Israeli and Hamas officials said Tuesday they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of dead hostages for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, keeping their fragile ceasefire intact for at least a few more days.
Israel has delayed the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it says is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release by Hamas. The militant group has said the delay is a “serious violation” of their ceasefire and that talks on a second phase are not possible until they are freed.
The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current six-week first phase of the deal expires this weekend.
At least six infants have died from hypothermia in the last two weeks in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people are living in tent camps and war-damaged buildings during the fragile ceasefire, Palestinian medics said Tuesday….
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Desperation grows in northern Gaza as Palestinians struggle to rebuild their homes
When night falls over northern Gaza, much of the cityscape of collapsed buildings and wreckage turns pitch black. Living inside the ruins of their home, Rawia Tambora’s young sons get afraid of the dark, so she turns on a flashlight and her phone’s light to comfort them, for as long as the batteries last.
“Some people wish the war had never ended, feeling it would have been better to be killed,” Tambora said. “I don’t know what we’ll do long-term. My brain stopped planning for the future.”
Nearly 600,000 Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza under the now month-old ceasefire, according to the United Nations. After initial relief and joy at being back at their homes — even if damaged or destroyed — they now face the reality of living in the wreckage for the foreseeable future.
A 20-year-old student from Gaza City, Huda Skaik, said the “worst part is that we’re just now grasping that we lost it all.”…
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Israeli opposition politician wants Egypt to rule Gaza for years
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has suggested the Gaza Strip could be ruled and rebuilt by neighboring Egypt. In exchange, he said, Gulf Arab countries and the international community would help Egypt with its spiraling economic crisisby paying off billions of dollars in foreign debt.
Lapid said Egypt could lead a “peace force” backed from regional allies that would govern a demilitarized Gaza for eight years, possibly as long as 15 years.
“During that period, the conditions for self-governance in Gaza will be created,” Lapid said, speaking Tuesday at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank.
There was no immediate comment from Egypt, which alongside other Arab states has sought to link any postwar plan for Gaza to progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state — a nonstarter for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Lapid, a fierce critic of Netanyahu, has voiced support for a two-state solution in the past….
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Trump administration’s suspension of funds to WHO freezes $46 million for Gaza
A Trump administration move to suspend funding to the World Health Organization has frozen $46 million for its operations in Gaza, a top WHO official in the region said Tuesday.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the “freezing” would leave six areas underfunded, including EMT operations, rehabilitation of health facilities, coordination with partner organizations, and medical evacuation operations.
Speaking from Gaza to reporters a U.N. briefing in Geneva, Peeperkorn said money for such operations remained in WHO’s funding pipeline and “we’re still going full steam ahead” with activities.
Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, said he did not have figures about how the U.S. funding cuts affected the entirety of its operations worldwide….
- Iranian Nuclear Program: The British ambassador to Israel stated on February 25 that the E3 (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) has given Iran until the end of June 2025 to conclude a new nuclear deal and prevent the imposition of snapback sanctions. It is very unlikely that Iran will conclude a deal with the E3 and the United States by June 2025, given that such a deal would require Iran to completely change its current policy on negotiations. Iran has continued to prepare for an Israeli strike on Iran.
- Iranian Threats Against the United States: A senior Iranian military commander threatened on February 24 that Iran could attack US and allied interests in the Middle East in response to a potential Israeli attack on Iran. Iran retains a large number of short-range ballistic missiles that it could use to strike US bases in the Middle East. The October 2024 IDF strikes on Iran severely degraded Iran’s long-range missile production capabilities and Iranian strikes targeting Israel depleted Iran’s stockpile of long-range ballistic missiles, but Iran still retains very large stockpiles of short-range ballistic missiles.
- Syrian Constitution: The attendees of the two-day Syrian National Dialogue Conference issued a statement consistent with the interim government’s stated goals at the end of the conference on February 25. The National Dialogue Conference, and the conference’s final statement, do not appear to impact who will comprise the future constitutional committee. The interim government likely designed the conference and statement to legitimize the constitutional committee and its decisions.
- Israel in Syria: Protests have broken out across Syria in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent demand to demilitarize southern Syria. These protests may expand because the interim government has few means to satisfy the protesters’ concerns. The expansion of the protests would risk destabilizing the interim government during a very difficult transition.
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