Israel and Hamas agree to hostage deal and four-day ceasefire; heavy fighting continues in northern Gaza

Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas continued on Wednesday in northern Gaza. The main thrust of Israel’s ground offensive is into Gaza City, the strip’s biggest urban area and which the military describes as Hamas’s “centre of gravity”.

The Israel-Hamas conflict dominated a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 nations on Wednesday.

The Swiss government will draft a law to ban Hamas, designating it as a terrorist organisation, according to a statement.

Latest developments

• What will happen in Gaza after Israel stops its war on Hamas?


• Biden praises accord that will free hostages held in Gaza Strip


• What a truce in Gaza means for the war: Marc Champion


• Hamas chief who deceived Israel is target No 1 deep underground


• US, EU back UN force in postwar Gaza, adding pressure on Israel

Israel and Hamas agree to short truce for hostage release

Hamas agreed to free 50 hostages from Gaza in return for a four-day ceasefire with Israel and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to say the war would continue until Hamas was destroyed as an organisation, it will be the first major lull in fighting since the conflict erupted just over six weeks ago when the Iran-backed group attacked Israel.

Hamas said there would be a “cessation of all military operations” in Gaza during the four days. Israel will halt airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip, and stop flying intelligence drones over the northern part of the territory, where most of its ground forces are, for six hours a day.

Read more: Israel-Hamas deal hinged on proof-of-life evidence, says Qatar sheikh

In addition, more aid will move into Gaza from Egypt, which Palestinian officials and the United Nations say is needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.

The pause, pushed for by the US and its allies, was expected to begin on Thursday morning after the Israeli public has had an opportunity to appeal in the courts against the prisoners being released. Israel’s Cabinet has already approved the deal and it’s not expected to be stalled by legal disputes.

The developments come as international pressure grows on Israel to end its offensive in Gaza, much of which has been damaged by airstrikes. Hamas says thousands of people are missing or trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Ceasefire won’t end Israel’s war on Hamas, but might change it

The guns will go quiet, food and medicine will get to those in desperate need and hostages will be exchanged for prisoners. That may sound like the start of a process to end the brutal six-week-old war between Israel and Hamas, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

It almost certainly is not.

Netanyahu made that clear, shortly before his Cabinet agreed early on Wednesday to the deal. “We are at war and we will continue the war,” he said.

His words signal disappointment in store for the many countries — from the Arab world to Europe — that have been urging a short-term ceasefire in the hope it will lead to something more enduring.

Read more: Israel and Hamas agree to short truce for hostage release 

As for the US, Israel’s chief backer, its position is somewhat different. Washington joined the calls for a pause, but recognises that fighting is likely to resume. It just wants Israel to conduct the war with more restraint when that happens.

Most of the world is simply telling Israel to stop.

With more than two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents displaced from their homes, and some 14,000 killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, the drive to eliminate Hamas has triggered growing alarm.

Four senior US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington has told Israel that killing too many Palestinian civilians will make it harder to pursue the campaign against Hamas to its conclusion.

Switzerland prepares to ban Hamas as a terrorist organisation

The Swiss government will draft a law to ban Hamas, designating it as a terrorist organisation, according to a statement.

Once approved by parliament, the law will bring Switzerland in line with the US and the European Union. Being classified as a terrorist organisation would shut Hamas out of the Swiss financial system and potentially deal a blow to its funding.

Read more: Swiss government backs labelling Hamas as terrorist organisation

On Wednesday, Switzerland also ended its cooperation with three Palestinian non-government organisations, without naming them, saying there were breaches of conduct and anti-discrimination policies.

Israel-Hamas war dominates virtual G20 leaders’ meeting

The Israel-Hamas conflict dominated a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 nations on Wednesday.

“The West Asia situation throws up new challenges which concern us all,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his opening remarks, which set the tone for the leaders’ gathering.

India, which traditionally was vocal about Palestine and its people, has moved closer to the US and Israel under Modi. The South Asian nation now treads a fine line between condemnation for the 7 October attack on Israeli civilians, and a continued push for a two-state solution and a separate homeland for Palestinians.

“We must ensure that the Israel-Hamas conflict does not spread wider into the region,” Modi said, adding that he hoped all hostages would be released as soon as possible.

Other world leaders also welcomed the Israel-Hamas truce agreed on Wednesday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Israel’s actions, describing them as a “war crime” and called for movement to a two-state solution.

Israel-Hamas deal ‘nearly didn’t happen’ 

The breakthrough between Israel and Hamas that will see dozens of hostages and prisoners released from both sides — and more aid flow into Gaza — almost never happened.

Talks over an agreement to free some of the captives held in Gaza began soon after Hamas’s forces stormed into Israel last month and took an estimated 240 hostages back with them, according to US and Qatari officials who briefed reporters as the latest deal was announced.

But it wasn’t clear the negotiations in Doha would succeed.

Fury over the damage wrought by Hamas’ 7 October attack that left 1,200 dead, and an Israeli response that authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say has killed thousands since, hung over the negotiators. The hurdles included demands to provide proof-of-life details for the hostages and questions over the practicality of Israeli forces remaining in Gaza during a pause in battle.

“There were some very difficult moments, the agreement was nearly sabotaged because of events on the ground,” said Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs.

And then the reality of trying to negotiate a temporary truce from Qatar, with hostages languishing in Gaza and Israeli troops and tanks in streets recently controlled by Hamas, proved nearly impossible.

“You want to move people within a war zone where infrastructure is all destroyed and there’s severed communication,” al-Ansari continued. “And it’s all happened from Doha, working with the Hamas political office. But also you needed to agree on every specific detail on this.”

Binance lapses let Hamas, Isis, al-Qaeda make bitcoin trades

Binance Holdings had such lax controls over cryptocurrency transactions on its exchange that terrorists, hackers and sanctions violators used it for years to move billions of dollars, US prosecutors said.

Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to criminal charges on Tuesday, admitting they failed to take basic anti-money laundering steps that are the bedrock of government efforts to check the flow of dirty money worldwide. Binance will pay $4.3-billion, while Zhao will step down as CEO and pay a $50-million fine.

The stunning turn of events means Zhao, the most powerful crypto figure in the world, faces prison time and will no longer run the industry’s largest exchange. It comes after a multiyear investigation by federal prosecutors and the fraud conviction earlier this month of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed FTX exchange.

Employees at Binance were engaged in a wide array of misconduct, and many were aware of the consequences of allowing millions of illegal transactions, according to the Justice Department and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.

“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Its wilful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.”

Because of those failures, the US said, Binance allowed the following to take place:

• The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, used Bitcoin transactions to raise money for the Palestinian resistance.


• Binance allowed Bitcoin transactions with other terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda and Isis, FinCEN said.


• At least 1.1 million transactions valued at $899-million were conducted by people living in Iran, in violation of US sanctions, the company admitted.


• Exchange users in Cuba and Syria, as well as the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, engaged in millions of dollars in transactions in violation of US sanctions, Binance admitted. DM

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