Published November 28, 2023
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry. She was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
In one of the first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder told Israel’s Channel 13 television that she spent the entirety of her time with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, who celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity. Her account, broadcast Monday, adds to the trickle of information about the experience of captives held in Gaza.
Munder was snatched Oct. 7 from her home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel. Her husband, Avraham, also 78, was taken hostage too and remains in Gaza. Her son was killed in the attack.
They were given tea in the morning and evening, and the children were given sweets. But the menu changed when “the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry.”
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.apnews.com
RELATED: Israel-Hamas truce extended by 2 days as more hostages released
Hostages are handed over by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip © Reuters
Published November 27, 2023
Qatar said mediators had secured a deal to prolong the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas by two days to allow the release of more hostages held in Gaza.
The announcement on extending the original four-day pause to the Israel-Hamas war, which was due to end on Monday, came after Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faced mounting domestic and international pressure to provide more time for hostages to be freed.
The Israeli military said on Monday evening a further 11 hostages had been released by Hamas. Qatar said Israel had freed a further 33 Palestinian prisoners. Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, announced the agreement “to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip” as part of his country’s mediation between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group confirmed it had agreed to extend the pause in fighting by two days “under the same conditions as the previous truce”.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.ft.com
RELATED: Israel needs to choose between release of hostages, destruction of Hamas as both aims ‘incompatible’: Experts
An initial four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that was set to expire on Monday has been extended by two days, paving the way for the further release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
A group of Israelis celebrate as a helicopter carrying hostages released from the Gaza Strip lands at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, on Sunday (Nov 26). (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Published November 28, 2023
Israel needs to decide whether to prioritise the release of hostages from Hamas captivity or to seek the destruction of the group, as both aims are “incompatible”, observers told CNA on Tuesday (Nov 28).
“I think what’s key for the Israelis to succeed is to reframe their goal. It’s not possible to end Hamas. Hamas is an ideology (and) it’s a whole system of thinking,” Ms Laura Blumenfeld, senior fellow at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, told CNA938.
“But it might be possible to make Hamas irrelevant through peace negotiations, or to negotiate an unconditional surrender of Hamas.”
That would give Palestinian civilians a chance to form a new government which is “more constructive and looking for a more peaceful solution and better future for all”, she said.
