Latest developments in Israel-Hamas war

srael and Hamas have agreed to extend by one more day a truce under which hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and aid flows into the war-devastated Gaza Strip.

Militants took about 240 captives from southern Israel during an unprecedented October 7 attack that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

In response, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas, an Islamist movement with an armed wing. A relentless Israeli campaign of air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive has killed nearly 15,000 people, according to Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

Minutes before the halt in fighting was to expire at 0500 GMT on Thursday, Israel’s military said it would be prolonged.

The prime minister’s office subsequently said it had received a new list of women and children hostages to be released by Hamas, “and therefore the truce will continue.”

Hamas said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day”.

Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations supported by Egypt and the United States, confirmed the pause had been extended for a day “under the existing conditions”.

The pause began on November 24 for an initial four days and was then prolonged by two days before the latest one-day extension.

Ten Israeli hostages arrived back on their home soil, the prime minister’s office said early Thursday.

Another four Thai hostages and two Israeli-Russian women were freed outside the framework of the truce arrangement

Shortly after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said 30 Palestinian prisoners had been released, including prominent activist Ahed Tamimi.

Since the truce began, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

Seventeen Thai hostages kidnapped and held for weeks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip landed Thursday in Bangkok, where overjoyed relatives waited to welcome them home.

“The plane has landed. They are being processed now,” a foreign ministry official told AFP.

Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, who flew to Israel earlier this week, accompanied the group, who wore T-shirts bearing the Thai and Israeli flags.

Gunmen killed three people and wounded several more in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israeli police said, in an attack shortly after the truce extension.

Police said the two assailants from annexed east Jerusalem opened fire on people near a bus stop on the western side of Jerusalem.

“Two terrorists arrived in a car, one of them armed with an M-16 and the other with a pistol,” and opened fire, Jerusalem police chief Doron Torgeman told reporters at the scene.

The attackers were shot dead by two off-duty soldiers and a civilian, police said.

A US Navy warship downed a drone on Wednesday launched from a part of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, the American military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The USS Carney destroyer “shot down an Iranian-produced KAS04 unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen”, CENTCOM said.

The Huthis have launched a series of drones and missiles since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month.

Analysts have said the rebels’ overriding target is strategic, rather than military, as they seek regional and domestic legitimacy.

burs-it/jsa

AFP

(NAMPA / AFP)