Trump says 'no guarantee' Gaza cease-fire will hold | LIVE

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The Trump administration asked congressional leaders to approve new arms transfers worth about $1 billion to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

According to the newspaper, these arms sales include 4,700 half-ton bombs (about 450 kg), worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million.

Donald Trump said he had "no guarantee" that the ceasefire in Gaza would last, on the eve of a meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I have no guarantee that peace will hold," he said, before his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was present at his side, added: "It's holding so far and we certainly have hope ... of getting the hostages out and saving lives and hopefully getting to a peaceful resolution to all of this."

Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa estimated that it would take "four to five years" before elections could be held in Syria, due to the preparatory work and data collection required.

"It will take about four to five years to get to elections," the Syrian leader said in a pre-recorded television interview. He also promised "a law regulating political parties," saying Syria would be "a republic, with a parliament, and an executive government."

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order Monday withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council and barring future funding to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that cares for displaced Palestinians and refugees, according to a document obtained by Politico.

The measures, which restore policies in place under the last Trump administration, come as the president prepares to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. The move comes after the Biden administration cut funding to UNRWA following reports that staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

The Civil Defense found the remains of four people killed in Khiam (Marjayoun) during excavation work undertaken in coordination with the Lebanese army, according to a statement. "The remains were transferred to the governmental hospital in Marjayoun where DNA tests will be carried out."

Russia called on Hamas leaders to "keep their promises" on the release of hostages, during a visit to Moscow by a leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, against the backdrop of a cease-fire in Gaza.

Hamas' deputy political bureau chairman Moussa Abu Marzouk met in Moscow with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian diplomacy said in a statement. The two men discussed "the implementation of the cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip" and the need "to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population."

The Aitaroun Municipality (Bint Jbeil) issued an urgent warning to residents about the presence of explosive devices in the old neighborhoods of the town.

“Residents are advised to stay cautious, avoid approaching or touching any suspicious objects, and report them immediately to the Lebanese Army or the local authorities,” the warning stated.

In Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), a large explosion occurred with its echoes heard in the surrounding villages. Local residents reported seeing flames and thick smoke rising from the site.

Syria's new government will hold responsible those responsible for the "terrorist attack" that killed at least 20 people in the northern city of Manbij, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, quoted by Reuters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the car bombing in Manbij, about 30 km from the Turkish border. It was the deadliest attack in the country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.

Hamas is "ready to begin negotiations for the second phase" of the cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, two officials from the Palestinian movement told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The discussions will focus on "preventing a return to war, military withdrawal" from Gaza, and "the criteria" for exchanges between the remaining Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, one of them said. "We are waiting for the mediators to launch the second phase," the other added.

Israeli army attacks have forced nearly three-quarters of Palestinian residents to flee their homes in the Tulkarem refugee camp, according to a local official cited by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

"Nearly 75 percent of the camp’s 15,000 residents have been forcibly displaced to the city of Tulkarem and nearby localities," said Fayçal Salama, head of the Popular Committee for Services in the camp, describing the situation as "extremely difficult."

Camp residents "are living in disastrous conditions, as Israel is preventing the entry of medicine, food, and essential supplies," Salama said.

A Palestinian Authority official estimated the immediate funding needs for temporary housing for more than 2 million displaced people in Gaza at $6.5 billion, even before the start of the massive long-term reconstruction effort, according to Reuters.

Hamas, for its part, says Gaza urgently needs "200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans" and highlights an urgent need for heavy excavation equipment to begin clearing the millions of tons of war debris and recover the bodies of more than 10,000 missing people, according to estimates from Gaza health authorities.

Furthermore, two Egyptian sources said heavy machinery was waiting at the Rafah border crossing and was set to be sent to Gaza starting Tuesday, Reuters added.

Hamas is "ready to begin negotiations for the second phase" of the cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, two officials from the Palestinian movement told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The discussions will focus on "preventing a return to war, military withdrawal" from Gaza, and "the criteria" for exchanges between the remaining Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, one of them said. "We are waiting for the mediators to launch the second phase," the other added.

Qatar has launched an air bridge from Jordan to al-Qarara in Khan Younis to bring vital medical supplies into Gaza.

The helicopter flights departing from King Abdullah II Air Base complement the land bridge previously set up by the Gulf state.

The launch of the air bridge as attended by a number of Qatari officials, including the Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad.

Separately, Qatar Charity and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization signed an agreement to facilitate the entry of Qatari humanitarian aid via land through Jordan.

In her speech, the minister said Qatar has sent 65 relief trucks through the Jordanian border since the start of the cease-fire.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 70 people have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year. Thirty-eight were killed in Jenin, 15 in Tubas, six in Nablus, five in Tulkarm, three in Hebron, two in Bethlehem and one in Jerusalem. Among the killed are 10 children, one woman and two elderly.

"The 91st Division forces [of the Israeli army] destroyed Hezbollah weapons depots in southern Lebanon, confiscating mortars, rockets, explosives, and military gear,” the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X Monday.

“The 769th and 7th Brigades continue operations in line with Israel-Lebanon understandings. Several Hezbollah terrorists were eliminated or arrested,” he concluded.

The Israeli army still occupies several Lebanese villages, with bombings of alleged Hezbollah infrastructure taking place almost daily. The Israeli army is set to completely withdraw from Lebanon on Feb.18.

Gaza

Authorities in the Gaza Strip have revised upwards the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli offensive, indicating that its latest estimate is over 61,700. The last official death toll published three days ago by the Gaza Ministry of Health was 47,760.

“This genocidal war has killed 61,709 martyrs. 47,487 of them have been sent to hospital, while the remaining 14,222 remain missing, either under the rubble of buildings or on roads that have still not been cleared to date,” said Salama Maarouf of the Gaza government's Ministry of Information in a statement to the press.

“The number of wounded now stands at 111,588,” he added, adding that over 6,000 Palestinian detainees had been subjected to "acts of torture" while in Israeli jails.

Gaza

“The White House needs to know that there are no political obstacles preventing Netanyahu from moving on to the next phase of the agreement,” said Yair Lapid during a visit to Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, according to Haaretz.

The Israeli opposition leader made his remarks to the U.S. administration on the eve of the meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, while reports have been circulating since this morning of a suspension of the entry into force of the second phase of the truce agreement in Gaza on the decision of the Israeli Prime Minister.

“The hostage agreement has the overwhelming support of the Israeli people and the Knesset. It will not bring down Netanyahu's government, we are all committed to that. I told the Prime Minister personally,” added Lapid.

Gaza

In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for a “fast” completion of all stages of the Gaza cease-fire agreement, including the release of several Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees.

“We are living at a critical moment when I reiterate my call to complete all the stages of the agreement and quickly bring back all our kidnapped brothers and sisters, every last one of them,” said Herzog, quoted by Haaretz.

Occupied-West Bank

The Palestinian presidency has denounced the “ethnic cleansing” it claims Israel is carrying out in the occupied West Bank, in statements by its spokesman to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Condemning Israeli military operations, particularly in the northern West Bank in recent days, Nabil Abou Roudeina said they were aimed at “implementing plans for forced displacement and ethnic cleansing” and called on the U.S. administration to “intervene (...) before it's too late.”

Iran stated that U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan amounted to “ethnic cleansing.”

“I believe the international community (...) must help the Palestinians secure their right to self-determination, rather than promoting other ideas that would amount to ethnic cleansing,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, during a press conference.

Syria

Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will visit Ankara on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.

This will be the second official visit for the new Syrian leader since coming to power, following his trip to Saudi Arabia last Sunday.

Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said that Saudi Arabia should abandon its condition regarding the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the normalization agreement with Israel, according to Haaretz.

“Today, the Saudis are more sober. They understand well who the Palestinian Authority is and who Hamas is, and I am convinced that Saudi Arabia now understands that it will have to revise its conditions for an agreement with Israel,” he said.

In an interview, Dichter also addressed the issue of the agreement for the return of Israeli hostages, stating that “the United States plays an important role in this agreement because they are the most effective leverage on Arab countries, but Israel should not accept demands from anyone.”

Occupied-West Bank

The mayor of Jenin, Mohammed Jarrar, stated in an interview with Radio Shams that the army had asked residents of the al-Haf neighborhood, adjacent to the city’s refugee camp, to evacuate their homes.

Residents of al-Haf reported that a military drone was circling above the area and that they could hear it calling for people to leave their homes.

Jarrar also stated that the refugee camp was “almost completely destroyed” and that “most of the residents had already evacuated.” Under heavy airstrikes and demolitions since the beginning of the “Iron Wall” operation launched two weeks ago by Israeli troops, the city’s infrastructure has suffered significant damage, with “some neighborhoods lacking water and electricity,” the mayor added.

Syria

The Kremlin indicated that Russia continues to discuss with Syrian authorities the fate of two Russian military bases in the country, according to Reuters. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov visited Damascus last week for the first talks with the new Syrian leaders since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad's regime late last year.

Russia, whose troops and air force have supported Assad for years against Syrian rebels, is seeking to retain its naval base in Tartus and its airbase in Hmeimim, near the port city of Latakia in western Syria.

The fate of the former Syrian dictator, who is in exile in Moscow with family members, was reportedly also addressed during these discussions.

Benjamin Netanyahu will not commit to implementing the second phase of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, according to anonymous sources quoted by Haaretz.

The aim of the meeting between Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington is to obtain the full support of the United States to pursue the “eradication” of Hamas, said a member of Netanyahu's delegation.

One of these sources reportedly confided that the Israeli PM intends to refuse to commit Israel to fulfilling its obligations in the second phase of the hostage and cease-fire agreement, namely complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Philadelphia Corridor, without achieving this goal. Furthermore, Israeli officials hope that the second-phase negotiations will lead to a broader process of regional normalization, the source added.

In Lebanon

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem announced Wednesday that “popular funerals” will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23, for the party’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed on Sept. 27 in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The funerals will also be for Hashem Safieddine, the former head of the party’s executive council and Nasrallah’s expected successor, whose death was confirmed on Oct. 23 after he was targeted in a massive airstrike overnight on Oct. 3-4. Nasrallah will be buried “in a plot of land located between the old and new roads leading to the airport,” Qassem revealed, while Safieddine will be laid to rest in his hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, in Sour district, southern Lebanon.

Occupied-West Bank

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in response to the Israeli army’s military offensive in the occupied West Bank.

Abbas accused Israel of destroying “entire residential neighborhoods in the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem” as Israeli forces expanded their “Iron Wall” operation, which began nearly two weeks ago.

Syria

In northern Syria, a car bomb explosion in Manbij killed at least 15 people, according to Syria’s official news agency, SANA. Another 15 people were wounded. All the victims were agricultural workers, most of them women.

Manbij, a city in Aleppo province, fell to pro-Turkish groups in December after years under Kurdish control. Since late November, fighting has raged in northern Syria between the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and pro-Turkish groups, despite American attempts to impose a cease-fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to discuss with his American ally the second phase of the Gaza cease-fire before meeting Trump on Tuesday, who has said that talks are “making progress.” Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. capital yesterday, where he will become the first foreign leader received by Trump since his inauguration.

The visit coincides with the expected resumption this week of mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the second phase of the cease-fire in Gaza, aimed at securing the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and ending the war.

Occupied-West Bank

On the ground, Israel carried out a large-scale military operation in Jenin on Sunday, in the northern occupied West Bank, marked by the destruction of numerous buildings. The Israeli army said it has killed more than 50 "terrorists" in the territory since Jan. 14.

Occupied-West Bank

According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli troops blew up about 20 houses Sunday in the eastern part of the Jenin refugee camp, while Israeli bulldozers demolished around 100 homes there.

Meanwhile, Wisam Baker, the director of Jenin’s main government hospital, told the Palestinian news agency that some sections of the hospital were damaged by the explosions, leading to severe water shortages due to damage to the pipelines.

These explosions occurred shortly after a 73-year-old man was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the events in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Make sure to read today's Morning Brief to get caught up.