Gaza war: Hamas distributes hostage video and holds talks in Cairo

A delegation from the Islamist Hamas met in Cairo with representatives of the Egyptian secret service to discuss a ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip. This was confirmed by a high-ranking official of the Islamist terrorist organization to the German Press Agency. Shortly before, Hamas had released another video with an Israeli hostage. In it, a 20-year-old soldier, who also has American citizenship, calls on the future US President Donald Trump to support negotiations for the release of the hostages in the Gaza Strip. According to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump wants a ceasefire and a hostage agreement before he takes office in January.

Relatives of the approximately 100 people still abducted, many of whom are no longer expected to be alive after more than a year of the Gaza war, called for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages at a new demonstration in Tel Aviv. They would not survive another winter in the “terror tunnels” in the Gaza Strip.

Hostage mother reports on phone call with Netanyahu

The mother of the kidnapped soldier from the video said at the rally that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured her by telephone that after Israel’s ceasefire with the Lebanese Hezbollah, the conditions were now in place to bring all the hostages home. However, in a statement from Netanyahu’s office about the phone call, it only said that everything was being done to ensure that the hostages returned. Netanyahu has said this many times since the Hamas massacre in Israel with 1,200 dead and initially 250 kidnapped on October 7, 2023.

Palestinians: Many dead in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip

Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued its attacks in the coastal strip. According to Palestinian information, at least 120 people were killed, although no distinction was made between armed people and civilians. The information could not initially be independently verified. The Israeli army regularly warns that the casualty figures cited by the Palestinian side are inflated.

Israeli army: Gaza aid workers deliberately killed

The Israeli army said it had deliberately killed an employee of the international aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) in the Gaza Strip. The man worked for WCK, but took part in the massacre in Israel in October 2023. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a total of five people were killed in the attack on the car near the city of Khan Yunis, including three local WCK employees.

WCK, based in the United States, said it had suspended its humanitarian mission because of the attack. There is currently only “incomplete information” about the incident and efforts are urgently being made to find out more details. There was no knowledge that anyone in the vehicle had connections to the massacre in Israel. According to the aid organization Save the Children, one of its local employees was also killed. It was initially unclear whether it was the same attack.

Despite ceasefire with Hezbollah, further Israeli attacks in Lebanon

According to its own and Lebanese statements, Israel’s army carried out repeated attacks in Lebanon on Saturday despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah that had been in place since Wednesday. She cited violations of the agreement by armed groups there as the reason.

In one case, people in the neighboring country loaded a vehicle with rocket-propelled grenades and other military equipment. Israel’s air force attacked the car. The target of another Israeli air strike was members of Hezbollah who had approached a militia facility. They were armed with grenades and rifles.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported one person injured in an Israeli airstrike near the coastal city of Sidon in the south of the country. Israel’s army said a rocket launcher was the target. The military had previously reported “terrorist activities in a Hezbollah facility” there. The information could not initially be independently verified.

Commemoration on mountains of rubble

South of Beirut, numerous people gathered in the evening at the place where former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Shiite militia’s headquarters at the end of September. Pictures showed people gathering in the middle of a kind of wasteland surrounded by taller houses. Candles and Hezbollah’s yellow flags were stuck in the rubble. From the middle of the crowd, brilliant beams of light were directed towards the sky. The event at the “holy place of martyrdom” was held under the motto “Light from Light”. The former location of Hezbollah’s headquarters in the Haret Hreik district has already become a kind of pilgrimage site for Hezbollah supporters.

A ceasefire was laboriously negotiated

The laboriously negotiated agreement on a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah includes, among other things, measures to ensure that the militia does not arm itself again. At the same time, Israel’s ground troops are to gradually withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days.

The violent mutual attacks have stopped since the agreement came into force. However, both sides have already accused each other of violating the agreements several times.