On Thursday, laws passed by Israel in October come into effect banning the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli officials from any contact with the agency.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, healthcare and other services provided by U.N. agency UNRWA as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes effect on Thursday.

Iman Helles, a displaced mother sheltering in a facility run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, fears that she will now be “thrown out to the streets” with her three children.

Hamas militants on Saturday handed over to the Red Cross four Israeli women hostages under a truce deal in the Gaza war that is also expected to see a second group of Palestinian prisoners freed.An AFP journalist witnessed the handover after the four were presented on a stage at a main square in Gaza City,

As they were released, hundreds of people cheered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square where they were watching the drama unfold on a big screen television.