Fighting continued into Wednesday night in Gaza, but plans for a four-day ceasefire for hostages and prisoner exchanges were postponed by a day, according to reports.
The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered this week is the first diplomatic breakthrough since the war began.
However, after initially agreeing to its terms and a local start time of 10am on Thursday, Israel’s National Security Council later clarified: “Negotiations to release our hostages are ongoing and ongoing.
“The start of the release process will happen according to the original agreement between the two parties, and not before Friday,” according to CNN.
An agreement between Israel and Hamas has been reached to allow the release of 50 of the approximately 240 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7 terror attack in exchange for up to 150 Palestinian prisoners.
On Wednesday night, Israeli defense forces said it had taken over a compound in the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
An Israel Defense Forces fighter jet also intercepted a cruise missile over the Red Sea that was believed to have been launched towards the southern city of Eilat. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis group took credit for the attack.
The IDF also said it killed six terrorists and arrested 29 suspects, including three Hamas terrorists in a raid on the Dheisheh refugee camp, the outlet said.
An Israeli soldier sits in a Humvee amid an ongoing ground operation against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip Wednesday.REUTERS Israeli fighters took reporters on a tour of Hamas’ secret network of tunnels under Al Shifa Hospital Wednesday.REUTERS
Less than 12 hours before the ceasefire was originally set to begin, smoke could still be seen rising from Gaza from viewpoints in Sderot and the highway around Ashkelon, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The IDF showed firearms, grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and drones equipped to carry explosives it said it recovered from Al-Shifa Hospital after a raid on the facility, which houses thousands of refugees and shelters Hamas leaders in its tunnels.
The newspaper also saw firsthand the area around the hospital, which its correspondent described as a “wasteland,” with most of its infrastructure in ruins and no Palestinian residents in sight.
Meanwhile in the town of Khan Younis, more than 100 bodies brought from various areas in Gaza were wrapped in blue plastic sheets and tied with cable ties before being buried in a mass grave on Wednesday.
Health officials in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, said on Wednesday that 14,532 Palestinians had been killed during the war and 7,000 were missing. About 35,000 people were injured.
Meanwhile, international aid groups were poised to move into Gaza as soon as a ceasefire was declared, with thousands of trucks with food, water and other urgent needs lining up to deliver aid to the devastated area, where some 1.7 million people have been displaced from their house.
The main objective is to get aid to the northern part of the region, which has been crippled by airstrikes and is largely inaccessible to humanitarian workers. It has no water or power and ran out of fuel for the generator last week.
The only route for international aid is on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which has helped broker a ceasefire.
Palestinian children look out the window as an Israeli soldier stands guard outside Al Shifa on Wednesday. REUTERS An IDF reservist walks with his guitar, shofar and gun after performing at a wedding.Getty Images
“The whole humanitarian sector is ready to step up once everything is in place,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The cease-fire agreement did not soften the rhetoric of Israel or Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union.
“When we announce the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement, we confirm that our finger remains on the trigger, and that our victorious fighters will continue to be on guard to defend our people and defeat the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded message: “We are at war and we will continue to war until we achieve all our goals.
“To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
