18m ago / 11:39 AM UTC
Hamas claims that Israel is violating truce deal, imperiling hostage exchange
Taher al-Nono, an adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, said today that Israel “has not fully committed to” key terms of the cease-fire agreement, particularly with regards to the amount of aid reaching northern Gaza.
“This puts a real risk on completing the process,” he said.
According to al-Nono, the agreement said that at least 100 trucks with humanitarian aid would enter Gaza, but that far fewer have reached the northern Gaza Strip.
“These are issues that put the implementation process in danger if the occupation does not commit today to completing the entry of aid into the northern Gaza Strip according to the agreed upon numbers,” he said.
The Hamas adviser added that attacks have also continued, resulting in the death of two Palestinians, and that Israel had not come to complete agreement with Hamas on the release of male prisoners under the age of 19.
A diplomat with knowledge of the matter told NBC News there were “delays related to the amount of aid reaching the North,” But that “the deal remains on track and moving.”
NBC News has reached out to Israeli officials for comment but did not immediately hear back.
34m ago / 11:23 AM UTC
The five ‘excruciating’ weeks of talks that led to the Hamas hostage deal
It took weeks of secret negotiations involving U.S., Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials, the heads of the CIA and the Mossad, and the personal intervention of President Joe Biden to convince a reluctant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a four-day cease-fire that is expected to free 50 hostages from Hamas.
The negotiations, while ultimately successful, revealed the vast challenges that remain in freeing all of the roughly 240 captives seized during the group’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
Throughout the talks, Hamas officials maintained that they had taken captive only about 70 Israeli soldiers and 50 women and children, according to a diplomat in the region with knowledge of the negotiations.
Hamas officials said the whereabouts of as many as 100 other captives are unknown but they are pursuing leads. The group claimed that “some Israelis were kidnapped by individual Palestinian gangs or smugglers,” according to the diplomat.
1h ago / 10:55 AM UTC
Five elderly released hostages are ‘stable,’ hospital says
TEL AVIV — The hospital treating five elderly hostages released yesterday said their conditions were “stable” this morning.
“Each one is being treated according to the examination passed yesterday by the medical team, and they are being embraced by their family,” Wolfson Medical Center said in a statement. “We are waiting and hoping for the return of all the abductees.”
1h ago / 10:46 AM UTC
A Palestinian prisoner returns home
Wearing a Hamas headband, Aseel al-Titi was greeted by friends and at the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank yesterday. Al-Titi was among the 39 prisoners released from an Israeli jail yesterday as part of a hostage-prisoner swap.
1h ago / 10:38 AM UTC
Report: 42 Palestinian prisoners to be released today
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that 42 Palestinian prisoners were set to be released today in exchange for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.
NBC News has not independently confirmed the number of people on the list of prisoners.
2h ago / 10:13 AM UTC
Hamas to release 13 hostages today
Hamas is set to release 13 hostages today, according to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the talks.
“They’re trying to get one more but not confirmed yet,” the source adds.
2h ago / 9:59 AM UTC
LA police investigate possible hate crime at AIPAC president’s home
Police in Los Angeles were investigating a case of vandalism at the home of the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as a possible hate crime.
NBC Los Angeles reported that the demonstrators set off smoke devices and threw red paint on the driveway of the home of AIPAC President Michael Tuchin. The Los Angeles Police Department said on X that the incident happened Thursday and that officers took reports of vandalism/hate crime and assault with a deadly weapon.
Video posted to social media on showed a group of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, outside a home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood. A man could be seen in the video confronting the demonstrators and apparently kicking at one of the flags as the woman recording the encounter seemingly shouted for him to not “be physical.”
A neighbor told NBC Los Angeles that he was hit from behind with a steel pole after confronting the group. The social media video also showed a demonstrator throwing something at a lawn near the woman who was recording the affair.
“Hate and violence will not be tolerated in our City,” Mayor Karen Bass said on X. “LAPD will continue to work with city and business leaders to keep Angelenos safe.”
2h ago / 9:56 AM UTC
West Bank celebrations greet Palestinians freed by Israel
Raucous crowds packed West Bank streets Saturday to celebrate the release of Palestinian prisoners under a cease-fire agreement that was expected to also see the release of 50 hostages taken by Hamas.
The celebrants with World Cup-energy roiled in the streets and waved Palestinian flags to mark the occasion.
Yesterday, 39 Palestinian prisoners were released from jails in Israel and allowed to cross into Gaza amid the four-day cease-fire.
2h ago / 9:56 AM UTC
Children’s hospital receives 8 hostages
Leaders at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel in the city of Petach Tikvah said the institution is examining eight released hostages who arrived there today.
They include four children, three mothers, and a grandmother, the CEO of the hospital, Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, said during a news conference.
“Their physical condition is good and they’re currently undergoing medical and emotional assessment by the medical and psychological team,” she said.
Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel was one of six hospitals designated by Israel’s government to receive released hostages and check out their physical and mental health, a health ministry official said.
A total of 22 hostages held by militants were released today, Israeli Defense Forces said; a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross said the number was 24. At least 13 are Israeli; the rest are said to be foreigners from places including Thailand.
Israel was expected to release 39 jailed Palestinians under the four-day cease-fire; 33 have already been released, Red Cross officials said.
“There are not enough words to express the emotion that we’re feeling at this time,” Bron-Harley said. “Together with the families in the entire nation of Israel, we will do our utmost to care for the physical and emotional health of the returned hostages. From our perspective, this is a national mission.”
2h ago / 9:56 AM UTC
Hospital raided by Israeli forces was treating 73 ill patients, WHO says
Al-Shifa hospital, which was the largest such institution in Gaza, was treating at least 73 severely ill or injured patients when it was all but shut down this week, the World Health Organization said in a statement yesterday.
The 73 were part of a WHO-enabled transfer of 151 total patients from Al-Shifa that started on Wednesday, the United Nations agency said. They were taken to the European Gaza Hospital and Al Najjar Hospital in Gaza’s southern region, it said.
An additional 100 patients and staff members remained at Al-Shifa in the north despite its demise “due to lack of water, fuel, medical supplies, food, and staff, and recent military incursions,” the WHO said.
The 73 included 19 people in wheelchairs, 18 dialysis patients, and 26 patients with serious spinal injuries, according to the WHO.
2h ago / 9:56 AM UTC
Amid cease-fire, Israeli official says Hamas’ end is unfinished business
Feelings of peace and hope may fill the air tonight amid the four-day cease-fire that’s facilitating the release of hostages held by Hamas and prisoners held by Israel, but the war isn’t over yet, a top Israeli official said.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari reminded Israelis in a video address tonight that the mission to eradicate Hamas is not over. Hargari noted that even the exchange of hostages was a half-step forward, with the vast majority of the estimated 240 abducted in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel remaining in the custody of Hamas militants despite today’s release of 24 hostages.
“Today the world watched and breathed a collective sigh of relief,” Hagari said. But he added, “But we must never lose sight of … babies who were not reunited with their loved ones, who are still being held by Hamas.”
He said the fighting must carry on in order to secure the freedom of all the hostages, put an end to what he characterized as a terrorist Hamas regime, and ensure that Oct. 7 happens “never again.”
2h ago / 9:56 AM UTC
Israeli family shares effects of Arab-Israeli conflict on 5 generations
The Brenner family has been in what is now Israel since the early 1900s, its patriarch, Joseph Hayyim Brenner, having helped to shape the culture and identity of the settlers who would become Israelis through his literature.
He died during the Arab riots in Jaffa in 1921, and others in his family would die fighting for Israel. Shanni Brenner, his great granddaughter, said she has pride for her family’s heritage and contributions, sometimes mortal.
Shanni Brenner’s daughter is serving in the dental unit of the Israeli prison service, where she sometimes must treat enemy combatants. She suggested her daughter’s service is existential for Israel and for the family: “No choice,” she said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
