By The Associated Press
A four-day cease-fire within the Israel-Hamas warfare started Friday in Gaza as a part of an settlement that Qatar helped dealer. Twenty-four hostages had been freed, together with 13 Israeli residents, 10 Thai residents and one Filipino citizen, Qatar stated. The deal consists of the discharge of dozens of hostages held by militants and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
With the truce deal comes elevated shipments of gasoline and provides into Gaza — although nonetheless solely sufficient to dent the wants of the two.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who’ve endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, in accordance with help teams. Israel has agreed to permit the supply of 130,000 liters (34,300 gallons) of gasoline a day into besieged Gaza for humanitarian wants at some point of the truce.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, in accordance with the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza after a dayslong pause in its casualty report, which it attributed to the well being system’s collapse in northern Gaza making it inconceivable to supply an in depth depend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated he’ll press forward with the warfare after the cease-fire expires. Some 1,200 individuals have been killed in Israel, principally in the course of the preliminary incursion by Hamas.
Currently:
— A four-day truce begins, setting the stage for the discharge of dozens of hostages.
— Families of hostages not slated for launch from Gaza throughout present truce face enduring nightmare.
— Palestinians in Gaza searching for refuge from warfare discover their world is shrinking.
— Hezbollah fires rockets at north Israel after an airstrike kills 5 of the group’s senior fighters.
— Thousands led by Cuba’s president march in solidarity with Palestinians.
— Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what’s occurring within the warfare:
OUTSIDE OFER PRISON, West Bank — Israeli safety forces fired volleys of tear fuel Friday at hundreds of Palestinians from all around the West Bank excitedly awaiting the discharge of 39 Palestinians in alternate for the hostages launched by Hamas from Gaza.
Crowds have been ready for hours outdoors Israel’s Ofer Prison within the West Bank, the place the Palestinians are anticipated to emerge at any second.
Shortly after some raucous boys surged by way of the crowds with Hamas flags, Israeli forces unleashed tear fuel, sending households bolting in the wrong way, screaming, coughing and protecting their watery, bloodshot eyes with their shirts.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli navy says the hostages launched by Hamas as a part of a cease-fire deal have returned to Israel.
In a press release Friday, it stated the hostages have undergone an preliminary medical verify inside Israeli territory.
Qatar stated a complete of 24 hostages had been freed — together with 13 Israelis.
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed the discharge of 24 hostages after seven weeks of captivity within the Gaza Strip.
“Those released include 13 Israeli citizens, some of whom are dual citizens, in addition to 10 Thai citizens and a Filipino citizen,” stated Majed al-Ansari, the ministry’s spokesman. Qatar was a key mediator within the hostage launch.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which delivered the hostages from Gaza into Egypt, additionally confirmed the discharge.
The hostages, girls and kids, had been present process medical checks earlier than they had been to be transferred to Israel. They are to be taken to Israeli hospitals and reunited with their households. They’re the primary of fifty individuals to be launched from Gaza throughout a four-day truce that started Friday.
Israel is to launch 39 Palestinian prisoners later Friday, the primary of a complete of 150 Palestinian prisoners to be freed below the cease-fire.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli authorities has summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium after remarks by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo Friday criticizing the bombing of civilians in Gaza and urging recognition for a Palestinian state.
Speaking on the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, Sánchez stated the time has come for the worldwide group and the European Union to acknowledge the State of Palestine, and warned that if it didn’t, Spain would possibly achieve this by itself.
He stated it might higher if the EU did it collectively, “but if this is not the case … Spain will take their own decisions.”
He was talking at finish of a two-day go to to Israel, Palestinian Territories and Egypt with de Croo.
Israel has the appropriate to defend itself “but it must do so within the parameters and limits imposed by international humanitarian law and this is not the case,” Sánchez stated. “The indiscriminate killing of civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable.”
GENEVA — The Red Cross says it has begun a “multi-day operation” to reunite hostages and detainees on each side of the battle between Palestinians and Israelis.
The group’s announcement got here as Israeli media reported the Hamas militant group on Friday launched the primary batch of hostages below a cease-fire deal. The deal requires 50 hostages to be freed over a four-day truce, with Israel to free 150 Palestinians in jail.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it can even be ferrying in medical provides for hospitals in Gaza.
WASHINGTON — The lead U.S. improvement company is urging a speedy ramping-up of humanitarian help to battered Gaza for the long run, calling it “urgent and imperative.”
Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, made the decision in a press release Thursday, as a fastidiously negotiated cease-fire and hostage launch started within the Gaza Strip.
With 1.7 million individuals in Gaza internally displaced and nearly the entire 2.3 million individuals there needing help, “the scale of humanitarian needs in Gaza is staggering,” Power wrote.
“It is both urgent and imperative that lasting mechanisms be put in place to significantly accelerate the pace of sustained aid into Gaza,” Power wrote.
BAGHDAD — Iranian-backed militias which have launched dozens of rocket and drone assaults on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria in current weeks held their hearth on Friday, the primary day of the a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The lull got here after an escalation this week wherein U.S. warplanes killed a number of militants from the highly effective Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia in response to the primary use of short-range ballistic missiles in opposition to U.S. forces at Al-Asad Air Base.
Milita spokesman Jaafar al-Husseini stated his group is “not necessarily” observing the truce — which solely formally pertains to Gaza — however is “monitoring” the habits of the United States and can act accordingly.
Kataib Hezbollah and different Iranian-backed militant teams below the umbrella group referred to as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq started placing U.S. amenities Oct. 17 and have since launched greater than 60 assaults in Iraq and Syria. The militant teams have stated they’re retaliating in opposition to the U.S. for its assist of the Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed greater than 13,300 Palestinians, following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 shock assault that killed about 1,200 Israelis.
Likewise, in southern Lebanon, the place the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged hearth with Israeli forces all through the Israel-Hamas warfare, a cautious calm prevailed Friday. Some of the greater than 55,000 Lebanese displaced by the preventing started returning to examine their homes and companies in border cities.
JERUSALEM — Israeli media say the Hamas militant group has launched the primary batch of hostages below a cease-fire deal Friday, together with 13 Israelis who’ve been held within the Gaza Strip for almost seven weeks.
The media cited Israeli safety officers.
Twelve Thai nationals had been additionally launched, in accordance with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Under a deal negotiated by Qatar, 50 hostages are set to be freed throughout a four-day truce.
Israel is about to free 150 Palestinians over the following 4 days as a part of the deal. Thirty-nine prisoners are to be freed Friday.
JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis gathered in what has been dubbed “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv on Friday night, singing songs to welcome the Jewish Sabbath and watching newscasts on giant screens as they waited to obtain information of the discharge of 13 Israeli hostages slated to be freed.
“My emotions are mixed,” Shelli Shem Tov, the mom of 21-year-old hostage Omer Shem Tov, informed Israeli’s Channel 12 on the sq.. “I’m excited for the families that are going to hug their loved ones, I’m jealous, and I’m sad, mostly sad, that Omer is not coming home yet.”
BANGKOK — Twelve Thai nationals had been launched from Gaza on Friday, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
It stated the 12 hostages have handed by way of the Rafah crossing and are on the best way to Israel’s Hatzerim air base, and can then be taken to a hospital.
The ministry says 39 Thai residents had been killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault in Israel and 26 had been taken hostage.
Egypt’s state info service stated the 12 Thais is along with 13 Israeli captives who’re to be freed Friday.
BEITOUNIA, West Bank — Israeli safety forces fired tear fuel at a crowd of Palestinians gathered to greet prisoners who had been to be launched from Israeli jails as a part of a truce between Israel and Hamas, AP journalists within the West Bank witnessed.
Tear fuel was fired to push away crowds from the neighborhood of Ofer jail, from the place the prisoners had been to be launched in a while Friday.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s overseas minister stated Friday that Israel will resume the warfare in opposition to Hamas after a short lived cease-fire ends.
A truce within the Israel-Hamas warfare started Friday, setting the stage for the discharge of fifty hostages held by militants in Gaza in alternate for 150 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The releases are to happen in phases over 4 days.
The truce could possibly be prolonged by a day for every extra launch of 10 extra hostages — an association that might translate into an extended cease-fire. In all, militants from Hamas and different teams kidnapped about 240 individuals of their Oct. 7 assault on Israel.
Israeli leaders have pledged that the warfare will resume.
“Israel will continue its war on Hamas and we will not stop until we achieve our two main goals, overthrowing the rule of Hamas and returning all the abductees back to us, safe and sound,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen stated Friday as he toured Israel’s ravaged border areas together with his counterparts from Portugal and Slovenia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have made comparable pledges.
JERUSALEM — Palestinian authorities have launched an inventory of 39 Palestinian prisoners anticipated to be launched on Friday, together with 24 girls and 15 teenage boys, in alternate for 13 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, stated the 39 detainees from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem will likely be delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Israel’s Ofer Prison close to the West Bank metropolis of Ramallah.
Most of the 15 Palestinian youngsters to be launched Friday had been arrested over incitement and stone-throwing, in addition to the broadly outlined cost of “supporting terrorism.” The 24 girls embrace some convicted of tried homicide and sentenced to yearslong jail phrases for assaults in opposition to Israeli safety forces.
In all, 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed in the course of the four-day truce.
Israel at the moment holds 7,200 Palestinians charged with or convicted of safety offenses, the Prisoners’ Club stated.
It stated about 2,000 Palestinians had been arrested because the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel that triggered the warfare.
BEIJING — French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna referred to as Friday for the discharge of all hostages held in Gaza, together with eight French residents, and a long-lasting truce between Israel and Hamas.
‘’It is crucial that worldwide regulation is utilized there (in Gaza) as elsewhere,’’ Colonna stated throughout a visit to Beijing. ‘’All states have the appropriate to defend themselves, however we should cooperate in order that terrorism is contained.’’
She referred to as for a sturdy truce in order that ‘’the wounded could be handled, and humanitarian help can arrive and ease the struggling of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.’’
The eight French hostages in Gaza embrace three kids. The French president, overseas minister and protection minister have traveled to the area in current weeks to push for his or her launch and a long-term peace.
Forty French residents had been killed within the Hamas assaults in Israel on Oct. 7, and two French residents have been killed in assaults on Gaza, in accordance with the Foreign Ministry. France has despatched flights and warships to convey humanitarian help for Gaza.
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy within the occupied West Bank, Palestinian well being officers stated Friday, as violence surges within the territory below the shadow of the Israel-Hamas warfare in Gaza.
The boy was killed Thursday within the village of Beita close to the flashpoint metropolis of Nablus within the northern West Bank, the officers stated.
The Israeli navy stated Palestinians threw stones when troopers entered the village and that troops responded with reside hearth. The navy stated it was wanting into the circumstances of the boy’s loss of life.
Since the Israel-Hamas warfare started seven weeks in the past, the West Bank has seen one of many deadliest durations in not less than twenty years. Israeli troopers and settlers have killed 229 Palestinians, together with 52 kids and minors below the age of 18, in arrest raids and violent confrontations, in accordance with U.N. figures.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians and wounded 11 others as they headed towards the primary fight zone in northern Gaza regardless of warnings by the Israeli military to remain put.
An Associated Press journalist noticed the 2 our bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital within the city of Deir al-Balah within the southern half of Gaza. The injured had been shot within the legs.
Friday’s taking pictures got here hours after the Israeli navy warned lots of of hundreds of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza to not try to return to their properties within the northern half of the territory, the main target of Israel’s floor offensive.
The navy had dropped leaflets on southern Gaza saying that returning to northern Gaza is prohibited and harmful.
Since a four-day truce went into impact Friday morning, lots of of Palestinians had been seen attempting to go to northern Gaza.
Witnesses stated Israeli troops are opening hearth on individuals attempting to go north.
Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, stated he determined to threat heading north to verify on his dwelling.
“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he stated. ”The state of affairs is disastrous. It’s higher for an individual to die.”
BEIRUT — The chief of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group stated Friday that Israeli troopers among the many 240 hostages held by militant teams in Gaza will solely be launched in alternate for all of the Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Islamic Jihad is reportedly holding about 40 of the hostages who had been captured by Hamas and different militant teams throughout their Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. Over the following 4 days, 50 hostages are to be launched in alternate for 150 Palestinian prisoners, with each side releasing girls and kids first.
In a televised speech on the primary day of what’s meant to be a four-day truce within the Israel-Hamas warfare, Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh stated that “the enemy’s military prisoners will not be released without the freedom of our prisoners and this is linked to the end of the aggression.” He stated that Israel could be pressured to “eventually reach a deal of everyone in return for everyone.”
It was not instantly clear how most of the hostages held in Gaza are at the moment serving within the navy and whether or not the militants additionally think about reserve troopers to be navy hostages.
JERUSALEM — Israel introduced that 4 tankers with gasoline and 4 tankers with cooking fuel entered the Gaza Strip on Friday, the primary day of what’s meant to be a four-day cease-fire.
Israel has agreed to permit the supply of 130,000 liters (34,300 gallons) of gasoline a day into besieged Gaza for humanitarian wants at some point of the truce. This could be roughly twice the quantity permitted beforehand, however nonetheless solely a small portion of Gaza’s each day wants, estimated at greater than 1 million liters (264,000 gallons).
For many of the previous seven weeks of warfare, Israel had barred the entry of any gasoline to Gaza, claiming it could possibly be utilized by Hamas for navy functions. United Nations help businesses pushed again in opposition to such claims, saying gasoline deliveries had been intently supervised and urgently wanted to avert a humanitarian disaster.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli navy stated Friday it has destroyed stretches of tunnels and quite a lot of tunnel shafts within the space of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest.
On Wednesday, Israel confirmed a tunnel and rooms that navy officers stated had been a significant Hamas hideout beneath Shifa. Hamas and hospital workers deny Israeli allegations that Shifa was used as a militant command heart.
On Thursday, Israeli navy spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated Israel mapped out Shifa Hospital and plans to destroy all “terror infrastructure” it has discovered.
A short lived truce within the Israel-Hamas warfare took impact early Friday, setting the stage for the alternate of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The halt in preventing started at 7 a.m. native time (0500 GMT) and is to final not less than 4 days. During the truce, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free not less than 50 of the about 240 hostages it and different militants took of their lethal Oct. 7 assault on Israel. In flip, Israel is to free three Palestinian prisoners for every launched hostage. The releases are to happen in phases over the following 4 days.
The truce deal was reached in weeks of intense oblique negotiations, with Qatar, the United States and Egypt serving as mediators. If it holds, it might mark the primary important break in preventing since Israel declared warfare on Hamas seven weeks in the past.
About 1,200 individuals had been killed by Hamas attackers in Israel on Oct. 7. Israel responded with an enormous air and floor offensive that has devastated giant swaths of Gaza and killed not less than 13,300 Palestinians.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”