Two journalists killed in Israeli strikes this afternoon pictured on screens at the al-Mayadeen newsroom in Beirut, Nov. 21, 2023. (Credit: Joao Sousa)
Here is a summary of today’s events.
Much of today was spent in anticipation of what appears to be a forthcoming agreement between Israel and Hamas after weeks of mediation talks hosted by Qatar. Throughout the day, various officials and sources familiar with the negotiations commented on their progress, saying a deal was getting closer and closer to being finalized.
A picture taken from a position near Sderot along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli bombardment of the northern Palestinian territory on Nov. 21, 2023. (Credit: Fadel Senna/AFP)
Earlier this evening, L’Orient Today published an analysis of the negotiations outlining five things to expect from the deal, which is rumored to involve an exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and possibly a temporary truce.
As of the publication of this summary, the wartime Cabinet in Israel was still meeting to discuss and vote on the potential hostage-prisoner exchange.
It was also a deadly day in southern Lebanon, with nine casualties from Israeli strikes. In three separate attacks, three civilians, including two al-Mayadeen journalists and an elderly woman, a Hezbollah militant, and five members of Hamas, including a leader, were killed.
Ambulances carrying the bodies of the two journalists of Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV channel, killed by an Israeli strike, are parked outside the channel's building, in Beirut, Nov. 21, 2023. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
The woman in her 80s, Laiqa Sarhan, was killed when a missile struck her home. Her 7-year-old granddaughter is in critical condition in a local hospital. The two journalists, Farah Omar and Rabih al-Maamari, were targeted in Sour district while in an open field frequented by reporters. They were accompanied by a member of Hezbollah who acted as their guide and was also killed. Their vehicle, marked as press, was parked nearby. According to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), this brings the total number of journalists killed in the Hamas-Israel war to 53.
The five members of Hamas were driving in Chaaitiyeh also in Sour district, but about 12 kilometers north of the border, when their car was struck twice by Israeli rockets. They were the last to be identified as the car and its inhabitants were badly burned.
Hezbollah announced several retaliatory strikes on northern Israel in response. Meanwhile, during a tour of the Golan Heights, Israeli Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel is prepared for the expansion of fighting in the north "to allow the residents of the north to return home safely.” He also addressed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, advising him "not to turn southern Lebanon into the northern Gaza Strip."
A Palestinian woman hangs clothes amid debris in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 21, 2023, as battles between Hamas and Israel continue throughout the enclave. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)
Al Jazeera reported that all hospitals in northern Gaza are now completely out of service, quoting the spokesperson of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, who added that the northern hospitals were hosting patients at 190 percent capacity.
Israel ordered the evacuation of the field hospital from Jordan that was delivered just yesterday to the Strip and was being set up in Khan Yunis to assist in treating the estimated 30,000 wounded people in the enclave. Jordan said in a statement that they would not heed the demand.
And here are the latest figures, the human toll of the war.
(Credit: Elie Wehbe/L'Orient Today)
Compiled by Amelia Hankins.