By The Associated Press
Israel’s nationwide safety adviser stated late Wednesday that cease-fire talks with the Hamas militant group have been nonetheless ongoing, and the hostage launch is not going to happen earlier than Friday. Tzachi Hanegbi gave no clarification for the delay, and it was not instantly clear when the cease-fire may start.
The cease-fire settlement between the Hamas militant group and Israel had earlier been confirmed by each events, together with Washington and Qatar, which helped dealer the deal that might convey a brief halt to the devastating warfare that’s now in its seventh week.
The Israeli authorities stated that beneath an overview of the deal, Hamas is to free over a four-day interval not less than 50 of the roughly 240 hostages taken in its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, and Israel is to launch some Palestinian prisoners in alternate. Egyptian state media say the truce will start Thursday morning. Egypt helped mediate the cease-fire settlement, which might convey the primary respite to war-weary Palestinians in Gaza, the place greater than 11,000 folks have been killed, in keeping with well being authorities.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated late Wednesday he advised U.S. President Joe Biden that he’ll press forward with the warfare after a cease-fire expires. Some 1,200 folks have been killed in Israel, largely throughout the preliminary incursion by Hamas.
Currently:
— Truce deal raises hopes of liberating hostages in Gaza and halting worst Mideast violence in many years
— The shadowy Hamas chief in Gaza is on the prime of Israel’s hit checklist
— During truce, humanitarians need extra assist for Gaza, entry to hostages — and extra time
— Analysis: Iran-backed Yemen rebels’ helicopter-borne assault on ship raises dangers in essential Red Sea
— Iranian-backed militant group vows to broaden battle if U.S. airstrikes in area proceed
— Pope Francis meets with family of Israeli hostages and Palestinians
— Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s what’s occurring within the warfare:
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationwide safety adviser says a deliberate hostage-for-prisoner swap with Hamas has been delayed till not less than Friday.
In a press release launched late Wednesday, Tzachi Hanegbi stated that contacts on the deal have been persevering with. “The release will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday,” he stated.
The swap is to happen as a part of a four-day truce anticipated to start on Thursday.
Hanegbi gave no clarification for the delay, and it was not instantly clear when the cease-fire may start.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has instructed the nation’s Mossad spy company to trace down the management of the Hamas militant group dwelling in different nations exterior Gaza.
“I have instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas, wherever they are,” Netanyahu advised a information convention.
Most of Hamas’ prime management lives in exile, primarily within the Gulf state of Qatar and the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The Mossad has been accused in a sequence of assassinations abroad of Palestinian militants and Iranian nuclear scientists over time.
CAIRO — The U.N. assist company for Palestinian refugees stated Wednesday that just about 1,037,000 internally displaced Palestinians have been at present searching for shelter in 156 UNRWA amenities throughout the Gaza Strip.
In its report, the help company stated that the variety of its staff killed by the continued battle in Gaza stands at 108. The data within the report was legitimate as of Tuesday.
Earlier Wednesday, UNRWA’s Secretary General, Philippe Lazzarini, gave a press convention in southern Gaza warning that the struggling of Palestinians will solely worsen with the approaching of winter, and that the besieged territory is on the verge of a waterborne illness outbreak.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a brief truce was agreed between Israel and Hamas that can facilitate the discharge of dozens of individuals taken hostage throughout the militant group’s assault on Israel on Oct. 7.
The transfer has been welcomed by UNRWA whose leaders have frequently known as for a cease-fire.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has advised President Joe Biden that he’ll press forward with Israel’s warfare in opposition to Hamas after a brief cease-fire expires.
Netanyahu stated he delivered the message to Biden in a cellphone name on Wednesday.
“I want to be clear. The war is continuing. The war is continuing. We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu stated.
A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is predicted to take impact on Thursday.
Hamas can lengthen the truce by releasing extra of the hostages it’s holding.
But Netanyahu, together with the opposite members of his particular warfare cupboard, advised a press convention they may resume the warfare till Hamas is destroyed and the entire 240 hostages it’s holding are launched.
SANAA, Yemen — The navy arm of Yemen’s Houthi rebels stated Wednesday that it launched a batch of long-range massive missiles towards southern Israel, together with the Red Sea metropolis of Eilat.
The Iran-backed insurgent group has launched not less than six aerial assaults in opposition to Israel because the battle broke out on Oct. 7.
Last week, the Shia insurgent drive — which controls most of northwest Yemen — additionally hijacked the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader because it sailed within the northern Red Sea, taking 25 crew members hostage.
Ownership particulars in public delivery databases related the ship’s homeowners with Ray Car Carriers, based by Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is called one of many richest males in Israel. However, Israeli officers stated the ship was British-owned and Japanese-operated.
The Houthi are staunch foes of Israel and have vowed to proceed aerial assaults and hijackings of Israeli ships.
“We will continue to carry out military operations until the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank stops,” the Houthi navy stated in a put up on Telegram.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has launched an award-winning Palestinian poet it detained in Gaza.
Mosab Abu Toha has been contributing items to western media because the begin of the Israel-Hamas warfare, portray a dire image of its toll on civilians by way of his private expertise.
His household introduced Monday that Abu Toha had been arrested whereas evacuating to southern Gaza from his house within the hard-hit Jabaliya refugee camp.
Abu Toha final posted to X on Nov. 15, writing: “Alive. Thanks for your prayers.”
Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian peace negotiator and pal of the household, stated Abu Toha was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and held for 2 days with dozens of different Palestinians at an Israeli detention middle. She says he was was accused of getting Hamas connections and crushed up in custody.
“He was taken out of Gaza and he was interrogated,” she stated.
She stated he was launched on Tuesday, apparently after the case attracted worldwide consideration.
The literary and free expression group PEN stated it was involved in regards to the arrest and demanded to know Abu Toha’s whereabouts and the rationale for his arrest. The New Yorker journal, to which Abu Toha has contributed a number of articles, known as for his secure return.
The Israeli navy stated Wednesday that Abu Toha had been launched. It gave no additional particulars.
Buttu stated Abu Toha was secure in central Gaza after receiving medical therapy. The poet, whose son is an American citizen, is making an attempt to depart the besieged territory.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — More than 100 our bodies have been buried Wednesday in a mass grave in Khan Younis, the corpses wrapped in blue plastic sheets fixed with cable ties.
Medical staff positioned dozens of our bodies introduced from numerous areas in northern Gaza, together with Shifa Hospital, into an enormous trench that was dug utilizing a bulldozer.
Workers carrying surgical masks and gloves carried the our bodies to the grave and carried out funeral prayers.
GENEVA — International assist teams which have lined up hundreds of assist vehicles for Gaza say they’re prepared to maneuver shortly to ship in meals, water and different provides if a pause in combating between Hamas and Israel takes maintain as hoped on Thursday.
Details stay unclear about each the mechanics of getting extra assist for beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza and the attainable launch of hostages kidnapped from Israel whose households have desperately sought their launch.
The assist teams say a key ambition will probably be to get assist to northern Gaza, which has been largely inaccessible to humanitarian shipments and the place almost all hospitals have stopped working amid a blistering navy marketing campaign by Israeli forces.
“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to scale up once everything is set,” stated Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, referring to the positive print of the introduced deal.
Della Longa lamented “bottlenecks” which have confounded the deliveries of some humanitarian assist – although not almost sufficient – into Gaza. He stated IFRC hopes {that a} deal would come with provisions to permit for a “faster track” of assist shipments.
The solely route for worldwide humanitarian assist into Gaza since Oct. 7 has been by way of the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, and planeloads of provides have been flown into the close by Egyptian metropolis of El-Arish – and vehicles have queued up close to Gaza.
Intense Israeli inspections of vehicles and cargo have slowed entry into Gaza.
WASHINGTON — A serious Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq has warned it could strike further U.S. targets after U.S. warplanes killed a number of militants in response to the primary use of short-range ballistic missiles in opposition to U.S. forces at Al-Asad Air Base earlier this week.
U.S. fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations middle and a Kataib Hezbollah command and management node south of Baghdad on Tuesday, two protection officers stated, talking on situation of anonymity to supply further delicate particulars of the assaults.
There have been Kataib Hezbollah personnel at each websites on the time of the strikes, however the officers stated they might not but affirm whether or not anybody there was killed.
Militia officers in Iraq stated the assault had killed eight Kataib Hezbollah members.
Kataib Hezbollah stated in a press release Wednesday that it was contemplating “expanding the scope of targets” if the U.S. navy continues with its strikes, including that the assault “will not go unpunished.”
The harmful back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant teams beneath the umbrella group known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria started placing U.S. amenities on Oct. 17, the date {that a} blast at a hospital in Gaza killed a whole lot. The assaults have continued unabated since, with not less than 66 rocket and missile assaults hitting U.S. amenities and wounding not less than 62 service members.
___
Associated Press writers Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.
GENEVA — Switzerland’s government department stated Wednesday it is going to ask parliament to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Federal Council stated the federal government can even finish contracts it has with three Palestinian non-governmental organizations. They have been amongst 11 Palestinian and Israeli NGOs that had been beneath evaluate by Swiss officers following Hamas’ Oct. 7 assaults in Israel.
Four days after the lethal rampage in Israel, the council moved to designate Hamas as a terrorist group and instructed the Foreign Ministry to think about a attainable ban.
The seven-member council, which incorporates the Swiss president, reiterated its condemnation of the assaults “in the strongest possible terms” and expressed its remorse in regards to the deaths of hundreds of civilians on each side of the battle.
The United States and the European Union, which doesn’t rely Switzerland as a member, have lengthy thought-about Hamas a terrorist group.
NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has known as on the worldwide group to supply “timely and sustained humanitarian assistance” to the Palestinians in Gaza.
Modi was talking at a digital assembly of Group of 20 nations on Wednesday earlier than India’s presidency ends on Nov. 30.
“We agree that terrorism is unacceptable to all of us. The death of civilians anywhere is condemnable,” Modi stated. “We welcome the news today concerning the release of the hostages. We hope that all the hostages will be released soon.”
Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day cease-fire within the warfare in Gaza — a breakthrough that can facilitate the discharge of dozens of hostages held by militants in addition to Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and convey a big inflow of assist to the besieged territory, officers stated Wednesday.
“It is important to provide timely and sustained humanitarian assistance. It is also important to ensure that the war between Israel and Hamas does not take any regional form,” Modi stated.
CAIRO — Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV says the Israel-Hamas truce will take impact at 10 a.m. native time (0800 GMT) Thursday.
Egypt helped mediate the four-day cease-fire, which can facilitate the discharge of dozens of hostages captured by Hamas throughout its Oct. 7 assault into southern Israel. The deal can even see the discharge of dozens of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the entry of extra humanitarian assist into Gaza.
Israeli media additionally reported that the truce would start Thursday at 10 a.m.
CAIRO — The World Health Organization has documented 178 assaults on healthcare amenities that killed 553 folks, together with 22 healthcare staff, because the warfare began on Oct. 7, the company’s regional director stated Wednesday.
Ahmed Al-Mandhari stated in a web based briefing that about 800 folks, together with 48 healthcare staff, have been injured within the assaults, which broken 24 hospitals and 32 ambulances.
The warfare has compelled the shutdown of 27 out of 36 hospitals and 47 out of 72 main well being care clinics throughout Gaza, he stated. The amenities stopping offering companies primarily due to a scarcity of gas and assaults, he stated.
“Hospitals must be allowed to replenish the resources they need to continue functioning,” he stated. “We cannot keep providing drops of aid in an ocean of needs.”
CAIRO — The World Health Organization says considered one of its native employees members in Gaza was killed alongside along with her household when a strike hit the house the place they have been sheltering.
It stated Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was killed Tuesday alongside along with her husband, their 6-month-old son and her two brothers.
The U.N. well being company stated in a press release late Tuesday that over 50 folks have been reportedly killed within the strike. It was not instantly attainable to substantiate the report or to find out who carried out the strike.
Israel has launched airstrikes throughout Gaza within the warfare triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. Palestinian militants have fired rockets at Israel, a few of which have fallen brief.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s consultant for the Palestinian territories, stated Alhaj “was a wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, respectful. She was a true team player.”
Alhaj, who had labored as a affected person administrator with WHO since 2019, was amongst a whole lot of hundreds of Palestinians who fled from northern Gaza to shelter within the south. She had left her house in Gaza City and was staying with family.
WHO stated her dying “is another example of the senseless loss in this conflict.”
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has met individually with Israeli and Palestinian delegations and begged for peace and an finish to what he known as terrorism and “passions that are killing everyone.”
In encounters organized earlier than the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal was introduced, Francis met Wednesday with family of hostages held in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid in southern Israel. And he met individually with a delegation of Palestinians with family in Gaza.
Speaking on the finish of his weekly basic viewers, Francis stated he heard from each how a lot they’re struggling and the toll that the warfare was taking. In the viewers have been folks holding Palestinian flags and scarves in addition to small posters displaying obvious our bodies in a ditch and the phrase “Genocide” written beneath.
Francis stated: “Here we’ve gone beyond war. This isn’t war, this is terrorism. Please, let us go forward for peace. Pray for peace, pray a lot for peace.”
He additionally requested for God to assist each Israeli and Palestinian folks “resolve problems and not go forward with passions that are killing everyone in the end.”
Francis has spoken out repeatedly for an finish to the warfare.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Justice Ministry has printed a listing of 300 Palestinian detainees and prisoners who might probably be launched in a hostage deal.
Most of these on the checklist printed Wednesday are youngsters arrested over the previous yr for comparatively minor offenses, together with throwing rocks or alleged incitement. None was convicted of homicide, although some served sentences for tried homicide.
The youngest detainee on the checklist is 14, and it additionally consists of round 40 ladies. The detainees are to be launched to their houses within the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
According to the truce-for-hostages deal introduced Wednesday, 50 hostages will probably be launched over 4 days, seemingly beginning Thursday, throughout which combating will pause.
After that, each further 10 hostages launched will end in one further day within the pause and the discharge of further Palestinian prisoners.
Israel is predicted to launch 150 Palestinian prisoners within the first 4 days, although the Ministry of Justice printed the checklist of 300 in case the deal is prolonged. Under Israeli legislation, the general public has 24 hours to object to any launch.
CAIRO — The evacuation of sufferers trapped in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has begun, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.
The charity stated 14 ambulances arrived on the hospital on Wednesday, and the evacuation has been coordinated with the United Nations and Doctors with out Borders medical group.
Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, has stated there have been over 250 sufferers on the facility, which was besieged by the Israeli navy earlier this month. Over 400 displaced folks sheltering within the facility have additionally been trapped there, he stated.
Israel has accused Hamas of utilizing the hospital, the biggest in Gaza, to conduct militant operations. Hamas and well being officers have denied the allegation.
Over the weekend, the World Health Organization coordinated the evacuation of 31 untimely infants from Shifa Hospital to southern Gaza. Of them, 28 infants have been later transferred to Egypt.
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s disaster administration chief has welcomed the Israeli hostage launch settlement and says the halt in combating that’s a part of the deal should be used to flood Gaza with desperately wanted assist.
“We hope that the agreement on a pause of hostilities that has just been reached will allow for a substantial surge in humanitarian aid delivery into and within Gaza,” Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic stated Wednesday.
“We certainly hope that this will not be a one-off,” he advised EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, and known as for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses throughout Gaza.”
The 27-nation EU is the world’s largest assist donor to the Palestinians. Lenarcic stated 15 EU assist cargo flights have been despatched, with most of that assist already in Gaza, and that extra is on the way in which.
The bloc insists that extra vehicles should be allowed by way of the Rafah crossing level with Egypt and different corridors opened.
Lenarcic stated entering into Gaza is “extremely challenging” and that fewer than 50 vehicles a day make it by way of, a quantity which he described as “woefully inadequate.” He welcomed Israel’s choice to permit some gas in, however stated it solely covers about one third of Gaza’s primary wants.
LONDON — The British authorities has welcomed an settlement to launch a number of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and urged all events to make sure it’s “delivered in full.”
Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated the settlement was “a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
“This pause provides an important opportunity to ensure much greater volumes of food, fuel and other life-saving aid can reach Gaza on a sustained basis,” he stated. “The U.K. will continue to work with all partners in the region to secure the release of all hostages, restore security and reach a long-term political solution which enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.”
BEIJING — The Chinese authorities says it welcomes the four-day truce reached between Israel and Hamas.
“We welcome the provisional truce reached by the parties concerned and hope it will help to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, de-escalate the conflict and ease tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated at a each day briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
China has been calling for a cease-fire and shunned criticizing the preliminary Hamas assault on Israel that began the most recent battle. A delegation of overseas ministers from Arab nations and Indonesia held talks with China’s overseas minister this week as they began a tour to press their case for a cease-fire with the everlasting members of the U.N. Security Council.
MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Wednesday hailed a deal between Israel and Hamas for a halt to the warfare and the discharge of hostages as step towards ending the hostilities.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated the announcement of the deal was “the first good news from Gaza in a long time.”
Speaking in a convention name with reporters, he famous that Russia together with most different nations had known as for a truce and humanitarian pauses, including that “only on the basis of such pauses future attempts to find a lasting settlement to the problem could be made.”
PARIS — France’s overseas minister says she’s hopeful that French nationals will probably be among the many first hostages launched as a part of a truce deal between Israel and Hamas.
“We hope that French nationals are among them and even, if possible, among the first group that will be released,” the minister, Catherine Colonna, stated Wednesday on France Inter radio. “We are working for that.”
France counts eight folks lacking, a few of them confirmed as hostages, from the Oct. 7 assault on Israel by Hamas militants that ignited their newest and deadliest warfare. France additionally counts 40 killed within the assault. Colonna stated that not all of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 have been captured by Hamas. But she stated that in the midst of negotiations, the militant group has stated that “it could assemble together all of the hostages.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday welcomed the truce settlement.
In a message on X, previously Twitter, Macron stated “we are working tirelessly to ensure that all hostages are released.” He additionally hoped the truce will “enable aid to be brought in” and assist the Gaza folks.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey, a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, welcomed the four-day truce as a “positive development to prevent more bloodshed.”
A Foreign Ministry assertion launched Wednesday stated Turkey expects full compliance with the settlement.
“We hope that the humanitarian pause will help permanently end the current conflict as soon as possible and initiate a process towards a just and lasting peace based on a two-state solution,” it stated.
BAGHDAD — The United States navy stated Wednesday that it has carried out strikes in opposition to Iran-backed teams in Iraq which have launched assaults on U.S. forces.
The U.S. Central Command stated in a press release Wednesday that its forces had “conducted discrete, precision strikes against two facilities in Iraq … in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups,” together with one on Tuesday involving using close-range ballistic missiles.
Two officers with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq stated the strikes hit three places within the space of Jurf al-Sakhar south of Baghdad, killing eight members of the Kataeb Hezbollah militant group. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to the media.
Iranian-backed militants have launched dozens of assaults on bases and amenities housing U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. While a lot of the greater than 5 dozen assaults have been ineffective, not less than 60 U.S. personnel have reported minor accidents. The militant teams have stated the strikes are in retaliation for U.S. assist of Israel within the ongoing Israel-Hamas warfare.
___
Qassim Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.
ROME — Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a city corridor assembly with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday, booing and heckling him when he addressed the Israel-Hamas battle.
The protesters chanted “Shame on you” and accused Kristersson of supporting genocide after he stated Sweden condemns Hamas and helps Israel’s proper to self-defense. Police eliminated a few of them from the venue in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest metropolis.
Kristersson criticized the protesters in a Facebook put up after the occasion.
“When we met tonight with a few hundred Gothenburgers the meeting was disrupted by a screaming and shouting group of people who refused to respect everyone else who had come to ask questions,” he wrote. “These political saboteurs appeared to have come to our question-and-answer session only to shout out their anger over Sweden and the EU’s political position about the conflict in the Middle East -– they were particularly disappointed over the condemnation of the terror organization Hamas.”
Kristersson’s center-right authorities has strongly sided with Israel within the Gaza battle, condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel and supporting Israel’s proper to self-defense. Pro-Palestinian teams and the left-leaning opposition have accused the federal government of ignoring the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”