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Ahead of planned four-day pause in hostilities Israel says war to continue for two months after ‘brief respite’.

Hamas has said that about 30 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a United Nations-affiliated school in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, as the clock ticks down on a planned truce between the Palestinian group and Israel.

On Thursday, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 27 fatalities from that strike on the Abu Hussein School run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was housing displaced Palestinians fleeing violence and intense bombardment in other parts of Gaza.

Israeli forces also launched fresh attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, targeting the main entrance and power generators.

Ashraf al-Qudra, the ministry’s spokesperson, said the hospital had come under “intense bombardment”, and that “large parts of the building” were being targeted.

More than 200 patients, medical staff, and internally displaced people were currently at the hospital in Beit Lahiya, which has been under siege for a week.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets hit the Sheikh Nasser neighbourhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least five people and wounding dozens, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

It also reported that at least 10 people were killed when Israeli forces attacked a residential home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza.

In the occupied West Bank, 12-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Fuad Edely was shot and killed by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian ministry.

The incident brought the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 to 229, 52 of them children.

Israel’s relentless bombardments have killed more than 14,800 people in Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian officials. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas’s attacks stands at about 1,200.

Fighting to continue

Mediator Qatar announced that a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas is set to begin at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called the upcoming pause a “brief respite … at the end of which the fighting will continue intensely, and we will create pressure to bring back more hostages” during an interview with a navy special operations unit on Thursday.

“At least another two months of fighting is expected,” he said.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The [captive release] outline is not the end of the process but the beginning.”

“In the coming days, we will focus on planning and completing the preparations for the next stages of combat.”

A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, said that Palestinian fighters remain ready to confront Israeli forces so long as the war continues and called for resistance to Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Police say they have not ruled out any motive behind stabbing incident, and warn against spread of ‘misinformation’.

Violent protests have erupted in Ireland‘s capital, Dublin, after four people including three young children were injured in a suspected knife attack.

Crowds of protesters clashed with police in the city centre on Thursday hours after a five-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s were seriously injured in the attack outside a school in Dublin. Police said they were receiving emergency treatment.

Two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, suffered less serious injuries. The boy has been discharged from hospital. According to Irish broadcaster RTE, the woman works at the school and cares for the children.

A man in his 50s was detained in relation to the incident, and was also hospitalised with serious injuries.

Police said in a statement they were “following a definite line of inquiry” and were “not looking for any other person at this time”.

“I’m very strongly satisfied from our inquiries that there is no terror-related activity,” Superintendent Liam Geraghty told reporters after the attack, adding: “It would appear to be a standalone attack.”

Ireland’s police chief Drew Harris later told the media that “all lines of inquiry” were open to determine the motive.

“I never ruled out any possible motive for this attack,” Harris said.

Protesters clash with police

Later in the evening, RTE reported that clashes had broken out between police and protesters.

The broadcaster reported that a police car and a bus had been set on fire in the centre of the city, and that some people had broken into a footwear store and were seen running away with items.

Police chief Harris condemned “disgraceful scenes” and blamed a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” for the disorder, warning against the spread of “misinformation”.

Irish media and witnesses reported that a man armed with a knife had stabbed the victims outside the primary school shortly after 1:30pm (13:30 GMT).

Siobhan Kearney, who witnessed the stabbing incident, said the scene was “absolutely bedlam” as she initially watched events unfold from the other side of the street.

“Without thinking, I just took across the road to help out,” she told Irish national broadcaster RTE.

“We got another young man, disarmed [the attacker] with the knife, another man took the knife and put it away for the [police] to find it.”

Kearney said a group of people restrained the suspect on the ground, as some of those injured were taken back inside the school.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was shocked by the incident.

“The emergency services responded very quickly and were on site within minutes. I thank them for that,” he said in a statement.

“Gardai have detained a suspect and are following a definite line of inquiry.”

Local lawmaker Aodhan O Riordain, of the Irish Labour Party, said the incident was “disturbing”.

“Understand an individual has been detained. Hope injuries are not serious but it will be extremely traumatising regardless for all involved,” he wrote on X.

Mary Lou McDonald, leader of the Sinn Fein opposition party, said she was “horrified” by what had happened.

“There is shock throughout the community. I have just spoken to the Principal of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and relayed my support to the school community,” she said in a statement.

“I want to send my solidarity to the families of those attacked. As a parent, I can only imagine what they are going through right now,” she added, praising the police for their swift response.

Mediator Qatar has announced that a four-day truce between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, is set to begin at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday.

The brief pause in the fighting, which has raged since October 7, has been welcomed after weeks of intense bombardment and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

What’s in the deal, how will it unfold, and what can we expect to see in the days ahead?

When does the truce begin?

Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry in Qatar, which has played a key role in mediation between the two sides, said that the truce would take effect at 7am (05:00 GMT) on Friday.

At 4pm (14:00 GMT), a group of 13 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza will be released.

What’s included in the deal?

The key components are a pause in the fighting, the exchange of Hamas captives for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and a halt to air traffic over northern Gaza during certain hours of the day and over southern Gaza entirely.

How will the hostages and prisoners be released?

Over the course of four days, Hamas will release 50 women and children, from about 240 people taken captive by the group during its assault on southern Israel on October 7.

In exchange, Israel will release a total of 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, whom Palestinians have long characterised as victims of an Israeli occupation that sweeps them into prisons with little pretence of due process.

Israel has given a list of about 300 Palestinian prisoners who may be released, none of whom have been accused of murder and many of whom were held under arbitrary detention without trial. Israel has said that its forces will bar celebrations for their release.

Israeli Army Radio has said that the first batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners will be released at about 8pm (18:00 GMT) on Friday, and that this will only occur if the hostages held in Gaza are on Israeli soil.

Israel has said that the pause will be extended by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. Qatar has also stated that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will work in Gaza to help facilitate the release process.

In a statement on Thursday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had received a list of those being released and has notified their families.

The development has brought relief for some, but despair for others.

What about armed activity?

Asked about the status of armed activity under the deal, chief Qatari negotiator Mohammed Al-Khulaifi said “no attack whatsoever” would take place.

“No military movements, no expansion, nothing,” he said.

Hamas has said that Israel agreed to suspend air traffic over northern Gaza from 10am (08:00 GMT) until 4pm (14:00 GMT) each day, and over southern Gaza for the entirety of the truce.

The group said that Israel agreed not to attack or arrest anyone in Gaza, and that people can move freely along Salah al-Din Road, the main street along which many Palestinians have fled northern Gaza, where Israel launched its ground invasion.

Hamas also said that its armed wing and all other “Palestinian factions” will halt “all military activity” when the truce enters into effect.

The group said that 200 aid trucks and four fuel trucks will be allowed into Gaza each day, as Palestinian civilians reel from a humanitarian crisis caused by weeks of Israeli bombardment and harsh restrictions on access to food, fuel, electricity and water.

Is this the end of the fighting?

Probably not. While countries such as Qatar, humanitarian groups, and world leaders have expressed hope that the truce could pave the way for a long-term ceasefire, both Israel and Hamas have expressed their intent to fight on.

On Thursday, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, said that Palestinian fighters remain ready to confront Israeli forces so long as the war continues and called for resistance to Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called the upcoming pause a “brief respite … at the end of which the fighting will continue intensely, and we will create pressure to bring back more hostages” during an interview with a navy special operations unit on Thursday.

“At least another two months of fighting is expected,” he said.

 

This week, Netanyahu said the deal constituted a pause rather than an end to the war.

“We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.”

Hamas has always made the freedom of Palestinian prisoners one of the conditions for the release of Israeli and foreign captives.

And it’s one of the terms of the truce that is set to begin on Friday.

An estimated 7,800 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, and dozens more are arrested in the occupied West Bank every day.

Israel’s use of administrative detention means it can imprison Palestinians without charging them – a practice human rights groups say violates international law.

Is Israel using mass detention as a weapon of war?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Mustafa Barghouti – Secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative

Budour Hassan – Researcher on Israel and Palestine at Amnesty International

Ayed Abu Eqtaish – Accountability programme director at Defense for Children International – Palestine who specialises in child detentions

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