Summary of the day
It’s 9pm in Tel Aviv, Gaza and Jenin. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel’s security forces to exercise “maximum restraint” after a major Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. The UN chief “remains deeply concerned” about the violence and “urges security forces to exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life,” a spokesperson for Guterres said.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 people were injured during the Israeli operation in Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Three nurses and two doctors were also injured by Israeli fire during the military operation, which took place as the Gaza ceasefire entered a third day, the director of Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin said.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Jenin operation was “another step towards achieving the goal we set – strengthening security in Judea and Samaria”. He said it included police, military and the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency. Jenin has been a focus of Israeli raids into the occupied West Bank throughout the 15-month war in Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry says more than 800 people have been killed in Israeli raids since October 2023.
Israel’s top general Lt Gen Herzi Halevi resigned as the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday. He cited the “terrible failure” of security and intelligence related to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza. The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said he saluted Halevi’s decision and also called on Netanyahu and his government to resign. Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israel’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Gaza, also tendered his resignation on Tuesday.
Hamas said four more female Israeli hostages will be freed this weekend in return for Palestinian prisoners. The next group of hostages due to be released is expected to include captured female Israeli soldiers, who will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners serving more lengthy sentences who are being held in Israeli jails, some of whom will be deported to third countries.
The new US president, Donald Trump, said he was not confident that the ceasefire deal that he personally insisted on would hold. “It’s not our war, it’s their war,” Trump said during the signing of a tranche of executive orders after his inauguration on Monday. “But I’m not confident. But I think they’re very weakened on the other side.”
Trump, during his first day back in the White House, revoked the sanctioning of Israelis seen as being involved in violent settler activity. “Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement. Even before Trump’s decision had been made public, Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Al-Funduk and Jinsafut in the north of the West Bank on Monday night.
Trump also reinstated an executive order allowing him to impose economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC). Among the blizzard of executive orders made on Monday evening, Trump revived an order issued during his presidency that used emergency powers to create a sanctions regime targeting the court, paving the way for the US to hit the judicial body and its staff with draconian measures.
Trump’s pick for UN ambassador, New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, expressed support for Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank. Stefanik’s comments, made during a tense confirmation hearing exchange, show how her stance might affect US diplomatic efforts during ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly regarding Palestinian self-determination and territorial disputes.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, held a call with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. No 10 said Starmer told Netanyahu that he peace process in the Middle East should pave the way for a “viable and sovereign” Palestinian state. An Israeli readout of the call said Starmer faced pressure from Netanyahu over frozen arms sales to Israel.
The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, has said. Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”, he said, adding: “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”
Updated
UN chief urges ’maximum restraint’ after Israeli forces launch West Bank operation
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has called on Israel’s security forces to exercise “maximum restraint” after they launched a major operation in the West Bank city of Jenin.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 people were injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Three nurses and two doctors were also injured by Israeli fire during the military operation, which took place as the Gaza ceasefire entered a third day, the director of Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin said.
The UN chief “remains deeply concerned” about the violence and “urges security forces to exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life,” a spokesperson for Guterres said.
Palestinian officials have criticised the decision by the US president, Donald Trump, to lift sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, following a spate of recent attacks.
As we reported earlier, Trump rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals for allegedly committing violence against Palestinians.
“Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Even before Trump’s decision had been made public, Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Al-Funduk and Jinsafut in the north of the West Bank on Monday night, AFP reported.
About 50 people set fire to homes and shops, destroyed vehicles and “terrorised unarmed civilians”, resulting in at least 21 people injured in attacks that took place “under the supervision and protection of the Israeli army and political leadership,” the Palestinian ministry said.
The Israeli military confirmed the incidents had taken place, saying it had “dispersed riots” in the vicinity of Al-Funduk and that Israeli civilians had “thrown stones and attacked the security forces”.
On the first morning of the first day after the ceasefire, the market of Asdaa camp, a sprawling area of tents and makeshift shelters on the central Gaza coast, was busy.
Some shoppers had come because prices of the small range of basic necessities available had dropped since the ceasefire was declared, making once prohibitively expensive items just about affordable.
Others came simply because they could now stand and talk and buy what they needed without fearing sudden death or mutilation.
Ahmad Al-Amarna, a 25-year-old stall holder, said he was happy because the ceasefire had brought “stability, lower prices and the end of the killings”. He said;
I am very happy that prices have dropped, and now people can buy things they had wished for but couldn’t afford before.
But if Sunday’s ceasefire has brought some relief, life for survivors of the war remains extremely hard. Health services have been decimated and swaths of the territory reduced to rubble. Water and fuel are scarce. Humanitarian officials have called for a “surge of aid” to stave off disease and potential famine.
We reported earlier that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, held a call with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, earlier today.
During the call, Starmer faced pressure from Netanyahu over frozen arms sales to Israel, according to a readout by the Israeli foreign affairs ministry.
The Israeli leader “raised the issue of the weapons export licences to Israel that have been frozen in the UK,” it said. "“Prime Minister Starmer said that an evaluation of the issue is being carried out.”
The UK government has suspended about 30 arms export licences for items used in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Downing Street’s readout of the call did not include reference to the suspended arms licences.
Press Association reports that a No 10 spokesperson could not say whether the ceasefire may lead to a change in the UK government‘s position on the suspended licences. They said:
We’ve been consistent in saying that we keep these things under review. Clearly, the maintenance of that ceasefire is a priority.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he will begin interviewing candidates for the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the coming days after the resignation of Lt Gen Herzi Halevi.
The Times of Israel reports Katz saying:
It is of utmost importance to choose the most suitable candidate to lead the IDF in this challenging period and I intend to have an orderly and fast procedure for choosing the candidate for the position of the next chief of staff.
The IDF is the “people’s army” and has been entrusted with the “ultimate responsibility of preserving the lives of soldiers and protecting the State of Israel”, he said.
US nominee for UN envoy affirms support for Israeli claims of biblical rights to West Bank
New York representative Elise Stefanik, the US president Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador, expressed support for Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank during a tense confirmation hearing exchange.
Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen confronted Stefanik about her agreement of a position that aligns her with the Israeli far-right, including the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir derived from a private conversation ahead of the hearing.
“You told me that, yes, you shared that view,” Van Hollen said during questioning. “Is that your view today?”
“Yes,” Stefanik said.
The hearing remains heavily focused on the UN’s stance on Israel, with this particular exchange a clear example on how Stefanik’s stance might affect US diplomatic efforts during ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly regarding Palestinian self-determination and territorial disputes.
Still, Van Hollen warned that such positions could hamper peace negotiations.
“It’s going to be very difficult to achieve peace if you continue to hold the view that you just expressed,” he said.
Updated
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, said he did not see Donald Trump’s new administration increasing the risk of an Israel-Iran conflict.
Speaking in Davos on Tuesday, Prince Faisal said he hoped the new US president’s approach to Iran would be met with a willingness by Tehran to positively engage with the US dministration and address the issue of its nuclear programme, Reuters reported.
“Obviously a war between Iran and Israel, any war in our region is something we should try to avoid as much as possible,” he said.
I don’t see the incoming US administration as contributory to the risk of war, on the contrary, President Trump has been quite clear he does not favour conflict.
Updated
Donald Trump has reinstated an executive order allowing him to impose economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), paving the way for the US to hit the judicial body and its staff with draconian measures.
Among the blizzard of executive orders made on Monday evening, Trump revived an order issued during his presidency that used emergency powers to create a sanctions regime targeting the court.
The powers were used in 2020 to impose asset freezes and travel bans against the ICC’s former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her top officials. The order was revoked in April 2021 by Joe Biden.
Trump’s reinstatement of the order comes as the ICC braces itself for a volley of aggressive sanctions by the new US administration in response to arrest warrants it has issued against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister.
The Guardian reported on Monday the court is planning for a worst case scenario in which the US imposes sanctions against the institution in addition to measures targeting senior figures including its judges and current chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
Updated
Starmer tells Netanyahu peace process 'should lead to viable Palestinian state'
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday during which he said the peace process in the Middle East should pave the way for a Palestinian state, Downing Street said.
Starmer personally thanked Netanyahu for the Israeli government’s work to secure the release of the hostages, including British hostage Emily Damari, according to a readout of the call by No 10.
To see the pictures of Emily finally back in her family’s arms was a wonderful moment but a reminder of the human cost of the conflict, [Starmer] added.
Starmer then “reiterated that it was vital to ensure humanitarian aid can now flow uninterrupted into Gaza, to support the Palestinians who desperately need it,” it said.
Both agreed that we must work towards a permanent and peaceful solution that guarantees Israel’s security and stability. The prime minister added that the UK stands ready to do everything it can to support a political process, which should also lead to a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.
Summary of the day so far
At least eight people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in an Israeli raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Here’s what else has happened today:
Israel’s top general, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, has resigned citing the security failures linked to the 7 October attack. The IDF’s head of southern operations, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman, also said he would be stepping down.
US President Donald Trump has reversed the Biden administration’s sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in a concession to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas have confirmed that four female Israeli hostages will be freed on Saturday in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners. the second such move under the ceasefire deal.
Displaced Palestinians continued to return to their homes in Gaza, across a territory that lies in ruins. The search for bodies buried under the rubble has started with Gaza’s civil defence agency saying its workers dug up 66 bodies in Gaza yesterday.
Updated
Qatar’s Prime Minister has said he hopes the Palestinian Authority would return to play a governing role in Gaza once the war with Israel comes to an end.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland, two days after the Gaza ceasefire he helped broker came into effect, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani cautioned that only Gazans should dictate how the territory will be governed.
Reuters reported, he said: “We hope to see the PA back in Gaza. We hope to see a government that will really address the issues of the people over there. And there is a long way to go with Gaza and the destruction,” he said.
How Gaza will be governed after the war was not directly addressed in the ceasefire.
Israel has rejected any governing role for Hamas, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Target Houthis while Iran weakened, urges UN-backed Yemeni leader
The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden has said.
Aidarus al-Zoubaidi said that Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”. “They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen,” Zoubaidi told the Guardian. “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”
He said Yemen ground forces should work in cooperation with western airstrikes as part of a multi-pronged strategy.
Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, he also called on the new US administration to designate the Houthis a foreign terrorist organisation, and praised Donald Trump for showing “decisive leadership”.
His remarks suggest that the Presidential Leadership Council, based in the Yemeni city Aden, regards the weakening of Iran and the return of Trump as an opportunity to launch a joint military offensive against the Houthis, including the potential use of ground forces.
Read the full story here
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on has called on Netanyahu and his government to resign after military chief Lt Gen Herzi Halevi quit over the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Lapid said he saluted Halevi for stepping down and added:
Now, it is time for them to take responsibility and resign – the prime minister and his entire catastrophic government.
The resignations of Lt Gen Herzi Halevi and Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman (see earlier post) will likely add to calls for a public inquiry into the failures of 7 Ocotber, reports Associated Press.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose leadership could be implicated — has said any such move must wait until the war is over.
Halevi had appeared to be at odds with Israel’s new defense minister, Israel Katz, over the direction of the war, saying Israel had accomplished most of its goals while Katz echoed Netanyahu’s vow to keep fighting until “total victory” over Hamas.
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Jenin – a city in the occupied West Bank Israeli forces reportedly moved into earlier today following several drone strikes:
Death toll in West Bank rises to eight Palestinians
The Palestinian health ministry has raised the death toll from the Israeli military’s raid on Jenin to eight, from seven.
Updated
Lorenzo Tondo is a Guardian correspondent currently reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli government has accused Iran, which backs militant groups across the Middle East including Hamas in Gaza, of attempting to send weapons and money to militants in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers have set vehicles and properties on fire in the Palestinian villages where dozens of Palestinian prisoners released on Sunday exchange for three Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas to Israel were are returning. More than 21 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have been inured as a result of the Israeli settlers’ attacks.
Jalal Bashir, the head of Jinasfut village council, was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency on Monday evening that the attacks took place in the villages of Jinasfut and Funduq, east of Qalqilya.
The Palestinian Authority has accused Trump of inciting Israeli settler violence after he on Monday rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals for allegedly committing violence against Palestinians.
The White House said Trump had rescinded an executive order issued on 1 February 2024, which authorised the imposition of certain sanctions “on persons undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank”.
You can read the full story – about the operation in Jenin and situation in the occupied West Bank more generally – here:
Seven Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raid on Jenin - health officials
The Palestinian health ministry, based in Ramallah, said the Israeli military’s raid on the West Bank city of Jenin has killed at least seven people (up from six). Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed earlier that the military operation in Jenin, seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, aims to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
He described the operation conducted by police and the Shin Bet security service as “extensive and significant”.
Jenin has been a focus of Israeli raids into the occupied West Bank throughout Israel’s 15 month war on Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry says more than 800 people have been killed in Israeli raids since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
The Jenin refugee camp is home to about 14,000 people, most of whom are descendants of the Palestinian people dispossessed of their land when Israel was created in 1948.
Updated
Hebrew media outlet Ynet is carrying the resignation statement from the commander of the IDF’s southern command, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman who is standing down, along with IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi who resigned earlier.
Finkelman said:
On 7 October, I failed to defend the western Negev and its beloved and heroic residents. This failure is etched in my memory for the rest of my life
Out of responsibility to the State of Israel … the IDF and its people, I have since acted to lead the war on Hamas and the terrorist organizations in Gaza.
We must continue to strike the enemy, return all our hostages to their homes and the communities to their rightful place of security and prosperity.
Updated
Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, citing the director of Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin, Wissam Bakr, that three nurses and two doctors have been injured by Israeli fire during Israel’s military operation inside the Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera reports that the death toll in Jenin has risen to seven, and that about 35 others have been wounded.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Updated
Israel’s Army Radio reports that the commander of the IDF’s southern command, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman is also resigning.
More details soon …
Israel's chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi to resign over 7 October attack 'failure of the IDF'
The IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi has informed defense minister Israel Katz that he will resign on 6 March, saying in a statement that he is leaving the military after “recognizing my responsibility for the failure of the IDF on 7 October”
Israeli media reports in his statement he says he will “transfer command of the IDF in a high-quality and thorough manner to my replacement” and will spend the time up until his resignation overseeing investigations into the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
He is quoted as saying he leaves “at the point in time in which the IDF has recorded significant achievements, and is in the process of implementing an agreement to release hostages.”
More details soon …
Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told the Agence France-Presse news agency (AFP) “what is happening is an invasion of the camp”, referring to the refugee camp adjacent to the occupied West Bank city.
“It came quickly, Apache planes in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere”, he added.
Updated
Hamas calls for escalation of fighting against Israel in response to military raid on Jenin
Hamas has called for an intensification of fighting against Israel in response to the Israeli military’s ongoing raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.
Six people have been killed by Israeli forces in Jenin refugee camp - Palestinian health ministry
Six people have now been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp, health officials have said. Dozens of Palestinians are reported to have been injured. We have not been able to independently verify this information yet.
Updated
Israeli far right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said Israel’s raid in Jenin is designed to “change the security situation” in the occupied West Bank. It was launched a day after US President Donald Trump declared he was lifting sanctions on violent Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages (see post at 11.03 for more details).
After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with God’s help, we have begun changing the security perception in Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) and in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region.
This is part of the war goals that were added to the cabinet’s demand for religious Zionism on Friday. “Iron Wall” will be a strong and ongoing campaign against the elements of terrorism and its perpetrators, to protect the settlement and the settlers, and for the security of the entire State of Israel, of which the settlement is the security belt.
I congratulate the IDF commanders and fighters and the entire security establishment and pray for their success. “Let our enemies speak for them and crown them with a crown of salvation and a diadem of victory.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has been governing as part of a fragile coalition propped up by far-right ministers such as Smotrich. Unlike Israel’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who quit the cabinet over the ceasefire deal with Hamas, Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionism party, stayed in the government but said he would quit if the war ends without Hamas completely destroyed.
Smotrich has described in explicit terms his active effort to annex the West Bank to Israel. My colleague Peter Beaumont writes in this story that Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its ministries. The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on settlement expansion and development.
Updated
Netanyahu says objective of Jenin operation is to 'eradicate terrorism'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the military operation in Jenin aims to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
Israeli security forces “launched today a large and significant military operation to eradicate terrorism in Jenin - ’Iron Wall’” he said in a statement.
A military source told the Times of Israel that the raid on Jenin is expected to last at least several days. The source said the military operation began with several drone strikes on infrastructure that was claimed to be being used by militant groups in the occupied West Bank city.
Updated
Israeli forces have arrested at least 20 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including a journalist from Hebron, since yesterday evening, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a joint statement.
The arrests were reported to have taken place across the areas of Hebron, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Nablus, and were, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, accompanied by “acts of vandalism” and destruction of property.
It is estimated that over 12,100 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since last October.
Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the West Bank.
They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.
Two people killed by Israeli forces after military launches 'operation' in Jenin refugee camp
Health officials now say two Palestinian people have been killed and at least 25 others injured in the Israeli military “operation” in the Jenin refugee camp. We will give you more details as we get them.
Updated
Forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, moved into Jenin in early December and have since clashed with fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Here is an extract from a report by my colleagues Bethan McKernan and Sufian Taha about the chaotic governance of Jenin. It was filed in the first week of January:
The new Palestinian Authority raid on the refugee camp adjacent to the occupied West Bank city of Jenin is the largest operation the western-backed governing body has undertaken in the 30 years since it was formed.
Israel hopes it can delegate stamping out militant activity to the Ramallah-based authority, and the PA is seeking to prove it will be able to handle governing the Gaza Strip when the war there ends.
Instead, growing anger at the lengthy, destructive raid, and what is considered by much of the Palestinian public as increasing PA complicity in the occupation, could fuel further unrest…
A new generation of fighters has now come of age in Jenin, as well as Nablus and the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm. They have no memory of the Oslo peace agreements of the 1990s; any hope their parents had that the diplomatic process would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state faded long ago.
Most of these young men are part of small, ad hoc militias only loosely affiliated with the traditional Palestinian factions, such as Fatah and its rival Hamas. During visits to Jenin, the militants have repeatedly told the Guardian that they readily switch allegiance to whichever group can provide the funding and weapons they say are needed to combat Israeli incursions…
Currently, Hamas’s armed wing, and the smaller, more radical Islamic Jihad, both of which have ties to Iran, control the camp. The PA, which is dominated by the secular Fatah, has dubbed the armed youth of the camp “outlaws”, launching the campaign against them on 5 December.
Updated
Israeli military raids West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least one Palestinian person - officials
The Israeli army has announced the start of a so-called military “operation” in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian health services said at least one Palestinian person was killed and four others injured as the Israeli raid began in Jenin, where an Israeli airstrike last week in the refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and injured many others.
Israeli soldiers stormed the city from the Jalameh military checkpoint, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, after a special Israeli force infiltrated the al-Jabariyat neighbourhood.
Jenin’s refugee camp, one of 19 across the West Bank built in the aftermath of Israel’s creation in 1948 to house displaced Palestinians, is a centre of armed Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, which has sparked a wave of violence in the West Bank, Israel has raided or carried out airstrikes in Jenin multiple times, killing dozens and leaving a trial of heavy destruction there. Israel says Jenin is a hotbed of terrorist activity.
BREAKING: Sounds of gunfire are heard right now following a major Israeli incursion into the city of Jenin. pic.twitter.com/fO7k0Wccua
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 21, 2025
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Donald Trump also said on Monday he was not confident the Gaza ceasefire deal would hold, despite claiming credit for it ahead of his inauguration.
Asked by a reporter as he returned to the White House whether Israel and Hamas would maintain the truce and move on in the truce, Trump replied: “I’m not confident.”
“That’s not our war, it’s their war. But I’m not confident,” the Republican said.
US President Donald Trump has reversed the Biden administration’s sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in a concession to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the precarious ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. You can follow our US Politics blog for the latest on all the key policy actions taken by Trump on inauguration day here.
Trump rescinded an executive order Biden signed last February, which gave the US government the power to sanction any foreign nationals who tried to attack, intimidate or seize the property of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank.
Biden’s executive order warned of “high levels of extremist settler violence” in the West Bank having reached “intolerable levels”. Palestinian health officials say Israeli raids throughout the West Bank since 7 October 2023 have killed more than 800 Palestinians.
Dozens of Israeli civilians rioted through a small Palestinian village called al-Funduq last night, setting cars and houses alight, according to reports, with similar scenes of violence seen elsewhere in the West Bank, including in the village of Jinasfut.
“Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people,” the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs said.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.
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Nail Olpak, the head of Turkey’s foreign trade body, has said his country would be prepared to resume trade with Israel “if peace is permanent”.
Ankara stopped all trade with Israel last May, saying the measures would remain in place until “Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Turkey’s president went a step further in November, saying his country was severing all ties with Israel. In 2023, the two countries had a trade volume of $6.8bn.
Updated
As a reminder, on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, three female hostages – Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and dual British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, who were kidnapped from their kibbutz, and Romi Gonen, 24, who was taken from the Supernova Festival in October 2023 – were returned to Israel to be reunited with their families. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the transfer.
The first phase of the three-stage ceasefire deal should last six weeks and should see Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The releases are expected to be staggered every week.
According to a list provided by the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, all of the Palestinian people released so far are women or minors. Israel detained them for what it claimed were offences related to Israel’s security, from throwing stones to serious accusations like attempted murder.
The prisoners, most of whom were freed in the early hours of Monday from Ofer prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, were welcomed by thousands of people celebrating (you can read more in this story).
Among those released was Shatha Jarabaa, 24, who was arrested over a social media post criticising the “brutality” of Israel’s war in Gaza. “I’m very happy! Thank God I’m outside. They treated me very bad in prison. It was horrible,” she told the Guardian.
Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.
The most prominent detainee freed by Israel in the early hours of Monday was Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hamas confirms that four female Israeli hostages will be freed on Saturday in return for Palestinian prisoners
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu has confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that four female Israeli hostages will be freed in return for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, in the second such release under a ceasefire deal.
Nunu said the Palestinian militant group would release “four Israeli female detainees in exchange” for a second group of Palestinian prisoners.
Two Palestinians injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza despite ceasefire - report
Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces on two separate occasions today in Gaza, despite the ceasefire, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.
Here is an extract from the Wafa story:
Medical sources said that a fisherman was seriously injured by the fire of Israeli gunboats in the sea of Gaza City, while another was injured by the fire of an Israeli drone in the vicinity of the Abu Sharia office in the Sabra neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City.
Wafa reported yesterday that Israeli forces shot and killed a young child with snipers in central Rafah in southern Gaza. Another child was reportedly injured while attempting to recover Barbakh’s body. We have not been able to independently verify these reports yet.
Search for bodies under rubble begins in Gaza
Gaza’s civil defence agency said its workers dug up 66 bodies under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Gaza yesterday, with 58 of them being found in the southern part of the territory and eight in the north.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 47,035 Palestinian people and injured more than 111,000 others since 7 October, 2023.
Officials say thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory. The process of trying to retrieve some of these bodies has started now airstrikes have ceased as the ceasefire largely seems to be holding.
Haitham al-Hams, director of the emergency and ambulance service, said it was being contacted from residents of the southern city of Rafah to help find their relatives bodies (The Israeli military, claiming it was routing out terrorists, launched an offensive in Rafah last May, despite international warnings of the devastating humanitarian impact it would have and the large number of civilians who would be killed).
“Since yesterday, we have received more than 150 calls from citizens asking us to recover their families, whose bodies have decomposed.” al-Hams was quoted by the Times as saying. “We started our work immediately after the Israeli army withdrew and the ceasefire began. Our teams are still working.”
Updated
Displaced Palestinians say they will help rebuild Gaza as territory lies in ruin
Displaced Palestinian people making their way home have spoken to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency about their hopes and fears for the future.
Ghadeer Abdul Rabbo, 30, told AFP she hopes that the ceasefire will hold “with or without Trump”and world governments will help “maintain this calm, because we are afraid”.
In Rafah, in southern Gaza, Ismail Madi said that “we have endured immense hardships, but we will stay here. We will rebuild this place.”
Ammar Barbakh, 35, who also is in southern Gaza, spent the agreement’s first night (Sunday) in a tent on the rubble of his home.
“This is the first time I sleep comfortably and I’m not afraid,” he said.“It’s a beautiful feeling, and I hope the ceasefire continues,” Barbakh added.
There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after Israel’s war, much less rebuild it. Nine in 10 homes have been destroyed as well as schools, hospitals, shops, mosques and cemeteries.
Around 90% of Gaza’s population is estimated to have been displaced by the assault, with many having to move several times (often to crowded refugee camps) to escape Israeli bombardments and to comply with IDF forced evacuation orders.
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How will the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal work?
Here are the main elements of the Gaza ceasefire deal, as outlined by my colleague Bethan McKernan. You can read her explainer about the agreement and whether or not it is likely to lead to a permanent ceasefire here.
What’s in the deal?
All fighting is to pause during the first 42-day phase. Israeli forces are to withdraw from Gaza’s cities to a “buffer zone” along the edge of the strip, displaced Palestinians will be able to return home and there will be a marked increase in aid deliveries.
In the second stage, of unclear duration, the remaining living hostages will be returned and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners freed, alongside a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip. The Rafah crossing to Egypt will be opened for the sick and wounded to leave. It is unclear whether it will be returned to Palestinian control.
The third phase, which could last years, would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Much of the international community has advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.
How will stage one work?
A total of 33 hostages will be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for about 1,700 Palestinians held in Israel prisons, about 1,000 of whom are from Gaza and were arrested after 7 October 2023 under emergency legislation which allowed detention without charge or trial.
Three female captives – named by Hamas as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – were freed first in exchange for about 90 Palestinians. A handful of Israelis will then be released every Saturday for the next six weeks; the number of Palestinians to be freed upon their return generally depends on whether the Israelis are civilians or soldiers. Some of the freed Palestinians from the West Bank sentenced for serious crimes against Israelis will be sent to third countries rather than be allowed to return home.
In Gaza, people displaced from their homes will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the Middle East is undergoing a “profound transformation” and has urged all countries to ensure the region emerges from the turbulence with peace and “a horizon of hope grounded in action.”
Speaking at a meeting of the UN security council on Monday, he said that “a new dawn is rising in Lebanon,” which he just visited. He said it was vital that Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army deploy there as required in the ceasefire agreement.
In Gaza, he urged Israel and Hamas to ensure that their newly agreed deal leads to a permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages taken during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Guterres said the ceasefire must allow scaled-up aid deliveries, Palestinians’ access to aid, and protection of civilians. He stressed that the agreement must also allow Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, access to deliver aid to the devastated territory.
Israel’s government is still committed to its plan to ban Unrwa from operating and to cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. It has accused the UN agency of allowing Hamas militants to infiltrate its staff, an allegation the agency denies. Unrwa is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Displaced Palestinians return to destroyed homes as desperately needed aid is delivered to Gaza
We are restarting our live coverage of the major developments in Israel’s war on Gaza after a long-awaited ceasefire came into effect on Sunday.
With the ceasefire agreement appearing to be largely holding, Palestinians are returning to find their homes reduced to rubble after 15 months of intense Israeli bombardments across the strip.
Displaced by Israeli airstrikes, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people have been packed into crowded refugee camps along the coast, enduring cold winter weather amid widespread malnutrition.
Charities have struggled to deliver aid, accusing Israel of blocking their attempts to. It means there are major shortages of food, blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
But international aid organisations have expressed cautious hope that the truce deal will allow them to rapidly scale up humanitarian support and reach those most in need.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, people displaced from their homes in Gaza will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions. We are on day three of the ceasefire agreement. The next hostage swap is expected to take place on Saturday.
Supplies to Gaza were, as of Sunday, at an average of 18 truckloads a day; aid agencies say 500 a day is needed at a minimum. Yesterday, the number of aid trucks – carrying essential items alongside water and medication – into Gaza was around 915, according to reports. At least 1,545 aid lorries have crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took place over the weekend, according to the UN.
A 60-day World Health Organization plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals – none of which are fully functional anymore – setting up temporary clinics in the most devastated areas (likely in the northern part of the territory), tackling malnutrition and stemming disease outbreaks.
We will give you the latest developments on the relief efforts and other news coming out of Gaza throughout the day.
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