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Despite pressure from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the ceasefire has still not been extended, although it expires at 7am on Friday.
Published on November 30, 2023 11:42 p.m. Updated on November 30, 2023 11:47 p.m
Reading time: 2 minutes
Red Cross cars in Israel, November 30, 2023. (AFP)
A day marked by the release of hostages and an increasingly precarious ceasefire. Eight Israeli hostages were released by Hamas on Thursday, November 30, including a French-Israeli woman, Mia Shem. But despite pressure from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the end of the day the ceasefire had still not been extended, although it expires at 7am on Friday. Here’s what you’ll remember from this day.
A seventh group of hostages are released, including a French woman
Two young Bedouins and six women aged 21 to 41, including a French-Israeli Mia Shem. Eight Israeli hostages were released by Hamas on Thursday, November 30. To these eight hostages we must add two Russian-Israeli women released on Wednesday, bringing the total number of hostages counted in Thursday’s exchange to ten, in accordance with the terms of the exchange agreed between the belligerents.
These releases bring the number of freed hostages, Israelis and foreigners, to 110, or more than 45% of the approximately 240 people seized in Gaza since their abduction on October 7. Among them, 80 women, children and teenagers under the age of 19 have been released since Friday in return for the release of 210 Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Thirty more Palestinian prisoners are to be released overnight from Thursday to Friday.
Outside the scope of the agreement, 23 Thais, one Filipino and one Russian-Israeli were also released. Five hostages had already been released in October, before the ceasefire.
A ceasefire has still not been extended
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Thursday, November 30, for the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip to be extended by “an eighth day or longer.” “Of course we want this process to move forward,” he told reporters in Tel Aviv after a visit to Israel and the West Bank. “We want an eighth day and longer,” he said, while the ceasefire, which has been extended since November 24, was theoretically due to end at 7 a.m. on Friday and negotiations would continue.
An attack in Jerusalem claimed by Hamas
The Islamist movement Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack in Jerusalem that killed three people on Thursday, November 30th. Three Israelis, including two women, were killed at a bus stop in West Jerusalem in an attack by two Palestinians linked to the terror group. In a statement, Hamas said the two attackers were members of its armed wing and originally from Sour Baher, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city that was occupied and annexed by Israel. Israeli police confirmed that the attackers, two brothers, had been shot.