Saudi FM has called on the UNSC to “live up to its responsibilities” and enforce a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

Centreline Report

GAZA CITY: The armed wing of Hamas announced on its Telegram channel that the release came in response to a request from Russia.

Hamas said that the two Russians were handed over to the “Red Cross a short while ago as a prelude to handing them over to representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry”.

Hamas’s armed wing said three captives were killed in previous Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

The Qassam Brigades identified them as the youngest captive, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother and their mother.

Meanwhile, Two Palestinian children have been shot dead by Israeli troops attacking Jenin city in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.

The ministry identified the two, who were killed by Israeli occupation forces early on Wednesday, during Israel’s ongoing aggression against the city of Jenin and its camp, as the eight-year-old Adam Samer al-Ghoul and the fifteen-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa.

The Ministry said the occupation forces continued their aggression against the Jenin camp, where they launched a massive arrest campaign and forced citizens in Damj neighborhood to get out of their homes amid violent confrontations.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has called on the UN Security Council to “live up to its responsibilities” and enforce a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

He said the aid that is currently trickling into the enclave is “by far less than is needed”.

“The danger is that if this … truce expires, that we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable,” he told reporters at UN headquarters.

“We are here to make a clear statement – that a truce is not enough. What is needed is a ceasefire,” he said.

Speaking at the UN Security Council, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki says the Gaza truce “must become a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire”.

“The massacres cannot be allowed to resume. This is not a war, this is a carnage that nothing and no one can justify. It must be brought to an end,” he said.

UN chief addresses Security Council, Antonio Guterres says “nowhere is safe” in Gaza, and notes that 80 percent of its residents have been forced from their homes.

Guterres adds that the scale of death and destruction are “characteristic of the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas”.

The UN chief says an estimated 45 percent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

“It is with immense sadness and pain that I report that since the beginning of the hostilities, 111 members of our UN family have been killed in Gaza. This represents the largest loss of personnel in the history of our organisation,” Guterres said.

“Let me put it plainly: Civilians, including United Nations personnel, must be protected. Civilian objects, including hospitals, must be protected. UN facilities must not be hit. International humanitarian law must be respected by all parties to the conflict at all times.”

“In a matter of weeks, a far greater number of children have been killed by [the] Israeli military operations in Gaza than the total number of children killed in any year by any party to a conflict since I’ve been secretary-general,” Guterres continues.

“Over the past few days, the people in the occupied Palestine territories and Israel have finally seen a glimmer of hope and humanity in so much darkness.

“It is deeply moving to see civilians finally having respite from the bombardments, families reunited and life-saving aid increasing.”

The UN chief says intense negotiations have been taking place to prolong the truce in Gaza, but adds that what is needed is a “true humanitarian ceasefire”.

Guterres said the people of Gaza are in the midst of an “epic” humanitarian catastrophe.

He also called for the opening of other crossings into Gaza and the streamlining of inspection mechanisms to allow more life-saving aid to cross into the territory.