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

A suspect has been arrested after three Palestinian students were shot on Saturday night in the US state of Vermont in a suspected hate-motivated crime. 

CNN reported that Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested on Sunday afternoon. 

Three Palestinian students, wearing keffiyehs and speaking in Arabic, were en route to dinner when they were shot by an unidentified gunman in Burlington over the weekend. 

The three 2o-year-old students, identified as Tahseen Ahmed of Trinity College, Connecticut, Kinnan Abdel Hamid of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Hisham Awartani of Brown University, Rhode Island, are graduates of the Ramallah Friends School in the Occupied West Bank.

"In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime," Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.

"That there is an indication that this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritised [by police]", said Miro Weinberger, mayor of Burlington.

All three remained under medical care on Sunday, two with gunshot wounds in their torsos and one shot in the lower extremities. "Two are stable, while one has sustained much more serious injuries," police said.

A Thai Muslim group which spoke directly with Hamas officials said its efforts were the driving force in securing the release of Thai captives from Gaza during the ongoing temporary truce.

Three Thai hostages were released on Sunday, taking the number of Thai nationals freed since the four-day truce began on Friday to 17.

"We were the sole party that spoke to Hamas since the beginning of the war to ask for the release of Thais," Lerpong Syed, president of the Thai-Iran Alumni Association, told Reuters on Monday.

Lerpong is part of a group of Thai Muslims brought together by the country's parliamentary speaker Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, which travelled to Tehran in October and spoke with Hamas officials.

"If Thailand only relied on the foreign ministry or asked other countries for help - the chances of getting released with the first group would be very low," he said.

The group told Hamas officials during a three-hour meeting that Thais were not party to the conflict and should be freed. The Palestinian group assured them that Thais would be released first and unconditionally once there was a halt in fighting, Lerpong said.

"Our team hit the right spot from the beginning by going to Iran and talking directly to Hamas," said politician Areepen Uttarasin, another member of the Thai group.

The Thai foreign ministry said on Monday that it was exerting all its efforts to secure the release of 15 remaining Thai hostages.

Hello MEE readers.

It is now 9am in Gaza on the fourth day of the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel. The original agreement between the two parties was to hold a four-day truce, with the potential of it being extended for several days.

Hamas has said it is willing to extend the truce, and US President Joe Biden has also supported the extension. Qatar has said Hamas must locate 40 captives not held by the group in Gaza if it wants to be able to extend the halt in fighting.

Here's a recap of the past several hours:

• A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group told Al Jazeera that the proposal to extend the humanitarian truce is still under “evaluation” by PIJ.
   
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Egypt for its role in helping reach a deal for the release of captives held by Hamas in Gaza.
   
• Ahead of a 10 October address, US President Joe Biden rejected advice from his staffers to omit a line referencing an unverified claim that Hamas beheaded babies.
   
• Thailand's prime minister said the three Thai captives released by Hamas are in good health conditions. 
   
• The US Navy said that its aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower crossed the Strait of Hormuz and reached the waters of the Gulf.
   
• The US also said two ballistic missiles coming from Houthi-held Yemen landed just 10 miles away from an American vessel.