Israel-Palestine category, Page 9
Hamas releases 3 frail-looking Israeli hostages for 183 Palestinian prisoners under Gaza ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas-led militants released three gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages and Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners Saturday in the latest exchange of a ceasefire agreement that has paused 16 months of war in Gaza. The hostages’ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in...
Egypt lobbies against Trump plan to empty Gaza of Palestinians as Israel makes preparations
CAIRO — Israel says it has begun preparations for the departure of Palestinians from Gaza despite international rejection of President Donald Trump’s plan to empty the territory of its population. Egypt has launched a diplomatic blitz behind the scenes against the proposal, warning it would put its peace deal with...
Trump won’t rule out deploying troops to support rebuilding Gaza, sees ‘long-term’ U.S. ownership
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take “ownership” in redeveloping the area. Trump’s audacious proposal appears certain to roil the next stage of talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel...
Who are the hostages released as part of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire in Gaza?
JERUSALEM — Hamas-led militants released eight hostages on Thursday after more than 15 months in captivity, including an Israeli soldier, bringing to 15 the number of captives freed since the start of a ceasefire in Gaza more than a week ago. Agam Berger, 20, was among five young, female soldiers...
Hamas frees 8 more hostages. Israel begins releasing Palestinian prisoners after delay
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel began releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday after eight hostages in the Gaza Strip were freed by militants earlier in the day in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly called the exchange into question and underscored the fragility of a ceasefire that began this...
Hamas set to free 3 Israelis, 5 Thais in next hostage release, Israeli official says
JERUSALEM — An Israeli official said Wednesday that Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, and five Thai nationals in the next hostage release, slated for Thursday. The official named the Israel women as Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 19, and the man as Gadi...
Israel’s prime minister says Trump has invited him to the White House on Feb. 4
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to visit Washington in Trump’s second term. The visit comes as the United States pressures Israel and...
Tens of thousands return to devastated northern Gaza as Israel lifts its closure under truce
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile...
Qatar says agreement reached to release Israeli hostage, allow Palestinians to return to north Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Mediator Qatar announced early Monday that an agreement has been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage and allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Qatar’s statement said Hamas will hand over...
Desperate families await return of 4 female soldiers held by Hamas for 15 months
TEL AVIV, Israel — Hamas announced Friday that it would release four female soldiers held hostage for 15 months in Gaza, as part of an exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners laid out in its ceasefire agreement with Israel. An advocacy group representing the families of hostages confirmed the identities...
Why is Israel launching a crackdown in the West Bank after the Gaza ceasefire?
In the days since a fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected Jewish settlers have rampaged through two Palestinian towns. The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure from his far-right...
Palestinians confront a landscape of destruction in Gaza’s ‘ghost towns’
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians in Gaza are confronting an apocalyptic landscape of devastation after a ceasefire paused more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Across the tiny coastal enclave, where built-up refugee camps are interspersed between cities, drone footage captured by The Associated Press shows mounds...
Israel’s top general resigns over Oct. 7 attack as it launches major military operation in West Bank
JERUSALEM — Israel’s top general resigned Tuesday, citing the security and intelligence failures related to Hamas’ surprise attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel meanwhile launched a large military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday that the Palestinian Health Ministry said had...
Israeli troops kill 6 and wound 35 in West Bank operation, Palestinian officials say
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel launched a large military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday that the Palestinian Health Ministry said had killed at least six people and wounded 35. Israel announced a “significant and broad military operation” against Palestinian militants in the city. Jenin...
Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will go into effect Sunday morning, officials say
CAIRO — The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday (1:30 a.m. EST), mediator Qatar announced Saturday, as families of hostages held in Gaza braced for news of loved ones, Palestinians prepared to receive freed detainees and humanitarian groups rushed to set...
Mediators tout a Gaza ceasefire deal and plan to free hostages. Israel says details still in flux
DOHA, Qatar — Israel and Hamas agreed to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, mediators announced Wednesday, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies. The three-phase ceasefire deal promises the release of dozens of hostages held by militants in...
Hope and dread as Israelis and Palestinians await a Gaza truce that may not end their suffering
TEL AVIV, Israel — With a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas tantalizingly close, families of hostages in the Gaza Strip are afraid to get their hopes up and agonizing over the unknown. “These days are horrible for us,” Yafit Zailer said Wednesday, breaking down into sobs over the thought of...
A look at the terms — and tensions — in the Israel-Hamas draft ceasefire deal
CAIRO — If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed. In this first phase Israeli troops will pull back to the edges of Gaza, and...
Blinken will make a case for post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to make a last-minute case Tuesday for a plan for the post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears tantalizingly close to completion. Blinken will tout the proposal, which has been in the works for...
Some Israeli soldiers refuse to keep fighting in Gaza
JERUSALEM — Yotam Vilk says the image of Israeli soldiers killing an unarmed Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip is seared in his mind. An officer in the armored corps, Vilk said the instructions were to shoot any unauthorized person who entered an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in Gaza. He saw...
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, officials say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday, with no end in sight to the 15-month conflict. The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and children...
Body of Israeli hostage found in Gaza, possibly alongside his son’s remains, army says
JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said Wednesday, and the army was determining if another set of remains belongs to the man’s son. The discovery of Yosef AlZayadni’s body comes as Israel and Hamas are considering...
Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes killed at least 42 people in Gaza, including children, overnight and into Friday, hospital and emergency response workers said, as health workers and Israel’s military traded claims over reported evacuation orders for two hospitals in the territory’s largely isolated north. The assertions over...
Israeli airstrike hits Gaza humanitarian zone as Netanyahu OKs delegation to talks in Qatar
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone. As the daily bombardment continued, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the...
Israeli strikes kill 12 in Gaza including children as war grinds into the new year
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said Wednesday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year. One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and...
