Ambiguous US position on Gaza needs to be clearly stated, analyst says
All eyes will be on the Arab League summit on Tuesday in Egypt as it tries to tackle what to do in Gaza after Trump suggested the Strip be emptied of Palestinians so reconstruction can begin.
Arab nations, who have vehemently denounced Trump’s plan, are to come up with a counterproposal to keep Palestinians on their land while reconstruction gets under way.
“The problem is, there’s not a clear vision from the American side, while the Israelis say they don’t want to see the Palestinian Authority or Hamas governing the Strip,” said Tamer Qarmout, a professor at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies.
Meanwhile, Eran Etzion, a former Israeli diplomat and a former deputy head of the National Security Council, joins Al Jazeera’s live from Mevaseret Zion on the outskirts of West Jerusalem.
Thousands protest in Israel for completion of ceasefire deal
Thousands of Israelis are protesting on Begin Street in Tel Aviv, demanding the release of the remaining captives in Gaza and the completion of the second phase of the ceasefire deal.
Israel agrees on US plan for temporary ceasefire in Gaza: PM office
Israel will adopt the proposal by US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza for the Ramadan and Passover periods, the Prime Minister’s Office has said.
The announcement came as the first phase of the previously agreed ceasefire was set to expire.
Residents of Rafah unable to return to their homes despite truce
Al Mezan, a Palestinian advocacy group, says Israeli forces are continuing to demolish private and public property in Rafah, six weeks since the ceasefire came into effect, and preventing residents of the southern city from returning to their homes.
Israeli forces “have not kept within the designated areas outlined in the ceasefire agreement and continue to maintain positions deep inside Rafah – more than one kilometer inside the city centre, extending to the eastern garage area, the Palestinian-Egyptian border to the south, and the eastern perimeter fence”, it said.
Israeli forces have also declared some 60 percent of the city’s area a “restricted and highly dangerous zone”, it said.
“These areas remain highly dangerous, where any movement is met with artillery fire, sniper attacks, and aerial bombardment.”
Nearly half of the 111 people killed and 916 wounded by Israeli forces since the ceasefire were in Rafah as residents attempted to check on their homes and farmland, the group said.
Some 200,000 of the city’s 300,000 residents are still unable to return, it added.
Netanyahu’s office admits of signs October 7 attack was coming
For the first time, Israel’s prime minister has admitted that there was some forewarning of Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel in October 2023.
“The intelligence officer in the Military Secretariat received a message that presented telltale signs – and passed it on to the Military Secretary”, a statement from Netanyahu’s office, carried by Israeli news outlet Ynet, reads.
An Israeli army probe into the incident revealed that the situation assessment, containing evidence pointing to a coming attack, was passed on to the joint chiefs of staff of the army, but was disregarded.
Netanyahu has frequently denied that Israeli authorities had any warning of the attacks, which were used as the justification for a deadly 15-month war on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 48,000 people.
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