Closing summary
It is approaching 5.45pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. This live blog will be closing shortly but you can keep up with Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a summary of today’s updates on the blog:
New US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, stressed “the need to continue implementation” of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza during calls to regional leaders. Read-outs from the US government indicated that during a call with UAE foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, Donald Trump’s top diplomat discussed the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of the hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza and Rubio “reinforced the significance of this agreement for regional security and stability and the need to continue implementation.”
Iraq’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning Israel’s ongoing raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank, calling it a “flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law”. Iraq called on the international community and UN security council to “assume its responsibilities to stop these violations and provide protection to the Palestinian people, in order to preserve the lives of civilians and ensure security and stability in the region”.
Since it began on Tuesday, the Israel’s operation in Jenin has killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured 40 more, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli forces have also detained several Palestinians from the Jenin area, with an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer seeing a row of blindfolded men in white jumpsuits being transported out of the West Bank. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli security forces had made at least 22 further arrests in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since last night.
Jordan could not afford another war in the neighbouring occupied West Bank, the country’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. Yesterday, Safadi warned that the West Bank could explode, describing the current situation there as “dangerous”.
A Palestinian official said hundreds of people began leaving their homes in the occupied West Bank on Thursday as Israeli forces pressed a deadly operation. “Hundreds of camp residents have begun leaving after the Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” Jenin governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP. The Israeli army said it was “unaware of any evacuation orders for residents in Jenin as of now”.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it killed two Palestinian militants near Jenin during the night, accusing them of having killed three Israelis. In a statement, the military said that Israeli troops found the two militants barricaded in a house in the village of Burqin. The two men were wanted for the killing of three Israelis and the wounding of six others in a 6 January attack on a bus in the West Bank.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said it had seen “disturbing patterns of unlawful use of force in the West Bank that is unnecessary, indiscriminate and disproportionate”. In a statement, the NRC said this “echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza”.
Gaza’s civil defence authority reports that the bodies of at least 162 Palestinians have been recovered from under rubble and debris left by Israeli strikes on Gaza since the ceasefire came into operation.
The Israeli government said on Thursday a ceasefire deal with the Hezbollah was not being implemented fast enough, days before Israel is meant to complete a withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon under the terms of the deal. Under the deal, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a 60-day period ending next Monday morning.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appointed tourist minister, Haim Katz, interim minister for three months for all three departments where ministers quit at the weekend in protest at Israel striking a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas. Katz will assume responsibility as national security minister, heritage minister and minister for Negev, Galilee and national resilience. The three roles were vacated when ultra-nationalist far-right Otzma Yehudit ministers Itamar Ben Gvir, Amichai Eliyahu and Yitzhak Wasserlauf all quit the prime minister’s coalition.
Benny Gantz, chair of the National Unity party in Israel, said on Thursday that he will continue to provide “a safety net” by backing Netanyahu’s government in its efforts to return hostages from Gaza, despite some of Netanyahu’s former coalition partners opposing the deal.
More than 3,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza during the first four days of the ceasefire, reported Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. While the arrival of aid had brought “partial relief to the population”, he said suffering had been “exacerbated” by rainfall and families seeking shelter.
The governing body of the international criminal court (ICC) on Thursday said it had deep concerns about sanctions against the court, after moves by the new Donald Trump administration in the US to sanction the institution in protest at its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who is being held hostage by an Iraqi militia, is alive and the Iraqi prime minister is working on her release, Iraqi foreign minister, Fouad Hussein, told Axios reporter, Barak Ravid, on Thursday.
The Al Jazeera news network accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting one of its journalists in a bid to prevent coverage of Israel’s military operation inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The network said that its reporter, Mohammed al-Atrash, was arrested from his home and that security forces had earlier prevented him from reporting on a large Israeli military operation in Jenin.
The frontrunner in Germany’s campaign for snap elections next month, conservative opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, said he would end what he called a “de facto (German) weapons export ban” for Israel if he becomes chancellor. He also pledged to work within the European Union to ensure the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, while “probably correct under international law”, is not carried out on German or EU soil.
Updated
The frontrunner in Germany’s campaign for snap elections next month, conservative opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, said he would end what he called a “de facto (German) weapons export ban” for Israel if he becomes chancellor. “What Israel needs for its right to self-defence it will get.”
Merz said that compared to the current centre-left-led government, his own administration, if elected, would strengthen the notion of Israel’s security being core to Germany “Staatsräson” or reason of state.
He also pledged to work within the European Union to ensure the international criminal court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, while “probably correct under international law”, is not carried out on German or EU soil.
He said that particularly in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, it was “unimaginable” that an “elected, democratically legitimate” Israeli head of government would be unable to visit Germany.
“That is why I will do everything in my power to ensure the ICC warrant would not be carried out here,” he said.
The current German government has been non-committal about its willingness to comply with the warrant should Netanyau travel to Germany, citing Berlin’s enduring historical responsibility for the Holocaust.
The Israeli government said on Thursday a ceasefire deal with the Hezbollah was not being implemented fast enough, days before Israel is meant to complete a withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon under the terms of the deal, reports Reuters.
Israel and the Lebanese militant group agreed in November to an US-and French-mediated ceasefire, bringing an end to more than a year of fighting. Under the deal, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a 60-day period ending next Monday morning.
“There have been positive movements where the Lebanese army and Unifil have taken the place of Hezbollah forces, as stipulated in the agreement,” Israeli government spokesperson, David Mencer, told reporters, referring to UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. “We’ve also made clear that these movements have not been fast enough, and there is much more work to do,” he said, affirming that Israel wanted the agreement to continue.
According to Reuters, Mencer did not directly respond to questions about whether Israel had requested an extension of the deal or whether Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon after the 60-day deadline.
Three diplomats said it looked like Israeli forces would still be in some parts of southern Lebanon after the 60-day mark. A senior Lebanese political source said president Joseph Aoun had been in contact with US and French officials to urge Israel to complete the withdrawal within the stipulated timeframe.
The Lebanese government has told US mediators that Israel’s failure to withdraw on time could complicate the Lebanese army’s deployment, and this would be a blow to diplomatic efforts and the optimistic atmosphere in Lebanon since Aoun was elected president on 9 January, reports Reuters.
Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said on 20 January that if Israel failed to withdraw this would put all Lebanese people in a new phase of “confronting the Israeli occupation through all possible means and tools to force it from our land”.
“This confrontation is the responsibility of all Lebanese: the government, the army, the people, parties and resistance”, said Fayyad, in comments reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed tourist minister Haim Katz interim minister for three months for all three departments where ministers quit at the weekend in protest at Israel striking a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Hamas.
Katz will assume responsibility as national security minister, heritage minister and minister for Negev, Galilee and national resilience. The three roles were vacated when ultra-nationalist far-right Otzma Yehudit ministers Itamar Ben Gvir, Amichai Eliyahu and Yitzhak Wasserlauf all quit the prime minister’s coalition.
Iraq’s foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning Israel’s ongoing raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
In the statement, it said Israel’s operation was a “flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law.”
Iraq called on the international community and UN security council to “assume its responsibilities to stop these violations and provide protection to the Palestinian people, in order to preserve the lives of civilians and ensure security and stability in the region.”
This report from our video team shows thousands being forced to flee Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as Israel’s security forces undertake what they are calling Operation Iron Wall.
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who is being held hostage by an Iraqi militia, is alive and the Iraqi prime minister is working on her release, Iraqi foreign minister, Fouad Hussein, told Axios reporter, Barak Ravid, on Thursday, reports Reuters.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it killed two Palestinian militants near Jenin during the night, accusing them of having killed three Israelis, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In a statement, the military said that Israeli troops found the two militants barricaded in a house in the village of Burqin. “After an exchange of fire, they were eliminated by the forces,” it said, adding one soldier was wounded in the gunfight.
The two men were wanted for the killing of three Israelis and the wounding of six others in a 6 January attack on a bus in the West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry later confirmed the two deaths.
Palestinian official says hundreds leave Jenin as Israel presses raid
A Palestinian official said hundreds of people began leaving their homes in the occupied West Bank on Thursday as Israeli forces pressed a deadly operation, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Israeli military launched the raid in the Jenin area days into a ceasefire in the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the objective of the operation, dubbed “Iron Wall”, is to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
“Hundreds of camp residents have begun leaving after the Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” Jenin governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP. The Israeli army said it was “unaware of any evacuation orders for residents in Jenin as of now”.
Since it began on Tuesday, the operation has killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured 40 more, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
“There are dozens of camp residents who have begun to leave,” Jenin resident, Salim Saadi, said. “The army is in front of my house. They could enter at any moment.”
Israeli forces have also detained several Palestinians from the Jenin area, with an AFP photographer seeing a row of blindfolded men in white jumpsuits being transported out of the West Bank.
Palestinians had already begun fleeing the Jenin area on foot on Wednesday, with AFPTV images showing a group of men, women and children making their way down a muddy road, the sound of drones buzzing above them clearly audible.
Updated
Jordan could not afford another war in the neighbouring occupied West Bank, the country’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
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.
Palestinian news agency Wafa said that at least 12 Palestinians had been killed. Earlier an Israeli military source said the operation had led to 13 Palestinian gunmen being killed. The claims have not been independently verified.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has issued a statement about increased violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect. It said:
We are seeing disturbing patterns of unlawful use of force in the West Bank that is unnecessary, indiscriminate and disproportionate. This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza.
Under international law, Israel must bring its occupation of Palestinian territory to an end as rapidly as possible. Until then, it must fully comply with its obligations as an occupying power, including the protection of civilians.
Israel’s military has issued a statement on its continued operations inside southern Lebanon, which it invaded in October 2024.
In the statement the IDF claims to have “dismantled several underground routes that were used as shelters and weapon storage facilities by the Hezbollah terrorist organization” and “located numerous weapons, including Kornet missiles, grenades, and AK-47 rifles.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
The IDF said “troops of the 7th Brigade … continue their defensive activities in southern Lebanon to uphold the security of the state of Israel, and the residents and communities of the Galilee in particular.”
Tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel have been forced to flee their homes due to near constant fire between Israel and Hezbollah since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Under terms of the ceasefire agreed in November 2024, Israel’s troops are scheduled to withdraw by the end of this weekend, with the Lebanese army deploying alongside UN-peacekeeping troops to create a buffer zone between Israel and any Hezbollah forces, which are obliged to move north of the Litani River.
An Israeli tank killed two Palestinians west of Gaza’s Rafah on Thursday, Reuters reports, citing the Gaza civil defence.
More details soon …
Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi, Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Qatari minister of state for international cooperation Maryam Al Misnad are taking part in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss “How to Lower the Temperature in the Middle East”. You should be able to watch a video feed of the session, which is in English, above and also in this post.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israel’s security operation in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has “burned several houses belonging to citizens” and that Israeli security forces have forced several families to “evacuate their homes and turned them into military barracks.”
Wafa at least 12 Palestinians have been killed. Earlier an Israeli military source said the operation had led to 13 Palestinian gunmen being killed. The claims have not been independently verified.
Benny Gantz, chair of the National Unity party in Israel, has said today he will continue to provide “a safety net” by backing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in its efforts to return hostages from Gaza, despite some of Netanyahu’s former coalition partners opposing the deal.
The Times of Israel quotes Gantz saying:
My colleagues and I promised a safety net for the return of the hostages and we will stand by it. There is no need to enter the government to ensure that it does not fall. A safety net can also be provided outside the government.
As long as the return of the abductees is really at the centre of the action, we will find the solutions so that the government does not fall.
However, Gantz still had criticism for Netanyahu’s broader approach to the war, saying:
It has been over a year and a solution has still not been found on how to deliver humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza without some kind of mediation by Hamas.
At the beginning of the war, I laid down principles for the establishment of an international administration that will operate in Gaza on behalf of the moderate Arab countries.
We have an opportunity to implement this plan together with the Trump administration. We must not miss it.
Hebrew media outlet Ynet reports that Israel’s security cabinet will convene tonight at 6.30pm local time (4.30pm GMT). It said ministers have not been briefed on the subject of the discussion.
The governing body of the International Criminal Court on Thursday said it had deep concerns about sanctions against the court, after moves by the new Donald Trump administration in the US to sanction the institution in protest at its arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Reuters reports.
In November 2024 the court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war. Israel claims to have killed Deif in an airstrike in July 2024, but the court’s pre-trial chamber said it would “continue to gather information” to confirm his death.
The chamber ruled there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore criminal responsibility as co-perpetrators for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
At the time, then-president Joe Biden described the warrants as “outrageous” and Netanyahu’s office denounced the chamber’s decision as “antisemitic”.
In March 2023 the court also issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, over the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children. At that time Biden said Putin had clearly committed war crimes and the ICC’s decision was justified.
Israeli media reports that the IDF has claimed to have killed 13 Palestinians during its operation in and around Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Tuesday.
The IDF has said it is carrying out Operation Iron Wall against operatives in Jenin it says are linked to Hamas and to Islamic Jihad.
Reporting for the Times of Israel, military correspondent Emanuel Fabian writes:
Israeli troops carrying out a major raid in the Jenin area in the northern West Bank since Tuesday morning have killed 13 Palestinian gunmen, a senior IDF officer in the West Bank division says.
Several special forces units are operating in the Jenin refugee camp, along with Border Police officers and other IDF units. The officer says troops are scanning homes, capturing weapons, and eliminating terror operatives.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory during the six-day war in 1967.
A commercial plane from Turkey landed in Damascus for the first time in 13 years on Thursday, Associated Press reports, citing Syrian state.
The Turkish Airlines plane flew from Istanbul to the Syrian capital two weeks after the first international commercial flight, from Qatar, landed since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that since last night Israeli security forces have made at least 22 further arrests in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Citing the Prisoners Club and the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority, it reports “occupation forces are continuing their military operation in Jenin governorate and its camp, and are carrying out arrests of dozens of citizens, accompanied by field executions, abuse and destruction of infrastructure, and vandalism and destruction of citizens’ home.”
Israel’s military in an earlier statement said it had killed two men in the occupied West Bank it said carried out a shooting attack on 6 January which had killed three Israelis and wounded several others, labelling them as members of the militant group Islamic Jihad.
We reported earlier that the Trump administration is said to be insisting that Israel stick to the 60 day time limit for withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, as per the terms of November’s ceasefire deal.
Haaretz is carrying fuller quotes from US ambassador to Israel, Michael Herzog, speaking to Israel’s Army Radio. It quotes him saying:
The agreement included a 60-day target for completing the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese Army to take its place, but it isn’t set in stone and was phrased with some flexibility.
We are in discussions with the Trump administration to extend the time needed to enable the Lebanese Army to truly deploy and fulfil its role under the agreement. These discussions are ongoing.
The incoming administration understands our security needs and position, and I believe we will reach an understanding on this matter.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza says that “more than 3,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza during the first four days of the ceasefire” and that “the arrival of aid has brought partial relief to the population.”
He continues, however, by saying “their suffering is exacerbated by rainfall and a search for alternative shelter, especially for families who have returned to the remnants of their destroyed houses.”
In a statement overnight Israel’s military has ordered “Palestinians to follow its instructions and avoid approaching the troops deployed in [Gaza]”.
It said troops yesterday “identified several armed suspects who posed a threat to the troops” and killed someone it named as “the Islamic Jihad terrorist Akram Atef Farhan Zanon.”
Additionally it claimed “in several areas throughout the Gaza Strip, masked suspects were identified approaching IDF troops, who fired warning shots to distance them.”
The statement continued:
The IDF is determined to fully maintain the terms of the agreement in order to return the hostages. The IDF is prepared for any scenario and will continue to take all necessary actions to thwart any immediate threat to IDF soldiers.
For today’s First Edition newsletter Nimo Omer spoke to the Guardian’s senior international affairs correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison, about the latest developments in the occupied West Bank:
In November, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, announced an end to administrative detention orders for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, meaning that the policy of holding suspects on security grounds without trial or charge would only be used against Palestinians. Government security agency Shin Bet warned against the move because it would “result in an immediate, severe and serious harm to the security of the state”.
Last week, the five settlers who were in administrative detention for violent acts against Palestinians were released, in a move that Katz said was a direct response to the release of Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire deal. He said it would “convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the settlement, which is at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terrorism and facing growing security challenges”.
This policy has emboldened and deepened a “climate of impunity” among settlers, Emma says. “One security official was quoted in Haaretz saying that rightist activists – I would say far-right – believe they can act freely and that no one will arrest them, and that is very much what seems to be happening”.
Settler violence has been on the rise for the last 15 months. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, at least 1,860 such incidents in the occupied West Bank were recorded, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Read more here: Thursday briefing – With a new wave of violence, the West Bank is on edge
Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming to have killed two men responsible for an attack on a bus on 6 January that killed three Israelis and wounded several others.
In the statement, the IDF claimed that Mohamad Nazzal and Katiba Shalabi were members of the Islamic Jihad group. Israel’s military said several other suspects were arrested, and one Israeli soldier was wounded during the operation.
Al Jazeera accuses Palestinian Authority of arresting reporter to prevent coverage of Israel's military in the West Bank
The Al Jazeera news network has accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting one of its journalists in a bid to prevent coverage of Israel’s military operation inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The network, Associated Press reports, said that its reporter, Mohammed al-Atrash, was arrested from his home.
Al Jazeera said Palestinian security forces had earlier prevented him from reporting on a large Israeli military operation in Jenin.
Al Jazeera was banned from operating inside Israel last year by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and the Palestinian Authority has also issued a restriction on the network’s operation.
Israel’s military has been mounting what it has called an anti-terrorism operation inside the occupied West Bank in recent days.
Bodies of 162 Palestinians recovered from rubble since ceasefire
Gaza’s civil defence authority reports that the bodies of at least 162 Palestinians have been recovered from under the rubble and debris left by Israeli strikes on Gaza since the ceasefire came into operation.
The casualty figures from the conflict in Gaza, which journalists have been unable to verify independently, have been put at nearly 47,000 dead, with many more bodies believed to have been trapped under rubble and too difficult and dangerous to retrieve while the Israeli military assault continued.
Trump administration insisting IDF pull out from Lebanon by Sunday as agreed – reports
Israel’s Army Radio reports that the Donald Trump administration in Washington has told Israel that it expects it to comply with Sunday’s deadline to withdraw the IDF from Lebanon.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement struck between Israel and Lebanon in November, the IDF were given 60 days to complete its invasion and operations inside Lebanon, and withdraw back behind the UN-drawn blue line which acts as a border between the two countries. The deadline is this weekend.
The IDF has claimed to have been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in the south of Lebanon, while also preventing displaced residents from returning to their homes. Tens of thousands of Israelis have also been displaced from their homes by the months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah which the ceasefire aims to stop.
Israel was believed to be seeking, according to reports, a 30 day extension for its invasion before withdrawing. Israeli media reports that it was understood the Biden administration had been minded to permit the extension.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio stresses 'need to continue implementation' of Gaza ceasefire deal
New US secretary of state Marco Rubio has stressed “the need to continue implementation” of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza during calls to regional leaders.
Read-outs from the US government indicate that during a call with UAE foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed, Donald Trump’s top diplomat “discussed the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of the hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza” and Rubio “reinforced the significance of this agreement for regional security and stability and the need to continue implementation.”
Rubio also spoke to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. In 2021 a US intelligence report found bin Salman approved the murder of US journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, but Joe Biden’s administration declined to take direct action against the crown prince.
In the call with bin Salman, Rubio is said by the state department to have “conveyed that he looked forward to advancing shared interests in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and beyond” and “also stressed the threats posed by Iran and its proxies.”
Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of conflict in the Middle East. Here are the latest headlines …
New US secretary of state Marco Rubio has stressed “the need to continue implementation” of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza during calls to regional leaders
Gaza’s civil defence authority reports that the bodies of at least 162 Palestinians have been recovered from under the rubble and debris left by Israeli strikes on Gaza since the ceasefire came into operation
Israel’s Army Radio reports that the Donald Trump administration in Washington has told Israel that it expects it to comply with Sunday’s deadline to withdraw the IDF from Lebanon
The Al Jazeera news network has accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting one of its journalists in a bid to prevent coverage of Israel’s military operation inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Violent Israeli settlers have been descending on Sinjil and other West Bank towns to protest against the release of Palestinian prisoners
