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<\/a>In October, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas. In exchange, Hamas released 20 living Israeli hostages. On Oct. 22, the terrorist-linked group Samidoun hosted a panel discussion in Athens with the newly released top Hamas operative Abdel Nasser Issa. Known as a student of Hamas\u2019s notorious chief bombmaker Yayha Ayyash (1966-1996), aka \u201cthe Engineer,\u201d Issa was serving two life sentences for his involvement in two suicide bombings in 1995 that killed 20 Israeli civilians and wounded more than 100.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 24, Palestinian Islamic Jihad turned over a coffin with the remains of Dror Or.\u00a0Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili and Sudthisak Rinthalak are the last two people murdered on Oct. 7 not yet returned. Rinthalak, an agricultural worker at Kibbutz Be\u2019eri near the border of the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, was among the more than 40 Thais killed and 31 kidnapped in Hamas\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
Also in November, a flight of 153 Gazans landed in Johannesburg, after departing from Ramon Airport near Eilat. Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesperson for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) \u2013 the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the West Bank \u2013 confirmed that the Palestinians transited through Israel \u201cafter COGAT received approval from a third country to receive them.\u201d That third country was South Africa.<\/p>\n
Some 200,000 Gazans are currently living in limbo in Cairo, unable to either find a destination in which to settle or to return to their homes. Together with the estimated tens of thousands of combatants and civilians killed in the Gaza war, these numbers indicate the ongoing depopulation of the destroyed coastal enclave.<\/p>\n With an election on the horizon in the first half of 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition faces a mounting campaign to reestablish Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Daniella Weiss, head of Nachala Movement Israel, whose stated aim is to settle further into Judea and Samaria, wants to begin Jewish settlement in Gaza within \u201cmonths.\u201d According to Weiss, more than 600 families \u2013 more than 2,500 people \u2013 had already registered for an initiative to settle in new beach towns.<\/p>\n Many Israelis fault Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\u2019s unilateral withdrawal of 9,000 settlers from Gush Katif in 2005 as the catalyst that allowed Hamas to seize power from the Palestinian Authority two years later. In turn, that violent coup laid the way for the catastrophic Oct. 7, 2023, attack on cities and kibbutzim bordering Gaza.<\/p>\n The Gaza Strip\u2019s 365 square kilometres are today uneasily divided into Hamas- and Israeli-controlled sectors. Israel will not allow T\u00fcrkiye or Qatar to send troops to monitor the ceasefire, nor are any other countries keen to send boots on the ground. US President Donald Trump envisions a $500-million military base near Qiryat Gat, called the US Civil-Military Coordination Centre, to assist in Gaza\u2019s future governance and patrol of the territory.<\/p>\n Clan and Bedouin tribal groups in Gaza are engaged in a violent internecine struggle with Hamas. And the London-based\u00a0Asharq Al-Awsat<\/i>\u00a0newspaper reported on Nov. 15 that IDF commandos on motorcycles are targeting Palestinians who participated in the abduction and holding of Israelis during the Oct. 7 attack. Among the Mujahideen Brigades terrorists gunned down in Khan Yunis was Mohammed Abu Mustafa, who kidnapped Shiri Bibas and her children Kfir and Ariel from Kibbutz Nirim on Oct. 7. Also recently eliminated was Muhammad Abu Shaar, who broke into Adi Vital-Kaploun\u2019s residence at Kibbutz Holit and murdered the Canadian-Israeli woman in front of her 4-year-old son Negev and 4-month-old toddler Eshel. Shaar then recorded himself holding her children in the same safe room where Vital-Kaploun was murdered.<\/p>\n Troops of the elite Nahal Brigade captured six Hamas gunmen who surrendered after a 24-hour search that followed the IDF\u2019s collapsing of the tunnel in Rafah where the terrorists were hiding, forcing them to emerge from a shaft, the military reported. The men were taken to Israel to be questioned by the Shin Bet Klali<\/i> (General Security Service). A photo released by the IDF showed four of the operatives in the army\u2019s custody, hands tied behind their backs, next to an armoured vehicle.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>