Israel-Palestine live: Israel and Palestinians agree to truce, hostage deal

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Israel has released the list of Palestinian captives slated to be released as part of a prisoner swap with Hamas.

The list, released by the justice ministry, includes 300 prisoners, mainly teenage boys. It is twice the 150 women and children that Hamas said Israel has agreed to release as part of the swap. It's not clear how many of the 300 Palestinians will be released. 

The list contains personnel information including name, date of birth, date of arrest and ID number. It also includes the charges under which Israel has imprisoned them.

Israelis have 24 hours to file an appeal to block the release of prisoners.

At least five Palestinians were killed and scores wounded when Israeli forces raided the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, according to Arabic media.

The incursion involved bombing a home with a drone strike and obstructing ambulances as they tried to reach Thabet Thabet hospital.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers arrested one wounded person from hospital emergency room.

Israeli forces attacked the city with bulldozers, razing roads, destroying infrastructure and private property, according to Palestinian new agency, Wafa news.

At least nine Palestinians were killed and several others injured after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

According to Palestinian news agency, Wafa news, children were among those killed after the strike hit the Ayyash family home in Nuseirat

The number of Palestinians killed by Israel has crossed 14,000, with at least 5,840 children killed. 

Israel has ordered the evacuation of the besieged Indonesian Hospital, according to Arabic media reports. 

Mounir Al-Barsh, director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, told Al Jazeera TV that the Israeli military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital.

Palestinian news agency Wafa news, reported that the hospital administrator had received a WhatsApp message ordering the evacuation.

The message had “created a state of panic” at the hospital, the administrator told Wafa.

At least 12 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on the hospital in recent days. Israel raided al-Shifa Hospital earlier and forcibly displaced medical workers and injured patients. 

Israeli tanks have surrounded Indonesian Hospital for days. Ceilings in some wards have totally collapsed, windows have been smashed and dead bodies are also piling up. There has been no electricity since the start of the siege.

Journalists inside the hospital say that anyone who moves is being shot at.

Israel’s military announced that one soldier was killed fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total killed since its ground invasion to 69.

The military said that Captain Liron Snir, 25, of the Golani Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, was killed fighting in northern Gaza. 

One soldier in the Givati Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion was also seriously wounded in fighting, the military said. 

Israel’s end game in the Gaza Strip is to leave the besieged enclave “uninhabited" of Palestinians, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

Erdogan said that Turkey would not allow Israel to depopulate the Gaza Strip, as he reiterated his view that Israel was a “terror state,” on a a visit to Algeria.

"We cannot and will not tolerate the policy of the State of Israel, which has grown by constantly occupying, seizing land, and massacring the oppressed, to render Gaza uninhabited," he said.

The Israel-Palestine war has upended recent efforts  by Israel and Turkey to revive strained ties.

Israel is one of Turkey's top ten trading partners and Erdogan has pitched economic projects such as a gas pipeline to Israel. 

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he was deeply relieved that some hostages taken after Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel will  go free under a deal brokered with the help of Qatar and Egypt. 

"I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls... will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented," Biden said in a statement released by the White House. 

Biden thanked the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt for helping to mediate the deal.

He also said he appreciated the commitment by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to support a pause in fighting. 

Biden said he would speak with all of the leaders in the coming days. 

The head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put out a cautious statement welcoming the temporary truce and prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel.

"The agreement reached today to release approximately 50 hostages is a hopeful signal for some of the American and Israeli families whose lives have been shattered in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack against Israel,” Democratic Senator Ben Cardin said on social media platform X.

US President Joe Biden has faced some pressure within his administration and the Democratic party to take a tougher line against Israel amid the war.

While Biden has faced pushback over his unconditional support with some grassroots party members, Democratic lawmakers have been less assertive.

Nearly forty members of the US House of Representatives have called for a ceasefire, but only 2 senators—both Democrats—have issued a similar call.

The start time for a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip will be announced in the next 24 hours, according to a statement by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Qatar said Israel and Hamas had agreed to a "humanitarian pause" in their fighting and thanked Egypt and the US for their joint mediation efforts.

Qatar is home to Hamas’ political bureau and many of the groups senior political leaders.

Egypt also maintains ties with Hamas, interacting closely with its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and its leadership in the Gaza Strip. 

Qatar said the agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.

“The number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement,” the statement added.

The US hopes that a four-day truce between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip will also be observed by Lebanese Hezbollah, a US official told reporters.

While Gaza has been the site of fierce Israeli bombardment and deadly ground fighting, Israel has also been exchanging fire along its northern border with Hezbollah.

Wednesday’s truce announcement marks a significant pause in fighting  and is likely to fuel lobbying by Israel's partners for a broader and longer halt. 

US officials have already hinted that they hope the truce extends beyond its initial four days. According to the agreement, there is a possibility that the truce could be extended each day  Hamas releases an additional 10 hostages.

The US official told reporters the deal had “ultimately been structured to incentivise releases beyond 50,” and there was an expectation of further releases.

Three US citizens held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are expected to be released as part of the truce and prisoner swap, a senior US official said according to Reuters.

One of the hostages is a 3-year-old girl whose parents were amongst the more than 1,200 people killed in Hamas' 7 October attack, the official said. Two American women will also be released.

The official told reporters that it was likely more hostages will be released once the temporary truce takes hold.

Hamas said it welcomed the 'humanitarian truce' with Israel and released a statement laying out details of the agreement.

The group said hundreds of trucks carrying fuel, humanitarian and medical aid will enter the besieged enclave during the truce. 

The group said it agreed to release 50 women and children hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 150 women and children hostages. The two agreed 19 years of age would be the cut-off for children. 

Hamas said that during the truce Israel has pledged not to attack or arrest anyone in the Gaza Strip or obstruct the movement of people along Salah al-Din highway, the main road running north and south in Gaza. 

The northern area of Gaza will see a halt in Israeli air operations for six hours a day from 10am to 1pm. In southern Gaza Israeli air operations will cease for all four days of the truce. 

During the truce there will be no military action and Israel will not move any military vehicles in Gaza. 

The group also thanked Egypt and Qatar for their roles. 

Israel’s cabinet has approved a prisoner swap deal and temporary truce with Hamas.

The deal will see the release of  50 women and children hostages during a four day pause in fighting, according to a statement released by the Israeli government. 

Israel is expected to release around 150 Palestinian children and women captives held in its jails, though no details about this component of the deal have been made public yet. 

The names of the Palestinian captives will be made public in the next 24 hours to give any Israeli citizen a chance to appeal against their release in court. 

The lag time means the earliest that the swap will begin is Thursday or Friday. 

Furthermore, the Israeli government said that the release of 10 additional hostages held in Gaza will result in one additional day of a pause in fighting. 

According to Axios, Israel will also allow roughly 300 aid truck per day to enter Gaza from Egypt, in addition to more fuel. 

The US has struck two Iranian linked facilities in Iraq in response to what it said were attacks against US forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups, widening the arena for Washington’s retaliation against Iran.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine war, the US has responded to previous attacks by striking Iranian-linked targets in Syria, but has operated more carefully in Iraq in a bid to manage ties with Baghdad and reduce the risk of escalation with Tehran. 

US forces and their coalition partners came under attack Monday when Iranian-backed forces launched a short range ballistic missile at Ain al-Asad Air Basin in Iraq, causing eight injuries to US personnel.

A US AC-130 aircraft responded to that attack after it located the Iranian-backed forces on a vehicle, killing three fighters, according to the Pentagon.

The casualties, and use of a ballistic missile, appears to have upped the ante for Washington. The attack also came as the Biden administration faced some criticism for not responding forcefully enough to Iranian attacks. 

The US says there has been 66 strikes by Iran-backed militias on US forces and American bases since 17 October.