WORLD BRIEFING: November 23, 2023
Israel - Hamas War
At least 1,200 civilians and soldiers killed in Israel since October 7, 236 hostages held in Gaza Strip. Hamas-controlled health ministry: 14,128 dead in Gaza
A planned release of 50 hostages held in Gaza along with 150 Palestinian prisoners and a pause in fighting has been delayed hours before it was set to begin on Thursday, Israeli, U.S. and regional officials said. “The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday,” Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Wednesday. Hanegbi said contacts toward the release of the hostages continued. The delay by at least a day is connected to the list of names Hamas provided to Israeli officials, according to U.S. and regional officials. While Hamas provided name, gender and nationality for most of the individuals, there was a lack of information for some of the 50 hostages, complicating and delaying the release, a U.S. official said - WSJ
The deal between Israel and Hamas for a four-day pause in fighting, accompanied by the release of at least 50 hostages, has been welcomed almost universally. Nonetheless, officials and experts warn that the agreement fails to fully account for the Gaza humanitarian crisis and that the mechanisms ensuring it holds are significantly lacking compared to similar cease-fires in hostilities. The cease-fire, which took more than six weeks of painstaking diplomacy and was nearly derailed several times, is particularly fragile given the lack of enforcement mechanisms and the absence of independent observers on the ground - Haaretz
Ukraine War
A key political ally of Vladimir Putin has adopted a child seized from a Ukrainian children's home, according to documents uncovered by BBC's Panorama. Sergey Mironov, the 70-year-old leader of a Russian political party, is named on the adoption record of a two-year-old girl who was taken in 2022 by a woman he is now married to. Records show the girl's identity was changed in Russia. Mr Mironov has not responded to requests for comment. The child, originally named Margarita, was one of 48 who went missing from Kherson Regional Children's Home when Russian forces took control of the city. They are among about 20,000 children who, according to the Ukrainian government, have been taken by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022 - BBC
Ukraine could field F-16 fighter jets at the end of the spring of 2024 in the "best-case scenario," Oleksandra Ustinova, head of the Holos (Voice) parliamentary faction, said in an interview with European Pravda published on Nov. 22 - Kyiv Independent
Elsewhere
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said there was no sign of terrorist activity in relation to the vehicle explosion at a checkpoint that closed the Rainbow Bridge at the Canadian border and left two people dead. During a late afternoon news conference Wednesday, Hochul said two people in the vehicle died when it crashed near the bridge on the U.S. side of the border. She described the driver as a local resident of western New York. "I want to be very, very clear to Americans and New Yorkers, at this time there is no indication of a terrorist attack," Hochul said - NPR
Geert Wilders's far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to win the Dutch parliamentary Nov. 22 elections, securing 35 of the 150 parliamentary seats, exit polls suggested.