Closing summary
We will be closing this blog shortly. Here is an overview of today’s developments across the Middle East:
US vice-president JD Vance said during a press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the Gaza ceasefire brokered by Washington could pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East. He also cautioned that there was a “very, very tough task” ahead of disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
The US vice-president repeated earlier comments that he is “optimistic” that the ceasefire deal brokered by the US will hold. He added that an “international security force” would be established to maintain peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws.
Netanyahu said at the press conference that ideas for “the day after” in Gaza had been discussed, particularly how the territory would be governed, but admitted such a plan was “not going to be easy”. He also dismissed suggestions that his country is a client state of Washington, calling the idea “hogwash”.
Israel has returned the bodies of 30 further Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over under the ceasefire deal to 195, the territory’s health ministry said. Under the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis for funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians clad in white shrouds. They were then transported to Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah for burial.
Israel has completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday. Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. Their bodies were transported in coffins by the Red Cross and handed over to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza. Former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Roland Friedrich, director of Unrwa affairs in the occupied West Bank, has warned of settlement expansion in the area, “paving the way for annexation”. He said in a statement on X: “The three refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams have been emptied, and residents actively prevented from returning.”
A top Palestinian non-governmental organisation that offers mental health services to people in Gaza said on Wednesday that there had been an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one its facilities in the territory last week. The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said an “armed group” it didn’t identify stormed the facility in Gaza City on 13 October, seized the building, expelled guards by force and put up their own families there.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio will arrive in Israel on Thursday, an Israeli government spokesperson said, announcing the third visit by a senior Washington official this week, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Speaking while vice-president JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff were already in the country promoting the plan to end the war in Gaza, Shosh Bedrosian told reporters that Rubio would meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
She said:
This is the secretary of state third trip to Israel since mid-September which further shows the hand-in-hand relationship that Israel and the United States have as we mark this historic time.
Lorenzo Tondo is an international correspondent for the Guardian, based in Italy
On the second day of a US diplomatic push in Israel aimed at shoring up the fragile Gaza ceasefire with Hamas, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that his country is a client state of Washington, calling the idea “hogwash”.
Despite the US providing an estimated 68% of Israel’s foreign-sourced weapons, in response to a question whether Israel was beholden to Washington, Netanyahu said: ‘‘I want to put it very clearly. One week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”
At the end of a meeting with US vice president, JD Vance, in Jerusalem, part of a US diplomatic blitz in support of the truce plan to end the fighting, Netanyahu added: ‘‘We have a partnership, an alliance of partners, who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole, I have to say that in the past year we’ve had agreement – agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”
“We don’t want a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is,” Vance replied. “We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”
Vance’s visit follows that of the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Their objective, according to analysts, was to calm tensions after the ceasefire has been shaken by repeated violations since it was put in place on 10 October, with Palestinian militants killing two Israeli soldiers and Israel bombing Gaza on Sunday.
You can read the full piece from Lorenzo Tondo here: Netanyahu calls claims Israel is client state of Washington ‘hogwash’
Iran will not return to negotiations with the United States as long as Washington makes “unreasonable demands,” the Iranian foreign minister said on Wednesday according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Reuters reports.
Tehran and Washington engaged in five rounds of indirect nuclear negotiations that ended with the 12-day air war in June in which Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites.
“Talks that were ongoing with the US as well as New York negotiations were suspended and did not go forward because of U.S. excessive demands,” Abbas Araqchi said according to Tasnim, referring to the five rounds of talks and the UN general assembly.
Below are some of the latest images from the Middle East coming through on the wires:
Iran ratified a law joining a UN convention against terror financing, local media reported on Wednesday, in hopes it will lead to access to global banking, an easing of trade and relieving pressure on its sanctions-hit economy, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian was elected last year on a promise to ease relations with the West and secure the lifting of sanctions that are hurting the economy.
His administration is trying to bring the country into line with the demands of the Financial Action taskforce (FATF), which monitors money laundering and terrorist financing.
Tehran has for years provided support to the Palestinian Hamas militant group, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, and Yemen’s Houthis – all designated as “terrorist” groups by the United States, along with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran was returned to the FATF blacklist of non-cooperative countries in 2020, which includes North Korea and Myanmar.
Along with heavy international sanctions, particularly by the United States, Iran’s inclusion on the blacklist has isolated the country’s financial sector and severely restricted its access to the international banking system.
“President Masoud Pezeshkian has promulgated … the law on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s accession to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT),” Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.
It is unclear what the immediate economic impact would be if it were removed from the FATF.
Israel returns bodies of 30 more Palestinians to Gaza
Israel has returned the bodies of 30 further Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over under the ceasefire deal to 195, the territory’s health ministry said.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Israel’s military said earlier today that the remains of two more hostages returned the day before from Gaza had been identified as those of Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar (see earlier post).
What was said at the meeting between Vance and Netanyahu?
US vice-president JD Vance met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
During the joint press conference, the two leaders said:
Vance cautioned that there was a “very, very tough task” ahead of disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza. He said: “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.”
The US vice-president repeated earlier comments that he is “optimistic” that the ceasefire deal brokered by the US will hold. He added that he felt the deal would help build a better future for the Middle East as a whole.
Vance said that the Gaza ceasefire brokered by Washington could pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East. He said that the deal could be a “critical piece” of unlocking the Abraham Accords, the series of normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.
The vice-president added that an “international security force” would be established to maintain peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws. Several US allies are considering joining the force, but no American troops would be on the ground inside Gaza, instead coordinating from the Civil-Military Coordination Centre in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
Vance also pushed back against comments that Israel was a “vassal state” of the US, adding that Trump felt Israel could “play a very strong leadership role” in the region.
Netanyahu said a “strong Israel” was needed to stabilise the region alongside the US. He also defended the ceasefire brokered by Washington.
The Israeli prime minister said ideas for “the day after” in Gaza had been discussed, particularly how the territory would be governed, but admitted such a plan was “not going to be easy”.
US vice-president JD Vance said on Wednesday that an “international security force” would be established under US president Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan in order to maintain peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Vance said, after talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem:
A lot of our Israeli friends working together with a lot of Americans to actually mediate this entire ceasefire process, to get some of the critical infrastructure off the ground.
Several US allies are considering joining the force, but no American troops would be on the ground inside Gaza, instead coordinating from the Civil-Military Coordination Centre in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
Reports that Israel’s outspoken critic and regional rival Turkey could provide troops have rattled Israeli opinion.
Netanyahu said decisions on the new security force would be made in discussion with the US, but on Turkey’s role he said: “I have very strong opinions about that. You want to guess what they are?”
Vance also pushed back against comments that Israel was a “vassal state” of the US, adding that Trump felt Israel could “play a very strong leadership role” in the region, Al Jazeera reports.
We don’t want a client state and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally.
Updated
Israelis were set on Wednesday to bid farewell to a Thai farm worker whose body will be repatriated to his native Thailand later in the day, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Sonthaya Oakkharasri was killed during the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and his body was held in Gaza until it was returned last weekend.
A statement by the Families’ Headquarters for the Return of the Abductees said a gathering will be held at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to pay last respects to Oakkharasri, calling him a “devoted father and farmer who dreamed of establishing his own farm.”
In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the US-brokered ceasefire deal when he met US vice-president JD Vance on Wednesday, despite having been criticised by some domestic opponents for accepting the ceasefire before Hamas was fully destroyed and before all the remains of deceased hostages are returned, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, welcomed Vance and the US second lady Usha to his office and the couples sat down for breakfast, followed by a working meeting and a televised news conference.
The prime minister thanked Donald Trump for his diplomatic efforts in the broader Middle East, smoothing relations with Israel’s neighbours.
We’ve been able to do two things. Put the knife up to Hamas’s throat. That was the military effort guided by Israel.
And the other effort was to isolate Hamas and the Arab and Muslim world, which I think the president did brilliantly with his team. So those two things produced the hostages.
Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis for funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians clad in white shrouds, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The unidentified bodies were among 165 that Israel sent back to Gaza last week. They will be transported to Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah for burial.
A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies bore “evidence of torture” and called for an investigation.
Israel has not provided identification for the bodies or explained their origins. They could include Palestinians who died during the 7 October attacks, detainees who died in custody or bodies that were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.
So far, authorities in Gaza have identified 52 of the returned bodies, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Joseph Gedeon is a politics breaking news reporter based in Washington
Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza.
Former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The letter’s release comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday amid reports they plan to shelve proposals for sanctions over human rights violations.
“We do not forget that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”
Signatories include former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British author Michael Rosen, Canadian author Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning film-maker Jonathan Glazer, US actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder, and Pulitzer prize winner Benjamin Moser.
More than 450 signatories urge world leaders to uphold international court of justice (ICJ) and international criminal court rulings, avoid complicity in international law violations by halting arms transfers and imposing targeted sanctions, ensure adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza, and reject false claims of antisemitism against those advocating for peace and justice.
You can read the full piece from Joseph Gedeon here: Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that ideas for “the day after” in Gaza had been discussed, particularly how the territory would be governed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
He said:
We’re just creating an unbelievable day after with a completely new vision of how to have the civil government, how to have the security there, who could provide that security there.
It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s possible … we’re really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here where nothing existed even a week and a day ago.
That’s going to require a lot of work. It requires a lot of ingenuity.
Gaza ceasefire could lead to more Israeli alliances in the Middle East, Vance says
US vice-president JD Vance said on Wednesday that the Gaza ceasefire brokered by Washington could pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Vance said at a press conference in Jerusalem:
I think this Gaza deal is a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords.
The vice-president was referring to the series of normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.
He added:
But what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that perseveres, that endures, and that allows the good people in this region, the world, to step up and take ownership of their own backyard.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that when handling Israel’s security, “we do what we have to do”.
Speaking alongside US vice-president JD Vance at a joint press conference in Jerusalem, he was reported in Al Jazeera as saying:
A strong Israel serves America’s interests in stabilising this very unstable region, and you can’t stabilise it without a strong Israel.
So we make the decisions with the security of Israel. We make common decisions, which I think [serve] both, and that’s what we discussed today.
US vice-president JD Vance has repeated earlier comments that he is “optimistic” that the ceasefire deal brokered by the US will hold, Al Jazeera reports.
He told reporters at a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
It’s not easy. I never said it was easy. But what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better future for the entire Middle East … But that’s going to require some work
The vice-president was asked why the US was continuing to send several high-level officials to Israel if the ceasefire is reportedly in good shape.
He replied:
It’s not about monitoring it, in the sense of monitoring a toddler … It’s important for the administration to make sure our people continue to keep doing what we need them to do.
Updated
Vance meets with Netanyahu in Jerusalem
US vice-president JD Vance has met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem.
Vance on Wednesday cautioned that there were challenges ahead in terms of disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza as part of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Vance said during a joint press conference with Netanyahu:
We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.
Updated
A top Palestinian non-governmental organisation that offers mental health services to people in Gaza said on Wednesday that there had been an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one its facilities in the territory last week, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said an “armed group” it didn’t identify stormed the facility in Gaza City on 13 October, seized the building, expelled guards by force and put up their own families there.
“This blatant attack and serious crime represents a flagrant violation of all laws and norms,” the group said.
It was unclear why the organisation waited more than a week to report the takeover, but it said that although it had made immediate requests for authorities to intervene, there had been no “concrete action” to return the facility “despite repeated promises to evacuate.”
It urged Palestinian authorities to act immediately so that the facility is returned to its hands, ensure that patients and staff are protected and to hold those responsible to account “without any delay or leniency.”
It also called on countries sponsoring the ceasefire agreement to “intervene decisively” and prevent actions undermining humanitarian work.
Israel has completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. Their bodies were transported in coffins by the Red Cross and handed over to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. A military ceremony attended by the chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces was planned for later in the day, Netanyahu’s office said.
The two were killed in kibbutz Nir Oz during the 7 October 2023, attack by Hamas militants, which triggered the two-year war.
Since the ceasefire began on 10 October, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over, a key element to the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, the burial of more than 50 Palestinians is set for Wednesday at a cemetery in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. The bodies were displayed outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis ahead of burial. The 50 are among the 165 bodies of Palestinians that Israel has so far handed over.
Updated
Qatar and the US have written to EU heads of state expressing concern over the bloc’s corporate sustainability rules and their potential impact on liquefied natural gas exports, a statement from QatarEnergy showed on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Last week, Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, told Reuters that Qatar would not be able to do business in the EU, including supplying Europe with LNG to plug its energy gap, unless more changes are made to its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
The letter signed by Kaabi and US energy secretary Chris Wright said the directive “poses a significant risk to the affordability and reliability of critical energy supplies for households and businesses across Europe and an existential threat to the future growth, competitiveness, and resilience of the EU’s industrial economy.”
Roland Friedrich, director of Unrwa affairs in the occupied West Bank, has warned of settlement expansion in the area, “paving the way for annexation”.
He said in a statement on X:
The three refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams have been emptied, and residents actively prevented from returning. Settler violence and settlement expansion have spiralled, pushing vulnerable Palestinian communities from their lands amid increasingly coercive conditions – paving the way for annexation.
Israeli anti-UNRWA laws have seen UN schools shuttered and international staff de facto evicted.
The future of Gaza and West Bank are one. A drawdown in Gaza should not become an opportunity to tighten the grip of occupation elsewhere.
Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries, according to footage seen by the Associated Press (AP).
The attack reportedly occurred on Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya.
Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released on Tuesday:
Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency.
Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists.
In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club, including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.
The woman was hospitalised with serious injures, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him.
A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman “kept him up at night” and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice.
Israel’s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack.
The United Arab Emirates normalised relations with Israel to foster tolerance and change mindsets in the region, UAE minister of state Lana Nusseibeh said during a panel at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in an interview during the same summit that he would scale up the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
He reportedly said discussions are being held on the deployment of security forces around the Palestinian territory.
Updated
Here are some of the latest photos from Gaza coming through over the wires:
Australian visa holders in Gaza have the paperwork they need to flee the razed Palestinian territory but remain trapped due to closed borders, prompting refugee advocates to intensify calls for support.
Ahmed Abumarzouq’s two nephews were granted humanitarian visas on 15 October – two days after all living Israeli hostages were returned to Israel under the tentative Gaza ceasefire plan, which has not yet produced a possible border re-opening. For the small number who are eligible for Australian consular assistance – those whose immediate family members are citizens or permanent residents – the pathway to Australia is still complex.
Abumarzouq’s two nephews, aged 18 and 19, are ineligible for this assistance. All the teenagers can now do is wait in their makeshift home in Gaza City for the territory’s Rafah crossing – controlled by Israeli forces – to open.
I was hoping that the border will open and I’d be able to get them out,” said Abumarzouq, a chief financial officer with the Western Australian government who lived through multiple wars in Gaza before moving to Perth in 2014.
But, there’s not really anything I can do.
You can read the full piece from Daisy Dumas and Adeshola Ore here: Palestinians in Gaza with Australian visas remain trapped as Israel keeps borders closed
The top United Nations court is set to give an opinion on Wednesday on Israel’s legal obligations to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The UN general assembly asked the international court of justice last year to give an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligations after the country effectively banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid to Gaza, from operating in the territory.
Advisory opinions carry significant legal weight and experts say the case could have broader ramifications for the UN and its missions worldwide.
The proceedings predate the current fragile US-brokered Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect on 10 October. Under the agreement, 600 humanitarian aid trucks are to be allowed to enter daily.
The UN has announced plans to ramp up aid shipments into Gaza. On Monday, Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News that Israel has complied with aid deliveries per the ceasefire agreement.
During the hearings in April, Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands Ammar Hijazi told the 15-judge panel that Israel was “starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organisations trying to save their lives.”
Israel denied it violated international law, saying the proceedings are biased, and did not attend the hearings. However, the country provided a 38-page written submission for the court to consider.
JD Vance has ‘great optimism’ truce will hold as he prepares to meet Netanyahu
US vice-president JD Vance expressed “great optimism” that the Gaza truce would hold, before a meeting on Wednesday in Jerusalem with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Vance is in Israel to shore up support for the US-brokered ceasefire and postwar reconstruction plans.
Despite concerns in Israel that Hamas has seized on the pause to reassert itself in Gaza, Vance said Washington would not set a deadline for the group to disarm under the US-brokered deal.
That came after Donald Trump warned that allied nations in the region would invade Gaza to wipe out Hamas if it failed to comply with the truce.
Vance said during a press conference in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire:
What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold
I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today. It’s going to require constant effort. It’s going to require constant monitoring and supervision
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing Middle East coverage.
JD Vance has expressed “great optimism” that the Gaza truce would hold, during a visit to Israel aimed at shoring up support for a ceasefire and postwar reconstruction plans.
The US vice-president – who was preparing to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday – said “I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today. It’s going to require constant effort. It’s going to require constant monitoring and supervision.”
Despite concerns in Israel that Hamas has seized on the pause to reassert itself in Gaza, Vance said Washington would not set a deadline for the group to disarm under the US-brokered deal.
That came after Donald Trump warned that allied nations in the region would invade Gaza to wipe out Hamas if it failed to comply with the truce.
Meanwhile there have been tensions after Hamas said it needed time and technical assistance to find the remaining dead Israeli hostages. The Israeli military said on Wednesday the remains of two more hostages returned the day before had been identified.
Hamas has now released 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but say the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory.
The top United Nations court will rule on Wednesday on Israel’s obligations towards agencies providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, as aid groups scramble to scale up assistance after a ceasefire. Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague have been asked for an “advisory opinion” laying out Israel’s duty to facilitate aid in Gaza.
At a press conference in Israel on Tuesday, JD Vance referred to Hamas as a “terrorist organisation” and said the Israeli army was “defending itself” throughout the conflict. He said there is “a lot of work left to do” and that it is going to take a “long time” and thanked the Israeli government.
Vance said that unless Hamas disarms, “very bad things are going to happen”. But he declined to put a deadline on Hamas disarming, adding: “I don’t think it’s actually advisable to say this has to be done in a week.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said there had been “surprisingly strong communication” between the United Nations and Israel over humanitarian aid. He echoed Vance’s comments about people “getting a little hysterical about supposed incursions” of the ceasefire.
International organisations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces launched a crackdown against what it called price gouging by private merchants. The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. That’s still well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war.
Israel urged Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honour the international criminal court’s arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the country. Carney was asked in an interview with Bloomberg published last week if he would fulfil the commitment of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to arrest Netanyahu on war crimes charges if he came to Canada, to which he replied “yes”.
The Gaza health ministry said that Israel has transferred the bodies of 15 further Palestinian people to Gaza as part of the ceasefire. The International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, it said.
The EU has been criticised for pausing sanctions against Israel’s government in response to Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, as the fragile ceasefire came under threat. After meeting EU foreign ministers on Monday, the European foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced a pause on efforts to suspend preferential trade with Israel and sanctions against people responsible for fuelling the conflict on both sides.
