Day 48 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Nov. 23

A hostage deal will reportedly free 50 Hamas-held hostages in exchange for an unknown number of Palestinian women and minors in Israeli custody, a temporary cease-fire and pauses in drone surveillance.

Rina Bassist, Ezgi Akin, Beatrice Farhat, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Adam Lucente, Jack Dutton, Jared Szuba and Al-Monitor’s contributors on the ground in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel contributed to this blog.

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Live updates (all times EDT):

Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023

9:16 am: Qatar says temporary Israel-Hamas truce to start Friday morning

A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas is scheduled to go into effect Friday at 7 a.m. local time, said Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, adding that a first group of 13 Israeli hostages would be freed on Friday at 4 p.m. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that it had received the names of the hostages set to be released Friday. The families of the abductees have been notified.

4:26 am: Hezbollah claims largest barrage of rockets launched at Israel since Oct. 7

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement claimed to have fired 48 Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military base in the northern Israeli city of Safed. Israeli news outlets said between 30 and 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Upper Galilee. Most of the rockets were intercepted and no injuries were reported.

The latest attack was the largest barrage since missile strikes between Hezbollah and Israel erupted in early October. It comes one day after an Israeli strike on a house in southern Lebanon's Beit Yahoun killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of a Hezbollah lawmaker.

3:30 am: Iran’s FM hold talks on Gaza with Hezbollah chief during Beirut visit

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah at an undisclosed location in Lebanon, Iranian and Lebanese state media reported. The pair discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the region, as well as efforts to end the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Beirut on Wednesday for his second visit to Lebanon since the Hamas-Israel war erupted on Oct. 7. His visit comes amid escalating violence between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanon border.

3:30 am: New British foreign minister tours south of Israel, kibbutz Be’eri 

David Cameron, the newly appointed British foreign secretary, arrived Thursday morning in Israel, reported the Telegraph. The newspaper ran pictures of Cameron visiting Kibbutz Be’eri, which Hamas had attacked during its Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel. Cameron is expected to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials during his trip to the Middle East. On Wednesday, Cameron chaired a meeting of Arab and Muslim leaders in London, calling the Qatari-mediated truce between Hamas and Israel “an important opportunity to get the hostages out and more aid into Gaza to help the Palestinian people.”

1:43 am: Israeli forces arrest Al-Shifa hospital director, doctors

Israeli forces arrested the director of Al-Shifa hospital, one of Gaza's largest medical complexes, according to a doctor at the facility. “Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other senior doctors,” Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital, told AFP. The Israeli army has been leading an operation at the medical complex, claiming that it houses a Hamas command center.

1:00 am: German police raids homes of Hamas, Samidoun members, supporters 

German police searched 15 properties in Berlin, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein belonging to Hamas or Samidoun prisoner solidarity group members or supporters, the German Federal Interior Ministry said. Germany banned activities by both groups in early November.

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