Middle East Eye

Israa Jaabis arrives home in the early hours of Sunday 26th of November, as she reunites with her family. Jaabis was released with in the second batch of Palestinian prisoners. The release is part of a temporary truce deal. Jaabis had spent seven years in jail on an 11 year sentence.

French journalist Valérie Lecasble, in her interview with CNEWS, commented on the hostages released slowly by Hamas: “Hamas is the one that decides. We can clearly see that they have the upper hand, there’s a major reversal in the balance of power, and this greatly astonishes me!”

“I can't even explain how I'm feeling. I wish freedom for all the other prisoners.” A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jail arrived in the occupied West Bank. The footage showed the prisoners stepping off the bus, where they were met with a massive crowd cheering them on. Many of the prisoners were placed on the shoulders of members of the crowd and paraded through the street. Israel released a total of 39 prisoners on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a figure made up of six women and 33 children.

Scenes from the Indonesian Hospital after the truce emerge in it the head of Emergency at the Indonesian Hospital weeps as he describes the aftermath of the Israeli army storming the hospital on the evening of 22 November. He explains how they managed to ensure that no one suffered and distributed medical supplies.

MEE correspondent in Gaza Mohammed al-Hajjar joins families on their journey to check on their homes after 48 days of war in Gaza, as a temporary four-day truce between Israel and Hamas started today. Al-Hajjar visited the western part of the city to document the destruction, including buildings and houses bombed to the ground by Israeli forces. He also shows how Israeli forces bulldozed al-Nasr Street, a major street in Gaza, and wrote racist slogans on the walls of a nearby Unrwa school. The video also displays the bombing and destruction of the Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Centre and the parliament building in central Gaza City. Just before the truce, Gaza witnessed some of the most intense bombings since the conflict began on 7 October.

BBC presenter Lucy Hockings told Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat that lawyers around the world want to put Israel in front of the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Hockings confronted Barkat after he suggested that Israel was considerate to civilians in Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the West Bank to celebrate the release of women and children from Israeli prisons. The first group of 39 Palestinian women and children was released from Israeli prisons as part of a truce deal on November 24. Hanan Barghouti, a 59-year-old Palestinian mother from the occupied West Bank village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, has been in Israeli custody for over two months. During the celebration of her release, she said, 'without the resistance, I would never have been released.' Barghouti was arrested on September 5 and placed in jail without charge or trial for an initial period of four months, subject to indefinite extensions under the policy of 'administrative detention'. Four of her sons are also under arrest.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, says the West is suffering reputational damage because of its continuous support for Israel's crimes in Gaza. Speaking to the BBC, Landale pointed out that countries are beginning to note the inconsistencies of Western standards with regard to the protection of civilians in different conflicts.

Jewish American political scientist and activist, Norman Finkelstein, said the people of Gaza had not been given a chance by anyone to show their talent. Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Finkelstein said he would not condemn Hamas because the inhabitants of Gaza were born into a concentration camp.

On an interview with Alex Wagner on MSNBC last tuesday, US Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman emphasised how the US foreign policies with regards to Israel and Palestine must match with the rhetoric. He then mentioned how the policies are not matching the urgency of the moment and advocated for a proper two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

Jihad Shakfa, a displaced child in Gaza, expresses a yearning for a true truce. Amidst the horrors of war, he dreams of normalcy – playing football, dressing up, and a life without fear.

“Humanitarian pauses are simply not enough. UNICEF is calling for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire to immediately put a stop to this carnage.” Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, urged for a ceasefire during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza on Wednesday. Russell added that “the number of (children) deaths in the present crisis has far surpassed the total number of deaths during previous escalations.”

Thousands of Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and their release has been a key demand of Palestinian armed groups, as well as human rights activists.

Natalia Kanem, executive director of UN Women, said two mothers are killed every hour and seven women are killed every two hours during a briefing about Gaza on Wednesday. Kanem noted that 67 percent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children, as opposed to 14 percent before 7 October.

A soldier with a Southern US accent has reportedly called for Gaza to burn to the ground. In the video, he compares the people of Gaza to rats and tells Israeli soldiers "It's hunting season" in Gaza. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller has said that six American citizens serving in the Israeli military have died since October 7. Four died in the Gaza Strip and one in northern Israel.

Despite spending a decade trying to withdraw from the Middle East, the Israel war in Gaza has pulled it back in, ‘undermining’ its own interest.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's recent comments on CNN have sparked widespread outrage. Barak admitted that Israel itself had built bunkers under Al-Shifa hospital, allegedly utilised by Hamas. This revelation has led to vehement reactions from Israeli figures like Kobi Peretz and Natalie Dadon, with Israeli officials emphasising Hamas' misuse of these spaces for terror activities.

“There’s no reason to continue providing financial support to a country that refuses to listen to us and persists in the Gaza massacre. We bear responsibility for the lives lost in Gaza,” stated French opposition leader Jean Mélenchon during his participation in the “Do Better!” conference in Paris on November 20, at the La Boétie Institute.

Israeli forces arrested a wounded Palestinian man from an ambulance at Thabet Hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank. They demanded information about someone named Mustafa. Despite his response that he did not know Mustafa, the injured man was arrested.

The Dutch government voiced their support for Israel early in the Israel-Palestine war, but how has Dutch media covered it?

Video footage shows a man, identified as Stuart Seldowitz, a former national security advisor to President Obama, who also worked at the US State Department expressing extreme anti-Islamic sentiments towards an Egyptian man running a halal food cart in New York City, USA. Seldowitz ominously threatened the vendor with dire consequences from the Egyptian intelligence service, including potential harm and torture to the man's father in Egypt.

Correspondent Farah Omar made her final appearance on Al Mayadeen TV channel shortly before she was killed by a targeted Israeli attack in the village of Tayr Harfa in southern Lebanon along with cameraman Rabi al Mimari

Speaking from a hospital bed, Dareen al-Bayaa explains how every member of her family, except her brother, was killed by Israeli air strikes. Israeli strikes have killed over 14,000 Palestinians since 7 October.

“This is incredibly disappointing because we know that taking down Hamas, we keep hearing from them, is going to take months or years and it’s going to take a long time,” Goren said. A relative of a hostage captured by Hamas said on Monday that Israel’s top officials told him that they won’t prioritise the release of captives over the defeat of Hamas. Udi Goren, whose cousin Tal Chaimi is being held captive in Gaza, was one of several family members of hostages who met with the war cabinet, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Israel is violating international law by committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza. "The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the unlawful use of force by Israel is a war crime. The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food and water to the residents of Gaza is tantamount to genocide," During Tuesday's extraordinary summit of the BRICS nations, President Ramaphosa, who chaired the meeting, called for an 'immediate and comprehensive ceasefire' and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to deliver aid to civilians. The Palestinian health authority in Gaza said the number of people who have been killed by Israel since the war began has reached 14,128. Among the dead are at least 5,840 children.