Israel-Hamas truce updates | Hamas open to truce extension as U.S. urges Gaza ‘safe’ zones

Hamas is “willing to extend the truce” in fighting with Israel, a source close to the Palestinian militant group told AFP on Thursday hours before the latest extension was due to expire.

The seven-day pause has seen dozens of Israeli hostages exchanged for more than 200 Palestinian prisoners, and aid entering the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“The mediators are currently making strong, intense and continuous efforts for an additional day in the truce and then working to extend it again for other days,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

- AFP

Israel’s military said six more Israeli hostages held in Gaza were handed over to the Red Cross and were on their way to Israeli territory, bringing the total released on Thursday to eight.

Earlier on Thursday, Hamas handed over two female hostages to the Red Cross. 

- Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday for a further extension to a truce that has paused fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza for seven days, as the hours ticked down to its expiry.

“Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward,” he told reporters in Tel Aviv following a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank. “We want an eighth day and beyond.”

- AFP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged Israel to create safe zones for Palestinian civilians in Gaza before it resumes “major military operations” in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israel “must put in place humanitarian civilian protection plans that minimise further casualties of innocent Palestinians”, he told reporters in Tel Aviv, “including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza, where they can be safe and out of the line of fire”.

- AFP

The United States will continue efforts with Qatar and Egypt to extend a humanitarian pause in the Israel war with Hamas in Gaza and condemns the shooting attack by Hamas gunmen of three people at a Jerusalem bus stop, the White House said on Thursday.

- Reuters

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged U.N. aid officials and international NGOs to pile pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered Gaza enclave where the humanitarian situation is worsening, officials and aid workers said.

They said the monarch told an emergency meeting in Amman of U.N. officials, heads of Western non-governmental organisations and representatives of Arab donors it was unacceptable that Israel continued to hold back sufficient aid flows into the densely populated enclave, home to 2.3 million people.

“The monarch urged the international aid community to do their bit and save Gazans who have endured a brutal war that has turned their land into an unliveable place,” said one delegate who requested anonymity since deliberations were taking place confidentially as requested by the royal palace organisers.

The palace was not immediately available for comment.

- Reuters

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday that, given the number of casualties among civilians in Gaza, he doubts Israel is respecting the international humanitarian law as repeated military action in the strip is not acceptable.

Last week, similar comments by Mr. Sanchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo in the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing angered Israel, whose Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the remarks repeated “false claims” and “gave terrorism a boost”. Cohen then said he summoned the ambassadors of both countries.

“The footage we are seeing and the growing numbers of children dying, I have serious doubt (Israel) is complying with international humanitarian law,” Mr. Sanchez said in an interview with Spanish state-owned broadcaster TVE.

“What we are seeing in Gaza is not acceptable,” he added. 

Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday stepped up calls for Israel to comply with international law as it wages its war against Hamas in Gaza.

On his third trip to the Middle East since the war began on Oct. 7, Mr. Blinken said the U.S. remains committed to supporting Israel’s right to self-defense. But he also said Israel must protect civilians if it starts major military operations in southern Gaza.

His message aligns with the Biden administration’s shifting rhetoric on the war, which began as a full-throated embrace of Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks but gradually tempered as the number of Palestinian civilian casualties began to rise dramatically. The death toll and scale of destruction have prompted widespread international criticism, including from members of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party. 

AP

A U.N. commission of inquiry investigating war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict will focus on sexual violence by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and is about to launch an appeal for evidence, its chair told Reuters on Wednesday.

Chair Navi Pillay on Wednesday said she would pass the evidence onto the International Criminal Court and called for it to consider prosecutions amid earlier criticism from Israel and families of Israeli hostages that the U.N. had kept quiet.

“I’m now sitting as chair of a commission with the power to investigate this. So there’s no way we will not do so,” said Pillay, chair of the three-member commission of inquiry into abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Already, she said some people are keen to provide testimonies and that these would be handed over to prosecutors. 

Reuters

Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli leaders on Thursday that a temporary truce in their war with Hamas was “producing results” and should continue.

Mr. Blinken, on his third trip to the region since the conflict erupted nearly eight weeks ago, also stressed it was “imperative” to protect civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip should fighting resume.

He made the remarks in meetings with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, respectively, before travelling to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for a sit-down with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. 

AFP

The Israeli military said that two Israeli hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza Thursday, after an extension to a truce in the enclave between Hamas and Israel.

The two women “are on their way to Israeli territory”, it said in a statement. “In the next few hours, additional Israeli hostages are expected to be transferred to the Red Cross,” it added. 

AFP

The U.S. Treasury’s top terrorism financing official said on Thursday he discussed with Turkish government officials his “profound concern” about Palestinian militant group Hamas raising funds domestically and potentially breaking local law.

Turkey was “prominent” in Hamas fundraising schemes and the group was likely to take advantage of that as it seeks more funding amid war with Israel, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in Istanbul.

Unlike most of its Western allies and some Gulf states, Turkey does not view Hamas as a terrorist group and hosts some of its members. 

Reuters

Spain’s parliament voted in 2014 in favour of a resolution calling for recognition of Palestine as a state.

The vote was non-binding, however, and there has been no follow up. 

If there is no consensus among the EU’s 27 member states, Spain PM Sanchez has said Madrid does not rule out unilaterally recognising a Palestinian state.

A handful of smaller European countries have taken the step, mainly east European nations like Hungary, Poland and Romania that did so before they joined the EU.

But until now no large member of the bloc has made the move, which would make Spain a pioneer. 

Israel last week summoned Spain’s ambassador over criticisms Mr. Sanchez made of the Israeli offensive on Gaza during a visit to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday.

Israel accused Madrid of supporting “terrorism”.

AFP

Israel’s top diplomat said Thursday he was recalling the country’s envoy to Madrid over “outrageous remarks” by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez questioning the legality of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“Because of the outrageous remarks by the Spanish prime minister, who again repeated baseless claims, I have decided to summon the Israeli ambassador in Spain for consultations in Jerusalem,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

AFP

The Palestinian group Hamas said its militants carried out a shooting in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing three people despite agreeing to extend for a day a truce in Gaza and to release at least 10 more Israeli hostages.

The threat of a renewed escalation in attacks came as Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met officials in Israel to seek a longer pause in the devastating conflict.

The fate of the truce is hanging in the balance once again.

A Hamas source told AFP that 10 more Israeli hostages would be released from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, after the warring parties agreed to extend the pause in combat operations until Friday morning.

“All of them are alive,” said the source who is not authorised to speak to the media and asked to remain anonymous. “Israel last night refused a list Hamas proposed that included three Israeli bodies.” 

AFP

The European Union should recognise a Palestinian state since this would help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “stabilise” the region, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday.

“It is obvious that we must find a political solution to put an end to this crisis and this solution requires, in my opinion, the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the Socialist premier said during an interview with Spanish public television TVE.

“It is in Europe’s interest to address this issue out of moral conviction because what we are seeing in Gaza is not acceptable”, and also for “a geopolitical objective -- to stabilise a region”, he added.

When he was sworn in for a new term this month, Sanchez said his foreign policy priority would be to “work in Europe and in Spain to recognise the Palestinian state”.

AFP

Currently, Israel allows aid only through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, where bottlenecks and capacity limitations mean it cannot handle more than 200 trucks a day. 

Trucks carrying aid through Rafah have to first go through Israeli inspections at the Nitzana crossing, to ensure that only limited supplies of fuel are allowed and prevent what they term dual-usage goods from entering.

Israel’s control of the amounts and type of goods entering Gaza has curtailed the aid effort, and its acceptance of only limited supplies of fuel was hampering the health system’s recovery, according to health and aid workers. 

Reuters

Balanced on a steep slab of fissured concrete with rods of twisted metal poking out and the remnants of a dome slanted at a 45-degree angle behind him, a young muezzin in a baseball cap called Muslims to prayer from atop a bombarded mosque in Gaza.

The minaret, where the muezzin would usually stand, was still upright but appeared precarious, with a chunk missing from the balustrade at the top and the base resting on the jumbled ruin of the Al-Touba Mosque in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The mosque is one of many in Gaza that have been hit by Israeli strikes in its war against Hamas. Israel accuses the Islamist group of using mosques to conceal tunnel shafts, missile and rocket launch sites and other infrastructure. 

Reuters

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged U.N. aid officials and international NGOs to pile pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered Gaza enclave where the humanitarian situation is worsening, officials and aid workers said.

They said the monarch told an emergency meeting in Amman of U.N. officials, heads of Western non-governmental organisations and representatives of Arab donors it was unacceptable that Israel continued to hold back sufficient aid flows into the densely populated enclave, home to 2.3 million people.

“The monarch urged the international aid community to do their bit and save Gazans who have endured a brutal war that has turned their land into an unliveable place,” said one delegate who requested anonymity since deliberations were taking place confidentially as requested by the royal palace organisers. 

Reuters

An American-Israeli, four teenagers and two festival goers were among the latest Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas under a truce agreed to last week.

In addition to the 10 Israelis, four Thai nationals and a Russian-Israeli mother and daughter were freed Wednesday, though they were not part of the truce deal. 

AFP

A mosque destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict lies in ruin, amid a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo Credit: Reuters

A Palestinian woman bake bread near the ruins of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 30, 2023. Photo Credit: Reuters

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be protected. 

Earlier, Mr. Guterres said the Gaza Strip was in the midst of an “epic humanitarian catastrophe”, and he and others called for a full ceasefire to replace the temporary truce. Israel rejected a permanent ceasefire as benefitting Hamas, a position backed by Washington. - Reuters

(MADRID: Spain) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that given the number of casualties among civilians in Gaza, he doubts Israel is respecting the international humanitarian law. 

“The footage we are seeing and the growing numbers of children dying, I have serious doubt (Israel) is complying with international humanitarian law,” he said in an interview with Spanish state-owned broadcaster TVE. 

“The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable,” he added. - Reuters

Contrails from an Israeli fighter aircraft line the sky over Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip, on November 30, 2023, following the announcement of an extenstion of the truce between Israel and Hamas. Photo Credit: AFP

A helicopter carrying Israeli hostages released by Hamas lands at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, on November 30, 2023. Photo Credit: AP

A group of 17 Thailand nationals who had been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza arrived at Bangkok airport on November 30, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said. 

So far, a total of 23 Thai hostages have been released, with nine remaining in captivity. - Reuters

Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister of Spain, expressed questions about Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law on Thursday, citing the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza.

“The footage we are seeing and the growing numbers of children dying, I have serious doubt (Israel) is complying with international humanitarian law,” he said in an interview with Spanish state-owned broadcaster TVE.

“The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable,” he added.

- Reuters

At least three people have been killed in the bus station shooting in Jerusalem. 

“The bus station was very crowded, which is why so many people were wounded,” said Magen David Adom spokesperson Zaki Heller told Army Radio.

-AP

“Twenty-one aid trucks were able to reach northern Gaza, which has been the focus of Israel’s ground offensive,” the Palestinian Red Crescent relief group said. 

During the six-day pause in fighting, the aid group said 254 aid trucks’ worth of food had been successfully distributed, including food, water, baby formula and blankets. The post on X, formerly Twitter, showed video of trucks hauling pallets of supplies and a forklift unloading boxes. - AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv, his third trip to the region since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and was set to meet with Israeli leaders to discuss extending the temporary truce and boosting humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

“Looking at the next couple of days, we’ll be focussed on ... doing what we can to extend the pause so that we continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in,” Mr. Blinken said at a stop in Brussels. - Reuters

Two person was killed and eight wounded, including five left in a serious condition, in a shooting in Jerusalem on Thursday, first responders said.

Police said “two suspects implicated in the shootings were neutralised on the spot” after the attack near a bus stop.

- AFP

At least six people were wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said. Police said that the two suspected attackers “were neutralised on the spot.”

- Reuters

Israeli Police said gunmen opened fire Thursday on people waiting for buses and rides along a main highway at the entrance of Jerusalem.

Six people were wounded, three of them seriously, in the morning rush hour attack. Two attackers were killed, police said. - AP

A truce between Israel and Hamas will be extended by one day, mediating nation Qatar confirmed on Thursday, as an six-day humanitarian pause in Gaza was set to end.

“Palestinian and Israeli sides reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip for an additional day under the same previous conditions, which are a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid, within the framework of the joint mediation of the State of Qatar,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Majed Al Ansari said in a statement. - AFP

The WHO said fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are now functional, as experts have recorded a “deeply alarming” surge in respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, meningitis and other illnesses in recent days.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, said the agency was bracing for numerous outbreaks, saying it had recorded about 111,000 cases of respiratory illness, and tens of thousands of cases of diarrhea, skin rash, jaundice and chickenpox in the last two weeks.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said that Egypt has made about 11,000 beds available for patients in Gaza who require medical evacuation and said that tens of thousands of doctors and nurses would be available to help. He said there were currently about 2 million displaced people in Gaza and said that prior to the war, the region had among the world’s highest rates of vaccination against childhood diseases.

- AP

U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed on Wednesday that Hamas released a second Israeli-American hostage from Gaza. Mr. Biden told reporters that Liat Beinin Atzili, 49, was among the latest group of Hamas-held hostages to be released from Gaza and taken to Israel. 

Four-year-old Abigail Edan, an Israeli-American dual citizen, was the first U.S. hostage to be released under the cease-fire. Both of her parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on October 7.

- AP

India has welcomed the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas and called for the immediate and unconditional release of those still held in captivity by the militant group, asserting that there can be no justifications for terrorism and hostage-taking.

China on Thursday called for a “sustained humanitarian truce” in the Israel-Hamas conflict in a position paper released by its Foreign Ministry.

“Parties to the conflict should... immediately realise a durable and sustained humanitarian truce,” the document reads, calling for a “comprehensive ceasefire and end of the fighting”.

- AFP