Israel-Gaza conflict dwell: Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas freed, with additional releases anticipated

In a press release on Thursday morning, the Spanish international ministry referred to as for Israel to drop its ban on Unrwa, saying the transfer risked endangering each lives and the ceasefire.

“The government rejects the entry into force of the Knesset laws that prevent Unrwa operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and calls for their application to be suspended,” it mentioned.

It added:

Spain expresses its deepest concern in regards to the affect that this choice can have on the humanitarian scenario in Gaza and the remainder of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, jeopardising the ceasefire that started on January 19.

Unrwa is crucial and irreplaceable for the lives of the 6 million refugees to whom it offers important providers, and for regional stability, and Spain firmly helps its work.”

Spain’s socialist-led authorities has been one of the crucial outspoken European critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

In November 2023, the Israeli authorities recalled its ambassador in Madrid and mentioned it might be reprimanding Spain’s high diplomat in Tel Aviv after the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, mentioned he had “genuine doubts” about whether or not Israel was complying with worldwide humanitarian legislation in its offensive in Gaza.

On the finish of Might final yr, Spain joined Eire and Norway in formally recognising a Palestinian state.

In case you missed it earlier, we posted on the who else is predicted to be launched by Hamas and Israel right now. There are two different Israelis anticipated to be freed on Thursday: Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man. There was no official affirmation but of the identities of the Thai nationals who will probably be launched by Hamas.

Among the many folks anticipated to be launched from prisons in Israel, is Zakaria Zubeidi – a distinguished former militant chief and theater director who took half in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 earlier than being rearrested days later.

You may learn extra right here.

The Israeli military mentioned it intercepted a reconnaissance drone on Thursday launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the direction of Israel, studies Reuters.

No different info has been given however we’ll replace if additional particulars come via.

At Wiwwaeo Sriaoun’s house in Udon Thani, north-east Thailand, everyone seems to be anxiously following the information on their telephones. Wiwwaeo’s son Watchara, 33, was certainly one of dozens of Thai migrant employees kidnapped from the farms on which they had been working in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

5 of the six Thais nonetheless being held hostage are as a result of be launched on Thursday. Nevertheless their names are but to be confirmed.

“I’m with [Watchara’s] aunt and other relatives, including my grandchild. All of us are just waiting for good news and praying that Watchara and his friends will come back,” mentioned Wiwwaeo.

She was informed by the Royal Thai embassy in Israel that she’s going to get a name when names of the Thai hostages to be launched are confirmed. “I’m hoping that one of them will be my son,” she mentioned.

Watchara’s daughter, Irada, who’s 9, had simply arrived house from faculty, she mentioned. She hoped for excellent news. Neighbours had despatched messages of help.

Watchara moved to work in Israel three years in the past together with his youthful brother, hoping to save lots of up cash and repay the household’s money owed. Israel has been a typical vacation spot for Thai migrant employees because the salaries there are a lot greater than these supplied again house. Most work in farming jobs.

For the reason that 7 October assaults, the Israeli authorities mentioned they made up the biggest single group of international lifeless and lacking. In 2023, 23 Thais had been launched following diplomatic efforts that concerned neighbouring Malaysia – which has ties with Hamas, having hosted its leaders prior to now – in addition to Qatar, Israel, Egypt, Iran and the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross. In complete, 46 Thais have been killed.

Emma Graham-Harrison

Reporting from Tel Aviv:

A crowd gathered from early morning in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Sq., many carrying placards with the faces of the three Israelis due for launch on Thursday.

They cheered as dwell footage from Gaza confirmed soldier Agam Berger, 19, the primary to be handed over, alive and strolling independently, surrounded by Hamas fighters.

“She made it,” mentioned Yahel Oren, 31, watching the big display screen in tears. “Its hard to think of her alone there, but at least we can count the minutes she has left.”

Oren served a decade in the past on the Nahal Oz base the place Berger was captured. A part of a gaggle campaigning for the liberty of the feminine ‘spotter’ troops held in Gaza, she was carrying a T-shirt saying “once a spotter always a spotter”.

There have been cheers once more after Berger, the final feminine soldier held in Gaza, was handed to the Purple Cross within the north of the strip.

Two civilian hostages, Arbel Yehoud 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, had been anticipated to be launched later within the morning in southern Gaza.

By late morning the group was tons of sturdy, with schoolchildren and fogeys pushing infants, beside veterans of the lengthy marketing campaign to “bring them home”. Some had taken the break day, to hitch the group for a uncommon second of pleasure after greater than a yr of anguish.

One waved a Thai flag, for 5 Thai nationals additionally due for launch on Thursday. They haven’t but been named.

Ruth Michaelson

Ruth Michaelson and Obaida Hamad in Suwayda:

Suwayda is effectively geared up for protests. The central sq. of the town, house to certainly one of Syria’s bigger minority communities, hosts the crowds of weekly – or typically even day by day – demonstrators calling for the illustration and public providers they’ve demanded for years.

Lengthy earlier than the autumn final month of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the southern province of the identical title had change into a byword for resistance to rule by Damascus, unafraid to protest regardless of Assad’s crackdown on dissent and his hole pledges to guard communities like theirs.

The realm is overwhelmingly full of members of the Druze sect, who comply with an esoteric type of Islam whose adherents span a swath of Lebanon and Syria, together with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Even earlier than Assad fled final month as an insurgency reached Damascus, residents of Suwayda had been demanding a secular state that enshrined minority rights, and are actually emphatically insisting their voices be heard within the new Syria.

“Since last August until now we’ve been protesting daily,” mentioned Alia Kuntar, a lawyer, after the weekly demonstration held in Suwayda Metropolis’s central sq. in entrance of a steel pavilion emblazoned with the phrases “Peace to all Syrians”. “And we will keep protesting until we get the state we want. We haven’t felt any crackdown from the new government, but equally we didn’t see any action on the ground in response to our demands.”

She added: “Of course, we’ll increase our demonstrations until we get what we want.”

Protests in Suwayda started in August 2023 for elevated public providers and rapidly spilled into calls for for Assad to go, in a spot that his regime had lengthy ignored. The southern province was a uncommon pocket of resistance for effectively over a yr earlier than his rule collapsed amid a wider insurgency on the finish of 2024. It now presents a problem for Syria’s caretaker authorities, which is led by the Islamists who toppled Assad.

The opposite two Israelis anticipated to be launched right now are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man. There was no official affirmation of the identities of the Thai nationals who will probably be launched, studies the Related Press (AP).

Israel mentioned Yehoud was speculated to have been freed Saturday and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.

Plenty of international employees had been taken captive together with dozens of Israeli civilians and troopers throughout Hamas’s 7 0ctober 2023 assault. Twenty-three Thais had been amongst greater than 100 hostages launched throughout a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight Thais stay in captivity, two of whom are believed to be lifeless.

In line with the AP, of the folks anticipated to be launched from prisons in Israel, 30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of lethal assaults towards Israelis. Zakaria Zubeidi, a distinguished former militant chief and theater director who took half in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 earlier than being rearrested days later, can be amongst these to be launched.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a yr of powerful negotiations, resolved the dispute with an settlement that Yehoud can be launched on Thursday. One other three hostages, all males, are anticipated to be freed on Saturday together with dozens extra Palestinian prisoners.

Away from Gaza and Israel, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani arrived on Thursday in Damascus, Syria, Al Jazeera reported, the primary go to by a international head of state since Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

The Israeli army mentioned on Thursday that freed Israeli feminine soldier Agam Berger had been handed over to the military by the Purple Cross after her launch in Gaza by Hamas.

“The returning hostage is currently being accompanied by … special forces and ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) forces on her return to Israeli territory, where she will undergo an initial medical assessment,” the army mentioned in a press release.

Listed below are among the pictures displaying the response in Tel Aviv right now:

At a gathering in Tel Aviv, folks cheered, clapped and whistled as they noticed pictures of Agam Berger being launched on a TV display screen, subsequent to a big clock that’s counted the times the hostages have been in captivity, studies the Related Press (AP).

Some held indicators saying “Agam we’re waiting for you at home”.

Right here is a picture of the Israel soldier Agam Berger who has simply been handed over by Hamas to the Purple Cross in Gaza’s Jabalia.

The Israeli army have confirmed that the Purple Cross acquired an Israeli hostage in Gaza, studies Reuters.

Extra particulars quickly …

A feminine Israeli soldier has been seen waving from a podium arrange on the hostage handover location in Gaza, studies Reuters. Stay TV confirmed the soldier being led by armed males to the stage, in accordance with the information company.

Listed below are a few pictures which have are available in through the newswires:

Stay TV exhibits Purple Cross automobiles arriving on the hostage handover level in Gaza, studies Reuters.

Earlier, militants from Hamas and allied teams Islamic Jihad and Standard Resistance Committees arrived on the website in Khan Younis forward of the handover of Israeli hostages, in accordance with Hamas sources and witnesses.

In line with Reuters, the spokesperson of the Islamic Jihad armed wing mentioned on the Telegram platform that the group “completed procedures to hand over two Israeli hostages”.

Three Israeli hostages are to be launched on Thursday below the phrases of the ceasefire take care of Hamas have been named as Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 20, and Gadi Mozes, 80. 5 Thai nationals are additionally set to be launched, though their names haven’t been publicly launched. In trade, Israel will free 110 Palestinian prisoners, together with 30 minors, in accordance with NGO the Palestinian Prisoners’ Membership.

The primary UN company serving Palestinians within the occupied territories, together with Gaza, appears set to be shut down on Thursday as Israel defied widespread worldwide help for the company in a transfer Unrwa predicted would “sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition”.

And for a 3rd straight day, hundreds of Palestinians in southern Gaza trekked by foot, motorcycle and animal-drawn carts again to their houses within the war-ravaged north after Israeli forces withdrew from the 2 primary roads earlier this week.

The column of individuals stretched for miles alongside Gaza’s coastal highway on Wednesday. The UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mentioned that over 376,000 Palestinians had reached northern Gaza from the south.

Listed below are some newer developments:

• Ahmed al-Sharaa, the previous chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist insurgent group which led the army operation to topple Bashar al-Assad final month, has been appointed president of Syria for a “transitional period”.

• Al-Qaida’s affiliate group in Syria, Hurras al-Din, has introduced its dissolution simply weeks after the regime of Bashar al-Assad was toppled by Islamist group HTS.

• US Center East envoy Steve Witkoff visited Gaza on Wednesday, then met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US envoy met with Netanyahu alone for greater than two hours, an Israeli official mentioned, earlier than they had been joined by different ministers. An Israeli authorities spokesperson and the White Home official declined to supply any particulars on Witkoff’s go to to Gaza, which Israel’s public broadcaster Kan mentioned included an inspection of the Netzarim hall.

• An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday killed at the very least 10 Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution, the Palestinian well being ministry mentioned, in an assault which the Israeli army mentioned focused armed militants. The airstrike was within the space of Tubas, within the northern West Financial institution, the Palestinian Purple Crescent mentioned.

• Turkey on Wednesday condemned an Israeli strike that killed three of its residents who tried to illegally cross from Lebanon to Israel. “It has been learned that the three Turkish citizens, with whom contact had been lost while attempting to cross illegally from Lebanon to Israel, lost their lives as a result of an Israeli airstrike in the region,” the international ministry mentioned in a press release.

• Egypt’s president rejected on Wednesday a suggestion by President Donald Trump that Palestinians from the war-torn Gaza Strip be moved to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, saying it might undermine the concept of an unbiased Palestinian state and that an inflow of refugees might destabilise his nation. In his first public feedback on Trump’s suggestion, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi mentioned “there are historical rights that cannot be ignored” and referred to as the concept “an injustice” to which Egypt wouldn’t be get together.

• The president of the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, informed the UN common meeting that “respect for international humanitarian law is in crisis” and “threatening the very humanity that these laws seek to preserve”, citing the conditions Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Gaza, and the West Financial institution.

• The official dying toll in Gaza since Israel launched its conflict on the territory after the 7 October assaults now stands at 47,417, in accordance with the territory’s ministry of well being. In its newest day by day replace, the ministry added that the most recent determine for folks injured was 111,571.