Women and children ‘at high risk of famine’ in Gaza, warns World Food ProgrammeThe population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday.
The pause in fighting also allowed its teams to go into areas of the besieged enclave for the first time in a long time, it said. “What we see is catastrophic,” it said.
Samer Abdeljaber, WFP Palestine representative and country director, said:
Our team recounted what they saw: hunger, desperation and destruction. People who have not received any relief in weeks. The team could see the suffering in their eyes.
He said the pause “offered a window of relief” that he hoped “paves the way for longer-term calm”. WFP’s director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region, Corinne Fleischer, said:
Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed. The people of Gaza have to eat every day, not just for six days.
Ahed Tamimi wants the world to know what’s happening in Palestine – videoShe was re-arrested in November this year for alleged incitement on social media in the aftermath of the 7 October attack by Hamas. The Israeli military said she was suspected of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity. The arrest appears to be in relation to a post on Instagram from an account in Tamimi’s name referencing Adolf Hitler and vowing to “slaughter” Israelis.
The Tamimi family have maintained that Ahed did not write the post, claiming it was either from one of the many dozens of accounts impersonating her, or the result of a hack, which they said has happened before.
Their daughter’s potential release on Tuesday comes at a crucial time: her lawyer said that Israel had been planning to move Tamimi to administrative detention, three weeks after her arrest.
Yaffa Adar, the 85-year-old Israeli woman who was released from Hamas captivity last week, has been discharged from hospital today.
Pictures released by the Wolfson medical centre show Adar smiling as she walks out of the hospital to the applause of staff.
Adar was abducted by Hamas militants from the Nir Oz kibbutz on 7 October.
A video of her being driven towards Gaza in a golf cart, wrapped in a pink blanket and guarded by Hamas gunmen, became a symbol of the hostage crisis for many in Israel.
She has three children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. One of her grandchildren, Tamir Adar, 38, remains a hostage.
Hamas militants kidnap and transport Yaffa Adar, 85, an Israeli civilian kidnapped from Nir Oz, into the Gaza Strip in a golf cart, on 7 October. Photograph: APHamas has begun handing over hostages to Red Cross – reportHamas has begun the handover of a fifth group of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing Egyptian officials.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza.
In a social media post earlier today, the PRCS said a fuel truck was entering Gaza City through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south.
The truck was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said. It was accompanied by 31 humanitarian aid trucks containing food, water and relief supplies, it said.
Since the beginning of the truce and up till Monday, PRCS crews have successfully delivered about 200 aid trucks to Gaza City and its northern region, it said.
🚨 Urgent: The Israeli Occupation forces are denying the entry of the fuel truck which was supposed to enter the north of the Gaza Strip a few moments ago.#Gaza#HumantarianAid
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 28, 2023Another 20 hostages held in Gaza are ready to be released by Hamas within the next 48 hours, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al Ansari, has said.
Ansari, at his weekly briefing today, said the initial four days of the truce were “used to increase the number of hostages that are identified by Hamas”.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has met with his Thai counterpart, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, and 17 Thai citizens who have been released from captivity in Gaza.
The 17 Thais released over the past few days are currently at the Shamir medical centre outside Tel Aviv. They are “in good spirits and ready to go home to their loved ones”, Parnpree posted to social media.
ตื้นตันใจและดีใจเป็นที่สุดที่ได้เจอพี่น้องคนไทยที่เพิ่งได้รับการปล่อยตัวเมื่อไม่กี่วันที่ผ่านมาครับ ทุกคนมีกำลังใจดี พร้อมเดินทางกลับบ้านแล้วครับ
Overwhelmed with joy and gratitude to finally meet our fellow Thais who were recently released just days ago. They are in good… pic.twitter.com/CCQL2htVTy
— Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara (@drparnpreeb) November 28, 2023An estimated 15 Thai citizens remain in captivity in Gaza. According to Cohen, 39 Thai citizens were killed during the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
Thailand’s prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, is also set to visit Israel today, CNN reported, citing the Israeli foreign ministry.
The aunt of Eitan Yahalomi, the 12-year-old French-Israeli hostage released from Gaza yesterday, has said Hamas forced him to watch footage from the bloody 7 October terror attacks on Israel.
Eitan “lived through horrors out there,” Deborah Cohen told news channel BFM TV on Tuesday.
“Every time a child cried, they would threaten him with a weapon to shut him up,” she said, adding:
I wanted to believe that Eitan would be well treated. Apparently not. Those people are monsters.
Eitan Yahalomi, 12, with his mother at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, after being released from Gaza where he was kept hostage by Hamas. Photograph: Israel Defense Forces/ReutersEitan was one of three French-Israelis freed yesterday alongside Erez and Sahar Kalderon. A total of 11 hostages were returned back to Israel on Monday.
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and CIA director William Burns are in Qatar for talks on extending the Israel-Hamas truce and releasing more hostages, officials have said.
A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that Burns and Barnea were in Qatar on Tuesday, AP reported.
Officials from Egypt, which has served as a mediator to talks alongside Qatar, joined the talks, they said.
The meeting was “to build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal,” a source told Reuters.
The outcome of the talks was unclear, they added.
Summary of the day so far …It has just gone 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv, as the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas is in its fifth day. Here are the headlines …
Hamas has accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
Israel says a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. It said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
The initial four-day truce has been extended by two days, but there were reports of some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning. An Israeli shell was also reported to have landed inside Lebanon. Although Lebanon and Hezbollah are not formal parties to the ceasefire, there had been a lull in the conflict there once fighting had subsided in Gaza.
Eleven more Israeli hostages were freed from Gaza on Monday in return for dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Hamas released the hostages – nine children and two women – late on Monday. All of them are from the Nir Oz kibbutz.
Shortly afterwards, a release of a further 33 Palestinian detainees – 30 children and three women – was confirmed by Israel’s prison authority. It was the last exchange under the initial ceasefire deal. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
Israel is expecting the release of 10 further hostages later today, with 30 detainees from Israel’s jails expected to be released in return.
An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas has said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry. Ruti Munder, 78, said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
Israel’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, has said the Israeli military is using the truce to “strengthen readiness” and is “preparing to continue fighting to dismantle Hamas”.
There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.
The Gaza health ministry says the dialysis unit at al-Shifa hospital has been reopened and is receiving patients.
It has been reported that the directors of the Mossad and the CIA have met Qatar’s prime minister in Doha to “build on progress” of the 48-hour extension to the truce.
Palestinian media reported that three people were killed by Israeli forces inside the occupied West Bank overnight.
Hamas accuses Israel of ‘blatant breach’ of ceasefire in Gaza, but says it is ‘still committed’ to itHamas is accusing Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
Associated Press reports that in a statement Hamas urged mediators to intervene to reinforce the ceasefire. The statement said Israel’s actions had led to retaliation by its fighters, without providing any further details.
Earlier, the IDF said that a number of soldiers were lightly injured after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations in the northern Gaza Strip”.
It claimed that “in one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.”
During the pause in fighting, Israeli and Hamas fighters are understood to be in close proximity to each other in northern Gaza. The truce is in its fifth day.
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Iran claims that the US has informed Tehran through intermediaries that it wants the humanitarian pauses in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza to become permanent and it cannot foresee a full military solution to the conflict.
The claim is made by the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, who says he was given the message via intermediaries, likely to be Switzerland. His remarks may be propaganda but also reflect a confidence in the Iranian regime that Israel is losing the war both politically and militarily.
It has been widely reported that the US has sent messages to Tehran stressing that it is not seeking a regional escalation of the conflict, but this claim by Iran goes further.
Amirabdollahian said: “We have been informed through intermediaries that in the last 10 days the US government and the White House have come to the conclusion that this kind of continued support for Israel is not even in the interest of US politicians and the White House, and that the US now has the necessary will to stop the Israeli regime’s war crimes, and [for] reaching a lasting ceasefire, sending humanitarian aid, preventing forced displacement and respecting Palestinian rights. We hope that this news that has been transmitted to us is true.”
He said the truth of the claim would turn on whether the humanitarian pauses become permanent. Amirabdollahian has been highly critical of the US continuing to supply arms to Israel while asking Israel to show restraint.
Amid signs of tension within the small but powerful group of countries that want to take a tougher line with Israel than the bulk of the Arab countries, the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, postponed a planned visit to Istanbul set for Tuesday. It had been expected he would propose that Turkey back specific measures against Israel. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had personally announced his Iranian counterpart’s first official visit to Turkey on his return flight from a summit between regional leaders in Riyadh on 11 November that was also attended by Raisi.
It is now agreed that the two leaders will meet at an unspecified date after the two countries’ foreign ministers have attended a meeting of the UN security council on Wednesday.
Israel’s military will carry out “incisive and deep investigations” into intelligence failures that preceded the 7 October Hamas attack, its chief of staff has said.
Responding to media reports that the IDF failed to act on intelligence gathering that suggested Hamas was planning an attack on kibbutzim near the Gaza border (see 14.17 GMT), Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said:
In the last few days, there has been talk about the conduct of the IDF and the military intelligence directorate prior to the events of 7 October. In view of the dire results, the interest in this is understandable.
We will answer to this. We will listen carefully to each and every one of our subordinates and learn both what they thought and what they said.
The IDF, including the military intelligence directorate, failed on 7 October. There will be incisive and deep investigations, but now we must focus on fighting.