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

Israeli forces say they killed a Hamas commander in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, as they pushed ahead with a weeks-long operation against groups in the area that has sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes, the Reuters news agency reported.

The military said it had mounted a raid to arrest Aysar al-Saadi, the head of the Hamas network in the area, and killed him in a gunfight in which another Hamas operative was also killed. Three other Hamas members were arrested, Israeli forces said.

Israel's former national security minister has urged for the "complete shutdown of electricity and water" alongside the bombing of aid in Gaza, despite rights groups and experts warning of famine in the besieged enclave. 

On Monday, far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir said that such measures should be taken in the Gaza Strip to "starve" Hamas before resuming the war "so that we can later crush them easily".

"The government should also order the bombing of the aid stocks that accumulated in Gaza in huge quantities during and before the ceasefire, along with a complete shutdown of electricity and water," Ben Gvir wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"If Hamas threatens to harm our hostages, it should know that it will be met with the execution of terrorists," he added.

Read more: Israel's Ben Gvir calls for aid to be bombed amid siege on Gaza

Arab leaders are meeting in Cairo to discuss a plan for the governance and reconstruction of Gaza to counter the widely condemned displacement proposal presented by US President Donald Trump.

Foreign ministers met in Egypt's capital on Monday before the emergency Arab League summit to discuss the Egyptian plan.

The draft proposal, seen by Middle East Eye, includes a $53bn reconstruction plan for Gaza, aiming to redevelop the enclave without displacing Palestinians.

The plan involves the Palestinian Authority (PA) overseeing the process through a Gaza Administration Committee for the first six months, supporting the PA's full return to Gaza.

Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), told Middle East Eye on the sidelines of the summit that the immediate priority for both Palestinians and Arabs was to establish a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end the devastating Israeli war.

"First, a complete Israeli withdrawal is essential to restore stability and security," he said, emphasising that it would allow Palestinians to reassert themselves on their land and begin rebuilding. 

Read more: Arab leaders meet to discuss alternative to Trump’s Gaza plan 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday said he welcomes an Egyptian plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip and urged Donald Trump to support such a plan that would not involve forcibly displacing Palestinians.

Speaking at the Arab League summit, Abbas said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allowed for it.

He stated that the Palestinian Authority was the only legitimate governing and military force in the Palestinian territories.

Abbas said that he would issue a general amnesty for all those dismissed from the Fatah movement, which administers the occupied West Bank.

The US State Department said on Tuesday that it was designating Yemen's Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a "foreign terrorist organisation".

It comes weeks after US President Donald Trump called for such a move. 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said he supports an Arab-led initiative to mobilise support for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt presented a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza at an Arab League summit in Cairo.

Speaking at the Cairo summit, Guterres called for the resumption "without delay" of negotiations on continuing the ceasefire in Gaza, and expressed concern over an escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank.

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.  

Click the link below for a full break down of what's in the proposal. 

Read more: What is Egypt’s $53bn plan for Gaza reconstruction?

An Arab summit on the reconstruction of Gaza is under way in Cairo. 

Egypt's President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi told the summit that Egyptian officials had met with Palestinians to create an independent committee to govern Gaza.  

"Humanity lost its virtue in Gaza," Sisi said. "The people in Gaza who lost loved ones, those who were widowed orphaned are looking up to you to restore hope and last and permanent peace."

He added that peace could not be maintained by force, adding that Egypt "will also be providing security training to security officials in Gaza". 

He urged Arab leaders to adopt Egypt's plan for post-war Gaza, which was unveiled today, and said that Egypt would host a reconstruction conference next month. 

The summit is part of attempts by Arab states to come up with an alternative to US President Donald Trump's proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza's population to Egypt and Jordan. 

"I am certain President Trump is able to achieve peace regarding the Palestinian issue," Sisi told the summit. 

Gwyn Daniel, a psychotherapist, trainer and writer, explains that Israel’s attempt to quash displays of emotion in Palestine is deeply embedded in a racist and dehumanising worldview. pic.twitter.com/Ec3CDclyO8

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 4, 2025

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to establish an independent "Chilcot-style" enquiry into the UK's involvement in Israel's war on Gaza. 

In a letter to the prime minister, Corbyn - who sits in parliament as an independent MP - argued that Britain has "played a highly influential role in Israel's military operations".

"Many people believe that the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law," he wrote, pointing to Britain's sale of weapons and supply of intelligence to Israel.

He recalled the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, which found Tony Blair government's decision was based on "flawed intelligence and assessments".

Corbyn urged a similar inquiry into Britain's complicity with Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 61,000 people.

Read more: Corbyn demands 'Chilcot' style inquiry into UK complicity in Israel's war on Gaza

A Palestinian man has been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The ministry said that Ayser Abdul Halim al-Saadi, 21, was shot by Israeli forces in an eastern neighbourhood in Jenin.

Israeli troops have reportedly withheld Saadi's body.

Earlier today, another Palestinian man, identified by local media as Jihad Alauna, was killed by Israeli forces during a raid of a building east of Jenin. 

Khalid Abdalla, the British-Egyptian star of the hit show The Crown, and 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos are among those who have been ordered to attend formal interviews with the Metropolitan Police over alleged public order breaches at a pro-Palestine rally in London in January.

Abdalla, who played Princess Diana's lover Dodi Fayed in the hit Netflix drama The Crown, said on Monday: "I received a letter from the Metropolitan Police summoning me to attend 'a formal interview' in relations to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest of Jan 18th."

So far, 21 people have been charged so far over the protest, the police said. They include the rally's chief steward Chris Nineham and Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director Ben Jamal. 

The Met accused demonstrators on 18 January of breaking through a police cordon in Trafalgar Square, a claim which organisers and protesters, including prominent politicians, strongly deny.

Kapos, 87, who has been summoned for a police interview, was a child survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary who later fled to Britain in the wake of the Soviet invasion in 1956.

Read more: Police to question Holocaust survivor and 'The Crown' star over pro-Palestine protest

Hamas has made it clear that it will not participate in any administrative structure governing post-war Gaza unless it is built on national consensus.

“It is not necessary for Hamas to be part of the administrative arrangements in Gaza. It is not interested in that and does not want to be in these arrangements at all,” spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Anadolu Agency.

He stressed that any future governance must be shaped by Palestinians alone, rejecting outside interference.

Qassem also called for an urgent and genuine reconstruction effort to help Gaza recover from Israel’s devastating assault, which has left the enclave in ruins.

After Israel's foreign minister insisted on the total demilitarisation of Gaza before moving to the second phase of the ceasefire, Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the demand as unacceptable.

"Any talk about the resistance’s weapons is nonsense. The resistance’s weapons are a red line for Hamas and all resistance factions," Abu Zuhri told AFP news agency.

Israel has long sought to dismantle Palestinian armed groups, using this as justification for its brutal military campaigns. However, Hamas and other factions maintain that their weapons are a crucial part of their struggle against Israeli occupation.

Arab states have endorsed Egypt’s reconstruction plan for Gaza, urging swift international support to rebuild the war-torn enclave.

A draft communique from Tuesday’s summit backed the proposal, calling on global financial institutions to fund the effort without delay.

The initiative directly challenges former US President Donald Trump’s vision of turning Gaza into a so-called “Middle East Riviera” while erasing its Palestinian identity.

Trump sparked outrage across the Arab world by proposing to take control of Gaza, displace its more than two million residents, and redevelop the territory to serve western and Israeli interests.