Live updates | Israel says hostage release will not take place before Friday, as talks are ongoing

Israel's national security adviser said late Wednesday that cease-fire talks with the Hamas militant group were still ongoing, and the hostage release will not take place before Friday. Tzachi Hanegbi gave no explanation for the delay, and it was not immediately clear when the cease-fire might begin.

The cease-fire agreement between the Hamas militant group and Israel had earlier been confirmed by both parties, along with Washington and Qatar, which helped broker the deal that would bring a temporary halt to the devastating war that is now in its seventh week.

The Israeli government said that under an outline of the deal, Hamas will free over a four-day period at least 50 of the roughly 240 hostages taken in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israel will release some Palestinian prisoners in exchange. Egyptian state media say the truce will begin Thursday morning. Egypt helped mediate the cease-fire agreement, which would bring the first respite to war-weary Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 11,000 people have been killed, according to health authorities.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday he told US President Joe Biden that he will press ahead with the war after a cease-fire expires. Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial incursion by Hamas.

Currently: - Truce deal raises hopes of freeing hostages in Gaza and halting worst Mideast violence in decades.

- How the hostage deal came about: Negotiations stumbled, but persistence finally won out.

- Israel unveils what it claims is a major Hamas militant hideout beneath Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

- The shadowy Hamas leader in Gaza is at the top of Israel's hit list.

- During truce, humanitarians want more aid for Gaza, access to hostages - and more time.

US DESTROYER SHOOTS DOWN BOMB-CARRYING DRONES LAUNCHED FROM HOUTHI-CONTROLLED TERRITORY DUBAI- The United States military says one of its warships in the Red Sea has shot down bomb-carrying drones launched from territory controlled by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

The military arm of Yemen's Houthi rebels said earlier Wednesday that it launched a batch of long-range large missiles toward southern Israel, including the Red Sea city of Eilat. The Iran-backed rebel group has launched at least six aerial attacks against Israel since the conflict broke out on Oct. 7.

The Houthi are staunch foes of Israel and have vowed to continue aerial attacks and hijackings of Israeli ships.

The American military's Central Command said the USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, shot down the drones early Thursday morning.

“The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury,” Central Command said, but did not identify what it believed the drones were targeting.

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE IN SOUTH LEBANON BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED SON OF HEAD OF HEZBOLLAH'S PARLIAMENTARY BLOC BEIRUT - An Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon late Wednesday is believed to have killed the son of the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc in Lebanon, Mohammed Raad. Hezbollah announced early Thursday that five of its fighters were killed, among them Abbas Mohammed Raad, identified by local media as the son of the legislator. The Lebanese militant group has a political wing that has long held seats in the country's parliament.

The state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli airstrike on a house in the town of Beit Yahoun late Wednesday killed four people and wounded one. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.

On Wednesday, Hamas announced that Khalil Kharraz, a commander of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli airstrike the day before. Also on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed two journalists from the pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen as they were reporting in south Lebanon. The Israeli military has said it is looking into the incident.

The Lebanon-Israel border has seen daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. While mostly limited to the border area, the clashes have stirred fears of a wider regional war.

ISRAEL SAYS CEASE-FIRE TALKS ARE ONGOING AND HOSTAGE RELEASE WON'T HAPPEN BEFORE FRIDAY JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser says a planned hostage-for-prisoner swap with Hamas has been delayed until at least Friday.

In a statement released late Wednesday, Tzachi Hanegbi said that contacts on the deal were continuing. “The release will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday,” he said.

The swap is to take place as part of a four-day truce expected to begin on Thursday.

Hanegbi gave no explanation for the delay, and it was not immediately clear when the cease-fire might begin.

NETANYAHU SAYS SPY AGENCY WILL ACT AGAINSt HAMAS LEADERS OVERSEAS JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has instructed the country's Mossad spy agency to track down the leadership of the Hamas militant group living in other countries outside Gaza.

“I have instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas, wherever they are,” Netanyahu told a news conference.

Most of Hamas' top leadership lives in exile, primarily in the Gulf state of Qatar and the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The Mossad has been accused in a series of assassinations overseas of Palestinian militants and Iranian nuclear scientists over the years.

OVER A MILLION DISPLACED IN GAZA ARE SHELTERING IN UN FACILITIES CAIRO - The U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that almost 1,037,000 internally displaced Palestinians were currently seeking shelter in 156 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip.

In its report, the aid agency said that the number of its workers killed by the ongoing conflict in Gaza stands at 108. The information in the report was valid as of Tuesday.

Earlier Wednesday, UNRWA's Secretary General, Philippe Lazzarini, gave a press conference in southern Gaza warning that the suffering of Palestinians will only worsen with the coming of winter, and that the besieged territory is on the verge of a waterborne disease outbreak.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a temporary truce was agreed between Israel and Hamas that will facilitate the release of dozens of people taken hostage during the militant group's assault on Israel on Oct. 7.

The move has been welcomed by UNRWA whose leaders have continually called for a cease-fire.

NETANYAHU VOWS WAR WILL KEEP GOING AFTER CEASE-FIREJERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has told President Joe Biden that he will press ahead with Israel's war against Hamas after a temporary cease-fire expires.

Netanyahu said he delivered the message to Biden in a phone call on Wednesday.

“I want to be clear. The war is continuing. The war is continuing. We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said.

A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is expected to take effect on Thursday.

Hamas can extend the truce by releasing more of the hostages it is holding.

But Netanyahu, along with the other members of his special war cabinet, told a press conference they will resume the war until Hamas is destroyed and all of the 240 hostages it is holding are released.

ISRAEL RELEASES AWARD-WINNING PALESTINIAN POET WHO WAS DETAINED BY TROOPS IN GAZA JERUSALEM - The Israeli army says it has released an award-winning Palestinian poet it detained in Gaza.

Mosab Abu Toha has been contributing pieces to western media since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, painting a dire picture of its toll on civilians through his personal experience.

His family announced Monday that Abu Toha had been arrested while evacuating to southern Gaza from his home in the hard-hit Jabaliya refugee camp. Abu Toha last posted to X on Nov. 15, writing: “Alive. Thanks for your prayers.” Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian peace negotiator and friend of the family, said Abu Toha was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and held for two days with dozens of other Palestinians at an Israeli detention center. She says he was was accused of having Hamas connections and beaten up in custody. She said he was released on Tuesday, apparently after the case attracted international attention.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that Abu Toha had been released. It gave no further details.

Buttu said Abu Toha was safe in central Gaza after receiving medical treatment. The poet, whose son is an American citizen, is trying to leave the besieged territory.

MASS GRAVE FOR OVER 100 PALESTINIANS DUG IN SOUTHERN GAZA KHAN YOUNIS - More than 100 bodies were buried Wednesday in a mass grave in Khan Younis, the corpses wrapped in blue plastic sheets fastened with cable ties.

Medical workers placed dozens of bodies brought from various areas in northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, into a huge trench that was dug using a bulldozer.

Workers wearing surgical masks and gloves carried the bodies to the grave and performed funeral prayers.

AID TRUCKS AT GAZA BORDER AWAIT PAUSE IN FIGHTING GENEVA - International aid groups that have lined up thousands of aid trucks for Gaza say they're ready to move quickly to send in food, water and other supplies during an agreed, but yet undated, pause in fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Details remain unclear about both the mechanics of getting more aid for beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza and the possible release of hostages kidnapped from Israel whose families have desperately sought their release.

“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to scale up once everything is set,” said Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, referring to the fine print of the announced deal.

Della Longa lamented bottlenecks that have confounded the scant deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He said IFRC hopes that a deal would include provisions to allow for a “faster track” of aid shipments.

The only route for international humanitarian aid into Gaza since Oct. 7 has been through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, and planeloads of supplies have been flown into the nearby Egyptian city of El-Arish - and trucks have queued up near Gaza, where intense Israeli inspections of trucks and cargo have slowed entry.

IRANIAN-BACKED MILITANT GROUP VOWS TO EXPAND CONFLICT IF US AIRSTRIKES CONTINUE WASHINGTON - A major Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq has warned it may strike additional U.S. targets after U.S. warplanes killed multiple militants in response to the first use of short-range ballistic missiles against U.S. forces at Al-Asad Air Base earlier this week.

U.S. fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations center and a Kataib Hezbollah command and control node south of Baghdad on Tuesday, two defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide additional sensitive details of the attacks.

There were Kataib Hezbollah personnel at both sites at the time of the strikes, but the officials said they could not yet confirm whether anyone there was killed.

Militia officials in Iraq said the attack had killed eight Kataib Hezbollah members.

Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday that it was considering “expanding the scope of targets” if the U.S. military continues with its strikes, adding that the attack “will not go unpunished.” The dangerous back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria began striking U.S. facilities on Oct. 17, the date that a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds. The attacks have continued unabated since, with at least 66 rocket and missile attacks hitting U.S. facilities and wounding at least 62 service members.

___ SWISS PARLIAMENT TO CONSIDER BAN ON HAMAS GENEVA - Switzerland's executive branch said Wednesday it will ask parliament to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Federal Council said the government will also end contracts it has with three Palestinian non-governmental organizations. They were among 11 Palestinian and Israeli NGOs that had been under review by Swiss officials following Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

Four days after the deadly rampage in Israel, the council moved to designate Hamas as a terrorist group and instructed the Foreign Ministry to consider a possible ban.

The seven-member council, which includes the Swiss president, reiterated its condemnation of the attacks “in the strongest possible terms” and expressed its regret about the deaths of thousands of civilians on both sides of the conflict.

The United States and the European Union, which does not count Switzerland as a member, have long considered Hamas a terrorist organization.

EGYPTIAN MEDIA SAY TRUCE WILL BEGIN THURSDAY MORNING Egypt's state-run Qahera TV says the Israel-Hamas truce will take effect at 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) Thursday. Egypt helped mediate the four-day cease-fire, which will facilitate the release of dozens of hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. The deal will also see the release of dozens of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the entry of more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israeli media also reported that the truce would begin Thursday at 10 a.m. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DOCUMENTS 178 ATTACKS ON GAZA HEATH CARE FACILITIES CAIRO - The World Health Organization has documented 178 attacks on healthcare facilities that killed 553 people, including 22 healthcare workers, since the war started on Oct. 7, the agency's regional director said Wednesday.

Ahmed Al-Mandhari said in an online briefing that about 800 people, including 48 healthcare workers, were injured in the attacks, which damaged 24 hospitals and 32 ambulances.

The war has forced the shutdown of 27 out of 36 hospitals and 47 out of 72 primary health care clinics across Gaza, he said. The facilities stopping providing services mainly because of a lack of fuel and attacks, he said.

“Hospitals must be allowed to replenish the resources they need to continue functioning,” he said. “We cannot keep providing drops of aid in an ocean of needs.” A WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION STAFF MEMBER AND HER FAMILY ARE KILLED IN STRIKE CAIRO - The World Health Organization says one of its local staff members in Gaza was killed along with her family when a strike hit the home where they were sheltering.

It said Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was killed Tuesday along with her husband, their 6-month-old son and her two brothers.

The U.N. health agency said in a statement late Tuesday that over 50 people were reportedly killed in the strike. It was not immediately possible to confirm the report or to determine who carried out the strike.

Israel has launched airstrikes across Gaza in the war triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Palestinian militants have fired rockets at Israel, some of which have fallen short.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative for the Palestinian territories, said Alhaj “was a wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, respectful. She was a true team player.” Alhaj, who had worked as a patient administrator with WHO since 2019, was among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled from northern Gaza to shelter in the south. She had left her home in Gaza City and was staying with relatives.

WHO said her death “is another example of the senseless loss in this conflict.'' POPE BEGS FOR PEACE AND AN END TO TERRORISM' VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has met separately with Israeli and Palestinian delegations and begged for peace and an end to what he called terrorism and “passions that are killing everyone.” In encounters arranged before the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal was announced, Francis met Wednesday with relatives of hostages held in Gaza following Hamas' Oct. 7 raid in southern Israel. And he met separately with a delegation of Palestinians with relatives in Gaza.

Speaking at the end of his weekly general audience, Francis said he heard from both how much they are suffering and the toll that the war was taking. In the audience were people holding Palestinian flags and scarves as well as small posters showing apparent bodies in a ditch and the word “Genocide” written underneath.

Francis said: “Here we've gone beyond war. This isn't war, this is terrorism. Please, let us go forward for peace. Pray for peace, pray a lot for peace.”

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)