Security conditions in the Gaza attack on Oct. 7: Israeli hostages are still alive and a humanitarian ceasefire is insufficient, as reported by the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs
The truce between Israel and Hamas is due to end on wednesday but is being extended for 48 hours in order to allow for the exchange of more captives and for more aid to reach Gaza.
Late Wednesday, Hamas released 10 Israelis and four Thai citizens that its fighters captured in the Oct. 7 attack launched from Gaza on Israeli border communities that killed around 1,200 people, Israel says. Hamas seized around 240 hostages in the assault.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum believes that Hamas still has over a hundred hostages, including 27 women and four girls under the age of 18.
Doctors in Israel say rescued hostages have returned with no health benefits. One of the former captives is in stable condition at the hospital, but her family is unsure of her condition. Eitan’s aunt said that he told her that his captivity had used guns to threaten Israeli children.
Earlier, a U.S. official told NPR that CIA Director William Burns was in Doha for meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. Speaking to NPR, an Israeli official on Tuesday also reiterated that “Israel has consistently said that as long as more hostages are released, it would address the possibility of further extending the pauses.”
The temporary truce went into effect on Friday but according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, air strikes, shelling, and ground clashes have largely ceased.
Even with the aid convoy reaching the embattled north, OCHA emphasized that “the bulk of aid distribution during the day” took place in the south. It also cautioned that the aid reaching Gaza since the pause “is insufficient to meet the extensive needs.”
Secretary-General Antnio Guterres called for a humanitarian ceasefire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and the region.
When she was released from prison, a Palestinian resistance figure would come back to her husband, Ms. Tamimi, whose husband spent 30 years behind bars
According to her lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, Ms. Tamimi was beaten during her arrest and after she was transferred, in violation of international law, to the prison in Israel from the occupied West Bank.
The woman who was arrested by the military in the early morning of November 6, 2015, and then jailed for nearly three weeks on suspicion of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity, was freed from prison in less than three weeks.
Nariman said the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces has left an indelible mark. More than 12,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip during the war and many more are trapped under the rubble, according to health authorities.
“She would be coming back after the death of 17,000 people. You understand?” Nariman Tamimi said. There are many mothers who have lost their children and families that have died, but my daughter would come back to me.
Ms. al-Barughouti is from a famous family of Palestinian resistance figures. One of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners was her husband, who spent 30 years behind bars and much of it under administrative internment before his death.
Israel arrives in Israel as the Gaza cease-fire with Hamas is extended another day: Israeli-Jerusalem attack hostages and Israeli-Mexican militants
News of the extended pause in fighting came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel and amid an early morning shooting at a bus station on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where gunmen opened fire, killing three Israelis. The first attack on civilians by the Palestinians took place last month.
According to Hamas, two Israeli- Russians were released in a deal brokered by Putin that was the third such release since Friday.
The president of Israel thanked the U.S. for the work it was doing in order to free the hostages. He mentioned the Bibas family, which is being held hostage. Israel says the family, including the parents, a four-year-old girl and 10-month-old infant, were handed off by Hamas to another Palestinian militant faction, but Hamas says the mother and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The U.S. focused on trying to secure the hostages’ release from day one, according to Blinken. He called the swaps of captives this week “a very positive development.”
“It’s also enabled an increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent civilians in Gaza who need it desperately,” Blinken said. The process is producing results. We hope that it can continue, it’s important.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), Netanyahu offered condolences to the families of the victims and said his government would expand its efforts to distribute weapons to Israeli civilians.
The bus stop attack is further proof of our obligation to continue to fight with strength and determination against terrorism, which poses a threat to our citizens, said the war cabinet minister. He wrote about it in Jerusalem, Gaza, and Judea and Samaria. The biblical names Judea and Samaria are used to refer to the West Bank.
On Wednesday, Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed an 8-year-old and a 15-year-old during a raid on the Palestinian city of Jenin. Israel’s military says it killed two militants in the raid.
U.N. Secretary of State’s Update on Hilf, Aid, Food, Medical Supplies, and Fuel Deliveries to Gaza Centers and Hospitals
While the cease-fire allowed for aid to reach many Gazans, the delivery of aid is insufficient to meet the needs of 2 million people, according to the United Nations Secretary-General.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update that aid convoys, that had been unable to reach areas north of an informal line bisecting Gaza, continued through Wednesday.
It said that the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, “delivered food and non-food items, medical supplies, and fuel to shelters hosting internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as to warehouses and hospitals. The two hospitals in Gaza city, Al Ahli and As Sahaba, received over a thousand liters of fuel and were able to use generators for seven days.