Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas named a deputy and likely successor on Saturday.

Hussein al-Sheikh was appointed vice president of the state of Palestine and the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) - two newly created positions. 

His appointment was approved during a session of the PLO’s executive committee on Saturday. 

“Mr President, the trusted guardian. A sincere and obligatory thank you for your trust,” Sheikh wrote in a Facebook post after the appointment. 

“By the oath of God, Palestine and the martyrs, we will uphold this trust and protect the confidence you have granted me. Thank you with the same magnitude of loyalty that you deserve and embody.”

Read more:  Mahmoud Abbas appoints Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president and likely successor

Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian home in the village of Al-Zweidin, located in the Masafer Yatta region south of Hebron, early Tuesday.

Footage shared by activists and local Palestinian media showed the moment troops stormed the village and bulldozers began tearing down the two-storey house under heavy military protection.

The demolition is part of an ongoing campaign in the occupied West Bank, where Israel continues to target Palestinian structures it claims were built without permits—permits rights groups say are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday morning, sources told Al Jazeera.

Witnesses reported groups of settlers entering the holy site under heavy protection from Israeli police.

Tensions at Al-Aqsa have remained high amid repeated incursions by settlers, which Palestinians view as a provocation and a threat to the status quo at one of Islam’s holiest sites.

An Israeli political source has dismissed claims of progress in ceasefire negotiations taking place in Cairo, saying no agreement has been reached.

Speaking on Tuesday, the source refuted media reports suggesting that talks were close to a “significant breakthrough,” calling them inaccurate, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

This comes after two Egyptian security officials told Reuters that discussions in the Egyptian capital were nearing a major step forward towards ending the war in Gaza.

According to the Egyptian officials, negotiators had reached broad consensus on a long-term truce in the blockaded territory. However, they said disagreements remained—particularly over the issue of Hamas retaining its weapons.

The Cairo talks are part of ongoing efforts to halt the conflict, with regional and international mediators pushing to secure a lasting ceasefire.

Malaysia has accused Israel of weaponising restrictions on UN agencies, particularly Unrwa, to forcibly uproot Palestinians from their homeland.

Speaking during hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Malaysia’s Minister of Law and Institutional Reform, Azizah Othman Said, condemned Israel’s actions as part of a wider effort to erase Palestinian presence.

“These statements by Israeli officials about displacing Palestinians show a deliberate plan,” she told the court on Monday, which is holding a five-day session examining the legal consequences of Israeli measures targeting UN operations.

Othman Said warned that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a tool of warfare and underscored the destruction and killings unfolding in Gaza. “This is a blatant breach of international law,” she said.

She also criticised Israeli legislation aimed at banning Unrwa’s operations, arguing it seeks to legitimise annexation and push Palestinians off their lands.

“Ending Unrwa’s work means stripping Palestinians of their rights and pushing them into exile,” she said. “Disrupting the agency’s efforts denies basic rights and violates humanitarian principles.”

Thirty-nine states and four international bodies are taking part in the ICJ hearings, which aim to assess the legal weight of Israel’s restrictions.

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said that the US President Donald Trump would reject any unfavourable nuclear agreement with Iran that would not be in Israel's interests.

Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem hosted by the Jewish News Syndicate on Monday, Dermer stated, “I have a lot of confidence that President Trump would walk away from a bad deal today.”

When pressed on whether Israel would consider taking military action against Iranian nuclear sites alone, Dermer declined to reveal details. However, he urged the audience to take Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his word.

"Mossad agents" and "warmongers" are pushing the US into a conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those lines aren’t coming from state-run news agencies in Tehran, but some of US President Donald Trump’s closest media allies and supporters. 

Last week, conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson featured a senior Department of Defence official who he claimed was ousted because he was seen as an obstacle to the US bombing Iran.

Dan Caldwell, a top advisor to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, was removed from the Pentagon earlier this month on charges that he allegedly leaked classified information about Hegseth’s use of a Signal chat, according to several media outlets.

Not so by Carlson’s telling, who has unparalleled access to Trump.

“You did make maybe one career mistake by giving on-the-record interviews describing your foreign policy views…that are out of the mainstream among warmongers in Washington,” Carlson said to Caldwell, adding, “Then I read all of a sudden that you are a traitor.”

Read more: Trump allies say 'Mossad agents' and 'warmongers' trying to derail Iran talks

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest developments from the ongoing 18-month Israeli war on Gaza, which resumed almost six weeks ago after Israel broke the ceasefire: 

• Amnesty International alleges genocide: The rights group accuses Israel of committing a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, saying its forces violate the UN Genocide Convention by:

  • “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians.”

  • “Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”

• UK pushes for Palestinian state: British Foreign Secretary says the UK is “committed to urgently advancing” a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.

• Child killed in Khan Younis shelling: Al Jazeera reports a girl died after Israeli forces shelled a displaced persons’ tent camp in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

• Rafah demolition continues: Palestinians say Israeli troops are bulldozing remaining ruins in Rafah, raising fears of a forced relocation to barren land.

• France condemns Gaza "massacre": Government spokesperson Sophie Primas demands Israel “stop the massacre taking place today in Gaza.”

• Ceasefire talks near "breakthrough": Egyptian security sources tell Reuters that Cairo negotiations are close to a “significant breakthrough.”