Wyre Davies
reporting from Lebanon

Hopes that the pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza may also extend to the conflict on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon may be wishful thinking.

UNIFIL is the United Nations force that has monitored and helped keep a relative calm along the so-called “Blue Line” ever since the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah – the powerful Islamist organisation that dominates much of southern Lebanon.

At the UNIFIL base on the Lebanese side of the border, spokesman Andrea Tenenti says he hopes calm can be restored, even temporarily, but admits there’s no formal mechanism or direct talks between the waring parties to facilitate such a pause or cease-fire.

Ever since clashes began here on 8 October, Tenenti says there’s been a steady intensification of rocket and missile fire from both sides. “The conflict has, so far, been largely localised to five or six kilometres either side of the Blue Line,” says Tenenti.

But he adds “there have already been strikes deeper into Lebanon and Israel”, acknowledging that such “miscalculations” could spark a wider war.

A key feature of the 2006 agreement to cease hostilities called for the eventual disarmament of Hezbollah. Many observers, especially in Israel, say the failure or practical inability to have done this contributes to continued tensions along the border and the possibility of another full-scale war.

“There is a need for all sides to act on it (the resolution) and also to strengthen the role of the regular Lebanese army,” says Tenenti. But he recognises the depth of “public support for Hezbollah", not just in southern Lebanon but elsewhere in the country as well.

A return to the delicate status quo before the events of early October may be as much as the UN and the residents of villages either side of the border can realistically hope for.

Image source, EPA

UN agency chief Philippe Lazzarini says the long-awaited four-day pause in fighting will provide an opportunity to "reach people in need including in the north and to start repairing civilian infrastructure".

Having just returned from his second trip to the Gaza Strip, he says he witnessed "unspeakable suffering of people".

“Since my first visit two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation has already become far worse," he says.

He says the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) now hosts more than one million people in its schools and premises across the Gaza Strip.

Lazzarini reiterates his call "for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire" and says Unrwa is ready to receive more than 150 trucks of aid per day.

We're hearing more details from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the deal between Israel and Hamas to release 50 hostages held in Gaza over the course of a four-day pause in fighting.

The IDF's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee says people in southern Gaza will not be allowed to move north during the temporary halt in fighting - beginning at 07:00 tomorrow

Adraee said that for residents, movement "only from the north to the south" of the Gaza Strip would be permitted.

He added that the "uncoordinated movement of trucks from the south of the Strip to the north will not be permitted".

He reiterated comments from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari, and said IDF forces will be "stationed at the ceasefire lines inside the Strip" as well as in "sparsely populated areas".

Image source, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation

Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for Israel Defense Forces (IDF), says the relatives of the 13 hostages chosen to be released from Gaza by Hamas tomorrow have been informed.

Speaking at a news conference, Hagari said: "In the last few hours, the officers in charge of contact with the families delivered the messages with sensitivity and humility."

He said this was a "difficult and tense evening for all of us, especially for the families whose relatives were kidnapped.

"These will be complicated days, nothing is final until it actually happens."

With hours to go before the agreed four-day ceasefire begins at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT), Hagari said this evening, his country's military "continues to fight in the Gaza Strip" and that during the pause in fighting, Israeli forces will be stationed at the ceasefire line "inside the Gaza Strip".

"Control over northern Gaza is the first step of a long war. We are preparing for the next stage," he added.

Tom Bateman
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

We reported earlier how Israeli forces arrested the director of al-Shifa hospital, Mohammad Abu Salmiya.

The military said in a statement the detention followed the discovery of what it said were Hamas tunnels under the hospital complex.

I asked the Israeli army this morning what the allegations against him were. They said they “took him to ask him a few questions” over what he knew about what was under the hospital.

I asked if it was alleged that he was a member of Hamas. They said they were not suggesting that, and that he was not under indictment.

The Palestinian health ministry said Abu Salmiya and a number of doctors were arrested at dawn at a checkpoint on the road linking northern Gaza to the south, where Israel had told Palestinians from the north to evacuate.

It seems the detention, amid reports of other medical staff being held, has led to a further deterioration of confidence among medics that they can evacuate unimpeded, with hospitals a focus of Israel’s military operations. It has alleged several have been used by Hamas, which the group denies.

Earlier, the medical director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza told the BBC the facility was under heavy fire from Israeli tanks after fighting had broken out around the facility. But he said evacuation was not taking place over concerns staff could be detained.

The Israel Defence Forces says it has killed the commander of the Hamas naval forces, Amar Abu Jalalah, in an airstrike in Khan Younis.

It said another member of the naval unit was also killed in the strike.

Khan Younis is a city in Gaza's south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians fled to from the north on the instruction of Israel.

Days ago, Israel distributed flyers to Palestinians there warning them to move out of the city - suggesting the military operations could soon move towards the south of the Gaza Strip.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden says he will only give an update on the Qatari-brokered hostage deal between Israel and Hamas when it is complete.

“I’m not prepared to give you an update until it’s done," President Biden said when asked by a reporter about the deal, during a visit to Nantucket.

Asked if he expected a three-year-old girl to be released as part of the deal, Biden said: “I keep my fingers crossed."

Under the deal, Israel and Hamas have agreed to exchange 50 of the hostages held in Gaza for a four-day pause in fighting - the temporary truce will start at 07:00 tomorrow (05:00 GMT), and 13 people are expected to be released at 16:00.

The US president earlier said the deal would end the hostages' "unspeakable ordeal" and "alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families".

The Hamas-run health ministry says 27 people have been killed in a strike on a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza's north.

The BBC has not been able to verify this but we will bring you details when we get them.

It's not the first time the school has been targeted - it was also struck on 2 November.

At least 20 people were reportedly killed in that attack, UNRWA said at the time

Image source, Getty Images

Some relatives have expressed disappointment that their family members are not among the hostages set to be released tomorrow.

Israel has finalised the list of 13 hostages that will be released by Hamas tomorrow, but it has not published the names of those who will be freed.

Maayan Zin, mother of Dafna and Ela, said she had been informed that her children would not be freed on Friday and she found it "incredibly difficult".

"I long for their return. I'm relieved for the other families and hopeful for the release of all the hostages," she said in a post to social media, external.

Guy Metzger, who says his elderly parents Tamar and Yoram are also not on the list, told the Wall Street Journal, external: “I didn’t win the lottery”.

The family of Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand also said they do not expect her to be among the first group of Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier, details of a deal between Israel and Hamas were announced that will see an exchange of 50 hostages held in Gaza for a four-day pause in fighting. Here's the latest:

• Qatar, who mediated the deal, said a pause in fighting will begin at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) tomorrow both north and south of the Gaza Strip - before 13 hostages are released at 16:00
• All those being released are women and children - their names have not been published but they'll be handed to the Red Cross
• The deal should also see 150 Palestinians held in Israeli jails released and a significant increase in aid allowed into Gaza. It also said every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause

• Meanwhile, the Israeli military confirmed it had detained the director of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital after finding evidence which it says shows the facility - under his management - was used as a Hamas command and control centre, something Hamas has long denied
• The medical director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza says the facility is under heavy fire from Israeli tanks and the situation has escalated

• Elsewhere, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and compared the Israeli hostage situation to when - during his time as UK PM in the early 2010s - British hostages were taken and killed in Syria

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, the medical director of Gaza's Indonesian Hospital, Dr Marwan Sultan, has told the BBC it has been under heavy fire today.

The hospital was built by the organisation MER-C, with funding from Indonesian donors, and opened in 2016 with 110 beds, external. It is in northern Gaza, close to the Jabalia refugee camp.

On Saturday, the World Health Organization said the hospital was "seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning".

Some patients were evacuated on Monday, but Sultan says 10 medical professionals and 200 patients are still there.

The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 12 people were killed in an air strike there on Monday - Israel said its forces were fired at "from within" the hospital, and its troops targeted the source of the fire.

On 5 November, the Israeli military said the hospital, external was "being used by Hamas to hide an underground command and control centre" - and that it had been built on top of existing "terror infrastructures".

Both MER-C and the Indonesian foreign ministry have denied the claims, with the ministry saying the hospital was built "entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza".

The head of MER-C said last week the facility was in "dire condition" and that Israel's claims about it were made to "justify attacks to come".

Ethar Shalaby
BBC Arabic

Moving away from the hostage release deal, we've had an update from Dr Marwan Sultan, the medical director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.

Earlier, he told the BBC the facility was under heavy fire from Israeli tanks after fighting had broken out around the facility.

Sultan now says things have escalated. He says Israel fired shells at the third floor of the hospital, adding: "We miraculously survived certain death - shrapnel fell on us and the ceiling is damaged”.

Doctors at the Indonesian hospital previously asked Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry for buses to evacuate the 200 patients and ten doctors at the hospital.

Sultan says the coordination about an evacuation did not happen "in protest against the detention of Dr Mohamed Abu Salamiya” director of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital.

"We cannot allow the detention of our medical staff," Sultan says.

As we've been reporting, a breakthrough deal between Israel and Hamas was due to take effect today but has been delayed until Friday morning.

Neither side has publicly explained the reason for the hold-up, but an Israeli government source told the BBC that Hamas has made additional demands to the deal.

Moty Cristal, a former Israeli military chief who was previously involved in negotiating with Hamas, told BBC News that such "last-minute" delays are "normal".

This is referred to as the "post-agreement phase", he said, in which details continue to be finalised.

"There are so many elements... so many pieces in the puzzle that need to be put together," he added, saying that the involvement of other countries, Qatar and Egypt, in the negotiations also slows things down.

Image source, FAMILY HANDOUT

The cousin of an Israeli hostage in Gaza has been speaking to BBC News, reacting to the newly-announced hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel.

Adam Ma’anit, from Brighton, says he's relieved that some of the Israeli women and children being held could be freed tomorrow - but he's "hoping this will lead to the release of more people".

"My cousin's children miss their father," Ma’anit says, referring to Tsachi Idan - one of more than 200 abducted by Hamas on 7 October.

Recalling the moments that led up to his cousin's kidnapping, he says Tsachi's 18-year-old daughter Maayan was killed the same day, in front of her family, as Hamas operatives shot their way through the family home and into a bomb shelter where they were hiding.

Hamas are "playing for time", he says, adding that the group's plan to release 10 hostages a day in exchange for an ongoing pause to fighting feels like loved ones are being "dangled" in front of family and friends.

Image source, Office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog

In Israel, the UK's new Foreign Secretary David Cameron has met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in his first visit to the country since returning to front-line British politics.

Ahead of the meeting, Cameron - the UK prime minister until 2016 - spoke of the more than 200 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.

Herzog thanked Cameron for visiting in his "first few days" in office - and said he's been "a great friend of Israel for many years".

Cameron spent the morning visiting sites where Israelis were killed during Hamas's 7 October attack.

Deal allows further pause in fighting for every 10 hostages freedpublished at 16:17 Greenwich Mean Time 23 November 2023

16:17 GMT 23 November 2023

Frank Gardner
Security Correspondent

The details announced today by Qatar, the mediators, are broadly consistent with the overall framework of this hard-won hostage deal.

From 5am GMT tomorrow a four-day pause in the fighting in Gaza is due to begin. From 2pm GMT the first group of 13 Israeli hostages are due to be released by Hamas and handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross

As soon as they’re out, Israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. If all goes well, this process should be repeated over three more days, until 50 hostages are released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, and a substantial increase in aid and fuel for Gaza.

Israel has made it clear it intends to continue attacking Hamas after that, something opposed by all the countries in the region.

However, the deal does allow for a further one day extension to the pause in fighting for every additional batch of 10 hostages released.

There is still much that could go wrong but this is the closest the hostage families have come yet to being reunited with their loved ones.

Image source, Getty Images

Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, who is part of Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud Party, has reacted to the news of a hostage release deal and temporary ceasefire.

Speaking to BBC's Newshour, Chikli said the deal followed a long night of government meetings and a vote.

He voted in favour of the agreement, but said: “It needs to be understood that this is just a pause. We are not about to finish the war against Hamas."

When asked if Israel might consider extending the truce in exchange for more hostages, he said Israel did not have trust in Hamas keeping their side of the deal. He added that it was complicated to navigate the balance between bringing hostages home and destroying Hamas.

Chikli said he did not know the reason the truce was delayed, which was believed to begin on Thursday morning. He said it could be possible that it is delayed again and attributed this to Hamas’s unreliability.

“We hope that we can see our 13 men and women and children tomorrow. We hope, but until its happened we need to be sceptical,” he said.

Image source, Reuters

Here's a quick recap of what we've just learned about the hostage release agreement announced by Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari:

• A pause in fighting will begin at 7am local time on Friday, both north and south of the Gaza Strip
• 13 hostages will be released at approximately 4pm
• All those to be released are women and children
• They will be handed to the Red Cross, but no details have been given of their route out of Gaza
• Qatar says it expects Palestinian prisoners to be freed "as a result of the release of hostages", but gave no numbers
• Israel has confirmed it has received a list of those who will be released first, and is contacting their families

• Hamas has confirmed the four-day pause will begin at 7am, and says four fuel trucks and 200 aid trucks will be allowed to enter Gaza on each of the four days
• Qatari foreign office spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said he believed the details of the plan were "sound and robust". He added: "I don't know if I should say confident, but we are very hopeful, and the commitment we have seen from both sides leads us to be very positive."

The armed wing of Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has confirmed that the four-day pause in fighting will begin at 07:00 local time in Gaza (05:00 GMT).

It said that four fuel trucks and 200 aid trucks will also be allowed to enter the Strip on each of those days.

In a statement it said all military actions by al-Qassam Brigades and Israeli forces would cease during the four-day halt in fighting.

We've now heard from the Israeli prime minister's office that Israel has received "an initial list of names" of hostages to be released tomorrow.

Officials are going through the list and contacting the families at the moment, it says in a statement.