WORLD BRIEFING: November 24, 2023
Israel-Hamas War
Israel and Hamas start a four-day truce on Friday morning with the militants to release a first group of 13 Israeli women and child hostages later in the day, the first break in a war that has devastated the besieged Gaza enclave. The truce is due to begin at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, followed by the release of some of the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas during the Iran-backed Islamists' Oct. 7 attack inside Israel, mediators in Qatar said. But fighting raged on in the hours leading up to the truce, with officials inside the Hamas-ruled enclave saying a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed. Both sides also signalled the pause would be temporary before fighting resumes. Additional aid would start flowing into Gaza and the first hostages including elderly women would be freed at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in Doha. Egypt said 130,000 litres of diesel and four trucks of gas will be delivered daily to Gaza when the truce starts, and that 200 trucks of aid would enter Gaza daily - Reuters
Sixty lorries carrying medical supplies, fuel and food have made their way into Gaza from Egypt, after a four-day pause in fighting by Israel and Hamas comes into effect. Under the deal - which has been mediated by Qatar - 13 Israeli hostages are due to be released later today, with 50 being released over the four days. As part of the agreement, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners - BBC
But Laila Barhoum from Oxfam told BBC News the proposed number of aid deliveries would not match the level of need. “The whole population of Gaza, two million, are aid-dependent and what will be happening is for four days we will have around 200 trucks of humanitarian assistance getting inside and the fuel and also some gas... it is not even nearly enough", she says.
As Israel’s four-day truce with Hamas came into effect in Gaza on Friday morning, thousands of people who had fled to areas near Gaza’s border with Egypt were seeking to return to their villages with children and pets in their arms and their belongings loaded onto donkey carts or car roofs. Overnight Thursday-Friday, Hamas urged Gazans to return to the north of the Strip, where the IDF has focused its ground offensive for the past three weeks. The truce deal, under which the Gaza-governing Hamas terror group is set to free 50 Israeli hostages over four days from Friday, bars Gazans from returning to the north of the Strip. Having dropped flyers warning Gazans against doing so, Israeli troops were reported to be using riot dispersal measures inside the Strip on Friday in order to prevent people from moving north and complicating Israel’s declared determination to resume its war to destroy Hamas at the end of the truce - Times of Israel
“At least two more months of fighting is expected” says Israeli Defense Minister Gallant. "This will be a short respite, at the end of which the fighting will continue with intensity, and pressure will be created to bring back more hostages - Haaretz
A special aircraft brought home to Moscow 103 Russian nationals evacuated from Gaza, Russia's emergencies ministry said early on Friday. In a post on Telegram, the ministry said the group flew home aboard a chartered Ilyushin-76 aircraft. The post said 101 Russian nationals had been taken from Gaza to Egypt in the past 24 hours, bringing to more than 750 the total number of Russian evacuees. More than 650 had been flown to Russia, including more than 300 children - Reuters
Ukraine War
Russian troops have targeted infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson, causing damage, regional officials said on November 23, as Ukraine braces for an uptick in attacks on its energy facilities during the upcoming winter.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on November 22 that he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end Moscow's war in Ukraine and withdraw all troops during the first Group of 20 video call Putin participated in since the conflict began - RFE/RL
Boris Maksudov, a correspondent for the Russian state television network Rossiya 24, died after allegedly being injured in a Ukrainian drone strike, prominent Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov said on Nov. 23 - Kyiv Independent
Elsewhere
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country's recent launch of a spy satellite was an exercise of its right to self-defence, as Pyongyang celebrated the event as showing it could strike anywhere in the world, state media reported. North Korea said on Tuesday it had placed its first spy satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation for violating U.N. resolutions that bar its use of technology applicable to ballistic missile programs - Reuters