The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
War cabinet said to unanimously approve new guidelines for hostage negotiators
The war cabinet unanimously approved new guidelines for Israeli negotiators in an effort to revive the talks on a hostage-for-truce deal with Hamas, the Walla new site reports, after the high-level forum convened last night.
The report doesn’t give any details on these guidelines, while a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said only that the war cabinet ordered the negotiating team “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages.”
The meeting was held after the families of hostages released harrowing footage showing the abduction of five female soldiers from the Nahal Oz base by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, with some of the parents saying their goal in releasing the video is to wake up the country, and especially the leadership, to work more urgently to secure their release.
Pentagon chief tells Gallant that Israel, US have ‘shared interest in enduring defeat of Hamas’
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant in a call on Wednesday of the need for an “effective mechanism” to coordinate humanitarian and military operations in Gaza, the Pentagon says.
The American readout says Austin stressed the Biden administration’s “ironclad support for Israel” and “reiterated strong US objections to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s outrageous application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.”
Austin also called for Israel to work to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza and together with Gallant “acknowledged a shared interest in the enduring defeat of Hamas and the urgent release of all hostages.”
“They discussed how best to defeat Hamas’ Rafah remnants while minimizing civilian harm,” the statement adds.
War cabinet orders Israeli negotiators to continue hostage talks — PM’s office
A meeting of the war cabinet has ended, with a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying the high-level forum ordered the Israeli negotiating team “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages.”
Colombian president orders opening of embassy in Ramallah after cutting ties with Israel
BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the opening of an embassy in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the South American country’s Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo tells journalists.
At the beginning of this month, Petro, who has heavily criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice, said he would cut diplomatic relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza amid the war against Hamas.
“President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take,” Murillo says.
Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, the Fatah-dominated rival of Gaza-ruling Hamas.
For first time, UN says it distributed aid that arrived to Gaza via US pier
WASHINGTON — The UN World Food Program says that it has handed out in Gaza in recent days a “limited number” of high-energy biscuits that arrived from a US-built pier, the first aid from the new humanitarian sea route to get into the hands of Palestinians in grave need.
The small number of biscuits came in the first shipments unloaded from the pier Friday, WFP spokesman Steve Taravella says. The US Agency for International Development tells The Associated Press that a total of 41 trucks loaded with aid from the more than $320 million pier have reached humanitarian organizations in Gaza.
“Aid is flowing” from the pier, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday in response to questions about the troubled launch of aid deliveries from the maritime project. “It is not flowing at a rate that any of us are happy with.”
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday that he did not believe any of the aid from the pier had yet reached people in Gaza. Sullivan said a day later that some aid had been delivered “specifically to the Palestinians who need it.”