An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The U.S.-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who's widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Here's the latest:
Israel's latest raid in the West Bank kills 3 Palestinians
The Israeli military said Wednesday it killed three Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
The military said those killed were wanted militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry did not immediately confirm the deaths and there was no immediate comment from militant groups.
Israel said the men were wanted for selling weapons for use in militant activities. It said it arrested two other people during the raid.
Israeli forces has been cracking down in a broad offensive in the West Bank in recent weeks, escalating a surge of violence in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza erupted. West Bank health officials say more than 800 Palestinians have been killed during that time.
Israel says many of the dead are militants, however young people protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.
Israel can now bar people's entry over Oct. 7 denial or supporting prosecution of soldiers
People can now be banned from entering Israel if authorities say they denied Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack or expressed support for the international prosecution of Israeli soldiers.
The law, which affects non-citizens and non-residents of Israel, was passed by Israeli legislators on Wednesday.
It builds on previous legislation that denied entry to the country to people who call for a boycott of Israel. The law also bans entry to people who deny the Holocaust.
The original law was seen by opponents as an attempt by Israel to silence critics, and it was used on multiple occasions to bar entry to activists who supported a boycott against the country.
Netanyahu describes his country's pain as Israel awaits the bodies of 4 hostages in Gaza
“The heart of an entire nation breaks,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
The bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz are scheduled to be returned to Israel from Gaza on Thursday.
The Bibas children had become a symbol of the struggle to free the hostages who remained in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
Israel confirms the identities of four dead hostages who will be returned from Gaza
An Israeli official says the bodies of two young brothers, their mother, and a man in his 80s are expected to be returned to Israel on Thursday as part of the ceasefire with Hamas.
It was the first Israeli confirmation that the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were 4 years old and 9 months old when they were taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, were being returned along with their mother Shiri.
The body of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted, will also be returned, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The grassroots group representing hostage families also confirmed the names.
Hamas says all four were had been killed by Israeli fire. Israel had previously said it had ”grave concern” for the lives of the Bibas family.
___
AP writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
Lebanese president tells Trump’s national security adviser that Israel must fully withdraw
Lebanese president tells Trump’s national security adviser that Israel must fully withdrawIn a phone call with U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday, Lebanon’s president insisted that Israeli forces withdraw from five strategic strategic hilltops inside Lebanon.
Israel is keeping its forces on Lebanese soil even after a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun told Waltz that a full Israeli pullout from the five border hilltops would increase stability in the country’s south.
The statement from Aoun’s office also said he asked the Trump administration to help speed up the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.
Egypt's leader reiterates opposition to Trump's Gaza plan
Egypt’s leader has reiterated his opposition to any transfer of the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, as suggested by U.S. President Donald Trump.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday called on the international community to support a reconstruction plan that would allow Palestinians to stay in their homeland. He said the reconstruction of Gaza must be implemented “without the transfer of the Palestinian people from their land to which they cling.”
Egypt and Jordan have rejected Trump’s suggestion that they take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees.
El-Sissi spoke in Madrid at a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who also condemned Trump’s proposal, saying it would be “immoral and contrary to international law and United Nations resolutions,” and have a destabilizing effect on the region.
The two leaders also called for the revival of a peace process leading to a two-state solution to the conflict.
UN will launch another polio vaccination drive in Gaza Strip
The United Nations health chief says another polio vaccination campaign will be launched in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Wednesday on X that the campaign aims to vaccinate more than 591,000 children under 10 years old.
It comes after the recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples, signaling circulation.
Last year, Gaza reported its first polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in a leg. At the time, the WHO said the presence of a paralysis case indicated there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.
Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon kills 1
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli drone strike on car in a border village has killed one person.
Wednesday’s strike in the village of Aita al-Shaab was the first since Israeli troops withdrew from southern border areas a day earlier as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The agency also said that Israeli troops opened fire on the Lebanese side of the border, wounding two people.
Israel's military said the strike targeted a Hezbollah member allegedly handling weaponry.
Oxfam says 80% of Gaza's water infrastructure is damaged
The international charity Oxfam says 80% of water and sanitation networks in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war.
The damaged networks, including all six major wastewater treatment plants, have accelerated the spread of water-borne disease as hundreds of thousands of people shelter in tent camps, Oxfam said.
In a report this week, the World Bank estimated it would cost over $50 billion to rebuild Gaza. That’s well over twice the total Palestinian economic output in 2022.
With the future of the ceasefire in doubt, and Israel and Egypt maintaining a blockade of Gaza, it is unclear when or how anything will be rebuilt.
5 Israeli soldiers charged with assault on a Palestinian detainee
Israeli military prosecutors have charge five soldiers with assault over an attack on a Palestinian detainee in which they sodomized him with a knife.
The military said the July 5, 2024, attack in the Sde Teiman facility “caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear.”
It said the soldiers took the detainee to a separate area, blindfolded and handcuffed, before assaulting him. It said the evidence for the attack was “extensive” and included footage from a security camera.
The five were among nine Israeli reservists arrested last July over the attack. A defense lawyer at the time denied the allegations, saying the soldiers responded with force when the detainee attacked them.
Their arrest triggered angry protests by supporters demanding their release, including members of parliament and at least two government ministers. Hard-liners in Israel have called for harsh treatment of suspected Hamas fighters.
Netanyahu appoints close adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire negotiations
An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The official says that Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer will head the Israeli team. Previous talks have been led by the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies.
Talks have not yet started on the second stage, which is meant to include an end to the war, return of all hostages and Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been officially announced.
The U.S.-born Dermer is widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, where he has been a key player in relations with the U.S. as well as Gulf Arab countries.
— Josef Federman, Jerusalem
▶ Read more about the ceasefire in Gaza.
The Associated Press
