Israel-Gaza ceasefire latest: Trump doubts truce will hold as Hamas says four female hostages to be released – UK Times

Palestinians searching for the thousands believed to be buried under rubble in Gaza found 66 bodies yesterday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

They were found in the south and north of the Strip, it reported Palestinian medical sources as saying.

Two people have reportedly been shot in Gaza despite the ceasefire deal that is in place, according to Palestinian reports.

The civilians were injured in Israeli gunfire in two separate incidents on Tuesday, one in the sea of ​​Gaza City and the other in the Sabra neighborhood, reported Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli security forces have begun an operation in the volatile West Bank city of Jenin, the military said on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Prior to the Israeli action, Palestinian security forces had been conducting a weeks-long operation to reassert control over the city, a major centre of armed militant groups.

Hamas has reportedly said four Israeli hostages will be released on Saturday.

An official in the militant group, Taher al-Nunu, said the captives, all women, would be freed in return for Palestinian prisoners, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Guardian reported.

This would be the second such exchange under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.

The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel – among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory – but it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday that it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza.

For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That could make a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.

There was an element of theater in Sunday’s handover of three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.

The scenes elsewhere in Gaza were even more remarkable: Thousands of Hamas-run police in uniform re-emerged, making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.

“The police have been here the whole time, but they were not wearing their uniforms” to avoid being targeted by Israel, said Mohammed Abed, a father of three who returned to his home in Gaza City more than seven months after fleeing the area.

“They were among the displaced people in the tents. That’s why there were no thefts,” he said.

Other residents said the police had maintained offices in hospitals and other locations throughout the war, where people could report crimes.

Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll and damage to infrastructure because the group’s fighters and security forces embed themselves in residential neighborhoods, schools and hospitals.

Now attention is starting to shift to the rebuilding of the Strip after the truce took effect on Sunday, with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails.

Read the full story here:

Donald Trump has said Hamas is weakened, but he is hardly certain that the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas will hold.

“I’m not confident,” the new US President told reporters. “That’s not our war. It’s their war.”

He said his administration “might” help rebuild Gaza, which he compared to a “massive demolition site.”

“Some beautiful things could be done with it,” said Trump, the real estate developer turned commander in chief, noting the territory’s coastline and “phenomenal” weather and location. “Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza. Some beautiful things could be done with Gaza.”

A British-Israeli hostage is “in high spirits and on the road to recovery,” her mother has said, during the first public comments made by the relatives of the three women freed from captivity in Gaza on Sunday.

Speaking from Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv where the women are still being evaluated, Mandy Damari said her daughter Emily, 28 was recovering well, despite having lost two fingers on her left hand. She thanked those who helped secure Emily’s release “from the bottom of our hearts” and urged people to “keep on fighting for the remaining 94 hostages.”

“There are too many other families waiting to hug their loved ones or bring them back for a proper burial,” she added.

The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew has the full story:

Australia has been grappling with a spate of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.

Authorities have designated some of the incidents as terrorism and vowed to crack down on the perpetrators amid concerns of further escalation, with half a dozen incidents occurring across Sydney in the past month alone.

Police in the state of New South Wales, that has Sydney as its capital, have arrested forty people for antisemitic offences and eight relation to arson.