GAZA: Israel said that a four-day ceasefire and the release of hostages will not begin until at least Friday. This stopped a peace deal with Hamas from going into effect right away.
Israel’s national security director, Tzachi Hanegbi, said that the release of at least 50 hostages held by Hamas was still on track, but it would not happen on Thursday as planned.
In a statement, he said, “The contacts on the release of our hostages are moving forward and continuing all the time.”
“The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”
A second Israeli source said that the fighting would not stop for a short time on Thursday either.
The delay is terrible for families who want their loved ones to come home and for the more than two million people in Gaza who are hoping for an end to 47 days of war, hunger, and brutal Israeli attacks on civilian targets.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day truce as part of a complicated and well-thought-out plan. During that time, at least 50 hostages taken in the Palestinian terrorist group’s deadly October 7 attacks would be freed.
A government document from Israel said that there would be an extra day of “pause” in battle for every 10 more hostages that were freed.
Three Americans, including Abigail Mor Idan, who is three years old, were set to be freed.
In exchange, Israel would free at least 150 Palestinian women and children and let more aid into the coastal area that has been under lockdown for weeks due to heavy fighting and bombing.
After weeks of talks between Israel, Palestinian resistance groups, Qatar, Egypt, and the US, it wasn’t clear right away what caused the delay.
Majed Al-Ansari, a spokeswoman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said Thursday that the agreement is still being put into action and things are going well.
“The truce agreement that was reached will be concluded in the coming hours,” he stated.
Leaders of both Israel and Hamas have agreed to the deal, even though some people in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government are very against it.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of National Security, called the deal a “historic mistake” that would give Hamas more power and put Israeli troops’ lives at risk.
Along with other Palestinian shooters, Hamas took about 240 people hostage during bloody raids into Israel on October 7.
The attack led to a brutal Israeli operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 14,000 people, including many children, according to the Gazan government.
Bloomberg agreed with the deal with Hamas, but he promised that the ceasefire would only last for a short time and would not stop the effort to destroy Hamas.
He promised to protect Israel from threats coming from Gaza and Lebanon, which is home to Hezbollah. “We are winning and will continue to fight until absolute victory,” he said on Wednesday.
Hezbollah said five fighters had been killed, including the son of a top lawmaker. This made things tense on Israel’s northern border early Thursday.
Since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, there have been almost daily gunfights on the border between Israel and Lebanon. This has made people worry that the Gaza war could start a fire that spreads to the rest of the region.
The Israeli army said in a statement Wednesday night that it had hit several Hezbollah targets, such as a “terrorist cell” and equipment.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden talked to Netanyahu, the White House said, and “emphasised the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank.”
So that a fight doesn’t start that involves both US and Iranian forces, the White House has told Israel not to make things worse with Hezbollah.
Wednesday, Biden also talked to the leaders of Qatar and Egypt to push for the cease-fire to be “fully implemented” and for “ultimately secure the release of all hostages.”
It wasn’t clear to families on both sides how the releases would be carried out.
Israel had a list of 123 Palestinian prisoners under 18 years old and 33 women who were qualified to be released.
In Khan Yunis, in the southern part of Gaza, displaced Palestinians were still not sure about the deal between Israel and Hamas.
“What do they mean by a truce?” We don’t need a cease-fire just so that help can get here. She left northern Gaza for a hospital that is now home to about 35,000 homeless people and said, “We want to go home.”
Thousands of airstrikes have flattened large parts of Gaza, and the area is running out of food, water, and power.
For now, it looked like Israel was continuing its offensive in northern Gaza. People who were there said they saw strikes on the Kamal Adwan hospital and houses nearby.
As other people ran to safety through streets full of rubble, medics treated survivors who were bleeding and covered in dust.
Israeli soldiers led reporters to a tunnel shaft at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. They said it was part of a huge underground network that Hamas uses for military reasons, but Hamas denies this.
When he went on CNN, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak admitted that Israel built the bunker under the hospital.
The US stops several attack drones that were fired from Yemen: Pentagon
The US Central Command said that on Thursday, a warship patrolling the Red Sea stopped several attack drones that were fired from Houthi-controlled areas in 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,” CENTCOM said on X, formerly Twitter.
From Rafah, this picture shows smoke and fire rising above houses in eastern Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel was attacking. Picture: AFP
From Rafah, this picture shows smoke and fire rising above houses in eastern Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel was attacking. Picture: AFP
“The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury,” it said.
Since the war in Gaza began, the Houthis have said they are part of the “axis of resistance” and have fired a number of drones and missiles at Israel.
The Houthis have also said they will attack Israeli ships because of the war between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian rebel group.
At the start of the Red Sea on Sunday, the Houthis took over a cargo ship with ties to Israel and its 25 foreign crew.
The event was called “very grave” and “of global consequence” by Israel’s military on Sunday. A US military source also said it was “a flagrant violation of international law.”
