Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

Evening recap

18 February 2025 23:59 GMT

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Our blog will soon be closing for the day. Here are some of today's main developments:

  • Israeli tanks have killed two Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza, in yet another violation of the ceasefire with Hamas.

  • An Israeli minister has admitted that Israel’s campaign to remove Palestinians from Gaza will rely on force rather than so-called "voluntary migration."

  • Rebuilding Gaza and the West Bank after Israel’s devastating military assaults will require more than $50bn, according to a joint assessment by the United Nations, European Union, and World Bank.

  • There have been 266 violations of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement registered since it came into effect on 19 January, Palestinian security sources have told Al Jazeera.

  • Oxfam says there has been an explosion of waterborne and infectious diseases in Gaza amid the lack of safe water and untreated sewage overflowing in the enclave’s streets.

  • Lebanon’s Civil Defence has announced the recovery of 23 bodies from southern towns following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

  • The deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from areas across southern Lebanon has now passed, as postulated by the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement reached in November. 

  • Lebanon has issued a firm demand for Israel to fully withdraw its military forces from southern Lebanon, as stipulated in a ceasefire agreement involving Hezbollah. This call comes amid mounting accusations that Israel continues to violate the terms of the truce.

  • Israel has reached an agreement with Hamas over the release on Saturday of the six remaining captives who are alive, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official.

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set rigid conditions for the next phase of ceasefire negotiations, demanding Hamas’s disarmament, its removal from Gaza, and blocking the Palestinian Authority from any post-war role, according to the Times of Israel.

  • China has condemned attempts to use Gaza and the occupied West Bank as “bargaining chips in political trade-offs”, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council.

  • UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has condemned Israel’s raids on schools operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in occupied East Jerusalem, calling them a violation of international law.