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Gaza truce to start Friday, says Qatar
A Gaza truce and hostage release will start on Friday morning, Qatar’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday. A pause in the fighting will begin at 7am local time and the first batch of civilian hostages held in Gaza since October 7 is set to be handed over around 4pm Friday. The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military confirmed that the director of Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital was being held for questioning over allegations that the facility was used as a Hamas control centre. Read our live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
Issued on: 23/11/2023 – 06:13
Modified: 23/11/2023 – 13:59
1 min
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in north Gaza, as seen from southern Israel on November 23, 2023.
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in north Gaza, as seen from southern Israel on November 23, 2023. © Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters
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SUMMARY
A four-day Israel-Hamas truce will begin on Friday morning, mediator Qatar announced on Thursday. Hamas and the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed the news shortly after the Qatari announcement.
The truce will start Friday at 7am local time (5am GMT) with a first batch of 13 Hamas hostages in Gaza to be released at 4pm local time (2pm GMT).
The truce will hold for four days and the temporary cessation of hostilities will cover northern and southern Gaza, said Hamas’s military wing.
The Israeli military on Thursday confirmed that the director of Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital had been held for questioning over allegations that the facility was used as a Hamas command centre.
Israel launched attacks on Gaza after Hamas militants crossed the border on October 7 and killed 1,200 Israelis. More than 240 others were taken hostage.
The death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7 rose to 14, 854, including 6,150 children and 4,000 women, the Hamas government said Thursday. Another 36,000 people have been wounded, according to Gaza authority figures.
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US, Europeans need to be ‘less delusional’ about Israeli government’s agenda
Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian foreign policy analyst with Israeli citizenship warns about the right-wing Israeli government’s long-term plans for Gaza.
Israeli ministers and right-wing politicians “go on television and say, we don’t want money from the international community to rebuild Gaza. We want a resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza,” she explained. “I think the international community, especially the Americans and Europeans, need to be less delusional about the Israeli agenda’s government,” she said.
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Around 30 people killed in Israeli attack on UNRWA school in Gaza’s Jabalia
Around 30 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school affiliated with the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Hamas said in a statement on Thursday.
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Controlling northern Gaza just ‘first step’ in Israeli campaign
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, hours before a four-day pause in fighting was due to start.
“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.”
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Gaza war death toll nears 15,000, says Hamas government
The death toll in Gaza has reached 14,854 since war began on October 7 between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.
The Hamas government said 6,150 children and 4,000 women were among the dead, with another 36,000 people wounded. Its health ministry has previously said it can no longer give exact tolls as intense fighting has prevented bodies from being recovered.
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Turkey plans evacuation of some wounded, sick Gazan children on Friday
Turkey plans to evacuate some wounded or sick Gazan children and young people on Friday as part of its third round of evacuation, said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
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.
Speaking at Ankara’s Esenboga airport, Koca said three sick Gazan children were brought to Turkey on Thursday. He added that the children – a 2-year-old boy, as well as two girls aged 9 and 10 – would receive treatment in Turkey.
The third round of evacuations, consisting of a group of 50 people, has been delayed due to issues regarding permissions for their releases, the minister said, but added that those problems were now largely resolved and officials were working to complete the preparations.
“We expect the third evacuation to be tomorrow (Friday) and it will be an evacuation that will largely consist of children and young people,” Koca told reporters.
“There are less cancer patients (in the group), but it will be an evacuation that mostly consists of wounded children and young people,” he said.
Ankara has sent around 800 metric tons of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, medicine, and medical personnel to Egypt for Gazans. It has said it wants to set up a field hospital on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing.
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Hamas armed-wing spokesman calls for escalation of confrontation with Israel
The spokesman of Hamas’s armed-wing called on Thursday for the escalation of the confrontation with Israel on all resistance fronts.
“We call for escalation of the confrontation with the occupation throughout the West Bank and all resistance fronts” the spokesman for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said in a video speech aired by Al Jazeera TV.
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Film star Hend Sabri quits as WFP ambassador over Gaza war
Tunisian film star Hend Sabri has resigned as World Food Programme goodwill ambassador in protest at what she called the use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
Sabri, a leading figure in Arab cinema, said that she had decided with “a heavy heart and deep sadness” to step down after 13 years with the United Nations agency.
In a statement published on social media platform X late Wednesday, the 44-year-old said that she had asked the WFP leadership to push for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory.
She said that she had hoped the agency “would use its voice forcefully” as it had done in previous crises.
“However, hunger and starvation have been used as weapons of war … against more than two million civilians in Gaza,” Sabri said.
A pause in fighting, due to take effect on Friday, was “too little too late”, she added.
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The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X that “humanitarian needs are skyrocketing because of the change in weather”.
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‘Hugely emotional’ time for families of Hamas hostages
Israel has a list of people to be released under the truce deal and the government has said they have spoken to the families of the hostages to be released, explains FRANCE 24’s Irris Makler, reporting from Jerusalem.
“It’s a hugely emotional time,” for the families of the hostages held in Gaza since October 7, says Makler.
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Qatar says it expects Palestinian prisoners to be released in ‘reciprocal’ deal
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari has confirmed that Qatar is expecting some Palestinian prisoners to be freed by Israel.
He said he could not disclose information about how many prisoners would be released.
“But I can tell you that the deal is reciprocal, so we’re expecting a release to happen also on the Israeli side,” said Al-Ansari.
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Israel confirms it has received a list of hostages to be released
Israel’s prime minister’s office has confirmed that Israel has received an “initial” list of the names of hostages to be released.
“The relevant officials are checking the details of the list and are currently in contact with all families,” said the statement.
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Hamas confirms Gaza truce to start Friday
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has confirmed that the truce with Israeli forces in Gaza Strip will “begin on Friday at 7am” (local time).
“The truce applies for four days, starting from Friday morning, accompanied by the cessation of all military actions from the Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian resistance, as well as the Zionist enemy throughout the truce period.”
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Truce covers both north and south Gaza
More details coming in on the Gaza truce implementation plan on Friday:
A ceasefire will be applied in both northern and southern Gaza said Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman.
A first batch of 13 Hamas hostages will be released at 4pm local time (2pm GMT).
“Obviously every day will include a number of civilians as agreed to total 50 within the four days,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.
“Those hostages who are from the same families will be put together within the same batch.
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BREAKING: Gaza truce to start Friday, says Qatar
A Gaza truce and hostage release will start on Friday morning, according to a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman.
“The pause will begin at 7am on Friday … and the first batch of civilian hostages will be handed over at approximately 4pm on the same day,” Majed Al-Ansari said Thursday, adding that 13 hostages will be freed.
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Israeli military confirms Al Shifa Hospital chief held for questioning
The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that the director of Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip had been held for questioning over evidence that the facility had been used as a command and control centre for the Islamist movement Hamas.
The IDF said Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya had been in charge of the sprawling complex as Hamas militants built up a network of military infrastructure and stored weapons inside the hospital and its grounds.
“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity,” the military said in a statement.
The military provided no details on the circumstances of his detention but the Palestinian health ministry said Abu Salmiya and a number of doctors were arrested at dawn at a checkpoint on the road linking northern Gaza to the south.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kayla said the arrests showed that Israel was flouting international humanitarian law.
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France urges implementation of Israel-Hamas deal ‘without further delay’
France has called for the implementation of the agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of 50 hostages in exchange for a humanitarian truce “without further delay”.
Paris is also urging “the immediate release of all hostages”, said Anne-Claire Legendre, spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry. “We call for the terms of this agreement to be fully respected,” she added.
Israel has made a truce deal with Hamas but it says no hostages are expected to be released until at least Friday.
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Israel says hostage release will not take place before Friday, talks ongoing
Israel’s national security adviser said late Wednesday that ceasefire talks with the Hamas militant group were still ongoing, and the hostage release will not take place before Friday.
The Israel-Hamas deal would involve the release of 50 people kidnapped from Israel in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
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UN and Red Crescent workers evacuate 190 patients from Al Shifa Hospital
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Thursday it joined forces with the United Nations to evacuate a further 190 wounded and sick people, their companions and medical staff from Al Shifa to other hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The evacuation took nearly 20 hours due to delays at the checkpoint separating northern and southern Gaza, it said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that three paramedics had been detained, two of whom were subsequently released.
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Afficher plus de messages
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Key Developments from Wednesday, November 22:
At least 13,000 Palestinians, including at least 5,500 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the government media office in the Hamas-controlled enclave said on Saturday.
Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial attack by Hamas, and around 240 were taken captive by militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser on Wednesday said the release of hostages from Gaza under a temporary truce agreement will not happen until Friday.
The Qatari-negotiated truce deal between Israel and Hamas marked the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict and allows at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce and humanitarian aid after weeks of all-out war.
Read yesterday’s blog here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
