SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
Portraits of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, exhibited in Tel Aviv on November 25, 2023.
INTERNATIONAL – There are still just under 24 hours until the end of the second agreement between Israel and Hamas. Since last Friday, the Islamist group has released 60 hostages, including three Frenchmen, in exchange for prisoners as part of a ceasefire reached after nearly two months of war.
Negotiators are working behind the scenes to extend the ceasefire, which is due to end on Thursday, November 30. “Our main goal at the moment and our hope is to achieve a lasting ceasefire, which will lead to new negotiations and ultimately the end of the war,” assured the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, November 28, Qatar Affairs Majed Al Ansari .
“But we work with what we have. And what we have is that we can extend (the ceasefire) by one day every time Hamas can guarantee the release of at least ten hostages,” he explained.
According to a source briefed on the visit, the heads of the US and Israeli intelligence agencies were in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the “next phase” of an agreement with the prime minister of Qatar. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also scheduled to visit Israel and the West Bank this week.
Twelve hostages were released on Tuesday evening
A new exchange of blows is expected this Wednesday, November 29th, the sixth day of the ceasefire. According to Israeli media, on Tuesday the Israeli government received the list of hostages that Hamas is expected to release today. However, there is no official confirmation. At the same time, international mediators are increasing their efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire.
Ten Israeli hostages and two foreigners were released again on Tuesday. The portraits of the former Israeli hostages were shared by the Israeli embassy in the United States. as you can see in the tweet below:
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Since Friday, Hamas has released about 10 women and children a day who were kidnapped during its bloody October 7 attack in Israel, while releasing three times as many Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire agreement, negotiated with the support of Egypt and the United States, has already enabled the release of 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. 21 foreign hostages, mostly Thais living in Israel, were released outside the scope of this agreement. Israeli authorities estimated the number of people kidnapped at around 240.
Humanitarian aid
The extension of the ceasefire in Gaza also allowed new aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged and bombed by the Israeli army for seven weeks. Despite the arrival of hundreds of trucks since November 24, the situation there remains “catastrophic,” the World Food Program (WFP) said, estimating that there is a “risk of famine.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had observed a “massive increase” in some infectious diseases, including 45 times more cases of diarrhea in young children than usual, despite most hospitals in the Gaza Strip being at a standstill.
According to a White House official, the amount of humanitarian aid arriving by road in Gaza now stands at 2,000 truckloads of food, fuel, medicine and equipment needed to operate the water desalination infrastructure. Sea.
The small, overpopulated area, which has been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007, was completely besieged by Israel on October 9th. In addition, about 1.7 of the 2.4 million residents were displaced by the war. According to the United Nations, more than half of Gaza’s homes were damaged or destroyed.
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