Live: Trump threatens Gaza residents with death as his team holds direct talks with Hamas about captives

Qatar on Wednesday rebuffed what it said were "false accusations" by Israel's domestic security agency attributing funds from the Gulf state to an increase in Hamas' military strength before its 7 October 2023 attack.

"False accusations made by the Shin Bet security agency linking Qatari aid to the October 7 attack are yet another example of deflection driven by self-interest and self-preservation in Israeli politics," Qatar's International Media Office said in a statement.

The security agency published findings from an internal probe on Tuesday acknowledging its own failings in preventing the attack from Gaza on southern Israel which sparked 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory. 

The Shin Bet report also said "the influx of Qatari funds and their transfer to the military wing" was one of the "main reasons for the strengthening of Hamas that allowed it to launch the attack," according to its executive summary.

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli army issued demolition orders for 17 Palestinian homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Anadolu Agency reports.

"The occupation army ordered the demolition of 17 homes in the camp to allegedly build a road in the Al-Manshiya neighborhood in the camp," Nihad al-Shawish, head of a local service committee in the camp, told Anadolu.

According to him, the demolitions will leave dozens of families homeless.

On Tuesday, Arab kings and presidents gathered in Cairo, summoned by the weight of history, drawn into a theatre where destinies could be decided - not just for Palestine, but for the very legitimacy of their own rule. 

This was not diplomacy as usual. It was not a routine summit lined with hollow statements and tired pledges. It was a reckoning, a moment where the Arab world stood before a mirror and asked itself: do we still possess the power to refuse, or have we been domesticated beyond salvation?

At the heart of the summit lay a scheme so monstrous it almost defies belief: the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, a final act of erasure seeking to transform the territory into a sanitised, tamed “Riviera” where the footprints of its true owners are scrubbed from the sand. 

The vision was born in the war rooms of Tel Aviv and blessed in the corridors of Washington, an audacious gambit to mould the ruins of Gaza into a pacified appendage of the Israeli state. But to make this fantasy a reality, one final condition is needed: Arab consent.

READ MORE: Cairo summit: US-Israeli rejection of the Arab Gaza plan is a moment of truth, opinion by Soumaya Ghannoushi

An Israeli drone strike has targeted a vehicle near a rubbish dump in Ras Naqoura, south Lebanon, injuring two people, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.

The agency says that the two injured siblings were gathering scrap metal.

Israel has issued an administrative detention order against a 14-year-old Palestinian, making him the youngest child administrative detainee on record, according to the watchdog Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP).

Muin Ghassan Fahed Salahat was arrested by Israeli forces during a pre-dawn raid on his home in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on 19 February.

DCIP reported that Israeli soldiers stormed his home at 3:40am, detaining, blindfolding and cuffing his father. When Muin awoke, he was also seized, and soldiers attempted to blindfold him and his tie his hands behind his back as they took him away. Muin's father was warned not to move for at least 10 minutes.

Salahat was then issued a four-month administrative detention order on 2 March, and is now being held without charge or trial.

DCIP said he is the youngest Palestinian child to be placed under the order since the watchdog began monitoring administrative detainees in 2008.

Read more: Israeli forces detain 14-year-old Palestinian without charge or trial

Israel’s new military chief, Eyal Zamir, used his inaugural speech in Tel Aviv to push a hardline agenda, vowing to lead the army “to victory” and bring captives back from Gaza “in any way possible.”

His comments, reported by The Times of Israel, also called for broader participation in the army, a veiled warning to ultra-Orthodox groups that oppose conscription.

Declaring the military “the army of the people,” Zamir stressed the need for unity to confront so-called external threats. 

Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian man accused of involvement in an attack in Tel Aviv last October.

Such actions continue to violate human rights, with organisations condemning Israel's policy of destroying the homes of Palestinians linked to attacks which have labelled as an act of collective punishment.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza has led to a catastrophic surge in the prices of essential goods, making basic food items unaffordable for the majority of residents.

In Deir al-Balah, chicken prices have soared from $5.76 per kilo to $13.72, while cooking gas is now 16 times more expensive, costing $406 for 12 kilos.

This crippling economic strain, as reported by the AP, is compounded by the Israeli-imposed aid blockade, which deprives Palestinians of necessities.

Abeer Obeid, a woman from northern Gaza, expressed growing fears of an even more devastating conflict, with no end in sight to the suffering.

Dozens of settlers, escorted by Israeli forces, forcibly entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday.

According the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the settlers breached the holy site through the Al-Maghariba Gate. Israeli police not only facilitated this incursion but also violently assaulted Palestinian worshippers, forcibly removing them to clear the way for the settlers, reported Wafa.

Egypt proposed on Tuesday a $53bn plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip over five years, a text of which has been seen by Middle East Eye.

The proposal comes during the extraordinary Arab League summit held in Cairo as a reaction to US President Donald Trump’s declaration last month that he intends to take over Gaza and turn it into a tourism hub while displacing its Palestinian population. 

The Egyptian plan rejects the displacement of Palestinians and seeks to redevelop the enclave without depopulating it. 

It states that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will oversee the management of the reconstruction through a “Gaza Administration Committee” for the first six months.

The committee will be composed of technocrats and non-partisan members, operating under the umbrella of the Ramallah-based Palestinian government.  

Read more: Explained: Egypt’s $53bn plan for Gaza reconstruction

Israeli forces have launched a series of overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, detaining multiple Palestinians.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that four individuals were seized from Kafr ad-Dik, west of Salfit, while six others were arrested in Nablus and the adjacent Balata camp, where troops assaulted a local resident.

In Tulkarm refugee camp, three young men were taken, and two university students were detained from Ramallah and the nearby village of Beitello.

Additionally, one person was arrested in Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem.

Israeli Army Radio, referencing figures provided by minister Ze’ev Elkin, has disclosed that approximately 2,900 structures in northern Israel were destroyed or damaged during the conflict with Hezbollah.

Surprisingly, nearly 20 percent of this devastation was attributed to the Israeli military’s own operations. The financial toll of the destruction is estimated at a staggering 9 billion shekels ($2.5bn).  

Despite the widespread displacement, with 67,500 Israelis forced to flee their homes, only around 19,000 have been able to return so far.

Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian man accused of involvement in an attack in Tel Aviv last October.

The bombing of the Hebron house, shared in footage from the Palestine Information Centre, sends a clear message of collective punishment against the family of Ahmed al-Haimoni, a suspect in the October 1 shooting in which eight Israelis died.

Such actions continue to violate human rights, with organisations condemning Israel's policy of destroying the homes of Palestinians linked to attacks.

From the earliest days of the genocide in Gaza, Israeli society quickly aligned itself with the aggressive rhetoric of its politicians, fuelling the state’s crackdown on Palestinian citizens. 

Many Israelis took it upon themselves to incite violence, humiliate Palestinians, and even call for the arrest of Palestinian citizens who expressed outrage over the unfolding atrocities in Gaza.

Palestinians within the Green Line understood the new reality, and responded by adopting a politics of silence. 

They avoided political discourse with Israelis, restricted or deleted their social media presence, and severed ties with Israeli acquaintances amid widespread incitement.

As harrowing images emerged from Gaza, Palestinians inside Israel saw the extent of public support for Israeli war crimes, and realised that with the right political climate, nothing would stop the state from taking extreme measures against them - including a return to the military rule they endured from 1948 to 1967, or worse, mass expulsion.

Read more: Palestinians in Israel face persecution as far right settlers seize control of the state

Amid shifting geopolitical dynamics, particularly in Syria, the Israeli army has launched official Turkish-language accounts on Telegram and X.

This move expands the Israeli army propaganda reach to seven languages, including Arabic and Persian, as it intensifies efforts to shape narratives in the region.