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

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that a truce between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7am on Friday.

Oxfam warned on Thursday that the collapse of Gaza's healthcare system, alongside worsening living conditions, is leading to babies dying of preventable diseases.

The NGO said babies as young as three months old are "dying of diarrhoea, hypothermia, dehydration and infection as mothers have little to no medical support and are living in appalling conditions without water, sanitation, heat or food." 

Oxfam's partner organisation in Gaza, Juzoor, said its network of doctors noted that "premature births have increased by between 25-30 per cent, as stressed and traumatised pregnant women face a myriad of challenges, such as walking long distances in search of safety, running away from bombs and being crowded into shelters with squalid conditions." 

The aid agency said that the four-day humanitarian pause if it happens, is too short and fragile to make any meaningful difference given the scale of need and destruction.

It added that without essential equipment and medical support, premature and underweight babies have little to no chance of survival.

The Israeli army confirmed it transferred Muhammad abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, for further questioning by Israel's Security Agency or Shinbet. 

Here's the complete statement by the Israeli army:  

"The director of the al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip was apprehended and transferred for ISA questioning following evidence showing that the al-Shifa hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre. The Hamas terror tunnel network situated under the hospital also exploited electricity and resources taken from the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored numerous weapons inside the hospital and on the hospital grounds.

"Furthermore, after the Hamas massacre on 7 October, Hamas terrorists sought refuge within the hospital, some of them taking hostages from Israel with them. A pathological report also confirmed the murder of CPL Noa Marciano on the hospital premises.

"In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA questioning." 

Medical staff and the Palestine Health Ministry denied these claims. 

Reuters has posted a series of images claiming to show tunnels underneath a house near the al Shifa hospital complex. 

The Israeli government reviewed the pictures taken by a Reuters journalist embedded with the Israeli army during a tour of Gaza. 

Middle East Eye's Maha Husseini is still in Gaza and continues to give us the latest updates from southern Gaza as Israel and Hamas prepare for a truce. 

Husseini explains that Palestinians in Gaza will use the pause in fighting to collect the dead bodies of their relatives for the first time after 45 days of fighting. 

"The residents of Gaza will not be taking a break from the Israeli attacks during the truce, but rather, use this time to finally be able to retrieve the bodies of their loved who are buried under rubble and left to die on the street," said Husseini. 

"During the last few weeks, Israeli forces have been targeting civil defence crews and families of victims trying to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones. This pause would be the chance for them to bury them finally in mass graves." 

Writing on its Telegram page, the Israeli military said it intercepted approximately 35 missiles crossing from Lebanon towards Israel. 

"The IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a number of the launches. In addition, since this morning, terrorists launched a number of anti-tank missiles and mortars at various locations along the border with Lebanon," the Israeli army wrote on Telegram. 

Reports of interceptions come after an Israeli strike on Wednesday night on the village of Beit Yahoun in south Lebanon killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of a senior Hezbollah member. 

Hezbollah confirmed the death of five of its members, including Abbas Raad, who was the son of senior Hezbollah figure and member of parliament Mohammad Raad, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2019.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said Israel had detained dozens of Palestinians during raids across the West Bank on Wednesday night.

The group said Israel arrested at least 90 Palestinians as unrest continues to simmer in the occupied West Bank. 

Earlier this week, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm. 

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron began his visit to the Middle East on Thursday in Israel.

The former prime minister visited Kibbutz Be'eri, the site of Hamas's deadly assault on 7 October, accompanied by Israeli army officials.

The charity that funded the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza said it had completely evacuated the facility and moved its volunteers to Rafah. 

Sarbini Abdul Murad, the head of the Indonesian Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), confirmed the evacuation to Al Jazeera after Israel told the facility to evacuate everyone in four hours.  

“The Indonesian Hospital is now empty, and our volunteers have been moved to a school near the European Hospital in Rafah,” Murad told Al Jazeera.

“The doctors and the wounded were moved to the European Hospital. Our volunteers are sheltering at a school with thousands of others.”

A Palestinian official told AFP the scheduled truce in Gaza between Hamas and Israel was delayed due to "last minute" negotiations over which Israeli hostages would be released and how it would take place. 

The truce, scheduled to come into force on Thursday, had been pushed back over "the names of the Israeli hostages and the modalities of their release", said the official, who has knowledge of the negotiation process.

The Israeli army arrested the director of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical complex, after weeks of bombardment. 

Khalid Abu Samra, who ran a department at the hospital, told AFP that Israeli forces arrested Muhammad Abu Salima on Thursday. 

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority also reported the arrest.

Israel has ordered the Indonesian Hospital, which has faced severe bombardment over the last few weeks, to evacuate the facility in the next four hours. 

Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, told Al-Jazeera that Israel had given them the evacuation order as Israeli forces continued bombing the hospital from all sides. 

Good morning MEE readers. It is almost 9 am on Thursday morning in Gaza, a day that was originally supposed to be the start of a multi-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

However, Israel said on Wednesday that the release of captives in Gaza, which was a core element of the ceasefire agreement, would not take place before Friday, sparking concerns of when the deal would go into effect.

Qatar said on Thursday morning that an announcement regarding the start of the truce could come in a few hours. As the uncertainty over the start of the halt in fighting looms, Israeli aircraft have continued targeting areas in Gaza overnight.

If you're just joining, here's what you need to know:

• Around 200 wounded Palestinians are stuck in Indonesia hospital, which has faced an Israeli military siege this week.

• An Israeli strike on Gaza on Wednesday killed five Hezbollah members, including the son of a Lebanese member of parliament.

• At least 15 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombing in Khan Younis.

• The US downed multiple drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

• US President Joe Biden told his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that he was opposed to the forced relocation of Gaza residents.

Germany's interior ministry said it was conducting searches in relation to the activities of Hamas, as well as the Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun, which have been banned in the country.

"We continue our consistent action against radical Islamists," German interior minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.

"With the bans on HAMAS and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of the barbaric terror of HAMAS against Israel."

Hamas is already a designated terrorist group in Germany, however, Samidoun was only recently banned in Germany earlier this month.