Eleven hostages arrive in Israel; truce extended by two days: Day 52 of the Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage on day 52 of the Hamas-Israel war.

You can read a summary of today's events here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis right here at L'Orient Today.

The extension to the truce means that 20 more hostages in Gaza will be released in return for the the freeing of 60 Palestinians from Israeli detention, says Majed Al Ansar, spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an interview with Al Jazeera, confirming that the exchange will continue along the lines of the initial agreement -- three Palestinians for every one hostage.

“We have from Hamas a confirmation now that 20 extra hostages will be released in the next two days,” Ansar says, meaning 10 are expected to be released tomorrow and 10 the following day.

“On the Palestinian side, that would mean that … 60 Palestinians will be released from Israeli prisons.” Ansari added that humanitarian aid will continue to be delivered to the enclave, and the temporary cease-fire will continue to be in effect.

The Israeli military says that the Red Cross has confirmed 11 hostages are on their way to Israeli territory after being released by Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reports.

French, German and Argentinian dual nationals are among the 11 hostages to be freed by Hamas tonight in exchange for 33 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, says Qatar, according to an AFP report.

On "the fourth day of the humanitarian truce agreement, 33 Palestinian civilians will be released today in exchange for the release of 11 Israeli detainees from Gaza," Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari says in a post on X.

"Those released from Israeli prisons include 30 minors and three women, while the Israelis released from Gaza include three French citizens, two German citizens, and six Argentinian citizens," he added.

Palestinians transport belongings on cart through the rain in Gaza City on Nov. 27, 2023, on the fourth day of a truce between Israel and Hamas. (Credit: Omar El-Qattaa/AFP)

“Lebanon does not want or seek war,” says the caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib. The comments were posted on the official X account of the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs during Mr Habib's visit to the Union Forum for the Mediterranean in Barcelona, Spain today.

Bou Habib also called for “Israeli officials to stop the threats to destroy Lebanon and the daily and repeated military violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

Hamas has handed over the fourth group of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, which is managing their transfer out of the enclave, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing Egyptian officials.

Haaretz is reporting that today's group of freed hostages will include six Thai citizens, citing reports on the Egyptian Al-Cairo TV channel.

The dialysis department at al-Shifa Hospital is functioning again, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the enclave, was besieged by the Israeli army on Nov. 11, then raided four days later. Several areas of the hospital compound were damaged including the oxygen station. The army withdrew from the hospital following the truce agreement that started on Friday, Nov. 24. 

The health ministry called on dialysis patients in Gaza City and the northern areas of Gaza to go to al-Shifa Hospital tomorrow in order to receive treatment.

A released Palestinian prisoner kisses the hand of a relative as he is received by his family in his house in Jerusalem, amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, Nov. 27, 2023. (Credit: Jamal Awad/Reuters)

The United Nations chief hails the two-day extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as a "glimpse of hope," AFP reports.

"It's a glimpse of hope and humanity in the middle of the darkness of war and I strongly hope that these will enable us to increase even more the humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza that is suffering so much," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. Without more time, "it will be impossible to satisfy all the dramatic needs of the population in Gaza."

Forty trucks of humanitarian aid were able to enter the north of Gaza today, says the Palestine Red Crescent Society in a post on X.

The PRCS teams delivering the aid passed through the Israeli checkpoint that dissects the besieged Strip -- the same checkpoint at which PRCS ambulance teams were detained last week while trying to deliver wounded patients from the north to the south of the Strip.

The White House “welcomes” the extension of the truce in Gaza, says its spokesperson, John Kirby.

Washington says it wants the pause to be extended further, but "that will depend on the release of additional hostages by Hamas," Kirby says.

Hamas says it has located more Israeli hostages in Gaza, according to a member of Hamas' political bureau, Izzat Arshak, who Haaretz says has been speaking on Qatar's al-Arabi channel this evening.

He reportedly said that Hamas is willing to negotiate the release of Israeli soldiers being held hostage by the group, but he clarified that these discussions have not yet started, and that it will be a separate negotiation to that regarding the release of civilians.

Hamas has received the list of names of Palestinian detainees to be released from Israeli prisons tonight, according to a statement from the militant Palestinian group on its Telegram channel.

The list includes three female prisoners whom it named, and another 30 minors the movement said it would identify later on.

An Israeli official confirms the agreement with Hamas to extend the current cease-fire by two days in exchange for releasing 20 more hostages, Haaretz reports.

Earlier Hamas said the extension will be according to the same terms of the agreement reached four days ago -- this would mean Israel freeing three times the number of hostages Hamas frees from Gaza.

Our reporters Olivia Le Poidevin, Lyana Alameddine, and Lucile Wassermann were in southern Lebanon during the first four days of the ongoing truce between Israel, Hamas, and by extension, Hezbollah. They witnessed the impact of several weeks of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel on border villages. Here's what they saw.

The White House confirms that Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to extend cease-fire by two days, Reuters reports.

The US Department of Defense says that Sunday's attempted hijacking of an Israeli-linked commercial vessel appears to have been carried out by Somali pirates and not Yemen's Houthi rebel group, Reuters reports.

On Sunday, a US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals. The vessel is now safe. Last week, an Israeli-linked cargo ship was seized by Houthi rebels, in the southern Red Sea.

Hamas confirms having reached "an agreement with Qatari and Egyptian counterparts for an extension of the temporary humanitarian cease-fire, which will be for an additional two days with the same conditions as the previous cease-fire," in a statement on their official Telegram channel.

A reminder of the current conditions agreed to by Hamas and Israel for the truce and hostage-prisoner swap:

One hostage is freed by Hamas in exchange for the release of three Palestinians detained in Israel. So far 39 hostages were handed over to Israel in exchange for 117 Palestinian detainees. It appears that the conditions of the extended truce will stay the same as before, according to Reuters.

BREAKING: The Israel-Hamas cease-fire has officially been extended for two more days, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry -- key mediators of the ongoing negotiations between the waring sides.

Hamas also confirms that they agreed with Qatar and Egypt on the extension, and are preparing a list of hostages to be released over the next two days. 

Efforts are ongoing to extend Gaza truce for two more days, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Reuters reports.

There are "positive messages" from both parties regarding the extension of the truce, as stated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

On this fourth day of the truce, which will be the last should the extension not occur, 11 Israeli hostages are expected to be released, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Israeli army radio.

"The French medical aid ship Dixmude has arrived in Egypt," according to a source at the port there, speaking to AFP.

French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the Dixmude's mission would be to "treat the most severe cases and facilitate the consideration of wounded civilians to be treated in nearby hospitals if necessary."

As many as 900 children have undergone amputations as a result of the war, says British-Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, who travelled from the UK to work with Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Gaza.

“On one night at al-Ahli Hospital, I performed amputations on six children," Abu Sitta said in a press conference in Westminster, London, earlier today.

Update: Today's operation to free hostages from Gaza is facing some obstacles, one of which is that the list presented does not include the names of any mothers, Haaretz reports, citing statements by Israeli sources speaking to CNN.

Thirteen-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani is one of the hostages who was released on Saturday night. She was taken along with her mother, who remains captive in Gaza. The teenager says that she and her mother were held hostage together until they were separated two days before the release. This goes against the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas: that families would not be separated -- meaning relatives would be released simultaneously, unless they are soldiers. Hamas claims they are not holding all family members connected to the children due to be released today.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres pushes for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas instead of a temporary one, Reuters reports.

"The dialogue that led to the agreement must continue, resulting in a full humanitarian ceasefire, for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and the wider region," Guterres' says in a statement.

"The United Nations will continue to support these efforts in every possible way."

In a statement on their official Telegram channel, Hamas condemns a report released earlier today by Human Rights Watch regarding the Oct. 17 explosion at al-Ahli Hospital, determining that it was likely caused by a rocket that misfired. The report stopped short of assigning any blame.

"The report attributed the responsibility for the airstrikes to the factions of the resistance without providing any clear material evidence to support this conclusion. Despite numerous international investigations confirming the occupation's responsibility for the targeting, the report overlooks the systematic policy of targeting hospitals across Gaza, a fact well-documented before the world," Hamas says.

The statement from Hamas also explains that the report's credibility is "weakened by its lack of access to the field, failure to gather evidence, meet witnesses, or listen to reports from relevant authorities."

For their part, the NGO acknowledges that it “was not able to go to the scene” and was “not able to conclusively identify” the remains of the fired projectile, “however, various factors – the noise preceding the explosion, the fireball triggered, the size of the resulting crater, the type of traces on the ground, and the type and pattern of fragmentation visible around the crater – are consistent all with the impact of a rocket," the report noted. Read more here.

"We demand that the organization review its report and await the end of the aggression. We welcome them to visit Gaza for a direct investigation into the incident," Hamas concluded in the statement.

Palestinians in northern Gaza move southward on the fourth day of truce. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Hamas militants stand by vehicles as they hand over hostages who were abducted during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip. (Credit: Hamas Military Wing via Reuters)

Russia condemns Israeli air strikes on Damascus international airport, calling them "provocative and dangerous," Reuters reports.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday's strikes could aggravate tensions in the region, already inflamed by the war in Gaza. "We strongly condemn Israel's latest provocative attack on an important Syrian civilian facility," Zakharova said in a statement.

"We are convinced that this vicious practice is full of extremely dangerous consequences, especially in the context of a marked worsening of the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict zone and the resulting increase in regional tension."

Emergency coordinator for Doctor's Without Borders (MSF), Nicholas Papachrysostomou, entered Gaza Friday with a team sent to provide humanitarian aid during the temporary cease-fire. In a post on X, MSF shares a clip of Papachrysostomou describing what he has seen. "There is no gas and without gas nothing can move. You can't cook food, the [water treatment] plants do not function." He says there are displaced people everywhere, and "it's incredible to think that lives vanish in a second here."

“The density of the population is incredible,” Papachrysostomou adds. “The mental health of the people is difficult to decipher.”

The first day the MSF team arrived, 750 came for check-ups, he says. The Doctors Without Borders team was able to see only a quarter of them.

Since Oct. 7, at least 215 Palestinians, including 55 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"What's happening in Gaza is within the realm of the legal definition of genocide," says Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi, in Reuters report. 

"We all agreed international humanitarian law should be respected, that displacement is not acceptable, that that there should be no more killings," he says. "Some among us are still refusing to call for a ceasefire. We demand it be implemented immediately."

A Palestinian pushes a man in a wheelchair while people fleeing north Gaza move southward during a temporary truce.(Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Eylon Levy, Israeli government spokesperson, says that Hamas is aware of Israel’s willingness to extend the truce in return for the release of 50 more captives held in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera's reporting of a press conference.

Levy added that 184 Israelis are still detained in the Gaza Strip.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged for the continuation of dialogue between Hamas and Israel that led to the current humanitarian truce in the hopes of reaching a full cease-fire "for the benefit of the people of Gaza," the UN head's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says in a statement.

While commending the efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the US in bringing about the cease-fire and the Red Cross for the role it has played in transporting the prisoners, Guterres continued to call for the release of all the hostages being held in Gaza and for the fighting to come to an end.

"He urges all States to use their influence to end this tragic conflict and support irreversible steps towards the only sustainable future for the region: a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side, in peace and security," the spokesperson says.

Egypt, Qatar and the US are close to finalizing an agreement that would extend the cease-fire in Gaza before it expires on Monday, Egyptian security sources tell Reuters.

According to the sources, the three countries were discussing how long the extended truce should last as well as which prisoners would be released under such an agreement. Hamas is seeking another four-day truce while Israel is insisting on taking it day by day.

Hamas had previously expressed its intention to extend the cease-fire while Israel has said that it was open to an extension but that its military campaign would continue at some point, even if an extension was agreed upon.

Palestinians fleeing north Gaza move southward as ambulances head towards north Gaza during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, near Gaza City, Nov. 27, 2023. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Since the start of the truce between Hamas and Israel, the Palestinian Red Crescent has delivered 150 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza City and other areas in the north of the Palestinian enclave, according to a statement from one of its spokespeople, Nebal Farsakh, on CNN, whose comments which were also relayed on X (formerly Twitter)

According to the organization's count, more than 2,000 trucks have been transported into the Gaza Strip since Oct. 21, when the Rafah border crossing began to reopen intermittently. 

UN human rights experts on Monday called for independent investigations into "allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity" by all parties since the Oct. 7 attack launched by Hamas in Israel, reports AFP.

In a statement, Morris Tidball-Binz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture, stress the need for these investigations to be "prompt, transparent and independent."

These experts are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the organization.

One of the hostages released on Sunday, Roni Kriboy, was able to briefly escape captivity prior to his release by Hamas as part of a prisoner swap deal, his relatives say, according to Reuters.

Kriboy, who holds dual Russian-Israeli citizenship, was a surprise addition to the prisoner exchange on Sunday which consisted of women and children and was included, according to Hamas, as a show of gratitude to Russia which has been engaging with the group throughout the seven-week conflict.

According to his aunt, Kriboy was able to briefly escape from Hamas after the building that he was being held in was damaged by an explosion.

"He managed to escape and to hide out, alone, for four days. He tried to reach the border," she stated.

He was eventually recaptured.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured with billionaire Elon Musk Kibbutz Kfar Azza this morning which suffered heavy losses in Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, Haaretz reports.

Musk was also presented with testimonies from the attack that took place at the kibbutz by Netanyahu and also received a briefing from Yossi Keren, head of the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls for an extension of the truce in the Gaza Strip, according to AFP

The village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district) has regained a semblance of tranquility since the start of the truce concluded between Hamas and Israel.

A large part of the population of southern Lebanon has fled villages located near the border with Israel, due to the incessant exchanges of fire which have taken place mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stayed away from these fighting.

(Photo Olivia Le Poidevin)

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who hosted Elon Musk on Monday, announced that Israel and Musk had reached an agreement in principle according to which "Starlink satellite units can only be operated in Israel with the approval of the ministry Israeli Communications, including in the Gaza Strip."

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a member of Hezbollah's central council, said Monday that the "resistance has imposed a battle" inside Israel for the first time.

“We are fighting the enemy in the South [of Lebanon] and bombing the [Israeli] interior. The same goes for the resistance in Gaza and for Ansar Allah [in Yemen]. This is a first,” he said, during a ceremony in Haris, in tribute to one of his fighters who died during clashes with the Jewish state in recent days.

“When we fight Israel, we are also fighting a decision by the United States,” added Sheikh Kaouk, who also mentioned attacks on American bases in Iraq.

“Israeli ships do not dare to pass through the Red Sea, for fear of being bombed or kidnapped, but they feel safe in the Gulf ports,” he also quipped.

The Israeli army has decided to extend its operations to the south of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is in a much better position, as soon as the truce ends, according to Haaretz.

The Israeli army is striving to maintain the position it occupied on the eve of the truce while avoiding violations of the agreement and plans to resume operations in the northern Gaza Strip once the ceasefire ends. the fire ended.

The army, however, seeks to prevent Gazans from moving north.

In the first hours after the ceasefire began, soldiers repeatedly shot at Palestinians attempting to move north of the Gaza River. Since then, it has adopted measures to prevent Gazans from moving north.

The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called on Monday for an extension of the truce in the Gaza Strip, which is due to end on Tuesday, with a view to working on a "political solution" to the conflict, according to the AFP.

This truce, which is an "important first step," "must be extended" and "become lasting to allow us to work towards a political solution," he said at the start of a meeting of the Union Forum for the Mediterranean in Barcelona.

The Palestinian Authority Prisoners' Commission accuses the Israeli army of having arrested around a hundred Gazans and says it fears the worst for these Palestinians whose location or identity Israel has revealed neither the charges against them.

“Israel has not announced how many people it had arrested during its operations in Gaza,” bombed by its army in response to the deadly Hamas attack on October 7 which left, according to the Israeli authorities, 1,200 dead on its soil, the majority of them civilians, Qadura Fares, head of the commission, told AFP.

“We fear that they were killed after being arrested and interrogated,” he continues, claiming to have “obtained once [from Israel] during the war the number of 105 arrests but without any details on the fate of these persons."

“The absence of numbers and communication suggests that it is possible that Israel could do what it wants with them, even kill them,” he said, asserting that he had requested information from the Israeli authorities in vain.

Israeli authorities arrested at least 56 Palestinians on Monday during raids on their homes in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number of Palestinians detained since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel to 3,260, according to several sources cited by the state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The arrests took place in Hebron, Ramallah, as well as several surrounding areas. 

The head of Chinese diplomacy Wang Yi will travel to New York this week for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Monday, reports AFP.

“As it holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month, China will hold a high-level meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue on Nov. 29,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, adding that Wang Yi would chair the meeting in person.

Last week, China welcomed the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, which entered its final day on Monday.

The area of contention that has arisen between Hamas and Israel over the prisoner swap has to do with six prisoners who were arrested prior to the Oct. 7 attacks, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

Hamas is pursuing a "seniority principle" that seeks to have the prisoners who have been held the longest released first. One of the people that Hamas is seeking to have released is Nafooz Hammad, 16, from Sheikh Jarrah who was arrested for attempted murder after she stabbed an Israeli woman who was living nearby. Despite being arrested two years ago, she was only sentenced to 12 years in prison last week.

Qatar is working with Hamas and the Israelis to resolve the issue so that there are no delays to the prisoner swap today.

BREAKING: Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah announces that his party is going to start to pay compensation for those who are "directly affected" by the Israeli bombings in border villages, according to a statement by the party.

During a party event, Fadlallah said that while the skirmishes in the south were happening, Hezbollah was working to assess the damages in order to provide support with "as many resources as we have."

Several hundred million square meters of Palestinian land containing olive trees have yet to be harvested due to the increasing settler violence in the West Bank and a growing lack of access to their land, Lynne Elizabeth Hastings, deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and United Nations resident coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territory, posts on X (formerly Twitter)

"At the end of November, an estimated 800,000 dunums (800 million square meters) of Palestinian land with olive trees have not been harvested due to Israeli settler violence and access restrictions. Many families who rely on the olive harvest risk losing their income for the entire year," she says.

Palestinians drive a motorcycle past the destroyed building of the Islamic University in Gaza City on Nov. 26, 2023, on the third day of a truce between Israel and Hamas. Israel faces mounting pressure to extend a four-day pause in its war against Hamas, but military officials fear that a longer truce risks blunting its efforts to rout the Islamist movement. (Credit: Omar El-Qattaa/AFP)

Qatar is working to overcome an impasse after both Hamas and Israel raised concerns about the lists of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners set to be released on Monday, Reuters reports, speaking with an official brief on the matter.

According to the official, Qatar is speaking with both sides to resolve the issue and avoid any delays to the prisoner swap.

The Israeli army yesterday evening, at 8 p.m., lightly shelled an area around the south Lebanon border village of Marwahin in Sour district, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti tells L'Orient Today, adding that the target was unidentified.

Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, told The Financial Times that Hamas needs to locate the hostages being held by other groups and civilians in Gaza if they hope to extend the cease-fire, according to Haaretz.

According to the Prime Minister, there are over 40 women and children being held hostage that are not in Hamas's hands.

He also took aim at Israel's goal of "eliminating Hamas" in Gaza, calling it "unrealistic."

"In the end, the destruction of Hamas through the continuation of this war will never happen. It will only fuel the narrative of extremism and radicalization," said Al-Thani. "We need a political solution that ensures the security of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people," he added.

Be sure to read today's edition of the Morning Brief to make sure that you are caught up on everything that has been going on.

Southern Lebanese return during truce, plan for emergency response schools, Le Drian's fourth visit to Beirut: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

Southern Lebanese return during truce, plan for emergency response schools, Le Drian's fourth visit to Beirut: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of day 52 of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza as the temporary truce between the two sides enters its fourth and final day.