Closing summary
It is approaching 5.45pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. This blog will be closing shortly but you can keep you to date with the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here are the latest developments from today’s blog:
The Hamas militant group on Thursday brushed off US president Donald Trump’s latest threat and reiterated that it will only free the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas accused Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to back out of the ceasefire agreement they reached in January. Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said that the “best path to free the remaining Israeli hostages” is through negotiations on the second phase, which were supposed to begin in early February. Only limited preparatory talks have been held so far.
On Wednesday, Trump issued what he said was a “last warning” to Hamas after meeting with eight former hostages. The White House meanwhile confirmed it had held unprecedented direct talks with the militant group, through US special envoy Adam Boehler. Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Boehler had the authority to talk to anyone “to do what’s in the best interest of the American people”. Leavitt said Israel had been consulted before the US began negotiations. It is unclear if the US-Hamas talks made any progress.
France on Thursday saluted an Arab plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority, adding that the militant group Hamas should be “entirely” excluded from running it. The proposal that Arab leaders endorsed on Tuesday “constitutes a serious and credible basis to respond to reconstruction, governance and security needs after the Gaza war,” French foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said. But “the plan must entirely exclude Hamas from governing Gaza, where it must be disarmed and give Israel serious security guarantees”.
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has said Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies were among the underlying causes of the 7 October 2023 attack in which Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 Israelis. In its report on the 7 October attack, Shin Bet acknowledged its own responsibility, admitting it was aware of warning signs that Hamas was planning an operation, but the agency, also known as the General Security Service (GSS), did not grasp the scale, timing and location of the planned attack.
Israel’s military surveillance agency has used a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian communications to build a powerful artificial intelligence tool similar to ChatGPT that it hopes will transform its spying capabilities, an investigation by the Guardian has revealed. The joint investigation with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found Unit 8200 trained the AI model to understand spoken Arabic using large volumes of telephone conversations and text messages, obtained through its extensive surveillance of the occupied territories.
The UK has joined Germany and France to warn that Israel could be in breach of international law by halting the entry of aid into Gaza, which is facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, signed a joint statement with his French and German counterparts to urge Israel and Hamas to engage constructively to get ceasefire talks back on track.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on Thursday saying that the Israeli prime minister had spent two hours meeting former hostages Tal and Adi Shoham. In the statement, Netanyahu’s office said Tal Shoham spoke about “the suffering of the hostages daily … [and] the cruel psychological warfare Hamas used against them”.
Authorities in the Gaza Strip said that six people were killed and seven injured by Israeli fire in the territory in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s government has begun proceedings to dismiss attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara, a vocal critic of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing “prolonged disagreements”. Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence, has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu’s government.
The United States’ move to re-classify Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebel group as a foreign terrorist organisation could have “devastating” effects on the country’s largely aid-dependent, war-wracked population, humanitarian groups warned on Thursday. The listing, which bans any interaction with the Houthis could push up prices and make it difficult to import essential goods, aid groups said.
Syria’s foreign minister has vowed to swiftly rid the country of the chemical weapons remaining after the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, and he appealed to the international community for help. Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani spoke during closed-door meetings at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, where he became the first Syrian foreign minister to address the disarmament agency.
The UK on Thursday unfroze the assets of Syria’s central bank and 23 other entities including banks and oil companies, reversing sanctions imposed during Bashar al-Assad’s presidency. A notice posted on the UK government website said entities including the central bank, the Commercial Bank of Syria and the Agricultural Cooperative Bank had been delisted and were no longer subject to an asset freeze.
A charity kitchen in the occupied West Bank has expanded its usual operations to help displaced Palestinians trying to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. An Israeli military raid launched weeks ago has displaced more than 40,000 people in the region. The Yasser Arafat Charity Kitchen in the city of Tulkarem has been providing daily meals for up to 700 people.
Syria’s new authorities carried out helicopter strikes on armed groups in the former Assad stronghold of Latakia on Thursday, a war monitor said, after a member of the security forces was reported killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village”, after the state news agency Sana reported Assad-affiliated “militias” killed one member of the security forces.
The United Arab Emirates will seek the immediate dismissal of a case brought against it by Sudan at the international court of justice, a UAE official said in a statement sent to Reuters, adding that the allegations “lack any legal or factual basis.” The official, who was speaking on behalf of the UAE government but declined to be named, was speaking in reference to a case alleging the UAE violated its obligations under the genocide convention in relation to attacks against the Masalit ethnic group in West Darfur by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces and allied militias.
Mehdi Yarrahi, a well-known Iranian protest singer who spoke out against the country’s strict dress code for women, has been given 74 lashes as part of an agreement to end a criminal case against him. Yarrahi was initially convicted in January 2024 of acting unlawfully by releasing a protest song in September 2023 entitled Your Headscarf (Roo Sarito) on the first anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising.
Updated
Syria’s new authorities carried out helicopter strikes on armed groups in the former Assad stronghold of Latakia on Thursday, a war monitor said, after a member of the security forces was reported killed.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village”, after the state news agency Sana reported Assad-affiliated “militias” killed one member of the security forces.
