Summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that he condemned “any projects” to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to other countries. In a statement on Sunday, Abbas’s office said he “expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip,” adding that Palestinians “will not abandon their land and holy sites.”
Speaking to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, two Palestinian sources said that an Israeli woman currently held hostage by Hamas in Gaza will be freed – as per Israel’s demands – before the next exchange between hostages and Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. “Arbel Yehud is expected to be freed before the next exchange” scheduled for 1 February, a source from Islamic Jihad told Agence France-Presse.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said French president Emmanuel Macron will allow Israeli companies to attend this year’s airshow in Paris. In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said, “The French president assured the prime minister that Israeli companies would be able to participate in the Paris Air Show.”
French president Emmanuel Macron has called on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “withdraw his forces still present in Lebanon”, his office said in a readout of a phone call between the two leaders. “The President of the Republic stressed to the prime minister the importance of ensuring that nothing compromises the efforts of the new Lebanese authorities to restore the authority of the state throughout the territory of their country,” the readout says.
Donald Trump, in a widely expected move, yesterday instructed the US military to release a hold on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel imposed by former president Joe Biden. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – a staunch Trump ally – has thanked the American president for the decision.
The Israeli military said that its troops “operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots to remove threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified approaching the troops”. It also said “a number of suspects... that posed an imminent threat” were apprehended. An Israeli military spokesperson, addressing the people of south Lebanon in a post on X, accused Hezbollah of trying to “heat up the situation” and said the Israeli army would “in the near future” inform them of places to which they can return.
Updated
Drone footage showed large crowds of Palestinians waiting to be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, a day after Hamas freed four female Israeli soldiers in exchange for 200 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons:
