Israel-Hamas war live: ceasefire to continue amid efforts to secure more hostage releases | Israel-Hamas war

Israel’s armed forces have warned people in Gaza not to travel north “for your own safety”, saying the area remains a war zone.

The IDF has said: “You can only move to the south of Wadi Gaza via Salah al-Din Road. It is forbidden to enter the sea. It is forbidden to approach within a kilometre of the border.”

Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza have moved south in the past few weeks in response to Israeli military warnings, leading to concerns about safety and conditions.

Death toll from shooting attack in Jerusalem rises to three

Ceasefire extended amid last-minute mediation efforts

More details of the shooting in Jerusalem are emerging. A second person has died, Reuters is reporting.

Two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding eight others, Israeli police said.

The attackers came from East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem police district commander, Doron Turgeman, told reporters at the scene.

A large number of ambulances and police converged on the street that was crowded with morning commuters, and police said they were searching the area to make sure there were no other attackers.

The violence came as Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their six-day ceasefire in Gaza by one more day to allow negotiators to keep working on deals to swap hostages held in the coastal enclave for Palestinian prisoners.

Summary

One woman has been killed and eight others wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

But it is unclear who is responsible for the shooting or the motivation behind it.

Israeli media reported that two shooters opened fire near a bus stop. Magen David Adom said that two of the wounded were in critical condition.

A large number of ambulances and police converged on the scene, which happened during morning rush hour at one of the entrances to the city.

“Two terrorists who arrived at the scene in a vehicle armed with weapons fired at civilians at a bus stop, and they were neutralized by security forces and a civilian who were nearby,” Israeli police said.

“Abhorrent terrorist attack in Jerusalem this morning. We unequivocally condemn such brutal violence,” the US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, said.

The Israeli government said it received a new list of women and children hostages in the Gaza Strip to be released by Hamas on Thursday in exchange for a one-day extension of the truce.

“A short time ago, Israel was given a list of women and children in accordance with the terms of the agreement, and therefore the truce will continue,” said the statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office, without specifying the number of hostages to be released, Agence France-Presse reports.

The truce, initially agreed last Friday, has brought a temporary halt to fighting for an exchange of hostages and prisoners.

The total number of freed hostages stands at 102 people, including 70 Israelis, from about 240 taken to the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s 7 October attacks when militants crossed the border and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.

Israel has released 210 Palestinian prisoners.

In New York, videos posted to social media showed several hundred chanting pro-Palestinian protesters, many carrying Palestinian flags, crowded in front of the News Corp building, not far from the site of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, Associated Press reports.

Footage from the scene showed a few protesters clashing with police outside the media company’s building as they tried to push forward to the tree but they were held back by police and the lighting ceremony was not disrupted.

The demonstrators then turned around and marched away down Sixth Avenue.

Last week, a group of protesters carrying a banner that read “Free Palestine” briefly interrupted the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, blocking the front of parade floats on the street.

Qatar has revealed more details of the terms of the current ceasefire extension. Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said in a statement:

Palestinian and Israeli sides have reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip for an additional day under the existing conditions, which are a cessation of all military activities and the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

He added that the truce would operate “within the framework of the joint mediation of the State of Qatar with the Arab Republic of Egypt and the United States of America,” AFP reports.

Qatar has been engaged in intense negotiations, with support from Egypt and the United States, to extend the truce in Gaza, which was due to end on Thursday morning.

For a full sum-up of the events leading up to the ceasefire deadline, read our full report which is now live.

Israel’s military said early on Thursday that a truce with Hamas would continue into a seventh day, minutes before it was due to expire, as mediators continued to work towards further exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Let’s look back at events that have just taken place. It’s now 7:15am in Israel and Gaza and 5:15am GMT. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was due to expire at the top of the hour but has now been extended.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Telegram a short time ago:

In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue.

Hamas has also announced its agreement to extend the truce in Gaza for a seventh day, Reuters is reporting.

Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides, confirmed that another day of temporary truce had been agreed.

In the lead-up to the deadline, mediators had been racing to reach a deal on another extension after the latest exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The expiry of the six-day halt to fighting in Gaza was set to end Thursday morning and follows the release of a group of 16 Hamas-held hostages on Wednesday night in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners.

Since the truce began on 24 November, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel said on Wednesday that about 160 hostages are still held in Gaza.

Hours before the deadline, Hamas’s armed wing told its fighters in the Gaza Strip to be ready to resume combat if the truce was not renewed. “The Al-Qassam Brigades asks its active forces to maintain high combat readiness in the last hours of the truce,” the militant group said in a statement.

With just an hour to go before the truce was due to expire, Hamas said its offer to free another seven hostages, and hand over the bodies of another three it said were killed in Israeli bombardment, had been refused. Reuters reported that Israel was yet to comment on that development.

We’ll keep you across any further developments here.

Israel says ceasefire with Hamas will continue

There was an emotional meeting between freed Thai hostages and the Thai foreign minister.

Four Thai workers were released late on Wednesday, bringing the total released to 23. Another two were set free on Tuesday and taken to Shamir medical center, where they embraced one another on arrival.

“We survived! We survived!” they cheered, and one was seen wiping away tears.

“We are not part of the conflict,” the foreign minister, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, said in a Reuters interview after his meeting with the workers on Tuesday. He said there were no conditions for their release.

Thailand’s foreign minister said he hoped for freedom soon for the remaining hostages from his country. Read our full story here.