Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Live: At least 137 people killed by Israel recovered from rubble in Rafah

Evening recap

17 January 2025 23:53 GMT

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning. 

Here are the day's key developments:

- The full Israeli cabinet has voted to approve the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas, brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the US. The vote took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, local time. 24 Israeli ministers voted in favour, and eight voted against accepting the deal. 

- The Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his government that US President-elect Donald Trump will fully support Israel's return to war if the ceasefire agreement with Hamas is violated. Netanyahu also told lawmakers that Trump is set to release to Israel any previously suspended weapons shipments. 

- The Israel Prison Service said on Friday that it was taking measures to prevent any "public displays of joy" when Palestinian prisoners are released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

- The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Friday that it is fully prepared to assume immediate responsibility in Gaza after the ceasefire agreement goes into effect Sunday. Earlier this week, the US said that only a "reformed PA" along with international partners should take over the running of the Gaza Strip.

- In his presidential exit interview with the broadcaster MSNBC on Thursday, US President Joe Biden revealed that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to "carpet bomb" Palestinians as he retaliated for the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks. That messaging came just 10 days into Israel's war on Gaza, when Biden, a longtime self-described Zionist, personally visited Israel. Biden says Netanyahu told him that the US carpet-bombed Germany and dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan during the Second World War, suggesting that Americans cannot lecture Israelis on military tactics. 

- United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres on Friday named former Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag as the new UN Middle East envoy, a UN spokesperson said. Kaag will also continue in her current role as the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.

- The World Health Organisation (WHO) plans to set up a number of field hospitals in Gaza. Rik Peeperkorn, a representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, announced on Friday that the organisation aims to address the medical needs in the besieged enclave, whose healthcare system has been pushed to the "point of almost complete collapse", according to a UN report in late December. 

- US Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent who typically aligns with Democrats on policy matters, issued a statement on Friday saying that the US must learn from its role in the "mass atrocity" in Gaza over the last 16 months. Sanders went after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for rejecting back in May the very same ceasefire deal he agreed to now. He added that Israel "chose not to go to war with Hamas" but with tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.