No hostages to be released before Friday, Israel says

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New York police on Wednesday arrested a former US State Department official and adviser to President Barack Obama after he was captured on video calling an Egyptian halal street vendor a terrorist and saying the death of 4,000 Palestinian children "wasn't enough".

Stuart Seldowitz, 64, was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking at a place of employment, police said in a statement.

"A 24-year-old male victim stated to police that an individual approached him at his work place multiple times and made anti-Islamic statements multiple times on different dates causing the victim to feel afraid and annoyed," police said.

Nagham Mohanna reports from Gaza:

Israeli forces on Wednesday night arrested the director of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a doctor has told The National.

Soldiers arrested hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya and a number of medical personnel, said Khaled Abu Samra, a doctor who was evacuated from the hospital following Israeli raids on the complex.

Israel has launched multiple raids on the hospital, the largest in Gaza, claiming Hamas has a base at the site, but it has yet to provide evidence of a militant headquarters.

Gaza's health ministry has firmly rejected the claims of a Hamas presence at the hospital, including Israeli assertions of tunnels under the complex.

Dozens have been killed in overnight air strikes on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian media has reported, just hours before a temporary truce was due to begin.

Air strikes were "violently concentrated" in the south of the enclave, the Wafa news agency reported, with a "belt of fire" seen in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Four people were killed in the bombing of a house in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza, while dozens of others were killed and many more injured in strikes on homes in Sheikh Radwan, Gaza City.

The temporary truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, due to begin at 10am local time today, has reportedly been delayed as various parties work to finalise "logistical details" of the agreement, US officials have said.

"The deal was agreed and remains agreed. The parties are working out final logistical details particularly for the first day of implementation,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Wednesday night.

“It is our view that nothing should be left to chance as the hostages begin coming home. Our primary objective is to ensure that they are brought home safely. That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning.”

More time is needed to finalise the logistics of moving hostages and what route they will take, an unnamed official was quoted by CNN as saying, adding the delay was approved by Egypt and Qatar.

They also confirmed Israel has not received a list of hostages to be released on the first day of the truce.

A US warship shot down several attack drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Thursday morning, the Central Command has said, the second time in two weeks.

The USS Thomas Hudner, a guided-missile destroyer, shot down "multiple one way-attack drones launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen", CENTCOM said in a statement on social media platform X.

"The drones were shot down while the US warship was on patrol in the Red Sea. The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury," it added.

The ship also shot down a drone launched from Yemen last Wednesday.

The Houthis have vowed to keep targeting Israel as the war in Gaza continues, launching a series of drones aimed at Israel and seizing a partially Israeli-owned ship this week.

The National Editorial:

It is a worrying reflection of how brutal the Middle East’s latest war has been that a relatively limited cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas – which is due to begin today – has been so contested and so long in coming.

Nevertheless, should the proposed four-day halt in the Israeli bombing campaign and exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian detainees – many of them civilians – take place, aid and some limited freedom of movement may become available to millions of beleaguered Gazan civilians.

For a Palestinian civilian population that has been corralled into a killing zone for a war it didn’t start, a respite is the very least that can be secured by world powers.

Read more

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud reaffirmed their commitment to preventing further spread of the Israel-Palestinian conflict when they spoke on Wednesday, the State Department said.

Mr Blinken also welcomed Saudi Arabia’s efforts to secure a durable peace agreement in Yemen, the State Department said. 

-Reuters

An Israeli strike on the village of Beit Yahoun in south Lebanon on Wednesday evening killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of a senior member, according to the organisation and security sources.

The group announced on late Wednesday night the death of five of its members, bringing the total toll of Hezbollah fighters killed since violence broke out along the border to 85.

Among those named was Abbas Raad, who sources said was the son of senior Hezbollah figure and member of parliament Mohammad Raad, who had sanctions imposed by the US in 2019.

Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have traded rocket fire along the Lebanese border after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, and that its troops and aircraft hit two cells that fired at Israeli troops or tried to launch rockets into Israel.

- Reuters

Jihan Abdalla reports from Washington:

US President Joe Biden held calls on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim, amid intense diplomatic efforts to secure a temporary truce in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas.

Israel and Hamas earlier agreed to a four-day pause, during which aid would be allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip and 50 women and child hostages would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

The truce was initially set to begin on Thursday. But a last-minute delay in negotiations pushed it to Friday at the earliest, according to Israeli officials.

“The two leaders discussed the pause in the fighting, which will allow for surging in much needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” the White House said of the call with Mr Netanyahu.

It said Mr Biden would continue to work towards securing the release of the remaining hostages.

Read more

Mariam Nihal reports from Saudi Arabia:

Saudi Arabia plans to send two more shiploads of aid to Gaza.

“Next Saturday, the second Saudi ship, and Tuesday the third ship, with thousands of tonnes of relief on board,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Patrick deHahn reports:

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the hostage release deal and pause in fighting in a phone call on Wednesday.

"The Prime Minister thanked the President for his tireless efforts, and those of his team, to help broker this deal," the White House said.

"The two leaders agreed that the work is not yet done and the President assured the Prime Minister that he will continue working to secure the release of all remaining hostages."

Mr Biden repeated to Mr Netanyahu that calm should be restored along the border with Lebanon, and in the West Bank.

The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday that about 1,037,000 internally displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter in 156 UNRWA centres across the Gaza Strip.

In its report, the aid agency said that 108 of its workers have been killed in the Gaza conflict.

The information in the report was valid as of Tuesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the UNRWA’s Secretary General, Philippe Lazzarini, warned in southern Gaza warning that the suffering of Palestinians will only worsen with the coming of winter.

Mr Lazzarini also said that the besieged territory is on the verge of an outbreak of waterborne disease.

The temporary truce has been welcomed by the UNRWA, whose leaders have continually called for a ceasefire.

- AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has instructed the country's Mossad spy agency to track down the leadership of the Hamas group living in other countries outside Gaza.

“I have instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas, wherever they are,” Mr Netanyahu told a news conference.

Most of Hamas’s top leadership lives in exile.

The Mossad has been accused of assassinations overseas of Palestinian militants and Iranian nuclear scientists over the years.

- AP

Patrick deHahn reports:

US President Joe Biden on Friday called Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim to "express his appreciation" to Qatar, its leader and his team for the hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

"The two leaders committed to remain in close contact to ensure the deal is fully implemented and to ultimately secure the release of all hostages," the White House said.

Mr Biden also called Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to thank him for his role in negotiations, and discussed humanitarian operations as part of the deal.

Israel's National Security Adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said late on Wednesday that no hostages held by Hamas in Gaza would be released before Friday, despite the two sides agreeing to a temporary truce.

"Negotiations for the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing all the time," Mr Hanegbi said in a statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

"The releases will start according to the original agreement between the sides and not before Friday."

The swap is to take place as part of a four-day truce expected to begin on Thursday.

Mr Hanegbi gave no explanation for the delay, and it was not immediately clear when the temporary truce might begin.

Israeli media has reported Hamas is yet to send a list of the first hostages to be released, delaying the implementation of the agreement.

While the PM's office published a list of hostages it expects may be released, their identities have not been confirmed.

Adla Massoud reports from the UN:

Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabry resigned on Wednesday from her role as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN’s World Food Programme.

The actress said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the "pause" in fighting in Gaza was "too little and too late".

“I had faith that WFP – which was named Nobel Peace Prize Laureate only three years ago after championing UN Resolution 2417, against using hunger and starvation as a weapon of war – would use its voice forcefully as it had done in multiple emergencies and human crises," Sabry wrote in her resignation letter.

"However, hunger and starvation have been used as weapons of war for over the past 46 days against more than 2 million civilians in Gaza.

“Today a pause in fighting was announced in Gaza. But in the end, it is too little, too late.”

According to a Devex report, WFP executive director Cindy McCain is facing a staff revolt over her handling of the Gaza response.

They cite her absence at a commemoration for the UN’s fallen Palestinian staff members and her appearance at an award ceremony honouring Israelis.

Mariam Nihal reports from Saudi Arabia:

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, received a phone call on Wednesday from the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

During the call they discussed ways to stop the dangerous military escalation in Gaza and the region, as well as adhering to any agreement for a temporary truce.

They also discussed ways to bring in relief and medical aid in a way that prevents the aggravation of the humanitarian crisis.

Prince Faisal reaffirmed Saudi Arabia's rejection of the forced displacement of the population of Gaza.

He also stressed the importance of the international community fulfilling its moral responsibility in adhering to international laws and maintaining peace, as well as security and the prevention of extremism and violence.

The deal between Israel and Hamas to free 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group should be "broadened" and the humanitarian pause used to work towards a "lasting ceasefire", the French presidency said on Wednesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron told visiting foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries that Israel's security must be "taken into account by everyone", his office said.

"There will be no lasting ceasefire without very solid guarantees on Israel's security," Mr Macron told top diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, and the Secretary General of the Arab League.

Mr Macron's office said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry mentioned his intention to organise "humanitarian access to Gaza" and the possibility of the UN Security Council adopting a resolution on the issue.

- AFP

International aid groups that have lined up thousands of aid lorries for Gaza say they are ready to quickly send in food, water and other supplies if a pause in fighting in Gaza takes hold as hoped on Thursday.

Details remain unclear about the mechanics of getting more aid for beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza and the possible release of hostages kidnapped from Israel, whose families have desperately sought their release.

The groups say a key ambition will be to get help to northern Gaza, which has been largely inaccessible to aid shipments and where nearly all hospitals have stopped working amid the military campaign by Israeli forces.

“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to scale up once everything is set,” said Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Mr Della Longa lamented “bottlenecks” that have hinmdered the deliveries of some humanitarian aid – although not nearly enough – into Gaza.

He said the IFRC hopes that a deal would include provisions to allow for a “faster track” of aid shipments.

The only route for international humanitarian aid into Gaza since October 7 has been through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt.

Planeloads of supplies have been flown into the nearby Egyptian city of Al Arish, and lorries have queued up near Gaza.

Intense Israeli inspections of lorries and cargo have slowed entry into Gaza.

- AP