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The families of Israeli hostages have begun a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand government action to secure the release of those being held by Hamas.

Hamas kidnapped around 240 people – aged between nine months and 85 – during the 7 October attack, the Israeli military has said.

Four people have since been released, including two elderly women taken to the Egyptian border on 24 October.

Israel believes the remaining hostages are being held in tunnels below the Gaza Strip.

The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing pressure from the families of some of the hostages, who believe the government has not done enough to see them freed.

Yair Mozes told Sky News’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn in Tel Aviv that he is marching for his parents.

“We don’t know if they are getting their medicines,” he said. “We are marching to tell the government the first goal is to work only on this.”

Israel-Hamas latest: IDF claims to have found ‘terror tunnel’ inside mosque

Matan Eshet is marching to Jerusalem for his cousin and friend who were both taken hostage at the Nova music festival.

He said he wants to “make as much noise as he can” on the march.

“Thirty-nine days without any connection with our loved ones,” he said. “It drives you insane. I don’t think I’ve had more than two hours sleep since 7 October. It doesn’t let you go.”

Marchers told Sky News they fear the world cares more about the humanitarian situation Palestinians in Gaza are facing, than their loved ones being held hostage.

As well as hoping to place pressure on Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli government, they are calling for the UN and the Red Cross to do more to find their loved ones and ensure their welfare.

The march is expected to last until Saturday and to finish outside Mr Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.

Another protester, Ilan Zecharya, is marching for his niece Eden who was taken at the music festival and whose boyfriend was killed.

“Is the world doing enough to release our families?”, he asked Sky News.

“I don’t hear the loud cry for our families from the world. I hear ‘Free Palestine’ from the world, so world wake up. Yes my government should do more but definitely, definitely for sure the world should do more”.

Read more on this story:
How does hospital protection during wartime apply in Gaza?
The British victims of the Israel-Hamas war

Mr Netanyahu has said he would only consider pausing the fighting if all of the hostages were freed.

Liverpool star Luis Diaz has been reunited with his father who was kidnapped and held hostage by a guerilla group in Colombia.

The pair were visibly emotional – with Diaz’s father in tears – as they embraced for the first time since the ordeal.

The footballer’s father, Luis Manuel Diaz Jimenez, had been held hostage for 12 days in a mountainous area of Colombia by National Liberation Army guerrillas.

He was kidnapped along with Diaz’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, by armed men on motorcycles at a petrol station in the town of Barrancas. Ms Marulanda was rescued within hours by police.

Diaz, 26, had pleaded with his father’s kidnappers to release him and said he and his brothers were “desperate” to see him returned.

Mr Diaz Jimenez was eventually released last Thursday in the vicinity of the Serrania del Perija, a mountainous area of difficult access on the border between Colombia and Venezuela.

Read more:
Luis Diaz’s father reveals details of kidnapping

Finnish authorities record a sharp rise this week in number of asylum seekers arriving over its border with Russia.

Finland has accused Russia of funnelling asylum seekers to its border and says it will take action against what it says is a jump in the number of arrivals.

The Finnish Border Guard said on Tuesday that the number of arrivals from Russia has soared this week with about 60 asylum seekers coming since early on Monday. That compares with a total of 91 people arriving without required documents from August 1 to November 12.

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the number of crossings at Finland’s southeastern border has risen substantially since August due to what the government suspects is a change in Russia’s border policy and enforcement.

Finnish and Russian border authorities have for years cooperated in stopping people without the necessary visas or passports before they can try to enter either of the two countries.

But Russia has started allowing undocumented travellers to access the border zone and enter crossing stations where they can request asylum in Finland, Rantanen said.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at a press conference that the asylum seekers were being “helped and they are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards”.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

Finland last year adopted legislation that allows its Border Guard to stop receiving asylum applications at certain crossing points if the Nordic nation became a target of mass immigration orchestrated by another country.

Finland shares a 1,340km (833-mile) border with Russia, which also serves as the European Union’s external border.

‘Hybrid warfare’ claim

Rantanen said she was unable to explain why Moscow’s border policy suddenly changed.

“Maybe [Russian officials] are annoyed by something in Finland`s activities. You have to ask the Russian authorities about that,” she said. “We do hope that Russia changes its policy back as it was before.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Finland ended its longtime neutrality, applied to join NATO and became the military alliance’s 31st member in April.

Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen accused Russia of deliberately ushering migrants towards the border zone as a type of “hybrid warfare”. Officials in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have made similar allegations against Russia’s ally Belarus in recent years.

Hakkanen said he would inform NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the European Union about the situation.

Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, tried to cross into Finland through its northernmost border crossing with Russia in 2015 and 2016.

A heavy downpour in Gaza that followed six weeks of war has brought with it new concerns and challenges for thousands of Palestinians who have lost their homes, those forced to live in flimsy tents and others fleeing south to escape the Israeli military bombardment.

The start of the rainy season and the possibility of flooding has increased fears that the enclave’s damaged sewage system will be overwhelmed and will spread disease.

“We’re very concerned. We’ve already got outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases. We’ve already recorded well over 30,000 cases when we would normally expect 2,000 cases in the same period,” said Margaret Harris, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said the start of the rainy season could mark “the most difficult week in Gaza” since the conflict began.

Other aid agencies said trying to meet the daily needs of Palestinians has meant they’ve been unable to plan ahead for potential flooding.

Premature babies are in danger of dying as Israeli attacks cripple most hospitals in Gaza.

The World Health Organization says Gaza’s largest health complex – al-Shifa Hospital – resembles a cemetery.

How can this happen to places protected by international law?

And what impact is it having on Palestinians?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan – Co-founder of Gaza Medic Voices

Bushra Khalidi – Policy lead in the occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel at Oxfam

Dr Mads Gilbert – Medical head and professor at the Clinic of Emergency Medicine at the University Hospital of North Norway; is also the author of the book Night in Gaza and has worked with medical teams there