“I’d try to go to sleep every night, but the explosions kept me awake,” writes Tasneem Elholy from Gaza. “I am not sure what my future looks like.”

• The Electronic Intifada

“Israel bombed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital while I and other cancer patients, many of them children or elderly, were receiving medical care,” writes Khaled El-Hissy from Gaza.

• The Electronic Intifada

The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, told the captives in Hebrew on 8 October that they would not be harmed and would be released as part of an exchange, according Israeli media reports.

• The Electronic Intifada

For the fifth consecutive day, prisoners were exchanged between Hamas and Israel as part of their extended humanitarian pause agreement. The Qassam Brigades released footage on their social media channel showing their fighters, along with those of Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the Quds Brigades, handing over twelve captives held in Gaza to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Israel’s prison authorities said 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer Prison in the West Bank. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Club said 15 of those released were women and 15 were children. One was 14-year old Ahmad Salayme, who told al Jazeera, “we are very happy but our happiness is incomplete because we mourn those who are lost, those who are wounded and those who are missing [in Gaza].”

The US House of Representatives voted 412-1 on a resolution “reaffirming the State of Israel’s right to exist.” The resolution states that “denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of antisemitism; rejects calls for Israel’s destruction and the elimination of the only Jewish State; and condemns the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel.” Thomas Massie, a Republican, said he was voting no because the resolution “equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.” Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, voted present, saying the resolution “contributes to the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.”