Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington on Sunday to become the first foreign leader to visit US President Donald Trump since his return to the White House.

Trump and his Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff have been credited with bringing the ceasefire in Gaza to fruition thanks to pressure on Netanyahu to accept the deal that was later revealed to have been on the table since December 2023.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with Witkoff on Monday, along with advisors to the president, before his Oval Office visit on Tuesday. He is reportedly spending the entire week in Washington before returning home on Saturday.

The trip comes as phase 1 of the ceasefire rolls out in Gaza, with weekly prisoner swaps that by 1 March should see 33 Israeli captives released from Gaza in return for just under 2,000 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons, many of whom have never been charged.

Netanyahu, whose government is comprised of influential, far-right elements - has long maintained that Israeli forces have “the right to return to fighting” after Hamas releases all the captives it has held since the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel.

Read more: What’s on the agenda for the Trump-Netanyahu meeting?

US President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council and prohibiting funding for Unrwa, a White House official said on Monday.

An Israeli law, which was adopted in October and went into effect last week, bans Unrwa's operations in Israel. 

"It is Israel’s sovereign decision to close Unrwa's offices in Jerusalem on 30 January. The United States supports the implementation of this decision," US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council last Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has asked congressional leaders to approve new transfers of roughly $1bn worth of bombs and other military hardware to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700m, and armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar CAT.N, worth more than $300m, the report added, citing sources.

US President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters that there are no guarantees the Gaza ceasefire will hold, while his envoy Steve Witkoff said the measure is holding for now.

Israeli forces obstructed an ambulance at a military checkpoint near the village of Majdal Bani Fadil, southeast of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank on Monday evening, Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli forces briefly held the ambulance attempting to leave the village of Aqraba at the checkpoint and prevented it from passing through, according to local sources.

Since the implementation of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on 19 January 2025, Israel has intensified its military measures in the occupied West Bank by establishing additional checkpoints and iron gates at the entrances to Palestinian towns and villages.

Hamas officials on Monday said they were "ready" for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce.

"Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase," one official told AFP.

"We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation," said another.

The Palestinian Authority on Monday accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has been carrying out deadly operations for several weeks.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry indicated that since the beginning of the year 70 Palestinians, including ten children, had "been killed by the Israeli occupation" in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported that in January, there were 2,161 incidents of violence carried out by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Additionally, over 912 military checkpoints were established by the occupation, disrupting Palestinian movement and geography.

The governor of Tulkarm reported that Israeli forces have forcibly displaced over 75 per cent of the camp’s population from their homes.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 70 people, including 10 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2025.

The toll includes 38 in Jenin, 15 in Tubas, six in Nablus, five in Tulkarem, three in Hebron, two in Bethlehem, and one in occupied East Jerusalem.

Among the dead are a woman and two elderly Palestinians.

Palestinians in Jenin and its refugee camp held funerals for seven people killed during Israel’s two-week-long military offensive.

Local sources said Israeli forces restricted the funeral processions, allowing only the families of the deceased to attend.

Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera Arabic that around 25,000 patients in the enclave are in desperate need of medical attention.

He warned that humanitarian aid deliveries have dropped significantly and that medical supplies are critically low, raising fears of disease outbreaks.

Hospitals such as Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan, and the Indonesian Hospital are no longer operational, while the Israeli blockade is preventing life-saving treatment for kidney failure patients.

“There is no justification for the occupation or any other party to allow Gaza’s health system to collapse,” al-Hams said, adding that the situation in Rafah is catastrophic, particularly in the medical sector.

The Gaza ceasefire agreement, landing on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, reflected the high priority of this deal for the Trump administration.

But in Israel, it has caused heated debate, with far-right politicians baulking at the prospect. Settlements Minister Orit Strook, who has called for a long-term occupation of Gaza, called the exchange deal a “reward for terrorism”.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s opposition has reportedly held up final approval of the agreement, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has resigned over what he termed a “surrender deal”.

In a last-minute meeting with Smotrich recently, Netanyahu emphasised that Israel must ensure Trump’s continued support, asserting that it is absolutely forbidden to damage our relationship with Trump.

Netanyahu’s position appears to be increasingly aligning with that of the Israeli military, acknowledging that continued bloodshed in Gaza does not enhance Israel's strategic stance, particularly given the rising number of Israeli casualties. 

Read more: Gaza ceasefire: Will Trump end Netanyahu's rule?

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, expressing gratitude for Qatar’s efforts in facilitating the ceasefire deal, particularly in the case of recently released Israeli captive Ofer Calderon, who holds French citizenship.

During their conversation, the two leaders also stressed the importance of restoring stability in the Middle East and the urgent need for maintaining a ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon.

The revised death toll in Gaza comes as no surprise to those who have closely monitored events over the past 15 months, says Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Callamard noted that even the previously reported figures were enough to warrant an International Court of Justice case and potential arrest warrants for Israeli leaders from the International Criminal Court.

“But it should have prompted a stronger response from governments much earlier. The revised death toll only underscores the urgency and gravity of what has been inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.

She added that while the new figure of nearly 62,000 deaths may not have an immediate legal impact, it does not change the definition of genocide.

“Genocide is not about numbers; it is about the acts committed, such as deliberately creating conditions that lead to a population’s destruction, and the intent behind them,” said Callamard, whose organisation has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The official death toll from the Palestinian Health Ministry stands at 47,487. On Monday, the head of Gaza's information office stated that at least 14,222 people are missing and presumed buried under the rubble. While these figures have been included in the overall death toll, they have not been officially confirmed by the Palestinian Health Ministry.