Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike, according to medics, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on April 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinians watch members of the Hamas militant group searching for bodies of the hostages in an area in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
| Photo Credit: AP

Food distribution sites run by the controversial U.S. and Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are being shut down under the terms of the ceasefire deal, an Egyptian official and another official in the region told The Associated Press on Sunday (October 12, 2025).

Multiple Palestinian witnesses said three of GHF’s distribution sites had been abandoned, in the southern area of Rafah and in the Netzarim area of central Gaza. Palestinians, aid workers and health officials have said the system forced aid-seekers to risk their lives to reach the sites by passing Israeli troops who opened fire to control crowds, killing hundreds. The Israeli military says it only fired warning shots.

Hoda Goda, a Palestinian woman, said the site she often went to in Rafah was vacant and Palestinians tore down structures, taking wood and metal fences. Video circulating online showed people walking away with scrap metal from the site in the Netzarim area of central Gaza. Israeli troops pulled out of part of Netzarim on Friday under the terms of the ceasefire deal and are due to withdraw from parts of Rafah later.

A third official, with knowledge of the situation, said the current plan was to rely on other aid agencies to supply Gaza. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deal’s provisions.

A GHF spokesperson said there will be “tactical changes” to its operations and “temporary closures” of some sites over the next few days during the transfer of the hostages to Israel.

“There is no change to our long-term plan,” the official said on condition of anonymity in accordance with the organization’s rules.

The United Nations, which had opposed the GHF distribution, was gearing up to bring increased aid into the devastated territory after the ceasefire came into effect Friday. It said it has about 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid ready to enter once Israel gives the green light.

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, said the amount of aid entering the Palestinian territory was expected to increase to around 600 trucks per day, as stipulated in the agreement.

The U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the AP that trucks of aid began going into Gaza on Sunday, including cooking gas for the first time in months, but not yet at the scale they hope for in the days and weeks ahead.

He said the U.N. has a plan for the next two months to restore basic medical and other services, bring in thousands of tons of food and nutritional supplies, fuel and remove rubble.

“Much of Gaza is a wasteland,” Fletcher said. “But I’m absolutely determined that we will not fail. … We will strain every sinew to deliver for the people of Gaza.” He said the U.N. has the networks, the expertise and the experience to beat the famine that has taken hold in Gaza City.

U.S. officials have not said they expect GHF to halt all its operations in Gaza, but they have also said there are no current plans to continue funding for it. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the situation is still in flux, said there could still be a role for GHF, or an organization like it, if and when a ceasefire is solidified and if U.N. and other agencies are not able to handle the demand for assistance or prevent it from reaching Hamas.

COGAT said it was unclear on GHF’s future in Gaza. It had no immediate comment on whether its role was coming to an end.

GHF began operating in late May, after Israel had shut off all food to Gaza for months, pushing the population toward famine. Israel intended for the private contractor group to replace the U.N. food distribution system, claiming Hamas was diverting large amounts of aid. The U.N. denied the claims.

The U.N. had opposed the creation of GHF, saying the system gave Israel control over food distribution and could force the displacement of Palestinians. Throughout the war, the U.N. led a massive humanitarian effort with other aid groups, distributing food, medicine, fuel and other supplies at hundreds of centers around Gaza.

The four GHF distribution sites were located in Israeli military-controlled zones. Palestinians desperate for food had to walk for miles daily to reach the site past Israeli troop positions. Witnesses said Israeli troops fired heavy barrages to keep crowds from moving before the sites’ opening or from leaving designated roads. Once at the sites, thousands of aid-seekers scrambled in a mad rush to get to food boxes,.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 2,500 people were killed and hundreds more wounded seeking aid, either on route to GHF sites or when Israeli troops fired as crowds massed waiting for U.N. aid trucks entering Gaza. In either case, Israel said it fired warning shots.

GHF says there has been no violence in the aid sites themselves but acknowledged the potential dangers people face when traveling to them on foot. It said last week it had distributed the equivalent of 185 million meals in Gaza since it began operations.

Published – October 13, 2025 05:38 am IST

In this image released by Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv, five Thai hostages who were freed from Hamas pose for a picture with Thai Ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya, center, in Israel, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. From left to right: Bannawat Saethao, Surasak Rumnao, Watchara Sriaoun, Pannabha Chandraramya, Sathian Suwannakham and Pongsak Thaenna.
| Photo Credit: AP

When the mother of one of the Thai hostages held in the Gaza Strip for over a year caught sight of her son on a Facebook livestream after his release on Thursday (January 30, 2025), he had changed so much that she didn’t recognize him at first.

Surasak Rumnao, 32, who was kidnapped from the southern Israeli town of Yesha on October 7, 2023, looked pale and puffy, said his mother, Khammee Lamnao.

“I was so happy that I could not eat anything. His father brought some food to me but I did not want to eat at all,” Khammee said on a video call with The Associated Press after the release of her son.

Dozens of Israeli doctors, nurses and representatives from Israel and Thailand waved flags, sang and cheered on Thursday as the five Thai hostages stepped off a military helicopter and entered a hospital outside Tel Aviv, where they will spend a few days undergoing medical tests and recuperating. Three Israelis were also released on Thursday, and Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners in the exchange.

Besides Sarusak, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were released in Thursday’s exchange.

Hamas militants kidnapped 31 Thai nationals during the assault on southern Israel, making them the largest group of foreigners held captive. Many of the Thai agricultural workers lived in compounds on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and towns, and Hamas militants overran those places first.

During an earlier ceasefire in November 2023, 23 Thai nationals were released in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with assistance from Qatar and Iran.

According to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 46 Thais have been killed during the conflict, including two Thai citizens who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023 and their bodies taken into Gaza.

Dr. Osnat Levzion-Korach, the director of Shamir Medical Center outside Tel Aviv where the five were taken, said they were in “fair” health, though most were held underground and were not exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time. She said they did not appear to be malnourished and credited their young age with helping them survive captivity in fairly good physical shape.

Thailand’s ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, said she facilitated video calls between the hostages and their families after they arrived at the hospital, describing them as incredibly emotional, with shouts of joy and tears. She said it was “one of the happiest days of her life,” to see their release just a week before she ends her five-year term.

Pannabha said there was no immediate information available about the last Thai hostage left in Gaza, Nattapong Pingsa, nor the two Thai workers whose bodies were taken into Gaza.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra thanked Qatar, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, the United States, Israel, and the Red Cross, for helping to negotiate the Thais’ release in a separate deal from the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. She said Thailand’s minister of foreign affairs would travel to Israel this weekend.

Ambassador Pannabha said the Thai government may bring some relatives of the released hostages to Israel, though many don’t have passports, and that the government would help those released return home as soon as they are medically cleared to travel.

Israel will recognize the released Thai hostages as terror victims, a designation that entitles them to financial benefits and health care, said Alex Gandler, the deputy spokesperson of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said Israel’s ambassador in Thailand visited some of the hostages released in the previous ceasefire deal on Thursday and that the Israeli government maintains contact with them. Mr. Gandler added that since the released Thais did not have family in Israel to greet them upon their release, some of their former employers came to meet them at the hospital.

Mr. Gandler said Israel is committed to releasing all the hostages, regardless of nationality. There are still one Thai, one Nepali and one Tanzanian hostage, as well as the bodies of a Tanzanian and the two Thais being held in Gaza, according to the prime minister’s office. Israel hopes all the international hostages will be released, both living and dead, Gandler said, which Israel and Hamas will begin discussing next week.

Jerusalem:

Israel said on Sunday that Hamas had violated a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect one week ago and has so far resulted in the release of seven hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners.

“During the execution of the second phase of the swap yesterday, Hamas committed two violations. Arbel Yehud, a civilian hostage who was scheduled for release on Saturday, has not been freed, and the detailed list of all hostages’ statuses has not been provided,” said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Gaza:

Palestinians took to the streets across Gaza as they celebrated the much-anticipated ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, which came into effect on Sunday at 11:15 am local time after a three-hour delay. Thousands of people, who were forced to go into hiding during 15 months of devastation, rushed back to see what remained of their homes while others visited the graves of relatives. 

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Armed Hamas fighters drove through streets as crowds cheered for them and chanted “Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades” – the armed wing of Hamas. Dressed in blue uniforms, several Hamas policemen were also seen deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli airstrikes.

الفصائل الفلسطينية يتجولون في شوارع غزة ويشاركون الأهالي فرحة الانتصار وانتهاء الحرب. pic.twitter.com/v2XRe511rN

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 19, 2025

“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” one fighter told news agency Reuters, referring to the armed wing.

“This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him,” he added. 

بعد وقف الحرب… الأهالي يحتفلون بالطبيب العراقي محمد طاهر ويحملونه على الأكتاف تقديرا لبقائه في غزة وإنقاذ أرواح المئات من المصابين. pic.twitter.com/YYut5OpnaC

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 19, 2025

Palestinians Return Home

In Gaza City, where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles with the militants took place, hundreds of people picked their way through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal. People waved the Palestinian flag and filmed the scenes on their mobile phones as several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.

بصمودهم حطموا جميع مخططات التهجير.. فلسطينيون يعودون أفواجاً إلى شمال غزة pic.twitter.com/6Z0VbCEH64

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 19, 2025

People who had to leave their homes to save their lives welcomed the ceasefire as another shot at life. 

“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time that we hug one another and cry, “Gaza City resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, old Reuters via a chat app.  

Ayham had been sheltering with his family in Khan Younis for months. He said the scene of destruction in his home city was “dreadful”, adding that while the ceasefire may have spared lives it was no time for celebrations.

According to Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City, who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, the ceasefire came as another shot at life.

“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” Aya said.

She added, “The war ended, but life isn’t going to be better because of the destruction and the losses we suffered. But at least there will be no more bloodshed of women and children, I hope.”

Aide Enters Gaza After Months

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies entered Gaza on Sunday after a truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect, the United Nations said.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

“First trucks of supplies started entering” minutes after the ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning, UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, interim chief of the UN’s OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, said on X.

“A massive effort has been underway over the past days from humanitarian partners to load and prepare to distribute a surge of aid across all of Gaza.”

The UN did not give details on where the shipments entered Gaza, but an Egyptian source news agency AFP that “197 trucks of aid and five of fuel entered through the crossing of Kerem Shalom between Israel and Gaza and that of al-Oga” and Nitzana between Egypt and Israel. 

Israel-Hamas Ceasefire

The ceasefire deal took effect after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing a war that has brought seismic political change to the Middle East and giving hope to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, many of whom have been displaced several times.

The highly anticipated ceasefire deal could help usher in an end to the Gaza war, which began after Hamas, which controls the tiny coastal territory, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s response has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza-based health officials.

Smoke rises inside the Gaza Strip, before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas goes into effect, as seen from southern Israel, January 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: After 15 months of fighting, which was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack in which about 1,200 people were killed, Israel and Hamas have accepted a ceasefire in Gaza. On Saturday, Israel’s 24-member cabinet gave approval to the agreement, which is expected to be implemented in three phases. The deal, which came into force on Sunday, was reached in talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. If it holds, it would provide a desperately needed relief for Gaza, the tiny strip along the Mediterranean Sea which was relentlessly bombed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) over the past 15 months in which over 46,000 Palestinians were killed and almost the entire population of the enclave displaced.

What are the terms?

The deal is to be implemented in three phases. In the 42-day first phase, Hamas will release 33 hostages, most of those alive, and Israel will free roughly 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners. Israel will also partially withdraw the IDF from Gaza, and allow the entry of about 600 trucks of humanitarian aid into the enclave every day. The IDF is expected to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza, which has seen massive Israeli bombardment from Day one of the war, from the south, where most of the enclave’s population have been pushed into. If the Israeli troops withdraw from Netzarim, it would allow some of the displaced Gazans to move from the south and centre to the north.

But in the first phase, Israeli troops will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor on the Rafah crossing — which means Israel will continue to monitor Gaza’s border with Egypt. On the 16th day of the first phase, discussions are expected to begin on the second phase. If the first phase is implemented as per plan, 65 hostages will still be in Hamas’s captivity and Israeli troops will still be there at Philadelphi and some buffer zones in Gaza. In the second stage, Hamas will be required to release most of the remaining living hostages and both sides should declare a permanent end to the hostilities. The third phase will involve discussions on the ‘day after’.

Why did both parties accept a ceasefire now?

The deal accepted by both parties is not essentially different from the deal offered eight months ago. Hamas had announced earlier that it would accept a deal, provided the war is brought to a permanent end.

In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the agreement, saying Israel would continue its military offensive in Gaza until it meets its objectives.

But a lot has changed in the region since.

Israel now believes its regional standing has become stronger. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia organisation, has lost most of its top leadership in Israeli attacks. The IDF has killed most of the leaders of Hamas, including Yahya Sinwar. Israel carried out a massive air strike in Iran in October, targeting the Islamic Republic’s air defences and other military facilities (to which Iran hasn’t responded yet). More importantly, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria has further weakened Iran’s so-called ‘axis of resistance’ in West Asia. Mr. Assad’s Syria was the land bridge between Iran and Hezbollah. Since this land bridge is disrupted, Hezbollah will find it difficult to rearm itself. These developments have also strengthened Mr. Netanyahu’s political standing at home.

These factors probably influenced him to change his position about a deal with Hamas. But that’s not all.

After months of fighting, Israel failed to meet its declared objectives in Gaza. When he launched the war, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would dismantle Hamas. Israeli attacks have degraded Hamas’s militant infrastructure, but Hamas reinvented itself as an insurgency, its original avatar. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, recently said the American assessment was that Hamas recruited as many fighters as it had lost.

The inability to meet its objectives through military means might also have influenced Israel’s leaders to take a more pragmatic view of pausing the conflict and getting the hostages freed. Then, there is the Trump factor.

What role did the U.S. play?

The Biden administration has been pushing for a ceasefire for long, but it also offered full support to Israel’s war in Gaza. Washington continues to supply weapons to Israel and offer diplomatic protection to Israel at global fora. Mr. Biden’s refusal to use effective pressure tactics on Israel meant that the latter continued the war despite Washington’s public call and private diplomatic push for a ceasefire. But now, Mr. Biden can claim that a ceasefire was reached just days before he left the White House. Arab and Israeli media claim that the Trump factor also played a key role. Donald Trump had earlier said that “all hell will break loose” if there was no agreement between Israel and Hamas before he takes office on January 20 as the 47th President of the U.S. Mr. Trump’s West Asia envoy Steve Witkoff had met the negotiators and the Israeli leadership last week. Times of Israel reported, quoting Arab officials, that Mr. Witkoff managed to achieve in a single meeting more than what President Biden did the whole year.

Mr. Trump is known for his pro-Israel positions. But he had promised during his campaign that he would bring the wars in West Asia and Ukraine to an end if returned to the White House. If the war is brought to an end, besides the humanitarian angle, it would offer some stability to West Asia. Mr. Trump may not like the U.S. being drawn into another never-ending war in the region. Also, if the Israel-Hamas war pauses, the Houthis of Yemen could stop attacking Israel and the ships passing through the Red Sea. Both the U.S. and Israel carried out air strikes against the Houthis in recent months but failed to stop their attacks.

If the Red Sea calms down, normal freight traffic through the Suez Canal could resume, tamping down the inflationary pressure on the global economy.

Why is Phase 3 going to be a challenge?

As of now, the focus of both parties would be on implementing the first phase — which has a fair chance of being implemented. The second phase could see the exchange of more hostages for prisoners. But the real challenge would be Phase 3. Hamas has demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel now realises that it cannot dismantle Hamas — the organisation would survive in one way or another. On a more practical note, Israel doesn’t want to leave Hamas as a ruling or fighting force in Gaza. This poses a dilemma for Israel. If it agrees to end the war and leave Gaza, Hamas would remain a militant insurgency in Gaza. If Israel continues to stay in Gaza, there won’t be a lasting ceasefire agreement and a war of attrition will go on.

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as Israel kept up strikes on the enclave following the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel’s Cabinet approved a deal early on Saturday (January 18, 2025) for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages that will pause the 15-month war with Hamas for six weeks.

The deal brings Israel and Hamas a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever.

The ceasefire — just the second achieved during the war — is expected to begin Sunday.

Mediators Qatar and the U.S. announced the ceasefire Wednesday, but the deal was in limbo for more than a day as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there were last-minute complications that he blamed on the Hamas militant group.

The ceasefire — just the second achieved during the war — will go into effect Sunday, though key questions remain, including the names of the 33 hostages to be released during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire and who among them is still alive.

Netanyahu instructed a special task force to prepare to receive the hostages returning from Gaza and said that their families were informed a deal had been reached.

Hundreds of Palestinian detainees are to be released as well, and the largely devastated Gaza should see a surge in humanitarian aid.

Israel’s justice ministry published a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in the deal’s first phase and said the release will not begin before 4 p.m. local time Sunday. All people on the list are younger or female.

Israel’s Prison Services said it will transport the prisoners instead of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handled transportation during the first ceasefire, to avoid “public expressions of joy.” The prisoners have been accused of crimes like incitement, vandalism, supporting terror, terror activities, attempted murder or throwing stones or Molotov cocktails.

Trucks carrying aid lined up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. An Egyptian official said an Israeli delegation from the military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency arrived Friday in Cairo to discuss the reopening of the crossing. An Israeli official confirmed a delegation was going to Cairo. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Israeli forces will also pull back from many areas in Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be able to return to what’s left of their homes.

Israel’s military said that as its forces gradually withdraw from specific locations and routes in Gaza, residents will not be allowed to return to areas where troops are present or near the Israel-Gaza border and any threat to Israeli forces “will be met with a forceful response.”

Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people and left some 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel responded with a devastating offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half the dead.

Fighting continued into Friday, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 88 bodies had arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours. In previous conflicts, both sides stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength.

The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second — and much more difficult — phase that will be negotiated during the first.

Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

Longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.

The conflict has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests. It also highlighted political tensions inside Israel, drawing fierce resistance from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.

On Thursday, Israel’s hard-line national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened to quit the government if Israel approved the ceasefire. He reiterated that Friday, writing on social media platform X: “If the ‘deal’ passes, we will leave the government with a heavy heart.”

Ben-Gvir’s resignation would not bring down the government or derail the ceasefire deal, but the move would destabilize the government at a delicate moment and could eventually lead to its collapse if Ben-Gvir were joined by other key Netanyahu allies.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir . File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Thursday (January 16, 2025) that he and his party colleagues would quit the cabinet if it approved a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, though they would not leave the country’s ruling coalition.

“If this irresponsible agreement is approved and implemented, the Jewish Power party will not be part of the government and will leave it,” he said at a press conference late Thursday evening, while keeping open the possibility of reversing course if the ceasefire collapsed.

“If the war against Hamas resumes, with intensity, in order to achieve the objectives of the war that have not been achieved, we will return to the government.”

Ben Gvir sits on the Israeli cabinet alongside two fellow Jewish Power MPs, and contributes six members, including himself, to Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of 68 lawmakers in the Knesset.

But even as he threatened to quit the cabinet, he said his party “will not overthrow Netanyahu”.

Ben Gvir also called on far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party, to quit.

Smotrich had said earlier in the day that the ceasefire deal was “dangerous” for Israel’s security.

Following Ben Gvir’s remarks, Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a statement: “Whoever dismantles a right-wing government will forever be in disgrace.”

The ceasefire agreement, it added, would allow Israel “to maximize the number of live hostages that will be released… (and) to achieve security successes that will guarantee Israel’s security for generations to come”.

Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich have repeatedly called for continuing the Gaza war, and the former has even said that he repeatedly blocked previous attempts to reach a ceasefire.

The deal agreed on Wednesday and mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States initially provides for the release of 33 hostages abducted during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

But Ben Gvir set out an alternative approach on Thursday.

“For the release of the hostages, humanitarian aid sent to Gaza must be completely stopped,” he said, adding “stop the transfer of fuel, electricity and water”.

“Only then will Hamas release our hostages without jeopardising Israel’s security.”

Israel is currently facing a case at the International Court of Justice, brought by South Africa, accusing it of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Israel vehemently denies the accusation.

Rights groups have pointed to similar statements by figures such as former defence minister Yoav Gallant, himself wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, as potential evidence of genocidal intent.

After news of a ceasefire agreement sparked mass rejoicing in Gaza, residents woke up Thursday to columns of smoke, rubble and more deaths following new Israeli air strikes.

“We were waiting for the truce and were happy. It was the happiest night since October 7,” said Gaza resident Saeed Alloush, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in 2023.

“Suddenly… we received the news of the martyrdom of 40 people,” including his uncle, Alloush said.

“The whole area’s joy turned to sadness, as if an earthquake struck.”

The latest strikes came after Qatar and the United States announced a fragile ceasefire deal that should take effect on Sunday.

AFP has contacted the Israeli military for comment.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, told AFP on Thursday that at least 73 people had been killed in Israeli air strikes since the announcement on Wednesday.

Among them were 20 children and 25 women, he said, with around 200 others wounded.

As day broke, crowds gathered to inspect and clear the remains of a building reduced to rubble, where chunks of concrete lay interspersed with rebar and personal items scattered across the site.

The scenes mirrored those in other parts of the densely populated territory of 2.4 million people, most of whom have been displaced at least once since war broke out in October 2023.

At Nasser Hospital, the main medical facility of the southern city of Khan Yunis, AFP journalists saw stained metal mortuary stretchers stained in red as staff drained them of the blood of the dead in a strike.

In Gaza City’s Al-Ahli hospital, where several strike casualties were taken, grieving families knelt by the white shrouds enveloping their loved ones’ bodies.

Rescuer Ibrahim Abu al-Rish told AFP that “after the ceasefire was announced and people were happy and joyful, a five-storey building was targeted, with more than 50 people inside”.

Wearing headlights, first responders and local residents searched through the rubble late at night in the devastated streets of Gaza City.

Abu al-Rish, an ambulance driver for Gaza’s civil defence agency, said Thursday that “shelling is still continuing, targeting one house after another”.

‘Very bloody night’

In the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, resident Mahmud al-Qarnawi told AFP that until the agreement takes hold, Gazans would remain vulnerable.

“The shooting has not stopped, the planes are still in the air and the situation is difficult,” he said.

As a result, Qarnawi and others AFP spoke to in the nearby city of Nuseirat said they were worried about what could happen next.

“We must remain cautious. And for the next three days, we are afraid of a (possible) bloodbath (worse) than before,” Motaz Bakeer, a displaced Gazan, said from the market at Nuseirat.

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said no one could yet feel safe in Gaza.

“Last night it was a lot of cheering for 20 minutes, and then it was a very bloody night,” MSF’s emergency coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP by phone from the territory, rounds of shelling audible in the background.

The Israeli cabinet is expected to approve the Gaza deal later Thursday, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of backtracking on elements of the agreement.

Key mediators Qatar and the United States said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza starting on Sunday, along with a hostage and prisoner exchange.

If the fragile agreement is approved, 33 hostages should be released in a first phase, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 46,788 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory considered reliable by the United Nations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)