnels, weapon storage facilities, weapon manufacturing sites and anti-tank missile posts”.
Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by the Hamas-led government, has resumed its detailed count of casualties from the Israel-Hamas war in the territory. The director of the health ministry, Medhat Abbas, confirmed the resumption, said it has documented more than 13,000 deaths, and that 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. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures during the conflict.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross has told Al Jazeera that its staff were fired upon while trying to deliver humanitarian support in northern Gaza.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has met Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Beirut.
Israel and Hezbollah have again exchanged fire over the UN-drawn blue line that divides Israel and Lebanon. Israel claims to have intercepted multiple launches.
The US says it has downed drones in the Red Sea that had been launched from Yemen.
The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, is in Israel, where he has visited kibbutz Be’eri, one of the sites attacked by Hamas on 7 October in an assault that one of the survivors described as a “pogrom”.
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The Israeli military has provided no details on the circumstances of the detention of the al-Shifa hospital director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, but Reuters reports the Palestinian health ministry said he and a number of doctors were arrested at dawn at a checkpoint on the road linking northern Gaza to the south.
The Palestinian health minister, Mai Al-Kayla, said the arrests showed that Israel was flouting international humanitarian law. Al-Kayla is the minister for the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, which has no control over the health system in Gaza, which has been governed by Hamas since 2007.
Hamas has condemned the arrest, saying: “We consider it a despicable act that only comes from an entity that lacks all sense of humanity and morals.”
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Water is one of the most precious resources in Israel and the Palestinian territories. But there is a stark imbalance in how this resource is distributed. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli-owned farms are flourishing, while Palestinians often do not have enough water to drink. And in Gaza, Palestinians are facing deadly levels of water shortage. Josh Toussaint-Strauss examines how Israel took control of the region’s water supply and created a deadly scarcity crisis for Palestinians.
There has been considerable speculation about why the release of hostages and the implementation of a temporary truce has been delayed. The Wall Street Journal has an account, which it sources to senior Egyptian officials. Jared Malsin and Summer Said write:
Senior Egyptian officials said Hamas failed to formally sign off on the mechanism for the hostages’ release, and didn’t provide Israel with a specific list of around a dozen or more to be freed first.
Israel for its part delayed the handover of a list of the first group of Palestinian prisoners it plans to free, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Among the technical issues gumming up the process is access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the released hostages, and negotiations over the exit through which they will leave Gaza, according to officials familiar with the situation.
Israel had wanted the hostages to be handed over to the Red Cross before their transfer to Israel, while Hamas is now asking for them to be given directly to Egypt, the officials said. Israel has also asked that the Red Cross be given access to those hostages who remain in Gaza after the first exchange, something Hamas hasn’t agreed to.
Here is the full IDF statement on the detention of Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa hospital:
The director of the al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip was apprehended and transferred for ISA questioning following evidence showing that the al-Shifa hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre. The Hamas terror tunnel network situated under the hospital also exploited electricity and resources taken from the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored numerous weapons inside the hospital and on the hospital grounds.
Furthermore, after the Hamas massacre on 7 October, Hamas terrorists sought refuge within the hospital, some of them taking hostages from Israel with them. A pathological report also confirmed the murder of CPL Noa Marciano on the hospital premises.
In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA questioning.
The IDF also rereleased the statement from the Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, yesterday, in which he said: “Now, the irrefutable truth of Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals in Gaza is on full display to the world. We have an important question to ask the international community: what will you do to stop Gaza’s hospitals from being turned into terror bases in the future? Will you condemn Hamas? Or will you continue to be silent? Will you remain silent? I want to make it clear that Israel is at war with Hamas. We are not at war with the people of Gaza.”
Hamas and medical staff within Gaza’s hospitals have repeatedly denied the Israeli accusation.
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Israeli military says it has detained director of al-Shifa hospital for questioning
The Israeli military confirmed today that the director of al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip had been held for questioning. Muhammad Abu Salmiya was reportedly detained while heading to the south of the Gaza Strip.
Reuters reports that Israel said it was questioning him over evidence that the facility had been used as a command and control centre for the Islamist movement Hamas.
“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity,” the military said in a statement.
Abu Salmiya had frequently spoken to international media over the course of the conflict about conditions in and around the hospital during the Israeli bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its activities, which Hamas and medical staff have repeatedly denied.
Earlier this week Israel released footage, which showing reinforced tunnels allegedly used by Hamas, with what the IDF said showed a meeting room, kitchen and bathroom.
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A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross has told Al Jazeera that its staff were fired upon while trying to deliver humanitarian support in northern Gaza.
It said: “Healthcare workers have special protection under international law and we are pressing for immediate protection for all civilians,” adding that hospitals in Gaza had been “turned into cemeteries and war fields”.
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Dani Dayan, chair of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem World Holocaust memorial centre, has told AFP that comparisons between the Hamas attack on 7 October and the Holocaust were “simplistic”, even if “the genocidal intentions, sadism and barbarism of Hamas” had similarities with Nazi atrocities.
He told the news agency: “The crimes that took place on 7 October are on the same level as Nazi crimes, but they are not the Shoah. I do not accept the simplistic comparison with the Holocaust even if there are similarities in the genocidal intentions, sadism and barbarism of Hamas.
“For any Jew who has heard the stories of families putting their hands over a baby’s mouth to stop it from crying, the association of ideas is obvious. We have all thought about it.”
Dayan said, however, that aside from the scale of the events, unlike many of the Jews targeted during the second world war, Israelis are far from defenceless victims, and the state has hit back hard.
“We cannot compare it with the period of the Holocaust because there is an army here, which is fighting and making Hamas pay the price,” he said.
Dayan has previously criticised Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who pinned a yellow star to his chest insisting he would wear it until the UN security council condemned the Hamas attack. “This act disgraces the victims of the Holocaust,” Dayan said at the time.
He has also criticised the UN secretary general, António Guterres, who had said the Hamas attacks “did not happen in a vacuum”.
“I asked him what context could explain the beheading of children, rapes or shootings of young people at a music festival,” Dayan said.
The memorial centre itself counts some of its own staff among the victims of 7 October. Polish-born Israeli historian Alex Dancyg, 75, who worked at Yad Vashem, was last seen at the Nir Oz kibbutz and is feared to be among the hostages, as is one of the guides, Liat Atzili.
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The Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has been in Kibbutz Be’eri today as part of the delegation visiting with the British foreign secretary, David Cameron. She has posted a video from the location showing one of the burnt-out houses at the kibbutz after Hamas attacked it on 7 October.
Since the horrors of October 7th, Israel has changed.
— Tzipi Hotovely (@TzipiHotovely) November 23, 2023
See for yourself just a snapshot of the level of destruction that the genocidal terrorists of Hamas inflicted on the peace-loving community of Kibbutz Be'eri. pic.twitter.com/1KzumhZYLU
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Here is a little more on the apparent Israeli detention of al-Shifa hospital’s director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
Al Jazeera reports a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said Abu Salmiya was en route from the northern Gaza Strip to the south with other medics when he was arrested by Israeli forces. Al Jazeera also reports that the Israeli broadcaster Kan said he was questioned by the intelligence service Shin Bet after his arrest.
Hamas has, Al Jazeera reports, issued a statement calling for international organisations to work to have Abu Salmiya and other medical staffed release. It said:
We consider it a despicable act that only comes from an entity that lacks all sense of humanity and morals, in addition to being a crime and a flagrant violation of international conventions that guarantee no attacks against medical personnel at all times.
Israel began its latest campaign against Gaza after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October, which killed at least 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and during which Hamas abducted an estimated 240 hostages.
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The Scream franchise star Melissa Barrera has publicly responded to being fired from Scream VII for sharing posts that the film’s production company says were interpreted as antisemitic. The actor said she condemned antisemitism and Islamophobia but would “continue to speak out” on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Barrera, who starred in the fifth and sixth Scream films and was to star in the forthcoming seventh instalment, has been outspoken in support of Palestine on social media, where she has described Israel as committing “genocide” and “brutally killing innocent Palestinians, mothers and children, under the pretence of destroying Hamas”.
On Tuesday, Barrera was fired from Scream VII by the production company Spyglass Media, who confirmed to Variety the decision was due to some of her social media posts, which were interpreted as antisemitic.
“We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech,” a Spyglass spokesperson told Variety. The Guardian has not confirmed which posts Spyglass was referring to.
Read more here: Melissa Barrera, fired from Scream VII over Israel-Hamas posts, responds: ‘Silence is not an option’
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Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has met Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
AFP reports that in a statement, Hezbollah said the two men “reviewed the latest developments in Palestine, Lebanon and the region, and … the efforts made to end the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip”.
Amir-Abdollahian, who warned on Wednesday that the war could spiral out of control, left Beirut for Doha after their meeting, Iran’s Nour news agency reported.
Hezbollah said on Thursday morning it fired 48 Katyusha rockets at a military base at Ein Zeitim, near the town of Safed in northern Israel. It said it also carried out at least 10 other attacks on Israeli positions near the frontier. The IDF earlier said it had returned fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.
The violence between Israel and Hezbollah has claimed at least 108 lives in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 14 civilians, including three journalists, according to an AFP count.
Six Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, according to the authorities.
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The English Football Association is to stop lighting the arch at Wembley in support of humanitarian causes after the controversy that followed its decision not to commemorate the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
Wembley will be illuminated only for sporting and entertainment purposes, after the FA board reflected on its policy. Speaking last month, its chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said he “recognised the hurt” to the Jewish community caused by the decision to leave the arch unlit during England men’s friendly against Australia in the week after the Hamas attack.
Read more here: FA to stop lighting Wembley arch for humanitarian causes
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On its Telegram channel the Israeli military has claimed it has intercepted a number of launches from inside Lebanon which were aimed at Israel.
It wrote:
Following the initial reports regarding sirens sounding in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon toward Israeli territory. The IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a number of the launches. In addition, since this morning, terrorists launched a number of anti-tank missiles and mortars at various locations along the border with Lebanon.
There have been frequent exchanges of fires between the IDF and anti-Israeli forces over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel.
Earlier it was reported that Hezbollah had claimed to fire 48 rockets into Israeli territory in Upper Galilee. There are no reports of any casualties on the Israeli side.
A doctor at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital has told AFP the facility’s director and several other medical personnel were arrested by Israeli forces on Thursday. [See 7.55am GMT]
Director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has been frequently quoted by international media about the conditions inside al-Shifa.
“Doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors,” said Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital.
An official in the Hamas-run health ministry told AFP that one other doctor and two nurses had been detained, as well as the hospital director.
In a statement, Hamas said it “strongly denounces” the arrest of Salmiya and his colleagues, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organisations to work towards their “immediate release”.
The Israeli army has alleged that Hamas fighters use a tunnel complex beneath the facility in Gaza City to stage attacks. Hamas and hospital officials have repeatedly denied the claims.
Al-Shifa hospital has been the scene of an extended Israeli special forces operation as part of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run health ministry claims more than 13,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children. Approximately 6,000 Palestinians are said to be missing.
Updated
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy is teaching a traumatised generation of Palestinians to hate Israel, deliberately undermining the chances of a two-state solution, John Casson, the former foreign policy private secretary to David Cameron at No 10 said on Tuesday.
Casson was speaking as his former boss, now the foreign secretary, arrived in Israel for talks with Netanyahu.
Prior to Cameron’s appointment, Casson was highly critical of British policy saying it had lost leverage by simply following Israeli policy. In a further BBC interview on Tuesday he expressed the hope that Cameron’s appointment will see the UK start to chart some positions ahead of Israel and the Palestinians into which the two sides could then enter.
He also called for a new generation of Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, saying the absence of elections means they have lost legitimacy.
There is no suggestion that Casson, a former British ambassador to Egypt until 2018, is speaking with the foreign secretary’s approval. But knowing Cameron well, he said he thought the foreign secretary was clear-eyed about Netanyahu, but also put great store by personal relationships.
Casson said the UK should scale up the amount of humanitarian aid being sent to the Palestinians, arguing the money offered so far was a fraction of what was offered by the UK three or four years ago.
He also said Cameron needed to impress on the Israelis there was not a solely military solution to defeating Hamas, arguing a military response “has to create space for a strategic response and not undercut it”.
In his key critique, he argued: “When we say we stand with Israelis and say never again to face the terrorist horror of the last month – that is not the same as to say we endorse and enable what prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners are saying and doing because the two things are at odds.
“The current approach is not making the Israelis safe and secure for the long term but creating a traumatised generation of Palestinians and teaching them that Israel is their enemy, and it is undermining the prospects of a two-state solution, and deliberately dismantling it.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, has made some comments to the media while visiting kibbutz Be’eri, the scene of some of the worst violence during the Hamas assault inside Israel on 7 October.
The former prime minister said:
I wanted to come here to see it for myself; I have heard and seen things I will never forget.
Today is also a day where we hope to see progress on the humanitarian pause. This is a crucial opportunity to get hostages out and aid into Gaza, to help Palestinian civilians who are facing a growing humanitarian crisis.
Cameron was accompanied by the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, who said: “World leaders need to see the horrors of Hamas with their own eyes.”
Updated
Earlier the IDF posted to its Telegram channel that “a number of launches were detected from Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory”.
Haaretz is now reporting that Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for firing 48 rockets towards the Upper Galilee region in Israel’s north.
There are, to date, no reports of any casualties.
Updated
A Palestinian official told AFP on Thursday a delay in implementation of a truce in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Hamas was due to “last minute” details over which hostages would be released and how.
The truce, widely expected to go into force on Thursday but delayed during the night, had been put back over “the names of the Israeli hostages and the modalities of their release”, said the official, who has knowledge of the negotiation process but asked to remain anonymous.
Lists of those to be freed had been exchanged by both sides, he added. Questions were also being raised over Red Cross access to the hostages before they would be released into Egypt, he said, and whether the Red Cross would have access to those who remained.
A senior Hamas official reached by phone told AFP there were “obstacles linked to the situation on the ground”, hoping that there would not be “a mistake that has a negative impact on the truce or prevent it happening”.
But “mediators are shuttling between the two sides and the atmosphere is still constructive”, he added.
Updated
Gaza health ministry: more than 13,000 dead and 6,000 people missing
Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by the Hamas-led government, has told Associated Press it has resumed its detailed count of casualties from the Israel-Hamas war in the territory.
The director of the health ministry, Medhat Abbas, confirmed the resumption, saying it has documented more than 13,000 deaths.
The latest count is based on updated figures from hospitals in the south and 11 November figures from the northern hospitals. The real toll, it said, is likely higher.
The health ministry says another 6,000 people have been reported missing, and are feared buried under the rubble.
The health ministry had stopped updating its figures on 11 November after the breakdown of access and communication in northern Gaza.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 11am in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
A long-awaited hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas won’t take effect before Friday, US and Israeli officials have said, dashing the hopes of families who thought captives may be freed earlier and prolonging the suffering of Palestinians under bombardment in Gaza. It was not immediately clear what caused the delay. The deal had been expected to come into force from Thursday.
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
The Israeli military (IDF) says it struck more than 300 “Hamas terror targets” in total over the past day. In a Telegram post the IDF said it had struck “military command centres, underground terror tunnels, weapon storage facilities, weapon manufacturing sites and anti-tank missile posts”.
The chief of the general staff of Israel’s armed forces has told soldiers “we are not ending the war”. In comments to brigade commanders inside Gaza released to the media, Herzi Halevi said: “We are not ending the war. We will continue until we are victorious, going forward and continuing in other Hamas areas. I’m very proud of you, you are doing an outstanding job.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has so far killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials. More are thought to be under rubble. Israel launched the assault after the Hamas attacks on 7 October inside Israel, which killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which an estimated 240 people were taken hostage. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, the head of the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, has said: “The Indonesia hospital in Gaza is now empty. The doctors and the wounded were moved to the European hospital. Our volunteers are sheltering at a school with thousands of others.”
In another development, unconfirmed reports say the director of the al-Shifa hospital has been detained by Israeli forces.
The US says it has downed drones in the Red Sea that had been launched from Yemen.
Israel’s military spokesperson, Danial Hagari, has said the IDF has again attacked targets inside Lebanon. There had been indications yesterday that while it was not a direct part of the Israel-Hamas deal, Hezbollah would respect a truce period on the northern boundary between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF reported “a number of launches” from Lebanon into Israel.
The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, is in Israel, where he has visited kibbutz Be’eri, one of the sites attacked by Hamas on 7 October in an assault that one of the survivors described as a “pogrom”.
Germany’s interior ministry said 15 properties of members and supporters of Hamas and another Palestinian organisation – Samidoun had been raided in four regions. The groups are banned in the country. There are an estimated 450 Hamas members in Germany, according to official figures.
Updated
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has been appearing on television in the UK, where he told viewers that Hamas could choose to release any of the hostages it holds at any time, and that it did not have to be contingent on a deal.
He said on Sky News that the delay in releasing hostages was “heartbreaking”, saying:
You know, Hamas could release the hostages now. It could have released them yesterday. It could have released them on 7 October. And every moment that it chooses not to release those vulnerable little children is a moment that it continues to psychologically terrorise these children’s families.
They’ve been holding them in the dark and they’ve been keeping their families in the dark. Their families know nothing about their condition. Physically, mentally, emotionally. You know, maybe even worse, these children don’t know what has happened to their families.
This hostage crisis is intensely personal for everyone in Israel. We’re a small country. Everyone knows someone who has had someone stolen from them. And we’re hoping to begin bringing back our stolen children, bring back those hostages, and we’re committed to the pledge that we will bring all of them back, and there will be no one left behind.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Updated
The UK’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said she urges Hamas to “finally do the right thing” and release the hostages it is holding.
Speaking on Sky News, she said:
[For] all hostages and their families [it] is just so awful. It’s 7 October. It’s weeks now. Not knowing. Not hearing the conditions of the person you love the most and particularly the children, but also for elderly people who need access to medicine. And they’ve been locked in tunnels in who knows what conditions.
So much hope yesterday that prisoners were going to be released today. Let’s hope it’s tomorrow. Let’s hope that deal can be got across the line.
It is so important that the hostages are released, but also that support is getting into Gaza, but that won’t happen until the hostages are released.
So I urge Hamas, a terrorist organisation, to finally do the right thing and release those hostages.
Updated
Al Jazeera is reporting that the Indonesia hospital in Gaza has been evacuated.
It quotes Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of the Indonesian charity Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), saying:
The Indonesia hospital is now empty, and our volunteers have been moved to a school near the European hospital in Rafah. The doctors and the wounded were moved to the European hospital. Our volunteers are sheltering at a school with thousands of others.
More details soon …
Updated
The chief of the general staff of Israel’s armed forces has told soldiers “we are not ending the war”.
In comments released by Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, speaking to brigade commanders inside Gaza, said:
We are trying to connect the goals of the war, so that the pressure from the ground operation brings about the ability to also achieve the goal of this war, to create the conditions for the release of the abducted hostages. We are not ending the war. We will continue until we are victorious, going forward and continuing in other Hamas areas. I’m very proud of you, you are doing an outstanding job.
The Israeli offensive has killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials. More are thought to be under rubble.
Israel launched the assault after the Hamas attacks on 7 October inside Israel, which killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which an estimated 240 people were taken hostage.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Updated
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, on Thursday said his country is in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire “in the very short term”.
“Our position with regards to Palestine and the Palestinian people is clear. We are in favour of a Palestinian State. In the very short term, what is truly urgent is for a humanitarian ceasefire to happen,” Reuters reports he said in an interview with the Spanish radio station RNE.
This post was amended on Thursday 23 November after Reuters clarified Albares’ quote
Updated
Director of al-Shifa hospital detained by Israel – reports
There are reports that the director of the al-Shifa hospital has been detained by Israeli forces.
Haaretz reports an IDF source has told it Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested while in the humanitarian corridor heading to the southern Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera quotes Khalid Abu Samra, a department head at the hospital, saying: “Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors.”
Al Jazeera reports the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has also confirmed the arrest.
More details soon …
Updated
AFP has a little more detail on the raids being carried out in Germany in four regions on the homes of members and supporters of Hamas and another Palestinian organisation – Samidoun – which are banned in the country.
The interior ministry said 15 properties had been raided so far since 6am after courts in four regions ordered the raids. Germany on 2 November banned Hamas and Samidoun. There are an estimated 450 Hamas members in Germany, according to official figures.
The ministry said that while Hamas members had not staged “violent action” in Germany so far, they had tried to raise funds to help the group overseas and “influence the social and political discourse in Germany”.
It claimed Samidoun on the other hand was “prone to use violence … and denies the right of Israel to exist”.
Updated
The US says it has downed drones in the Red Sea that had been launched from Yemen.
On the morning (Yemen time) of November 23, the USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen. The drones were shot down while the U.S. warship was on patrol in the Red Sea. The ship and crew sustained no… pic.twitter.com/TqXuaKsgwe
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) November 23, 2023
Yemen’s Houthis have vowed to continue targeting Israel and what it deems Israeli assets. On Monday Houthi rebels said they had seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.
Updated
Israel’s military spokesperson Danial Hagari has said the IDF has again attacked targets inside Lebanon.
He wrote: “IDF aircraft spotted and attacked an anti-tank squad … At the same time, the IDF force attacked the squad with artillery. Following the warnings in the northern part of the country, a number of launches were detected from Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
There had been indications yesterday that while it was not a direct part of the Israel-Hamas deal, Hezbollah would respect a truce period on the northern boundary between Israel and Lebanon if Israel did. There have been daily exchanges of fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries since the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza’s health ministry, has said Israel has given four hour’s notice to evacuate the Indonesian hospital.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
As part of his visit to Israel, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has been taken to kibbutz Be’eri, one of the sites attacked by Hamas on 7 October in an assault that one of the survivors described as a “pogrom”.
Updated
UK foreign secretary David Cameron to visit Israel and Palestine on Thursday
The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, is due to visit the Middle East on Thursday and meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The former prime minister was appointed to the foreign policy brief last week by Rishi Sunak after he moved James Cleverly to the Home Office following the sacking of Suella Braverman for her criticisms of the way London’s police were handling pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Cameron met counterparts from Arab and Islamic countries in London on Wednesday to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict. In a briefing, the group – from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria and Palestine – said western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, here’s an excerpt from an analysis by our world affairs editor, Julian Borger, and our correspondents Jason Burke and Ruth Michaelson on how the hostage and truce deal was reached:
The first sign that Hamas was interested in a hostage deal came only a few days after its 7 October attack in which its gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 240 captive. The government in Qatar approached the White House to convey Hamas’s interest in negotiations, and suggested that a dedicated cell be set up involving a handful of US, Qatari and Israeli representatives, according to senior US officials.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, designated his Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, and Josh Geltzer, the deputy White House counsel, to set up the cell, which was kept secret from the rest of the administration on Israeli and Qatari insistence.
Biden and his team were focused in particular on 10 US nationals who had not been accounted for and were presumed to be among the hostages. On 13 October, the US president held a Zoom call with their families. A senior administration official said colleagues on the call described it as “one of the most gut-wrenching things they’ve experienced in their time here”.
When Biden visited Israel five days later, he met the families of hostages in person, and their release was a main focus of his face-to-face meeting with Netanyahu, according to US officials. Three Americans were included in the final deal on Wednesday.
Alongside Biden’s personal commitment, the White House came to see the hostage issue as the most likely route to persuading the Israeli government to ease its onslaught on Gaza, which had flattened entire residential districts and killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Updated
The Israeli military (IDF) says it struck more than 300 “Hamas terror targets” in total over the past day.
In a Telegram post the IDF said it had struck “military command centres, underground terror tunnels, weapon storage facilities, weapon manufacturing sites and anti-tank missile posts”.
It also said Israeli forces were currently striking Jabiliya in northern Gaza, where dozens of people were reported killed on Wednesday.
As we reported earlier, about 50 of the victims in Jabiliya on Wednesday were from the same family, according to Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister.
The German interior ministry says it is conducting searches in four federal states in relation to formerly announced bans of activities of Hamas, already a designated terrorist organisation in the country, as well as pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, Reuters reports.
“We continue our consistent action against radical Islamists,” German interior minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
“With the bans on Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of the barbaric terror of Hamas against Israel,” Faeser added.
Dozens of unidentified Palestinians buried in mass grave in Khan Younis, AFP reports
The bodies of dozens of unidentified people were buried on Wednesday in a mass grave at a cemetery in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, AFP reports. The agency writes:
Wrapped in blue tarpaulin, the bodies were lowered on stretchers, some of them stained with blood, into a sandy pit that was gradually enlarged by a digger. Some were the size of children.
“As these martyrs had no one to say goodbye to, we dug a mass grave to bury them. They are unknown martyrs,” Bassem Dababesh of the emergency committee at the religious affairs ministry told AFP.
The remains, which bore only numbers, had come from the Indonesian and al-Shifa hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, according to members of the committee at the burial site.
The Indonesian hospital on the edge of the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been hit by Israeli airstrikes, was partly evacuated on Monday, said the Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
“There were bodies everywhere. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Umm Mohammed al-Ran, a woman evacuated from the Indonesian hospital towards Rafah in the south.
“Wounded people died in front of us as they bled out,” she told AFP.
“The stench of death was everywhere in the hospital. The wounded were crying out for painkillers, but the doctors didn’t have any to give them.”
She held up her phone to show a video she had taken. It showed worms crawling from the infected wound on a patient’s leg.
The bodies that arrived at Khan Yunis on Wednesday would have been “detained” by Israel before being released after representations from “third countries and the United Nations”, according to the emergency committee at the religious affairs ministry.
Khalil Siam, director of a transport company, told AFP that the bodies had arrived the night before, and it was not known “if they’re decomposing or not”.
AFP contacted the Israeli military and several UN agencies operating in Gaza, but no reply had been received late Wednesday.
There are thousands of dead in the Gaza Strip, and the question of burials has shocked many Gazans.
Since the war began, war dead have been buried hastily in private plots of land and even a football field, when cemeteries are full or inaccessible because of the fighting.
Updated
In Australia, hundreds of students have gathered in front of Melbourne’s Flinders Street station, with schoolchildren walking out of class to attend the strike. Some students were draped in the Palestinian flag while others held “Free Palestine” posters.
The students participating in the schools strike spilt out onto the road to block the city’s busy Flinders and Swanston street intersection.
Year 11 student Audra, co-organiser of the rally, told the crowd they must continue to stand with Palestine:
To strike for Palestine, to defy our principals and politicians who tell us we don’t know what we’re talking about.
I walked out of school today with all of you to take a stand on the right side of history.
The rally has attracted backlash, with an open letter from members of the state of Victoria’s Jewish community urging state premier Jacinta Allan and education minister Ben Carroll to take a tougher stance against the strike.
Allan said she expected students to stay in school while her federal counterpart Jason Clare said pupils should be in the classroom during school hours.
A pro-Palestine schools strike in Sydney is also planned for Friday.
Updated
There is “no cause for concern” about the hostage negotiations, a source familiar with the talks has told Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The source said:
The delay does not stem from a breakdown in talks, but rather from the need to resolve administrative matters, which are being addressed.
Announcement on beginning of truce could come within hours, Qatar says
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari says an announcement on the beginning of the truce could come in the next few hours, according to Reuters.
Qatar has been mediating in the negotiations on the truce.
In its latest update on the conflict, the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) said 190 wounded and sick people as well as their companions and a number of medical teams were evacuated on Wednesday from Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, which was raided by Israeli forces last week.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that, the evacuation lasted for almost 20 hours as the convoy was obstructed and subjected to inspection while passing through the checkpoint that separates northern and southern Gaza, “hence putting the lives of the wounded and sick people in danger.”
It said some 250 patients and staff remained at the hospital, which is no longer operational.
OCHA also said that the Indonesian hospital, also in northern Gaza was hit by “heavy strikes” late Tuesday that hit the surgery department.
Around 60 corpses were lying near the hospital, OCHA added, citing the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The area surrounding Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza was heavily bombarded, resulting in dozens killed, according to media reports on Wednesday, OCHA said.
This is one of the two hospitals north of Wadi Gaza that are still operational and admitting patients. Since last night, it has admitted more than 60 dead and some 1,000 wounded people.
Lebanon's Hezbollah group confirms son of senior MP killed in Israeli strike
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has officially confirmed that five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, have been killed, amid skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border, according to AFP.
Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on 7 October.
It issued separate statements with the identities and photographs of four other fighters who were also killed.
A source close to the family said that Abbas Raad “was killed with a number of other Hezbollah members” in an Israeli strike Wednesday on a house in south Lebanon’s Beit Yahun.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.
Israel’s army said in statements Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets and sources of fire from Lebanon, including a Hezbollah “terrorist cell” and infrastructure.
Since the cross-border exchanges began, 107 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally. At least 75 are Hezbollah fighters but the toll also included at least 14 civilians, three of them journalists.
Seven Hezbollah fighters have also been killed in Syria.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to authorities.
The strike came just hours after the four-day truce in Gaza was announced between Israel and Hamas, which is a Hezbollah ally.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who visited Beirut on Wednesday, warned in an interview that if the Hamas-Israel ceasefire begins but “does not continue... the conditions in the region will not remain the same as before the ceasefire and the scope of the war will expand”.
15 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, Palestinian media reports
Israeli attacks have continued on Gaza overnight. Palestinian media said early Thursday that Israeli aircraft and artillery struck the southern city of Khan Younis in at least two waves and 15 people were killed.
Attacks were also reported in several other parts of Gaza, including the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City, and the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Israel and Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.
Israel has told Palestinians to move south for safety but has continued to strike areas such as Khan Younis.
On Wednesday, about 160 Palestinians – including 50 from one family – were reported killed.
Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight Wednesday as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around Jabaliya.
Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said during a visit to London that 52 of the victims at Jabaliya were from the same Qadoura family. “I have the list of the names, 52 of them. They were wiped out completely, from grandfather to grandchildren,” he said.
Hostage and ceasefire deal won't be implemented before Friday, US and Israel say
A long-awaited hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas won’t take effect before Friday, US and Israeli officials have said, dashing the hopes of families who thought captives may be freed earlier and prolonging the suffering of Palestinians under bombardment in Gaza.
“The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a statement. “The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”
Multiple news outlets later cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying that the halt in fighting would not begin on Thursday either, as had been widely expected.
White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson later said final logistical details for the release were being worked out. “That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning,” Watson said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the delay. The deal had been expected to come into force from Thursday. An Egyptian security source told Reuters that mediators had sought a start time of 10am.
Here’s our full report on the deal:
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
Israeli and US officials have said that the ceasefire and hostage deal will not come into effect until Friday at the earliest.
In a statement released on Wednesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said talks on the deal were continuing and that the hostage release “will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday.”
Multiple news outlets later cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying that the halt in fighting would not begin on Thursday either, as had been widely expected.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, citing an unidentified Israeli official, reported there was a 24-hour delay because the agreement had not been signed by Hamas and mediator Qatar. The official said they were optimistic the agreement would be carried out once it was signed.
White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson said final logistical details for the hostage release were being worked out. “That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning,” Watson said.
Other key developments:
Under the agreement, Hamas will free at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages they took on 7 October. In turn, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
The deal, struck after lengthy and complex talks mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, came more than six weeks after the conflict began on 7 October, when Hamas launched attacks from Gaza into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 240 people hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned that “the war continues” despite the deal for a temporary ceasefire and release of some hostages. At a briefing on Wednesday, he also said part of the deal with Hamas stipulates that representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be allowed to visit the hostages that remain in Gaza after some of them are returned. The ICRC earlier on Wednesday said it had “not been made aware of any agreement…related to visits by the ICRC to the hostages”.
A coalition of aid agencies have warned that the four-day ceasefire left almost no time to provide effective humanitarian relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people. In a briefing on Wednesday, they argued the only effective response would be a permanent or durable end to the war and that it remained unclear if there would be sufficient access, particularly to the north of the strip, to allow anything beyond cursory relief.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have published the names of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, at least some of whom are expected to be released in an exchange with Hamas in Gaza for dozens of Israeli hostages seized by the militant group on 7 October.
The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed. The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they were in the dark about who would be released and when. Meanwhile, excitement is also growing for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank that their imprisoned loved ones may also be coming home.
More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza – including 50 from one family – were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air. Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
The head of the UN children’s agency (Unicef) has called the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” and said that the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “far from enough”. Catherine Russell, addressing the UN security council on Wednesday, also said that “all children inside the territory” were facing “what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis”.
The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October has increased to at least 53, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The funerals were held in Beirut on Wednesday for Al Mayadeen’s reporter Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih al Mamari who were both killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement officially confirmed that five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, have been killed, amid skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border, according to AFP. Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on 7 October.
Israel’s military has said it intercepted a cruise missile near the southern port city of Eilat. Eilat is in the south of Israel at the northern tip of the Red Sea, and has previously been targeted during the conflict both by long range fire from the Gaza Strip and by Yemen’s Houthi forces.
The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment, foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries said on a visit to London on Wednesday.
Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas. During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked: “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.” He went on: “Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war: this is not war, it is terrorism.”
