Closing summary
Israel and Hamas are wrangling over the details of a potential deal to halt Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and return hostages home. A Hamas official said the group had approved a list of 34 Israeli hostages to be returned as part of a deal that could eventually lead to a ceasefire. But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office swiftly issued a statement saying Hamas had not provided such a list. Israel said on Monday that Hamas had yet to clarify whether the 34 hostages it claimed it was ready to free were dead or alive.
Gaza’s health ministry said that 49 people were killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall number of Palestinians killed by the military since October 2023 to 45,854.
The health ministry was reported to have said that the Israeli military committed three “massacres” in Gaza over the past day, with deadly attacks having taken place in southern and central parts of the Strip.
Foreign ministers from the UAE and Syria’s new government discussed strengthening relations at a meeting during the first official Syrian visit to the Gulf country since the overthrow of former president Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey said that it was “only a matter of time” before Syrian Kurdish fighters - seen by the west as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists - would be “eliminated”.
Gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles near a village in the occupied West Bank, killing three people and injuring eight, the emergency services said. The Israeli military reported that troops were “pursuing the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of al-Funduq.
Israeli forces fired on a World Food Programme convoy in Gaza on Sunday, hitting vehicles carrying eight staff members some 16 times.
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Israeli forces fired on a World Food Programme convoy in Gaza, UN agency says
Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter for the Guardian
Israeli forces fired on a World Food Programme convoy in Gaza on Sunday, hitting vehicles carrying eight staff members some 16 times.
A statement issued by the UN agency said it “strongly condemns the horrifying incident on January 5, when a clearly marked WFP convoy was shot at by Israeli forces near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, putting the lives of our staff at tremendous risk and leaving the vehicles immobilized.”
“The convoy, consisting of three vehicles carrying eight staff members, came under hostile fire despite having received all of the necessary clearances from Israeli authorities. At least 16 bullets struck the vehicles.”
