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

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it has “approved battle plans” for after the temporary truce comes to an end, according to Israeli media reports. 

During a meeting in the southern command headquarters, the Israeli army chief of staff said: “We know what needs to be done, and are ready for the next stage.” 
 

Family members of the youngest Israeli hostage being held in Gaza, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, said on Wednesday that they have been informed of Hamas reports that the infant, his brother and mother have been killed, but they are awaiting official notification from Israeli authorities.

"Our family has learned of Hamas' latest claims," a statement from the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said. "We are waiting for the information to be confirmed and hopefully refuted by military officials."
 

Hamas is expecting to release two hostages with Russian citizenship on Wednesday, in a gesture of “appreciation” for the position taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin since the start of the war, a top Hamas official said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the two hostages also hold Israeli citizenship.

The announcement was made by Moussa Abu Marzouk, an official from Hamas's political wing.
 

The Palestinian Prisoners Society has called on international organisations and governments to put pressure on Israel to end violations and mistreatment against Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. 

On Wednesday, the society said that Israeli forces are carrying out “systematic attacks and crimes against Palestinians in prisons. They are subjecting us to dangerous conditions, and have turned prisons into cemeteries.”

The statement added that the attacks against prisoners has caused the death of a number of Palestinians, and “threats have continued to carry out more".  

“Israeli forces in jails tell us they have instructions to kill us if we protest the punitive measures against us. You must stand up to your moral and humanitarian responsibilities by stopping and restraining the occupation forces from committing crimes against us,” the statement said. 
 

A college in Luton has suspended its relationship with the British subsidiary of an Italian aerospace company that supplies components to the Israeli military after hundreds of students walked out of their classes to protest for Palestine.

Luton Sixth Form College confirmed its decision on Wednesday after hundreds of students walked out of their class to oppose Leonardo, and its presence on campus. 

Earlier this month, images posted online and sent to Middle East Eye showed hundreds of students gathered on the college courtyard to protest against its involvement with Leonardo and in support of Palestine.

Following the protest, the college disbanded the student council, which organised the demonstration and presented the call to oppose Leonardo. 

Hassan Sajjad, who chaired the student council, confirmed to Middle East Eye that students will continue protesting until the college completely cuts ties to Leonardo.

"We're going to continue placing pressure till the college cuts ties with Leonardo and ensure that the college has transparency in its decision," said Sajjad.

Sajjad said the head of the college had told him that he planned to speak to Leonardo representatives to hear their perspective, "so nothing is concrete at this time".

Sajjad added: "The decision to disband the student council was done behind closed doors without informing them of whether or not they want to finish this year's session early. So we want that element of student input to be stronger within the college."

READ MORE: Israel-Palestine war: Luton college suspends ties with arms firm after student protest 

The Gaza based doctor Ashraf al-Qidreh told AFP on Wednesday that Israeli soldiers "forbade" doctors and families from approaching five premature babies, who died in hospital before the temprary truce between Israel and Hamas came into force.

The five premature babies were discovered dead in a hospital in Gaza City, the Palestinian Ministry of Health told the news agency.

"The occupying forces left five premature babies in the intensive care unit of al-Nasr hospital," one of Gaza 's main paediatric hospitals , said doctor Ashraf al-Qidreh.

“The soldiers were forbidding doctors and families from approaching them and when the doctors were able to enter the ward on Tuesday evening, they found their bodies partly decomposed,” he added.

AFP contacted the Israeli army, who said they could not comment immediately.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called for Gaza's vulnerable health infrastructure to be safeguarded as the enclave faces an increased risk of epidemics and challenges in detecting infectious diseases.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, the WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only 15 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were still functioning and they were completely overwhelmed.

The WHO has sounded the alarm about the spread of infectious disease in Gaza, where the internal displacement of the population has caused overcrowding in shelters and other temporary living facilities.

The agency has noted a staggering increase in cases of diarrhoea, especially among infants and children, and detected "very serious signals around acute jaundice syndrome" in the enclave.

"With severe overcrowding, the risks are increasing for epidemics of respiratory tract infections, acute watery diarrhoea, hepatitis, scabies, lice and other diseases," Ghebreyesus said.

Mike Ryan, head of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said the detection of infectious diseases in Gaza had become more complicated given that samples could no longer be sent to Israel or the West Bank for processing.

"Not only has Gaza lost its hospital capability, it has lost its ability to confirm even the most basic of diseases," he said. "This creates a blindspot where we have huge risk of epidemic diseases."

Jordan is set to host  an international conference attended by the main UN bodies and regional and international relief agencies to coordinate humanitarian aid to war-devastated Gaza, official media said on Wednesday.

The conference is planned for 30 November, with UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and key UN bodies and Non Governmental Organisations set to be attending the conference, along with representatives of western and Arab countries.
 

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that a resumption of fighting in Gaza threatens to "devour the region."

"A resumption in fighting would only, most likely, turn into a calamity that devours the whole region," he said.
 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Adam al-Ghoul, nine, and Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa, 15, were killed by soldiers in Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank.

On Tuesday evening Israeli forces launched an all-out assault on the camp, which is a major source of resistance and has been invaded repeatedly over the past year, especially since Hamas's 7 October attack on southern Israel.

CCTV footage of Ghoul's killing was greeted with outrage on social media.

Read more: Two Palestinian children shot dead in Jenin refugee camp in West Bank

The United Nations' secretary general said on Wednesday that inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are experiencing "a monumental humanitarian catastrophe”.

Antonio Guterres called for a “real ceasefire” and said that the world “must not look away".

“The volume of aid reaching the Palestinians in Gaza is still completely insufficient to meet the needs of more than two million people,” particularly for fuel, insisted the secretary general, who once again called for the opening of other points of passage into the Gaza Strip, including Rafah.
 

In his latest column for Middle East Eye, academic and activist Azzam Tamimi says that a short-term prisoner exchange deal could be the precursor to a broader truce agreement. 

He writes: "The idea of a long-term hudna (truce) between Israel and the Palestinians originated in the early 1990s. It was referenced in February 1994 by Musa Abu Marzuq, who then headed the Hamas political bureau, in a statement published by the Amman weekly Al-Sabeel, the organ of the Jordanian Islamic movement. 

A similar reference to this concept inside Palestine was made around the same time by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin from his prison cell. He proposed a hudna as an interim solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

Hamas repeated the offer on several occasions thereafter, but it failed to interest the Israelis. In recent days, the notion of a hudna has again been referenced by various Hamas spokespersons.

A hudna is recognised in Islamic jurisprudence as a legitimate and binding contract whose objective is to cease fighting with the enemy for an agreed period of time. It may be short or long, depending on mutual needs and interests."

You can read the full column below. 

Opinion: Could a long-term truce be in the offing?

Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said on Wednesday that 10-month-old child Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother and their mother were killed during previous Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said it was checking the claim. 

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the assertion.