{"id":37718,"date":"2025-01-27T02:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37718"},"modified":"2025-01-26T01:17:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T07:17:04","slug":"middle-east-live-updates-returning-hostages-to-undergo-medical-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37718","title":{"rendered":"Middle East live updates: Returning hostages to undergo medical assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas<\/a> in Gaza went into effect on Sunday morning. Hostages held in the strip<\/a> and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will be freed in the first phase of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the November ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group. Israeli forces also remain active inside the Syrian border region as victorious rebels there build a transitional government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump has ordered that the U.S. resume shipments of the 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that former President Joe Biden halted, according to a White House source and a U.S. government official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The President has ordered the hold to be lifted on the 2000-pound bomb shipment to Israel,\u201d a U.S. government official told ABC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden halted the shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs in May of 2024. At the time, he cited the fact that the weapons were being used in areas with high concentrations of civilians, leading to civilian deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in May, during a sit-down interview with CNN.Show Less<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of Palestinians have gathered in Gaza, just south of the Wadi Gaza, hoping to be able to return home to northern Gaza for the first time since October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wadi Gaza is the line Israel used to demarcate north from south in Gaza, warning over a million people to move south of the riverbed at the very beginning of the war. A majority of Gazans did, resulting in 1.9 million people crowded into south Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the current ceasefire deal, the Israel Defense Forces were to withdraw from parts of the Netzarim corridor — the military area it created between the Wadi Gaza and Gaza City — which has until now stopped anyone from being able to return to the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Israel and Hamas are currently engaged in a back-and-forth argument over the continued captivity of a civilian woman hostage, which is being worked out through the mediators of the ceasefire. As a result, the IDF has not yet withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor and thousands of Palestinians are waiting to return north are forced to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confusion over the delay has created some chaos in the area, with shots being fired toward the crowds and reports of injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect on Sunday morning. Hostages held in the strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will be freed in the first phase of the deal. Meanwhile, the November ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[24241,8229,23174],"class_list":["post-37718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-ceasefire","tag-hostages","tag-israeli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37720,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37718\/revisions\/37720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}