Israel has agreed to extend its truce with Hamas for a seventh day to facilitate the exchange of captives. The extension was announced just minutes before it was set to expire on Thursday morning, prolonging a reprieve for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents after 47 days of relentless attacks by Israel spawned a massive humanitarian crisis. On Wednesday, Hamas released 16 hostages — 10 Israelis, four Thai nationals and two Russian-Israeli citizens. In exchange, Israel released another 30 Palestinian women and child prisoners, many of them jailed indefinitely without charge under Israel’s “administrative detention” policy. On Wednesday, Hamas said its youngest Israeli hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, was killed in an Israeli bombing alongside his mother and 4-year-old brother. If those deaths are confirmed, the hostages join some 15,000 people killed by Israel’s assault on Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks. Two-thirds of the dead are women and children.

Also on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said it had discovered the decomposing remains of five premature Palestinian babies who were left to die after Israeli forces ordered medical staff to evacuate and blocked access to the intensive care unit at the al-Nasr pediatric hospital. Shocking footage filmed by the Dubai-based outlet Al Mashhad shows the babies still attached to ventilation and intravenous tubes as they lay lifeless in their hospital beds. Rights groups are calling for an international investigation.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli gunfire killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man and wounded four others as they gathered outside Ofer Prison awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, two Palestinian children who were shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday have been identified. Fifteen-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa died in a hospital after he was shot in the chest. And 8-year-old Adam al-Ghoul was shot in the head as he ran from Israeli forces, in a killing that was captured on video. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli soldiers blocked medics from approaching the camp to tend to the wounded.

Israeli police say three people were killed and several others wounded Thursday morning when a pair of Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The attackers were shot and killed by two off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to resume Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip once Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas expires.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “After completing this stage of the return of our hostages, will Israel go back to fighting? My answer is an unequivocal yes. There is no situation in which we do not go back to fighting until the end. This is my policy. The entire Cabinet is behind it.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened to dissolve the coalition government led by Netanyahu if Israel halts its bombardment of Gaza.

Here in New York City, hundreds of peaceful protesters led by a group of interfaith organizers gathered in midtown Manhattan to demand an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian lands, on the occasion of the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Hordes of police officers were deployed to the event as activists ultimately gathered in front of the nearby News Corp building to rally. This is Nerdeen Kiswani of the group Within Our Lifetime.

Nerdeen Kiswani: “We stand here on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in solidarity with Jerusalem’s 13 official churches and the entire municipality of Bethlehem — and the entire municipality of Bethlehem, who have called for mobilization, not celebration.”

In Washington, D.C., progressive Congressmembers Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman joined a group of activists, politicians and celebrities who were on day three of their hunger strike to demand a permanent ceasefire. This is Congressmember Tlaib speaking at their nightly White House vigil.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “When this pause in the violence expires, all I keep thinking about is asking my colleagues, 'How many more lives? How many more lives will be enough? How many more children need to be killed? How many more families have to be traumatized and torn apart?' There is nothing humanitarian, my friends, about giving innocent civilians a few days of rest before they are bombed again.”

Earlier in the day, House members voted nearly unanimously to pass a resolution equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, a framing which has driven the backlash against anyone who is critical of the Israeli government. Only Congressmember Thomas Massie voted against the measure. Congressmember Tlaib voted “present.”

Employees and job seekers continue to report retaliatory action for speaking out against the conflict. Georgetown Law School graduate Jinan Chehade says she had a job offer with prominent law firm Foley & Lardner LLP rescinded over her support for Palestinian rights on social media, after she was interrogated by the law firm’s partners.

Jinan Chehade: “They framed my advocacy for Palestine as supporting terrorism. And I was singled out as one of the only visibly Arab Muslim women associates in the law firm nationwide. Today I am speaking in defiance of the surge of attacks we have been seeing against Palestinians and their allies, from the murder of 6-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume to the shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont to severe attacks on employees and associates like myself who speak up for Palestine. However, the more of us that speak up, the more power we have. So today I am not only speaking up, but I’m fighting back and pursuing legal action.”

Palestine Legal says it has received more than 700 requests for support from advocates for Palestinian rights since October 7 — that’s triple the number the group reported for the entire year last year.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the architect of a highly militarized U.S. foreign policy under Presidents Nixon and Ford, has died at the age of 100. In the late 1960s and '70s, Kissinger oversaw a massive expansion of the war in Vietnam and the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia, where as many as 150,000 civilians were killed. In Latin America, Kissinger supported dictatorships that used torture and murder as tools of political repression, from Bolivia to Uruguay to Argentina. In Chile, Kissinger helped topple the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering in 17 years of dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet. In 1975, Kissinger and President Ford met with the Indonesian dictator General Suharto to give him the go-ahead to invade East Timor, which led to the killing of a third of the Timorese population. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Greg Grandin once estimated that Kissinger's actions may have led to the deaths of up to 4 million people. After headlines, Greg Grandin will join us to discuss Henry Kissinger’s life and legacy.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged an Indian national with plotting to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, after federal agents allegedly thwarted a murder-for-hire conspiracy. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta has been arrested in the Czech Republic, pending extradition to the United States, after an unnamed Indian government employee recruited him last May to carry out the assassination. Gupta allegedly offered a $100,000 bounty to a hitman who turned out to be an undercover DEA agent. The plot allegedly targeted Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen, lawyer, and spokesperson for the organization Sikhs for Justice, which advocates for an independent state for Sikhs in northern India. Gupta’s arrest comes just two months after Canada’s government said agents of India’s government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were directly involved in the assassination of prominent Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

X CEO Elon Musk lashed out during a New York Times event Wednesday when asked about recent advertiser boycotts over Musk’s reposting of antisemitic content.

Elon Musk: “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. But — go fuck yourself. Is that clear?”

Over 100 brands have halted their ads on X, formerly Twitter, which stands to lose $75 million in ad sales by the end of the year.