Israel/Palästina

At least 24 people were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza on Wednesday after fighting resumed in several areas of the coastal enclave, according to the territory's health authority.

The US has told the UN Security Council that further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza will depend on Hamas disarming under an internationally funded weapons buyback program. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said the initiative would include permanently decommissioning weapons through an agreed process overseen by independent international partners. He noted that the work to urge compliance from the militant group will be overseen by the so-called “Board of Peace,” which consists of 26 countries, alongside the US-sponsored technocrat authority the Palestinian National Committee.

[…] Branded as a more agile instrument for conflict resolution, the Board risks normalising parallel structures that centralise power while weakening multilateral legitimacy. Gaza brings these concerns into sharp focus. It is both the Board’s most immediate test case and a prism through which its broader implications for international governance can be gauged.

Hamas is ready for a "complete transfer of governance" to a technocratic committee in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the militant group told AFP on Wednesday, adding that the critical Rafah border crossing with Egypt must be opened in both directions, "without any Israeli obstacles".

The start of a second phase of a stabilisation plan for Gaza offers a potential turning point for the war-ravaged enclave, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday. Ramiz Alakbarov warned that risks of violence escalating again remain high, while the situation in the occupied West Bank continues to deteriorate.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner presents his vision for Gaza at the Board of Peace signing ceremony, saying the next phase is to “work with Hamas on demilitarization.” Kushner says the White House wants to bring “free market economy principles to Gaza, reflecting the “same mindset, same approach” that US President Donald Trump is implementing in the US.

United States President Donald Trump has formally announced the first charter of his so-called Board of Peace, a body for resolving international conflicts with a $1bn price tag for permanent membership. The board, which Trump launched in a signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after Israel’s two-year genocidal war on the Strip.

The reported demolition underway early Tuesday of the headquarters of UN agency UNRWA by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem - reportedly “under the watch of lawmakers and a member of the Government” - has prompted swift condemnation from the global body. 

US envoy Steve Witkoff has announced the start of phase two of President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, with a technocratic Palestinian government established in the territory … However, two key points of phase two could be problematic. Hamas has previously refused to give up its weapons without the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and Israel has not committed to fully withdrawing from Gaza.

The temporary closure of a UN-run health centre in East Jerusalem is the latest phase in “a pattern of deliberate disregard” for international law, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Wednesday. Israeli forces stormed the UNRWA-operated health centre on Monday and ordered it to close for 30 days.  They also demanded the removal of UN signage.