Israel agrees to daily 4-hour pauses in Gaza attacks, US says
Israel has agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day from Thursday, the White House said, raising hopes of a respite in more than a month of fighting that has killed thousands and stoked fears of regional conflict.
The pauses, that would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and could be used for the release of hostages, were significant first steps, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
But as night approached, there were no immediate reports of a lull in fighting raging among the ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip.
There was also no direct confirmation from Israel, which spoke more generally of measures that appeared to correspond to arrangements already in place.
18 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
Israeli forces raided the Palestinian city of Jenin on Thursday and fought an hours-long battle with gunmen in which 14 people were killed, one of the heaviest clashes in the occupied West Bank in months.
Four more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in separate incidents across the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, an increase in violence against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in the nearby Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said gunfire sounded for hours as Israeli troops fought well-armed militants in the streets of Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, where hundreds of heavily armed gunmen are based.
US surgeons perform world’s first whole eye transplant
A team of surgeons in New York said on Thursday they had performed the world’s first transplant of an entire eye in a procedure described as a medical breakthrough, although it is not yet known whether the patient will actually regain his sight.
The groundbreaking surgery involved removing part of the face and the whole left eye of a donor and grafting them onto the recipient: a 46-year-old line worker who survived a 7,200-volt electric shock in June 2021 when his face touched a live wire.
Aaron James, 46, suffered extensive injuries including the loss of his left eye, his dominant left arm above the elbow, his entire nose and lips, front teeth, left cheek area and chin down to the bone.
Former Catalan politician shot in face in Madrid
The former head of Spain’s centre-right People’s Party in the Catalonia region was shot in the face in the Spanish capital Madrid on Thursday, police said.
Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the wealthy Salamanca area of central Madrid at about 1.30pm and taken to hospital.
Hospital authorities said his life was not in danger.
Guerillas free Liverpool striker Luis Diaz’s dad
Colombia’s ELN guerilla group freed the father of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz on Thursday, ending a 12-day kidnapping ordeal and triggering celebration in his home town.
After days of negotiations for the handover, the rebels presented Luis Manuel Diaz to humanitarian workers at an undisclosed location in the Serrania del Perija mountain range on the border with Venezuela.
The elder Diaz and his carers then travelled by helicopter to the northeastern city of Valledupar, some 90km from his hometown of Barrancas in northern La Guajira department – where he was abducted on Oct 28.
