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At least nine Palestinians have been killed and several others injured after the Israeli regime carried out airstrikes on two refugee camps in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the victims, including children, were killed as a result of Israeli occupation air raids on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza early on Wednesday.

Sources also told Wafa that several people lost their lives in another Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northeastern Gaza.

Israelis kill five Palestinians in West Bank

The Israeli military also killed five Palestinians in a drone missile attack on the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm.

The occupation forces stormed the Tulkarm refugee camp and bombed a house and a gathering of Palestinian residents in the area with a drone, leaving at least three Palestinians inured, according to WAFA.

The Israeli regime forces also imposed a siege on Thabet Hospital in the city of Tulkarm and surrounded the entrances to the hospital with their vehicles, which hindered the arrival of the injured at the medical facility to receive treatment.

“The occupation army chased the ambulances that were traveling in the city of Tulkarm, obstructed their work and prevented them from moving freely,” WAFA cite eyewitnesses as saying.

Palestine’s Shehab news agency said the occupation forces also arrested one of the wounded after storming the emergency department at Thabet Hospital.

The latest casualties came hot on the heels of an agreed-upon ceasefire deal that would bring about a halt in a 47-day-long Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Israel waged the bloody war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in the occupied territories in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s incessant crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 14,128 Palestinians, including 5,840 children and 3,920 women, and injured at least 33,000 others.

The illegal entity has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

An Israeli woman held by the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas during the regime’s war on the Gaza Strip has thanked the movement’s fighters for their kind and humane behavior.

Daniel Aloni’s commendation came in a letter released by Palestinian media outlets on Monday. She was held in Gaza along with her six-year-old daughter Emelia.

The letter was written in Hebrew while Aloni was in detention in which she has praised the behavior of al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters who accompanied and guarded her and her daughter during the days they spent in the blockaded territory.

Daniel and her daughter were among the first batch of Israeli captives who were released on Friday after the Hamas movement reached a prisoner swap deal with the regime.

Other released Israeli captives have also testified to the good treatment they had received while in Hamas captivity.

After being released on humanitarian grounds, an 85-year-old Israeli woman said the Hamas fighters provided all the needs of the captives and gave them the same food that they themselves ate.

Aloni thanked al-Qassam fighters from the bottom of her heart for "extraordinary humanity that you have shown towards my daughter Emelia. You treated her like your own.”

She added that due to extraordinarily good care that Hamas fighters provided her daughter she “considered herself a queen in Gaza and felt like she was the center of the world.”

Here is the full text of Aloni’s letter, which has been translated from Hebrew:

“To the commanders who have accompanied me in recent weeks. It seems that we will part ways tomorrow, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your extraordinary humanity that you have shown towards my daughter Emelia. You treated her like your own. You welcomed her in your room whenever she walked in. She says that you are all her friends, not just acquaintances. You are her true and good loved ones. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the countless hours you spent with her as caregivers. Thank you for being patient with her and showering her with sweets, fruits, and everything available, even if it wasn’t readily accessible. Children should not be in captivity, but thanks to you and other kind-hearted individuals and leaders we have met during our presence here, my daughter considered herself a queen in Gaza and felt like she was the center of the world. We did not meet a single person, whether a member or leader, during our long stay [in Gaza] who did not treat her with kindness, tenderness, and love. I will forever be a captive of gratitude because she will not leave this place with a permanent psychological trauma. I will remember your kind manners, which you showed in here despite the difficult situation you were coping with yourselves, and the heavy losses that befell you here in Gaza. I wish in this world that we could be really good friends one day. I wish you all good health and well-being. Health and love to you and your families. Thank you very much. Daniel and Emelia.” 

Jerusalem, Nov 23: Israel said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, stalling a breakthrough deal to pause the war with Hamas.

Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated the release of at least 50 Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas was still on track, but would not happen on Thursday as expected.

“The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” he said in a statement.

“The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”

A second Israeli official said that a temporary halt in fighting would also not begin on Thursday.

The delay is a hammer blow to families desperate to see their loved ones return home, and to two million-plus Gazans praying for an end to 47 days of war and deprivation.

The complex and carefully choreographed deal saw Israel and Hamas agree a four-day truce, during which at least 50 hostages taken in the Palestinian resistance group’s October 7 operation would be released.

For every 10 additional hostages released, there would be an extra day’s “pause” in fighting, an Israeli government document said.

Three Americans, including three-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, were among those earmarked for release.

In turn, Israel would release at least 150 Palestinian women and children and allow more humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal territory after weeks of bombardment and heavy fighting.

It was not immediately clear what caused the delay, which came after weeks of talks involving Israel, Palestinian militant groups, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said Thursday that implementation of the accord “continues and is going positively.”

“The truce agreement that was reached will be concluded in the coming hours,” he said.

The agreement has been approved by Hamas leaders and by Israel — despite fierce opposition from some within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir described the deal as a “historic mistake” that would embolden Hamas and risk the lives of Israeli troops.

Netanyahu has backed the agreement with Hamas, but vowed the truce will be temporary and will not end the campaign to destroy Hamas.

“We are winning and will continue to fight until absolute victory,” he said on Wednesday, vowing to secure Israel from threats emanating from Gaza and Lebanon, home to Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Tensions rose on Israel’s northern border early Thursday, after Hezbollah said five fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, had been killed.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen almost daily exchanges of fire, raising fears the Gaza war fuel a region wide conflagration.

Israel’s army said in statements Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets, including a “terrorist cell” and infrastructure.

In Washington, the White House said President Joe Biden had spoken to Netanyahu on Wednesday and “emphasized the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank.”

The White House has pressed Israel not to escalate clashes with Hezbollah, for fear of sparking a war that could drag in US and Iranian forces.

Biden also spoke to the leaders of Qatar and Egypt Wednesday, as he pushed for the truce to be “fully implemented” and to “ultimately secure the release of all hostages.”

Families on both sides grappled with a lack of clarity over how the releases would unfold.

“We don’t know who will get out because Hamas will release the names every evening of those who will get out the next day,” said Gilad Korngold, whose son and daughter-in-law are being held in Gaza along with their two children and other relatives.

Israel’s list of eligible Palestinian prisoners included 123 detainees under 18 and 33 women, among them Shrouq Dwayyat, convicted of attempted murder in a 2015 knife attack.

“I had hoped that she would come out in a deal,” her mother, Sameera Dwayyat, said, but added that her relief was tempered by “great pain in my heart” over the dead children in Gaza.

In Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, displaced Palestinians remained skeptical about the Israel-Hamas deal.

“What truce are they talking about? We don’t need a truce just so aid can come in. We want to go home,” said Maysara Assabagh, who fled northern Gaza for a hospital that now shelters about 35,000 displaced people.

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory faces shortages of food, water and fuel.