الكاتب: kafej

Thirteen women and children hostages held by militants in Gaza will be the first to be released – as the the temporary truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas begins at 7am on Friday, Qatar has said.

Dr Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said it had received a list of the civilians to be freed at 4pm tomorrow and families would be given priority.

He said it was expected Israel would release Palestinian prisoners in return.

“We are hoping that we don’t see any further delays,” he said.

“I think we have reached a point now where everything is in place, we are ready to go on the ground.”

The deal, agreed following talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, will include the Red Cross visiting the hostages and bringing medicines to them.

It would also mean hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian, medical and fuel supplies would be allowed to enter Gaza, while Israel would halt all air missions over southern Gaza and maintain a daily six-hour daytime no-fly window in the north.

Dr Al Ansari said humanitarian aid would start flowing into Gaza as soon as the truce begins, adding it was “a fraction” of what it needs.

The ceasefire had been set to take effect at 10am local time on Thursday (8am UK time).

The structured agreement was reached and confirmed on Wednesday morning, but more than a day later an expected announcement of the official start time had yet to materialise.

Asked about the delay by reporters at a news conference in Doha, Dr Al Ansari said discussions had been “very difficult and detailed”.

“We wanted to make sure that nothing would cause harm in the process of getting the hostages out, and the perimeters of the agreement are agreed upon in the operational sense, on both sides,” he said.

He added the temporary truce includes a comprehensive ceasefire in both north and southern Gaza – and it was hoped it will lead to a permanent truce.

Hamas has agreed to free 50 Israeli women and child hostages held by militants in Gaza, in exchange for Israel releasing 150 Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.

Israel has said the truce could last beyond the initial four days as long as the militants free at least 10 hostages per day.

A Palestinian source has told the Reuters news agency a second wave of releases could see as many as 100 hostages freed by the end of the month.

Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.

Hamas and other militant groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, captured more than 240 hostages when Islamist gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli towns on 7 October, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

In retaliation, Israel has been bombarding the enclave for weeks as it bids to “wipe out” Hamas. At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes on Gaza, including at least 5,500 children, according to the Hamas-run government.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News App. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

The Israeli army claims it has found a Hamas tunnel inside Gaza’s biggest hospital, al Shifa.

The latest footage posted by the IDF shows the view inside an underground tunnel in the eastern edge of the hospital.

A professor specialising in underground warfare says she believes the tunnel seen in the video is “consistent with Hamas tunnels”.

Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli claims that it’s used the medical facility for its operations, while Israel claims it is home to the group’s headquarters.

Israel-Gaza latest: Israel confirms hospital boss arrested

The “operational tunnel shaft” in the IDF video posted on Sunday is located just over 40 metres away from the Surgery Building. It was located using the distinctive white and grey stripes seen in the background of the video.

It’s also around 50 metres from the chest and dialysis department and close to the eastern perimeter of the hospital grounds.

The hole was underneath a white temporary building spotted in a previous video posted by the Israeli army last week shown in the screenshot below.

The footage which the IDF says was taken on Friday and released on Sunday is an edit of two separate videos posted on the army’s Telegram channel. The alleged Hamas tunnel is approximately 1.5m wide.

Based on historical satellite imagery on Google Earth, we found the white building was there in May 2022 but not there before March 2021.

We don’t know what the building was used for.

Read more:
Humza Yousaf’s mother-in-law describes escape from Gaza
Israel-Hamas hostage deal could take place ‘in coming days’

While we are unable to verify who built the structure shown and what it was used for, there are some identifiable features inside the tunnel.

At the surface of the alleged tunnel shaft, a long vertical concrete column is seen. As the camera descends you also see a long metal pole and spiral metal staircase.

As it reaches the bottom, the camera is taken through to a narrow concrete corridor with an arched top at the end of which the IDF says there is a metal door.

The Israeli military claims the tunnel is 55 metres long and 10 metres deep using a three-metre ladder and spiral staircase for another seven metres. It says it believes the tunnel connects inside the hospital to the outside. Sky News is unable to verify this claim.

Videos ‘consistent’ with Hamas tunnels

Dr Daphne Richemond-Barak, an expert on underground warfare who teaches at Reichman University in Israel, said the IDF videos are “consistent” with Hamas tunnels.

She told Sky News: “What we saw in those pictures were very typical, very classic of the Hamas tunnels. I’m comparing it to the tunnels of Hamas I have personally been in which were the cross-border tunnels which are different, more basic and rudimentary.

“I’ve also compared the IDF-released images to Hamas’s own pictures and videos that have been filmed inside the tunnels. What I saw from this video was very typical of that, so there is this big cylinder hole with a very elaborate cemented contour, then it goes into something much more narrow and tight, then it goes into a dark alley… The images we’ve seen so far are very consistent with what we know for years has been the work from Hamas.”

Dr Richemond-Barak also says she has “no doubt that this is only one little piece of what will eventually be exposed, but it takes a lot of time”.

Same tunnel different video

Israeli forces seized the hospital last week to search for what they said was a Hamas tunnel network built underneath.

Hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people left al Shifa at the weekend, with doctors saying they were ejected by troops and Israel saying the departures were voluntary.

But the video posted on Sunday was not the first piece of footage of the alleged tunnel – the IDF released-video and an image of the same tunnel last Friday. However, that footage offered a limited view at the surface of the tunnel – which was littered with concrete, wood and sand.

Sky News is unable to independently verify claims made by the IDF about what the tunnel was used for and who built it.

The man often called the Netherlands’ answer to Donald Trump appears to have won the Dutch election – but who is the inflammatory political outsider and what does he want?

Geert Wilders has lived under police protection for years due to numerous death threats sparked by his strong anti-Islamic views – a religion he says is “backward”.

He has moved from one safe house to another for nearly two decades but has refused to be silenced.

When he voted this week in The Hague, Mr Wilders was – as usual – flanked by security guards who scanned the room for any threats.

A former Pakistani cricketer was earlier this year accused of offering a €21,000 reward to anybody who killed the politician.

The UK government tried to ban Mr Wilders in 2009 and said his visit to screen an anti-Islam film would be a danger to “community harmony” and “public security”.

The 60-year-old – known for his distinctive blond swept-back hair – has long said he wants to “de-Islamise” the Netherlands.

He’s compared the Koran to Mein Kampf, Hitler’s infamous manifesto, and has said he wants to ban mosques and Islamic schools.

Mr Wilders has promised not to break Dutch laws protecting freedom of religion and expression – but that might seem extremely difficult given his views.

The Netherlands has a substantial Islamic population because of its colonial past in Indonesia. However, Mr Wilders has said Muslims should only be allowed to stay if they reject Sharia law.

In 2016, he was convicted of inciting discrimination for leading supporters in a chant that they wanted “fewer! fewer! fewer!” Moroccans.

Mr Wilders also wants to ban refugees and retract any apologies for slavery.

“We will have to find ways to live up to the hopes of our voters, to put the Dutch back as number one,” he said as his election success became clear on Wednesday.

He said “the Netherlands will be returned to the Dutch, the asylum tsunami and migration will be curbed”.

‘Nexit’ is on his agenda too: He supports a vote on leaving the EU and wants to ban people from holding dual nationality.

Interestingly, his wife Krisztina – whom he thanked during his victory speech – was born in Hungary.

He’s also an outlier in that he wants to stop military aid to Ukraine, arguing the country needs to keep its own weapons.

Traditionally regarded as a beacon of tolerance, the Netherlands has finally voted for Mr Wilders in big numbers – but it’s taken some time.

To increase support, he dialled back his anti-Islam rhetoric and focused more on issues such as housing shortages, the cost of living and access to healthcare.

A political veteran, he was first elected in 1998 and later this year will become the country’s longest-serving MP.

He mentored current prime minister Mark Rutte in the centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, but in 2004 established what would become the Party for Freedom.

Mr Wilders’ party is now set to secure 35 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, a remarkable turnaround for a man on the fringes for decades.

He could now, in theory, become prime minister, but in reality he’s probably still too toxic.

Long and complicated negotiations are likely to see who will actually run the country – but whatever happens he can no longer be ignored as an isolated extremist.

Away from his inflammatory views, his cats Snoetje and Pluisje have their own accounts on X, and he told a kids’ show this week that he likes playing Mario Kart and reading Donald Duck comics.

Prominent Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah has been freed from jail after more than 600 days of confinement after a court granted him bail, saying there was “not enough evidence” to try him for terrorism.

Shah, 34, was released from Kot Bhalwal Jail in the region’s southern city of Jammu on Thursday, an official told Al Jazeera.

Shah is the owner and editor of the independent news portal Kashmir Walla, banned earlier this year by the Indian government for undeclared reasons.

In its bail order last week, the region’s High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh said the Special Investigation Agency (SIA), a local agency formed earlier this year, lacked evidence against Shah to prove charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a stringent terror law.

The UAPA has been criticised by several rights groups as draconian and mainly used by India’s Hindu nationalist government to target political opponents, activists and dissidents.

Shah was accused of “glorifying terrorism” and “spreading fake news” for publishing a piece by Abdul Aala Fazili, a pharmacy student at the University of Kashmir, which reportedly talked about the Indian “occupation” and freedom for the region. Fazili, who was also arrested along with Shah, remains in jail.

The court said while the said opinion piece purportedly called for the secession of Indian-administered Kashmir, its publication “doesn’t incite violence or an armed insurrection against the state”. It quashed certain charges against him, including “abetting terrorism, waging war against the country and promoting enmity” under the UAPA.

While the court acknowledged that getting bail under the UAPA was difficult, it could not be denied to Shah because he did not pose a “clear and present danger” to society if released.

“It would mean that any criticism of the central government can be described as a terrorist act because the honour of India is its incorporeal property. Such a proposition would collide headlong with the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19 of the constitution,” the court said in its bail order.

Shah will continue to face trial under other sections of the UAPA and under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, which deals with receiving illegal funds.

The bail was granted seven months after a regional court quashed Shah’s detention under the Public Safety Act in April this year, saying “the apprehension of an adverse impact to public order is a mere surmise of the detaining authority”.

Shah was arrested in February 2022 over a report carried on his news portal about an encounter in Pulwama area of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Police accused him of “uploading anti-national content, including photographs, videos and posts with criminal intention to create fear among public”.

He was granted bail after 22 days by a special National Investigation Agency court.

Hours later, he was arrested again on February 26 in another case related to the alleged provocation of riots. On March 5, 2022, he got bail but was arrested again in yet another case for allegedly causing rioting, attempted murder, abetment, printing or engraving defamatory matter, and public mischief.

Six days later, he was charged under the UAPA after the SIA filed charges against him and Fazili. The agency accused them of “narrative terrorism” for the 2011 article published on Kashmir Walla, which it called “highly provocative and seditious”.

So far, he has managed to secure bail in three cases.

On August 20, the Indian government blocked online access to Kashmir Walla and its social media accounts under the Information Act of 2000. The portal had more than a dozen journalists and freelancers as contributors, affecting their livelihood as well.

‘Arrest shook journalists’

Media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), welcomed Shah’s release on bail and demanded that all charges against him must be dropped and the ban on his website revoked.

Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah has returned home Thursday after nearly two years in detention on terror charges

CPJ welcomes his release on bail. All charges against Shah must be dropped and the ban on his publication The Kashmir Walla @tkwmag revoked https://t.co/eCjFpf1SRd pic.twitter.com/X7NtyiTNnY

— CPJ Asia (@CPJAsia) November 23, 2023

Journalists in Kashmir say they are working in an environment of fear due to a rising crackdown on free press.

“The strong judgement of the high court in favour of the detained journalist notwithstanding, Shah had to spend two years in jail. It shows how helpless [state] institutions have been rendered,” a 40-year-old journalist from the main city of Srinagar told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

“The arrests like that of Shah have almost ended journalism in Kashmir. His arrest shook journalists and most of them stopped writing.”

Geeta Seshu, founder of the Free Speech Collective, an independent organisation that advocates for press freedom in India, told Al Jazeera that Shah’s “revolving door” arrests in multiple cases were a travesty.

“The cases were a clear attempt to silence the one independent voice in digital media when print media in Kashmir had all but collapsed.”

The director of Gaza’s largest hospital has been arrested, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, who heads al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, has been detained along with “some of the medical staff”, a spokesman said.

Hamas said it “strongly condemned” his arrest, describing it as “nothing less than despicable” and “lacking any sense of humanity and morals”.

The group said it was a “flagrant violation of international norms and charters” given there are “obligations to ensure that medical personnel are never harmed, including in times of war”.

Hamas is calling on international bodies including the Red Cross and World Health Organisation (WHO) to evacuate the remaining patients from al Shifa.

It is also asking them to secure Dr Salmiya’s release, along with the medical personnel who were “arrested simply for continuing to fulfil their humanitarian duty”, it said.

On Sunday, the WHO described al Shifa as a “death zone” after medical experts visited the besieged facility.

Only 291 patients remained, it said, alongside 25 health workers.

Dr Salmiya’s arrest has not been confirmed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

The development follows the discovery of what Israel claims is a 55-metre tunnel beneath the 20 acre complex, which it says Hamas has been using for military purposes.

At one end it contains a blast door with a firing whole, according to the IDF.

At another entrance troops found a bathroom, a kitchen and an air conditioned meeting room, the IDF added.

Hamas used the hospital as a “human shield”, said Colonel Elad Tsuri, commander of an Israeli armoured brigade that discovered the tunnel.

Air conditioning means they were able to “stay for a long time”, he added.

Read more:
Gaza on verge of major disease outbreak, WHO warns

The IDF claims to have uncovered and destroyed 400 Hamas tunnels inside Gaza since it launched its ground operations.

It claims many of the shafts leading to a tunnel network are “located within civilian hospitals, schools and homes”.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure including hospitals as command centres – something the group denies.

Claims on the number of destroyed tunnels are unverified.