Summary of the day
It is 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. You can read today’s full report on the Jenin siege in the occupied West Bank here:
Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have besieged a Palestinian government hospital in Jenin and a nearby refugee camp in the heart of the city, as the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the assault marked “a shift in … security strategy” in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday they had carried out airstrikes in Jenin as well as detonating roadside explosive devices. The escalating Israeli raid on Jenin continued despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 10 people were killed in Jenin, with more than 40 wounded. Despite Jenin’s mayor, Mohammad Jarar, telling the Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli forces had called on people from some Jenin neighbourhoods to evacuate using a loudspeaker, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, labelled any reports of forced evacuations “fake news”.
The escalation in Jenin came as Israeli forces choked off entrances and exits to Palestinian cities across the West Bank using checkpoints. A committee within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation tracking Israeli activity in the territory reported that the IDF had ramped up the number of military checkpoints and iron gates, reaching almost 900. The IDF did not comment on the precise number of new checkpoints.
Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that there had been shooting and explosions in Jenin on Wednesday. He added: “The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to the Jenin camp, and leading to the Jenin governmental hospital.”
In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli soldiers also launched a raid on the Aida refugee camp located north of Bethlehem and in Tulkarm. Wafa said at least 29 people were arrested across the West Bank on Wednesday morning, most of them young men.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been prevented from reaching many of the dead and wounded who lay in the streets of neighbourhoods around the Jenin refugee camp. “No one can break the siege on the refugee camp and the surrounding area,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Their medics had treated seven fatalities and 17 wounded people, all injured with live ammunition, she added.
Wissam Bakr, the head of Khalil Suleiman governmental hospital in Jenin estimated that 600 medical staff and patients were sheltering inside the hospital, fearfully crammed on any beds, chairs or spaces they could find. Supplies of food and water in the hospital would only last a few days. An Israeli drone had been audible, he said, terrifying the people huddled in the hospital. Two nurses and three doctors were shot on the main road leading to the hospital on Tuesday, he added.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he is “deeply concerned” about the situation in the West Bank. His comments came during Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions (PMQ) in the House of Commons, when the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, Iqbal Mohamed, called for “remaining hostages on both sides” in Israel and Gaza to be released.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned that the occupied West Bank could explode as Israel launched a deadly military operation in the city of Jenin. Asked by a Palestinian delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the situation, Safadi described it as “dangerous”, adding: “I think the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and, with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion in the West Bank.”
Additionally, Safadi said that there needs to be more than a “short term” solution for Gaza. He told a room of delegates at the World Economic Forum that a “comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes” is needed, stressing that the Israel-Gaza conflict has “global implications”.
Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are running a communications hub in Cairo to protect the ceasefire in Gaza. Trust on both sides is negligible, so the communications hub is intended to prevent the ceasefire breaking down under accusations of violations.
Israel said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas. A statement by Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing. The statement said EU monitors would supervise the crossing, which will be surrounded by Israeli troops. Israel also will approve the movement of all people and goods.
The Palestinian civil emergency service and medical staff have recovered about 200 bodies since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect on Sunday. Mahmoud Basal, the head of the service, said that extraction operations have been challenged by the lack of earth-moving and heavy machinery, adding that Israel had destroyed several of their vehicles and killed at least 100 of their staff. Basal estimates the bodies of about 10,000 Palestinians killed in the war are yet to be found and buried.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Wednesday hailed Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to help secure a truce in the Gaza Strip after 15 months of war. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Guterres praised the US, Qatar and Turkey for their effortss, but added: “There was a large contribution of the robust diplomacy of the at-the-time president-elect of the United States … I feel that when we had the position of Israel still reluctant to the ceasefire just two days before it happened, and then all of a sudden there was an acceptance.”
Guterres also said on Wednesday that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the US by making it clear they do not aim to develop nuclear weapons. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said: “Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons, at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region.”
Iraqi MPs and women’s rights groups have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry, with activists saying it will “legalise child rape”. Under the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 in place since the 1950s.
Iran hopes that the US president, Donald Trump, will choose rationality in its dealing with the Islamic Republic, Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Wednesday, adding Tehran had never sought nuclear weapons. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zarif said Iran is not a security threat to the world.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday they released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a ship they seized in November 2023 at the start of their campaign in the Red Sea corridor. According to Reuters, the rebels said they released the sailors after mediation by Oman. The Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel.
French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate attack on civilians, a legal source told Reuters late on Tuesday. The mandate was issued on 20 January as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed on 7 June 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria.
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The escalation in Jenin came as Israeli forces choked off entrances and exits to Palestinian cities across the West Bank using checkpoints. In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli soldiers also launched a raid on the Aida refugee camp located north of Bethlehem and in Tulkarm. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said at least 29 people were arrested across the West Bank on Wednesday morning, most of them young men.
A committee within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation tracking Israeli activity in the territory reported that the IDF had ramped up the number of military checkpoints and iron gates, reaching almost 900. The IDF did not comment on the precise number of new checkpoints.
Aseel Baidoun from Medical Aid for Palestinians, speaking from Ramallah, said:
For two days we have been experiencing an extensive military lockdown. The Israeli army has placed hundreds of new checkpoints that are making the movement between towns and cities almost impossible. People have reported delays at checkpoints averaging between six and eight hours.
“People are stuck in their towns and cities, unable to go to work,” she said. “It’s an open-air prison; we feel we cannot move around. If you want to go from Ramallah to Jericho it’s impossible, and it’s almost impossible to even reach nearby villages. There’s not only restrictions on movement but insane attacks from settlers.”
Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, called the military operations across the West Bank “precise operations to target and fight terrorists while enabling the civilian population to go on with their lives”.
Despite Jenin’s mayor, Mohammad Jarar, telling Wafa that Israeli forces had called on people from some Jenin neighbourhoods to evacuate using a loudspeaker, Shoshani labelled any reports of forced evacuations “fake news”.
Shoshani said:
We have to learn from 7 October, and not let terror groups regroup and rearm, and plan attacks a few hundred metres from us.”
Israeli forces surround Palestinian hospital and refugee camp in West Bank
Israeli forces have besieged a Palestinian government hospital in Jenin and a nearby refugee camp in the heart of the city, as the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the assault marked “a shift in … security strategy” in the West Bank.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday they had carried out airstrikes in Jenin as well as detonating roadside explosive devices. The Palestinian health ministry said at least 10 people were killed in Jenin, with more than 40 wounded.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been prevented from reaching many of the dead and wounded who lay in the streets of neighbourhoods around the Jenin refugee camp.
“No one can break the siege on the refugee camp and the surrounding area,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Their medics had treated seven fatalities and 17 wounded people, all injured with live ammunition, she added.
The escalating Israeli raid on Jenin continued despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza, pausing an Israeli assault on the territory that had continued for 15 months after the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israeli towns and kibbutzim around Gaza.
With the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect less than a week ago, Israeli forces indicated the start of a renewed military operation across the West Bank.
Wissam Bakr, the head of Khalil Suleiman governmental hospital in Jenin, said:
The current situation is awful. Israeli forces destroyed the roads in front of the hospital. They put the rubble from the destroyed streets in front of hospital exits to prevent ambulances from entering or leaving.”
He estimated that 600 medical staff and patients were sheltering inside the hospital, fearfully crammed on any beds, chairs or spaces they could find. Supplies of food and water in the hospital would only last a few days. An Israeli drone had been audible, he said, terrifying the people huddled in the hospital.
Two nurses and three doctors were shot on the main road leading to the hospital on Tuesday, he added.
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In the UK, the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, Iqbal Mohamed, has called for “remaining hostages on both sides” in Israel and Gaza to be released, as the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he is “deeply concerned” about the situation in the West Bank, reports the PA news agency.
Speaking during prime minister’s questions (PMQ) in the House of Commons, Mohamed said:
May I associate with the remarks from the prime minister regarding the ceasefire and the release of hostages, and let’s all pray that the remaining hostages on both sides are released as soon as possible.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect, Israeli forces have placed the whole of the West Bank under strict military inspection as part of the iron wall operation. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has launched a large-scale offensive operation in the city of Jenin with numerous drone strikes on the infrastructure and a military raid by IDF troops and special forces in the occupied West Bank.
At least nine people have been killed by Israeli forces and 40 people injured, including several healthcare workers. What steps is the government taking to urgently protect Palestinians, including healthcare workers, and to prevent atrocities in the West Bank? And will he outline the UK’s response to the ICJ (international court of justice) advisory opinion on Israel’s unlawful occupation?”
The prime minister replied:
I’m deeply concerned by what’s happening in the West Bank, and we’ve raised it a number of times in the various exchanges that we’ve had, but I am deeply concerned about it, and we’re doing everything we can to alleviate the situation.”
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday they released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a ship they seized in November 2023 at the start of their campaign in the Red Sea corridor.
According to Reuters, the rebels said they released the sailors after mediation by Oman. The crew of 25 included mariners from the Philippines, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Mexico.
The Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel. They then had a campaign targeting ships in international waters, which only stopped with the recent ceasefire in Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Iran hopes that the US president, Donald Trump, will choose rationality in its dealing with the Islamic Republic, Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Wednesday, adding Tehran had never sought nuclear weapons.
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zarif said Iran is not a security threat to the world, reports Reuters.
Israel says it will maintain control of Gaza-Egypt crossing
Israel said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.
A statement by Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing.
The truce, now in its fourth day, is supposed to bring calm to the war-battered Gaza for at least six weeks and see 33 Hamas-held hostages released in return for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The statement said European Union monitors would supervise the crossing, which will be surrounded by Israeli troops. Israel also will approve the movement of all people and goods.
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UN chief praises Trump’s large contribution’ to Gaza ceasefire
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Wednesday hailed Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to help secure a truce in the Gaza Strip after 15 months of war.
“I will praise the United States, Qatar and Turkey for their efforts for months and months and months to obtain the release of hostages, also to obtain the ceasefire,” Guterres said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“There was a large contribution of the robust diplomacy of the at-the-time president-elect of the United States,” he added.
“I feel that when we had the position of Israel still reluctant to the ceasefire just two days before it happened, and then all of a sudden there was an acceptance,” he said.
Trump had warned there would be “hell to pay” if there was no agreement to release hostages held by Hamas.
The ceasefire has held since going into effect on Sunday, although Trump said at the start of the week that he was not confident it would hold.
In its first phase, the deal calls for the release of 33 hostages seized during the Palestinian militant group’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October. But Guterres said it was not clear yet what the future relationship would look like between Israelis and Palestinians.
“One possibility is to move into annexation of the West Bank, probably a kind of a limbo situation in Gaza, which of course is against its national law and would mean there will never be peace in the Middle East,” he warned.
During his first term in the White House, Trump put forward a plan in 2020 that would have included major Israeli annexations in the West Bank.
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In the days since a fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected Jewish settlers have rampaged through two Palestinian towns.
The violence comes as Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces domestic pressure from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group. US president Donald Trump has, meanwhile, rescinded the Biden administration’s sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.
It is a volatile mix that could undermine the ceasefire, which will last for at least six weeks and bring about the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom will be released into the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Escalations in one area frequently spill over, raising further concerns that the second and far more difficult phase of the Gaza ceasefire – which has yet to be negotiated – may never come.
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As we reported earlier (see 9.39am GMT) Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has warned that the occupied West Bank could explode as Israel launched a deadly military operation in the city of Jenin.
Asked by a Palestinian delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the situation, Safadi described it as “dangerous”, adding: “I think the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and, with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion in the West Bank.”
You can hear his comments in the video below:
The Palestinian civil emergency service and medical staff have recovered about 200 bodies since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect on Sunday, reports Reuters.
Mahmoud Basal, the head of the service, told Reuters that extraction operations have been challenged by the lack of earth-moving and heavy machinery, adding that Israel had destroyed several of their vehicles and killed at least 100 of their staff.
Basal estimates the bodies of about 10,000 Palestinians killed in the war are yet to be found and buried.
A UN damage assessment released this month showed that clearing over 50m tonnes of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2bn.
Thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are searching for the bodies of relatives either missing under the rubble or buried in mass graves during Israeli ground raids.
Rabah Abulias, a 68-year-old father who lost his son Ashraf in an Israeli attack, told Reuters the he wants to give his son a proper grave.
“I know where Ashraf is buried, but his body is with dozens of others, there is no grave for him, there is no tomb stone that carries his name,” he told the news agency via a chat app from Gaza City.
Abulias said:
I want to make him a grave, where I can visit him, talk to him and tell him I am sorry I wasn’t there for him.”
Maria Talal and Hala Abdullah have reported on the reaction to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry:
Iraqi MPs and women’s rights groups have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry, with activists saying it will “legalise child rape”.
Under the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 in place since the 1950s.
“We have reached the end of women’s rights and the end of children’s rights in Iraq,” said the lawyer Mohammed Juma, one of the most prominent opponents of the law.
The Iraqi journalist Saja Hashim said:
The fact that clerics have the upper hand in deciding the fate of women is terrifying. I fear everything that will come in my life as a woman.”
Activists said they feared the law would now also be applied retroactively to cases filed in courts before it was enacted, affecting rights to alimony and custody.
Raya Faiq, spokesperson for the feminist group Coalition 188, said:
We received an audio recording of a woman crying her eyes out because of the passage of this law, with her husband threatening to take her daughter away unless she gives up her rights to financial support.”
Child marriage has been a longstanding issue in Iraq, where 28% of girls were married before they turned 18, a 2023 UN survey found.
While marriage is presented to some underage girls as a chance to escape poverty, many of the marriages end in failure, bringing lifelong consequences for young women, including social shame and a lack of opportunities because of unfinished schooling.
Instead of tightening laws against underage marriage and helping girls from poorer backgrounds to complete their education, the new law allows the marriage of minors according to the religious sect under which the marriage contract is concluded.
UN secretary-general Guterres calls on Iran to renounce nuclear weapons
Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the US by making it clear they do not aim to develop nuclear weapons, UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said on Wednesday.
“The most relevant question is Iran and relations between Iran, Israel and the United States,” Guterres said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He added:
Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons, at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region.”
After months of negotiations, a ceasefire has paused the devastating war in Gaza, but it risks collapsing as a result of deep distrust between Israel and Hamas and the multi-phased nature of the deal, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Qatar, which mediated the talks along with the US and Egypt, has expressed hope the six-week truce and hostage-prisoner exchange will become permanent. However, that outcome is far from certain with the releases timetabled at a slower pace in comparison with a previous truce agreement.
Further complicating the ceasefire is the fact that the text of the agreement has not been made public, raising risks of last-minute snags and differences in interpretation by the parties.
“Unfortunately, there is a high risk of the truce derailing and [Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu continuing his military campaign in Gaza,” Anna Jacobs, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AFP.
The ceasefire kicked off to a rocky start, with delays in both the beginning of the truce and the first swap of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners when it went into effect on Sunday.
During a three-hour delay before the truce began, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed eight people and injured 25.
The ceasefire is being monitored by the mediators via an “operations room” in Cairo, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, told Al Jazeera.
He said they are watching to see if the delicate terms of the deal are being implemented – including the entry of aid into Gaza, the prisoner and hostage exchanges, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from densely populated areas and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes.
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed to continue the assault in Jenin, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It is a decisive operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the camp,” Katz said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the military would not allow a “terror front” to be established there.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency announced that, in coordination with the border Police, they had launched an operation named “Iron Wall” in the area.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the raid aimed to “eradicate terrorism” in Jenin. He linked the operation to a broader strategy of countering Iran “wherever it sends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen,” and the West Bank.
The Israeli government has accused Iran, which supports armed groups across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, of attempting to funnel weapons and funds to militants in the West Bank.
United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called for “maximum restraint” from Israeli security forces and expressed deep concern, according to his deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq.
Jenin and its refugee camp are known strongholds of Palestinian militant groups, and Israeli forces frequently carry out raids targeting armed factions in the area.
Violence has surged throughout the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on 7 October 2023. According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 848 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict began.
At least 29 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the territory during the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
Shooting and explosions reported in Jenin as Israel presses raid
A Palestinian official reported shooting and explosions in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday as Israeli forces pressed a raid that the military described as a “counter-terrorism” operation, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The situation is very difficult,” Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told AFP. “The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to the Jenin camp, and leading to the Jenin governmental hospital … There is shooting and explosions,” he added.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an operation in Jenin which Palestinian officials said killed 10 people, just days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip.
According to Abu al-Rub, Israeli forces detained about 20 people from villages near Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian militancy.
The Israeli military said it had launched a “counter-terrorism operation” in the area, and had “hit over 10 terrorists”. “Additionally, aerial strikes on terror infrastructure sites were conducted and numerous explosives planted on the routes by the terrorists were dismantled,” it said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Israeli forces are continuing the operation,” it added.
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'It is dangerous what is happening there', says Jordan FM on West Bank
Asked about recent events in the occupied West Bank, Jordan’s foreign minister said that “maintaining the security of the West Bank” is of “top priority”, warning that otherwise it could “destabilise the whole region”.
Asked by a Palestinian delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos if there is a strategy in play with neighbouring countries to protect the West Bank, Ayman Safadi responded:
The West Bank has been on our radar since day one. As you know, we have a tremendous interest in the West Bank. It is on our border. It could destablise the whole region. And again, we’ve been working very, very hard – including directly with the Israelis, with our American friends, with our European friends [and] with the Palestinians – to make sure that the West Bank does not explode.
Because, if it does explode then I think we’ll be talking about [an] even broader [conflict]. There is a moment of opportunity in the region right now with all that’s happening in Lebanon, Syria, the ceasefire, and I think we should not leave the fate of the future of the region to some radicals, some short-termists, some idealogically driven individuals and parties who just do not see beyond the moment.
I think maintaining the security of the West Bank, making sure the West Bank does not explode is something of top priority and it is dangerous what is happening there. And I think the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and again with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion on the West Bank.”
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Gaza needs more than a 'short term' solution, says Jordan FM speaking at Davos
Jordan’s foreign minister, speaking at the second day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that there needs to be more than a “short term” solution for Gaza.
Ayman Safadi told a room of delegates that a “comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes” is needed, stressing that the Israel-Gaza conflict has “global implications”.
Safadi said:
On Gaza, we cannot think short term … The key is: do we continue to think short term and just solve this problem only to face it again? Or do we really assess why we are here and what is it going to take to make sure that we aren’t here again?
And my answer to that is a comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes of the problem; that is there are the Palestinian peoples out there who want their freedom and their state and there is an Israel out there as well that is going to remain in the region and we need to figure out a way for the two people to live together. None of them is leaving, so I think again … left to their own they will not solve it.
This is [a] problem of global implications. We’ve seen the whole world dragged into this conflict so I think it is upon all of us to agree on a solution and then enforce that solution to the extent that we can, because other than that, we’ll find ourselves here in two [or] three years.”
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New York representative Elise Stefanik endorsed Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank during a US Senate confirmation hearing. The US president, Donald Trump, nominated Stefanik to be his UN ambassador.
The confirmation hearing highlighted very real rifts between the US and UN over Israel policy. Stefanik’s view is at odds with international consensus regarding Israeli settlements in occupied territories, although it remains in line with the Trump administration posturing.
French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate attack on civilians, a legal source said late on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The mandate was issued on 20 January as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed on 7 June 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria.
This is the second arrest warrant issued by French judges, for the former Syrian leader, who was overthrown in early December 2024 by insurgent forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
In November 2023, French judges had issued a first warrant against Bashar al-Assad on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes.
It followed a French investigation into chemical attacks in Douma and the district of eastern Ghouta in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people. Assad’s government has in the past denied using chemical weapons against its opponents in the civil war, which broke out in March 2011.
Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators set up Cairo hub to shore up Gaza ceasefire
Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are running a communications hub in Cairo to protect the ceasefire in Gaza, as Donald Trump said he was not confident the break in fighting would hold.
Violations have already been reported. Medics in Gaza said on Monday that eight people had been hit by Israeli fire. The start of the ceasefire was also delayed when Hamas did not provide the names of hostages to be released.
Trump claimed credit for the deal when his envoy helped to break months of deadlock to secure it before his inauguration. But asked after the event on Monday if he thought it would last, he appeared to distance himself from the conflict. “That’s not our war. It’s their war,” he told reporters.
A top Qatari diplomat said on Tuesday that negotiators were confident the US president would support the deal because his team had played a critical role in securing it.
“If it wasn’t for [Trump] this deal wouldn’t be in place right now. So we are banking on the support of this administration,” said Majed al-Ansari, an adviser to the Qatari prime minister and foreign ministry spokesperson. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in touch on a daily basis, he said.
The first stage of the ceasefire is scheduled to last for six weeks. Negotiations on the more challenging second phase are expected to start in early February.
Trust on both sides is negligible, so the communications hub is intended to prevent the ceasefire breaking down under accusations of violations.
Suspected settlers attacked Palestinian villages hours before Trump rescinded Biden sanctions
Shortly after suspected Jewish settlers stormed Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank late on Monday, setting cars and property ablaze, US president Donald Trump cancelled sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Settler leaders rushed to praise Trump’s decision on the sanctions, which were first imposed nearly a year ago as violence surged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The sanctions were later expanded to include other Israelis seen as violent or radical.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called it a just decision, saying the sanctions were a “severe and blatant foreign intervention.” In a post on social media platform X, he went on to praise Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel”.
At her confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Republican Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel had a “biblical right” to the occupied territory.
The AP reports that late on Monday, dozens of masked men who are widely believed to be settlers marauded through at least two Palestinian villages and attacked homes and businesses, according to officials in Jinsafut and al-Funduq, which are roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 12 people who were beaten by the men. It gave no details on their condition. Israel’s military said the men hurled rocks at soldiers who had arrived to disperse them, and that it had launched an investigation.
Jalal Bashir, the head of Jinsafut’s village council, told the AP that the men attacked three houses, a nursery and a carpentry shop located on the village’s main road. Louay Tayem, head of the local council in al-Funduq, said dozens of men had fired shots, thrown stones, burned cars, and attacked homes and shops.
“The settlers were masked and had incendiary materials,” said Bashir. “Their numbers were large and unprecedented.”
On Tuesday, the charred shells of cars lay on the side of the road in Jinsafut and residents surveyed the damage to a burned storage space, according to the AP.
Here is a summary of other key updates in the Middle East:
Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are running a communications hub in Cairo to protect the ceasefire in Gaza, as Donald Trump said he was not confident the break in fighting would hold. Violations have already been reported. Medics in Gaza said on Monday that eight people had been hit by Israeli fire. The start of the ceasefire was also delayed when Hamas did not provide the names of hostages to be released.
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 nine Palestinians were killed and 40 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.
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. 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 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.”
Iraq’s parliament has passed amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalise child marriage. The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.
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