Hamas claims to have freed 13 Israeli hostages and four foreign nationals: Day 50 of the Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for joining our LIVE coverage from day 50 of the Hamas-Israel war. We will be back tomorrow with more news updates.

The Israeli army has indicated that the hostages released by Hamas have arrived in Israel, according to AFP.

The Israeli hostages freed in Gaza are six women and seven minors, announced the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Reuters.

Image shows Red Cross vehicles at the Rafah crossing. (Credit: Ibrahim Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

 The four foreign nationals released by Hamas are Thai, an informed official said, according to Reuters.

A Red Cross vehicle, as part of a convoy believed to be carrying hostages abducted by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, arrives at the Rafah border, amid a hostages-"prisoners" swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 25, 2023. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

13 Israeli hostages and four foreigners have been handed over to the Red Cross and are on their way to Rafah, said a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said it had handed over four foreigners to the ICRC. 39 Palestinian "prisoners" are also due to be released by Israel.

A source in the Egyptian government said that the Red Cross was on its way to the Rafah crossing after receiving the hostages in Gaza, according to Reuters.

A Qatari source also said, according to the agency, that a group of hostages had been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, which is currently on its way to the border with Egypt.

BREAKING: The armed wing of Hamas hands over 13 Israeli hostages and four foreign nationals to the Red Cross, according to Reuters.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari reported "significant progress" regarding the release of the hostages, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"Sunday's plan will go ahead as planned," he added, noting that if the agreement is not met, the army will "return to combat."

The White House has learned from the Qataris that the International Committee of the Red Cross is preparing to recover the hostages, said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, according to AFP.

The Israeli army spokesman says that efforts are underway to free the hostages, according to AFP.

Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received a phone call from US President Joe Biden, who expressed his appreciation for Qatar's role in facilitating the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, according to Reuters.

The Emir stressed the need to avoid any further escalation, to put an end to the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and to find ways to increase the flow of aid to the enclave, according to a statement issued by the Emir's press office.

Hamas announced that it would free the Israeli hostages due to leave Gaza by midnight, in accordance with an agreement reached with Israel, after having interrupted their transfer for several hours, according to AFP.

In a statement, Hamas said it had "responded positively to Egyptian and Qatari efforts, which lasted all day." It added that it had obtained a "commitment" from Israel to deliver humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza Strip, and to release Palestinian prisoners who had been in prison for a long time.

BREAKING: Through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, "39 Palestinian civilians will be released tonight, while 13 Israeli hostages will leave Gaza along with four foreigners," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said on X, according to AFP.

BREAKING: The obstacles to freeing Israeli hostages have been overcome thanks to talks led by Qatar and Egypt, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to Reuters.

BREAKING: The problem delaying the second phase of the hostage release was resolved thanks to Egypt's intervention, said a Palestinian official briefed on the mediation, according to Reuters.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a tour of the Gaza Strip that the Israeli army would remain in the war zone until all hostages were released, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Gallant said that any negotiations for their release would take place "under the bombs, while the forces are fighting." According to him, "Israel's ability to bring back the first group of hostages stems from the military pressure exerted" on Hamas.

"When pressure is applied, they call for a ceasefire; when pressure increases, they call for another ceasefire; when escalation increases, they are ready to make a proposal, and when escalation increases again, they are ready to offer something acceptable," he said.

340 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Friday, a Hamas spokesman said, according to Reuters.

65 of them have reached the north of the enclave, less than half of what Israel had agreed upon, he stressed.

"We affirm our commitment to the agreement reached thanks to the mediation of Egypt and Qatar," said a Hamas spokesman, quoted by Reuters.

Hamas also asserted that Israel had not fulfilled its part of the agreement, noting that it had informed the mediators of violations committed by Israel, according to the agency.

A senior Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdane, told Al-Mayadeen channel that "efforts are being made to resolve the problems" concerning the agreement on the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian "prisoners", according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

According to him, Israel violated the agreement reached between Hamas and the Israel on Friday by targeting Palestinian civilians who were trying to reach the north of the Gaza Strip. He also accused Israel of violating conditions relating to the entry of humanitarian aid convoys into the Palestinian enclave and the release of prisoners. "There were violations yesterday, and it's being repeated today," he stressed.

Egypt is trying to remedy the delay in releasing the second group of hostages, a Palestinian official briefed Reuters on the ongoing mediation.

Outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, reported the Grand Seraglio on X (formerly Twitter).

During the meeting, Erdogan stressed "the need to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and halt military operations with a view to subsequently working towards a lasting peace ... Lebanon is the country most affected by the war in Gaza. We hope that the ceasefire [in Gaza] will be maintained so that the situation in Lebanon remains calm," he added.

Najib Mikati said he was "counting on the efforts of friendly countries to open a breach in the wall of crisis and work towards peace and calm in South Lebanon."

(Photo credit: X account of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers/@grandserail)

"After handing over the second group of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the convoy was "stopped in Khan Younis," in the south of the Gaza Strip, "and was unable to leave for Rafah," the crossing point to Egypt, a source close to Hamas told AFP.

Israeli army chief of staff Herzl Halevi said that after the ceasefire, the troops will resume operations in the Gaza Strip with the aim of dismantling Hamas, according to Haaretz.

"The ceasefire would not have taken place without the pressure exerted by the Israeli army. We have neither the intention nor the desire nor the will to stop these efforts until we have brought back all the hostages," added the senior officer.

He said that the army was taking advantage of the halt in fighting to prepare. "We will return to create immense pressure to bring back as many hostages as quickly as possible, until they are all released," he concluded.

BREAKING: The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas said that it had decided to delay the second round of hostage releases until Israel is committed to letting aid trucks enter northern Gaza, according to Reuters.

Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades added that the hostage releases would be delayed if Israel does not adhere to the agreed terms for the release of Palestinian "prisoners."

BREAKING: The hostages due to return to Israel today have been transferred to the Red Cross, the Israeli army said, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

A Hamas source quoted by AFP said that 14 Israeli hostages were being handed over to the Red Cross.

Palestinians leaving northern Gaza walk along the Salaheddine road leading to the south of the Strip, on the second day of the current truce between Israel and Hamas. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)

A Qatari delegation visited Israel to discuss a possible extension of the truce and met with Israeli officials to ensure that hostage releases and the truce continue smoothly, said an official briefed on the visit, according to Reuters.

BREAKING: United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says one of their patrols was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Lebanon with no casualties, according to a statement. 

L’Orient Today visited the home of a family in Dhayra today whose house was badly damaged from the explosion of an Israeli shell.

“My car was attacked by a phosphorus bomb, that is banned [against civilians] internationally. This house doesn't have fighters; this is a civilian car,” a young 20-something man told L’Orient Today’s Olivia Le Poidevin. He did not give his name due to fear for his safety.

At the entrance to the house lies the remains of the car, black ash on the ground and broken windows in the adjacent house. He and his family fled to safety immediately after the strike on Oct. 9.

Today, he and his family have come back to the village to benefit from the four day truce. They found that the house was partially damaged along with his solar panels.

“When we came back to our village, everything had changed. Some people in our village came back and found their homes inhabitable … we will leave again if there isn’t an extension of the ceasefire…”

(Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

Egypt said today that it had received positive signals from all parties over a possible extension of the Gaza truce for one or two days, according to a statement by Head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) Diaa Rashwan. 

The statement added that the country was holding extensive talks with all parties to reach an agreement over extending the four-day truce, which "means the release of more detainees in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

A Polish citizen was among hostages released from Gaza, Poland's foreign ministry said on Saturday, as it welcomed news of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to Reuters.

"We welcome the information about the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which allowed the release of the first group of hostages, including a Polish citizen, and increased supplies of humanitarian aid to the enclave," the ministry said in a statement.

"At the same time, Poland continues to firmly demand that Israel consent to the safe departure from the Gaza Strip by other Polish citizens."

Destroyed buildings lay in ruin in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, during the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, Nov. 25, 2023. (Credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Khalil Mohammad Ibrahim, a Syrian worker living in the southern town of Dhayra, tells L'Orient Today's reporter in south Lebanon, Lyana Alameddine, that he had left the south with his family when the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah started the day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Speaking to our reporter after he tried to go back to the south to get his belongings this morning, he says that he "couldn’t handle it [the security situation] anymore."

"With the truce, I thought there was an opening to get my stuff and leave. We thought it was going to be calm. But it wasn’t. The sound of the MK [Israeli drone] was ongoing and then we heard a boom. Some people started leaving [the village] once this happened,” he explains.

Image: (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

"There are many violations of the agreement on the part of Israel," the adviser to the head of Hamas's political bureau, Taher al-Nunu, tells Al Jazeera, in a televised interview on Saturday. "We are open to proposals from mediators and are ready to examine proposals for new deals," he adds.

Nunu's comments come as a Qatari delegation arrived in Israel to discuss possible developments in the deal for the release of hostages.

According to Nunu, Israel has not complied with the understandings related to the release of the prisoners and the entry of trucks with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. "If Israel does not commit to providing aid to northern Gaza, it threatens the entire agreement," he says, noting that "Israel also violated the agreement by having soldiers open fire in several locations [after the announcement of the temporary cease-fire], which led to the death of two Palestinians."

Image: A family home in Dhayra damaged by the explosion of a rocket on Oct. 9. Today, its inhabitants returned to check on their home and assess the extent of the damage. (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

As L'Orient Today's journalists drive away from the border, they stop to speak to a woman also traveling on the road to Sour. The woman, driving with her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter on her lap, says she has just come from Chehine. The moment she heard the "hit" she reports speeding off.

"I was afraid for my children," she says. She had returned to the area this morning and was planning to stay overnight to get her things. "I still don't know what happened, but I had to leave," she explains.

Olivia Le Poidevin, reporting from Dhayra, southern Lebanon: "The last photos I took before leaving were of this shell in Dhayra that had landed meters away from a house, near an olive grove. We don’t know on what date the shell fell — whether it was one or two weeks ago.

"While taking this photo I heard a loud booming sound. I immediately turned off the camera and ran to our car. Today is a reminder that the truce is as tense as it is fragile. Many villagers thought today and the following two days of the truce would be a rare moment of calm. But as my colleagues, Lyana Alameddine and Lucile Wassermann, and I experienced first hand, that precarious calm can soon turn to panic."

Update from our team in southern Lebanon: "We have had to leave the area due to safety. While we were reporting in Dhayra we heard alarm sirens sound, followed by a booming sound and what sounded like an explosion. Immediately, we ran back to our car and took to the road. We were joined by a number of cars — seemingly villagers who were visiting their homes to benefit from the truce — who also immediately took the road to get to safety."

BREAKING: A Lebanese Army source has confirmed to our reporter in southern Lebanon, Lyana Alameddine, that two missiles from the Israeli "Iron Dome" air defense system exploded in the air at the border with Lebanon at around 1 p.m., but that no rocket fire from Lebanon was reported.

However, an Israeli army spokesman, quoted by Haaretz, claims that a "suspicious target" from Lebanon entered Israeli territory and was intercepted by the Israeli army. Earlier, Haaretz reported the sounding of alarm sirens in northern Israel. Our journalist also heard these sirens from southern Lebanon.

Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, a Hezbollah spokesman said the party had not fired any missiles against Israel today. A spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told our publication that he had no information on any bombing raids between Lebanon and Israel.

A limited Qatari delegation has arrived in Israel to advance the deal for hostage-prisoner exchanges and to ensure the terms agreed so far are realized, Haaretz reports. The Israeli media outlet cites a visiting diplomat as saying that "part of the Qatari mission team arrived for a visit designed to coordinate between the parties in the field and their counterparts in Doha to ensure that the deal continues to progress smoothly and to discuss more details about the ongoing deal."

A farmer from the southern border town of Kafr Kila was shot at while working in an olive grove he owns in the southern town of al-Wazani, the head of the municipality of Kafr Kila, Hassan Sheet, told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south, Muntasser Abdallah. Sheet said the shots originated from an Israeli location opposite al-Wazani. Several bullets hit the farmer's utility vehicle, but the farmer was not injured, according to Sheet. The head of the municipality added that a Lebanese Army patrol evacuated the farmer from the area back to the town of Kfar Kila.

In the village of Dhayra the Lebanese army is in the process of trying to clear a road where there was an Israeli strike, our reporter Olivia Le Poidevin tells us, adding that the army officials present on the ground say the munition that struck the road was a phosphorus shell. The army officials declined to give their names for security reasons.

"I can see the remains of the shell lying in the grass. In the middle of the road, there is a shallow hole. It is believed this shell was dropped around Oct. 8," she reports.

Image: (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

Image: A boy looks on as Palestinians gather to buy fuel amid fuel shortages during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 25, 2023.  (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Egyptian security sources say they have received from Hamas a list of 14 hostages to be released today, Reuters reports.

As an agreed four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war holds for now, our journalist Lisa Goursaud takes time to consider the question millions around the world have been asking: Is it a genocide? Click here to read her article. 

Image: A protester holds up a "Stop Genocide" sign during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine, held in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 29, 2023. (Credit: AFP)

A small group of people has come to pay their respects today at the site in Tayr Harfa (Sour district) where Al-Mayadeen journalists Farah Omar and Rabih Maamari were killed by an Israeli strike on Tuesday. Nearby, a bouquet of roses has been left to mark the site of the attack. Overhead, an Israeli MK-type drone is circling. The distinct hum fills the otherwise quiet village, where most shops are closed and only a handful of people venture onto the streets, our reporters Lyana Alameddine, Olivia Le Poidevin and Lucile Wassermann, who are in the area, tell us.

Image: (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

For the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, some villagers who fled south Lebanon are going back to check on their homes. L'Orient Today's reporters Olivia Le Poidevin, Lyana Alameddine and Lucile Wassermann are in southern Lebanon, reporting on their return.

Abbas, who lives in Tayr Harfa, where Al-Mayadeen journalists Farah Omar and Rabih al-Maamari were killed in an Israeli strike earlier this week, tells L'Orient Today that his house is close to where the Israeli missile struck, adding that he fled the area in October after the first few days of the fighting. Today he has come back to check on his home. Describing the situation as difficult, he said he is only comfortable returning to the area because of the ongoing four-day truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Image: (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)

Meanwhile, AFP cites an Israeli official source as saying Hamas will release 14 hostages today.

Israeli authorities say 42 Palestinian prisoners are to be released today under the Israel-Hamas truce deal, AFP reports.

Image: Men carry empty gas canisters to be filled with cooking gas from a tank that entered the Palestinian enclave via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 25, 2023. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)

Hezbollah-affiliated news channel Al-Mayadeen reports that an Israeli cargo ship was attacked in the northern Indian Ocean overnight from Thursday into Friday, a few hours before an agreed four-day cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war began. The Associated Press (AP), meanwhile, cites a US defense official as saying that a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean as Israel waged war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The defense official, who allegedly spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity, reportedly said the "Malta-flagged vessel was suspected to have been targeted by a triangle-shaped, bomb-carrying Shahed-136 drone while in international waters. The drone exploded, causing damage to the ship but not injuring any of its crew."

“We continue to monitor the situation closely,” the official said, according to AP. The official also allegedly declined to explain why the US military believed Iran was behind the attack, AP reports.

The Schneider Children's Medical Center in Israel issued a statement this morning saying that the four women and four children released yesterday by Hamas who are being treated at the facility are in good medical condition, the Israeli news outlet Haaretz reports.

Thailand's prime minister has taken to social media to urge the release of all innocent Thai hostages as soon as possible, Reuters reports.

The World Health Organization has voiced concern about the fate of the head of Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital, whom Israeli forces detained over the facility's alleged use by Hamas. Click here for more. 

Image: An image grab from a file handout video released by the Hamas Media Office, shows doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, giving a press briefing on Nov. 1, 2023 regarding the repercussions of fuel shortages on the hospital. (Credit: HAMAS MEDIA OFFICE / AFP)

The armed conflict in Gaza and southern Lebanon was the focus of a telephone conversation yesterday evening between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the Russian President for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced in a statement. Bogdanov reportedly expressed Russia's view that the conflict should not be allowed to extend into Lebanese territory.

Alarm sirens sounded in northern Israel on the border with Lebanon early this morning due to the launch of an nterceptor missile toward a suspicious aerial target, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, citing the Israeli army.

However, a security source told our correspondent in south Lebanon that no rocket was fired from Lebanon against Israel this morning and that the shot came from Israeli anti-aircraft defense.

According to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA), an interceptor missile exploded over Mays al-Jabal and Blida, in the Marjayoun district, at around 2:30 a.m. The NNA did not report any damage or casualties as a result of the explosion, and did not specify the origin of the missile strike.

Commenting yesterday evening on the truce and prisoner and hostage exchange, US President Joe Biden said: "It's just the beginning, but so far it's going well." He added that there are "real chances" of extending the truce. “In the coming days, we expect dozens of hostages to be reunited with their families,” he said.

The Israeli army considers the northern third of the Palestinian enclave, where Gaza City is located, a combat zone and has ordered all civilians to leave. “Returning to the north is prohibited and very dangerous!!!” warn leaflets distributed in southern Gaza. Despite this warning, several thousand Palestinians attempted to reach northern Gaza yesterday, according to OCHA. The UN agency responsible for the coordination of humanitarian affairs added that at least one person was killed and several dozen injured in incidents with Israeli forces, who opened fire and threw tear gas at Palestinians heading north, AFP reports.

The truce should allow the entry of a greater number of humanitarian aid convoys into the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to an Israeli blockade since Hamas came to power in 2007 and under a "complete siege" since Oct. 9 when Israel cut off supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine and fuel.

On Friday, 200 trucks loaded with aid entered Gaza, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry's department responsible for civil affairs in Gaza. This is the "largest humanitarian convoy" since the start of the war, according to OCHA, the UN agency responsible for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, AFP reports.

In the occupied West Bank, scenes of jubilation accompanied the return of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, such as in Beitunia or further north, in the Nablus refugee camp.

Image: Fatima Amarneh's family welcomes her near Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on Friday night after her release by Israel as part of a deal with Hamas. (Credit: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

Qatar is due to announce how many hostages and prisoners are to be released today. Israeli authorities say they have received the list but have not specified the number or the expected time of their release, AFP reports.

"There are approximately 215 hostages remaining in Gaza," Israeli army spokesman Doron Spielman said. "We don't know, in many cases, whether they are dead or alive," he added.

Among the remaining hostages are another 20 Thai nationals, the Thai Foreign Ministry said today, adding that it hopes they "will be treated humanely and released unharmed as soon as possible."

A two-minute video released by Hamas yesterday showed masked fighters, armed with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of the movement's armed wing, handing over the hostages to the International Red Cross.

These first 24 hostages (13 Israelis, 10 Thais and one Filipino) then arrived in Israel via Egypt. Israel meanwhile released 39 Palestinians detained in its prisons.

Image: Credit: Alex mita/Hamas MEDIA OFFICE/AFP

Further releases of Hamas hostages and Palestinian prisoners are expected today, AFP reports.

The four-day, renewable truce, obtained on Wednesday by Qatar with the support of the United States and Egypt, provides for the release of 50 hostages held in the Gaza Strip and 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.

Good morning,

We are with you again with live coverage as the 50th day of the conflict between Hamas and Israel gets underway. This morning, a four-day truce, which began yesterday morning, is continuing to hold in both Gaza and southern Lebanon.