Hamas not satisfied with Israel's proposals for truce extension: Day 54 of the Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage from day 54 of the Israel-Hamas 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.

A Hamas source says, hours before a truce in fighting with Israel is set to expire, that the Palestinian militant group is not satisfied with Israel's proposals for another extension.

"What is being proposed in the discussions to extend the truce is not the best," the source told AFP, adding that the talks were focused on an extension of "two days or more" of the pause which has seen daily exchanges of hostages for Palestinian detainees and aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

BREAKING: A senior Hamas official says the Islamist movement is ready to release all the Israeli soldiers it is holding captive in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, reports AFP.

Hamas official and former Gaza Health Minister Bassem Naim says the group is undergoing "hard negotiations" to extend a cessation of hostilities that was scheduled to end early tomorrow (Thursday) after a six-day pause in fighting.

"We are ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners," Naim told a press conference in Cape Town, during a visit to South Africa.

Adam al-Ghoul, eight years old, and Bassem Abu el-Wafa, 15 years old, were identified as the two children shot and killed by the Israeli army in Jenin, occupied West Bank, earlier today, according to a report by the AFP.

Also today, the Israeli army arrested 12-year-old Karim Ghawanmeh in the Jalazone refugee camp in Ramallah, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group says. Karim is now the youngest Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention.

Karim's family received a phone call at dawn from the Israeli army, telling them to hand Karim over immediately. “When we woke Karim up, he immediately started vomiting out of fear," his brother said in an interview with Middle East Eye. "He still sleeps next to his toys. We are still in great shock"

Read more here.

Hamas has handed over the sixth group of Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a source close to Hamas tells AFP.

Every evening since Friday, a dozen Israeli hostages, all women and children, were released by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In return, three times as many Palestinians, also women and young people under 19, were released from Israeli jails.

Two female hostages of Russian nationality released earlier this evening have arrived in Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, Egyptian state media Al-Qahera News reports.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Yelena Trupanov, 50, and Irena Tati, 73, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by Hamas, which also confirmed the transfer.

On Sunday, Hamas also released another Israeli-Russian, 25-year-old Ron Krivoi, in gratitude for Vladimir Putin's "support for the Palestinian cause."

A Red Cross vehicle drives through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, during the release of hostages this evening. (Credit: AFP)

The two Israeli-Russian hostages released today as "tribute to Putin" are 50-year-old Elena Trupanov and her 73-year-old mother Irena Tatti, Haaretz reports.

Two Israeli hostages were transferred to the Red Cross and are on their way to Israeli territory, according to a statement on the official IDF Telegram channel, siting information provided to them directly from the Red Cross. 

"Their release is in addition to the list of hostages that are scheduled to be released today," the statement adds.

Israel is "ready to resume fighting immediately," says Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a "situation assessment" along with top Israeli security officials today, Haaretz reports. Gallant added that the Israeli military is "doing all in its power to return all the hostages" held by Hamas.

BREAKING: The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement says that it has handed over a number of civilian hostages as part today's exchange deal with Israel, Reuters reports.

BREAKING: The Israeli army opens fire above Lebanese army soldiers in the village of Yaroun, without any casualties, a source at the Lebanese Army tells L'Orient Today. This is the third attack against the Lebanese army today. Earlier today, the Israeli army open fired above Lebanese army soldiers in the southern Lebanon border villages of Aitaroun and Houla, again without casualties.

Five premature babies were found dead at a hospital in Gaza City, the Gaza Health Ministry says, according to a report from AFP. The ministry's spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that Israeli soldiers had blocked access to the intensive care unit at Al-Nasr pediatric facility, and doctors were finally "able to get into the ward on Tuesday night."

There, Qudra said, "the occupation forces left five premature babies" who were found "partly decomposed ... The soldiers forbade the families from going near" the newborns until yesterday.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it was unable to immediately comment on the matter.

In the weeks leading up to Friday's truce, several hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip were besieged and raided by the Israeli army. Al-Shifa, Gazas largest hospital, was one of these hospitals. Thirty-nine premature babies being treated there made news headlines when their lives were put in limbo by the attacks. Eight of the infants died due to a lack of electricity to run their incubators and due to the oxygen station at the hospital being damaged.

Israeli soldiers deployed on the southern border with the Gaza Strip today gather for a briefing next to battle tanks, as the truce between Israel and Hamas enters a sixth day. The deal was extended on Monday to allow further releases of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees. (Credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP)

France is once again condemning the violence committed against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling on Israel "to put an end to it" and punish the perpetrators, AFP reports.

"We reiterate our very firm condemnation of this violence and our concern at the increase in it," said Anne-Claire Legendre, spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry. "We call on Israel to put an end to it, we call on Israel to prosecute the perpetrators of these abuses," she continued, adding that the international community also has "a role to play."

These atrocities "are profoundly destabilizing for the region and undermine the prospects of the two-state solution," she stressed, adding that France was not ruling out "any option," referring to the possibility of imposing sanctions against individuals or groups of settlers.

The United States is imposing sanctions on over twenty individuals and entities involved in a "financial facilitation network" that benefits: Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, according to a statement from the US State Department.

The statement claims that Iran’s commodity sales, carried out through a network of foreign-based front companies, provide revenue which in turn allows the regime to continue its support for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The Iranian regime uses this illicit revenue to support conflict and spread terror throughout the Middle East. The United States will continue to disrupt Iran’s funding support for terrorists," the statement added.

Jordan will host an international conference on the coordination of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday, Reuters reports. NGOs and representatives of Arab and foreign governments are expected to attend.

"A truce in Gaza is not enough. We need a ceasefire," says Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal ben Farhane at the UN Security Council meeting currently underway.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi calls for a comprehensive, lasting ceasefire in Gaza, addressing the ongoing UN Security Council meeting in New York today, Reuters reports. Wang says that resumed fighting in Gaza could "turn into a calamity that devours the whole region," and that China will provide further emergency humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki tells the UN Security Council that the Palestinian people "are faced with an existential threat" amid the ongoing war with Israel, AFP reports.

"We are owed respect to our inherent dignity... Israel has no right to self-defense against a people that it occupies," he said.

A few dozen protestors from different leftist parties, including the Lebanese Communist Party, are protesting in front of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWAS) headquarters in Beirut, in solidarity with Palestine. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today)

The Israeli army says it is "verifying" Hamas's announcement of the death of a ten-month-old baby, the youngest of the hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, his mother and his 4-year-old brother, AFP reports. Hamas announced earlier that the three hostages were killed amidst the heavy Israeli bombardment that lasted for over a month before the current truce started.

The army is "verifying the veracity of the information" and its representatives have "spoken with the Bibas family," it said in a statement. "The responsibility for the safety of all hostages in the Gaza Strip lies with Hamas, which is endangering the lives of the hostages, including nine children. Hamas must return them immediately."

Oslo City Hall raised the Palestinian flag today in a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza, reports AFP. The initiative coincides with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, celebrated since 1978 at the request of the United Nations General Assembly.

"When we know that more than 5,000 children lost their lives, that's more than 275 school classes, it's natural to commemorate them," Oslo mayor Anne Lindboe told AFPTV on the sidelines of the event, which brought together a handful of pro-Palestinian activists, gathered together in chilly weather.

"It's very important to stress that Oslo must be a city for everyone, where our small Jewish minority as well as those with Palestinian origins must feel safe, considered, and integrated," she said.

Palestinians look out from a doorway following a raid by the Israeli army in Jenin, occupied West Bank, today. (Credit: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Gaza Strip is in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe, telling the world: "We must not look away."

"Intense negotiations are taking place to prolong the truce – which we strongly welcome – but we believe we need a true humanitarian ceasefire," he tells a meeting of the UN Security Council, chaired by China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Israel believes Hamas has enough women and children hostages to allow the current pause in fighting in Gaza to be extended by another two to three days, an official involved in the negotiating process tells Reuters.

"We know for a fact that there are additional hostages in the hands of Hamas for at least two more days, potentially three days from the list of women and children," says the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named.

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that the United States failed to eliminate Hezbollah, arguing that al-Aqsa Flood Operation changed the agenda of American policy in the region.

"They wanted to eliminate Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has become ten times stronger. They wanted to engulf Iraq, but didn't succeed. They wanted to take control of Syria ... but they failed," said Khamenei, in remarks reported on his official X account.

"Al-Aqsa Flood Operation has changed the agenda of American policies in the region. If it continues, it will erase that agenda," he added.

There is a "big Israeli invasion" in Jenin City and Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, says Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian politician and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, speaking to the BBC.

Barghouti says Israeli forces have "already destroyed two houses" and are "besieging many places." He says troops started by entering the two major hospitals in Jenin and then entered the camp, where they are "destroying infrastructure."

 A resident of Jenin camp confirmed to L'Orient Today that his area was under attack earlier this afternoon.

According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli military says it carried out an operation in Jenin refugee camp in which two senior "terror" operatives were killed.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, armed wing of Hamas, says the three hostages killed by Israeli bombardments while held captive in Gaza include 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother, and their mother, in a statement on their Telegram account.

The Israeli army says it's verifying this statement, according to Reuters.

Men carry a bench inside Saint George church, damaged during Israeli shelling in recent weeks, in Yaroun, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon today. The attack happened prior to the start of the truce between Hamas and Israel, which has informally extended to southern Lebanon. (Credit: Aziz Taher/Reuters)

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says the Israeli army is preventing ambulances and paramedics from reaching an area in Jenin Refugee Camp where there are people with life-threatening injuries, in a post on their X account.

About an hour ago, an AFP report came in that the Israeli army shot and killed two children in Jenin.

The Israeli army announced that it had “eliminated” two senior Hamas commanders, including Mohammad Zoubeidi, son of Zachari Zoubeidi, who led the Jenin brigades, according to Haaretz.

The United Nations has called on the international community to move towards a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying Jerusalem should be the capital of both states, according to Reuters.

“It is high time to move decisively and irreversibly towards a two-state solution, based on United Nations resolutions and international law,” said Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN office in Geneva, in a speech written by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. This would mean “that Israel and Palestine coexist in peace and security, with Jerusalem as their capital,” she added.

Thirty women and children will be released from Israeli prisons, Hamas announced on its Telegram channel, according to the al-Jazeera channel.

Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi is among those expected to be released. The prisoners are from different West Bank cities, including Hebron and Ramallah, and from Jerusalem.

Two Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, according to AFP.

Lebanese army commander-in-chief Joseph Aoun offering his condolences to Hezbollah parliamentary group leader Mohammad Raad who lost his son in an Israeli strike in Beit Yahoun (Bint Jbeil) a week ago.

(Photo: Mohammad Yassine)

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken declares in Brussels that he is going to Israel to try to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas, according to AFP.

“We would like to see this pause extended,” he said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting, stressing that the truce had allowed the release of hostages in the hands of Hamas and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“Several” Russian hostages will be released on Wednesday from the Gaza Strip where they have been held since Oct. 7, a senior Hamas official said on X (formerly Twitter), without specifying the number.

The Palestinian Islamist movement had already released Ron Krivoi, a 25-year-old Israeli-Russian, on Sunday in gratitude for “support for the Palestinian cause” from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The new releases will be organized “outside the framework of the truce agreement” between Israel and Hamas, therefore, without compensation, added the senior official.

Hamas had already affirmed on Sunday that it would release a hostage of Russian nationality in order to show its gratitude to Moscow and its position regarding the Palestinians.

In posts on X (formerly Twitter), the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that over half of Gaza's population, an estimated 1.3 million, is living in shelters and that overcrowding, coupled with a lack of access to food, water, medicine, sanitation and waste management, is leading to an increase in infections in the enclave.

According to the WHO head, there have been around 111,000 acute respiratory infections, nearly 80,000 cases of severe stomach infections and other infections such as jaundice in addition to heightened risks of disease outbreaks.

Ghebreyesus also reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that all Palestinian people are provided the healthcare that they need and called for a cease-fire, saying that it is a "matter of life and death for civilians."

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian lamented that he was unable to be present in New York on Wednesday for a UN meeting on the situation in Gaza due to a delay in the issuance of his visa by the United States, according to AFP.

Amirabdollahian had planned to leave Tehran to go to the UN headquarters where the Security Council is due to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday. But "the Americans granted a visa to me and my entourage at around 1:00 a.m. (9:30 p.m. GMT Tuesday), Iran time," which meant that it "was not possible to be present" for “this meeting scheduled from 9:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. GMT) to 12:00 p.m. in New York,” the minister explained to the press, without specifying the reasons for this delay.

Despite his absence, the minister insisted on Iran's determination to continue "all efforts to ensure that the truce continues."

Around a hundred demonstrators, mostly women and many children, held a protest in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut to demand that the UN intervene to stop the Israeli offensive against Gaza.

The call to demonstrate was launched by several NGOs, including Kafa, Noun Solidarity, Beity Association, Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), Nadjdeh and the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities (LUPD).

“Gazans, Gazans, resist!” “Gaza, your population is dying,” a young demonstrator shouted into a megaphone, according to L'Orient Today's journalist on site.

(Photo: Matthieu Karam)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the ongoing cease-fire in Gaza and the prisoner swaps as being a temporary "stop of bloodshed," Reuters reports.

While speaking with lawmakers at Turkey's parliament, Erdogan said that the comments and statements coming from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him little hope that the current pause in fighting could turn into a full-scale cease-fire. He added that Turkey is going to ramp up its diplomatic efforts to put a lasting cease-fire in place.

According to Erdogan, almost all Turkish citizens in Gaza have been evacuated while, what he says, a genocide is taking place. He will discuss the situation in Gaza more during an upcoming trip to Dubai later this week.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has warned of “significant” risks to the global economy in the event of a widening of the conflict, according to AFP.

In comments to Al-Jazeera, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), stressed the need to open more border crossings including the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south of the enclave to "avoid a disaster."

The spokesperson also said that fuel is just as important as medicine and that the civil system was on the "verge of collapse."

While aid is supposed to be coming into Gaza, it is currently piling up at the Rafah crossing because its capacity is only 130 trucks, they said.

Israeli police forcibly evicted protesters from the families of the Gaza hostages from their encampment outside of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) in Jerusalem with a "bereaved mother" being detained for questioning, Haaretz reports.

The families of the hostages have been critical of how Israeli authorities, in particular the government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, have handled the issue since the start of the war on Oct. 7 

The Israeli army opened fire this morning near a Lebanese army vehicle, on the border of the village of Houla (Marjayoun district), a source within the troop told L'Orient Today. 

The incident, which took place during a Lebanese army patrol near a position adjacent to that of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), did not cause any injuries or damage, the source clarified.

Pope Francis called for a further extension of the truce between Hamas and Israel and the release of all hostages, according to a statement relayed by Reuters.

“We call for peace,” he said during his weekly audience on Wednesday, expressing concern about the suffering and shortages of water and bread suffered by the people of Gaza.

Israel is continuing to prevent fuel from entering hospitals in Gaza as hospitals in the besieged enclave attempt to restore their services amid an ever-worsening situation, the general director of Gaza's health ministry, Munir al-Bursh.

Fuel has been one of the biggest demands in Gaza, especially from doctors and aid workers in the hospitals throughout the strip. As Israel's offensive continued, a growing number of hospitals were forced to suspend services due to a growing lack of fuel. Medical workers have continued to call for Israel to allow fuel into hospitals so that they can continue providing treatments.

However, amid the temporary cease-fire, some hospitals have been able to partially restore some of their services. According to al-Bursh, the Indonesian Hospital, thanks to the efforts made by the doctors, is set to once again provide dialysis to patients, 600 of whom require treatment three times a day.

Israeli fighter planes flying over South Lebanon were heard in Saida, around 60 kilometers from the border with Israel, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.

Today, Wednesday, Nov. 29, is being marked as a day of international solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Here is a list of some of the events taking place around the world:

South Africa – Rally in Johannesburg

Lebanon – Sit-in in front of UN ESCWA headquarters in Beirut

Jordan – Protest in Amman near the Israeli embassy, demanding the termination of all agreements signed with Tel Aviv

United Kingdom – Workplace Day of Action plus lunchtime walkout by University College Union members is planned at King’s College, London

Germany – Event in central Berlin in solidarity with Palestine

United States– Various events and protests across the country

Events are also planned in Norway, Brazil, Canada and Belgium.

Be sure to follow us as our reporters go on the ground for the rally in Lebanon.

Current negotiations between Hamas and Israel, through intermediaries, are looking at extending the cease-fire for another five days in exchange for further prisoner swaps, Al-Jazeera reports.

The prisoner exchanges during that period would come in five groups: Israeli captives; men who are too old to be reservists; female soldiers; reservist soldiers; and, lastly, the dead bodies of reservists who were killed prior to and during their captivity.

Hamas, according to reports, has expressed openness to this and is willing to respect what the Israelis want.

However, right-wing members of the Israeli government are putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not allow the cease-fire to continue indefinitely and that the offensive needs to start up again soon. The supposed deadline is Sunday, 10 days after the start of the initial cease-fire, which Israel has said was as long as they were willing to maintain a cease-fire.

Four Palestinians were injured in an explosion following a raid by the Israeli military on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Haaretz reports.

The four people arrived at the Razi Hospital in moderate to serious condition, Tair Abu Bakr, the hospital's director, says.

An Israeli military source told Haaretz that a gunfight had ensued inside the camp between the Israeli raiding forces and armed individuals in the camp with one of them throwing explosives. An Israeli aircraft also targeted the Palestinians. The Israeli forces arrested people on the spot.

According to the state-run Palestinian news outlet Wafa, Israeli forces have also encircled the Jenin Medical Complex and declared Jenin and its camp a "closed military zone," deploying further military units into other neighborhoods of the area.

Seventeen Thai hostages released by Hamas will return to the kingdom on Thursday, Thai authorities announced, according to AFP.

Ten of them were released last Friday, and seven more in the days that followed.

According to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are around 13 Thais among the hostages still being held by Hamas.

Ahmad Salaima is welcomed by his mother upon his arrival at his home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Nov. 28, 2023, after 30 Palestinian detainees were released under an extended truce deal. A new group of hostages were freed on Nov. 28 from Gaza captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners under an extended truce, as mediators worked for a lasting halt to the seven-week Israel-Hamas war. (Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Haaretz reports, citing an official source who follows the negotiations between Hamas and the authorities of the Jewish state, that Israel does not wish to extend the truce beyond Sunday, 10 days after the start of the initial truce.

Israel, at the start of the temporary cease-fire, said that it would only be willing to cease hostilities for a maximum of 10 days before restarting its offensive in Gaza.

According to Haaretz, Israel received the list of hostages to be released by Hamas today.

In a joint statement published overnight and notably relayed by the American administration, the G7 foreign ministers pleaded for a "further extension of the truce" and the negotiation of "future pauses" in order to facilitate the "liberation of all hostages” and “increase” deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Haaretz points out that the G7 does not, however, use the term cease-fire.

The Group of 7 also called on the Houthis to "cease attacks on civilians," "stop threatening shipping lanes and commercial vessels" and "release the M/V Galaxy Leader and its crew (captured) in international waters on Nov. 19."

The Houthis declared war on Israel in October in the wake of the conflict between the Jewish state and Hamas.

Before we get started, take a minute to read today's edition of the Morning Brief to ensure that you are caught up with what has been happening.

Morning Brief

Border calm retained, movement at Syrian border, Jamaa Islamiya shooting: Everything you need to know to start your Wednesday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our coverage of day 54 of the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. Today marks the second and final day of the extended truce as efforts are being made by the international community and mediators to further extend the crease-fire.