“Palestinians are facing the onset of winter without proper clothing, shelter and blankets. The sense of fear is palpable,” writes Amjad Ayman Yaghi from Gaza.

• The Electronic Intifada

Saadia Abu Akar built a new home for her family after Israel bulldozed her neighborhood in 2003. Now Israel has attacked that home, too, and destroyed it within seconds, Ruwaida Amer writes from Gaza.

• The Electronic Intifada

“Among the many thousands of people who have been killed was the nephrologist Dr. Hammam al-Louh,” writes Ghada Abed from Gaza. “He had been treating my brother.”

• The Electronic Intifada

“If grassroots pressure doesn’t force President Joe Biden and the Democrats to rein in Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the warmongers around him, the last seven weeks may be surpassed by even greater horrors.”

• The Electronic Intifada

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the combat pause and prisoner exchange agreement by two days, a Qatari mediator told Reuters. Through four days of exchanges, the Palestinians have turned over 69 detainees held in Gaza and the Israeli government has released 150 Palestinians from custody.

The Qassam Brigades released video footage of their fighters handing over 11 captives held in Gaza to the Red Cross, the fourth such exchange since the combat pause and prisoner exchange agreement went into effect on 24 November. 33 Palestinians – 30 children and three women – were released by the Israel Prison Service and an additional 200 trucks have delivered aid to Gaza, as per the agreement signed between Hamas and Israel. According to Haaretz, “Israel police warned the families of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails as part of the exchange deal with Hamas not to celebrate the return of their loved ones.” The families of the released Palestinian children were summoned by police to issue the warning, Haaretz added.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza announced that al-Shifa Hospital “has been able to reactivate its dialysis department, opening its doors to people in the north in need of such treatment,” according to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “Over the weeks prior to the pause, the hospital sustained extensive damage during bombardments and Israeli operations inside the compound,” OCHA added.

Israel fire has killed nearly 231 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, including at least eight killed by settlers, the UN monitoring group OCHA has reported. This constitutes more than half of all Israeli killings in the area since the beginning of the year. “So far, 2023 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since OCHA began recording casualties in 2005,” OCHA said. Sixty Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) has said.