Israeli authorities announced Wednesday that they had arrested 12 Palestinians in East Jerusalem for celebrating the release of prisoners over the weekend under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. The arrests were made late Tuesday following the circulation of videos earlier in the week,

Israel demands UNRWA halt operations in Jerusalem by January 30, citing Hamas ties and security risks. The move follows Knesset legislation severing ties with the agency.

The United Nation's Palestinian refugee agency said on Sunday it had been ordered by Israel to vacate premises and cease all of its operations in occupied East Jerusalem by Thursday. Israeli lawmakers in October passed a law banning UNRWA from the country and also prohibiting Israeli authorities for having contact with the agency,

U.N. officials vowed Thursday that the agency would continue to deliver services in the occupied Palestinian territories for as long as possible.

The law that bans the United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees in Gaza went into effect on Wednesday.

The directive came in a letter to the U.N., after the Israeli Parliament banned the relief agency that has aided Palestinian refugees for decades.

Israel says UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’s bloody 7 October attacks on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory air and ground offensive inside Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians according to the enclave’s health ministry.

In his pre-show notes, Horenstein talks about offering his audience “a cleansing, a sort of exorcism, of everything we have had to experience."

Israel has formally banned the main United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory despite heavy diplomatic backlash.

Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza on Thursday (Jan 30) and Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds at one of the hostage handover points.

The International Committee of the Red Cross transported the prisoners through the Kerem Shalom crossing in eastern Rafah in southern Gaza.