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As the war enters its 638th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, November 23, 2023.

Fighting

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said troops face “difficult” defensive operations on parts of the eastern front as the bitter winter cold sets in, but forces in the south continued to conduct offensive actions. “Difficult weather, difficult defence on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Donetsk and Avdiivka fronts. Offensive actions in the south,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram messenger. In its evening report, Ukraine’s General Staff said 22 Russian attacks had been beaten back in and around Avdiivka. In its account of the fighting, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had struck Ukrainian troops and equipment near Bakhmut, another devastated town north of Avdiivka.
• The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office said one man died when Russian forces shelled Avdiivka, another in an attack on Chasiv Yar to the north, and a third in the southern city of Kherson. In the town of Selydove in the east, another body was pulled from the rubble lifting the death toll from Tuesday’s Russian missile strike to three.
• The Ukrainian Air Force said it brought down 14 attack drones and an X-22 cruise missile fired from southern Russia, as authorities in the southern region of Odesa said they had destroyed a rare Iranian-built Mohajer-6 attack and reconnaissance drone. Russia bought 30 of the drones last year, they added.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said anti-aircraft units destroyed three Ukrainian drones over the Crimean peninsula, as well as four sea drones. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
• Separately, the Defence Ministry said a group of Russian journalists came under a Ukrainian drone attack in the southern Zaporizhia region. A reporter from the Rossiya 24 state TV channel suffered minor injuries, the ministry added.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to make dovish remarks on Ukraine, telling the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) that it was necessary to think about how to stop “the tragedy” of the war. Putin noted that some leaders had said in their speeches that they were shocked by Russia’s ongoing “aggression” in Ukraine. “Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy,” Putin told the virtual meeting. “And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy.” Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. During his speech, the Russian president also described the conflict as a “war” rather than using the Kremlin’s preferred term of “special military operation”.
• Following the G20 meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that he had urged Putin to withdraw all Russian troops from Ukraine “so that this war can finally end”. Scholz was speaking alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said that it was necessary to work towards peace but also to remember “that in Ukraine, there is an aggressor and a [party that was] attacked. It is simply enough for Russia to withdraw its troops from the invaded territory”.
• Poland said it had charged 16 foreigners with spying for Russia, and allegedly preparing acts of sabotage and gathering information on deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine. The spy ring was dismantled in March.
• A court in St Petersburg sentenced 17-year-old Yegor Balazeikin to six years in a juvenile penal colony for throwing Molotov cocktails at army recruitment offices in protest against Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. There were no casualties or significant damage in the attack because the device failed to ignite.
• Russia said it had protested to Finland after a damaged Russian T-72B3 tank was put on display near the Finnish parliament. “Why are they doing this, for what? Why do Finns need this?” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, accusing Helsinki of “Russophobia”. The tank was put on display on Saturday in an initiative by two pro-Ukraine associations in Finland to remind people of the ongoing conflict.

Weapons

• Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov welcomed the formation by Ukraine’s Western allies of a 20-nation “coalition” to boost the country’s air defences. The group will be led by Germany and France.
• The Kremlin declined to comment on a suggestion by White House spokesman John Kirby that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine. “We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular news briefing.

Deir el-Balah and Fukhari, Gaza Strip — After more than six weeks of war, Khaled Loz knows what he wants to do when the truce announced on Wednesday by Israel and Hamas finally comes into effect.

He wants to sleep.

“It’s the first thing I want to do. I’m tired of all the continuous bombing,” he says.

Since the attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7, in which they killed 1,200 people, Israeli aerial bombing and artillery shelling has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 5,600 children. An estimated 1.7 million people out of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced, with many moving from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south following warnings from the Israeli military.

But Israel’s bombing has extended to central and southern Gaza too, leaving no part of the enclave safe, with refugee camps, schools and hospitals also attacked.

Now, the declaration of a four-day truce that could come into effect soon is promising the first hope of some respite for Gaza’s people.

“We can regain our soul a little,” says Loz. “We want to provide water for our homes, we want goods to enter instead of empty shops where we cannot find what we need.”

But it is also the first opportunity for thousands of families to finally grieve loved ones lost in the bombing. Others are hoping that the pause in fighting allows them to search for missing relatives and friends.

Loz says the home of his mother’s family in Gaza City was bombed. “I don’t know who is left of them, and I don’t know who was martyred. I want to check on my uncle,” he says. “Where are they, where have they fled to?”

“We want to grieve for those we lost. They [Israel] did not give us a chance to express our feelings, even to cry for our friends.”

According to Hamas, the truce will enable the free movement of people from the north of Gaza to the south along Salah al-Din Road, the territory’s main highway. But there is no such guarantee of movement towards the north, where Gaza City is based, so it is unclear whether those like Loz who want to search for missing relatives in the north will be able to make their way there.

Etaf Hussien Musataf al-Jamalan, a father of five children, was displaced from Sheikh Radwan, a district of Gaza City, and was hoping to return to check on his house during the pause in fighting. He says he has “mixed feelings” about the truce.

“We wanted to check our houses. Maybe grab some supplies or anything,” he says, adding that he is “sad” that the truce terms might not allow that. He doesn’t know if his house is still standing — the United Nations estimates that half of north Gaza’s homes have been damaged or destroyed in the bombing — but he says he would prefer to “live in a tent in our neighbourhood” than as a displaced person.

Enas al-Jamalah, 12, is also from Sheikh Radwan. Displaced to Deir el-Balah, he and thousands of others sleep outdoors as winter sneaks up on Gaza, with temperatures dropping at night to 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). His reason to go back home — if it still stands — is simple. “We just want to be warm,” he says.

That longing for home pulls at Fatima Qudayh, too. The 37-year-old from the town of Khuza’a fled to nearby Khan Younis in southern Gaza two days into the war.

Her home in Khuza’a had been damaged in the 2021 war, but she and her family had lovingly rebuilt it. Now, she doesn’t know if it’s still fine, damaged or destroyed. She hopes to visit once the truce comes into effect.

Her six children have barely slept since the war started, she says. “Every night, there is bombing everywhere. Every day, they ask me about the house. Is it OK? Are their toys OK and their rooms OK?”

“I tell them I pray that they are OK — but that the most important thing is that you are OK.”

Johor Bahru, Malaysia – Built along Malaysia’s southern Johor state coast, the 2,833-hectare (7,000 acres) Forest City boasts high-rise apartments overlooking Singapore aimed at Chinese nationals dreaming of a luxury home on a sunny, tropical isle.

Landscaped with palm-fringed beaches and lush greenery, the futuristic metropolis has since floundered, hampered by economic controls, local politics and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Developed by the financially troubled Chinese property giant Country Garden, the city’s developers are now trying to revitalise a place where a mere 9,000 people live in its 28,000 housing units.

Standing inside his nearly empty grocery store below one of the high-rises, Chinese national Sun Qibin, in his 30s, said business had picked up recently but was still slow.

“There are more people coming from China now,” he told Al Jazeera, as a handful of people passed by his ground floor shop on a quiet November evening. “[But] during ordinary times, the business isn’t good.”

Officially launched in 2016, the planned $100bn project saw luxury properties going up as authorities granted it duty-free status and tax breaks to make it attractive to mainland Chinese buyers.

Situated by the Johor Strait with views of the Singapore border just a 20-minute drive away, Forest City was supposed to have a population of 700,000 people across four reclaimed islands by 2035.

But Chinese limits on overseas capital flight and a harsh three-year pandemic border restriction meant demand dried up and just 700 acres, or 10 percent of the total project, has been completed. Doubts increased when former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in 2018 that foreigners would not be granted visas to live there.

Forest City’s regional vice president, Syarul Izam Sarifudin, said the city’s development was still “on track”, but admitted interest in the 5,000 unsold units was lacklustre.

“To us, it is still manageable … We are still selling two or three houses per month,” he told Al Jazeera.“There’s still a sentiment of people who would like to come enjoy the facilities … buy, stay here.”

He said buyers from more than 30 countries had bought properties in Forest City, adding that a possible “maximum” of up to 70 percent of those sold so far were in Chinese hands.

‘Doomed’

On a Malaysian public holiday afternoon in mid-November, a few hundred people were seen passing through the city’s main commercial area.

Many of the stores were closed, with most people heading to a small adjacent water park or duty-free outlets to buy alcoholic drinks.

A few others were tended to by Mandarin-speaking staff in a sales gallery as they viewed a huge model of the fully envisioned city with blinking lights built to scale.

Only a handful of restaurants were open as tourists rode rented electric scooters by a beach where a lonely yacht sat near signs that warned against swimming due to crocodiles.

KGV International property consultant Samuel Tan said the high proportion of foreign ownership had stunted Forest City’s chances at success.

“Any project where the majority is more than 40 percent of foreigners is doomed for failure,” he said. “[This is] because they don’t come here, they don’t occupy [the properties] here, they don’t spend money here.”

He said the project’s developers instead needed to attract Malaysians or Singaporeans.

Forest City estimates that 80 percent of the city’s 9,000 population are tenants, many working in Singapore or a nearby container port in Johor, while the rest are homeowners.

One of the tenants is Yvonne Xavier, who rents a fully-furnished two-bedroom apartment for 850 ringgit ($182) a month, several times cheaper than in Singapore where her husband works.

“I like living here because it is cosy and very quiet. It’s too noisy in town,” the 29-year-old Malaysian said, referring to the state capital Johor Bahru, some 30 kilometres away.

Although generally safe, Xavier said some street lights were not turned on at night, and she was concerned with the behaviour of those coming for the cheap alcohol.

“They stop on the roadside and they start drinking, and they do this every day,” she said.

New incentives

In an effort to boost the area, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in August announced a special financial zone in Forest City with incentives including multiple entry visas, and special income tax rates.

He joined Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong in October to announce a special Johor-Singapore economic zone, with a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the two countries in January.

But despite the initiatives, Forest City faces an uncertain future as property developers in China grapple with mounting debt amid a national housing crisis.

Forest City is 60 percent owned by Country Garden, with the rest held by a local company in which influential Johor state ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, who will become the country’s king in January, has a controlling stake.

With some $186bn in total liabilities, Country Garden failed to make a $15.4m interest payment on its dollar bonds in October. Its shares have lost more than two-thirds of their value this year.

The Reuters news agency reported earlier this month that insurance giant Ping An had been ordered by Chinese authorities to take a controlling stake in the company, which Ping An later denied.

Syarul, the regional vice president, sidestepped questions on Country Garden’s issues, but said he remained hopeful for Forest City, citing “good support” from Malaysia and China, and the planned economic zones.

“We cannot … fall back or move from what we have planned,” he said, adding that 20 billion ringgit ($4.3bn) had been spent on the project so far.

He added that details on the zones were not yet set, but suggested that the city’s owners would be looking into fields like banking and technology rather than real estate.

A female Chinese shopkeeper who identified herself merely as Qiqi, in her 30s, said she had been in Forest City for six years and was keen to stay despite the problems.

“Why do we carry on? We believe that if the special economic zone’s plan is implemented, it will be good news for us,” she said. “We hope that after the special economic zone is developed, it will become a similar situation like Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It will become very good.”

Ninety per cent of the 300 Palestinian prisoners who may be released by Israel are aged 18 or under, Sky News analysis has found.

Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Hamas, who in turn will free some of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

It is expected that 50 women and children held by Hamas would be freed over four days during a planned pause in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Some 150 Palestinian women and children are expected to be released from Israeli jails and the pause would be extended an extra day for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas, according to the prime minister of Israel’s office.

A list of the Palestinian prisoners who could be released has been published by the Israeli justice ministry.

Sky News has analysed the list and found:

One of the most well-known names on the list is Israa Jaabis. She was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after a gas cylinder in her possession exploded at a police checkpoint.

The now 38-year-old gained media attention when she requested Israel pay for surgery to repair the burns and injuries she sustained during the fire.

The authorities turned down her request, according to Palestinian media agency, Alray.

The youngest of the 33 females is Nofoze Hammad, aged 15. Her offence is recorded as “attempted murder, support for terrorism, crimes against justice”. Hammad was to serve a 12-year-sentence after stabbing a Jewish woman, according to local news reports.

The husband of Moriah Cohen, the woman hurt in the attack, told Channel 12: “The children were with my wife when she was stabbed and we promised them that they would never see her [Hammad] again and that she would be in prison for the rest of her life.

“I don’t know what will happen next Saturday if my wife opens the door and sees this devil in front of her.”

While none of the prisoners eligible for release were charged with murder, Hammad is one of 117 individuals who have “attempted murder” mentioned in the offences recorded next to their names.

Other offences include supporting terrorism, arson, handling explosives and throwing stones, with 74 individuals accused of using rocks to attack Israelis.

Half of those on the list do not have links with any specific organisations. Around 50 people are recorded as being associated with Hamas.

Many of those on the list were held without trial, something humanitarian groups have criticised.

While 300 names have been published, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed to Sky News not all of the people on the list would be released.

“Since the deal says the Palestinian prisoners for each hostage, we are preparing 300 in case the terrorists will be kind enough to release 100 hostages, which even then will only mean 40% of them,” he said.

In addition, members of the public are able to appeal against the release of specific prisoners if they contact the authorities within 24 hours.

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The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

North Korea might conduct a nuclear test next year, South Korea’s spy agency has said.

South Korea’s intelligence agency also said Pyongyang received help from Russia for its successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite this week.

North Korea had sent data to Russia on launch vehicles used in two failed previous satellite launches, and Moscow had offered its analysis of the data, Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, said after a briefing by the spy agency.

The launch was “successful”, with the satellite entering orbit around the Earth, and North Korea could launch additional satellites and conduct a nuclear test next year, Youn Kun-young, another committee member, said.

The last time the secretive state tested a nuclear bomb was in 2017 – at a facility it apparently demolished ahead of talks between then US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In 2018, Sky News correspondent Tom Cheshire was the only British broadcaster invited to watch a series of demolition explosions at the facility ahead of the meeting.

North Korea state media claimed the site had been completely dismantled in the blasts “to ensure the transparency of discontinuance of nuclear test”.

South Korea suspended part of a military agreement after the North defied warnings to launch its spy satellite.

The move means Seoul will step up surveillance along its fortified northern border – negating a clause laid out in a 2018 pact between the nations.

Critics had argued the agreement had only weakened South Korea’s ability to monitor the northern border – while North Korea had violated the agreement.

Read more:
What does North Korea want from Vladimir Putin and Russia?
North Korea has sent ‘1,000 containers of weapons’ to Russia for war in Ukraine

Images published in North Korean state media on Tuesday showed what appeared to be Mr Kim watching a rocket launch from a base.

According to the KCNA news agency, the North Korean leader was later briefed on the satellite’s operations and viewed pictures taken above the US territory of Guam in the Pacific.

He emphasised the need for more satellites on different orbits to give his forces “abundant valuable real-time information about the enemy and further promote their responsive posture”, the agency added.

After adjustments, its reconnaissance mission is due to start on 1 December.

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