The Israeli army announced additional reinforcements tonight, including reservists, around the Gaza Strip, as the ceasefire, which came into effect on January 19 between Israeli forces and the Palestinian Hamas movement, remains fragile.
"In accordance with the assessment of the situation and the decision to raise the level of alert in the Southern Military District, it has been decided to reinforce with additional forces, including reservists," the Israeli army said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump, an ally of Israel, said on Monday that "all hell will break loose" in Gaza if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages still being held there by Saturday, after the Palestinian movement announced a halt to the release of those people.
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Jordan's King Abdullah II said at the White House that his country is ready to take in 2.000 sick children from the Gaza Strip, devastated after more than 15 months of war.
The king, who was received by US President Donald Trump, said that Egypt is preparing a plan of cooperation with the US president, who has proposed the relocation of Gaza Strip residents to Jordan and Egypt.
Trump, for his part, said he would not personally participate in real estate development in Gaza.
The US president expressed his belief that the Palestinian movement Hamas will not meet the deadline to release all hostages by Saturday, while on Monday he said that there would be hell in the Gaza Strip if this was not done.
"There's a deadline until Saturday, but I don't think they'll act before the deadline," Trump said.
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Yemeni Houthi rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi threatened today that the rebels would continue attacks on Israel in the event of a military escalation in the Gaza Strip, where a fragile ceasefire is in place between Israeli forces and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
"We are ready to intervene militarily at any time in the event of escalation in the Gaza Strip," the Houthi rebel leader said in a speech carried by the Al Masirah television channel.
US President Donald Trump, an ally of Israel, said on Monday that "all hell will break loose" in Gaza if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages still being held there by Saturday, after the Palestinian movement announced a halt to the release of those people.
The Houthis, who claim to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, have fired numerous rockets and drones at Israel since the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. That attack triggered the Gaza war.
After a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on January 19, the Houthi rebels stopped their attacks.
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The recovery and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip devastated after more than a year of war will require more than $53 billion, including $20 billion in the first three years, the UN estimated today.
"The short-term, medium-term and long-term recovery and reconstruction needs in the Gaza Strip are estimated at $53,142 billion. Of this, the short-term financial requirements for the first three years are estimated at approximately $20,568 billion," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a report to the UN General Assembly.
In a resolution adopted in December calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the UN General Assembly asked Guterres to provide it with an assessment of Gaza's short-, medium- and long-term needs within two months.
"While it was not possible in the current context to fully assess the full range of needs that will be necessary in the Gaza Strip, a rapid interim assessment provides an initial indication of the significant scale of recovery and reconstruction needs in the territory," the report said.
With "more than 60 percent of homes" destroyed as of October 2023, the housing sector will need about 30 percent of reconstruction needs, or $15,2 billion, the report said.
This is followed by trade and industry (6,9 billion), health (6,9 billion), agriculture (4,2 billion), social protection (4,2 billion), transport (2,9 billion), water and sanitation (2,7 billion) and education (2,6 billion).
The report also cites particularly high costs expected for environmental sectors ($1,9 billion), "due to the large amount of rubble containing unexploded ordnance and the high costs associated with waste removal."
The UN estimates that the conflict has created "more than 50 million tons of waste, under which lie human remains alongside unexploded ordnance, asbestos and other hazardous materials."
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Israel's communications minister is the latest high-ranking official to back Trump's call to "release all hell" on Gaza if Israeli hostages are not released by Saturday.
"The response must be exactly as President Trump proposed," Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said in a post on the X network.
"Totally suspend humanitarian aid, cut off electricity, water and communications, and use brutal and disproportionate force until the hostages are returned."
"It is time to open the gates of hell to Hamas – and this time, without any restrictions on our heroic fighters."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi "stressed the necessity of starting the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians and in a manner that ensures the preservation of their rights... to live on their land," the statement said, according to Al Jazeera.
The Egyptian president made the comments during a telephone conversation with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, according to a statement from his office.
Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, is under pressure from Trump to take in Palestinians forcibly displaced from Gaza, a plan that el-Sisi has firmly rejected.
The US president said he could “theoretically” cut aid to Egypt if it refused to comply.
The Gaza Health Ministry has just released the latest report on the number of people killed and wounded in the Israeli war in the territory.
The statement said that a total of 24 deaths had arrived at hospitals in the last 11 hours – three newly killed and eight bodies pulled from the rubble – as well as 10 wounded people, according to Al Jazeera.
This brings the confirmed death toll in Israeli attacks since October 7 to at least 48.219, while 111.665 people have been wounded, the ministry added.
An unknown number of victims are still under the rubble, while in Gaza they estimate the death toll at least 61.709, stating that thousands of people missing under the rubble are now considered dead.
Israeli forces fired on Palestinians in several areas of Rafah, Wafa reported, killing one young man and seriously wounding another, Al Jazeera reported.
The attacks took place in the Saudia and Tal as-Sultan neighborhoods of Rafah, the Palestinian news agency said.
The Israeli military has repeatedly fired on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip despite the current ceasefire. On Sunday, Israeli forces shot three Palestinians in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Hamas to proceed with the planned release of hostages on Tuesday, a day after the Palestinian militant group announced its intention to suspend the exchange.
"We must avoid at all costs the continuation of the conflict in Gaza, which would lead to a huge tragedy," he said in a statement.
Hamas announced on Monday that it would suspend the release of Israeli hostages until further notice, due to what it said were Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which increases the risk of a resurgence of the conflict.
US President Donald Trump must remember that the only way for Israeli prisoners to return home is to respect the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters on Monday.
"Trump must remember that there is an agreement that both sides must respect and that this is the only way to return the prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates things," he said.
US President Donald Trump said that if all hostages in Gaza are not released by noon on Saturday, he will propose breaking the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which he warned would "bring about all hell."
In statements to reporters as he signed a series of executive orders and resolutions at the White House last night, Trump stressed that the decision ultimately rests with Israel but warned that "all hell will break loose" if the remaining hostages are not released, adding that he fears many of them are dead.
"I speak for myself. Israel can ignore it," Trump said, emphasizing that ultimately it is up to Israel to decide.
He said that the hostages released in the last round in accordance with the ceasefire agreement appeared to have left the camp and that many were possibly dead, which is why the Palestinian Hamas is blocking further hostage handovers.
Hamas said yesterday it would delay the release of hostages from the Gaza Strip after accusing Israel of violating a fragile ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages after three Israelis released from captivity last Saturday arrived home in critical condition.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas' plan to delay the release of the next group of hostages was a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and that he had asked the Israeli military to be on the highest level of alert. The prime minister's coordinator for hostages said that all the families of the hostages had been informed of Hamas' decision and that Israel insisted on fulfilling the agreement in full.
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