Truce enters final day as Israel under pressure to extend deal
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its 7 October attack.
The pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.
Agence France-Presse also reports that attention now has turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning.
US president Joe Biden said Sunday:
That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza.
He said he would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming out”.
Hamas has signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by “two to four days”.
Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the temporary truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
Under the truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it if at least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day
The third group of hostages released on Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen named Abigail whose parents were both murdered in the Hamas attacks.
Key events
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Western diplomats have turned to the previously neglected Palestinian Authority to fill the political vacuum likely to be created by the planned destruction of Hamas in Gaza, but know their chosen rescue vehicle is unpopular, deemed corrupt, and badly in need of a new generation of leaders that no one has yet been able to identify.
The west’s placement of the PA at the heart of post-conflict governance in Gaza has also been rejected by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, causing consternation in the Biden administration.
Indeed, Israel is so hostile to the PA that it banned the authority’s foreign minister from travelling this month to Bahrain to speak to a conference attended by US and Arab leaders on its post-war plans.
The PA – established in the 1990s as part of the then peace process to run areas in the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian control – has said it is willing to play a role in Gaza, from where it was expelled by Hamas, but only if it is part of a clear, comprehensive peace plan with Israel that also includes the West Bank. But many doubt its ability to do so, even if there were such a plan. Nasser al-Qudwa, a nephew of Yasser Arafat tipped as future PA leader, said: “I think the current authority, in its present form and with the men leading it, is unable to even set foot in the Gaza Strip, let alone handle the major tasks required at this time.”
Read more here: Corrupt, discredited – could a reformed Palestinian Authority run Gaza?
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Khan Younis inside Gaza, says that people there consider it “an incomplete and unfair truce” as they are being forbidden from travelling from the south back to their homes and families in the north.
He says Palestinians are “taking this opportunity to secure necessities such as food and water. It’s also an opportunity to grieve properly and to hold proper funerals”.
Archie Bland
While more aid has been coming into Gaza during the ceasefire and civilians have had some relief from daily air strikes, UN officials say that the deliveries have been nothing like the quantity needed after seven weeks of war. Hamas has also complained that Israel has not respected the terms of the deal.
Israel has offered day-long extensions of the “pause” for each additional tranche of 10 hostages released after the initial arrangement ends tomorrow morning. Egyptian officials have spoken of “positive signals” about that happening, while Joe Biden said that “the chances are real”. And the pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to go further has been raised by a protest of thousands of Israelis in front of Tel Aviv’s military headquarters on Saturday.
But the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has called the ceasefire “a short respite, at the end of which the fighting will continue intensely” and predicted another two months of fighting.
On Friday, Patrick Wintour wrote that both sides have powerful reasons to reject an extension. But with Hamas signalling its openness to further releases and Benjamin Netanyahu responding positively, hopes that the pause might continue are higher this morning.
Central to that prospect is whether Hamas is able to locate some of the dozens of hostages said to be held by other groups in Gaza, the Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman told the Financial Times. “If they get additional women and children, there will be an extension,” he said. “We don’t yet have any clear information how many they can find.” Even if that happens, the fighting is likely to resume in 2-4 days time.
Read more here: Monday briefing: After joyful reunions for Israelis and Palestinians, will the ‘pause’ be extended?
In Israel, the prime minister’s office has said it is evaluating the list of hostages that Hamas is proposing to release next. In a post on social media Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said:
Discussions are being held on the list that was received overnight and which is now being evaluated in Israel. Additional information will be issued when possible.
Announcement by the Prime Minister’s Office-Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing:
Discussions are being held on the list that was received overnight and which is now being evaluated in Israel. Additional information will be issued when possible.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 27, 2023
A Thai Muslim group that spoke directly with Hamas has said their efforts were the driving force securing the release of Thai hostages from Gaza during the temporary truce, countering reports that gave credit to the foreign ministry and other negotiators, Reuters reports.
“We were the sole party that spoke to Hamas since the beginning of the war to ask for the release of Thais,” the Thai-Iran Alumni Association’s president, Lerpong Syed, told the news agency on Monday.
Three Thai hostages held by Hamas militants were released from Gaza on Sunday, taking the number of Thai nationals freed since the four-day truce began on Friday to 17.
Lerpong is part of a group of Thai Muslims convened by the country’s parliamentary speaker, Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, which travelled to Tehran in October and spoke with Hamas representatives.
Lerpong said:
If Thailand only relied on the foreign ministry or asked other countries for help, the chances of getting released with the first group would be very low.
He added that other countries with hostages such as the US, Germany and France had more influence.
Post 2 of 2
The fullest image yet of life under Hamas captivity was conjured by 85-year-old Yocheved Lipschitz, a hostage who was freed before the current ceasefire. Upon her release, Lipschitz said she had been held in tunnels that stretched under Gaza “like a spider web”, Associated Press reports.
She said her captors “told us they are people who believe in the Qur’an and wouldn’t hurt us”.
Lifshitz said captives were treated well and received medical care, including medication. The guards kept conditions clean, she said. Hostages were given one meal a day of cheese, cucumber and pita, she said, adding that her captors ate the same.
There were initial indications that the recently freed hostages had also been held underground. Eyal Nouri, the nephew of Adina Moshe, 72, who was freed on Friday, said his aunt “had to adjust to the sunlight” because she had been in darkness for weeks.
Nouri said:
She was in complete darkness. She was walking with her eyes down because she was in a tunnel. She was not used to the daylight. And during her captivity, she was disconnected … from all the outside world.
Nouri said that Moshe didn’t know that she was going to be released until the very last moment – “until she saw the Red Cross”.
Yair Rotem, whose niece Hila Rotem-Shoshani was released on Sunday – the day before her 13th birthday – said he had to keep reminding her she didn’t need to whisper.
Rotem said:
They always told them to whisper and stay quiet, so I keep telling her now she can raise her voice.
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Plastic chairs as beds. Meals of bread and rice. Hours spent waiting for the bathroom. As hostages return to Israel after seven weeks of Hamas captivity, information about the conditions of their confinement has begun to trickle out, Associated Press reports.
The 58 hostages freed since Friday under the ceasefire deal have largely stayed out of the public eye, with most still in hospitals around Israel. Most of those released appear to be in stable physical condition.
But the details of their captivity after Hamas militants dragged them into Gaza during their bloody attack on 7 October are emerging through stories their family members are telling the press.
Relatives of the hostages are reporting their family members were fed irregularly and lost weight. One says her family members slept on chairs pushed together. Others say their recently freed relatives are adjusting to sunlight after spending so much time underground.
Merav Raviv, whose three relatives were released by Hamas on Friday, said they had been fed irregularly and had eaten mainly rice and bread. She said her cousin and aunt, Keren and Ruth Munder, had each lost about 7kg (15lbs) in 50 days. Her nephew, nine-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri, also looked thin.
Raviv said she’d heard from her freed family members that they had slept on rows of chairs pushed together in a room that looked like a reception area. They said they sometimes had to wait hours before going to the toilet.
Adva Adar, the grandchild of 85-year-old released hostage Yaffa Adar, said her grandmother had also lost weight.
She counted the days of her captivity. She came back and she said: ‘I know that I’ve been there for 50 days.’
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs has shared images of the three Thai nationals released on Sunday.
They are now at the Shamir Medical Centre, south-east of Tel Aviv, accompanied by Thai embassy officials.
The ministry said it “warmly congratulates the recently released hostages and their families and thanks all parties involved in the efforts towards this latest release”.
For the remaining 15 Thai hostages, the royal Thai government continues to exert all efforts towards their safe release at the earliest opportunity, while preparing to bring back the now 17 Thais who have already been released, back to Thailand after their preliminary checks as soon as possible.
Here’s more on the four-year-old Israeli American girl released by Hamas on Sunday – she had been captured on 7 October after seeing her parents killed during the militant storming of southern Israel, US president Joe Biden said.
Abigail Edan, who turned four while in captivity, became the third person with US citizenship freed by Hamas during the seven weeks of war with Israel, Reuters reports.
Relatives told US CBS News last week that the toddler, in the event that she were released, would go to stay with family members in Israel who had already taken in her two older siblings.
Biden said that was the toddler had endured “is unthinkable”.
“We hoped and prayed today would come,” Liz Hirsh Naftali and Noa Naftali, Edan’s great aunt and cousin, said in a statement after her release, thanking Biden and the Qatari government for their work in securing it.
There are no words to express our relief and gratitude that Abigail is safe and coming home.
Biden spoke with members of the dual US-Israeli citizen’s family in the US and Israel after she was freed, the White House said.
Our story earlier on Abigail’s release can be seen here.
Truce enters final day as Israel under pressure to extend deal
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its 7 October attack.
The pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.
Agence France-Presse also reports that attention now has turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning.
US president Joe Biden said Sunday:
That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza.
He said he would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming out”.
Hamas has signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by “two to four days”.
Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the temporary truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
Under the truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it if at least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day
The third group of hostages released on Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen named Abigail whose parents were both murdered in the Hamas attacks.
Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a snapshot of the top developments:
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause, while US president Joe Biden said he hoped it could continue as long as hostages were being released.
Hamas freed 17 more people on Sunday in the third exchange of hostages and prisoners under the four-day ceasefire deal that began on Friday, while Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees.
Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday made the first visit to Gaza by an Israeli premier since 2005, said he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
But Netanyahu said he also told the US president that, at the end of the truce, “we will return with full force to achieve our goals” of eliminating Hamas and securing the remaining hostages’ release.
More on that story shortly. In other news as it turns 7am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
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The 17 hostages Hamas freed on Sunday included a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children, Israel said. Prison authorities said 39 Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails.
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The releases brings to 63 the total number of freed hostages from around 240 taken to Gaza after Hamas’ 7 October attack, Agence France-Presse reports, while Israel has freed 39 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on each of three days since Friday.
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One hundred and twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday, including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service said. “The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” Diaa Rashwan said.
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A US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals and was now safe and free, US officials say. The tanker, carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, was identified as the Central Park by the vessel’s company. The officials did not identify the attackers. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
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Hamas has announced that four senior commanders have been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, a commander in the north of Gaza. Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”.
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A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
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Israel’s military claimed to have killed five Palestinians overnight on Saturday as well as arresting 21 in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Funerals were held for those killed on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning.
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The current state of aid in Gaza is “hardly enough for humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege of Gaza Strip”, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. Philippe Lazzarini told US CBS’s Face the Nation said on Sunday that a lot more aid was required than the 160 to 200 trucks’ worth crossing into Gaza daily over the past few days.
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Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Monday, along with Israelis whose relatives have been held by Hamas in Gaza. Herzog’s office announced the meeting on Sunday night, saying: “In their meeting, the president will emphasise the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.” Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, has been accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Israel’s Channel 12 said the billionaire would also meet Benjamin Netanyahu on the visit.
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The Israeli government has accused Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, of legitimising terror and losing his moral compass by saying a freed Irish-Israeli hostage had been “lost” as opposed to kidnapped.
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Three college students described as being of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in the US city of Burlington, Vermont, on their way to a family dinner on Saturday evening.
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Tens of thousands of people including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally. Johnson was joined by the UK chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march, which organisers billed as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century. Police at the march detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who is the former leader of the far-right English Defence League.