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Monday, January 19, 2026 | Daily Newspaper published by GPPC Doha, Qatar.

Tag Results for "Gaza ceasefire" (62 articles)

People look on as Hamas fighters carry a body retrieved from a tunnel in an area north of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. AFP
Region

Israel orders immediate strikes on Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.Minutes later, Hamas said it would delay handing over the remains of another hostage under the terms of the truce deal over what it called Israel's truce "violations"."Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip," a statement from the premier's office said, without elaborating.Hamas had earlier said it would hand over another hostage body, scheduled on Tuesday, amid mounting Israeli pressure after Hamas returned only the partial remains of a previously recovered captive."We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation's violations," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement, adding that any Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".Hamas handed over late on Monday what it said was the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu's office.In returning only the partial remains of an already returned captive, Netanyahu's office and a campaign group representing hostage families accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire.Netanyahu's office decried a "clear violation of the agreement" after identification procedures revealed the latest remains belonged "to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago".Netanyahu's latest instructions came after he held security consultations earlier in the day.Israeli government spokeswoman, Shosh Bedrosian, later told journalists that "in terms of consequences for Hamas nothing is off the table right now, but all of this is in full coordination with the United States, with (US) President (Donald) Trump and his team."The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to take action.Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel's bombardment during the two-year conflict had left locations unrecognisable."The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located," he told AFP.Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.Hamas also accused Israel of ceasefire violations, with the territory's health ministry saying that at least 94 people had been killed in Israeli fire since the truce began.On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas."Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war," he said."We want to rest. I believe the war will come back."Israel's far-right national security minister accused Hamas of stalling the release of the remaining bodies."It is time to break its legs once and for all," Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on X.

Egyptian trucks and heavy machinery line up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Sunday. AFP
Region

Egyptian convoy enters Gaza to help recover hostage remains

A convoy of Egyptian trucks and vehicles transporting heavy machinery entered Gaza overnight to help locate the remains of Israeli hostages in the territory, AFP footage showed.The vehicles were filmed in Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request on Sunday morning for confirmation that the vehicles had entered.But The Times of Israel had reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved the entry of the Egyptian team and several engineering vehicles to the Palestinian territory to locate the missing remains.On Saturday night, Egyptian state-linked Al-Qahera News channel reported that the team was on its way to Gaza.Two Egyptian military sources had also confirmed to AFP that the convoy was at the Kerem Shalom crossing Saturday night, awaiting authorisation to cross into the Palestinian territory.On October 17, a Turkish official had announced that a team of 81 rescuers sent by Ankara to locate the hostages' bodies in Gaza was waiting in Egypt to enter the strip.But the Turkish team never received approval from Israel, amid reports that Israel objected to any Turkish involvement in Gaza.Based on the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Hamas was due to return all 48 remaining hostages, alive and dead, who were still held in the territory, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel.But only 15 of the 28 dead hostages have been returned so far, with the remaining bodies buried under the rubble across the devastated territory and Hamas calling for tools and assistance to locate them.

Palestinians take shelter in a damaged building in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip Saturday.
Region

Israel continues to violate Gaza truce

Israeli forces carried out a "targeted strike" on an individual in central Gaza, Israel's military said Saturday.A US-backed ceasefire is in force between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas more than two years after the war in the Gaza Strip began.Witnesses said they had seen a drone strike a car and set it ablaze. Local medics said four people had been wounded, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.Witnesses said separately that Israeli tanks had shelled eastern areas of Gaza City, the Gaza Strip's biggest urban area.Several Israeli media sites said Israel, in a reversal of a policy of barring entry to foreign forces, had allowed Egyptian officials into the Gaza Strip to help locate the bodies of hostages taken captive on October 7, 2023.As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas has said it will return all the hostages, but the remains of 18 are still in the enclave. Reuters

Palestinian children gather to receive food portions from a charity kitchen in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located in the central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. AFP
Region

Food flows into Gaza still far below targets: World Food Programme

WFP says just two aid crossings are open and none to northIsrael says aid is entering in accordance with ceasefire planGazans store supplies for fear they will halt againThe UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday that supplies into Gaza were ramping up after the US-brokered ceasefire but were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tons because only two crossings are open, and none to the famine-hit north of the enclave.Around 750 metric tons of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins."To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now," WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva press briefing.She said only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza were operational - Kerem Shalom in the south and Kissufim in the centre.The ceasefire plan brokered by US President Donald Trump envisages "full aid" being sent into Gaza. An Israeli security official said that humanitarian aid continues to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing and additional crossings in accordance with the plan, without naming them.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.The UN children's agency spokesperson Ricardo Pires said on Tuesday the humanitarian response was still far below the required scale and called for all entry points to reopen.Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached the north via the south, Etefa said, but far short of the level required. "We haven't had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza," she said, adding that WFP had not been granted permission to use the main north-south Salah al-Din road.Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed around half a million people for two weeks, she said.Many Gazans were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up."They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next," she said.

Mourners react as they attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in Sunday's Israeli strikes, according to medics, at al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday. REUTERS
Region

97 killed in Israeli violations since Gaza ceasefire

The Israeli occupation forces have committed 80 documented violations since the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza, resulting in the slaying of 97 Palestinians and injuries to over 230 others, with varying degrees of severity, including 21 violations recorded on Sunday, the Government Media Office in Gaza reported in a statement Monday.The statement added that these breaches included direct shooting at civilians, deliberate bombing of residential compounds, creation of fire belts, and unleashing field detentions in several areas.These practices confirm the persistent Israeli occupation's belligerent approach and its determination to field escalation in an unequivocal violation of the ceasefire decision and the international humanitarian rules-based order, the statement continued.The statement further pointed out that in their assaults, the occupation forces operated tanks stationed at the perimeter of residential neighborhoods, alongside remotely-operated sensor-equipped cranes with electro-optical targeting capability, in addition to fighter jets and quadcopters that daily hover over populated areas and directly launch firepower at civilians.The Israeli breaches have been recorded in various governorates across the Gaza enclave, emphasising the Israeli occupation's non-compliance with the ceasefire and its persistent pursuit of the policy of killing and terrorising against the population, the statement clarified.The Media Office held the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for these violations and called on the UN and nations that guaranteed the ceasefire deal to urgently intervene to compel the Israeli occupation to stop its attacks and protect the unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip.

People run for cover following an Israeli strike that targeted a building in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip Sunday.
Region

Renewed violence in Gaza threatens ceasefire

Israel launched dozens of deadly strikes in Gaza Sunday, after accusing the resistance group Hamas of attacking its troops, in the worst violence since the start of a ceasefire nine days ago.Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said at least 33 people had been killed across the territory.Hamas denied the accusations, with one official accusing Israel of fabricating "pretexts" to resume the war.In a separate statement, the Israeli military said two of its soldiers "fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip".A security official said that Israel was also suspending the entry of aid into Gaza, blaming "Hamas's blatant violations" of the ceasefire.Israel repeatedly cut off aid to the territory during the war, exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions, with the United Nations saying it caused a famine in northern Gaza.The truce in the Palestinian territory, brokered by US President Donald Trump and taking effect on 10 October, brought to a halt more than two years of devastating war between Israel and Hamas.Palestinian witnesses said clashes erupted in the southern city of Rafah in an area still held by Israel.A statement from Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, reaffirmed the group's commitment to the ceasefire and said Israel "continues to breach the agreement and fabricate flimsy pretexts to justify its crimes".Hamas's armed wing insisted on Sunday that the group was adhering to the ceasefire agreement with Israel and had "no knowledge" of any clashes in Rafah.Israel resumes ceasefireThe Israeli military said Sunday it had resumed enforcing a ceasefire in Gaza after carrying out dozens of strikes on Hamas targets earlier in the day. "The IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire," the military said in a statement."The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it."

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike that targeted a building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. AFP
Region

Israeli military launches attacks on Gaza, ceasefire under strain

Gazans report explosions, gunfire, airstrikes and tank shellingRafah border crossing remains closed amid ongoing ceasefire violationsDispute over return of hostages' bodies continues between Israel and HamasThe Israeli military said it launched air strikes and artillery fire at targets in southern Gaza on Sunday, dimming hopes that a US-mediated ceasefire would lead to lasting peace.Israel's attacks on Sunday were the most serious test of an already fragile ceasefire, which took effect on October 11.Hamas' armed wing said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement in all of Gaza, adding that it was unaware of clashes in Rafah and that it has not been in contact with groups there since March."We affirm our full commitment to implementing all agreements, foremost among them the ceasefire across all areas of the Gaza Strip," the Al-Qassam Brigades said. Palestinian witnesses on Sunday separately told Reuters of explosions and gunfire in Rafah, tank fire in the southern town of Abassan near Khan Younis, an airstrike in the central town of Zawayda and explosions in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, which killed at least five people, according to medics at Al-Aqsa Hospital.Witnesses in Khan Younis heard a wave of airstrikes launched into Rafah early on Sunday afternoon.Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli attacks had killed at least eight people in the last 24 hours. An Israeli military official said earlier on Sunday that Hamas had carried out multiple attacks against Israeli forces inside Gaza, including a rocket-propelled grenade attack and a sniper attack against Israeli soldiers.Defense Minister Israel Katz said the "yellow line" to where Israeli forces had pulled back under the ceasefire agreement would be physically marked and that any violation of the ceasefire or attempt to cross the line would be met with fire.Senior Hamas official Izzat Al Risheq said on Sunday that the group remained committed to the ceasefire, which he accused Israel of repeatedly violating.The government media office in Gaza said on Saturday that Israel had committed 47 violations after the ceasefire deal, leaving 38 dead and 143 wounded."These violations have ranged from direct shooting at civilians, to deliberate shelling and targeting operations, as well as the arrest of several civilians," the media office statement said.The Israeli government and Hamas have been accusing each other of violations of the ceasefire for days, with Israel saying the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice.Rafah has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.The crossing has in previous ceasefires functioned as a key conduit for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a dispute over the return of the bodies of deceased hostages. Israel demanded that Hamas fulfill its obligations in turning over the remaining bodies of all 28 hostages. Hamas has returned all 20 live hostages and 12 of the deceased and has said it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining hostages. The group said the process needs effort and special equipment to recover corpses buried under rubble. Formidable obstacles to Trump's plan to end the war still remain. Key questions of Hamas disarming, the future governance of Gaza, the make-up of an international "stabilization force", and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to be resolved.The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Renewed fighting in Gaza and concerns over the ceasefire pushed key Tel Aviv share indices down nearly 2% on Sunday.

Friends and relatives mourn the death of a loved one who was killed during an Israeli strike earlier, outside Deir al-Balah's Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. AFP
Region

At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza Sunday

Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 11 people across the territory, as Israel and Hamas traded blame for violating a ceasefire.Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said six of the victims were killed when an Israeli strike targeted a "group of civilians" in northern Gaza.The Israeli military told AFP it was checking the reports of casualties.An army official earlier said Israel may carry out further strikes in Gaza after its forces targeted fighters following three attacks in the southern city of Rafah and the northern town of Beit Lahia.

A Palestinian boy carries boxes of biscuits at a market in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, October 18 Saturday.
Region

9 of a Gaza family killed after Israeli forces fired at bus

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed nine members of a single Palestinian family when they shelled a bus on Friday, after the military confirmed it had targeted a vehicle that crossed the so-called "yellow line"."Our teams recovered the bodies of nine martyrs, including four children and two women, after Israeli occupation forces directly targeted the vehicle they were travelling in within the Zeitun neighbourhood," said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency operating under Hamas authority, in a statement to AFP Saturday.Bassal said Israeli forces had fired "two tank shells at the vehicle". He noted that the bodies of two children remained missing, as their "remains were scattered due to the intensity of the bombardment".He added that the victims were members of the Shabaan family and were killed while "trying to check on their home" in the Zeitun neighbourhood.The ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas is now in its second week, but several incidents have been reported since it began.Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza in search of their homes since the truce began, often struggling to find them amid the sweeping devastation left by more than two years of war.Reuters adds from Cairo: The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, adding its reopening will depend on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.Hamas said later Saturday it will be handing over two more hostage bodies , meaning 12 out of 28 bodies will have been handed over to Israel under a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal agreed between Israel and Hamas last week.As part of the deal, Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages it had been holding for two years, in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners jailed in Israel.The resistance group has so far returned 10 of 28 bodies and says that locating some of the bodies amid the vast destruction in Gaza will take time.The deal requires Israel to return 360 bodies of Palestinians and so far it has handed over 15 bodies in return for each Israeli body it has received.

A truck loaded with humanitarian aid enters Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, more than a week after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took hold, on Saturday. AFP
Region

UN aid chief foresees 'massive job' ahead on tour of ruined Gaza

The United Nations' aid chief took stock of the monumental task of restoring dignity and hygiene to Palestinians clinging to life in Gaza's ruins on Saturday, as Israel and Hamas exchanged more bodies. A convoy of white UN jeeps carried relief coordinator Tom Fletcher and his team through the twisted rubble of shattered homes to see a wastewater treatment plant in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City. "I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing and, to see the devastation -- this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland -- and it's absolutely devastating to see," he told AFP. The densely populated cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have largely been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment and intense fighting between Hamas and the Israeli army. Just over a week since US President Donald Trump helped broker a truce, the main border crossing to Egypt has yet to be reopened, but hundreds of trucks roll in daily via Israeli checkpoints and aid is being distributed. Hamas has returned the final 20 surviving hostages it was holding and has begun to hand over the remains of another 28 who died. On Friday night, it turned over a body identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit, 75, who died in the October 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war in Gaza. On Saturday, in line with the terms of the ceasefire deal, Israel returned the bodies of 15 more Palestinians to Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said. Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a grim lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a "massive, massive job". The British diplomat said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes trying to dig latrines in the ruins. "They're telling me most of all they want dignity," he said. "We've got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place. "We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school." According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military's civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel. Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find bodies in the rubble. Some violent incidents have taken place despite the ceasefire. Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said Saturday that it had recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians -- two men, three women and four children -- from the Shaaban family after Israeli troops fired two tank shells at a bus. Two more victims were blown apart in the blast and have yet to be recovered, it said. At Gaza City's Al-Ahli Hospital, the victims were laid out in white shrouds as their relatives mourned. "My daughter, her children and her husband; my son, his children and his wife were killed. What did they do wrong?" demanded grandmother Umm Mohammed Shaaban. "They were little... What did they do wrong? There is no truce."

Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, on Thursday. REUTERS
Region

EU eyes helping disarm Hamas under Trump plan

The EU is looking at providing funding and expertise to help disarm Hamas under US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, a document seen by AFP Friday said. The 27-nation bloc is discussing what role it can play after Europe was left on the sidelines as Trump sealed a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. The agreement has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans and agony for the hostages' families. According to Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, the next phases of the truce should include the disarmament of Hamas, the offer of amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza. EU foreign ministers are set to discuss how the bloc might be involved in the peace process at a meeting on Monday. In a document circulated on Friday, the EU's diplomatic arm said member states should "assess and explore ways to finance and provide expertise for disarmament." An EU diplomat said that any involvement would likely be limited to "technical support" and that Europe would not be involved in any sort of "intervention force". The document said that the EU, the largest international donor to Gaza, should focus on helping ramp up humanitarian aid deliveries to the region. "The priority is to ensure the immediate delivery of aid at scale into and throughout Gaza in line with international humanitarian law," it said. The EU has said it is ready to redeploy a monitoring mission to the Rafah crossing point with Egypt when it opens and could help train a future police force in Gaza. As the biggest international donor to the Palestinians, the EU is also expected to play a role in helping cover the cost of reconstruction. But diplomats say they expect Middle East states to take the lead and the EU doesn't want to rebuild Gaza if Israel could launch fresh offensives in the future. "The EU should have a key role also in the recovery and reconstruction process," the document said, pointing to a "Palestine Donor Group" Brussels is pushing to establish. "The EU should maximise its leverage with a view to gaining more influence on the process through the variety of tools at its disposal." The EU has struggled to exert influence during the war in Gaza due to splits within the bloc between countries supporting Israel and those closer to the Palestinians. Ministers on Monday will discuss whether to drop proposals for possible sanctions on Israel including curbing trade ties after the Trump ceasefire deal. Israel is pushing for the measures to be dropped, but a raft of EU states argue they should be kept on the table to maintain pressure to secure the peace process.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing wait to cross into the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, after Israel said it would allow the crossing to reopen for humanitarian aid to enter from Egypt into the Palestinian territory. AFP
Region

Israel should immediately open Gaza crossings to aid: UN humanitarian chief 

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told AFP on Wednesday that Israel should immediately open crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid as part of a ceasefire agreement."We've been calling for unhindered access," Fletcher said in an interview in Cairo, adding that "it should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement", referring to the deal between Israel and Hamas.US President Donald Trump and regional leaders on Monday signed a declaration in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to cement the deal."But the test of this agreement is not the photos and the press conferences and the interviews. The test is that we have children fed, that we have anaesthetics in the hospitals for people getting treatment, that we have tents over people's heads," Fletcher said.The war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the densely-populated territory reliant on aid that was heavily restricted by Israel, when not cut off outright.At the end of August, the United Nations declared a famine in Gaza, though Israel rejected the declaration.The return of aid is listed in Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza.Fletcher called for all crossings to be opened, and said that in Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump and other world leaders "were unequivocal that we must be allowed to deliver aid at massive scale".On Thursday, Fletcher is to go to the lifeline Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to see preparations there.The crossing remained shut on Wednesday despite reports that it could reopen to aid convoys, as Israel insisted Hamas hand over the remains of the last deceased hostages it holds."I don't know at this stage whether the crossing will open for sure," Fletcher said, adding that teams were also "working to clear the road on the other side".Fletcher said what had aid had entered so far was "a fraction of what's needed", with just "tens of trucks on a good day rather than the hundreds of trucks" required."There's a sense of complete urgency to this," Fletcher said."We are determined to get in there, stop the starvation, rebuild the health sector, clear the rubble and start to give people hope of a better life."