Israel-Hamas war: At least 50 Gaza hostages to be freed in ceasefire deal – live

Israel and Hezbollah appear to be exchanging fires across the northern border only hours after a temporary truce in Gaza was negotiated.

Local reports have claimed in the last few minutes that sirens are sounding in the northern Israeli settlement of Kfar Rosh.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed that “warplanes attacked several terrorist targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanese territory” this morning.

He also posted a video purporting to show the attack.

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah militia said five of its members were killed in its stronghold of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad, in U.S. strikes that Washington said were in response to attacks by Iran-aligned militias against its forces in the region.

The U.S. carried out two series of strikes in Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday, its first publicly reported responses on Iraqi territory to dozens of recent attacks and a sign of escalation in the regional conflict tied to the Israel-Hamas war.

The attacks began on Oct. 17 and have been linked by Iraqi militia groups to U.S. support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza following attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.

The strike by fighter aircraft targeted and destroyed a Kataib Hezbollah operations centre and a command and control node near Al Anbar and Jurf Al-Sakhar, a U.S. defence official said.

An Iraqi military official said at least three members of Kataib Hezbollah had been killed and seven wounded in the overnight U.S. strikes.

Kataib Hezbollah is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, a group of many mainly Shi’ite Muslim armed groups that was formed in 2014 to fight Islamic State and subsequently recognised as an official security agency by Iraq’s government.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has met with senior Hamas officials in the Lebanese capital of Beirut amid confirmation of a temporary truce in Gaza, local reports have confirmed.

Nasrallah met with Khalil al-Hiya and Osama Hamdan to discuss with them “continuing coordination”.

They spoken beneath a portrait of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

More than a dozen ambulances have arrived at the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza this morning to evacuate some of the remaining patients.

Israeli Defence Forces took control of the hospital last week after claiming that Hamas was running a command post underneath it. They have yet to show conclusive evidence of this.

“14 PRCS ambulances accompanied by the UN & Doctors Without Borders arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital to evacuate the wounded and patients,” a Palestine Red Crescent Society statement said on X.

As of Monday, the United Nations said that just under 300 patients remained in al-Shifa hospital.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians were either sheltering there or being treated prior to the evacuation notices handed down by Israeli forces in the past few weeks. It is the largest medical complex in Gaza.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation said it had become a “death zone”.

A deal was agreed upon overnight for a four-day ceasefire in Gaza while roughly 50 hostages will be released from the enclave in exchange for roughly 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

But included in the deal are additional elements designed to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel will allow roughly 300 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day, according to one report. This would amount to a significant increase; in the previous weeks, less than a dozen have been permitted to enter the enclave via the Egyptian Rafah crossing.

More fuel will also be permitted into the enclave during the pause in fighting, according to one senior Israeli official, though it is unclear how much and to whom it will be given.

Previously, any fuel supplies have been handed only to United Nations organisations for fear of Hamas using it for their own ends. Overcrowded hospitals in Gaza have said previously that the lack of fuel is preventing them from performing life-saving surgeries.

The displacement of Palestinians in recent weeks has been the largest since 1948, the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees has said – warning of “an exodus under our watch”.

“We have just witnessed over the last few weeks the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948,” UNRWA said.

“The scale of destruction and loss is staggering. It is an exodus under our watch. The younger generation, forced to live through traumas of ancestors or parents.”

Our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta has this analysis:

Around half a dozen countries, most with nationals who were kidnapped in the attack on 7 October, have been involved in the negotiations, which have been taking place with Qatar as the main interlocutor between Israel and Hamas and the US playing an active role.

The deal is basically the same as one which had been discussed in the past – return of a certain number of women, children and those ill among the 240 hostages who were seized in exchange for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons.

The agreement which was said to have come very close to being concluded last month was for around 50 of the hostages being freed in return for about 110 Palestinian inmates. The terms stipulated a temporary ceasefire for this to take place, with a period of three days mooted.

But it fell apart as it neared the last hurdle. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that all the hostages being held must be freed, and this would come about, he insisted, through Hamas feeling pressure enforced by pulverising military action.

At the time the Israeli cabinet appeared to have consensus in this stance. But divisions began to emerge, and the current agreement takes place amid severe discord in Netanyahu’s cabinet and angry clashes between ministers and families of those taken.

The process towards a deal has been “gut-wrenching” – and it has been long and fraught, a senior US administration official told The Independent.

Many attempted agreements have “fallen at the last hurdle”, according to those close to the negotiations.

Among the stumbling blocks has been Israel’s concerns that a ceasefire will be used by Hamas militants to regroup. The other issue is the location and access to the hostages.

The Independent understands that Israel believes dozens are being directly held by Hamas, but there could be some 150 hostages being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other militant groups in the strip.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the intervention of US president Joe Biden had helped to improve the tentative agreement so that it included more hostages and fewer concessions to Hamas.

There have been splits in the Israeli cabinet over a deal – with some of Mr Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners opposing some of the terms of the deal. But in the end it was not enough to stop it being agreed.

There will also be an exchange of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons but details were not yet finalised, The Independent understands.

There are approximately 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli detention, including around 2,000 who are held without charge or trial, according to the Palestinian monitoring group Addameer – which alleges that there were 200 child prisoners and 62 women prisoners as of 6 November.

Around 500-700 Palestinian children  – those aged 12-17 – are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year, with stone throwing the most common charge, according to local child rights organisation Defence for Children Palestine.

A senior US administration official told The Independent the text of the deal runs to five or six pages and that the pause in military activity contained within would result in “a real surge in humanitarian supplies”.

The ceasefire is expected to be used as a pathway to work on further negotiations and the release of more hostages.

This could be scuppered if either side violates terms of the truce.