Summary
We’re closing our live coverage of the Middle East for the day. In case you missed anything, here’s a quick round-up of the day’s developments.
Hamas has confirmed which three of the remaining hostages will be released on Saturday, naming Ofer Calderon, 54, Keith Siegel, 65, and Yarden Bibas, 35
The health needs in Gaza are “immense” and there is “large-scale devastation of the health system”, the World Health Organisation has said
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, one of the main routes for getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, will reopen on Saturday after the fourth phase of the hostage-for-prisoners exchange, a Hamas official has told the AFP
The first 50 people requiring medical evacuation will be allowed to leave Gaza on Saturday
The European Union has restarted its civilian mission at the crossing, with the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, saying the mission would “support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”
Britain, France and Germany have reiterated their “grave concern” about Israel’s ban on the UN’s agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, saying in a joint statement: “We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations.”
Hundreds of people have gathered on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags to protest President Trump’s suggestion that the people of Gaza should be moved into Egypt and Jordan
Trump has repeated the proposal, saying when asked how he would pressure Egypt and Jordan to take so many people: “We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken by phone with Emily Damari, a freed British-Israeli hostage who was released on 19 January after spending 471 days in captivity
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Starmer holds call with freed hostage
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken by phone with freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari.
Emily was released on 19 January as part of the first group of hostages freed under the ceasefire deal. She had been held for 471 days.
Her mother, Mandy Damari, posted a photo of her holding the call to social media and said: “Thank you Keir_Starmer for calling us today and all your support in getting Emily home.”
She went on to say Hamas had held Emily in facilities run by UNRWA – the UN’s aid agency for the Palestinians – and “denied her access to medical treatment after shooting her twice”.
“It’s a miracle that she survived, and we need to get aid to remaining hostages now,” she said.
On Thursday, Israel cut off contact with UNRWA and told the agency to vacate its offices in Jerusalem, having previously claimed that members of UNRWA’s staff had taken part in the 7 October attacks.
In a statement to the BBC, UNRWA said: “Claims that hostages have been held in UNRWA premises, even if previously vacated, are very serious.
“We have repeatedly called for independent investigations into claims of misuse and disregard of U.N. premises by Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.”
Updated
Health needs in Gaza 'immense', says WHO
The health needs in Gaza are “immense” and there is “large-scale devastation of the health system”, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
Only 18 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are currently even partially functional, while just 57 or 142 health care centres and 11 field hospitals are operational.
Speaking from Gaza, the body’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said hospital bed capacity before the war was 3,500-4,000 and is currently around 1,500-1,900.
The WHO wants to increase it to 2,000-2,500 as soon as possible.
Peeperkorn said the flow of health aid had begun to rise since the ceasefire and hospitals now at least had fuel to operate, but added that medical evacuations were urgently required.
The WHO believes that between 12,000 to 14,000 people, including 2,500 children, currently require medical evacuation for urgent treatment.
The first evacuations since the ceasefire began earlier this month are expected to take place on Saturday via the Rafah crossing, which has been closed since May.
Around 50 patients are due to leave, while only 480 patients have been evacuated from Gaza since the Rafah crossing closed.
“If we continue at this pace we have, we will be busy for the next 15 years,” said Peeperkorn.
Here’s a collection of pictures showing displaced Palestinians returning to what’s left of their homes in Northern Gaza.
When the ceasefire came, there was a moment of relief that we had escaped death, although we still carry the sadness and pain of everything lost in those 15 months.
Palestinians know that there are still more battles ahead, they have to keep fighting, in a war of daily suffering – the fight for water, for a loaf of bread – and a war against memories, that bring pain to the heart and madness to the mind.
Still, I woke up full of energy and excitement on Sunday, the day we had been told we could begin returning to the north. I knew the journey would be exhausting, walking long distances on broken roads crowded with other displaced people, but I was eager to return to my beloved home.
I followed the news minute by minute, waiting for the announcement that the crossing would open. Instead, we got news that it would not happen.
I went to bed that day thinking about all the people who went to the checkpoint early Saturday night so they could be the first to return. Many had sold their tents to afford the journey back, or even burned their tents out of excitement they were finally leaving behind life in those camps.
So they had no shelter that night, and slept in the freezing cold, waiting anxiously for the next morning, hoping their dreams would not be crushed again…
A funeral has been held for the commander of the Hamas military group, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, at the Great Mosque of Gaza in Gaza City.
The Israeli army said it had killed Deif last July, but Hamas hadn’t confirmed their former commander’s death until yesterday.
Updated
The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirms that the first group of people needing medical treatment will travel on Saturday.
Posting on Telegram, the ministry said it will “communicate by phone with patients and companions to arrange travel procedures according to the list approved by the parties involved”.
Earlier, The World Health Organization said 50 Palestinians needing medical attention abroad will be allowed to leave Gaza tomorrow.
Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to reopen on Saturday
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen on Saturday after the fourth phase of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are released, a Hamas official told the Agence France-Presse.
“The mediators informed Hamas of Israel’s approval to open Rafah crossing tomorrow, Saturday, after the completion of the fourth batch of prisoner exchange,” the Hamas official says.
The unnamed source explains evacuations of the injured will take place at the crossing “as per the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement.”
Updated
Hamas has announced it will release Yarden Bibas on Saturday, the Israeli father of a young family kidnapped to Gaza who have been one of the most enduring symbols of Israel’s hostages in the coastal strip.
The Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida said on its Telegram channel that Bibas would be released with Keith Siegel, a joint US citizen, and Ofer Calderon, who also has French nationality.
The release of Bibas, whose wife, Shiri, and children, Ariel and Kfir, remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” over their wellbeing, represents a painful moment for the large numbers of Israelis and other supporters around the world who have long campaigned for the Bibas family’s release…
Egyptians protest Trump's Gaza proposal
Hundreds of people have gathered near Egypt’s borders with Gaza to protest US president Donald Trump’s suggestion that the people of Gaza should be moved into Egypt and Jordan.
Pictures showed hundreds of people gathered at the Rafah border crossing waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags.
Trump first made his proposal last week, and on Thursday, referring to Egypt and Jordan, said: “We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it”.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday said the “displacement of the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in”.
“If I were to ask this of the Egyptian people, all of them would take to the streets to say ‘no’,” he said.
He has in the past described the prospect as a “red line” that would threaten Egypt’s national security.
Since 2013, public protests have been banned in Egypt except for those approved by authorities.
Updated
This week has seen a steady stream of civilians returning to northern Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas earlier this month.
Pictures taken in the city of Jabalia over the last two days show the scenes that await them and the scale of the destruction brought to Gaza since the start of the conflict.
Updated
Summary of the day so far…
President Trump reinforced his argument that Palestinians from Gaza should be resettled in Egypt and Jordan, despite leaders of those countries rejecting the notion. When asked how the US would pressure Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians, Trump said: “We do a lot for them and they’re going to do it.”
Israeli officials confirm the three Israeli hostages slated to be freed from Gaza tomorrow are Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas.
Hamas has confirmed that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, has been killed. Israel’s military said it had killed Deif in July last year, but Hamas had not confirmed this until now.
The US military says it killed a senior terrorist in Al-Qaida’s Syria branch in an air strike on northwestern Syria on Thursday. “US Central Command forces conducted a precision air strike in northwest Syria targeting and killing Muhammad Salah al-Zabir, a senior operative in the terrorist organisation Hurras al-Din, an Al-Qaida affiliate,” Centcom said in a statement.
Three Israelis and five Thai citizens held in Gaza have been freed. The handover on Thursday of seven hostages in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was delayed by a chaotic crowd surging towards the group, despite an escort of heavily armed militants, jostling and blocking their passage to waiting Red Cross vehicles.
Israel’s military confirmed that the Israelis Gadi Moses, 80, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and five Thai hostages – Pongsak Thaenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao and Surasak Rumnao – had all been handed over at about 1pm local time. Agam Berger, 20, the last female soldier held in Gaza, had been released earlier from northern Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attacked the “shocking scenes” in Khan Younis and suspended the planned release of Palestinian prisoners “until the mediators guarantee the safe exit of the hostages” in future.
France and Germany on Friday reiterated their “grave concern” over Israel implementing a law forbidding any contact between its officials and United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, Reuters reports. “We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations,” a joint statement from the three nations, published by the British government, said.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, met hostages’ relatives, reportedly telling them he was optimistic the ceasefire would hold to allow the return of all the living and the dead.
UN secretary-general António Guterres has called for 2,500 children to be immediately evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment after meeting with US doctors who said the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.
The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza may reopen for the passage of Palestinian civilians today, Kan broadcaster reports. The border was scheduled to open on Sunday under the hostage-ceasefire deal.
Liri Albag, a former hostage freed last week, has called for the release of the remaining captives still kept by Hamas and other Jihadi groups in Gaza since the 7 October attacks
“I was finally able to reunite with my family… but our struggle is not over and I will not stop fighting until everyone is home,” she posted on Instagram.
“I want us to continue to stay united because together nothing can break us. Our unity and hope scare our enemies, amazes our loved ones and comforts those among us. I hope everyone will see the light.”
Updated
The EU has restarted a civilian mission to monitor the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, according to foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Kallas announced on Monday that there was broad agreement across the EU states’ foreign ministers that the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) could play a “decisive role” in supporting the Israel-Gaza ceasefire.
“The EU’s civilian border mission deploys today to the Rafah Crossing at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis. It will support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” Kallas posted on X.
Updated
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa says if its humanitarian work in Gaza is forced to halt, it would potentially jeopardise the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“If Unrwa is not allowed to continue to bring and distribute supplies, then the fate of this very fragile ceasefire is going to be at risk and is going to be in jeopardy,” Juliette Touma, the director of communications of UNRWA, told a Geneva press briefing.
Updated
The organization representing families of hostages held in Gaza has celebrated the news that three male hostages are due to be released Saturday, the AP reports.
The Hostages Families Forum said on Friday it “welcomes the joyous news.”
“We have both the sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home,” they said. “We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home, down to the last one.”
Israeli hostages Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas will be released on Saturday.
Israeli officials say around 80 hostages remain captive in Gaza, including three kidnapped before 7 October.
During the first phase of the ceasefire deal, 33 hostages are set to be released.
Updated
UK, France and Germany urge Israel to cooperate with UN
Britain, France and Germany on Friday reiterated their “grave concern” over Israel implementing a law forbidding any contact between its officials and United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, Reuters reports.
“We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations,” a joint statement from the three nations, published by the British government, said.
The law, drafted in October 2023, and implemented on Thursday, prohibits UNRWA from delivering support on Israeli land or having contact with Israeli authorities.
Israel has accused the UN agency of having links with Hamas, even going as far to accuse them of being involved in the October 7 attacks.
On Thursday, the UN said that UNRWA was continuing to provide aid on the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.
• This post was amended on Friday 31 January to make clear the UK was involved in the joint statement
Updated
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has visited the five Thai men freed from Gaza yesterday at the Shamir Medical Center in central Israel.
Saar said on X that he “wished them a good life, health and freedom”.
He added: “Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakhan, Sriaoun Watchara, Rumnao Surasak and Seathao Bannawat – it’s great to have you back!”
Israel confirms Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas to be released by Hamas
Israeli officials confirm the three Israeli hostages slated to be freed from Gaza tomorrow are Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas.
Calderon, 54, and his two of his children, Erez and Sahar, were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, and they were both freed during the last ceasefire.
Bibas, 35, was kidnapped separately from his wife and children, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, who were all taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Hamas claims that Shiri and the two boys were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Siegel, 65, a US national from North Carolina, was kidnapped with his wife, Aviva, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. She was freed in November 2023.
Updated
`Here are some pictures from the hostages for prisoners swap deal agreed by Hamas and the Israel government.
President Donald Trump insists Egypt and Jordan are 'going to' take in Palestinian refugees.
President Trump reinforced his argument that Palestinians from Gaza should be resettled in Egypt and Jordan, despite leaders of those countries rejecting the notion.
When asked how the US would pressure Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians, Trump said: “We do a lot for them and they’re going to do it.”
His latest outburst comes in the wake of his idea that Israel should “clean out” the population in Gaza. “You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.
Updated
Yarden Bibas, one of the hostages announced to be released by Hamas on Saturday, was taken on 7 October, with his wife, Shiri Babas, and their two sons, four-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir - the youngest hostage taken that day.
Yarden is believed to be the only family member still alive.
Hamas has claimed Yarden’s wife and children were killed an Israeli airstrike before the current ceasefire. The IDF said it was “examining the reliability of the information”.
Updated
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they will only confirm the names of the hostages Hamas says it will release after looking into the names on the list and updating families.
Updated
A father of an Israeli hostage taken by Hamas militants on October 7 said that Israel was not just committing crimes against Palestine but “committing crimes against Israeli soldiers”.
Speaking to +972 magazine, Yehuda Cohen, a vociferous critic of Israel’s government and whose son, Nimrod, a soldier, was kidnapped and taken hostage over 14 months ago said: “In the narrowest sense, I want the return of all the hostages,” he said.
“But if you expand that, it’s about ending the war. And in the even broader sense, [it’s about] reaching a more stable and permanent solution [with the Palestinians]. We need to look at the other side. It can’t be that one side thrives while the other suffers.”
Israeli gunboats killed a Palestinian fisherman in Gaza’s coastal waters, near the Nuseirat refugee camp, Al Jazeera reports.
The Israeli military has repeatedly shot at Palestinians, including fishermen, in recent weeks despite the ceasefire.
Three more hostages to be released says Hamas
Hamas spokesperson says Israeli hostages Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas will be released on Saturday.
More to follow…
Updated
South Africa and Malaysia will launch a campaign to protect and uphold the rulings of the international court of justice (ICJ) and the international criminal court (ICC) in the face of what they describe as defiance of ICJ orders and attempts by US Congress to hit the ICC through the use of sanctions.
The aim of the nine-nation Hague Group – which includes Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Senegal and Namibia - is to defend the institutions and rulings of the international legal order.
The move comes as both the ICC and ICJ face unprecedented challenges to their authority in cases relating to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and people-smuggling in the Mediterranean…
UN secretary-general António Guterres has called for 2,500 children to be immediately evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment after meeting with US doctors who said the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.
The four doctors had all volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas that has devastated the territory of more than 2 million people and its healthcare system.
Guterres said he was “deeply moved” by his meeting with the American doctors on Thursday. “2,500 children must be immediately evacuated with the guarantee that they will be able to return to their families and communities,” Guterres posted on social media after the meeting…
United States military says they killed senior Al-Qaida terrorist in Syria
The US military says it killed a senior terrorist in Al-Qaida’s Syria branch in an air strike on northwestern Syria on Thursday.
The area was held by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group before they defeated former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December.
“US Central Command forces conducted a precision air strike in northwest Syria targeting and killing Muhammad Salah al-Zabir, a senior operative in the terrorist organisation Hurras al-Din, an Al-Qaida affiliate,” Centcom said in a statement.
Britain based-war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Zabir was killed when his vehicle was destroyed by a drone strike on the Sarmada-Idlib road.
The US strike comes days after Hurras al-Din announced its dissolution. The Observatory said Hurras al-Din “announced its dissolution so as not to enter into armed conflict with HTS.”
Updated
Narissara Jantasang’s nine-year-old son was brimming with excitement as he watched footage of Thai hostages being released from Gaza on Thursday. Then he noticed his mother had started to cry. “He asked me: ‘what’s going on, Mom?’” Narissara says. “He realised his dad was not one of those released.”
Five of the remaining six Thai nationals still being held in Gaza were released on Thursday, after 15 months in captivity. Nattapong Pinta, 36, however, was not among them. Of dozens of Thais kidnapped by Hamas from the farms on which they were working in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, he is the last to remain.
“I feel hurt, why was it not him?” says Narissara. “I don’t know where to find an answer. Nobody can answer. I asked the embassy; the embassy can’t tell me.”…
Israeli military hits Hezbollah targets in Bekaa Valley and on Syria-Lebanon border
The Israeli military said on Friday it struck several Hezbollah targets overnight in the Bekaa Valley and along the Syrian-Lebanese border. The army said the targets include a facility used for underground weapons development and another associated with the smuggling of arms into Lebanon.
On Thursday, Israel said it intercepted a surveillance drone launched by Hezbollah calling it “a breach of the ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire in late November, ending a deadly conflict that began with the Gaza war in 2023.
The US confirmed on Sunday that the agreement, which includes a 60-day period for Israeli troop withdrawal, will remain in effect until 18 February, extending the original 26 January deadline.
Israel has carried out multiple strikes on Lebanese territory since the ceasefire extension killing and injuring more than 100 people.
The most recent attack is a drone strike that injured at least five people in southern Lebanese town of Majdal Selm.
It comes as …
Hamas has confirmed that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, has been killed. Israel’s military said it had killed Deif in July last year, but Hamas had not confirmed this until now.
Three Israelis and five Thai citizens held in Gaza have been freed. The handover on Thursday of seven hostages in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was delayed by a chaotic crowd surging towards the group, despite an escort of heavily armed militants, jostling and blocking their passage to waiting Red Cross vehicles.
Israel’s military confirmed that the Israelis Gadi Moses, 80, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and five Thai hostages – Pongsak Thaenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao and Surasak Rumnao – had all been handed over at about 1pm local time. Agam Berger, 20, the last female soldier held in Gaza, had been released earlier from northern Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attacked the “shocking scenes” in Khan Younis and suspended the planned release of Palestinian prisoners “until the mediators guarantee the safe exit of the hostages” in future.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, met hostages’ relatives, reportedly telling them he was optimistic the ceasefire would hold to allow the return of all the living and the dead.
UN secretary-general António Guterres has called for 2,500 children to be immediately evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment after meeting with US doctors who said the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.
The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza may reopen for the passage of Palestinian civilians today, Kan broadcaster reports. The border was scheduled to open on Sunday under the hostage-ceasefire deal.
