Region

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Hamas fighters released a third group of hostages including a four-year-old American girl on Sunday, in exchange for a new group of Palestinian prisoners on the third day of a truce which a source close to the militants said they were willing to prolong.

The transfers under a four-day truce that started Friday have been the first relief for captives' families since the group suddenly attacked Israel on October 7, prompting devastating Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said a total of 17 hostages were back on Israeli territory after the latest release. One, in her 80s, was admitted to hospital which said her life was in danger.

US President Joe Biden announced that among those freed is a four-year-old American girl.

"She's been through a terrible trauma," Biden said.

Along with 13 Israelis, four others including three Thais were released outside the terms of the truce.

Hamas said a Russian-Israeli, Ron Krivoy, was freed "in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin" and his "support of the Palestinian cause".

Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.

Sunday's releases bring the total number of Israelis freed under the deal to 39 since Friday.

In exchange, a further 39 Palestinian prisoners were freed on Sunday, the Israeli prison service said, after the release of 78 other Palestinian inmates from Israeli jails over the past two days.

On Friday Hamas released 10 other Thais and a Filipino, in a surprise move separate from the main deal.

Israel has faced mounting pressure to extend the four-day pause mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt.

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFMTV that “it would be good, helpful and necessary” to extend the truce until all hostages, who include French nationals, are freed.

Biden expressed a similar hope “so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza”.

A source close to Hamas said the movement, which has an armed wing, was willing to prolong the pause.

“Hamas informed the mediators that the resistance movements were willing to extend the current truce by two to four days,” the source told AFP. “The resistance believes it is possible to ensure the release of 20 to 40 Israeli prisoners” in that time.

Under the truce, a total of 50 hostages held by the militants are to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it as long as at least 10 Israeli captives are released each day.

“In the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, residents received a text message from Israeli forces that said they know hostages are being held there.

“The army will neutralise anyone who has kidnapped hostages,” the message said.

‘That’s enough’ 

Elsewhere in Gaza, following weeks of bombardment, residents ventured back to pick through heaps of rubble where they once lived.

“I came to see if there was anything left, if there was anything I could salvage. We fled with nothing,” said Oussama Al Bass, inspecting the ruins of his home in Al Zahra, south of Gaza City.

“Everything is lost,” he said. “We’re tired. That’s enough. We can’t take it anymore.”

On the outskirts of Gaza City, families took to the road on foot to head south, pushing luggage and relatives in wheelchairs, and carrying children in their arms.

On Sunday in Ramallah and Beitunia, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, white International Committee of the Red Cross buses delivered the freed prisoners as waiting crowds flew Hamas and Palestinian flags.

Noorhan Awad, a female prisoner released on Saturday, said that when she got out of the police car, “It was a great moment. Freedom is priceless.”

Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, said on Sunday that its northern brigade commander Ahmed Al Ghandour and four other senior leaders had been killed, without specifying when.

The pause in fighting has allowed more aid to reach Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials, but Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warned of “unprecedented” humanitarian needs.

“We should send 200 lorries a day continuously for at least two months,” he said.

The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

BAGHDAD — Sixty per cent of farmers surveyed in four provinces of drought-hit Iraq reported having to reduce cultivated areas or water used, an international rights group said Sunday.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) called on the Iraqi authorities to improve governance of water resources in the country that has been described as one of the most vulnerable to climate change and water scarcity.

"Climate change in Iraq is impeding the economic recovery of communities affected by conflict and precipitating risks of secondary displacement," the NRC said.

The survey was conducted in July and August and relied on results from interviewing 1,079 people in Iraq's Anbar, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salaheddin provinces, 40 per cent of whom were women and 94 per cent of whom were residents of rural areas.

It said 60 per cent of respondents "said they cultivated less land or had to use less water due to extreme drought".

"Iraq's climate is changing faster than people can adapt," said Anthony Zielicki, the NRC's interim Iraq director.

"For the 1.2 million still displaced by conflict and the millions who have returned home, resettled or relocated, recovery from years of conflict is being crippled by extreme drought," he added.

Farmers' incomes saw an increase in 2023 due to "higher than estimated rainfall", the NRC said. But that "did not necessarily translate into greater economic and food security for all farmers across Iraq", with women reporting higher income insecurity.

Some "15 per cent of women reported not earning incomes in 2023, compared to 6 per cent in 2022", the NRC said.

Rainfall was moreover concentrated in the south, as opposed to the north in previous years, the report said.

The report comes days before the start of the COP28 climate summit set to be held in the United Arab Emirates this year.

Successive years of drought have already displaced tens of thousands from rural areas in Iraq, particularly in the southern provinces that face extreme heat during the summer.

In addition to drought, the authorities blame upstream dams built by Iraq’s powerful neighbours Iran and Turkey for dramatically lowering water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which have irrigated Iraq for millennia.

A study published earlier in November by the World Weather Attribution group blamed the “extreme” drought in Iraq, as well as Syria and Iran, on human-caused climate change.

BEIRUT — Calm returned to Lebanon's southern border Friday as a temporary truce took effect in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to Lebanese state media and the Israeli military.

Since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, Lebanon's southern border with Israel has witnessed deadly exchanges of fire, primarily involving the Israeli forces and Lebanon's Hizbollah movement, as well as Palestinian fighters.

Hizbollah has yet to say whether it will comply with the terms of the agreement that was brokered by Qatar with help from Egypt and the United States.

"A precarious calm reigned on the southern border, with the humanitarian truce in Gaza coming into effect at 7:00 in the morning (0500 GMT)," Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

Six hours after the Gaza pause went into force, an Israeli military spokesman confirmed to AFP that there had been no subsequent incidents or firing so far across the Lebanon border.

The four-day truce in the Gaza Strip will see Hamas exchange 50 hostages seized from Israel during the October 7 attacks for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

An AFP journalist in the Marjayoun border region said he had heard exchanges of fire 10 minutes prior to the truce, before the guns fell silent.

A resident in the Alma Al-Shaab border region also said the situation was calm and that he could no longer hear Israeli planes or reconnaissance drones flying overhead.

On the eve of the truce, Hizbollah had intensified its cross-border attacks on the Israeli army, which in response pounded southern Lebanon.

On Friday, the powerful Iran-backed Shiite group claimed responsibility for 22 attacks on Israeli positions from southern Lebanon, where it lost seven of its fighters during the day.

Hizbollah says it has been acting in support of Hamas since the movement’s October 7 surprise attacks on Israel.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and its retaliatory air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 15,000 people, thousands of them children, according to the Hamas government of the Palestinian territory.

The cross-border clashes between Israel and Hizbollah have claimed 109 lives in Lebanon, at least 77 of them Hizbollah fighters and 14 civilians, according to an AFP count.

Among those killed were three journalists, the son of the head of HIzbollah’s parliamentary bloc and an official from Hamas’s military wing in Lebanon.

On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli authorities.

BERLIN — With the power out, the water off, medical supplies short and hundreds of war injured and sheltering Palestinians crowding the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Ahmed Abunada was faced with impossible choices.

"Who do I let die, this woman or that man?... I do not have the time to do reconstructive surgery on this child, I will have to amputate," said the 47-year-old surgeon, who left Gaza earlier this month to escape the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"These are very difficult decisions for a doctor," said the German doctor of Palestinian origin.

Abunada was received on Friday by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier along with seven of his compatriots, who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip when the Rafah border crossing between the Palestinian territory and Egypt was opened to foreign nationals.

"We were operating on the floor, on gurneys. There were no beds left," he told AFP about his time in the hospital.

"The week that I left the hospital, the situation got worse. We had no more electricity, no more water, no more oxygen," he said.

Without oxygen it was no longer possible for Abunada to operate. "That is why I left, on the 28th day of the conflict."

Al Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, was a key focus for the Israeli forces, who said Hamas used a tunnel complex under the compound to stage attacks, a claim the Palestinian militants and hospital officials denied.

"I worked there as a doctor and I did not notice anything like that," Abunada said, when asked about Hamas's alleged presence at the facility.

Last week, the hospital's director Mohammad Abu Salmiya, who has been frequently quoted by international media about conditions inside the complex, was arrested by Israeli forces.

"I hope they free him soon," said Abunada.

Abunada, who did his medical studies in Germany, has lived in Gaza for the last eight years with his wife and four children, one of whom was injured before the family’s departure.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, responded with persistent bombardments and a ground campaign, which have killed nearly 15,000 people, according to Hamas officials.

As the head of vascular surgery at Al Shifa, Abunada barely had time to rest after the war started.

“Naturally, I had to have breaks to sleep. But sleeping without being able to lie down is difficult,” he said.

“The bombardments were everywhere. It was too loud to sleep.”

On Friday, Abunada gave his account to the German president and asked for more aid to enter Gaza.

“I called for the creation of a medical air-bridge from Germany” to deliver supplies, the surgeon said.

“There are lots of German doctors of Palestinian origin. They could be made available and could help.”

Not all members of Abunada’s family have left the Gaza Strip. “My mother is there, she is 85. I worry about her a lot.” The elderly woman fled her home in Gaza to the south during the war on foot, he said.

BERLIN — With the power out, the water off, medical supplies short and hundreds of war injured and sheltering Palestinians crowding the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Ahmed Abunada was faced with impossible choices.

"Who do I let die, this woman or that man?... I do not have the time to do reconstructive surgery on this child, I will have to amputate," said the 47-year-old surgeon, who left Gaza earlier this month to escape the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"These are very difficult decisions for a doctor," said the German doctor of Palestinian origin.

Abunada was received on Friday by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier along with seven of his compatriots, who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip when the Rafah border crossing between the Palestinian territory and Egypt was opened to foreign nationals.

"We were operating on the floor, on gurneys. There were no beds left," he told AFP about his time in the hospital.

"The week that I left the hospital, the situation got worse. We had no more electricity, no more water, no more oxygen," he said.

Without oxygen it was no longer possible for Abunada to operate. "That is why I left, on the 28th day of the conflict."

Al Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, was a key focus for the Israeli forces, who said Hamas used a tunnel complex under the compound to stage attacks, a claim the Palestinian militants and hospital officials denied.

"I worked there as a doctor and I did not notice anything like that," Abunada said, when asked about Hamas's alleged presence at the facility.

Last week, the hospital's director Mohammad Abu Salmiya, who has been frequently quoted by international media about conditions inside the complex, was arrested by Israeli forces.

"I hope they free him soon," said Abunada.

Abunada, who did his medical studies in Germany, has lived in Gaza for the last eight years with his wife and four children, one of whom was injured before the family’s departure.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, responded with persistent bombardments and a ground campaign, which have killed nearly 15,000 people, according to Hamas officials.

As the head of vascular surgery at Al Shifa, Abunada barely had time to rest after the war started.

“Naturally, I had to have breaks to sleep. But sleeping without being able to lie down is difficult,” he said.

“The bombardments were everywhere. It was too loud to sleep.”

On Friday, Abunada gave his account to the German president and asked for more aid to enter Gaza.

“I called for the creation of a medical air-bridge from Germany” to deliver supplies, the surgeon said.

“There are lots of German doctors of Palestinian origin. They could be made available and could help.”

Not all members of Abunada’s family have left the Gaza Strip. “My mother is there, she is 85. I worry about her a lot.” The elderly woman fled her home in Gaza to the south during the war on foot, he said.

GAZA STRIP, Palestine — A doctor at Gaza's largest hospital Al Shifa told AFP that the facility's director and several other medical personnel were arrested by Israeli forces on Thursday.

The director, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, has been frequently quoted by international media about the conditions inside Al Shifa, a major focus of the Israeli ground offensive following the militants' October 7 attacks.

The Israeli army, which raided the hospital last week, has alleged that Hamas fighters used a tunnel complex beneath the facility in Gaza City to stage attacks. 

Hamas and hospital officials have repeatedly denied the claims.

"Doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors," said Khalid Abu Samra, a chief of department at the hospital.

An official in the Hamas-run health ministry specified to AFP that one other doctor and two nurses had been detained, as well as the hospital director.

In a statement, Hamas said it "strongly denounces" the arrest of Salmiya and his colleagues, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organisations to work towards their "immediate release".

Instructions to evacuate the hospital were issued on Saturday, prompting the exodus of hundreds of patients and displaced towards the supposedly safer south of the Palestinian territory.

Salmiya told AFP last week that he had received the evacuation order from Israeli forces after having refused a previous one.

But the Israeli army said the evacuations were carried out at the "request" of Abu Salmiya.

The military released an audio recording presented as a conversation between Salmiya and a senior Israeli officer in which the two men blame each other for the evacuation.

Israeli officials claim Hamas operated a command centre in tunnels under the hospital for years, an accusation the movement and medical personnel reject.

On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers escorted journalists to a tunnel shaft they said was part of a vast underground network used by Hamas.

Al Shifa hospital has been the scene of an extended Israeli special forces operation as part of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the government says more than 14,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children.