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Israel says 2 more hostages released by Hamas, with additional releases expected as cease-fire holds
Two more Israeli hostages were released on Thursday, Israel said, as a short-term truce deal between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s ruling militant group, neared its one-week mark in the Palestinian territory.
Both Israeli hostages were transferred to the Red Cross then traveled to Israel on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said. Additional hostages were expected to be transferred to the aid organization over the next few hours, according to the military.
Earlier, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement to extend the temporary cease-fire in Gaza for at least 24 more hours, the Qatari government announced, pushing the humanitarian pause into its seventh consecutive day on Thursday. The announcement came just before the cease-fire was set to expire, and followed a previous extension of the halt in fighting.
The cease-fire started last Friday and was initially set to last four days. Brokered by mediator Qatar, as well as Egypt and the United States, it has resulted in the first break in fighting since Israel declared war on Hamas and began its bombardment of Gaza in the wake of militants’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. The backbone of the truce is Hamas’ pledge to release women and children being held hostage in Gaza and Israel’s pledge, in return, to release Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The deal has so far seen dozens of hostages returned to Israel by Hamas and well over 100 Palestinians freed from prisons. Israeli officials say more than 100 people taken from Israel on Oct. 7 remain in captivity.
Asked how many hostages being held captive in Gaza were still alive on Thursday, senior Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad told CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams, “I do not know.”
“The number is not important,” Hamad said, adding, “we are continuing to release the civilians.”
Hamad told Williams that Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, which has been largely decimated in Israeli military airstrikes and where, according to Hamas officials, more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed.
CBS News
FEMA administrator: “I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding” from Helene in North Carolina
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said on Sunday that the “historic flooding” in North Carolina from the remnants of Hurricane Helene has gone beyond what anyone could have planned for in the area.
“I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now,” Criswell said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Helene made landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm late Thursday, before sweeping through states in the southeast. Criswell called the storm “a true multi-state event,” adding that her team on the ground has seen “significant impacts in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.”
Asheville, North Carolina, was particularly hard hit as rising floodwaters damaged roads, led to power outages and cut off cellphone service.
For North Carolina in particular, Criswell said the agency has had teams in the area for several days and is sending more search and rescue teams. She said water remains a “big concern,” and the Army Corps of Engineers is working to see what can be done to get water systems back online. And she noted that the agency is also working to bring in satellite communications.
“We’re hearing significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, critical transportation routes, as well as several homes that have been just destroyed by this,” Criswell said. “So this is going to be a really complicated recovery in each of these five states that have had these impacts.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received reports of multiple fatalities across five states, Criswell said. She encouraged people in the affected areas who are looking for someone to call 211 and register the information.
Criswell said in Florida, there was up to 15 feet of storm surge in Taylor County, where she traveled to at the direction of President Biden, adding that there are record storm surges across the Big Bend area. She said in North Carolina, “we’re still in active search and rescue mode,” with ongoing flooding issues and landslides. The administrator will travel to Georgia and North Carolina to assess the impact of the hurricane in the coming days.
In terms of resources for the affected states, Criswell said “we absolutely have enough resources from across the federal family” and can draw from other federal agencies to support the response and recovery.
“We will continue to bring those resources in to help them,” Criswell said. “We want to work with them to rebuild in a way that’s going to help make them more resilient and reduce the impacts from the increased number of storms that they’re experiencing.”
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The high stakes & low blows of vice presidential debates
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Nature: Sunflowers in South Dakota
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