This brief news report is on hostages, new developments and a major failure in the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel; and lingering issues at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. There is a poll at the end about the ceasefire.
The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel completed its sixth day on Wednesday. So far, 73 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals have been released by Hamas, and at least 219 Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel (using only Israelis and a 3 to 1 exchange rate) . All of them have been women and children, including teenagers. Israel estimates that 145 more hostages remain in Gaza, including 15 women and children.
Qatar says that a deal has been reached to extend the ceasefire through Thursday, and Hamas is to release 8 more Israeli women and children, two short of the required 10 hostages to extend the ceasefire another day.
A major requirement of the ceasefire agreement is for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the remaining hostages in Gaza. As of Wednesday night, NO visits have occurred, and there is NO news of plans for these visits to occur in the future, despite completing 6 days of the ceasefire.
There are two lingering issues at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
The first is the fate of the Al-Shifa Hospital Director Israel arrested on Thursday, Nov. 23. There are reports in the Arab press that his detention has been extended for 45 days. However, there are no reports in the Western press about any extension, and Al-Jazeera appears to have taken down their story about this extension. Apart from the Arab media reports, there are no further reports about him at all.
After the arrest of the director, the Gaza Ministry of Health refused to cooperate further with the WHO until the WHO provided them with a statement about what happened on the day of arrest. There are no reports of any resolution to the Gaza Ministry of Health’s demand, nor of any further evacuations from the hospital.