Israel-Hamas latest updates: Talks of Gaza truce at ‘critical stage’

Ireland’s deputy premier has said “the bones of an agreement” on the release of hostages by Hamas exists, PA reports.

Nine-year-old Irish-Israeli child Emily Hand is believed to be among the hostages.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Micheal Martin said: “We want all hostages released. We have raised the case of Emily Hand with all of the key governments and agencies which may have influence and channels with people who could affect the release of hostages and particularly Emily Hand.

“We have prioritised the release of children and older people and that is our focus. I hope and I pray that Emily Hand will be freed along with other hostages.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent have not had access to the hostages, I understand, in terms of verification and proof of life of any hostage – and that obviously remains a matter of deep anxiety for the families of all involved.”

He added: “We know that the bones of an agreement is there. I think what we’re all waiting for now is the realisation of it and the release of hostages.”

Israel has a “clear objective” of forcing displaced people in Gaza to leave the territory by bombing its southern region, Egypt’s foreign ministry has said.

"Egypt has clearly declared its utter rejection of any enforced displacement attempt of Palestinians," the ministry's spokesman posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Israel issued an evacuation order in parts of southern Gaza last week, having told Palestinians earlier in the war to flee the north ahead of bombardments aimed at eliminating Hamas.

Pointing towards an expansion of the IDF’s operation on Friday, Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, told reporters that troops would attack “wherever Hamas exists, including in the south of the strip”.

Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, by southern Gaza, has served as a lifeline for Palestinians as it allows the delivery of aid.

It has also been used to get foreign passport holders and some wounded Palestinians out of Gaza.

The dizzying death toll in the Gaza Strip — around 13,000 people, according to officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory — and the increasingly dire situation for more than 2 million civilians trapped in the enclave have fuelled mounting calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, and representatives have been working around the clock for weeks toward an agreement during complicated negotiations in Qatar.

Read the full story from CBS News

A source close to ongoing negotiations has said an agreement to free hostages is in its “final stages” and “closer than it has ever been”.

The deal is expected to include the release of around 50 civilian hostages in exchange for female and minor-aged Palestinian detainees from Israeli custody.

It will also likely include a multi-day pause in fighting and the delivery of aid to Gaza.

A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were cantered on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives.

Both sides would free women and children and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official.

Israel has remained more tight-lipped on the talks, but the country’s Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations quoted unidentified officials as saying a deal could be reached “within hours”.

Israel has launched another strike on Lebanon near the border – this time killing for people, Lebanese media reports.

The strike on Tuesday hit a car near the southern city of Tyre, according to Lebanese state news agency NNA.

It followed reports of another strike in the nearby town of Tayr Harfa, which Lebanese media said killed two journalists from a TV crew and a third person.

Since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began on 7 October, border clashes between the IDF and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have been at their worst since a war in 2006.

Cross-border strikes have killed more than 70 Hezbollah militants, 13 Lebanese civilians, seven Israeli troops and three Israeli civilians.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has accused Israel of attempting to “silence the media” following a strike that killed two reporters and one other person near the border.

Lebanese state media and the channel, Al Mayadeen, claimed the strike, near the town of Tayr Harfa, had deliberately targeted its TV crew because the channel is pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran's regional military alliance.

Mikati was reported by local media as saying: "This attack proves once more that Israeli crimes know no limit and that (Israel's) aim is to silence the media who expose its crimes and its attacks.”

Israel is yet to comment on the strike – the latest in a series of border clashes following rocket attacks by Lebanese militants from Hezbollah, who are allies of Hamas and Iran.

The border clashes have fuelled concerns among the West of the Israel-Hamas conflict spilling out further across the Middle East region.

Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf will lead a debate on a ceasefire in Gaza today which MSPs are expected to support.

The SNP leader tabled a motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the conflict, while also condemning the “barbaric and unjustifiable” Hamas attacks of 7 October and demanding the release of hostages.

Yousaf said the vote was an “opportunity to unite to send a message of peace to world leaders”, adding that a ceasefire is “the only way to end the tragic deaths of civilians”.

Yousaf’s in-laws, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, visited family ahead of the 7 October attack, initially becoming trapped in Gaza when the conflict started before fleeing to Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The pair had to leave family in the region, including their son, who works as a doctor, and who Yousaf said was in a “terrible way”.

Scottish Labour confirmed on Monday the party would back the calls for a ceasefire, while a report in The Scotsman newspaper claimed the Scottish Lib Dems would also vote in favour.

The day after the border between Gaza and Egypt opened, the Abushaabans left the Khan Younis refugee camp and headed for the Rafah crossing.

With the crackle and thump of gunfire and airstrikes in the distance, the two women walked south, praying that their names were on a list of American nationals allowed to enter Egypt and that they would soon be able to go back to their home in Houston, Texas.

Half of those prayers was answered. The elder Abushaaban was on the list, but her 20-year-old daughter was not.

Read the full story from The Guardian here

The World Health Organisation has said three hospitals in Gaza have asked for its help in evacuating patients and that planning is underway.

Describing evacuations as a last resort at a briefing in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said: "It's robbing the entire population of the north of the means to seek health [care],"

The three hospitals were Al Shifa, from which a group of premature babies has already been rescued, the Indonesian Hospital and Al Ahli Hospital.

"So far it's only in planning stages with no further details," Lindmeier added.

A new group of officials from several Muslim countries will visit the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members calling for a Gaza ceasefire, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

The coalition is understood to have been formed earlier this month at a summit of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh

It includes foreign ministers and representatives from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority, as well as the OIC secretary general.

The source said the group had started talking with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France - with a visit to Beijing on Monday, and would also visit other countries.

They said the “primary goal” is to help secure a ceasefire and aid deliveries to Gaza, while the “end goal” is to contribute to an acceptable two-state solution.

The group will meet Rishi Sunak and French president Emmanuel Macron during visits to Britain and France on Wednesday, the source added.

At least 50 journalists have been killed in Israel’s latest war with Hamas, making it the deadliest month for the profession since statistics began in 1992.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the second-deadliest day for journalists was on 18 November, when five were killed.

The watchdog said the first day of the war, 7 October, was the deadliest, with six journalists killed.

Here are some of its figures (as of 21 November):

· 50 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 45 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese.

· 11 journalists were reported injured.

· Three journalists were reported missing.

· 18 journalists were reported arrested.

· Multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members.

You can read more about the CPJ’s findings here.

Two journalists and a third person were killed by a rocket strike near Lebanon's border with Israel on Tuesday, the Lebanese state news agency reported.

The agency said the incident took place near the town of Tir Harfa, about a mile from the Israeli frontier.

It follows a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists describing the Israel-Hamas war as the deadliest for journalists since records began three decades ago.

Lebanon's Al Mayadeen TV, which the two killed reporters were working for, reported that Israel had carried out the attack and deliberately targeted the journalists.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah – an ally of Hamas – has raised fears of the conflict spilling elsewhere in the Middle East and drawing in both the United States and Iran.

The latest border violence has killed more than 70 Hezbollah fighters, 13 Lebanese civilians, seven Israeli troops and three Israeli civilians.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said the Islamist group “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and has delivered its response to Qatari mediators.

His statement gave no more details, but a Hamas official told Al Jazeera that negotiations the deal would include the release of female and child hostages from Gaza.

This is likely to be in exchange for the freeing of women and children being held in Israeli jails, with details of the final agreement expected to be announced by Qatar.

The official said the truce would last a “number of days” and would also include the entry of aid into Gaza.

Israel is yet to comment, but the country’s Channel 12 television quoted an unidentified senior government source saying "they are close" but giving no further details.

Around 240 hostages were taken by Hamas gunmen and dragged back to Gaza during the militant group’s 7 October attack, which saw 1,200 people in Israel killed.

Tens of Palestinian patients were evacuated late on Monday (November 20) from Gaza's Indonesian Hospital to al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Reuters reports.

Gaza's health ministry said on Monday that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into an Indonesian-built hospital encircled by Israeli tanks. Israel says it shot back at fighters who opened fire from inside it.

Health officials said 700 patients along with staff were under Israeli fire, and have denied any fighters were present.

The health ministry released a video on Tuesday (November 21) showing buses arriving at al-Nasser hospital and patients being moved into the crowded emergency room.

Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video from the nearby buildings, greenery, interior decoration, and road layout which matched the file image and satellite image. Reuters was not able to independently confirm the date the videos were filmed.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "appalled" by the attack that he too said had killed 12 people, including patients, citing unspecified reports.