Gaza ceasefire: Israel security cabinet to meet on Friday after hostage deal reached, Netanyahu says – live

‘Deal to release the hostages’ agreed in Doha, Netanyahu’s office says

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a “deal for the release of the hostages” has been reached in Doha and that he has ordered the security cabinet to convene later on Friday, a day after originally intended.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been updated by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal for the release of the hostages,” his office said in a post on X in the early hours of Friday. It continued:

The Prime Minister has directed that the Security Cabinet be convened later today [Friday)]. The Government will be convened later in order to approve the deal.

His office had accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging on key parts of the agreement to extort last-minute concessions. No evidence was provided for the allegation and Hamas denied it. Netanyahu has been accused of deliberately sabotaging previous deals for his own political benefit.

It was not immediately clear whether the full cabinet would meet on Friday or Saturday or whether there would be any delay to the start of the ceasefire on Sunday. The deal did not mention a ceasefire although the hostages will not be released by Hamas without one.

The Times of Israel reported that the full cabinet meeting would not take place until Saturday night, citing a Netanyahu spokesperson. According to the paper that’s because

Opponents of the deal must be given 24 hours to petition the High Court of Justice and a Friday afternoon meeting would not provide them enough time to do so because many of them are religious and observe the Sabbath.

That could mean that the ceasefire does not come into effect until Monday, a day later than originally planned, the paper wrote further:

Holding the full cabinet meeting on Saturday means the 24-hour grace period for petition filing won’t conclude until late Sunday, meaning the deal won’t come into place until Monday — a day after originally slated.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the report. We’ll bring you more details as soon as we have them.

The nature of Israel’s febrile coalition politics has long favoured theatrics. The standing and psychology of its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, adds a further element of panic and cynical calculation.

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All those characteristics were in evidence as Israel and Hamas edged towards a ceasefire deal, particularly in Netanyahu’s struggle to triangulate his portrayal of an agreement that has the potential to damage him politically.

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The deal, as many in the Israeli media have not been slow to point out, is essentially identical to the agreement that Netanyahu torpedoed over the summer, leaving more Israeli hostages and soldiers to die in the intervening months.

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Moreover, for Israel’s right and far right specifically, it is not clear how a negotiated settlement accords with Netanyahu’s promise of “total victory” and Hamas’s complete defeat. Instead, the deal, if it holds, offers the possibility that Hamas will survive, with its wounded going to Egypt to be treated.

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The reality is that an open-ended war in Gaza has always suited Netanyahu and his supporters more than the interest of Israelis as a whole.

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It has allowed Netanyahu and his supporters to kick the issue of accountability for the failings associated with Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 into the long grass. It has also allowed the Israeli prime minister, on trial for corruption charges, to present an image in the dock of a figure preoccupied with his country’s security for whom the proceedings are a distraction.

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As a wartime leader, he has invoked the longstanding convention in Israel that unity should trump politics to glue together his fractious coalition of the right and far right.

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The deal exposes Netanyahu on all of those fronts, which explains why he has been uncomfortable with being tied to it.

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The ceasefire due to come into force, barring a major last-minute problem, will cement massive and rapid changes across the Middle East and may seal a significant defeat for the Islamist militant groups that have been powerful actors in the region for years.

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Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted Shia Muslim militia in Iraq and Syria will all emerge from the conflict considerably weakened. Only the Houthis in Yemen are stronger – though this may not last. The Islamic State remains a shadow of its former self.

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For an organisation like Hamas simply to survive a big conflict is an achievement, and means Israel has failed to achieve one of its primary war aims. But the concessions made by Hamas since coming close to a ceasefire last May underline its enfeebled state.

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Though no reliable statistics exist and Hamas has undoubtedly recruited many new fighters, its military arm has been badly degraded by the Israeli onslaught, with most senior and middle-ranking commanders killed.

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The organisation maintains patchy authority in some areas of Gaza but nothing that resembles its full control through the 16 years when it completely controlled local government.

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US president-elect Donald Trump has said the Gaza ceasefire deal had “better be done before I take the oath of office” on Monday and called outgoing president Joe Biden “ungracious” for claiming credit for it. AFP reports:

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Four days away from being inaugurated for a second term, Trump told the Dan Bongino Show that negotiations would have never finalised without pressure from his team, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

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“If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said.

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“We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office,” he added.

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Trump also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for the ceasefire agreement, calling him “ungracious” and saying: “He didn’t do anything! If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be out.”

\n

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Aside from a week-long ceasefire in November 2023, Biden has failed throughout the 15 months of the war to get Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a further truce and has instead supplied him with billions of dollars worth of weapons.

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To read more about who should be claiming credit for the agreement, read my colleague Andrew Roth’s piece:

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Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hours after the initial news of the ceasefire became public. Associated Press reports:

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“We were expecting that the (Israeli) occupation would intensify the bombing, like they did every time there were reports of progress in truce talks,” said Mohammed Mahdi, who was sheltering in Gaza City.

\n Gaza’s health ministry said the toll of 72 from Thursday’s strikes only included bodies brought to two hospitals in Gaza City and that the number killed was likely higher.

\n “Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, a health ministry official.

\n The Israeli military claimed it had struck approximately 50 militant targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launch sites. It provided no evidence for the claim.

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man sits by the shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City the previous night, outside the morgue at Al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital on Thursday.”,”caption”:”A man sits by the shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City the previous night, outside the morgue at Al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, on Thursday.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Photographs from hospitals in Gaza showed small children among the dead and injured.

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The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that five Palestinians including two women and two children were killed when an Israeli airstrike struck a house to the west of Jabalia.

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The Prime Minister has directed that the Security Cabinet be convened later today [Friday)]. The Government will be convened later in order to approve the deal.

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The Times of Israel reported that the full cabinet meeting would not take place until Saturday night, citing a Netanyahu spokesperson. According to the paper that’s because

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Opponents of the deal must be given 24 hours to petition the High Court of Justice and a Friday afternoon meeting would not provide them enough time to do so because many of them are religious and observe the Sabbath.

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That could mean that the ceasefire does not come into effect until Monday, a day later than originally planned, the paper wrote further:

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Holding the full cabinet meeting on Saturday means the 24-hour grace period for petition filing won’t conclude until late Sunday, meaning the deal won’t come into place until Monday — a day after originally slated.

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It was not immediately possible to confirm the report. We’ll bring you more details as soon as we have them.

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Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest news.

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Friday that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip had been reached. The announcement comes a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last-minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

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Netanyahu said he would convene his security cabinet later on Friday and then the government to approve the ceasefire agreement.

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On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet wouldn’t meet to approve the agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages until Hamas backed down, accusing the group of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.

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Expanding on that and other news:

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Senior US officials insisted the hard-won ceasefire would go into effect on Sunday as planned despite an earlier delay. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he was “very confident” the ceasefire would go forward and he “fully expects that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday”. He confirmed that there had been a “loose end” between the sides in the complex negotiations. US representatives were still believed to be actively involved with talks in Doha on the final details needed to get the deal over the line.

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A vote is now expected to take place on Friday morning, Israeli media reported. Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced on Thursday evening that he would quit the government if it ratifies the ceasefire deal, calling it “irresponsible” and “reckless”. Ben-Gvir’s departure would not bring down Netanyahu’s government. Opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged his support for Netanyahu, saying that the deal was “more important than any disagreement we’ve ever had.”

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Fighting has continued in Gaza despite expectations of a ceasefire, with at least 80 Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire announcement, according to the civil defence agency. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets” across Gaza since late Wednesday. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.

\n
More than 46,788 Palestinians have been killed and a further 110,453 wounded by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Thursday. They include 81 killed and 188 injured in the past 24 hours. Among them was Fatin Shaqoura-Salha, the chief of nursing staff at Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, ActionAid said.

\n
In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday – to last 42 days – Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages and in exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other hostages. Palestinians displaced from their homes would be allowed to move freely around Gaza, wounded people would be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day. A second phase would include Israel completely withdrawing from Gaza.

\n
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, said the Iran-aligned group would suspend their attacks on Red Sea targets but continue if Israel backtracked on the ceasefire. The Houthi attacks have damaged as many as 30 ships and caused a diversion of commercial shipping to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Reprisals by the US, Israel and the UK have damaged key Yemen ports and led to multiple deaths.

\n
Arab states are urging Israel and the incoming Trump administration to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA), in conjunction with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, to oversee Gaza’s recovery. The future governance of Gaza is due to be discussed at the start of negotiations on the second stage of the deal 16 days after a ceasefire begins.

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Key events

A bit more from Joe Biden’s final interview as president. Speaking to MSNBC, he recounted a conversation he had with Netanyahu shortly after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. He said:

I told them we were going to help, but Bibi, I said, you can’t be carpet-bombing in these [Gaza] communities.

And he said to me: ‘Well you did it… You carpet-bombed Berlin. You dropped a nuclear weapon. You killed thousands of people because you had to in order to win a war.

The interviewer says, “So he was comparing 21st century war tactics with World War II ?

Biden responds that Netanyahu was making a “legitimate argument.” He said:

He was going after me for saying ‘you can’t indiscriminately bomb civilian areas even if the bad guys are there … you can’t take out two, 10, 12, 15 hundred people, innocent people, in order to get the one bad guy.’ And he made the legitimate argument … look these are the guys that killed my people.

Biden has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons for its war on Gaza, in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and maimed.

Hundreds of people turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally in New York’s Times Square on Thursday night, including members of the Orthodox Jewish community. Counter protesters also attended.

Members of the Orthodox Jewish community attend a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Times Square. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally in Times Square. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march around Times Square after news of the ceasefire deal announced on Wednesday night. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

A man wearing a sweater depicting colours of an Israeli flag confronts pro-Palestinian protesters. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

Analysis: deal leaves Netanyahu critically exposed to criticism over his Gaza policies

Peter Beaumont

The reality is that an open-ended war in Gaza has always suited Netanyahu and his supporters more than the interest of Israelis as a whole.

As a wartime leader, he has invoked the longstanding convention in Israel that unity should trump politics to glue together his fractious coalition of the right and far right.

The deal exposes Netanyahu on all of those fronts, which explains why he has been uncomfortable with being tied to it.

It has been difficult to get details on those who have been killed in Israeli attacks since the initial ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday night, as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza.

However Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 21 children and 25 women were among the dead. Israel claimed it had hit 50 terrorist targets across the Strip without providing any evidence.

The dead included five people, including two children and two women, who were killed when Israel struck a home near Jabalia, in northern Gaza and two people who were killed when Israel bombed a shelter for displaced Palestinians in al-Falah school in the al-Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, Wafa reported.

A journalist was also among the dead this week, Palestinian media reported. Ahmed Al-Shayah was killed on Wednesday when Israel targeted a food distribution point in al-Mawasi, near the southern city of Khan Younis, the Palestine Chronicle reported.

Relatives of Ahmad Al-Shayah, a journalist killed in an Israeli drone attack on a charity facility, with his shrouded body in Khan Younis, Gaza on Thursday. His press jacket was placed on top of his body. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

At least 166 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, although others place the number at over 200.

Israel has been accused of deliberately targeting some journalists, which it denies.

Al Jazeera is reporting that at least nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since dawn on Friday. We’ll bring you more details when we can.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Beirut on Friday for a visit that will see him meet his counterpart and offer support as Lebanon’s leaders seek to open a new chapter in their country’s turbulent history. AFP reports:

After more than two years of a political vacuum at the top, Joseph Aoun was elected president on January 9 and chose Nawaf Salam as prime minister-designate.

They now face the daunting task of leading Lebanon after a devastating Israel-Hezbollah war and years of economic crisis.

Macron is also expected to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres in the Lebanese capital as a 26 January deadline to fully implement an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal approaches.

Macron’s visit aims to “help” Aoun and Salam “to consolidate Lebanon’s sovereignty, ensure its prosperity and maintain its unity”, the French presidency said prior to his arrival.

Analysts say Hezbollah’s weakening in the war with Israel last year allowed Lebanon’s deeply divided political class to elect Aoun and to back his naming of Salam as premier.

France has special ties with Lebanon, which it administered for two decades after World War I, and the two countries have maintained close relations even since Lebanon’s independence in 1943.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Beirut on Friday. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

During his final press conference earlier on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was heckled by two journalists who criticised him for his support for the war in Gaza.

That includes providing Israel with diplomatic support at the UN – blocking multiple calls for a ceasefire – and continuing to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel despite concerns within his own department it is committing human rights violations. Reuters reports:

“Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague,” shouted Sam Husseini, an independent journalist and longtime critic of Washington’s approach to the world. The Hague is where the International Criminal Court is located.

The unusually confrontational scene in the State Department briefing room only ended when security personnel forcibly picked up Husseini and carried him out of the room as he continued to heckle Blinken.

“Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone, an outlet that strongly criticises many aspects of US foreign policy, called out to Blinken, before he was escorted out.

Biden himself has said the deal agreed to this week is exactly what was agreed in May.

Antony Blinken (L) looks on as journalist Sam Husseini is dragged out of his press conference. Photograph: Reuters/UGC

Analysis: ceasefire seals significant defeat for Hamas

Jason Burke

The organisation maintains patchy authority in some areas of Gaza but nothing that resembles its full control through the 16 years when it completely controlled local government.

Trump says Gaza deal ‘better be done before I take the oath of office’

Four days away from being inaugurated for a second term, Trump told the Dan Bongino Show that negotiations would have never finalised without pressure from his team, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

“If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said.

“We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office,” he added.

Trump also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for the ceasefire agreement, calling him “ungracious” and saying: “He didn’t do anything! If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be out.”

To read more about who should be claiming credit for the agreement, read my colleague Andrew Roth’s piece:

Sufian Taha

Families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are eagerly awaiting their release following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that will liberate hundreds of detainees.

One thousand Palestinians arrested by Israeli troops in Gaza after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 who did not take part in the offensive will be released, and some of the freed Palestinians from the West Bank will be sent to third countries rather than be allowed to return home.

Mervat Moadi, 53, from the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah, was waiting anxiously for the official list of Palestinian prisoners to be released. Her husband, Marwan, 64, was jailed in 2012 for allegedly participating in an infamous incident in the second intifada in which two army reservists who got lost were lynched by a crowd at police station in Ramallah in 2000. He denies any wrongdoing, saying he was present in a crowd of funeral mourners.

Marwan, was charged and sentenced to eight years in prison, and his conviction was extended on appeal to 22 years. The couple have three sons, and grandchildren the man has never met.

“The last time I visited him was in July 2023, and after that we were unable to see him during the war,” Mervat said. ‘‘I am very nervous. My heart tells me that I will see him. Every hour that passes feels like a year. Waiting is very difficult for the family. We, as wives of prisoners, whether Palestinian or Israeli, suffer every moment. We do not know when we will see our loved ones.’’

Read on below:

Israel steps up attacks on Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians

Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hours after the initial news of the ceasefire became public. Associated Press reports:

“We were expecting that the (Israeli) occupation would intensify the bombing, like they did every time there were reports of progress in truce talks,” said Mohammed Mahdi, who was sheltering in Gaza City.

Gaza’s health ministry said the toll of 72 from Thursday’s strikes only included bodies brought to two hospitals in Gaza City and that the number killed was likely higher.

“Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, a health ministry official.

The Israeli military claimed it had struck approximately 50 militant targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launch sites. It provided no evidence for the claim.

A man sits by the shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City the previous night, outside the morgue at Al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, on Thursday. Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

Photographs from hospitals in Gaza showed small children among the dead and injured.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that five Palestinians including two women and two children were killed when an Israeli airstrike struck a house to the west of Jabalia.

In what has been advertised as his final interview as president, Joe Biden has said that Israel “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. He told broadcaster MSNBC:

And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question … It’s not going to happen ….

And I kept reminding my friend, and he is a friend, although we don’t agree a whole lot lately, Bibi Netanyahu, that he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of a large group of people called Palestinians, who have no place to live independently.

Biden has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons throughout Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza, despite evidence the Israeli military is committing war crimes in Gaza and despite a law which prohibits the sale of US weapons to countries suspected of committing war crimes.

Hours earlier, the government’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign from the government if the deal was approved. In a televised statement he said:

“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” adding that it would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing hundreds of Palestinian militants and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza.

“If this irresponsible deal is approved and implemented, we the members of Jewish Power will submit letters of resignation to the prime minister,” he said.

In a post on X he added that the deal “endangers Israel’s security” and “constitutes a complete victory for Hamas”.

Ben-Gvir has himself been convicted of backing a group considered by both Israel and the US to be a terrorist organisation as well as racist incitement against Arabs.

The statement from Netanyahu’s office also says that the families of the hostages held in Gaza have been informed and adds:

The Prime Minister has also directed the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing to coordinate the preparations to receive the hostages upon their return to Israel.

The State of Israel is committed to achieving all of the objectives of the war including the return of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased.

‘Deal to release the hostages’ agreed in Doha, Netanyahu’s office says

The Prime Minister has directed that the Security Cabinet be convened later today [Friday)]. The Government will be convened later in order to approve the deal.

The Times of Israel reported that the full cabinet meeting would not take place until Saturday night, citing a Netanyahu spokesperson. According to the paper that’s because

Opponents of the deal must be given 24 hours to petition the High Court of Justice and a Friday afternoon meeting would not provide them enough time to do so because many of them are religious and observe the Sabbath.

That could mean that the ceasefire does not come into effect until Monday, a day later than originally planned, the paper wrote further:

Holding the full cabinet meeting on Saturday means the 24-hour grace period for petition filing won’t conclude until late Sunday, meaning the deal won’t come into place until Monday — a day after originally slated.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the report. We’ll bring you more details as soon as we have them.

Opening summary

Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest news.

Netanyahu said he would convene his security cabinet later on Friday and then the government to approve the ceasefire agreement.

Expanding on that and other news:

Senior US officials insisted the hard-won ceasefire would go into effect on Sunday as planned despite an earlier delay. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he was “very confident” the ceasefire would go forward and he “fully expects that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday”. He confirmed that there had been a “loose end” between the sides in the complex negotiations. US representatives were still believed to be actively involved with talks in Doha on the final details needed to get the deal over the line.
A vote is now expected to take place on Friday morning, Israeli media reported. Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced on Thursday evening that he would quit the government if it ratifies the ceasefire deal, calling it “irresponsible” and “reckless”. Ben-Gvir’s departure would not bring down Netanyahu’s government. Opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged his support for Netanyahu, saying that the deal was “more important than any disagreement we’ve ever had.”
Fighting has continued in Gaza despite expectations of a ceasefire, with at least 80 Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire announcement, according to the civil defence agency. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets” across Gaza since late Wednesday. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
More than 46,788 Palestinians have been killed and a further 110,453 wounded by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Thursday. They include 81 killed and 188 injured in the past 24 hours. Among them was Fatin Shaqoura-Salha, the chief of nursing staff at Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, ActionAid said.
In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday – to last 42 days – Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages and in exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other hostages. Palestinians displaced from their homes would be allowed to move freely around Gaza, wounded people would be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day. A second phase would include Israel completely withdrawing from Gaza.
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, said the Iran-aligned group would suspend their attacks on Red Sea targets but continue if Israel backtracked on the ceasefire. The Houthi attacks have damaged as many as 30 ships and caused a diversion of commercial shipping to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Reprisals by the US, Israel and the UK have damaged key Yemen ports and led to multiple deaths.
Arab states are urging Israel and the incoming Trump administration to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA), in conjunction with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, to oversee Gaza’s recovery. The future governance of Gaza is due to be discussed at the start of negotiations on the second stage of the deal 16 days after a ceasefire begins.

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