Israeli media, including Channel 12 news, report that if the deal is approved, the first release of hostages is expected on Thursday.
This delay is because if the deal is agreed to, there must be a 24-hour waiting period before it is implemented, to give Israeli citizens the chance to ask the Supreme Court to block the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to reports in Israeli media.
A US warplane killed multiple Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq after they fired a short-range ballistic missile at American and allied personnel in the country, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
It is the first time the United States has announced a strike on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq since targeting Tehran-linked sites in Syria on three occasions in recent weeks, in response to a spike in attacks on American personnel.
“We can confirm an attack last night by Iran-backed militias using a close-range ballistic missile against US and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase, which resulted in eight injuries and some minor damage to infrastructure,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement.
The Ain al-Asad Air Base is located in the desert of Iraq’s Western Anbar province and hosts forces of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq.
“Immediately following the attack, a US military AC-130 aircraft in the area conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack. This self-defence strike resulted in several enemy KIA (killed in action),” Ryder said.
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad announced late on Tuesday the death of one of the Israeli hostages it has held since the 7 October attacks on Israel.
“We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death,” Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel.
This report is via Reuters and the claim has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will visit Israel next week, Axios reports.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and hostage and temporary ceasefire negotiations.
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 14,128 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war began, according to the government in the territories on Tuesday. The latest death toll update includes at least 5,600 children and 3,550 women, it said.
Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his government to back a deal for the release of some of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Israel will continue its war against Hamas even if a temporary ceasefire is reached to release hostages, the Israeli prime minister said at the start of Tuesday night’s meeting. Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, said a truce agreement with Israel was near and that the group had delivered its response to Qatari mediators. Joe Biden has also said a deal was “very close”.
A potential deal could result in 50 hostages, all women or children, being freed in exchange for the return of 150 Palestinians in Israeli jails, also all women or children, according to Israeli media reports. The deal would also reportedly result in a pause in hostilities for at least five days; restrictions on Israeli surveillance of Gaza; and additional aid sent into the territory. The Israeli government is expected to have a majority in the cabinet to approve a hostage deal, despite opposition from the far-right parties.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it stands in solidarity with health workers at al-Awda hospital in north Gaza after three doctors and “a patient companion” were reportedly killed in an attack on the facility. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have said two of its doctors and a third health ministry doctor were killed after what it said was a strike on al-Awda hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said three doctors were killed in what it said was an Israeli strike on al-Awda, one of the last remaining functional hospitals in northern Gaza.
The WHO also confirmed that one of its staff was killed in Gaza on Tuesday alongside her six-month-old baby. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was a critical part of the WHO’s trauma and emergency team and had been part of the organisation since 2019, it said. She was killed when her parents’ house in southern Gaza, where she had evacuated from Gaza City, was bombed, the WHO said in a statement. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “devastated” by the news of her death.
The UN has warned that a “tragic … entirely avoidable surge” in child deaths is expected in Gaza, where on average a child is killed every 10 minutes. The UN children’s agency (Unicef) said the number of children dying could skyrocket due to the serious additional threat of a mass disease outbreak in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha has been released after he was detained by Israeli forces along with scores of other Palestinian men trying to leave northern Gaza, according to his friends and Israeli officials.
At least 52 journalists and media workers have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Tuesday, a Hezbollah-affiliated news channel said two of its journalists were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the south of Lebanon, near the boundary with Israel.
The European Commission has said it will continue to provide financial aid to Palestinians after an investigation found no evidence that the money was going to Hamas. The EU is the world’s biggest provider of assistance to Palestinians, with almost €1.2bn earmarked for 2021-2024.
The Scottish Labour party have formally backed demands for a full ceasefire in Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Anas Sarwar supported a motion put forward by Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, on Tuesday calling for an immediate truce, widening the Labour party’s divisions on the conflict.
Two prematurely born babies who were being cared for at Gaza’s biggest hospital died before 31 other premature babies were evacuated from the hospital on Sunday, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva earlier today, Christian Lindmeier said the two babies had died “because of the lack of care available to them”.
On Sunday, 31 premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in north Gaza, and 28 of them were taken to Egypt for urgent treatment on Monday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 12 babies had been flown on to Cairo.
All of the evacuated babies were “fighting serious infections”, a WHO spokesperson said at the time.
The mother of one of the three babies who stayed in Gaza told Reuters on Tuesday that she “felt alive again” to have her newborn son, Anas, safely in her care after he was moved to a hospital in southern Gaza.
Warda Sbeta, 32, was offered the option of being evacuated to Egypt with Anas so he could receive further medical care, but she refused the offer in order to stay with her husband and her seven other children.
Of the other two premature babies rescued from al-Shifa hospital, one was unidentified, according to doctors at the Rafah hospital. They did not give information about the third baby.
The Hollywood talent agency UTA has dropped Susan Sarandon as a client after she spoke at a pro-Palestine rally over the weekend, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to Deadline.
The Oscar-winning actor attended several rallies in support of Palestine and drew criticism for saying:
There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.
In remarks captured on video, Sarandon encouraged others to keep speaking up in support of Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.
People are questioning, people are standing up, people are educating themselves, people are stepping away from brainwashing that started when they were kids.
Sarandon is the latest public figure to find themselves in hot water over their stance on the war, particularly in support of Palestine. Last month, Maha Dakhil, the co-head of film at Hollywood powerhouse agency CAA, faced internal backlash and resigned from the agency’s board after she reposted an image on Instagram that read, in part: “You’re currently learning who supports genocide.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that one of its staff was killed in Gaza on Tuesday alongside her six-month-old baby.
Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was a critical part of the WHO’s trauma and emergency team and had been part of the organisation since 2019, it said. She studied at the University of Glasgow as part of the Erasmus exchange programme in 2018-19, it said.
Alhaj was a “wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, respectful”, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, said.
Her work was crucial, and she had been requested to take on even more responsibilities to support the Gaza suboffice and team. This is a such a painful loss for all of us.
Alhaj was killed when her parents’ house in southern Gaza, where she had evacuated from Gaza City, was bombed, the WHO said in a statement. More than 50 family and community members sheltering in the same house also were reportedly killed. It added:
The death of Dima and her family is another example of the senseless loss in this conflict. Civilians have died in their homes, at their workplaces, while evacuating, while sheltering in schools, while being cared for in hospitals. When will it stop?
WHO staff member killed in Gaza
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 21, 2023
With heavy hearts, @WHO announces the death of one of our staff in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territory. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29 years old, had been with WHO since December 2019. She worked as a patient administrator at the Limb… pic.twitter.com/NBwPJxizGf
Yahya Sinwar, 61, was a founding member of Hamas and has risen to become perhaps its most powerful figure.
Israeli officials have described him as the architect of the 7 October attacks, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and so “a dead man walking”. Now he may hold the key to the current negotiations over the release of the hostages in Gaza.
Born in a refugee camp at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, Sinwar was drawn into Islamist activism when he studied at the Islamic University of Gaza in the early 1980s, as a religious resurgence across the Middle East gathered momentum.
In 1987, he joined the newly created group Hamas, and was made head of its nascent intelligence service. Duties included uncovering spies or other “collaborators” with Israel as well as people in Gaza who infringed Hamas’s strict “morality” codes.
Arrested in 1988 and sentenced to four life sentences for attempted murder and sabotage, he then spent 23 years in Israeli jails. In prison, Sinwar refused to talk to any Israelis and personally punished those who did, pressing the face of one into a makeshift stove, according to one Israeli former interrogator who worked at the institution where Sinwar was held.
“He’s 1,000% committed and 1,000% violent, a very, very hard man,” said the interrogator.
He is also a sophisticated political operator with a sharp mind. Sinwar used his time in prison to learn Hebrew and study his enemy, gaining knowledge that may be helpful now.
Read the full profile by Jason Burke here.
Here’s more from Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been addressing his cabinet ministers as they prepare to vote for a deal for the release of hostages.
Speaking after a meeting with his war cabinet and the wider security cabinet, the Israeli prime minister said accepting a deal was “a difficult decision but it’s a right decision”.
Netanyahu said the US president, Joe Biden, had helped “improve the framework being laid out before you ... to include more hostages at a lower price”, adding:
The entire security establishment fully supports it.