Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Displaced Palestinian families in Gaza are struggling to cope after heavy rains flooded their makeshift tent camps, Al Jazeera reported on Friday, as the United Nations warns that Israeli restrictions on aid have left hundreds of thousands without proper shelter.

Abdulrahman Asaliyah, a displaced Palestinian man, told Al Jazeera that residents’ mattresses, clothes and other belongings were drenched by the flooding.

“We are calling for help, for new tents that can at least protect people from the winter cold,” he said, adding that nearly two dozen people had been working for hours to drain water from the area.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said the flooding mainly hit communities in the north, where large numbers of displaced families have returned following last month’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Flooding was also reported in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

The agency urged the international community to step in to “address the suffering” of families whose homes were destroyed during Israel’s two-year war on the enclave.

“We urge the swift delivery of homes, caravans, and tents to these displaced families to help alleviate their suffering, especially as we are at the beginning of winter,” it said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet soon with Khalil al-Hayya, the chief negotiator for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with his plans.

The United States and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye called for the UN Security Council to quickly adopt a US resolution endorsing Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.

"The United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Turkiye expressed support for the Security Council Resolution currently under consideration," the countries said in a joint statement, adding they were seeking the measure’s "swift adoption."

European Union foreign ministers will discuss next week a proposal for the bloc to take the lead in training 3,000 Palestinian police officers with the aim of later deploying them in Gaza, according to a document seen by Reuters on Friday.

In a paper produced by the bloc’s diplomatic arm ahead of the gathering of ministers on November 20, officials outlined options for contributing to the implementation of a 20-point plan for Gaza proposed by US President Donald Trump.

The EU’s police support mission could “take leadership in training the Palestinian police force in Gaza by providing direct training and support to approximately 3,000 Palestinian police officers (on the PA pay-roll) from Gaza, with a view to training the full 13,000 Palestinian police force,” it said.

Gaza's Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis said it received the bodies of 15 Palestinians on Friday as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement, the hospital said that: "15 bodies of Palestinian martyrs arrived at Nasser Medical Complex as part of the thirteenth batch of the body exchange deal, bringing the total number of bodies received to 330 martyrs."

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.

GAZA: The hardship facing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians worsened on Friday as a weather depression, bringing rain and a cold air mass, swept into the Gaza Strip, prompting warnings over flooding and the possible collapse of worn-out tents and shelter centres, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Palestinian Meteorological Department said a low-pressure system was affecting the territory, accompanied by relatively cold to cold air and periods of heavy rainfall, at times with thunderstorms.

Gaza Civil Defence issued urgent guidance, especially for those living in tents, urging residents to secure structures firmly, particularly in coastal areas exposed to strong winds, and to build sand barriers to keep seawater from washing into encampments. 

The agency also cautioned people to stay away from buildings heavily bombed in past strikes and no longer fit for habitation, warning they could be further weakened by rainwater and collapse.

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa granted entry to 130 Palestinians at Johannesburg airport , after initially barring them for not meeting immigration requirements, border authorities said.

The Border Management Authority said a group of 153 Palestinians who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on a chartered Global Airways flight from Kenya had not indicated how long or where they intended to stay.

They also lacked the required departure stamps in their passports to show where they had boarded the plane, BMA said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs cleared them to enter after humanitarian group Gift of the Givers offered accommodation. By then, 23 had already departed for other destinations, BMA Commissioner Michael Masiapato said on Thursday evening.

"We obviously need to look at the origins (of the 130 Palestinians' journey), where it started, the reason why they've been brought here. Ordinarily, we would have said they should go back because they didn't have any documentation," President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

"But ... out of compassion, and because they are a people that we as South Africa have raised our hands to support, we felt that we should accept them," he told reporters in Soweto, where he was overseeing a clean-up for next week's G20 summit.

The United States on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to unite and back its draft resolution aimed at bolstering President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, warning that Palestinians could otherwise suffer "grave" consequences.

"Attempts to sow discord now — when agreement on this resolution is under active negotiation — has grave, tangible, and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza," a spokesperson for the US mission to the UN said in a statement.

"The ceasefire is fragile and we urge the Council to unite and move forward to secure the peace that is desperately needed," the spokesperson said, calling it an "historic moment to pave a path towards enduring peace in the Middle East".

Israel has received the body of deceased hostage Meny Godard from Palestinian group in Gaza via the Red Cross, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

After being transferred to Israel through the Red Cross, the body headed to forensic experts, who less than three hours later identified it as Godard's.

The remains of three hostages are still being held in Gaza.

Russia proposed its own draft of a UN resolution on Gaza in a challenge to a US effort to pass its own text at the Security Council that would endorse President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, according to a copy of the draft seen by Reuters.

The US formally circulated the draft resolution to the 15 Council members last week and has said it has regional support for its resolution that would authorize a two-year mandate for a transitional governance body and international stabilization force.

Russia's UN mission said in a note to Security Council members on Thursday afternoon, seen by Reuters, that its "counter-proposal is inspired by the US draft."

"The objective of our draft is to enable the Security Council to develop a balanced, acceptable, and unified approach toward achieving a sustainable cessation of hostilities," the note said.