Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

More aid has finally entered Gaza following a tense showdown between Israel and Hamas that threatened the ceasefire deal concluded in January. 

Ever since the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president and his declared plan to "clean out" two million Palestinians from Gaza and "own it", alongside accusations by Hamas that Israel has failed to stick to the terms of the agreement, the ceasefire has been under threat.

After Hamas called on Israel to keep to the terms of the deal if it wanted the next tranche of captives released on Saturday as planned, Trump threatened that “all hell will break loose” unless all the living captives were released instead.

Israel then warned of a "new Gaza war of another intensity altogether" that would "allow the realisation of Trump's vision for Gaza".

However, intensified efforts by Egypt and Qatar succeeded in "overcoming the obstacles" hindering the agreement, AFP reported, citing Egyptian state media. 

Read more: Israel allows more aid into Gaza as 369 Palestinians set to be released

Spain’s foreign minister has said that Gaza must remain home to its Palestinian population, vowing that his country will support reconstruction efforts in the devastated enclave.

“We truly want this ceasefire to become permanent, and I am pleased to see that the release of hostages has resumed,” Jose Manuel Albares told Anadolu on the sidelines of the Munich security conference.
He said that a lasting truce benefits all parties, including Israel’s security.

“Of course, the Palestinians of Gaza must go back and live in Gaza,” Albares said, addressing recent remarks from the US administration.

US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage with his proposal to “take over” Gaza and forcibly expel its residents, an initiative widely condemned as ethnic cleansing.

Albares added that Spain remains committed to aiding Gaza’s reconstruction, ensuring its people recover from the destruction and rebuild their lives.

Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has lashed out at the planned release of just three Israeli captives from Gaza, demanding that Israel push for the full implementation of Trump’s call for Hamas to free all captives by the weekend.

“The Israeli government has the full backing of the president of the world’s greatest power to demand the release of all hostages by Saturday at 12:00 – and you settle for three?!” he wrote on X.

“This kind of weakness is unacceptable! It’s time for action, not words. If Hamas doesn’t release everyone, unleash the fire of hell on them!”

Ben-Gvir resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet in January in protest against the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Israeli forces shot and wounded two Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza in another violation of the ceasefire agreement.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli navy fired two shells at a fishing boat near Gaza City’s port, injuring both men.

Despite the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel taking effect on 19 January, Israeli forces have continued their assaults, killing dozens of Palestinians in Gaza.

In the summer of 2010, the prominent Jewish American writer Peter Beinart dropped a bombshell on America's liberal elite.

He observed, as Israel continued to build illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and completed the first round of what it called "mowing the lawn" - the name given to the periodic bombing of Gaza - that attitudes towards Israel were dramatically shifting among young American Jews.

The winds were changing, Beinart noted in the New York Review of Books.

"Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral," he wrote.

He cautioned that the American Jewish establishment's refusal to change track on Israel's brutal occupation of the occupied territories would alienate young Jewish Americans from the Israeli state.

Read more: Being Jewish after Gaza: Peter Beinart's 'reckoning' is a bid to rehabilitate Zionism

Saudi Arabia will convene a summit on Thursday with leaders from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the UAE to discuss US plans for Gaza, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. The meeting comes ahead of an Arab League gathering in Cairo next week on the same issue.

Another source, speaking anonymously, confirmed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would also attend.

Trump’s proposal to have the US "take over" Gaza and forcibly displace over two million Palestinians - suggesting Egypt and Jordan as relocation sites - has provoked international condemnation and been called "ethnic cleansing".

The plan, announced during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, has united Arab states in rare opposition, with Saudi Arabia and others reiterating their support for a Palestinian state.

Gaza’s Government Media Office confirmed on Friday that no temporary shelters, caravans, heavy machinery, or equipment have entered from Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The office expressed hope that supplies would arrive soon but accused Israel of obstructing aid deliveries.

It stated that mediators are being regularly updated on Israel’s violations and urged immediate action, warning that the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza cannot withstand further delays.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported on Friday that 16 Palestinians were wounded after Israeli settlers launched an attack in the al-Minya area, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army issued two edicts on 10 February to confiscate more than 10,000 dunums (1,000 hectares) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

Referred to as “temporary military decisions", the army is targeting 8,734 dunums in the Tubas areas and 2,394 dunums in several villages east of Ramallah.

The text of the two orders stated that they were issued by Yossi Segal, the official responsible for government property and absentee property in the West Bank, to approve a temporary decision on government lands for the purpose of grazing.

Recently, Israeli settlers have seized large areas of land in the West Bank under the pretext of grazing their livestock. To impose de facto control, they release cows and sheep into the plains and mountains, control them, and prevent Palestinians from reaching them.

Read more: Israel to confiscate a thousand hectares of Palestinian land in West Bank

The foreign ministers of France and Lebanon have said they are demanding that the Israeli military withdraws completely from Lebanon by 18 February, Haaretz reported.

The original deadline for the withdrawal was 26 January, but the US extended it to 18 February after Israel kept troops in Lebanon beyond that date.

A senior Trump administration official suggested on Thursday that Washington may allow Israel to maintain control over five outposts in southern Lebanon.

Clashes are ongoing between young Palestinian residents and Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank village of Yatma, Al Jazeera has reported, citing Palestinian sources.

The violence erupted after Israeli forces raided the village, which is located south of the city of Nablus, the report said.

We earlier reported that Israeli captives Sagui Dekel-Chen and Alexandre Sasha Troufanov will be released from Gaza on Saturday.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, has now identified the third captive set for release that day as Yair Horn, announcing his name in a statement on Telegram.

A Hamas official said Palestinian groups in Gaza will release three captives on Saturday, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire, including American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, Reuters reported.

Separately, the Islamic Jihad group said it would release Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov as part of the deal.

Saudi Arabia is spearheading urgent Arab efforts to develop a plan for Gaza's future as a counter to US President Donald Trump's ambition for a Middle East "Riviera" cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants, 10 sources told Reuters.

Draft ideas will be discussed at a meeting in Riyadh this month of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, the agency reported.

Proposals may involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a deal to sideline Hamas, five of the people said.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were aghast at Trump's plan to forcefully displace Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, an idea immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilising.

Over a dozen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among many brought from Gaza since the beginning of Israel's war on the strip, the foreign ministry said Friday.

The 14 children and their families, a total of 45 people, had on Wednesday crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, where they underwent medical checks at the Italian hospital in Cairo, officials said.

They were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome's Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

Treating the children was part of Italy's efforts to promote peace and dialogue in the region, he said on Friday: "Diplomacy made of solidarity, which restores hope to the most fragile and defenceless.

"Every child we bring to Italy is a sign of hope, a commitment to life and the future," said Italian Defence Secretary Guido Crosetto.