Jerusalem:

Eight of the hostages due for release in the first phase of a truce deal between Israel and Hamas are dead, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Monday.

“The families have been informed of the situation of their relatives,” Mencer told reporters, without providing the names of the victims.

That means that of the 26 hostages yet to be freed under the first phase of the agreement, only 18 are still alive.

The truce deal, announced earlier in January after months of fruitless negotiations, took effect on January 19, bringing to a halt more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

Under the first phase of the agreement, 33 hostages held by militants in Gaza are to be released in exchange for more than 1,900 Palestinians held by Israel.

Seven Israeli women have been released since the start of the truce, as have 290 Palestinian prisone

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

Washington:

 Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump held a press conference on Tuesday and spoke about a range of issues including NATO, Israeli hostages in Gaza, his wish for the U.S. to buy Greenland and take control of the Panama Canal.

He also discussed Elon Musk and speculation about Canada becoming a U.S. state.

Here are some of his key quotes, ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

CANADA

Asked about his idea that Canada should be a U.S. state, Trump said: “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there, I love the Canadian people. They’re great, but we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits.”

ISRAELI HOSTAGES IN GAZA

“All hell will break out. If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out.”

MEXICO

“We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, and can’t let that happen, because Mexico is really in trouble, a lot of trouble, very dangerous place. We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

PANAMA CANAL, GREENLAND

Since he won the Nov. 5 election Trump has talked about the U.S. buying the Danish territory of Greenland, and the U.S. retaking control of the Panama Canal. He declined on Tuesday to rule out military or economic action as part of those desires.

Trump added: “I can say this, we need them for economic security.” Trump did not commit to negotiating a treaty with Panama, but said: “Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country.” He added: “It’s being operated by China, China, and we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China, and they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made.”

ELON MUSK

Musk, the Tesla chief executive and Trump’s choice to co-chair a commission aimed at cutting government spending, has criticized British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in recent days over his performance when Starmer was the UK’s director of public prosecutions.

Musk has said Starmer failed to prosecute gangs of men who raped young girls. Starmer said on Tuesday that Musk knew “absolutely nothing” about the scandals he has been commenting on.

Musk has also expressed support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Asked for his reaction to Musk’s “provocative statements” about foreign affairs in Europe and elsewhere, Trump said: “I can say Elon’s doing a good job. Very smart guy. I don’t know the people you’re talking about. He was, I know he said some negative things about a couple of people that are running for office, but it’s not so unusual.”

TRUMP ON NATO

Trump said he believes European members of NATO should spend 5% of their GDP on the alliance’s defense. “I think NATO should have 5%, yeah. Well, you can’t do it at two I mean, at 2% every country, if you’re going to have a country and a regular military, you’re at 4% I think they should be, you know, they’re in dangerous territory. They can all afford it, but they should be at 5% not 2%.”

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

Jerusalem:

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.

In the undated, three-and-a-half-minute video recording that AFP has not been able to verify, 19-year-old soldier Liri Albag called in Hebrew for the Israeli government to secure her release.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted, said Albag’s family has not authorised publication of the video.

“We appeal to the prime minister, world leaders and all decision-makers: it’s time to take decisions as if it were your own children there,” the family said in a statement.  

Albag was 18 when she was captured by Palestinian militants at the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border along with six other women conscripts, five of whom remain in captivity.

Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released a number of videos of Israeli hostages in their custody during nearly 15 months of fighting in Gaza.

The militants seized 251 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.

Hamas said late on Friday that indirect negotiations with Israel for a truce and hostage release deal were to resume in Qatar that same night. There has since been no update.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of effort that have failed to end the war.

Weekly demonstrations organised by the hostages forum, the latest scheduled in Tel Aviv on Saturday, have kept up the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a deal to free the hostages.

The prime minister’s critics in Israel have accused him of stalling on a deal.

The forum said the latest video was “firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home”.

On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said he had authorised Israeli negotiators to join the latest round of truce and hostage release talks in Qatar. 

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

Israeli troops have recovered an Israeli hostage in “a complex rescue operation” in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7.

It said 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, had been transferred to a hospital and his medical condition was normal.

The operation, following the rescue of four Israeli hostages in June, comes as talks have continued to try to agree a halt to the fighting in Gaza and the return of more than 100 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

“We are doing everything to save the hostages,” the head of the military Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement.

Israeli television stations showed a military helicopter landing at a hospital as medical staff stood by.

Alkadi was taken hostage in Kibbutz Magen, one of a string of communities around the Gaza Strip that were attacked by Hamas-led fighters on Oct. 7.

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

Moran Stella Yanai went through a harrowing experience during her 54-day captivity in Gaza. In a recent interview, the 40-year-old jewellery designer recounted how she tried to hide in a potato field as Hamas gunmen raided the site of the Nova music festival in Israel near the Gaza border on October 7 last year.

Ms Yanai had been caught twice before by them but managed to convince them she was Arab, not Jewish. However, during her third encounter, her captors were different. “They didn’t talk, they just grabbed me,” she told BBC, recalling how they had “started to throw me from one to the other, and put me in the car.” 

She also revealed that “two terrorists in the front, four in the backseat, three more in the [boot], and only me on top of everybody.”

As Ms Yanai crossed the Gaza border, she caught a glimpse of the crowd on the other side of the fence including “happy” women, children and men. “It was like a bull being entered into a huge arena,” she explained.

The car abruptly stopped, and Ms Yanai felt someone tugging at her leg. At that moment, she prayed for a quick end. She said, “All you can think of at that point is: please let it end fast. One hit to the head, and I will not feel anything. If it’s happening, make it fast.”  

But she later discovered that the group holding her had sold her to Hamas, which marked the beginning of 54 days of captivity for her. During that time, she was moved to 7 different locations, quickly adapting to different survival strategies. “You really need to protect your story,” she explained to the BBC. “What happens in the first house stays there, and doesn’t come with you to the second house [or] the third house.”

At one point, Ms Yanai was held with another woman, an 18-year-old who was taken while she was barefoot and in her pajamas. Ms Yanai overheard their captors discussing who would marry the woman and recalled a disturbing incident when their captors brought in the younger woman’s mother, asking for permission to marry her daughter. This 18-year-old woman is presumed to be Noga Weiss, who recently recounted her 50-day captivity period in Gaza.

Ms Yanai shared that she herself was not sexually assaulted during her captivity, but she learned from other female hostages that they had been raped while in Gaza. 

She described the unsettling process of being “examined” when moving between houses, saying, “It’s a ‘really necessary test’ as they explain it to you.” She said, “I always try to explain to people that ‘rape’ is a really big word. It’s not only the act. Even when a guy stands in front of your door, and you’re sitting down, and he’s staring at you for 10 minutes straight, five to six times a day, every day, for 54 days. Trust me; that’s a rape.” 

She recounted how one day, she and the other hostages had to play cards with their captors to try to get something to eat because they were “so hungry”. Ms Yanai tried to make them laugh with jokes. But one captor got angry and pointed a gun at her head, threatening to kill her.

Moran Stella Yanai was released after 54 days on November 29 as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement facilitated by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.