World
Palestinian Prisoners Released as Gaza Cease-Fire Takes Hold: Israel-Hamas War Live Updates
Three hostages have been freed in the first phase of the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
The hostages, all women, were released into Red Cross custody in Gaza on Sunday and were transferred to Israeli forces, who took them to meet their mothers, the Israeli military said.
About 100 hostages, living and dead, are thought still to be held in Gaza, most of them taken in the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Thirty-three of them will be released during an initial six-week phase of the cease-fire, including female soldiers and civilians, children, men over 50 and sick and wounded people, according to the agreement.
“The vast majority” of the 33 hostages to be released in the six-week first phase of the cease-fire are alive, an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said Sunday in a discussion on social media.
Video released by the Israeli military showed the three hostages being reunited with their families at Sheba Hospital in Israel.
In one clip, one of the returned hostages, Romi Gonen, is surrounded in an embrace by members of her family as they tearfully comfort one another. Yarden Gonen, her sister, who had traveled around the world in the past year to lobby for Romi’s release, jumps up and down in the video as the family hugs. In another clip, another released hostage, Doron Steinbrecher, tearfully embraces loved ones.
Romi Gonen
Ms. Gonen was 23 when she was captured as she was trying to leave the Nova music festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked. She was speaking at the time to her mother, Meirav Gonen, who said she had been shot and was bleeding.
Last February, Meirav Gonen released a recording of her last phone call with her daughter. She told the Israeli news media that Romi was a strong and happy person who often went to raves.
In the early weeks of the war, her mother expressed concern that Israeli military operations in Gaza could endanger the hostages.
Romi Gonen’s older sister, Yarden, told The New York Times in February that she regularly went to a plaza in Tel Aviv where families of hostages have held vigils.
“None of us is doing anything remotely related to our previous lives,” she said.
Emily Damari
Ms. Damari, 27 at the time she was captured, is the only hostage with British citizenship who was still being held this month. She was taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza in southern Israel and was seen by a neighbor in her own car, driven by a militant, heading toward Gaza.
Ms. Damari was raised in Israel but traveled to Britain often, according to her mother, British-born Mandy Damari, who was in Israel last month to speak with officials and the news media and to plead for a hostage and cease-fire deal. She said that her daughter had been shot and that she feared for her life, telling the BBC that she had welcomed the threats from President-elect Donald J. Trump that there would be “all hell to pay” if no deal was reached by his inauguration.
Last January, a hostage who had been released from Gaza, Dafna Elyakim, told the Israeli news media that she and her younger sister had been taken into Hamas’s underground tunnels, where they met other female hostages, including Ms. Damari.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Mandy Damari spoke at an event in Hyde Park in London, where she described her daughter as a soccer fan who enjoyed a drink and had “the classic British sense of humor, with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure.”
On Sunday, Mandy Damari thanked “everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal.” But, she said in a statement, “for too many other families the impossible wait continues.”
The Israeli military also released a picture of Emily Damari and her mother that showed her missing two fingers on her left hand. Ms. Damari was shot in the hand on Oct. 7, 2023.
Doron Steinbrecher
Ms. Steinbrecher, who was 30 when she was captured from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza, is a veterinary nurse with Romanian and Israeli citizenship. According to Israeli news media, she was in touch with her family on the kibbutz when the militants attacked, telling her parents that they had smashed her windows and shot into her room.
“They’ve arrived, they have me,” she said in a subsequent voice message sent to friends.
Last January, Hamas released a video clip of Ms. Steinbrecher and two other captives, Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev, in which they pleaded for their release.
Last March, on her 31st birthday, the Jewish News Syndicate published an interview with her mother, Simona Steinbrecher, who said that she had looked pale and thin in the video. She said she was concerned that Ms. Steinbrecher was not getting the daily medication she needed, though she did not specify what that was.
“She’s a strong woman, but it’s terrible being there,” Simona Steinbrecher said.
On Sunday, the family of Doron Steinbrecher issued a statement celebrating her release that thanked the Israeli people and expressed gratitude to Mr. Trump “for his significant involvement and support, which meant so much to us.” The statement did not mention President Biden or any Israeli leaders.
World
Israeli Strikes Kill a Journalist and Injure Another in Lebanon
Israeli strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, rattling a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli military had targeted the journalists in the town of Tayri, where they took shelter in a nearby house after an airstrike struck a vehicle in front of the car they were traveling in. About an hour and a half later, a second strike hit the house they were hiding in, according to a statement by a Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which employed the journalist who was killed.
The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams came under fire while trying to evacuate the journalists from the house, forcing them to withdraw. The rescue crews were targeted by a warning strike and machine-gun fire, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Zeinab Faraj, a photojournalist, was rescued from the house. The other journalist, Amal Khalil, who was a reporter for Al-Akhbar, remained trapped under rubble for hours before emergency medics recovered her body, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.
In addition to Ms. Khalil, the two people in the car in front of her were killed in the strikes, Al-Akhbar reported.
Amid the 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon, Israel has continued strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, citing its right to self-defense. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group, said that it had fired rockets and drones into Israel on Tuesday in response to what it said were violations of the cease-fire. Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded two others in another part of the country.
The Lebanese health ministry called the strikes in Tayri a “blatant double breach, involving both the obstruction of rescue efforts for a civilian known for her media and humanitarian work, and the direct targeting of an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Cross.”
The Israeli military denied in a statement that it had prevented rescuers from reaching the injured journalists, and said the incident was under investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said Israeli forces had spotted two vehicles emerging from a military building used by Hezbollah. The military observed the vehicles cross what the spokeswoman called the forward defense line, determining the move to be a violation of the truce agreement.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the Israeli military had struck one of the vehicles and the building some of the occupants of the second vehicle had taken shelter in.
Ms. Khalil had covered southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah exercises strong control, since at least 2006. In a tribute to Ms. Khalil, a colleague from Al-Akhbar said she embodied the resilience of the southern Lebanese through her relentless reporting, refusing to leave the front lines of war where thousands of Lebanese had been displaced.
“As with every act of aggression, wearing a press vest did not protect those who wore it from the treachery of the Israeli enemy,” Al-Akhbar said in a statement. “Instead, it has become a danger to journalists’ lives, as part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing anyone who seeks to expose the crimes and practices of the occupation.”
In a forceful statement on social media, Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese prime minister, accused the Israeli military of war crimes for targeting journalists and obstructing access to medical aid. He said that Lebanon would pursue action to ensure Israel is held accountable with international bodies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it was outraged by the attack, and that it raised serious concerns of deliberate targeting.
“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
World
Former Mexican beauty queen found shot dead as investigators examine possible family involvement: reports
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A former Mexican beauty queen was found shot to death in her Mexico City apartment, with investigators examining the possible involvement of her mother-in-law, according to local reports.
Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead inside an apartment in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the city’s most affluent areas, Reporte Índigo, a Mexico-based news outlet, reported.
Authorities said the death is being investigated as a homicide, after initial findings indicated she suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders were called to the scene, where paramedics confirmed she showed no signs of life.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Flores Gómez’s mother-in-law, Erika María, as well as a man described in reports as her partner or husband, may have been involved in her death.
CALIFORNIA HIKER’S BODY FOUND NAKED IN BIG SUR BACKCOUNTRY
Carolina Flores Gómez was found shot dead in her luxury apartment April 15 in Mexico City. Her mother-in-law has been named the main suspect in the suspected homicide. (Jam Press)
The man, identified as Alejandro, accused his mother of killing Flores Gómez, Mexican news outlet Azteca Guerrero reported.
The outlet also reported that the woman’s mother-in-law was present at the scene when the gun was fired and that authorities are looking into the timeline of when the incident was reported.
WIDOW, SON OF LATE CHICAGO COMMISSIONER FOUND SHOT DEAD INSIDE HOME IN SUSPECTED HOMICIDE
Mexican prosecutors have opened a homicide with intent case in the death of former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez. (Jam Press)
Preliminary reports cited by Mexican news outlet Diario Puntual indicate that a security guard at the building did not hear gunshots, adding uncertainty about how the crime occurred.
Authorities in Baja California, Mexico, also responded to the case, Diario Puntual reported.
CIA PERSONNEL KILLED IN MEXICO CRASH TIED TO CARTEL OPERATION; QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER US ROLE
Former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead in her Mexico City apartment. (Jam Press)
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda expressed solidarity with the victim’s family and called for the case to be clarified.
State prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez also said there is coordination with Mexico City authorities to support the investigation.
Flores Gómez previously competed in beauty pageants and was crowned Miss Teen Universe Baja California in 2017.
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The case has drawn attention in Mexico amid ongoing concerns about violence against women, with advocacy groups calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.
The investigation into the matter is open and ongoing.
World
‘Blockade and threats’: Iran blames US siege of ports for stalled talks
Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed at least five people on Wednesday, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, in what was described as a ‘heinous crime’ by the government.
Published On 23 Apr 2026
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