Truce in Gaza extended at last minute as talks over dwindling number of Hamas captives get tougher
Rafah (Gaza Strip) (AP): Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to extend their cease-fire by another day, just minutes before it was set to expire. The truce in Gaza appeared increasingly tenuous as the number of women and children held by the fighters as bargaining chips dwindled after dozens were released.
Word of the extension came just as the truce was to expire at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) Thursday. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said the truce was being extended under the same terms as in the past, with Hamas releasing 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for Israel's release of 30 Palestinian prisoners.
International pressure has mounted for the cease-fire to continue as long as possible after nearly eight weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign in Gaza that have killed thousands of Palestinians, uprooted three quarters of the population of 2.3 million and led to a humanitarian crisis.
The war has stoked tensions across the region. On Thursday morning, two gunmen opened fire on people waiting for buses and rides where a main highway from Tel Aviv enters Jerusalem. Israel's Maged David Adom emergency service said one person was killed and six people were wounded, one of them critically. Police said the two attackers were killed.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel late Wednesday on his third trip to the region since the start of the war, and is expected to press for further extensions of the truce and the release of more hostages.
The announcement followed a last-minute standoff, with Hamas saying Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel later said Hamas submitted an improved list, paving the way for the extension.
The talks appear to be growing tougher with most of the women and children taken hostage by Hamas already freed. Israel says it will maintain the truce until Hamas stops releasing captives, at which point it will resume its offensive aimed at eliminating the group.
With Israeli troops holding much of northern Gaza, a ground invasion south where most of Gaza's population is now concentrated will likely bring an escalating cost in Palestinian lives and destruction.
The Biden administration has told Israel that if it launches an offensive in the south, it must operate with far greater precision.
Israel's bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza have killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since Nov. 11 due to the breakdown of services in the north. The ministry says thousands more people are missing and feared dead under the rubble.
Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the truce's calm has been overwhelmed by the search for aid and by horror at the extent of destruction.
In the north, residents described entire residential blocks as leveled in Gaza City and surrounding areas. The smell of decomposing bodies trapped under collapsed buildings fills the air, said Mohmmed Mattar, a 29-year-old resident of Gaza City who along with other volunteers searches for the dead under rubble or left in the streets.
In the south, the truce has allowed more aid to be delivered from Egypt, up to 200 trucks a day. But aid officials say it is not enough, given that most now depend on outside aid. Overwhelmed U.N.-run shelters house over 1 million displaced people, with many sleeping outside in cold, rainy weather.
At a distribution center in Rafah, large crowds line up daily for bags of flour but supplies run out quickly.
"Every day, we come here we spend money on transportation to get here, just to go home with nothing," said one woman in line, Nawal Abu Namous.
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Plane crash in California leaves at least two dead, eighteen injured
California: At least two people were killed and 18 were injured when a small plane crashed into a commercial building in Southern California on Thursday afternoon.
Police got a report around 2:10 p.m. of a crash in the Orange County city of Fullerton. Kristy Wells, spokesperson for the Fullerton Police Department, told the Associated Press that emergency crews, including firefighters and police, arrived to fight a blaze that had ignited at the scene. Nearby businesses were evacuated too. The fire caused damage to a warehouse, which appeared to house sewing machines and textile stock.
She mentioned that injuries ranged from minor to severe, adding that ten people were taken to the hospital and eight were treated on scene. There were two confirmed deaths.
Local television footage and images captured plumes of smoke billowing from the building.
#WATCH | A small plane crashed through the roof of a furniture warehouse in Southern California killing two people and injuring at least 15.#California #planecrash pic.twitter.com/7CZkp77R3p
— DD News (@DDNewslive) January 3, 2025
It was not immediately known how many people were on the plane or whether those injured were inside the aircraft or on the ground.
The aircraft involved was a Van’s RV-10, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which stated it is investigating the crash with the National Transportation Safety Board.
