- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- Leaflets warn Gazans not to return to their homes in the north
- Israel says the ceasefire could be extended beyond the first four days if Hamas continues to release at least 10 hostages a day. According to a Palestinian source, the total number of those released could reach 100
- No major bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks have been reported, although the two sides accuse each other of sporadic violations
- About 1 1/2 hours after the ceasefire began, aid trucks from Egypt arrive in the Gaza Strip
GAZA/ISRAEL GAZA BORDER, Nov 24 (Portal) – A temporary ceasefire broke out between Israeli and Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the first respite in 48 days of conflict that has devastated the Palestinian enclave, but both Sides warned that the war was far from over.
No major bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel accused each other of sporadic shootings and other violations.
The ceasefire, which began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), includes the release of 13 Israeli women and children held hostage by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Additional aid will flow to the Gaza Strip, which is beset by a humanitarian crisis due to weeks of Israeli bombardment that have killed thousands of Palestinians.
Portal journalists saw Israeli tanks leaving the Gaza Strip at the northern end and aid trucks from Egypt rolling in at the southern end. No sounds of Israeli air force activity were heard over the northern Gaza Strip, including none of the contrails that typically form Palestinian rocket fire.
Thousands of families displaced from the north live in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The streets are full of people leaving their homes and shelters.
“We are full of hope, optimism and pride in our resistance. We are proud of our achievements, despite the pain it has caused,” resident Khaled Abu Anzah told Portal.
Hamas confirmed that all hostilities by its forces would cease. But Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, later stressed that it was a “temporary ceasefire.”
In a video message, he called for an “escalation of confrontation with (Israel) on all resistance fronts,” including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military also said fighting would resume soon.
“This will be a short pause, at the end of which the war (and fighting) will continue with great force, creating pressure for the return of more hostages,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to a Defense Ministry statement.
The Israeli military also urged Palestinians not to try to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, which it described as a “dangerous war zone.”
Israel launched its attack on Gaza after Hamas militants crossed the border fence into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel has dropped bombs on the Hamas-ruled enclave, killing about 14,000 Gazans, about 40% of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes amid violence as the situation grew increasingly desperate and food, drinking water, fuel and other basic supplies became scarce.
It is the bloodiest episode in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s stated intention is to eradicate Hamas once and for all.
QUIET IN FRONT
Portal observed the post-dawn silence in southern Israel, across the fence from the war zone in the northern Gaza Strip, where heavy ground fighting has been taking place since the beginning of the month. Dozens of Israeli military vehicles, including tanks, were seen leaving the Gaza Strip.
Gaza residents said Israelis dropped leaflets warning people not to travel north and shot over the heads of some people trying to return to Gaza City.
[1/22]An Israeli soldier clears an armored personnel carrier (APC) near the Israeli border after leaving Gaza during the temporary ceasefire between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel in Israel, November 24, 2023. Portal/Amir Cohen acquires license rights
The Hamas-affiliated Palestinian press agency SAFA reported “intense firing” by Israeli forces east of Khan Younis and Rafah. Al-Jazeera reported that two Palestinians were killed and another injured when Israeli soldiers fired on people trying to return to the north.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Sirens wailed in two Israeli villages outside the southern Gaza Strip, warning of possible Palestinian rocket attacks. An Israeli government spokesman said Hamas fired rockets in violation of the ceasefire, but there were no reports of damage.
Fighting broke out in the hours before the ceasefire. Officials inside the enclave said a hospital in Gaza City was among the bombed targets.
The Indonesian hospital was operating without lights and full of bedridden elderly people and children too weak to be transported, Gaza health officials said. Al-Jazeera quoted Mounir El Barsh, director of the Gaza Health Ministry, as saying one patient, a wounded woman, was killed and three others were injured.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reported incident.
Egypt said it was maintaining contact with Israel and Hamas to consolidate the ceasefire and prevent violations.
WOMEN, CHILDREN, HOSTAGES to be released
The temporary ceasefire came amid international concern over the fate of the hostages and the fate of Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza. Israel has rejected calls for a full ceasefire as benefiting Hamas, a position supported by the United States.
The first hostages, including elderly women, would be released at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in Doha. All were confiscated in the first Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The hostages were expected to be handed over to the Red Cross and an Egyptian security delegation that traveled to Gaza on Thursday and then taken via Egypt to Israel for rendition, Egyptian security sources said.
Israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners, including 24 women and 15 teenagers, in the occupied West Bank in return for the 13 hostages scheduled to be released on Friday, a Palestinian official said.
Israel says the ceasefire could be extended beyond the first four days if Hamas continues to release at least 10 hostages a day. According to a Palestinian source, the total number of those released could reach 100.
Under the agreement, urgently needed aid began to be delivered to Gaza. According to the Gaza Strip border authorities, 60 trucks carrying relief supplies from Egypt had arrived at the Rafah border point by mid-morning.
Two of the first trucks to arrive carried banners reading “Together for Humanity.” Another said: “For our brothers in Gaza.”
Egypt announced that 130,000 liters of diesel and four trucks of gasoline would be delivered to Gaza daily and that 200 trucks carrying aid supplies would enter the Strip every day.
Israel’s COGAT agency, which works with the Palestinians on civil affairs, said four tanks of fuel and four tanks of cooking gas were transferred from Egypt via Rafah to U.N. humanitarian groups in the southern Gaza Strip.
Some Palestinians who were abroad when the war broke out used the ceasefire as an opportunity to return to the Gaza Strip.
“People leave and we return, despite war and despite everything, we return because this is our country – it is logical – you only have your country,” Jamal Youssef Atiya, who had been living in Algeria, told Portal at the Rafah border crossing , where he headed home to Gaza.
Reporting by Portal bureau. Text by Angus MacSwan. Edited by Peter Graff
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