Israel/Palästina

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. 

The UN’s top human rights official called on Israeli authorities to abandon plans for new legislation that would impose mandatory death sentences exclusively on Palestinians, warning the proposals violate international law and fundamental human rights standards. 

Humanitarian agencies working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) have warned that life-saving aid operations risk collapse unless Israel immediately lifts new barriers that are blocking access and forcing international charities to shut down.

Israel on Thursday vowed that Hamas will be disarmed under the US-backed Gaza peace plan, rejecting a proposal by senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who said the group might accept a weapons "freeze" but not full disarmament.

The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel, the country’s military chief told soldiers deployed in the territory. … Palestinians were forced out of this eastern portion of Gaza by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders. Almost all the surviving population, over 2 million people, are now crowded into a narrow zone of coastal sand dunes that is smaller than Washington DC.

The United nations General Assembly on Tuesday passed two resolutions directing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza as well the Syrian Golan Heights. Both texts were adopted with large majorities opposing Israel's current territorial stance.

Israel has announced it will open the key Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the coming days to allow Palestinians to leave the territory. … However, Egypt denied it was co-ordinating with Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has condemned an Israeli raid on the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the occupied West Bank, warning that pressure on Palestinian civil society has reached alarming levels. 

Lebanon and Israel, for the first time, sent civilian representatives to a meeting of a previously military-only ceasefire monitoring mechanism. The mechanism was set up after the latest war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ended over a year ago.