Israel-Palestine live: Israel says 39 more Palestinians freed under truce deal

The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that "much more aid" is needed for the people of Gaza. 

"We welcome the start of the humanitarian pause in Gaza and the movement of humanitarian aid, including for health," said Ghebreyesus in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

"It's a step in the right direction, but much more is needed," he said, adding: "We continue to call for sustained ceasefire to end further civilian suffering."

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said a “cautious calm” has returned to the country’s southern border with Israel which coincides with the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. 

Since 7 October, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen deadly exchanges of fire, mainly involving the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, with scores of fighters and civilians killed. 

An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that there have been no subsequent incidents or firing so far across the Lebanon border since the truce began at 7 am local time.

The Israeli army has withdrawn from the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and has blown up a number of its facilities, according to the Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency. 

For weeks Israel alleged that one of Gaza's largest hospitals was a "command and control centre" for Hamas.

Israel failed to produce much evidence of that despite controlling the medical facility for more than a week.

This morning in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Israeli army claimed it destroyed "terrorist tunnels" at the hospital, without providing evidence.

Aid trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel entered Gaza from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Friday within hours of the truce taking effect.

Israeli troops killed two Palestinians and wounded at least 11 others as they sought to enter the north of Gaza, the Associated Press is reporting. 

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 the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have sought refuge in southern Gaza not to attempt to return to their homes in the northern half of the territory, which is the focus of Israel’s ground offensive.

We have been spending sleepless nights under Israeli bombs again for close to two months now - but this time, the level of brutality is unprecedented. 

Unlike previous wars and massacres in Gaza, this one is a combination of ethnic cleansing and genocide, with the direct involvement of former colonial powers. Israel’s murderous campaign of bombardment against one of the most densely populated areas on earth has killed mostly children and women. 

Since 7 October, Israel has flattened neighbourhoods, destroyed vital infrastructure, and hit United Nations schools and camps where displaced Palestinians have been taking refuge. 

Without a military embargo and sanctions against apartheid Israel, Gaza will drown in the Mediterranean Sea, along with its 2.3 million citizens - a dream the late Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, once had. Complicit governments around the world must be compelled to act in accordance with the will of their people and hold Israel accountable for its war crimes.

To read the full story, click below.

A temporary truce is not enough. Israel must face global sanctions

At least seven Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli fire as they were trying to return to their homes in north Gaza on Friday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians who attempted to go back to their demolished homes after the temporary truce came into effect. 

Some of those wounded have been evacuated to a hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
 

International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories has confirmed the death of one of its aid workers who had worked for more than 20 years for them. 

"We are devastated by the killing of our valued colleague Abdellatif Ali Moussa, along with several of his family, in northern Gaza," they said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Palestinians in Gaza are returning to their homes to salvage what they can and doing their best to return to some form of normalcy after seven weeks of war.

Palestinian families start moving around what's left of Gaza without fear of being bombed for the first time in more than six weeks. The first hours of a four-day truce have started and a prisoner exchange is also set to take place today.

According to Reuters the group of Palestinians being released today will include 24 women and 15 teenage boys. 

Qadura Fares, Palestinian commissioner for prisoners, said that the Palestinian prisoners will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Israel’s Ofer military jail at about (14:00 GMT).

“After the Red Cross receives the [Palestinian] prisoners, the ones from Jerusalem will go to Jerusalem and the ones from the West Bank will gather in Betunia municipal council where their families will be waiting,” Fares told Reuters.

We should have more information about the identity of the individuals as the day progresses.

Middle East Eye's Maha Hussaini is still on the ground in Gaza. She reports that Israeli forces are firing towards Palestinians to deter them from returning home during the four-day truce. 

"Israeli forces open fire towards Palestinians trying to return to their homes east of Maghazi in Central Gaza, around two and a half hours after the pause went into effect," said Hussaini. 

"I'm standing on the rooftop of our house of refuge, and I can hear Israeli gun machines in the east." 

Israel warned Palestinians that the "war is not over" as scores in Gaza returned to their homes during the first day of the four-day truce.

AFP reports that at dawn, thousands of people who had fled to areas near Gaza's border with Egypt were preparing to return to their villages.

Minutes after the truce took effect, 16-year-old Omar Jibrin emerged from a hospital in the south of the territory where he and eight family members had sought refuge. 

"I'm going home," he told AFP as he began the journey.

Israeli warplanes over southern Gaza dropped leaflets warning people not to head back to the north.

"The war is not over yet," the leaflets read. "Returning to the north is forbidden and very dangerous!!!"

Displaced Gaza residents who have been sheltering for weeks are returning home as a temporary truce begins.

After the four-day pause in fighting went into effect on Friday morning, many Palestinians appeared to have relief fill their faces

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— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 24, 2023