Qatar and Turkey are expected to host Palestinians released from Israeli prisons as part of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, the Times of Israel reports. Palestinians who Israel has charged with murder and released in exchange for hostages in Gaza have already been deported to Egypt, according to the Israeli news outlet, citing two officials.
Israel demanded that these particular prisoners not be released to Gaza or the West Bank and Egypt agreed to serve as a temporary host to the freed detainees, 70 of whom were released last week and are now residing in Cairo.
Turkey has agreed to take in around 15 of those Palestinians and Qatar is expected to take in the remainder, the report said. A Hamas delegation met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan earlier today.
Southern Lebanon
⚡ An Israeli drone has targeted the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor al-Shqeif, in Nabatieh district, adding to the list of hundreds of violations by Isreal of the cease-fire — though reportedly in line with the side-deal between the U.S. and Israel that allows for the former to respond directly to what it perceives as threats in southern Lebanon. According to information from our correspondent in the South, an excavator was targeted and a nearby house was damaged. Emergency responders have been dispatched to the scene.
Southern Lebanon
In the village of Khiam, the site of intense fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers during the war, Civil Defense teams have found the body of another victim of Israeli bombardment in the rubble. Operations are ongoing in the Marjayoun district village, in coordination with the Lebanese Army following the Israeli army's withdrawal, which occurred after more than two weeks of its troops demolishing buildings in Khiam following the cease-fire.
There is as yet no precise figure, due to the lack of centralized data on the number of bodies recovered, but our correspondent in the South estimates that the total exceeds 50, with more still thought to be buried under the rubble.
Civil Defense also announced the recovery of the body in Kfarshuba, in Hasbaya district. Tests are to be carried out on both bodies in order to identify them.
Southern Lebanon
In the village of Khiam, the site of intense fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers during the war, Civil Defense teams have found the body of another victim of Israeli bombardment in the rubble. Operations are ongoing in the Marjayoun district village, in coordination with the Lebanese Army following the Israeli army's withdrawal, which occurred after more than two weeks of its troops demolishing buildings in Khiam following the cease-fire.
There is as yet no precise figure, due to the lack of centralized data on the number of bodies recovered, but our correspondent in the South estimates that the total exceeds 50, with more still thought to be buried under the rubble.
Civil Defense also announced the recovery of the body in Kfarshuba, in Hasbaya district. Tests are to be carried out on both bodies in order to identify them.
Gaza
Israel has received from Hamas the list of hostages slated to be released from Gaza tomorrow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement cited by Haaretz. According to the office, further details will be released to the press once the families have been notified. A political source told Haaretz that the list has been approved by Israel.
While the names are not mentioned in today’s statement, on Sunday, Netanyahu's office said two women would be among those released on Thursday: civilian Arbel Yehoud and Israeli army spotter Agam Berger, plus an additional hostage, unnamed. Three more hostages will be released on Saturday, in accordance with the cease-fire agreement.
Haaretz also reported that the Israeli government estimates five Thai citizens will be also released tomorrow, in addition to the three Israeli hostages
The Israeli army carried out a large explosion in the town of Odaisseh (Marjayoun), with echoes heard in neighboring villages and smoke seen rising from the area, our correspondent in the South reported.
For more than half an hour and continuing until now, the Israeli army has been burning, demolishing and detonating homes in the Ras al-Dhahr area, west of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), local residents reported.
Israel considers the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to be “teeming” with Hamas fighters, a government spokesman has said, as the agency is asked to leave its Jerusalem offices on Thursday.
“UNRWA is overflowing with Hamas members, not just the 19 that UNRWA is half-heartedly investigating, but also hundreds of employees” of the U.N. agency, David Mencer told a press conference. “UNRWA is Hamas,” he added.
Egypt will not participate in the displacement of Palestinians, which would be an "act of injustice," President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi said on Wednesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Egypt and Jordan should take in residents of the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.
According to a statement by the president's office on Wednesday, al-Sissi said Egypt would work with Trump to reach peace between Israel and Palestinians based on a two-state solution.
Syria
The new Syrian authorities have asked Russia to “correct the mistakes of the past,” at a meeting in Damascus with two senior Russian officials, the first since the fall in December of ex-president Bashar al-Assad, an ally of the Kremlin. Moscow is keen to retain its two major military bases in Syria, despite Assad's flight to Russia and the seizure of power by an Islamist-led coalition of armed groups.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said he and his delegation had been received for three hours by Syria's new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and his Foreign Minister, Assaad al-Shaibani.
Gaza
Humanitarian aid to Gaza has passed through the Egyptian port of al-Arich, for the first time since the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Palestinian Hamas came into force on Jan. 19, a Turkish official and Egyptian sources said.
The Turkish ship, loaded with 871 tons of humanitarian aid, includes 300 generators, 20 mobile sanitary cabins, 10,460 tents and 14,350 blankets, according to a Turkish official.
“We are ready to heal the wounds of our Gazan brothers and sisters and meet their temporary shelter needs,” Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Gaza
The Gaza government's media office said that more than half a million displaced Palestinians had returned to Gaza's northern governorates via the al-Rashid and Salah al-Din roads in the past 72 hours.
“This comes after 470 days of forced displacement since the start of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip,” the office added.
Gaza
Gaza’s Government Media Office said, in a statement, that more than half a million displaced Palestinians have returned to the northern governorates of Gaza via al-Rashid and Salah al-Din roads in the past 72 hours.
“This comes after 470 days of forced displacement since the start of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip,” it said.
The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (UNRWA) said the agency had not been affected by Trump’s halt to U.S. foreign aid funding or by an Israeli ban on its operations.
“UNRWA currently is not receiving any U.S. funding so there is no direct impact of the more recent decisions related to the U.N. system for UNRWA,” Dorothee Klaus told reporters at UNRWA’s field office in Lebanon, Al-Jazeera reported.
Klaus also said there was “no direct impact” on the agency’s Lebanon operations from a new Israeli law banning UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and that “UNRWA will continue fully operating in Lebanon.”
U.S. funding to UNRWA was suspended last year until March 2025 after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, without providing evidence.
Israel’s UNRWA ban in Palestinian territories comes into effect on Jan. 30.
Occupied West Bank
Israeli Defense Minister Katz visited the refugee camp in Jenin and said that the Israeli forces will remain in the camp even after the operation is complete "to make sure that terrorism does not return."
Katz held a discussion to assess the situation on the ground, and said that the "Iron Wall" operation will expand to additional "terrorist camps," according to Haaretz.
South Lebanon
The sound of an explosion was heard in Khiam (Marjayoun), reports our local journalist on the ground. Israeli fighter jets also flew over southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent.
Gaza
Hamas sources told AFP that the entry of aid into Gaza was being delayed by Israel, warning that this could have an impact on the hostage releases outlined in the truce agreement.
“We warn that continued delays and non-compliance with these points will affect the natural progress of the agreement, including prisoner exchanges,” said a Hamas official. Another official said, also on condition of anonymity, that the Palestinian movement had requested the intervention of mediators.
Gaza
Israel has killed two Palestinians in the past 24 hours across Gaza, while two others succumbed to their wounds and 59 bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks have been recovered from the rubble, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The new numbers have raised the total death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza to 47,417, according to the ministry.
At least 111,571 Palestinians have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry added.
South Lebanon
According to the mukhtar of the town of Maroun al-Ras, the Israeli forces had kidnapped four people from the town: two young men, a woman, and her son. After some time, the woman and two men were released, but they kept holding Hussein Faris, the woman’s son.
Speaking to L’Orient Today, he noted that two people were also injured, including one individual from outside Maroun al-Ras, who had come to search for the body of his brother, who had been killed in the town.
South Lebanon
The people of the town of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun) set up a tent on the road to Khardali, near the intersection with Deir Mimas (Marjayoun), our correspondent reported. They announced their intention to remain there until the Israeli army withdraws from their town and its residents are able to return.
Israel-Saudi normalization is "closer than ever," Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the United States, told the Jerusalem Post.
"The Saudis want to ensure that their public sees tangible benefits for the Palestinians in any deal," Leiter explained, saying the "perception of the Palestinian issue' is a major hurdle to overcome.
The ambassador added that "the U.S. is uniquely positioned to encourage cooperation from Jordan and Egypt, given their reliance on American aid and security support."
Israeli forces shot at Maroun al-Ras (Marjayoun) residents while they were attempting to enter the town, injuring two, our correspondent in the South reported.
The Israeli army kidnaped four individuals and injured several others in Maroun al-Ras (Marjayoun), with heavy gunfire directed at the locals in the area, forcing citizens to retreat, local residents told L'Orient Today.
Israeli forces have arrested 12 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem who celebrated the release of prisoners under the cease-fire deal.
Israel’s internal Shin Bet security service and the police said they arrested the men after videos emerged showing them celebrating by waving Hamas flags and firing guns into the air.
They alleged that the men violated a ban on “expressions of joy” and “identification with Hamas” that has been imposed since the Gaza cease-fire took hold.
Israeli forces bulldozed the artesian well in the town of Houla (Marjayoun) and built sand and soil barriers on some of the roads, local residents reported.
An artesian well is a type of well where water is under natural pressure and rises to the surface without the need for pumping. It is usually a reliable water source, and its destruction would cause water shortages in the town.
Work has begun on repairing and rehabilitating the electricity network in the city of Khiam (Marjayoun), local residents reported.
The Israeli forces withdrew behind the sand barrier in the Mfaylha area, west of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), after advancing and conducting operations of land leveling and demolition in the area, L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South reported.
Israel/Lebanon
⚡ The head of the Israeli army's Northern Command, General Ori Gordin, said today in remarks to Israeli media outlet Israel Hayom: “If Hezbollah tries to resume fighting, it will be hit even harder, including its leaders.”
“The threat of an Oct. 7 from the north has been ruled out for the foreseeable future, and we have to make sure of that in the years to come,” he added.
South Lebanon
Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil district) residents are once again attempting to enter their village from the north-east, reports our correspondent.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to advance in Mais al-Jabal, reportedly overtaking a UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) center with a Merkava tank under heavy fire.
Syria
The Kremlin said that Russia is striving “to establish a dialogue with the new Syrian administration,” as Moscow seeks to secure the future of its military bases there, Reuters reports.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov visited Damascus this week for the first talks with the new Syrian leadership since the fall of the Assad regime.
Meanwhile, a Syrian source familiar with the talks with Moscow told Reuters that Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, “asked Russia to hand over Assad and his close associates” during discussions with Bogdanov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on whether or not this request had been made.
South Lebanon
One of the Israeli strikes carried out yesterday at the entrance to Zawtar-Nabatieh al-Fawqa damaged an amusement park, according to a video provided by our correspondent.
Additionally, an Israeli drone dropped a grenade on a group of people on the Majdel Selm-Slouki road (Marjayoun), injuring two.
Israel-Gaza
Israeli police said they arrested, along with the army and Shin Bet forces, 12 suspects who were participating in a demonstration in support of a Palestinian prisoner released as part of last week’s hostage exchange, Haaretz reports.
The suspects, residents of Kfar Aqab in East Jerusalem, were found in possession of Hamas flags, banners and fireworks during a search.
South Lebanon
Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad, head of the party’s parliamentary bloc, condemned "the vile Zionist aggression" against Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Zawtar, carried out yesterday by Israeli airstrikes.
"This is yet another proof of the constant threat posed by the Israeli entity to our people, our country, and its security," Raad said.
The Shiite party’s MP denounced "international negligence and violations" by Israel in southern Lebanon, saying they "reinforce our conviction, and that of all free people in the world, in our right to assume our national and moral responsibility and resist these aggressions."
South Lebanon
- A drone strike this morning on Majdal Selm (Marjayoun) injured five people, according to the Health Ministry.
- Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon on Tuesday injured a total of 36 people, according to ministry figures, distributed as follows:
- Yaroun: Six were injured during an attempt by civilians to enter the village.
- Strike on Nabatieh al-Fawqa: 20 injured.
- Strike on Zawtar: 10 injured.
Occupied West Bank
Israeli forces demolished six houses, a restaurant, and a prayer hall since dawn today in the governorates of Hebron, Jericho, Salfit, Bethlehem, and East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.
During the past year, Israeli authorities carried out a total of 684 demolitions, during which they demolished 903 facilities in the West Bank, including in the city of Jerusalem, and 4,332 people were affected as a result, including 2,320 children, Wafa said.
Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad Abazid met Germany's temporary representative in Syria, Bjorn Gehrmann, according to Reuters. This is the first meeting by a European Union official with a Syrian government representative since the fall of the Assad regime.
The meeting comes just days after the EU agreed on a roadmap to ease its sanctions against Syria. It had put in place a series of sanctions targeting both individuals and economic sectors in Syria, including a ban on Syrian oil exports and restrictions on access to global financial circuits.
“We hope that Germany's image of Syria before Dec. 8 will change,” Abazid told Gehrmann at the start of the meeting. “It's a pleasure to be here in the new Syria after almost 13 years of absence,” replied Gehrmann.
South Lebanon
This morning, the Israeli army continued destroying houses and buildings, digging up trees and wrecking agricultural soil in the Mfaylha neighborhood of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), as well as near the Imam Ali al-Hadi mosque, according to information from our correspondent.
Israeli forces also carried out an explosion in Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), which was heard throughout the region, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
Occupied West Bank
Two Palestinians were killed last night by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health, quoted by Haaretz.
Osama Omar Abu al-Hijah, 25, was killed by an Israeli attack in Jenin, his body was discovered this morning. Ayman Fadi Kasem Naji, 23, was killed by Israeli army fire in Tulkarem.
South Lebanon
According to information from our correspondent, the munitions dropped by an Israeli drone in Bani Hayyan (Marjayoun) were two conventional grenades. They were dropped near the village's municipality.
Gaza
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said yesterday that expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt or Jordan, as suggested by former U.S. President Donald Trump, would be "unacceptable."
"In light of recent public statements, I state very clearly that any plan involving displacement — the idea that Gaza’s citizens would be expelled to Egypt or Jordan — is unacceptable," Scholz said during an election rally in Berlin.
Nearly all of the 2.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been displaced by the 15 months war.
Syria
Syria’s new ruling authority said yesterday that it had discussed "judicial transition mechanisms" with a Russian delegation in Damascus aimed at delivering "justice for victims of the brutal war waged by Assad’s regime," AFP reports.
"The restoration of relations must take past mistakes into account, respect the will of the Syrian people, and serve their interests," the new administration warned in a statement. It replaced the government of President Bashar Assad, who fled to Russia after being ousted in December.
Gaza
Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s residents to Jordan and Egypt faced new criticism yesterday as thousands of Palestinians continued returning to the devastated northern part of the territory after 15 months of war.
Since Monday, hundreds of thousands of displaced people have made their way back to the region, taking advantage of the fragile cease-fire that took effect on Jan. 19 to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
The U.N. estimated yesterday that at least 376,000 Palestinians — half of them men — have returned to northern Gaza since Monday, trekking for miles through a ruined landscape. With nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents displaced by the war and under Israeli siege, the U.S. president on Saturday suggested sending them to Jordan and Egypt to "clean up" the territory.
South Lebanon
Yesterday evening, Israeli airstrikes on Nabatieh in southern Lebanon left 24 people injured — 20 in Nabatieh al-Fawqa and four in Zawtar.
After 10 p.m., Israel launched flares over Markaba, in the Marjayoun district. Its army also fired bursts of machine-gun fire, according to our correspondent. Around midnight, Israeli vehicles advanced toward Wadi Slouki amid heavy gunfire, and loud explosions were reported in Markaba.
This morning, an Israeli drone struck Bani Hayyan (Marjayoun).
Good morning. Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the events in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and the region.
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