Quiet handover of captives in Gaza City with little media coverage

At the scene of the captive release in Gaza City we witnessed, there wasn’t much in terms of celebration or even media coverage.

The handover was carried out quietly in a low-profile manner to ensure safety and organisation.

For many in Gaza City, especially displaced families who returned over the past few days, it was a deeply emotional moment. Children came out from their tents and the ruins of buildings, standing by to watch.

They waved at the Red Cross vehicles and the guards escorting the captives, wishing them well.

For Palestinians, this was a moment of truth – a sign that perhaps now they can talk about the ceasefire, about the beginning of a new chapter in Gaza, despite all the destruction, despite the majority of Gaza City – close to 75 percent of the total area – turned into ruins.

‘Every kind of torture’: Palestinian detainee recounts abuse in Israeli custody

Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Seed has given a harrowing account of life inside an Israeli prison after his release as part of the ceasefire deal.

“I went hungry for the past two years. I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They kept us naked. They beat us while we were naked day and night. We were tortured,” Abu Seed said.

“Until our last day in Israeli prison, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.

“We couldn’t even sleep. They threatened us with our children. They told me they killed my children. They told us that Gaza was destroyed. I arrived here and found that everything was gone. It looked like the end of the world. Everything is different.”

Palestinians held in Israeli jails ‘tortured multiple times a day’

A recently released detainee has condemned Israeli jails as “prisons of injustice”. He told Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum that most of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are tortured more than once a day.

Inmates were fired at by Israeli troops with rubber-coated bullets and because of that, he had “deep wounds around his private parts and back”. Many detainees were also electrocuted, he added.

“We were detained in a slaughterhouse,” he said.

Speaking at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza after being freed, he said the Palestinians of Gaza remain “brave and steadfast”. “We have sacrificed a lot, but our sacrifices are too little compared to others,” the man said.

He thanked “God, the Palestinian people, and the resistance fighters in Gaza” for securing his release.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader says remaining detainees a priority

Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziad al-Nakhalah has released a statement on the ceasefire agreement.

Here are some of his translated comments:

Ireland pledges additional humanitarian aid for Gaza

Ireland will provide an additional 6 million euros ($6.5m) in humanitarian aid for people in Gaza as the UN and aid agencies prepare to scale up relief efforts following the ceasefire, Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris says.

“The blockade on humanitarian aid has resulted in famine and untold horror for people in Gaza,” Harris said.

“Israel must do what it can to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, and the international community must rally behind efforts to save and rebuild lives that have been shattered by this war.”

PM Starmer says UK ready to help in removing Hamas weapons

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his country is ready to assist in monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza.

He offered the UK’s experience in Northern Ireland to help in the decommissioning of Hamas’s military capabilities.

Speaking at a summit in Egypt, Starmer said Britain is ready to “play its full part” in ensuring the current ceasefire results in a lasting peace.

“We stand ready in relation to monitoring the ceasefire and decommissioning Hamas capability and weaponry, and that’s drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland and the IRA [Irish Republican Army], which we dealt with in particular in relation to decommissioning,” he said.

Starmer can't wait to get back into Palestine... All the previous times went so well, and you're still complicit in the genocide.

Death toll in Gaza rises to 67,869

The Palestinian Health Ministry says 63 people have been confirmed dead over the past 24 hours in Gaza, including 60 whose bodies were recovered from earlier Israeli attacks.

The ministry said many victims remain trapped under destroyed buildings and in the streets, as ambulance and civil defence crews continue to face difficulties reaching them.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 67,869 people and wounded 170,105.

Palestinian wounded by Israeli fire in northern West Bank’s Nablus

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a young Palestinian during clashes in the village of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

Separately, confrontations erupted between young Palestinians and Israeli troops in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the city of Bethlehem in the central West Bank.

Israel has stepped up its assault on the West Bank since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, and Netanyahu has advanced a settlement expansion plan that would all but eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The project, which has been driven by far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government, covers a 12sq-km (4.6sq-mile) stretch of land and foresees 3,400 new homes for Israeli settlers.

Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law.

• King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain
• President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany
• PM Pedro Sanchez of Spain
• PM Jonas Gahr Store of Norway
• PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece
• PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq
• PM Mark Carney of Canada
• PM Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan
• Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi of Oman

He was accompanied by Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh and Diplomatic Adviser Majdi al-Khaldi.

Egypt: ‘We need American engagement, even deployment on the ground’

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says the success of Trump’s vision for Middle East peace will depend on his continued commitment to the process.

That includes applying pressure on the warring sides, engagement and “even deployment on the ground” of international troops expected to carry out peacekeeping duties in the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

“We need American engagement, even deployment on the ground, to identify the mission, task and mandate of this force,” Abdelatty told The Associated Press.

Directly tackling the remaining issues in depth is unlikely at the Sharm el-Sheikh gathering, which is expected to last two hours. El-Sisi and Trump are expected to issue a joint statement after it ends.

Trump says Gaza ceasefire ‘working out incredibly well’

President Trump has highlighted the effort to stop the war on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh, saying it took “between 500 to 3,000 years to get to this point”.

“We’re going to sign a document that’s going to spell out a lot rules and regulations and lots of others things. It’s very comprehensive,” said Trump at the start of what he’s described as the “peace summit” in Egypt.

He said the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas “is really working out incredibly well”. “Everybody said it’s not possible to do and it’s going to happen. And it is happening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

US president repeats Gaza war over, thanks Arab and Muslim countries for ‘breakthrough’

Trump continues his speech saying that “after years of suffering and bloodshed the war in Gaza is over.

“Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment and other supplies, much of it paid by people in this room.

“Civilians are returning to their homes, the hostages are reuniting [with their families],” Trump said.

“A new and beautiful day is rising and now the rebuilding begins,” he added, expressing his “tremendous gratitude to the Arab and Muslim nations who helped make this incredible breakthrough possible.”