Hamas official says hostage and prisoner lists exchanged with Israel
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nounou said on Wednesday that negotiators from his group and Israel have exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages who would be released should a deal be reached during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt.
According to Reuters, al-Nounou also said Hamas expressed optimism about reaching a deal, stating that the group has demonstrated the necessary positivity.
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My colleague Stephen Starr reports that Islamophobic attacks across the US have risen precipitously in the two years since Hamas’s attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, and the ensuing destruction Israel has unleashed on Gaza that has killed more than 67,000 people and devastated the Strip. Last year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) recorded 8,658 complaints, a record.
Reports of antisemitism have also surged in recent years – a report released on Sunday found that more than half of American Jews say they have faced antisemitism in the past year. Data is difficult to come by because some sources tracking antisemitism don’t make clear distinctions between anti-Zionism and anti-Jewish hate. However, synagogues have widely reported increasing their security budgets over violent threats, and Jewish institutions are especially unnerved after two people were killed in an attack on a UK synagogue last week.
You can read the full story here:
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Reuters is reporting that Gaza’s Islamic Jihad group, which is smaller than Hamas and also holds Israeli hostages, will join the talks today.
Hamas wants a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire, a complete pullout of Israeli forces and the immediate start of a comprehensive reconstruction process under the supervision of a Palestinian “national technocratic body”.
Israel, for its part, wants Hamas to disarm, which the group rejects. Hamas has said it won’t hand over its weapons until a Palestinian state has been established.
US officials suggest they want to initially focus talks on a halt to the fighting and the logistics of how the Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian detainees in Israel would be freed.
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Updated at 12.34 BST
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday it was neither fair nor realistic to put the burden of achieving peace in Gaza solely on Hamas and Palestinians, and that Israel must stop its attacks in order for peace efforts to succeed, reports Reuters.
Speaking to lawmakers from his party, Erdoğan said Israel remained the main obstacle to peace in Gaza despite a plan by US president Donald Trump. Ceasefire talks in Egypt, to which Turkish officials are attending, are critical, he said.
“Peace is not a bird with a single wing. Putting the entire burden of peace on Hamas and Palestinians is not a fair, correct or realistic approach,” he said, repeating his claim that Hamas is a “resistance group”.
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Jessica Elgot
UK prime minister Keir Starmer will order the home secretary to look at further curbs on protests including potential powers to take action against specific inflammatory chants at pro-Palestinian protests.
Speaking to reporters en route to Mumbai, the prime minister said Labour was looking at going even further than the measures announced by Shabana Mahmood, which would look at the “cumulative impact” of repeat protests in certain locations.
The proposals have been attacked by civil liberties group over the threats the potential restrictions pose to the right to protest. But after a terror attack on a Manchester synagogue, Starmer is also under pressure to go further, especially over chants that could invoke violence, such as “globalise the intifada”.
Over the weekend, Mahmood said the new laws would allow police officers to consider the cumulative impact of protest when deciding whether or not they are lawful. Protests could be re-routed or even barred altogether if their impact was considered too disruptive.

But Starmer said there was more that could be done, specifically to address the small minority of protesters on pro-Gaza marches who he suggested engaged in antisemitic hate. He said:
I’ve asked the home secretary to look more broadly at what other powers are available, how they’re being used and whether they should be changed in any way. I think we need to go further than that in relation to some of the chants that are going on at some of these protests.
Starmer also suggested that police forces could take further steps themselves:
That has to be part of the review that we carry into what powers do we have and how they’re being exercised. And then the question of do any of these powers therefore need to be changed or enhanced?
And that’s the exercise we’re going through. But we are talking at length to leaders of the Jewish community about this, as you would expect.
Starmer said the review would take in all of the government’s current powers over public order. He said:
I think we need to review more broadly public order powers and there will be a series of actions that we will agree in due course across Whitehall.
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Updated at 11.11 BST

Lisa O’Carroll
Five Irish citizens including author Naoise Dolan are among those who been detained by Israeli authorities who have stopped a second wave of boats heading towards Gaza with humanitarian aid.
They have been part of the nine-strong Thousands Madleens flotilla which were intercepted around 5am this morning.
In a piece written for the Guardian before she was detained, Nolan said her resolve and that of six others on the boat had not been dented. “Palestinians do not yet have freedom, and our own freedoms will be compromised until they do,” she wrote.
Also on board with Irish parliamentarian Barry Heneghan, Fionn Macarthur, Veronica O’Keane and Mutaz Jadaan, a dual Irish-Jordanian citizen.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Harris confirmed the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv was “actively engaged with the situation” and he expected “all detainees will be transferred to Ashdod port for process and from there to a detention facility south of Tel Aviv”. He was due to receive an update from the Israeli ambassador later this morning.
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Hamas condemns Israeli minister’s visit to al-Aqsa compound as ‘deliberate provocation’
Hamas have condemned Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to al-Aqsa compound on Wednesday as a “deliberate provocation”. Hamas wrote in a statement:
This deliberate provocation … reflects the fascist mentality governing the [Israeli] government, which intentionally violates the sanctity of al-Aqsa and the feelings of Muslims worldwide.
Israel’s far-right national security minister prayed at al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday and called on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue “complete victory” over Hamas in Gaza.
According to Reuters, in a video on the edge of one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, Ben-Gvir said that two years after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war, Israel was “winning” at the Jerusalem compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
A second video showed him praying at the compound, in a fresh challenge to a decades-old understanding which allows only Muslim worship at the site.
Ben-Gvir said in the video released by his Jewish Power party:
Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount, and today, two years later, we are winning on the Temple Mount. We are the owners of the Temple Mount.
I only pray that our prime minister will allow a complete victory in Gaza as well – to destroy Hamas, with God’s help we will return the hostages, and we will win a complete victory.
His remarks were released as Israel and Hamas are deep in indirect negotiations in Egypt to release all remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and end the war there.
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Updated at 10.46 BST
As part of the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza: two years on series marking the second anniversary of the Hamas attack into Israel and the war in Gaza, the below has been published:
The children’s names appear on a list of victims of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, maintained by health authorities in the territory. As of the end of July it ran to 60,199 names, of whom 18,457 were under 18s. Far from comprehensive, the list does not include the thousands still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, as well as the war’s many indirect victims.
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Updated at 10.21 BST
Agence France-Presse have a quote from senior Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.
Speaking to the news agency from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where indirect talks began on Monday between Israel and Hamas, al-Nounou said:
The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all parties.
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US president Donald Trump asked Turkey to “persuade” Hamas to accept his plan for ending the Gaza war, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a transcript shared by his office on Wednesday.
“Both during our visit to the United States and in our most recent phone call, we explained to Mr Trump how a solution could be achieved in Palestine. He specifically requested that we meet with Hamas and persuade them,” Erdoğan told Turkish journalists on board a plane returning from Azerbaijan, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, his spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP), as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas were being held in Egypt on ending the Gaza war.
The visit is Ben Gvir’s eleventh as minister to the area which contains Islam’s third-holiest site and is Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the first and second Jewish temples.
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Turkey on Wednesday criticised an intervention by Israeli forces against a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as an act of piracy and a violation of international law.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the intervention against the Freedom Flotilla, including Turkish nationals and lawmakers, showed that the “genocidal” Israeli government targeted all peaceful measures and heightened tensions in the region while damaging peace efforts, reports Reuters.
“The intervention in international waters against the Freedom Flotilla … is an act of piracy,” it said in a statement, describing it as “an attack on civil activists, including Turkish citizens and members of parliament”.
It added in its statement that all initiatives were being taken for Turkish citizens held by Israel to be freed and returned to Turkey, and that it was coordinating with other countries regarding their citizens too.
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Hamas official says hostage and prisoner lists exchanged with Israel
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nounou said on Wednesday that negotiators from his group and Israel have exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages who would be released should a deal be reached during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt.
According to Reuters, al-Nounou also said Hamas expressed optimism about reaching a deal, stating that the group has demonstrated the necessary positivity.
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Philippines says crew member of Dutch ship has died after Houthi attack
A Filipino crew member of a Dutch cargo ship has died from injuries sustained in an attack by Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden last week, the Philippine government said on Wednesday.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the 29 September attack in the busy shipping lane on the MV Minervagracht, causing a fire and injuring two people.
The second casualty, also a Filipino, is recovering from injuries sustained in the attack, while 10 other Filipino crew members were repatriated to Manila at the weekend, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Philippine officials are on their way to Djibouti, along with the dead sailor’s sister and wife, to meet the shipowner and arrange for the repatriation of his remains, migrant workers minister Hans Cacdac said in a post on social media platform X on Wednesday.
The Houthis have said their attacks on commercial shipping are in support of Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
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Lucy Campbell
The New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday evening attended a vigil in Manhattan convened by Israelis for Peace, an anti-occupation group of Israelis in New York who have rallied weekly since 2023 to call for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.
Sitting in Union Square alongside New York City comptroller Brad Lander, his one-time rival for the Democratic nomination who has been campaigning for him, Mamdani listened as speakers at the event – which marked the two-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel – called for an end to the killing and to Israel’s occupation, and for equal rights for Palestinians.
Zohran Mamdani
Earlier in the day, Mamdani drew ire from Israel over his statement on the anniversary in which he commemorated both the Israeli victims from that day and Palestinian victims from Israel’s ensuing war on Gaza.
Mamdani said in the statement on Tuesday:
Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities.
He denounced Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government for launching a “genocidal war” in Gaza as well. He also accused the US government of being “complicit”.
Mamdani wrote:
A death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble.
Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered.
He said the last two years had “demonstrated the very worst of humanity” and called for an end to Israeli “occupation and apartheid”.
Mamdani’s statement prompted a sharp rebuke from the Israeli foreign ministry on X, accusing him of “acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda” and “spreading Hamas’s fake genocide campaign”.
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Israel intercepts another Gaza aid flotilla amid criticism over treatment of activists
A new Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been intercepted by the Israeli army, days after the detention of activists on board vessels bound for the war-torn territory caused international outrage and widespread protests.
The Israeli military was jamming signals with at least two boats being boarded, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said on Instagram.
“The Israeli military has no legal jurisdiction over international waters,” it added. “Our flotilla poses no harm.”
“Three vessels – Gaza Sunbirds, Alaa Al-Najjar, and Anas Al-Sharif – have been attacked and illegally intercepted by the Israeli military” early morning, 220km off the coast of Gaza, organisers said on X.
It said another ship, the Conscience was also “under attack”.
The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed it had intercepted boats attempting to reach Gaza and that those on board would be transferred to an Israeli port where they would be deported.
“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,” the ministry said in a post online.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is an international network of pro-Palestinian activist groups that organises civilian maritime missions aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.
The ships carried aid worth more than $110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment and nutritional supplies intended for Gaza’s starving hospitals, the FFC said.
The incident was the second such event in recent days, after Israel intercepted about 40 vessels and detained more than 450 activists in an aid convoy, the Global Sumud Flotilla, that was also attempting to deliver supplies to Gaza.
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US, Turkey and Qatar join Hamas and Israeli negotiators for third day of Gaza ceasefire talks
Delegates from the United States and Turkey as well as Qatar’s prime minister will join Hamas and Israeli negotiators on Wednesday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the Gaza war.
Israel and Hamas are holding indirect negotiations in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, based on a 20-point plan proposed by Donald Trump.
Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are all due to attend the talks, Agence France-Presse reports (AFP).
“There’s a real chance that we could do something,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Trump added:
I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East. It’s something even beyond the Gaza situation. We want a release of the hostages immediately.
The talks came as Israel commemorated the second anniversary of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the war. It resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, of whom 47 remain captive, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with much of Gaza flattened, a UN-declared famine unfolding and Israeli hostage families still longing for their loved ones’ return. A UN commission announced last month that it had found Israel to be committing genocide in Gaza.
We will post updates on the talks aimed at ending the Gaza war as they come in. But first, here are some other developments:
Israelis gathered across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the Hamas-led 7 October attack. Unofficial commemorations were held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped, and a large rally was held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
A new Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been intercepted by the Israeli army, days after the detention of activists on board vessels bound for the war-torn territory caused international outrage and widespread protests. The Israeli military was jamming signals with at least two boats being boarded, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said on Instagram.
Israeli forces have arrested at least 35 people in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and elsewhere since Monday, according to a group representing Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the arrests but said “regular counter-terrorism activity” was under way.
Israel has repeatedly denied permission to transfer incubators from an evacuated hospital in northern Gaza, a UN children’s agency official said on Tuesday, adding to strain on overcrowded hospitals farther south where newborn babies are now sharing oxygen masks.
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