Israel-Hamas war updates: Joy on Ramallah’s streets as prisoners freed
Third batch of 39 Palestinians freed by Israel after Hamas releases 13 Israelis and four foreigners under truce deal.
- Israeli prison officials say a third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners have been released after Hamas handed over 13 Israelis and four foreign nationals to the Red Cross.
- At least six Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank since last night.
- Israeli prison officials say a third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners have been released after Hamas handed over 13 Israelis and four foreign nationals to the Red Cross.
- At least six Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank since last night.
- The exchange on the second day of the four-day truce was delayed for hours over Hamas’s allegations that Israel was violating the truce deal.
- More than 14,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll stands at 1,200.
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To read more about the captives released on the second day of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, read our story here.
For a story about the Palestinian men shot in Vermont, read our story here.
“It is time the US considers Hamas’s survival in Gaza,” writes Samer Badawi. Read his thoughts in this opinion piece.
Here’s what happened today
We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of Sunday’s key events:
- A third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners has been freed as the exchange of captives between Hamas and Israel continued for a third day under the four-day truce deal.
- Hamas handed over 13 Israeli captives and four foreigners in central Gaza.
- US President Joe Biden says four-year-old American hostage Abigail Edan was released by Hamas.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Biden that Israel will resume its campaign in Gaza with full force once the temporary truce comes to an end.
- Hamas announced it was seeking to extend its four-day truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israel, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.
- Three young Palestinian men have been shot near a university campus in Vermont in the US as anti-Palestinian sentiments rise in the country.
- US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters he did not rule out the possibility of Biden sending aid to Israel “with conditions”.
WATCH: Hope Gaza truce can be extended – Qatari minister
Lolwah Rashid al-Khater, Qatar’s minister of state for international cooperation, spoke to Al Jazeera from the Gaza Strip.
She says she hopes there is an increase in the quantity of humanitarian aid being delivered into the enclave.
‘Hunger, desperation, and destruction’: UN team on northern Gaza
Samer AbdelJaber, the head of the World Food Program (WFP) in Palestine, has recounted a UN mission to provide food to Al-Ahli Hospital and surrounding areas.
AbdelJaber said that while being able to deliver food to the hospital in Gaza City was a “promising step”, the UN team saw “hunger, desperation, and destruction”.
“The [UN] team recounted painful stories from the people who haven’t received any aid in weeks,” he said.
Central and northern Gaza, including Gaza City, the largest city in the Gaza Strip, have been largely cut off from humanitarian aid since Israel claimed it cut the Gaza Strip in two in early November.
Today, @WFP and @UNICEF had a joint mission to deliver vital food assistance to Al-Ahli hospital & surrounding areas.
It's a promising step, but the team recounted painful stories from the people who haven't received any aid in weeks.
They saw hunger, desperation, & destruction. pic.twitter.com/Mh2kJxQIsS— Samer AbdelJaber (@SamerWFP) November 26, 2023
Current Gaza truce only addressing release of captives: Colombian Jewish leader
Marcos David Peckel, the head of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia, told the NTN24 cable news channel that “it is a great joy to see that children and women, who should never have been kidnapped, are regaining their freedom”.
But he also said that the current truce between Israel and Hamas does not seek to “solve the conflict, but rather to free the kidnapped people”.
While Israel received “a lot of solidarity” after the October 7 attack, some organisations have remained in “a shameful silence”, added Peckel, who is also a lecturer in international relations at the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia.
Attack on UNRWA sites in Gaza ‘disregard of int’l humanitarian law’
In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN relief and humanitarian agency in Gaza, says 108 UN staff members have been killed in the besieged enclave since October 7.
He wondered why the death toll is so high, adding that about 70 of UNRWA locations that shelter more than 1 million people have been hit since the beginning of the conflict.
“This is definitely devastating news, and the United Nations never ever lost as many staff in such a short period in the conflict,” he told the host of the programme, Margaret Brennan.
“We had about 200 people who have been killed and … injured. And this despite the fact that we’re constantly deconflicting and notifying the Israeli authorities, but also … Hamas about our location.”
“But clearly here, this has been a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law, a blatant disregard of UN premises, and a blatant disregard of a civilian population,” he added.
Ex-HRW chief warns of more civilian deaths if truce not extended
In a statement on X, Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), says if Israel resumes the fighting in Gaza after the four-day truce, “it risks double the civilian casualties, because most of Gaza’s northern population has now been crammed into the south”.
He pointed out that the southern part of the besieged enclave, where Israel ordered residents of northern and central Gaza to evacuate, “was supposed to have been safer”.
Parts of southern Gaza, however, also experienced relentless bombardment, including the Khan Younis and Rafah areas.
If Israel resumes fighting after the four-day truce and starts attacking southern Gaza, it risks double the civilian casualties because most of Gaza's northern population has now been crammed into the south, which was supposed to have been safer. https://t.co/7SyxWVUcwc
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) November 26, 2023
US Navy responded to distress call from seized tanker: Officials
A US Navy vessel has responded to a distress call from the chemical tanker Central Park and ensured that it was safe and free, two US officials said.
One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that the USS Mason had helped ensure the tanker was safe.
Unidentified armed individuals had seized a tanker carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
Hamas delivered third batch of captives in central Gaza
Unlike the first two days of the four-day truce, Israeli captives held by Hamas were delivered in central Gaza, where the fighting until recently had been intense.
On the previous two days, the captives were handed over to the Red Cross in southern Gaza.
Palestinians on Ramallah streets welcome freed prisoners
Israel’s war cabinet discusses possibility of extending truce
Israel’s war cabinet has discussed the possibility of extending the temporary truce with Hamas when it met on Sunday evening, an Israeli source has told the CNN network.
The source said conditions for an extension remain unchanged from the original agreement, which means Hamas needs to release an additional 10 hostages for each additional day’s pause in the fighting.
Elon Musk to meet Israeli president, captive families
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his X social media platform, will meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday along with Israelis whose relatives have been held by Hamas in Gaza.
Herzog’s office announced the meeting, saying, “In their meeting, the president will emphasise the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.”
Moroccans march for permanent ceasefire in Gaza
LISTEN: What will it take to keep a fragile truce alive in Gaza?
Calls grow louder to extend the fragile truce and allow more aid into Gaza.
Hamas and Israel have been exchanging detainees and captives since Friday. But what will it take to keep an agreement like this alive, let alone extend it beyond four days?
Listen to the latest episode of The Inside Story Podcast here or below:
More Palestinian prisoners freed as Israel-Hamas truce holds into third day
A third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners has been freed as the exchange of captives between Hamas and Israel continues for a third day under the four-day truce deal.
Large crowds of Palestinians took to the streets in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday night as they waited for Red Cross buses carrying the prisoners.
Some waved Palestinian flags alongside the flags of the two main Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah. Some youth climbed on top of a white bus transporting mostly young men and some female prisoners.
Read more here.
France hopes truce lasts until all captives released
The comments by France add to growing calls for an extension to the four-day truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“We demand the release of our hostages and all the hostages. It would be good, helpful and necessary for the truce to be extended to this end,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFMTV.
No French captives have been freed yet, but Colonna said she had “good hope” that would change.
“There are lists drawn up during the negotiations through Qatar” but “Hamas makes its choices within these lists”, she said.
Thousands block New York bridge demanding Gaza ceasefire
Protesters have blocked Manhattan Bridge in New York City, demanding a permanent Gaza ceasefire, days after dozens of protesters glued themselves to the pavement and blocked the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, also in New York.
#BREAKING Mass arrests expected as hundreds of protesters with Jewish Voice For Peace are occupying roadway of Manhattan Bridge, bringing its Brooklyn Bound Traffic to a halt.
Video by Ed Quinn Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/Cy9tw6GTUT
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) November 26, 2023
Netanyahu tells Biden will resume Gaza operation after truce
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he told US President Joe Biden that Israel will resume its campaign in Gaza with full force once a temporary truce comes to an end.
However, Netanyahu also said he would welcome extending the truce if the move facilitated the release of 10 additional hostages every day, as agreed under the original truce deal.
Biden pushes for two-state solution
In a post on X, US President Joe Biden says a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is the only way to ensure “Israelis and Palestinians alike can live in equal measures of freedom and dignity”.
His comments come after 39 Palestinians, 13 Israelis, three Thais and one Russian-Israeli dual national were released on the third day of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.
A two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.
To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike can live in equal measures of freedom and dignity.
We will not give up on working toward this goal.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 26, 2023
‘Devastated’: Families of Palestinians shot in US call for probe
The families of three Palestinian students who were shot in the US state of Vermont are urging law enforcement authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, “including treating this as a hate crime”.
“We need to ensure that our children are protected, and this heinous crime is not repeated,” they said in a joint statement.
Official joint statement from the families of Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, three Palestinian college students shot in Vermont: pic.twitter.com/FqHUOVR5lZ
— IMEU (@theIMEU) November 26, 2023
Hamas calls on Biden to push Israel to end Gaza offensive
Speaking from Beirut, senior Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan has told Al Jazeera he expects US President Joe Biden to push Israel to end its war on the Gaza Strip.
“I have a very specific comment. President Biden has the ability to make an end to the Israeli offensive against Gaza. He has the power to do that and talking about extending the ceasefire is not the solution.
“The solution is to make a stop for the Israeli attack against Gaza and to force Israel to implement international resolutions regarding the Palestinian people,” Hamdan said.
‘No visits, no communication’ in jail since October 7: Palestinian father
A Palestinian man, whose son has been released from Israeli prison, says his “happiness will not be complete until all prisoners have been freed”.
His son was sentenced to three years, but he served half of his prison term.
“The last time I saw him was five months ago,” he said. “Since October 7, we have not been allowed to visit or have any information about him.
“We were very stressed out. We were concerned all the time because we did not know what is happening to our son inside the prison.”
‘Situation in Israeli prisons very tragic’: Freed Palestinian detainee
A freed Palestinian detainee, who did not want to be identified, says Israeli authorities have cracked down on prisoners since October 7, taking away their personal items and cutting down the number of meals.
“The reason I did not want to be identified is because Israeli authorities threatened us before we were released. They told us not to talk or else they could come back for us or hurt our family members,” he told Al Jazeera.
Absolute majority of released Palestinian prisoners minors: Analyst
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says that with a majority of released Palestinian prisoners being minors, the reality of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians is being showcased.
“The absolute majority of the 300 Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel are either minors, or when they were imprisoned were minors. This is key,” said Bishara.
“The idea of imprisoning minors for such long periods of time, for minor offences, including putting them in solitary confinement, humiliating them and mistreating them … that goes a long way to show how differently Hamas has treated its hostages and how Israel has treated its hostages.”
Hamas seeks to extend truce with Israel with some conditions: Report
Hamas has announced in a statement that it is seeking to extend its four-day truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israel, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.