The truce continues to hold and further exchanges of captives and prisoners are expected, while Gaza receives limited but much-needed humanitarian aid.
Here is what you need to know about the situation on Saturday November 25, 2023:
Exchange of hostages and prisoners
- Hamas fighters are preparing to release a second group of prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, officials say.
- Egypt claims to have received from Hamas a list of 14 captives to be freed from Gaza.
- Forty-two Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are expected to be released, including 18 women and 24 teenagers.
- Hamas has already released 13 Israeli women and children, some of whom have dual nationality.
- The group also freed 10 Thais and a Filipino citizen.
- Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children were released from Palestinian prisons.
- The Israeli military says the freed captives will undergo a medical evaluation in Israel before being reunited with their families.
Truce
- The four-day truce largely holds in Gaza into its second day with only a small plume of gray smoke reported over northern Gaza, the focus of Israeli attacks.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that for every 10 additional captives released, there would be one additional day of truce.
- Under the terms of the truce agreement, Hamas is expected to release a total of 50 captives in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Humanitarian aid
- A UN convoy reached two facilities of the international agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) sheltering displaced people in the north, where it delivered flour.
- Four tankers carrying fuel and four others containing cooking gas entered the southern Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
- Palestinian Red Crescent Society says 196 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies entered Gaza through Rafah crossing, largest such aid delivery since beginning of the conflict.
- According to the Israeli Defense Ministry’s agency responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, a total of 200 aid trucks entered Gaza after the truce.
Other developments
- An Israeli cargo ship was damaged in a suspected drone attack by Iran in the Indian Ocean, according to a US defense official.
- The Israeli army claims to have shot down a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon and targeting an Israeli drone.
