Israel/Palästina

Israel and Hamas will begin indirect negotiations on a second stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal, officials said on Tuesday, as the Palestinian militant group said it would hand over more hostages, including the bodies of two children, this week.

Israel's prime minister has said he is working to make US President Donald Trump's plan to remove and resettle Gaza's population "a reality". Benjamin Netanyahu said he was co-operating with the US on a "common strategy" for the Palestinian territory after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday condemned the intensifying Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, warning that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced already amid an “alarming wave” of violence and destruction.

The militant group Hamas expressed its commitment to a ceasefire with Israel on Thursday, as mediators worked to preserve the halt in fighting amid accusations of violations and threats of a return to war.

More than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the “humanitarian catastrophe” that has gripped the war-ravaged territory, including $20 billion in the first three years alone, the United Nations said Tuesday.

A return to war in Gaza must be avoided at all costs, UN Secretary-General António Guterres insisted on Tuesday, amid fears that the three-week-old ceasefire agreement between Hamas fighters and Israel is about to end. … The war in Gaza has devastated more than 70 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure.

EUBAM Rafah, the EU civilian border assistance mission, deployed a specialised team to the Rafah Crossing Point to allow the parties to reopen the RCP.

U.S. allies and adversaries alike on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip, force 2 million Palestinians to move to other countries and then turn the territory along the Mediterranean Sea into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week, making him the first foreign leader to meet with Donald Trump in Washington, DC, since the United States president’s return to power.

The implementation of new Israeli laws banning the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA – set to take effect on Thursday – will heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Security Council has heard.