A four-day cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war began Friday in Gaza as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker. Twenty-four hostages were freed, including 13 Israeli citizens, 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen, Qatar said. Israel released 33 Palestinian prisoners later in the day.
With the truce deal comes increased shipments of fuel and supplies into Gaza — though still only enough to dent the needs of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, according to aid groups. Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,300 gallons) of fuel a day into besieged Gaza for humanitarian needs for the duration of the truce.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza after a dayslong pause in its casualty report, which it attributed to the health system’s collapse in northern Gaza making it impossible to provide a detailed count.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will press ahead with the war after the cease-fire expires. Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial incursion by Hamas.
Currently:
— A four-day truce begins, setting the stage for the release of dozens of hostages.
— Families of hostages not slated for release from Gaza during current truce face enduring nightmare.
— Palestinians in Gaza seeking refuge from war find their world is shrinking.
— Hezbollah fires rockets at north Israel after an airstrike kills 5 of the group’s senior fighters.
— Thousands led by Cuba’s president march in solidarity with Palestinians.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what’s happening in the war:
33 PALESTINIANS FREED FROM WEST BANK PRISON
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Palestinian official said Friday that 33 Palestinians have been released by Israel from a West Bank prison.
Their release came shortly after Hamas released 24 hostages who had been held captive in Gaza for weeks, including 13 Israelis, 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines. It was the first stage in a swap under a four-day cease-fire deal.
NETANYAHU: COMMITTED TO RELEASE OF ALL HOSTAGES
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday welcomed the release of hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid into Israel, including 13 Israeli citizens, but said his government is committed to the return of all hostages.
About 240 people were taken in the attack.
Netanyahu described each of the hostages released as a four-day cease-fire began as “a world of their own.”
He said getting back all the hostages “is one of the goals of the war and we are committed to achieving all of the goals of the war.”
ISRAELIS FIRE TEAR GAS AT CROWD AWAITING PALESTINIANS’ RELEASE
OUTSIDE OFER PRISON, West Bank — Israeli security forces fired volleys of tear gas Friday at thousands of Palestinians from all over the West Bank excitedly awaiting the release of 39 Palestinians in exchange for the hostages released by Hamas from Gaza.
Crowds have been waiting for hours outside Israel’s Ofer Prison in the West Bank, where the Palestinians are expected to emerge at any moment.
Shortly after some raucous boys surged through the crowds with Hamas flags, Israeli forces unleashed tear gas, sending families bolting in the opposite direction, screaming, coughing and covering their watery, bloodshot eyes with their shirts.
MILITARY: HOSTAGES FREED FRIDAY ARE BACK IN ISRAEL
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says the hostages released by Hamas as part of a cease-fire deal have returned to Israel.
In a statement Friday, it said the hostages have undergone an initial medical check inside Israeli territory.
Qatar said a total of 24 hostages were freed — including 13 Israelis.
QATAR CONFIRMS RELEASE OF 24 HOSTAGES AFTER 7 WEEKS HELD IN GAZA
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed the release of 24 hostages after seven weeks of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
“Those released include 13 Israeli citizens, some of whom are dual citizens, in addition to 10 Thai citizens and a Filipino citizen,” said Majed al-Ansari, the ministry’s spokesman. Qatar was a key mediator in the hostage release.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which delivered the hostages from Gaza into Egypt, also confirmed the release.
The hostages, women and children, were undergoing medical checks before they were to be transferred to Israel. They are to be taken to Israeli hospitals and reunited with their families. They’re the first of 50 people to be released from Gaza during a four-day truce that began Friday.
Israel is to release 39 Palestinian prisoners later Friday, the first of a total of 150 Palestinian prisoners to be freed under the cease-fire.
ISRAEL SUMMONS AMBASSADORS OVER REMARKS BY SPAIN, BELGIUM LEADERS
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli government has summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium after remarks by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo Friday criticizing the bombing of civilians in Gaza and urging recognition for a Palestinian state.
Speaking at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, Sánchez said the time has come for the international community and the European Union to recognize the State of Palestine, and warned that if it did not, Spain might do so on its own.
He said it would better if the EU did it together, “but if this is not the case … Spain will take their own decisions.”
He was speaking at end of a two-day visit to Israel, Palestinian Territories and Egypt with de Croo.
Israel has the right to defend itself “but it must do so within the parameters and limits imposed by international humanitarian law and this is not the case,” Sánchez said. “The indiscriminate killing of civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable.”
RED CROSS HELPING REUNITE HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS
GENEVA — The Red Cross says it has begun a “multi-day operation” to reunite hostages and detainees on both sides of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.
The group’s announcement came as Israeli media reported the Hamas militant group on Friday released the first batch of hostages under a cease-fire deal. The deal calls for 50 hostages to be freed over a four-day truce, with Israel to free 150 Palestinians in prison.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it will also be ferrying in medical supplies for hospitals in Gaza.
HEAD OF U.S. AID AGENCY CALLS FOR SPEED-UP OF HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA
WASHINGTON — The lead U.S. development agency is urging a rapid ramping-up of humanitarian assistance to battered Gaza for the long term, calling it “urgent and imperative.”
Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, made the call in a statement Thursday, as a carefully negotiated cease-fire and hostage release began in the Gaza Strip.
With 1.7 million people in Gaza internally displaced and virtually all of the 2.3 million people there needing aid, “the scale of humanitarian needs in Gaza is staggering,” Power wrote.
“It is both urgent and imperative that lasting mechanisms be put in place to significantly accelerate the pace of sustained aid into Gaza,” Power wrote.
BREAK IN WAR EXTENDS TO IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS — FOR NOW
BAGHDAD — Iranian-backed militias that have launched dozens of rocket and drone attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks held their fire on Friday, the first day of the a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The lull came after an escalation this week in which U.S. warplanes killed multiple militants from the powerful Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia in response to the first use of short-range ballistic missiles against U.S. forces at Al-Asad Air Base.
Milita spokesman Jaafar al-Husseini said his group is “not necessarily” observing the truce — which only officially pertains to Gaza — but is “monitoring” the behavior of the United States and will act accordingly.
Kataib Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq began striking U.S. facilities Oct. 17 and have since launched more than 60 attacks in Iraq and Syria. The militant groups have said they are retaliating against the U.S. for its support of the Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 surprise attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis.
Likewise, in southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces throughout the Israel-Hamas war, a cautious calm prevailed Friday. Some of the more than 55,000 Lebanese displaced by the fighting began returning to inspect their houses and businesses in border towns.
ISRAELI MEDIA SAY HAMAS HAS FREED 13 ISRAELI HOSTAGES
JERUSALEM — Israeli media say the Hamas militant group has released the first batch of hostages under a cease-fire deal Friday, including 13 Israelis who have been held in the Gaza Strip for nearly seven weeks.
The media cited Israeli security officials.
Twelve Thai nationals were also released, according to Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Under a deal negotiated by Qatar, 50 hostages are set to be freed during a four-day truce.
Israel is set to free 150 Palestinians over the next four days as part of the deal. Thirty-nine prisoners are to be freed Friday.
THOUSANDS OF ISRAELIS GATHER TO RECEIVE NEWS OF HOSTAGE RELEASE
JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis gathered in what has been dubbed “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv on Friday evening, singing songs to welcome the Jewish Sabbath and watching newscasts on large screens as they waited to receive news of the release of 13 Israeli hostages slated to be freed.
“My emotions are mixed,” Shelli Shem Tov, the mother of 21-year-old hostage Omer Shem Tov, told Israeli’s Channel 12 at the square. “I’m excited for the families that are going to hug their loved ones, I’m jealous, and I’m sad, mostly sad, that Omer is not coming home yet.”
THAILAND SAYS 12 THAI NATIONALS HAVE BEEN RELEASED FROM GAZA
BANGKOK — Twelve Thai nationals were released from Gaza on Friday, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
It said the 12 hostages have passed through the Rafah crossing and are on the way to Israel’s Hatzerim air base, and will then be taken to a hospital.
The ministry says 39 Thai citizens were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel and 26 were taken hostage.
Egypt’s state information service said the 12 Thais is in addition to 13 Israeli captives who are to be freed Friday.
ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES FIRE TEAR GAS AT PALESTINIANS WAITING TO GREET PRISONERS
BEITOUNIA, West Bank — Israeli security forces fired tear gas at a crowd of Palestinians gathered to greet prisoners who were to be released from Israeli jails as part of a truce between Israel and Hamas, AP journalists in the West Bank witnessed.
Tear gas was fired to push away crowds from the vicinity of Ofer prison, from where the prisoners were to be released later on Friday.
ISRAEL’S FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS IT WILL RESUME WAR AFTER TRUCE ENDS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign minister said Friday that Israel will resume the war against Hamas after a temporary cease-fire ends.
A truce in the Israel-Hamas war began Friday, setting the stage for the release of 50 hostages held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The releases are to take place in stages over four days.
The truce could be extended by a day for each additional release of 10 more hostages — an arrangement that could translate into a longer cease-fire. In all, militants from Hamas and other groups kidnapped about 240 people in their Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israeli leaders have pledged that the war will resume.
“Israel will continue its war on Hamas and we will not stop until we achieve our two main goals, overthrowing the rule of Hamas and returning all the abductees back to us, safe and sound,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Friday as he toured Israel’s ravaged border areas with his counterparts from Portugal and Slovenia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have made similar pledges.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES RELEASE LIST OF 39 PRISONERS EXPECTED TO BE FREED FRIDAY
JERUSALEM — Palestinian authorities have released a list of 39 Palestinian prisoners expected to be released on Friday, including 24 women and 15 teenage boys, in exchange for 13 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, said the 39 detainees from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem will be delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Israel’s Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Most of the 15 Palestinian teenagers to be released Friday were arrested over incitement and stone-throwing, as well as the broadly defined charge of “supporting terrorism.” The 24 women include some convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to yearslong prison terms for attacks against Israeli security forces.
In all, 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed during the four-day truce.
Israel currently holds 7,200 Palestinians charged with or convicted of security offenses, the Prisoners’ Club said.
It said about 2,000 Palestinians were arrested since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.
FRANCE CALLS FOR RELEASE OF ALL HOSTAGES, INCLUDING 8 FRENCH CITIZENS, AND A LASTING TRUCE
BEIJING — French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called Friday for the release of all hostages held in Gaza, including eight French citizens, and a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas.
‘’It is essential that international law is applied there (in Gaza) as elsewhere,’’ Colonna said during a trip to Beijing. ‘’All states have the right to defend themselves, but we must cooperate so that terrorism is contained.’’
She called for a durable truce so that ‘’the wounded can be treated, and humanitarian aid can arrive and ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.’’
The eight French hostages in Gaza include three children. The French president, foreign minister and defense minister have traveled to the region in recent weeks to push for their release and a long-term peace.
Forty French citizens were killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, and two French citizens have been killed in attacks on Gaza, according to the Foreign Ministry. France has sent flights and warships to bring humanitarian aid for Gaza.
ISRAELI FORCES KILL A 12-YEAR-OLD BOY IN THE WEST BANK
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said Friday, as violence surges in the territory under the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The boy was killed Thursday in the village of Beita near the flashpoint city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the officials said.
The Israeli military said Palestinians threw stones when soldiers entered the village and that troops responded with live fire. The military said it was looking into the circumstances of the boy’s death.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began seven weeks ago, the West Bank has seen one of the deadliest periods in at least two decades. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 229 Palestinians, including 52 children and minors under the age of 18, in arrest raids and violent confrontations, according to U.N. figures.
ISRAELI TROOPS FIRE AT PALESTINIANS ATTEMPTING RETURN TO NORTHERN GAZA, KILLING TWO
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians and wounded 11 others as they headed toward the main combat zone in northern Gaza despite warnings by the Israeli army to stay put.
An Associated Press journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah in the southern half of Gaza. The injured had been shot in the legs.
Friday’s shooting came hours after the Israeli military warned hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza not to attempt to return to their homes in the northern half of the territory, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive.
The military had dropped leaflets on southern Gaza saying that returning to northern Gaza is prohibited and dangerous.
Since a four-day truce went into effect Friday morning, hundreds of Palestinians were seen trying to head to northern Gaza.
Witnesses said Israeli troops are opening fire on people trying to head north.
Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, said he decided to risk heading north to check on his home.
“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said. ”The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.”
‘EVERYONE IN RETURN FOR EVERYONE,’ PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER SAYS
BEIRUT — The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said Friday that Israeli soldiers among the 240 hostages held by militant groups in Gaza will only be released in exchange for all the Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Islamic Jihad is reportedly holding about 40 of the hostages who were captured by Hamas and other militant groups during their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Over the next four days, 50 hostages are to be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, with both sides releasing women and children first.
In a televised speech on the first day of what is meant to be a four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war, Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh said that “the enemy’s military prisoners will not be released without the freedom of our prisoners and this is linked to the end of the aggression.” He said that Israel would be forced to “eventually reach a deal of everyone in return for everyone.”
It was not immediately clear how many of the hostages held in Gaza are currently serving in the military and whether the militants also consider reserve soldiers to be military hostages.
MUCH-NEEDED FUEL AND COOKING GAS TANKERS ENTER GAZA
JERUSALEM — Israel announced that four tankers with fuel and four tankers with cooking gas entered the Gaza Strip on Friday, the first day of what is meant to be a four-day cease-fire.
Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,300 gallons) of fuel a day into besieged Gaza for humanitarian needs for the duration of the truce. This would be roughly twice the amount permitted previously, but still only a small portion of Gaza’s daily needs, estimated at more than 1 million liters (264,000 gallons).
For most of the past seven weeks of war, Israel had barred the entry of any fuel to Gaza, claiming it could be used by Hamas for military purposes. United Nations aid agencies pushed back against such claims, saying fuel deliveries were closely supervised and urgently needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS IT HAS DESTROYED TUNNELS UNDER SHIFA HOSPITAL
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday it has destroyed stretches of tunnels and a number of tunnel shafts in the area of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest.
On Wednesday, Israel showed a tunnel and rooms that military officials said were a major Hamas hideout beneath Shifa. Hamas and hospital staff deny Israeli allegations that Shifa was used as a militant command center.
On Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel mapped out Shifa Hospital and plans to destroy all “terror infrastructure” it has found.
FOUR-DAY TRUCE BEGINS IN GAZA
A temporary truce in the Israel-Hamas war took effect early Friday, setting the stage for the exchange of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The halt in fighting began at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and is to last at least four days. During the truce, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other militants took in their deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In turn, Israel is to free three Palestinian prisoners for each released hostage. The releases are to take place in stages over the next four days.
The truce deal was reached in weeks of intense indirect negotiations, with Qatar, the United States and Egypt serving as mediators. If it holds, it would mark the first significant break in fighting since Israel declared war on Hamas seven weeks ago.
About 1,200 people were killed by Hamas attackers in Israel on Oct. 7. Israel responded with a massive air and ground offensive that has devastated large swaths of Gaza and killed at least 13,300 Palestinians.
