Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

Good evening MEE readers, 

On the seventh day of the temporary truce in Gaza, more Palestinians and Israelis have been released as part of a prisoner exchange. 

A one-day extension in the halt in fighting - which was agreed after frantic last- minute mediation efforts - is set to expire on Friday. 

Here’s a recap from the last few hours: 

• Thirty more Palestinian prisoners are being released on Thursday night, while eight Israeli captives held in Gaza have been freed and handed over to the Red Cross.
   
• At least three people were killed and six injured in a shooting attack near the entrance to the city of Jerusalem. Israeli authorities said two shooters had been “neutralised on the spot”. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
   
• A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces north of the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. Karam Bani Odeh, 25, died from his wounds after Israeli authorities prevented medics from reaching him.
   
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Israel that the Israeli military had an “obligation” to minimise harm towards Palestinian civilians when fighting resumes.
   
• Loosening of rules within the Israeli army on attacking "non-military" targets may have contributed to the massive death toll in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, a new investigation has suggested.
   
• More than 1,300 artists and cultural figures have signed a statement accusing arts institutions in western countries of censoring Palestinian voices and solidarity.
   
• Israel summoned Spain's ambassador to the country for a reprimand after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez questioned whether Israel was respecting international humanitarian law in Gaza. 

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari has published further details on the Palestinians and Israelis released on Thursday. 

He said the freed Palestinian detainees consisted of 23 minors and seven women. 

"The Israeli hostages who were released include 2 minors & 6 women of dual nationality," Ansari added, stating they included a Mexican, a Russian and a Uruguayan. 

He said all the Israeli captives were handed over to the Red Cross.

Six Israeli captives held in Gaza have been handed over to the Red Cross and are on their way to Israel, the Israeli military announced on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Hamas handed over two female captives to the Red Cross.

Thirty Palestinian prisoners will be freed on Thursday in exchange for the release of 10 captives held in Gaza, Qatar's foreign ministry has announced. 

Spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said that two Russian citizens released on Wednesday were part of the list of the 10 captives. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he made clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must put in place protections for civilians in Gaza when it resumes its military operations in the enclave. 

"The way Israel defends itself matters. It's imperative that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war. Even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither," Blinken told reporters on Thursday at a press conference in Tel Aviv. 

"In my meetings today with the prime minister and senior Israeli officials, I made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must put in place, humanitarian civilian protection plans that minimise further casualties of innocent Palestinians."

He added: "Israel has ... one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. It is capable of neutralising the threat posed by Hamas while minimising harm to innocent men, women and children. And it has an obligation to do so. 

Ultimately, that's not just the right thing to do. It's also in Israel's security interest."

Blinken told reporters that Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet agreed with such an approach. 

"We discussed the details of Israel's ongoing planning, and I underscore the imperative of the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza, not be repeated in the south, as I told the prime minister intent matters, but so does the result," he said. 

Israel forcibly ejected over 1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza and told them to flee south of the enclave.

But no area of the Gaza Strip has been safe for Palestinians, with relentless Israeli bombing of both northern and southern areas.

In his latest column for Middle East Eye, academic and author Joseph Massad argues that Israel has no credibility outside of the West due to its "staggering record of lies". 

He writes: "Since 1948, Israel has accumulated a staggering record of lies, myths, and fabrications - just as the Zionist movement has done since its birth. Over the last 75 years, Arab and European researchers worked extensively to debunk these lies. Since the mid-1980s, Israeli historians have also exposed Israel’s fabrications through its own official state and military archives.

Israel’s biggest lie of all is its very foundation, which rested on the major Zionist crime of ethnic cleansing. Between 30 November 1947 and 14 May 1948, when colonists declared the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionists expelled 400,000 Palestinians from their homes and 350,000 more by December 1948.

During their war of ethnic cleansing, Zionist gangs committed dozens of massacres and a slew of violent crimes, including the rape of Palestinian women and girls. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, Israel and its propagandists continue to insist that Palestinians were not expelled and had left of their own accord."

You can read the full column below. 

Opinion: Why Israeli claims have no credibility outside of the West

Israeli President Isaac Herzog met his UAE counterpart on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai on Thursday.

During his meeting with Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Herzog stressed "the necessity to act in any way possible to free the Israeli hostages held captive by the murderous terrorist organisation Hamas," a statement from his office said.

He called on Mohammed bin Zayed "to employ his full political weight to promote and speed up the return home of the hostages".

"In my meetings with world leaders, I intend to raise the firm demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza," Herzog said.

"In addition, I will detail and emphasise efforts to provide more and more humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to speak at Cop28, but his office said he was no longer attending and would be replaced by his foreign minister.

The UAE normalised relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords brokered by former US President Donald Trump's administration. 

The Emirates have dispatched a 150-bed field hospital to Gaza and pledged to take in 1,000 Palestinian children and an equal number of Palestinian cancer patients for treatment.

Qatar, along with Egypt, has taken the lead role in negotiating a temporary truce in Gaza to help release captives held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

For Qatar, sealing a ceasefire to the Israel-Palestine war would realise its ambitions as being the Middle East’s troubleshooter, allowing it to cement diplomatic gains in Gaza while fending off some criticism in the West over its ties to Hamas. 

The stakes couldn't be higher. 

"I don't think Israel wanted its main interlocutor to be Qatar but that’s the reality it has to deal with," Kirsten Fontenrose, a former head of Gulf affairs at the White House, told Middle East Eye.

"Qatar has come through as a saviour to the Biden administration time and again," Fontenrose said. "The hostage deal has just cemented that role."

MEE journalist Sean Matthews takes a look at Doha's role in negotiations during the conflict. 

Read more: With its fixer role in the limelight, Qatar eyes a full ceasefire

A Palestinian man was shot dead on Thursday by Israeli forces north of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

Karam Bani Odeh, 25, was shot by Israeli forces near the Jordan Valley village of Atuf, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Medics were denied by Israeli authorities from treating Bani Odeh, according to local reports. He was later pronounced dead from his wounds. 

The loosening of rules within the Israeli army on attacking "non-military" targets may have contributed to the massive death toll in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, a new report has suggested.

A joint investigation by Israeli outlets 972+ Mag and Local Call, including interviews with multiple current and former intelligence officials, indicates that lower expectations on limiting civilian targets were combined with the use of AI to generate a wider range of targets, which one person branded a "mass assassination factory".

In at least one case, sources said Israeli army intelligence approved the death of hundreds of Palestinians as part of an attempt to assassinate one Hamas military commander.

When compared with previous Gaza assaults, there has been a major expansion of "non-military targets", with private residences, infrastructure and high-rise blocks - all defined as "power targets" - now fair game for attacks.

Read more: Israeli army relaxed rules for bombing 'non-military targets' in Gaza

The Israeli military said it has intercepted an "aerial target" that crossed from Lebanon.

Witnesses heard blasts along the southeastern Lebanese border, according to Reuters. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The Israeli army said it had "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory" on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) told Reuters that a launch had been detected from Lebanon towards Israel, followed by Israeli attacks in response.

At around 5pm local time, shells landed in the vicinity of Marwahin, a village in south Lebanon on the border with Israel, according to a Unifil spokesperson.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, will visit Israel and occupied Palestine.

The visit to Israel was at the request of survivors and families of victims of Hamas's attack on Israeli communities on 7 October.

Khan will also meet Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

"The visit, while not investigative in nature, represents an important opportunity to express sympathy for all victims and engage in dialogue," the ICC said on X. 

Earlier this month, three Palestinian rights groups asked the ICC to investigate Israel for war crimes, including genocide. The ICC said it had received communication from the groups and would assess the information. 

Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and is not a member of the Hague-based court. 

However, the ICC can investigate nationals of non-member states in some circumstances, including when alleged crimes are committed in the territories of member states. Occupied Palestine is a member of the ICC.

More than 1,300 artists and cultural figures have signed a statement accusing arts institutions in western countries of censoring Palestinian voices and solidarity. 

The letter was signed by Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman, and Olivier Award winners Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson, among hundreds of others. 

"As artists, we cannot remain silent in the face of such egregious violations of international humanitarian law," the letter states.

"While catastrophe unfolds, we have observed a glaring absence of statements of solidarity with Palestinian people from most UK arts organisations."

It adds: "Far from supporting our calls for an end to the violence, many cultural institutions in Western countries are systematically repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives.

This includes targeting and threatening the livelihoods of artists and arts workers who express solidarity with Palestinians, as well as cancelling performances, screenings, talks, exhibitions and book launches."

You can read the full letter and list of signatories here. 

Hamas handed over two Israeli women held captive in Gaza to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City on Thursday, a Palestinian official told Reuters.

Israeli authorities named the women as Mia Schem, 21, and Amit Sosana, 40. Schem also holds French nationality.

A video shared on social media showed the moment Schem's mother found out that her daughter was being released.