Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron launched a general strike on Sunday to protest the killing of two Palestinians by Israeli forces a day earlier.

Footage posted online showed shops shut in the city and streets deserted. 

The strike comes after Israeli forces killed two Palestinians: 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil al-Rajabi and 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood.

The Israeli army said it opened fire on Rajabi after he allegedly drove a car into a group of soldiers. 

It added that Dawoud, an "uninvolved passer-by", was also shot dead.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while carrying out his work.

Good morning,

Here are the key updates from Gaza and the Middle East:

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said it has found children in Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition during routine screening. 
• Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday have launched a general strike after Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in Bab al-Zawiya on Saturday.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his first official visit to Israel on Sunday.
• Qatar said it will support the Palestinian people but will not fund the reconstruction of what others have destroyed in Gaza. 
• Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of fighting “ghosts” at a conference in Doha and said that Israel has rejected his overtures since he came to power.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

• At least seven people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City and northern areas of the strip, Al Jazeera reported, as Israel continues attacks across the so-called "yellow line" demarcating the buffer zone. 

• Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army's occupation ends.

• The Israeli military said its soldiers shot and killed two people in Hebron in the occupied West Bank during what it described as “operational activity”.

• Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian-owned land in Mekhmas and targeted Bedouin shepherds near the occupied Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reported.

• A senior official from Saudi Arabia said a two-state solution is the only way forward for Israel and Palestine, Al Jazeera reported.

• Qatar and Egypt called on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and for an international stabilisation force be deployed, steps they say are essential to fully carry out the fragile agreement.

• Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said talks on the make-up of the Gaza stabilisation force remain ongoing.

• US President Donald Trump will name two Gaza authorities under his peace plan during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this month.

A senior official from Saudi Arabia said a two-state solution is the only way forward for Israel and Palestine, Al Jazeera reported.

Manal Radwan, an official in the foreign ministry, told the Doha Forum 2025 that US President Trump’s peace plan is clear and should not be renegotiated again.

“We cannot go back and redefine what we mean by ceasefire, what we mean even by disarmament, what we mean by a Palestinian-led process in governing Gaza,” Rawan said.

“Almost everyone in the international community agrees that the two-state solution is the only solution forward. If that is so, then it is asking people what it is that they are going to do to bring this implementation and make it possible," she added.

Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked Palestinian-owned land in Mekhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and targeted Bedouin shepherds near Khan al-Ahmar to the east, the Wafa news agency reported.

Local sources said the settlers released their cows into olive fields in the Wadi al-Baradiya area of Mekhmas before attempting to attack nearby homes. Young residents intervened, forcing the settlers to withdraw.

In a related incident, armed settlers targeted the Bedouin community near Khan al-Ahmar, east of occupied Jerusalem, while other settlers assaulted shepherds and prevented them from taking their flocks to grazing areas. 

The Israeli military said its soldiers shot and killed two people in Hebron in the occupied West Bank during what it described as “operational activity”.

In a brief statement on Telegram, the army said the two accelerated their car towards soldiers at a security checkpoint.

“The soldiers fired at the terrorists and eliminated them,” it said.

Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army's occupation ends.

“Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,” Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: “If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state."

Asked by AFP, Hayya's bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

"We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza ," Hayya added, signalling his group's rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.

A giant Christmas tree adorned with red and gold baubles stands in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem for the first time since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.

The Palestinian city, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, had refrained from public Christmas celebrations over the past two years.

But as a precarious ceasefire in Gaza enters its second month, the city held a ceremony on Saturday night, lighting up the 20-metre tree at the edge of Manger Square.

Thousands of Palestinians from across the West Bank and Israel filled the square, erupting in cheers when the tree's lights were turned on shortly before 8 pm.

Two Palestinians were wounded on Saturday evening by live fire from Israeli forces in the town of Al-Ram, north-east of occupied Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its crews treated two men, aged 47 and 27, who were shot in the lower limbs near the Israeli separation wall adjacent to Al-Ram. Both were taken to a hospital.

Earlier in the evening, Red Crescent teams had also treated two other Palestinians from Salfit who were shot near the wall in Al-Ram and transferred to the hospital.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz heads to Jerusalem on Saturday for his first visit since taking office, aiming to reaffirm traditionally solid ties that were shaken during Israel's war on Gaza.

Merz stopped in Jordan briefly on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II, which Merz told reporters afterwards had focused largely on the fragile peace process.

Speaking before flying on to Jerusalem, Merz urged more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and for Hamas to lay down their weapons. He said Jordan and Germany both remain committed to a negotiated two-state solution.

Israeli forces have arrested five young men from the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.

The local sources said the soldiers stormed the town and arrested two brothers, Ibrahim and Muhammad Khalil Sweidan and three others, Mahmoud Tayseer Sweidan, Ahmed Taleb Nassar, and Muhammad Ayman Majd

Israeli soldiers also assaulted the town of Kafr Thulth, south of Qalqilya.

The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday lashed out at US sanctions, arguing they effectively put top court officials on a par with "terrorists and drug traffickers".

In a wide-ranging interview with AFP, Mame Mandiaye Niang also said it would be "conceivable" to hold an in-absentia hearing against high-level ICC targets such as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sixty-five-year-old Niang, along with top ICC judges, is subject to sanctions from the administration of US President Donald Trump, in retaliation at the court's arrest warrants for Netanyahu over Israel's war on Gaza.

"You can disagree with what we're doing. That happens all the time," Niang told AFP in a one-to-one interview on the sixth floor of the ICC's building in The Hague.

"But even if we upset you, you should never put us on the same list as terrorists or drug traffickers. That is the message" to Trump.

Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Saturday that the Gaza stabilisation force and the Board of Peace must be put in place this month, adding that the current ceasefire was "fragile and cannot hold for many more weeks in its current phase".

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the international stabilisation force needed to function as a peacekeeping force.

At least seven people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City and northern areas of the strip, Al Jazeera reported, as Israel continues attacks across the so-called "yellow line" demarcating the buffer zone. 

A 70-year-old woman was among those gunned down by drone strikes in Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Zeitoun in northern Gaza, health officials said.