still being held by greek in gaza. israeli officials said that at least 13 more israelis being held captive in the territory are due to be released shortly. they will be released shortly. they will be released in exchange for 39 palestinian prisoners. the temporary truce continues to hold for a second day. each it said this afternoon there are signals that the truce could be extended for another one or two days. a delegation from qatar, which has been crucial in mediating between israel and hamas, has visited israel as well to discuss a possible extension to this deal. these are live pictures, looking across at gaza, from southern israel. you can see those pinpoints of light in the dark. this is an area that we look at a lot at the moment, because the ceasefire, the brief cessation in fighting, the first we have seen since this war began, is a crucial part of this deal. it is worth taking a moment as well to reflect on the numbers of hostages who are being released each day.
live to our middle east correspondent tom bateman who is in jerusalem. tom, thank you for joining. what is the latest on the hostages that have been released? what we know is that they have been transferred, as you say into the hands of the red cross, taken to the raffle border crossing between gaza and egypt. they have crossed it it rafah crossing. received by it israeli officials. very significant delay as you said, we re expecting this to happen all at four o clock local time. that is eight hours ago. the delay was because it seems by a dispute about what was in the agreement relating to humanitarian aid passing from the south of the gaza strip to the north of the gaza strip. the armed wing of hamas accused the israelis of effectively not allowing enough aid to pass into the north. the israeli military category denied that and said they co ordinate about that, it s the responsibility of the united nations. it was resolved with the immediate mediation of qatar and egypt.
cnn news central is up now. new reporting and new pictures just in as israeli troops raid gaza s largest hospital. the idf calls it a precise and targeted operation against hamas as the search for hostages intensifies. an elbow to the kidneys, a challenge to a fistfight and a smurf insult. no, it s not middle school. it s congress. they did manage to do some work, however, passing a major hurdle to avoid ago going a government shutdown. president biden and chinese president xi jinping, face-to-face today, the first time they have talked in a year, and so much has happened since then. what the hopes are will come of this. i m sarri a sidner this is cnn news central. at this moment, we re waiting to get more information on the israeli operation in and around the al shifa hospital in northern gaza. you can see where it is right there. israeli forces are inside in what the idf is calling a precise and targeted operation against hamas. i can show you a map of the hospita
you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta. we ve been watching some pictures of multiple explosions lighting up the night sky around gaza city. nic robertson in sderot, israel, witnessed some big secondary explosions and a huge fire in gaza. you re looking at the images there. that s what his crew witnessed. they witnessed eight rockets as well, being fired from gaza into israel. the idf says six of the eight rockets were intercepted by that country s iron dome defense system and israeli police say there are no reports of casualties just yet. the night is young. on the diplomatic front, secretary of state antony blinken has wrapped up his meeting in jordan, with the request to implement pauses. in tel aviv, the family of hamas hostages held a rally in front of israel s military headquarters. organizers say it was not an antigovernment protest but rather a call for israel to do more to secure the hostages released. and cnn was part of the first group of foreign press g