JERUSALEM, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – Following the announcement that Gaza militant group Hamas will release at least 50 hostages as part of a deal with Israel, here is what we know about the captives. Based on interviews with relatives and Israeli media reports, AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the around 240 people abducted on October 7 during Hamas attacks on military posts, communities and a desert music festival. The hostages, who […]
Tag: Gaza
Hamas leader says ‘close to reaching’ truce deal in Israel-Hamas war
DOHA, Nov 21, 2023 (AFP) – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Tuesday his militant movement was nearing a truce agreement with Israel, according to a statement posted on Telegram. “We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Haniyeh said, according to the post. Negotiators have been working to seal a deal to allow the release of around 240 mostly Israeli hostages seized on October 7, during the deadliest assault on Israel in […]
Hundreds flee as Israel orders Gaza’s main hospital evacuated
By Adel Zaanoun GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of people fled on foot Saturday after the director of Gaza’s main hospital said Israel’s army ordered evacuation of the facility where more than 2,000 patients, medics and displaced people were trapped by the war between Israel and Hamas. Columns of sick and injured — some of them amputees — displaced people, doctors and nurses, were seen making their way out of […]
Israel army says body of hostage found near Gaza hospital
JERUSALEM, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli soldiers near Gaza’s largest hospital found the body of a hostage seized by Hamas militants in their attacks on southern Israel on October 7, the army said Thursday. A military spokesman identified the slain woman as Yehudit Weiss, saying she had been “murdered” by militants in the war-torn Palestinian territory. “Yehudit was murdered by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip and we didn’t manage to reach her in […]
Israel presses Gaza hospital raid
By Mai Yaghi and Adel Zaanoun GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Israel renewed its military operation Thursday at Gaza’s largest hospital, targeting what it said was a Hamas command centre hidden beneath thousands of patients, medics and displaced people. “Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital,” said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of army operations in Gaza. “We continue to move forward.” Both Israel and its top ally […]
Israel says carrying out ‘operation’ in Gaza’s main hospital
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli forces said on Wednesday that they were carrying out an operation in Gaza’s largest hospital, targeting a suspected Hamas command centre located below thousands of ailing and sheltering civilians. After warnings from the United States and others that the Al-Shifa hospital must be protected, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in the early hours that they had entered the compound in Gaza City. “Based on […]
Israel shows ‘evidence’ Hamas held hostages at hospital
JERUSALEM, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Israel’s army cited a discarded baby bottle, makeshift toilet and bullet-scarred motorbike as evidence Hamas held hostages in a Gaza hospital, as an Israeli soldier was declared killed in captivity Tuesday. On Monday evening, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops “found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages” in the basement of Al-Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City. AFP was not able to independently confirm the allegation, and Hamas […]
Gaza’s embattled main hospital buries patients in mass grave
By Adel Zaanoun with Joe Stenson in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Gaza’s main hospital has been forced to bury scores of dead patients in a mass grave, its director said Tuesday, as US President Joe Biden pressed Israel to protect the complex trapped in fierce combat. Israeli forces were at the gates of the sprawling Al-Shifa hospital they say sits atop an underground Hamas command base, but the militants […]
Israeli tanks at gates of Gaza hospital, Biden urges care
By Adel Zaanoun with Sarah Benhaida in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – With tanks massed at the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital, US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli allies to protect civilians, who on Tuesday were trapped inside with dwindling supplies of fuel and water. After days of heavy air strikes around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were metres from the gate of the besieged […]
Indonesian president urges Biden to help end Gaza ‘atrocities’
By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo pressed US President Joe Biden during a visit to the White House on Monday to do more to end “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire. The Israel-Hamas war overshadowed the talks, which had been meant to showcase an upgrade in ties between Indonesia and the United States ahead of Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. “Indonesia […]
North Gaza hospitals ‘out of service’ as fighting rages
By Adel Zaanoun with Sarah Benhaida in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – The hospitals in northern Gaza have been forced out of service amid fuel shortages and intense combat, with the death toll inside the territory’s largest facility rising, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday. Israel argues its Hamas enemies built their military headquarters under the Al-Shifa hospital complex, while UN agencies and doctors in the facility warned a lack […]
Russia says sent 25 tonnes of aid for Gaza
MOSCOW, Nov 10, 2023 (AFP) – Russia said on Friday it had sent 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Egypt to be delivered to the Gaza Strip, which has been under near-total siege and relentless bombardment. Since October 9, when Israel placed the Palestinian territory under a “total siege”, only very limited quantities of basic human necessities like water, food and medicine have been allowed into Gaza. About 500 aid trucks have been allowed into […]





