Closing summary
We will be closing this blog shortly. Here is an overview of today’s developments across the Middle East:
US vice-president JD Vance said during a press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the Gaza ceasefire brokered by Washington could pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East. He also cautioned that there was a “very, very tough task” ahead of disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
The US vice-president repeated earlier comments that he is “optimistic” that the ceasefire deal brokered by the US will hold. He added that an “international security force” would be established to maintain peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws.
Netanyahu said at the press conference that ideas for “the day after” in Gaza had been discussed, particularly how the territory would be governed, but admitted such a plan was “not going to be easy”. He also dismissed suggestions that his country is a client state of Washington, calling the idea “hogwash”.
Israel has returned the bodies of 30 further Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over under the ceasefire deal to 195, the territory’s health ministry said. Under the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis for funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians clad in white shrouds. They were then transported to Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah for burial.
Israel has completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday. Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. Their bodies were transported in coffins by the Red Cross and handed over to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza. Former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Roland Friedrich, director of Unrwa affairs in the occupied West Bank, has warned of settlement expansion in the area, “paving the way for annexation”. He said in a statement on X: “The three refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams have been emptied, and residents actively prevented from returning.”
A top Palestinian non-governmental organisation that offers mental health services to people in Gaza said on Wednesday that there had been an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one its facilities in the territory last week. The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said an “armed group” it didn’t identify stormed the facility in Gaza City on 13 October, seized the building, expelled guards by force and put up their own families there.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio will arrive in Israel on Thursday, an Israeli government spokesperson said, announcing the third visit by a senior Washington official this week, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Speaking while vice-president JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff were already in the country promoting the plan to end the war in Gaza, Shosh Bedrosian told reporters that Rubio would meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
She said:
This is the secretary of state third trip to Israel since mid-September which further shows the hand-in-hand relationship that Israel and the United States have as we mark this historic time.
