Israel-Gaza war: Netanyahu says war will continue after ceasefire

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The biggest developments from today are:

• Israel and Hamas are poised to reach a deal which would see a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of Israeli hostages
• The agreement is expected to see the release of 50 hostages, mostly women and children, in groups of 12 or 13 per day over a four/five day period
• Benjamin Netanyau said Israel will continue fighting Hamas after the potential break, saying “we will continue the war”

Please join us again tomorrow for all the latest updates.
 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to travel to Israel next week to hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, sources told Axios.

It will be Mr Blinken’s fourth trip to Israel since 7 October and his visit could take place while the expected multi-day hostage release deal is being carried out.

Sources said he is expected to travel to the Middle East after Thanksgiving and before the NATO foreign ministers summit in Brussels next Tuesday. 

Jordan said on Tuesday the army had beefed up its presence along its borders with Israel and warned that any Israeli attempt to forcibly push Palestinians across the Jordan River would represent a breach of its peace accord with its neighbour.

Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said his country would resort to “all the means in its power” to prevent Israel from implementing any transfer policy to expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank.

“Any displacements or creating the conditions that would lead to it, Jordan will consider it a declaration of war and constitutes a material breach of the peace treaty,” state media quoted Mr Khasawneh as saying, referring to the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

“This would lead to the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and to harming the national security of Jordan,” Mr Khasawneh added.

More details from Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Tuesday evening:

“There is a lot of nonsense out there to the effect that after the pause to return our hostages, we will stop the war. Then let me make it clear: We are at war – and will continue the war. We will continue the war until we achieve all of our war aims: To eliminate Hamas, return all of our hostages and our missing, and ensure that there is no element in Gaza that threatens Israel.

“I told the dear families [of the hostages]: ‘Returning our hostages is a sacred and supreme task – and I am obligated to it together with my colleagues. As Maimonides says: There is no greater precept that redeeming captives. We will not relent in our efforts until we redeem them all, the young men and women, the elderly men and women, the male and female soldiers, all of them. In war there are stages, and in returning the hostages there are stages, but we will not relent until we achieve the absolute victory and until we bring them all back.

“Before you this evening, now, is a difficult decision but it is the correct decision. All of the security agencies fully support it; they have made it completely clear in their professional assessment, that the security of our forces will be ensured during the pause and that the intelligence effort will be maintained in those days. They have made it clear that not only will the war effort not be harmed, it will enable the IDF to prepare for the continuation of the fighting.”

As attention is focused on the hostage release deal, fighting on the ground is raging on, according to Reuters. 

Israel has said its forces have encircled the Jabalia refugee camp, a major urban flashpoint and Hamas militant stronghold.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said 33 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on part of Jabalia, a congested urban extension of Gaza City where Hamas has been battling advancing Israeli armoured forces.

In southern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said 10 people were killed and 22 injured by an Israeli air strike on an apartment in the city of Khan Younis.

These accounts could not be immediately verified.

The vote on the hostage deal is still pending but may happen within an hour or two, the adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu Mark Regev has said.

If the deal includes the release of people held in Israeli prisons who were involved in “violent extremism”, the families of their victims have the right to protest the supreme court against the decision, Mr Regev told Sky News.

Mr Regev said it is the right of the supreme court to decide whether to override the government, but that it was reasonable to assume they would allow the government to press ahead, if the cabinet agreed on a deal.

“On the assumption that the government tonight approves the framework for the release of the hostages, then a 24-hour period comes in where the supreme court hears the petitions, on the assumption that it rejects the petitions and allows the government to go ahead – which I think is a reasonable assumption - that means we can start moving on this deal on Thursday, hopefully seeing people come home immediately,” he told Sky.

Asked whether a ceasefire, which is included in the potential deal, could end up being extended, Mr Regev said: “Theoretically, if we were to get more people out we would consider extending the ceasefire.”

South African lawmakers have voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire is agreed in its war with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

The resolution is largely symbolic, Reuters has reported, as it will be up to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government whether to implement it.

A presidency spokesperson said Ramaphosa “notes and appreciates” parliament’s guidance on South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Israel, particularly on the status of the embassy.

“The president and cabinet are engaged over the matter, which remains the responsibility of the national executive,” Vincent Magwenya said.

Ramaphosa and senior foreign ministry officials have been vocally critical of Israel’s leadership during its devastating military campaign against Hamas in the densely populated Gaza Strip, calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate them for potential war crimes.

The Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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 Oct 7 attacks on Israel, Reuters has reported.

“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.

Netanyahu has said the Israeli government faces a “difficult decision” tonight as they debate the temporary truce with Hamas which would secure the release of 50 hostages.

Israel minister and retired army general Benny Gantz said the deal is the first step in returning all of the hostages.

White House spokesman John Kirby said almost 20,000 gallons of fuel (76,000 litres) had been delivered to Gaza over the previous day by “non-governmental organisations”. He said this would primarily be used for hospital.

And he said 50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza in the previous 24 hours.

Netanyahu’s full 38-minister cabinet is now meeting, according to the Times of Israel.

“The war cabinet and the security cabinet have completed their discussions of the hostage release deal, and the full 38-minister cabinet is now meeting,” the local media organisation said.

No vote was held in the earlier meetings, with Netanyahu asking ministers in those sessions to wait for the full cabinet meeting for a detailed debate and the vote, Channel 12 reported.

Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, has released photos which the IDF claims are the “terror tunnel” under the Al-Shifa hospital.

Ten people were killed and 22 others injured in an Israeli strike on a residential apartment in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Tuesday night, according to Hamas-affiliated media and reported by Reuters.

The victims and the injured arrived at Nasser Hospital, according to Shehab News Agency, a channel close to Hamas, said on Telegram.

Our Deputy US Editor, Rozina Sabur, writes:

The hostages expected to be released from Hamas custody shortly will be “almost entirely” children, according to CNN.

Around 40 children, including a three-year-old US citizen, are among the roughly 240 hostages the terror group seized during its attack on October 7.

An internationally-brokered deal for a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas is expected to be announced imminently.

The potential deal would free about 50 hostages and allow a four-to-five day pause in fighting.

In exchange for the hostage release, Israel would release Palestinian women and children being held in its prisons, according to sources.

The two sides would agree to a pause in the fighting while the exchanges were coordinated.

Sources suggest the deal could involve the release of one hostage captured from Israel for every three Palestinian prisoners released, with up to 50 hostages and 150 prisoners potentially being freed in the next few days.

CNN journalist Becky Anderson, who is reporting from Doha, Qatar, where the deal is being brokered, said she understood the hostage release would be almost entirely children.

“It’s almost entirely going to be children and as I understand it,” she reported during a CNN broadcast.

The Israeli government will have a majority in the cabinet to approve a hostage deal, despite opposition from far-right parties Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit, the Times of Israel reported.

The war cabinet supports the deal and will rally 19 votes held by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and five votes held by Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, it reported.

Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit together hold six cabinet votes, it writes.

The Hamas-run Gaza government says the number of people who have been killed in the territory since the war on Oct 7 began has reached 14,128.

It says that 5,840 children are among the dead.

The United States is hopeful about getting a hostage deal in the Israel-Hamas conflict and believes the parties are getting closer to an agreement, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

“We are closer than we’ve been. We believe we’re getting closer,” Mr Kirby said at a news briefing. “We won’t say and do not want to say anything in these delicate hours that could put a deal at greater risk.”

The World Health Organization has said that one of its employees had been killed in Gaza alongside her six-month-old baby, husband and two brothers.

“My colleagues and I are devastated: we have lost one of our own in Gaza today,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X, showing a photo of the victim, named Dima Alhaj. “Reportedly multiple other family members sheltering in the same house were also killed,” he added.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said it is “horrified” by the killing of two of its doctors and a third doctor following what it said was a strike on Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza.

MSF doctors Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr Ahmad Al Sahar were in the hospital when it was hit by the strike, the charity said in a statement. Other medical staff, including MSF staff, were also severely injured, it said.

“We condemn this strike in the strongest terms and yet again call for the respect and protection of medical facilities, staff and patients,” it said.

More than 200 patients are still in Al Awda and must be urgently evacuated to other hospitals in Gaza that are still functioning, MSF added.

Attacks on medical facilities are a “serious violation of international humanitarian law”, it said, adding that such attacks have become “systematic” in the past weeks.

Israel’s Religious Zionist Party has said it cannot agree to a proposed deal for the release of some of the hostages held in Gaza.

In a statement, the party described the deal as “bad for Israel’s security, bad for the hostages, and bad for the soldiers of the IDF”, the Times of Israel reported.

It said the deal will “abandon” some of the hostages for an unknown period of time, “raise the price” for their release, and give Hamas the opportunity to reorganise.

The only way to return all the hostages “is by continuing the unceasing military pressure on Hamas until total victory”, it said.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that the deal would be a “disaster”.

“I am very upset because they’re now talking about some kind of deal,” Mr Gvir told the news outlet Channel 14. “I am disturbed because we are once again being divided and once again we are not being told the truth. And once again, we are being pushed to the side. The rumours are that the State of Israel is once again going to make a very, very big mistake in the style of the Shalit deal.”

Four civilians were killed in south Lebanon on Tuesday by Israeli bombardment, according to official media.

Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television said two of those who died were its journalists, correspondent Farah Omar, 25, and cameraman Rabih Maamari, 40.

The frontier between Lebanon and Israeli has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, and Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security of Israel, have said they will vote against the release of the 50 hostages, thought to be mostly women and children, according to a reporter at Axios.

They also reportedly said that their party ministers will also vote against the deal.

President Joe Biden has said that they are “very close” to securing the release of potentially dozens of hostages held by Hamas.

“We are now very, very close,” Biden told reporters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has summoned his war cabinet amid growing signs of an imminent deal on the release of hostages who were taken by Hamas militants to the Gaza Strip more than six weeks ago.

An Israeli strike killed two journalists working for a Lebanese TV channel and a third person near the border with Israel on Tuesday, Lebanese state media and the channel, Al Mayadeen, said.

The deaths add to a toll of more than 50 journalists killed covering the war between Israel and Hamas and its spillover to other parts of the region since Oct 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Most of those have been killed in the Gaza Strip.

Al Mayadeen said the Israeli strike on Tuesday near the town of Tir Harfa, about a mile from the Israeli frontier, had deliberately targeted the TV crew because the channel was known to be pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran’s regional military alliance.

Israel denied the claim. Its military said it was “aware of a claim regarding journalists ... who were killed as a result of (Israeli army) fire.

“This is an area with active hostilities, where exchange of fire occur. Presence in the area is dangerous,” it said.

The Israeli military has previously said it cannot guarantee journalists’ safety in areas where it is fighting. 

The general public in Israel will have 24 hours to appeal a possible hostage deal if the Israeli government approves one, Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday.

The EU has given the green light to continuing development aid to Palestinians after a review found no funds had gone to Hamas, but said tighter controls could be imposed going forward, AFP has reported.

Brussels launched the assessment of its assistance following the Hamas attack on October 7 in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 240 taken hostage.

The 27-nation bloc is the biggest international aid provider supporting Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, with nearly 1.2 billion euros earmarked for assistance from 2021 to 2024.

“The review found no indications of EU money having directly or indirectly benefited the terrorist organisation Hamas,” European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said.

“The review found that the control system in place has worked, and as a result payment to Palestinian beneficiaries and UNRWA (United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees) will continue without payment delays.”

But Brussels announced it now may apply tougher safeguards on its projects, including increased screening for any possible anti-Semitism.

“The commission has identified some additional measures, such as the inclusion of relevant anti-incitement contractual clauses in all new contracts and ensure the monitoring of their strict application at all times,” a statement said.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office has released the following statement:

“In light of developments on the issue of the release of our hostages, Prime Minister’s Office Director General Yossi Shelley is now convening the forum of directors general of Government ministries to prepare for dealing with, and assisting on, all necessary civilian aspects.”

Jordan said Israel had ordered the evacuation of a Jordanian field hospital in Gaza, but that it would not heed the order.

Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh also said Jordan’s army was beefing up its presence along the border in view of the developments in Gaza, in comments carried on state media.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his foreign minister and intelligence chief were working in coordination with Qatari authorities on the release of hostages held by Hamas.

“Both my foreign minister and my intelligence chief, they are continuing the process with a joint effort with Qatar,” Erdogan told a news conference with his Algerian counterpart in Algiers.

“Our hope is that we reach an outcome on the exchange of the prisoners as soon as possible. We are in constant communication, and our hope is to get positive results from this,” he added.

The relative of a hostage being held captive by Hamas has said she is cautiously optimistic about reports of a hostage deal.

Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great aunt of a Abigail Mor Idan, a three-year-old American held hostage by Hamas, told CNN:

I’m not a politician, I’m not a diplomat. I will believe it when I see them walk out.

Until then we just have to keep everything in check because it’s just too much of an emotional rollercoaster.

For me, this is really emotional because I have no idea if this is real, but my heart believes it has to be.

I have faith and I just pray that this is going to be the real peace but again until we see them come out and until Abigail is in the arms of her family, I just can’t go down to that point where I’m relieved and I believe it’s going to happen fully.

The Palestine Red Crescent has condemned Israeli shelling on the Al-Awda hospital.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said progress was being made on the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We are making progress. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon,” he told reservists according to a statement from his office.

His office said that “in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages,” he would convene his war cabinet at 6 p.m (1600 GMT), his broader security cabinet at 7PM (1700 GMT) and the full cabinet at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Potential details of what the truce deal may entail continue to emerge.

A source briefed on the talks told Reuters the deal brokers the release of around 50 civilian hostages by Hamas and the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli custody.

Meanwhile, Axios is reporting that the deal will be split into two phases. 

The first phase would see a four-day ceasefire in Gaza and would reportedly entail Hamas release 50 Israeli women and children in exchange for Israel releasing around 150 Palestinian prisoners - mainly women and children.

A second phase could see Hamas release upto 50 Israeli hostages - women, children, and elderly people - in return for a ceasefire lasting several more days.

In addition, Axios report that Israel would permit 300 aid trucks a day to enter Gaza from Egypt.

Two premature babies being cared for at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza died before the evacuation of 31 others, the United Nations has said, adding that most of those who reached Egypt were “unaccompanied”.

World Health Organisation spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva that the Al-Shifa hospital had been caring for 33 premature babies just the evening before the evacuation.

“Two of these premature infants died only on that night because of the lack of care available to them,” he said.

The United Nations health agency helped evacuate 31 premature babies from Gaza’s largest hospital on Sunday. Twenty-eight of those babies arrived in Egypt on Monday. 

The other three babies moved from Al-Shifa in the north of the Gaza Strip are now in a hospital in southern Gaza and have their families with them.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called returning Israeli hostages taken by Hamas a “sacred and supreme mission.” 

Mr Netanyahu affirmed his commitment to getting back the hostages taken on October 7 after he and his war cabinet met with hostages families.

He said: “We will not let go of the mission to return them, and it is my responsibility as well as the war cabinet’s.”

He added “We will not stop fighting until we bring our hostages home.”

Hostage negotiations have reached a “critical and final stage,’ mediator Qatar has said. 

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said: “We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.”

“We are very optimistic, very hopeful,” hw told a briefing.

“But we are also very keen for this mediation to succeed in reaching a humanitarian truce,” he said.

It comes as a senior Hamas official claimed that a truce agreement with Israel could be agreed “in the coming hours.” 

A World Health Organisation spokesperson said that three hospitals in Gaza had requested help with evacuating patients and said that planning was underway.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that the three hospitals were Al Shifa, from which a group of babies has already been rescued, Indonesian Hospital and Al Ahli Hospital.

He said such an event was a last resort.

“It’s robbing the entire population of the north of the means to seek health (care),” he told a Geneva press briefing.

Two journalists and a third person were killed by a rocket strike near Lebanon’s border with Israel, 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 gave no further details.

Israel has recalled its ambassador to South Africa “for consultations” ahead of a parliamentary vote in the African country to decide the fate of the Israeli embassy.

The two countries’ diplomatic relations have recently witnessed a rise in tensions over the Israeli war on Gaza. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa previously said his country believes Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

This came ahead of a vote in South Africa’s parliament on a motion to shut down the Israeli embassy and cut all ties with Israel until a cease-fire is implemented in Gaza.

A hostage deal between Israel and Hamas could be announced by Qatar today, Axios is reporting.

A newly formed group made up of senior officials from several Muslim countries will visit the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members and others to urge an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a Turkish foreign ministry source has said.

The group was 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 permanent UN Security Council members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France - with a visit to Beijing on Monday, and would also visit other countries.

“The primary goal of the contact group is for a ceasefire to be announced as soon as possible and for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza,” the source said.

“As an end goal, (the group) aims to contribute to the two-state solution within the framework of internationally accepted parameters; to Palestinians living in their own country safely, with stability and prosperity,” the person said.

A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

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

Israel has generally avoided giving commentary on the status of the Qatar-led talks. Israel’s Channel 12 television quoted an unidentified senior government source saying “they are close” but giving no further details.

The Israel Defense Forces said it has completed the encirclement of Jabaliya.

In a statement, the IDF said its troops were ready for the “continuation of the attack.”

Footage released by the military shows Israeli soldiers patrolling in Jabaliya on foot as gunfire echoes around them.

“Terrorists were eliminated and infrastructure was destroyed,” it said.

At least 17 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza at midnight, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said. 

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel’s firing at a hospital in northern Gaza on Monday was “in complete compliance with international law,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser has said.

Ophir Falk, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that the actions were “proportional.”

Palestinian officials said an Israeli shell struck the hospital early Monday, killing 12 people. Israel denied shelling the hospital, but said its troops returned fire on militants who targeted them from inside the compound.

He told CNN: “We are in complete compliance with international law, with proportionality, distinction and there is a clear military necessity to destroy Hamas, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

“In the course of destroying Hamas, which is what the IDF is doing right now, we are distinguishing, making a clear distinction between civilians and terrorists,” Mr Falk added. 

Mr Falk defended the Israeli military response, adding that “no military on Earth that is more moral” than the Israel Defense Forces. 

Around 250 Hamas “terror targets” were struck in the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces has claimed.

The Israeli military claimed “dozens of terrorists,” rocket launchers, and infrastructure were struck.

It said troops directed a fighter jet to strike a rocket launch post which they say was used to fire rockets towards central Israel. 

The IDF claimed the post was located near a residential area of the civilian population.

The International Red Cross president travelled to Qatar on Monday to meet with the leader of Hamas to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the group’s conflict with Israel, the Geneva-based body said in a statement.

President Mirjana Spoljaric met with Ismail Haniyeh, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, and also met separately with Qatari authorities which are acting as mediators in the conflict.

The ICRC, a neutral intermediary which is providing aid to Gaza and has helped escort hostages and patients from the enclave, said that the meeting was part of discussions with all sides to the conflict to improve respect for international humanitarian law.

It added that it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing more than 200 hostages seized by Hamas during their deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7.

The Hamas leader who masterminded the Oct 7 attacks is personally handling negotiations for a hostage release even as Israeli troops seek to find and kill him.

Yahya Sinwar, who spent 22 years in an Israeli prison, has taken control of the deal and has been in-and-out of touch with Qatari mediators, according to reports.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has described Sinwar as a “dead man”. The terrorist leader has stayed inside Gaza, unlike Hamas’s political-wing which lives in luxurious exile in Qatar and Turkey.

Read more from Nataliya Vasilyeva here