“The people of Gaza live in the midst of a monumental humanitarian catastrophe, before the eyes of the world, declared UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, November 29. We must not look away.” Negotiations are underway to try to extend the six-day truce which is due to end Thursday morning. “We think we need a real humanitarian ceasefire”, declared Antonio Guterres. Follow our live stream.
Hamas claims to have released two female Russian hostages. Two female hostages of Russian nationality were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday for release, Hamas announced in a statement. “After the efforts of the Russian president”, the Palestinian Islamist movement entrusted them to the ICRC “so that he can hand them over to a representative of Russian Foreign Affairs”, he clarified. Hamas had already released Ron Krivoi, a 25-year-old Israeli-Russian, on Sunday in gratitude to “support for the Palestinian cause” by Vladimir Putin.
Israeli settlers in the sights of the international community. France once again condemned the violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and called on Israel “to put an end to it” and to sanction the perpetrators of these abuses. In the West Bank, 490,000 settlers live among three million Palestinians. These colonies are considered by the UN to be illegal under international law.
Continuation of talks. “Our main goal at this time, and our hope, is to achieve a lasting truce that will lead to further negotiations and, ultimately, an end to the war”, said Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari. The head of American diplomacy also announced his visit to Israel to try to extend the truce.
Humanitarian aid in trickles. In total, according to a White House official, 2,000 trucks managed to deliver food, fuel, medicine and equipment necessary for the operation of seawater desalination infrastructure. “In just over four weeks, we reached a sustained rate of 240 trucks per day.”