Hamas hostages handed over to Israel as ceasefire holds

A Palestinian farmer working in Gaza has been fatally targeted by Israeli forces during the temporary truce, a humanitarian aid organisation has claimed.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said this morning that two farmers had been hit east of the al-Maghazi camp in the Gaza Strip.

They said one had been killed as a result of the attack while one had been wounded.

“The association’s ambulance crews dealt with two cases a short while ago east of Al-Maghazi camp, east of the central governorate,” a statement read.

“Although the humanitarian calm has entered its third day, the Israeli occupation forces recently targeted two farmers.

“East of Al-Maghazi camp, which led to the death of one of them and the wounding of the other.”

A container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean as Israel wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an American defense official said Saturday.

The attack Friday on the CMA CGM Symi comes as global shipping increasingly finds itself targeted in the weekslong war that threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even as a truce has halted fighting and Hamas exchanges hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The defense official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the Malta-flagged vessel was suspected to have been targeted by a triangle-shaped, bomb-carrying Shahed-136 drone while in international waters. The drone exploded, causing damage to the ship but not injuring any of its crew.

The death toll for those killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank has been revised up from six to seven.

The additional death is believed to be of a minor, according to local claims.

The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has experienced a surge in violence parallel to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, now in its eighth week.

The Jenin Brigades, a local armed group, said its fighters battled the Israeli troops in Jenin.

It did not immediately provide details on any casualties, but local witnesses said at least one of the Palestinians killed in Jenin was a known Brigades member.

The first Israeli hostage to be rushed into hospital for surgery as opposed to standard checks is expected to make a full recovery, her doctor has said.

Maya Regev, 21, was freed from Gaza last night after being taken during the Supernova music festival on 7 October.

She was the only one of 13 Israeli and four Thai hostages released that was subsequently rushed to Soroka Medical Center, in Beer Sheba, south of the West Bank. The other proceeded to hospitals in the centre of Israel for routine check-ups.

The director of the Soroka Medical Center, Dr. Shlomi Kodesh, has said this morning that she is in moderate condition and should not suffer any serious injury.

It is unclear why she needed surgery.

Maya’s brother, 18-year-old Itay, is still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli forces have claimed that “five terrorists were eliminated” during a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank last night.

Earlier, we reported that the Palestinian health ministry had claimed that Israeli forces had stormed Jenin “from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the (humanitarian) Red Crescent Society”.

Israel, at the time, said it was checking the reports.

An update this morning said: “In the operation commanded by the 646th Reserve Brigade, five terrorists were eliminated, 21 wanted persons were arrested, a cargo laboratory was destroyed and an aircraft attacked from the air by an armed terrorist squad that endangered the IDF forces.”

As he sits in Geneva, Michel Dreifuss does not feel all that far away from the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza. The ripples are rolling through Europe and upending assumptions both global and intimate — including those about his personal safety as a Jew.

“Yesterday I bought a tear-gas spray canister at a military-equipment surplus store,” the 64-year-old retired tech sector worker said recently at a rally to mark a month since the Hamas killings. The choice, he says, is a “precaution,” driven by a surge of antisemitism in Europe.

Last month’s slayings of about 1,200 people in Israel by armed Palestinian militants represented the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The fallout from it, and from Israel’s intense military response that health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, has extended to Europe. In doing so, it has shaken a continent all too familiar with deadly anti-Jewish hatred for centuries.

The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce’s fragility.

The exchange was delayed Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel.

The deal seemed at risk of unraveling until Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.

Six Palestinians, including one minor, were shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank late Saturday and early Sunday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Five of the deaths occurred in the city of Jenin and the sixth was in Yatma, a village near Nablus city. Six others were injured during the shooting in Jenin, the ministry said.

The Israeli military spokesperson’s office said it was checking the reports.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli forces stormed Jenin “from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society”.

Shortly after midnight, Israel began releasing 39 Palestinian prisoners to east Jerusalem and the West Bank as part of the swap that ultimately went through after international mediation efforts.

Released Palestinian woman Shurouq Duwiyat arrived at her home in Jerusalem where joyous family members hugged and kissed her.

“We send a message to our people in Gaza that we stand by your side and support you,” Duwiyat told reporters inside her home.

Also in Jerusalem, Israeli troops evicted journalists who gathered outside the home of Israa Jaabis, who had been imprisoned since 2015 after being convicted of carrying out separate attacks on Israelis. Jaabis suffered severe burns on her face and hands during a bombing attack that also wounded an Israeli police officer.

Hundreds of Palestinians waited in the West Bank town of Beitunia for the arrival of additional prisoners.

The Israeli hostages released Saturday by Hamas included seven children and six women, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced.

Most of the released hostages were from Kibbutz Be’eri, a community Hamas militants ravaged during their Oct. 7 cross-border attack, a spokesperson for the kibbutz said. The children ranged in age from 3 to 16, and the women ranged from 18 to 67.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in the West Bank on Sunday, said the Palestinian health ministry.

The incidents occurred in Nablus and Jenin regions early morning today.

In total, six Palestinians are reported to have been killed since last night, marking continued raids by Israel in the occupied West Bank territory.

The Israeli army has been raiding cities and towns in the West Bank since 7 October and has arrested several Palestinians.

At least 229 Palestinians, including 52 children have been killed by Israeli forces, and over 3,000 people arrested.