"Anti-Semitism is resurfacing in Europe. The need to fight this scourge, online and offline, has never been greater," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the world will never forget the six million "Jews murdered in cold blood and all the victims of the Holocaust."
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The Palestinian Presidency has said that they reject and strongly condemn all plans aimed at displacing their people from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian people and their leadership will absolutely not accept any plan that undermines the unity of the Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, they stressed in a statement released to the media by the Palestinian Embassy in Montenegro.
"The Palestinian people will not give up their land and holy sites. These are red lines and we will not allow the disasters that befell our people in 1948 and 1967 to be repeated. We will not leave."
"We warn against supporting the Israeli crime of ethnic cleansing, which will lead to further serious destabilization in the region and undermine the sovereignty of neighboring Arab countries. We thank the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for their resolute stances rejecting the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland, and we also thank all brotherly and friendly countries that support us in this principled stance," the statement said.
The Presidency said that they call on US President Donald Trump to continue his efforts to support a sustainable ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces, and the assumption of responsibility by the Palestinian National Authority in the Gaza Strip.
"Its focus should be on achieving a just and lasting peace by ending the Israeli occupation, achieving independence for the State of Palestine, and realizing the two-state solution," they assessed.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse, two Palestinian sources said that an Israeli citizen currently being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza will be released, in accordance with Israeli demands, before the next exchange of hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
"Arbel Yehud is expected to be released before the next exchange," which is scheduled for February 1, an Islamic Jihad source told AFP.
According to another Palestinian source, Yehud is expected to be released by Friday.
"The release of Arbel Yehud will probably happen by Friday at the latest in exchange for 30 prisoners serving life sentences," a source told AFP.
Israel accused Hamas of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire when it failed to release Yehud over the weekend as part of a second exchange.
According to a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Yehud "was supposed to be released" as part of the second exchange.
Netanyahu added that Hamas was violating the agreement, and his cabinet announced that it "will not allow the passage of Gaza residents to the northern part of the strip until the liberation of Yehud is organized," AFP reported.
The Israeli army opened fire today on residents in southern Lebanon who were trying to return to their villages, killing 22 people and wounding 124, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced.
"Attacks by the Israeli enemy on civilians trying to return to their villages that are still under occupation resulted in the deaths of 22 people, including six women and one soldier, and the injury of 124" in 19 different locations, the statement said.
(BETA)
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that Israeli forces killed 15 people (14 civilians and one soldier) in southern Lebanon today, as residents tried to return to their homes on the day Israel was supposed to withdraw under a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, reports the Guardian.
French President Emmanuel Macron asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today to "withdraw its (military) forces that are still present in Lebanon," the Elysee Palace said after a telephone conversation between the two leaders.
"The President of the Republic stressed to the Prime Minister the importance of ensuring that nothing should jeopardize the efforts of the new Lebanese authorities to restore the authority of the state throughout its territory," the French president's statement said.
The Elysee Palace did not explicitly mention the violence in which 15 people were killed today in southern Lebanon, after the Israeli army opened fire, as reported by Lebanese authorities.
According to the agreement that ended two months of warfare between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah on November 27, the Israeli military was supposed to complete the withdrawal of its forces by today, January 26.
However, Israeli authorities said on Friday that Lebanon had not fully respected its obligations and added that their withdrawal would continue beyond the planned deadline.
Macron and Netanyahu also discussed the situation in Gaza, the Elysee Palace added in a statement.
(BETA)
US President Donald Trump, in a widely expected move, has ordered the US military to lift a ban on the delivery of just under a ton of bombs to Israel, imposed by former President Joe Biden, the Guardian reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch Trump ally, thanked the US president for this decision.
"Thank you, President Trump, for keeping your promise to provide Israel with the tools it needs to defend itself, fight our common enemies, and ensure peace and prosperity in the future," Netanyahu wrote on the social network X.
Netanyahu, who was one of the first to congratulate Trump after his victory over Kamala Harris in the US presidential election in November, had previously called the Republican "the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House."
Despite a ceasefire in Gaza, which was supposed to halt hostilities, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian today on the al-Rashid coastal road in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
According to medical sources, the victim was shot dead in the Tabat al-Nuweiri area, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, when Israeli forces opened fire on a gathering of civilians waiting to return to the northern Gaza Strip, Wafa reported.
Several other people were wounded in the attack, some of them in critical condition.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said 15 people had been killed and at least 83 wounded by Israeli fire since early morning in the country's south, Reuters reported.
The United Nations has assessed that residents cannot safely return to border areas in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it had shot at suspects who were approaching soldiers still deployed in southern Lebanon, Radio Free Europe reports.
Among the dead was a Lebanese soldier, Israeli media reported.
Israeli forces were scheduled to complete their withdrawal from southern Lebanon on Sunday, but Israel claims Lebanon has not yet met the ceasefire conditions.
This means that Israeli soldiers will remain in southern Lebanon, but it is not known for how long.
The ceasefire agreement was signed in late November and ended the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, while the European Union blacklisted only its armed wing, but not the party represented in the Lebanese parliament.
Under the agreement, a 60-day deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces and pro-Iranian Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of the Lebanese army, expired on Sunday.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant movement and Hamas ally in the Gaza Strip, condemned US President Donald Trump's statement suggesting the relocation of Palestinians from the territory to surrounding countries, saying the proposal encourages "war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that he wants Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in more Palestinian refugees so the devastated area can be "cleaned up," the AP reports.
"We're talking about probably about 1,5 million people, and we just clean up the whole thing and say, 'you know, it's over,'" the US agency quoted the US president as saying.
The Palestinian movement said that this statement is in line with the worst aspects of far-right Zionism, that it "continues the policy of denying the existence of the Palestinian people" and encourages "the continuation of war crimes and crimes against humanity", reports the Agence France-Presse.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said today that Trump's "cleansing" proposal is an excellent idea.
"After years of glorifying terrorism, the Palestinians will be able to establish a new and beautiful life somewhere else," said Smotrich, whose party is key to Benjamin Netanyahu's government coalition.
A day earlier, Trump, asked whether it was a permanent or temporary solution, replied that "it could be one or the other."
Gaza is literally "ruins", everything there is "destroyed and people are dying, so I would rather work with some Arab nations and build houses and housing in another location, where maybe for a change they could live in peace", said the US president.
(RSE)
Lebanon's Health Ministry announced today that eleven people have been killed and at least 83 wounded by Israeli fire since this morning in the south of the country.
The United Nations has assessed that residents cannot safely return to border areas in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it had opened fire on suspects approaching soldiers still deployed in southern Lebanon. One Lebanese soldier was among the dead, Israeli media reported.
Israeli forces were scheduled to complete their withdrawal from southern Lebanon today, but Israel claims Lebanon has not yet fulfilled the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
This means that Israeli soldiers will remain in southern Lebanon, but it is not known for how long.
A ceasefire agreement was signed in late November, ending the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Under the agreement, a 60-day deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, as well as for the deployment of the Lebanese army, expired today.
(BETA)
The Lebanese army announced that the Israeli army killed one Lebanese soldier and wounded another in southern Lebanon today.
According to the statement, the soldier was killed on the Marwahin-Dhayra-Tir road, while the wounded man was shot in Mays al-Jabal, Israeli media reported.
The Israeli military did not comment on this statement.
Today, as the 60-day deadline for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon expires, based on a ceasefire agreement in the war between Israel and the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, Israeli fire has killed a total of at least four people, Lebanese media and officials reported.
(BETA)
At least three people were killed and 30 wounded in southern Lebanon today when Israeli forces opened fire on protesters who had crossed roadblocks set up a day earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
In the Gaza Strip, one Palestinian was killed and seven others were wounded by Israeli fire overnight as people gathered in the hope of returning to the northern enclave under a ceasefire agreement, health officials said today.
In southern Lebanon, demonstrators, some carrying Hezbollah flags, tried to enter several villages in the border area to protest the failure of Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement that ended the war with Israel in late November.
Israel has stated that it is necessary for its forces to remain longer because the Lebanese army has not yet deployed in all parts of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not gain a foothold in the area.
The Lebanese army claims it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told residents of the south of the country today that Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are not negotiable, and that he is seeking to secure their rights.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said one protester was killed and ten others wounded in the border village of Houla. Another protester was killed in the village of Ajtarun, where nine people were wounded.
A third protester was killed in the village of Blida, while several people were injured in the areas of Odaiseha, Rab Thalatina and Kfar Kile.
The Israeli military has not yet commented on the protests.
In Gaza, under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army was supposed to allow Palestinians to walk from the south to the north of Gaza, from where they were displaced, through the so-called Netzarim Corridor that divides the territory.
However, Israel has postponed the move until Hamas frees an Israeli woman held in Gaza, who was expected to be released on Saturday.
Avda Hospital said one man was killed and two wounded late Saturday, while five more Palestinians, including a child, were wounded in separate shootings today.
(BETA)
A senior Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist group opposes US President Donald Trump's idea of relocating Gaza residents to Egypt and Jordan to "cleanse" the war-torn region.
"Just as it has thwarted every plan for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades, our people will thwart such projects," said Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political wing, alluding to Trump's statements, Israeli media reported.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller extremist organization in Gaza, also condemned Trump's idea, calling it shameful and encouraging war crimes.
"This proposal amounts to encouraging war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their country," the organization said.
Trump said Saturday that he would like Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to increase the number of Palestinian refugees they accept from Gaza.
This proposal has so far been a red line for Arab countries, especially Jordan and Egypt, which consider the mass migration of Palestinians to their countries a potential existential threat.
They highlighted Israel's refusal to publicly promise to allow Palestinians who leave to return later and not to be complicit in the exile.
(Beta)
Israel today accused the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas of two violations of the ceasefire agreement, justifying a ban on displaced residents in the southern Gaza Strip from returning to the north.
Arbel Yehuda, an Israeli civilian whose release Israel requested on Saturday, has not been released, and a list detailing the condition of the hostages planned for release in the first phase has not been submitted, according to a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The hostage department in the Prime Minister's Office informed the hostages' families about this today.
Israeli media reports that joint efforts are being made with the US to liberate Arbel Yehuda.
The statement added that it was expected that "Hamas would erect obstacles and continue psychological warfare maneuvers on the path to implementing the agreement," but that the Hostage Department was determined to ensure the return of all hostages, both alive and dead.
Hamas militants handed over four Israeli soldiers held in Gaza on Saturday, and Israel confirmed that it had in return released 200 Palestinians from its prisons as part of a ceasefire agreement that came into effect last Sunday.
That day, in the first round of exchanges, three young Israeli women were released in exchange for 90 Palestinians who were in prisons in Israel.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, which will last 42 days, 33 hostages from Gaza should be released in exchange for 1.900 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
(Beta)
The Israeli army killed one person in the border village of Houla in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The ministry said nine people were wounded in Houla, while eight others were injured in Kfar Qili as residents tried to return to their homes in the border area, where Israeli forces remain on the ground, Reuters reported.
US President Donald Trump said Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries should increase the number of Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, where the war with Israel has caused a humanitarian crisis.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump described Gaza as a "demolition site" after Israel's war with Hamas and spoke of potentially moving enough of the population from the war-torn area "just to clean it up."
Trump spoke by phone with Jordan's King Abdullah II and told him that the entire Gaza Strip was in chaos and that he would like the monarch to welcome more people, Israeli media reported today.
"I would love for Egypt to welcome people," Trump told reporters and announced that he would also speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today.
He mentioned a million and a half people and said that such a mass movement of Palestinians could be "temporary or long-term," adding that the area that includes Gaza has seen many conflicts over the centuries.
"It's literally a demolition site now. Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So I would get involved with some of the Arab countries and build housing in another location where they could live in peace for a change," Trump said.
Jordan and Egypt have long rejected that option, and the administration of former US President Joseph Biden has embraced that position. About 2,3 million Palestinians live in Gaza.
For Palestinians, any attempt to move from Gaza brings back memories of the Nakba, which translates from Arabic as catastrophe, the mass displacement during the war that followed the creation of Israel 75 years ago.
Israel has denied that it has any plans to force Gazans to leave. Some far-right members of the Israeli government, however, have publicly supported the idea of a mass exodus from the Palestinian territory.
In October during the presidential campaign, Trump said that Gaza could be "better than Monaco" if it were "rebuilt the right way."
The leader of the Israeli far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) welcomed Trump's proposal to relocate to Jordan and Egypt temporarily or permanently.
"I commend US President Trump for his initiative to relocate Gaza residents to Jordan and Egypt," Ben Gvir posted on Platform X.
He recalled that one of his party's demands to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to promote voluntary emigration.
"When the president of the world's largest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth it for the Israeli government to implement it," Ben-Gvir said, adding, "promote emigration now."
(Beta)
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