Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

Israeli fighter jets shattered the sound barrier over Beirut and its southern suburbs, the first such provocation since the 27 November ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The escalation comes as Israel continues to delay its withdrawal from southern Lebanon despite an 18 February deadline. Lebanese officials have dismissed claims of any agreement to extend Israel’s presence.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, Israeli aircraft flew at low altitude over the capital, the Matn district, and parts of the Bekaa region.

Lebanon has documented nearly 900 Israeli ceasefire violations since 27 November, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children.

Dozens of pro-Palestine demonstrators protested against the Hollywood premiere of the new Marvel blockbuster, Captain America: Brave New World, to denounce the inclusion of an Israeli superhero as well as the actor Shira Haas playing the role, as she was formerly in the Israeli army.

Protestors stationed themselves near the red carpet in Los Angeles on Tuesday, holding up signs that read "Sabra has got to go", "Disney supports genocide", and "#Pray4Jasmine", according to Variety. They also chanted, “Free, free, free Palestine” and “Disney, Disney, you can’t hide.”

The film is due to be released on 14 February.

Read more: Calls resurface to boycott Marvel film with superhero played by ex-Israeli army actor

Hamas has called for mass demonstrations worldwide to oppose Israel’s ongoing expulsion of Palestinians, urging people to mobilise in cities across the globe on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to resist what it describes as "ethnic cleansing".

The call follows Donald Trump’s renewed push for a US-led "takeover" of Gaza, which would see Palestinians forcibly removed to Jordan and Egypt while the territory is transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue their military campaign in the occupied West Bank.

A covert relationship claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia, one that was years in the making, has been unravelling in a matter of days.

Netanyahu talked about it explicitly in an interview with Channel 14 during his visit to Washington last week.

"We had covert relations for nearly three years. On our side, apart from me, three people knew about it. On their side there were also a very small number of people who were involved in this, as was the case on the American side," Netanyahu boasted.

If true, and not another of Netanyahu’s fabrications, you can either reveal this relationship with the other side’s consent, or when it is over. The third possibility is that this statement is the act of a bully, like many others in the past week.

But the relationship between the kingdom and Israel has been as much based on personal as state ambitions. 

Read more:  How Trump and Netanyahu forced Mohammed bin Salman to draw a line on Palestine

Donald Trump believes forcing Palestinians out of Gaza would be a “more majestic” solution, according to the White House, despite widespread rejection of such a plan.

The White House said that Jordan’s King Abdullah II firmly opposed the idea during discussions on Tuesday.

“The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing. “But the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas.”

Trump’s remarks align with Israeli efforts to forcefully depopulate Gaza despite the proposal being widely condemned as "ethnic cleansing".

The regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), Edouard Beigbeder, has voiced grave concern over the increasing number of Palestinian children killed and wounded by Israel in the occupied West Bank.

“In the first two months of 2025, 13 Palestinian children have been killed, including seven since 19 January, following the start of a large-scale military assault in the northern West Bank,” Beigbeder said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said that since 7 October 2023, Israeli forces have killed 195 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, while three Israeli children have also died. The number of Palestinian child fatalities has surged by 200 percent over the past 16 months compared to the previous period.

Families in northern West Bank refugee camps, such as Jenin, Nur Shams, Tulkarm, and Far’a, have been forced to flee their homes due to Israeli military raids.

Unicef, Beigbeder said, remains committed to working with partners to support children and families suffering under these conditions.

The fate of Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement is in jeopardy after Hamas accused Israel of violating the terms of the agreement.

Israel's leaders reacted angrily after the Palestinian group’s decision to postpone the release of Israeli captives over alleged violations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would resume the war if more captives were not released on Saturday.

“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” he said in a video address on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, added that the Israelis should “let all hell break loose” if the captives are not released by the Saturday deadline.

Read more: How did Israel violate the ceasefire in Gaza?

A new survey of 1,200 Americans found that 64 percent oppose President Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to "take over" Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

The poll, conducted by Data for Progress, outlined that such a plan would involve the forced displacement of approximately 1.8 million Palestinians to neighbouring countries.

“A strong majority of voters are against the US seizing control of Gaza and expelling its Palestinian population, with even greater opposition to deploying American troops to enforce the plan,” the organisation stated.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Tulkarm reported that its fighters, alongside other resistance factions, are engaged in intense battles with Israeli occupation forces in the Shuhada neighbourhood of Nour Shams camp in the occupied West Bank.

According to the group, fighters have deployed machine guns, inflicting confirmed casualties among Israeli troops, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s office dismissed reports that Lebanon had agreed to postpone Israel’s withdrawal from its territory beyond the scheduled date.

The statement came in response to a report by Saudi news channel Al-Hadath, which said that Lebanon had consented to an extension until after Eid al-Fitr, ending on 2 April.

Israel has repeatedly failed to meet its withdrawal deadlines, raising concerns that it intends to maintain its military presence in violation of previous agreements.

The United States has given Israel the green light to maintain its military presence at multiple locations in Lebanon beyond the agreed withdrawal date, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan TV reports, citing senior cabinet officials.

Israel was originally required to pull out by 26 January under the ceasefire terms but was granted an extension until 18 February. Despite this, Washington appears to have endorsed Israel’s continued occupation of parts of southern Lebanon.

The US played a key role in brokering the November ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, but the latest move raises questions about its commitment to enforcing the agreement.

Israel has once again failed to meet the deadline for withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon, further undermining the ceasefire agreement.

A fragile truce has been in place since 27 November, halting months of intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale conflict last September.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was initially required to pull out by 26 January. However, after refusing to comply, the deadline was pushed to 18 February.

Now, Israel has requested another extension until 28 February, according to its public broadcaster Kan - a request Lebanon has rejected.

A total of 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024, the highest number recorded since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began documenting such cases in 1992.

Israeli forces were responsible for 85 of these deaths. The CPJ has found evidence that at least ten journalists were deliberately targeted by Israeli forces.

The previous deadliest year for journalists was 2007, with 113 fatalities. The CPJ’s database recorded 102 journalist deaths in 2023.

According to the CPJ, journalists are included in its database if there are "reasonable grounds to believe they may have been killed in relation to their work", either due to being deployed in dangerous areas or being directly targeted for their reporting.

The organisation confirmed that 24 journalists were deliberately killed in 2024, including ten targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon "in defiance of international laws that define journalists as civilians during conflict." It is also investigating 20 additional cases in which Israeli forces may have deliberately killed journalists.

The CPJ criticised Israel’s investigations into journalist killings as "slow and lacking transparency", adding that Israeli authorities "frequently accuse journalists of being terrorists without providing credible evidence".

Syria’s interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, received an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani to visit Moscow, the Syrian presidency announced on Wednesday.

Russia, a key ally of former president Bashar al-Assad before his ousting in December, seeks to maintain control over its military bases in Syria.

Israeli troops have torched multiple homes and a farm in al-Aadaissah, southern Lebanon, in another violation of the ceasefire with Hezbollah, Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

Israeli forces also fired shots on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, though no casualties were recorded.

The ceasefire, in effect since 27 November, temporarily halted months of cross-border attacks that escalated into full-scale conflict in September. However, repeated Israeli violations have further strained the fragile truce.