JERUSALEM, Nov  25, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Plans to release another group of
Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners suffered a setback on
Saturday, the second day of a four-day truce after seven weeks of war.
On Friday evening the Palestinian Islamist group freed 13 Israelis, along
with an unexpected 10 Thais and one Filipino, and Israel released 39
Palestinian prisoners from its jails, hours after the truce took effect.
Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 hostages in exchange for 150
Palestinian prisoners in Israel, under a deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the
United States.
Hamas snatched about 240 captives from southern Israel in an unprecedented
October 7 attack that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, most of
them civilians.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an aerial
bombing campaign and ground operation in Gaza that the Hamas government says
has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

- Fresh releases delayed -

The armed wing of Hamas said Saturday it was delaying the handover of a
second group of hostages until Israel "adheres to the terms of the agreement".
The entry of humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza Strip and the
selection criteria for the liberation of prisoners were the issues in question,
the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades said in a statement.
An Israeli official confirmed to AFP the hostages had not yet been handed
over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.

- Returning to north Gaza -

The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that despite an Israeli
military warning that returning to the north is prohibited, it is estimated
that several thousand Palestinians attempted to move from the southern Gaza
Strip to the north.
The Hamas-run health ministry said seven people were wounded by fire from
Israeli soldiers on Saturday as they tried to go to northern Gaza.
In several reported incidents on Friday, Israeli forces opened fire and
threw teargas canisters at people heading northwards, with one person
reportedly killed and dozens injured, OCHA said.

- Gaza relief -

AFPTV live footage showed a stream of trucks carrying desperately needed
aid entering Gaza for the second successive day.
OCHA said 137 trucks carrying fuel, food, water, medicine and other
essentials had passed into the embattled Palestinian territory via the Rafah
border crossing with Egypt on Friday.
Twenty-one critical patients were also evacuated.
OCHA said a total of 200 trucks had been sent from the Israeli village of
Nitzana to the Rafah crossing on Friday.

- Drone hits Israeli-owned ship -

A drone suspected of being launched by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps has struck an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, according to
a US defence official.
"We are aware of reports that there was a suspected IRGC-initiated
Shahed-136 UAV (that) struck a civilian motor vessel in the Indian Ocean" on
Friday, the official said, adding it caused minor damage and nobody was injured.
The attack comes almost a week after Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels
seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.

- Trouble on Lebanon border -

The Israeli army said it shot down a surface-to-air missile that was fired
from Lebanon and had been targeting an Israeli drone.
The missile did not cross into Israeli territory, the military said on
Saturday, adding that it deployed fighter jets to strike Hezbollah
infrastructure in response.
The cross-border exchanges of fire mainly between Israel and Hezbollah have
killed 109 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, as well as six soldiers
and three civilians on the Israeli side, according to Israeli authorities.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Israeli fire hit
one of its patrol vehicles in the country's south on Saturday.
It said "no peacekeepers were injured, but the vehicle was damaged."