الكاتب: kafej

The truce continues to hold with more captive and prisoner swaps expected, as Gaza receives limited but much-needed humanitarian aid.

Here is what to know about the situation on Saturday, November 25, 2023:

Hostage and prisoner swap

• Hamas fighters are set to release a second group of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, according to officials.
• Egypt says it has received a list from Hamas of 14 captives to be released from Gaza.
• Forty-two Palestinians held in Israeli jails were set to be released, including 18 women and 24 teenage boys.
• Hamas has already released 13 Israeli women and children, including some dual citizens.
• The group has also freed 10 Thais and one Filipino citizen.
• Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children were released from Palestinian prisons.
• The Israeli military says the released captives will go through a medical assessment in Israel before being reunited with their families.

Truce

• Four-day truce largely holds in Gaza into its second day with only a small plume of grey smoke reported over northern Gaza, the focus of Israeli attacks.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says for every additional 10 captives who are released, there will be an additional day of truce.
• Under the truce deal, Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 captives in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Humanitarian aid

• A UN convoy has reached two facilities of the international organistion’s refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) sheltering internally displaced people in the north, where it delivered flour.
• Four tankers of fuel and another four containing cooking gas have entered the southern Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing.
• The Palestine Red Crescent Society says 196 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, becoming the biggest such aid delivery since the conflict started.
• According to the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs, 200 aid trucks in total have entered Gaza after the truce.

Other developments

• An Israeli-owned cargo ship has been damaged in a suspected drone attack by Iran in the Indian Ocean, according to a US defence official.
• The Israeli army says it has shot down a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon and targeting an Israeli drone.

At least 10 people have been killed and 22 injured after a fire tore through a shopping centre in Pakistan’s largest city.

The deadly blaze is reported to have broken out at the multi-storey RJ Mall in Karachi early on Saturday morning.

The centre is located in a commercial tower block that also houses call centres and software firms.

In an update on social media confirming the number of casualties, Karachi mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui said: “Fire had been extinguished & cooling process is going on.”

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The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Karachi is the capital of the southern province of Sindh, where such incidents are common.

Back in April, a blaze at a clothing factory killed four firefighters.

In August 2021, at least 10 people died in a fire at a chemical factory in the same city.

In the deadliest such incident, more than 260 people were killed after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out in 2012.

An Israeli boy who was kidnapped by Hamas has been reunited with his family more than six weeks after he was taken prisoner.

Ohad Munder, nine, was one of 13 hostages released after the warring sides agreed to a pause in the fighting.

More hostages expected to be released – live updates

In touching footage released by Israel‘s Schneider Children’s Medical Center, he is seen running down a corridor to embrace his father.

Ohad’s mother Keren, a teacher and volleyball coach also taken hostage during Hamas‘s attack on 7 October, is seen hugging other family members.

Ms Munder and her son were visiting his grandmother Ruthy when all three were kidnapped.

Ohad’s grandfather was also taken and is thought to still be in captivity.

Prisoner swaps set to continue

In total, Hamas kidnapped some 240 people.

The 13 prisoners who have been released were handed over after Israel released 39 Palestinians.

They were detained accused of a range of offences, from throwing stones to attempted murder.

Israel is preparing to release another 42 prisoners, with the country’s prisons service saying it has agreed to release three prisoners for every one hostage freed by Hamas.

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‘Huge relief’ to see hostages return

The truce deal, which was mediated by Qatar, is expected to see some 50 women and children freed from Hamas captivity over the course of the weekend.

It began on Friday with 24 Hamas hostages released from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Britain’s new foreign secretary, David Cameron, who met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders earlier this week, described the scenes of hostages being returned as a “huge relief”.

He added on X: “My thoughts are with all of those families who have been going through unimaginable trauma, especially those still waiting for their loved ones to come home.”

The pause in fighting is set to last until Monday.

Pope Francis has cancelled his scheduled audiences because of mild flu, according to the Vatican.

The 86-year-old pontiff holds regular meetings with officials on Saturdays, including a weekly one with the head of the department that oversees the appointment of bishops.

He was also due to hold a meeting with the president of Guinea Bissau.

The Vatican said in a statement: “The Holy Father’s audiences scheduled for this morning are cancelled due to a mild flu.”

The Pope’s next public appearance is scheduled for Sunday, when he is expected to address crowds in his weekly message in St Peter’s Square.

He is also due to attend the upcoming COP28 conference on climate change in Dubai where he is expected to hold bilateral meetings with world leaders attending the event.

Recently pressed over his health issues in an interview, Francis, who turns 87 next month, quipped in what has become his standard response: “Still alive, you know.”

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Earlier this month, the Pope did not read his prepared remarks at an audience with European rabbis as he was suffering from a cold, but later appeared to be in good health during a meeting with 7,000 children from over 80 countries.

In June, he spent nine days in hospital after undergoing surgery for a hernia.

It was his second major abdominal operation in two years.

Originally called Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis was archbishop of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires from 1998 until he was elected pope in 2013.

Since he assumed the papacy, he has been forced to cancel some events, sometimes at the last minute, because of illness.

He spent three days in hospital with a respiratory infection in March and in May had to skip audiences because of a fever.

He was first hospitalised in 2021 for an operation to remove part of his colon.

Francis is also missing part of one lung, which was removed when he was a young man in Argentina, and often uses a cane to walk due to knee pain.

Last year he hinted he may resign if his health continued to deteriorate.

That suggestion came after he was pictured using a wheelchair for the first time in public due to mobility issues.

The late Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign for more than 600 years in 2013 instead of ruling for life.

An avalanche in Iran has killed five mountain climbers and injured another four.

State-run news agency IRNA said rescue workers recovered five bodies from San Boran in Lorestan, around 186 miles southwest of Tehran.

The four survivors were taken to hospital following the incident on Friday.

IRNA reported that the nine-strong mountaineering team started their ascent on Thursday, despite local authorities warning them about risks.

In recent weeks San Boran peak, the highest on Iran’s Oshtorankuh mountain in the Zagros range at 4,150 meters, has seen heavy rain and snow.

In a statement, the Iranian Red Crescent said: “Yesterday, following the avalanche in Oshtorankuh, Lorestan, nine people had an accident, of which four people were taken to the hospital with the efforts of aid workers, and unfortunately five people were also missing.

“The bodies of two of the missing people were found yesterday. The bodies of three more missing climbers were found a few minutes ago with the efforts of the Red Crescent rescuers.”

Avalanches are relatively rare in the Middle Eastern country, but in 2020, 12 people were killed on Christmas Day.