Hamas

US president says Gaza ceasefire ‘working out very well’ despite deadly Israeli attacks and severe aid restrictions.

Southern Gaza witnesses raids, intensive artillery shelling as Israel continues its attacks, violating the ceasefire.

The body of a hostage returned by Hamas via the Red Cross in Gaza has been identified as Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen, Israel has confirmed.

The 19-year-old soldier’s remains were returned on Tuesday as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump last month.

“Following the completion of the identification process… IDF representatives informed the family of the fallen hostage, Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, that their loved one has been returned to Israel and positively identified,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

Earlier, Hamas’s military wing said it had recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Israel had allowed members of the group and Red Cross staff to search for the remains in the area, which is inside territory still controlled by Israeli forces.

Chen was working at his base on the Gaza border when Hamas and its allies launched their attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

His family lost communication with him after he told them his base was under attack.

Chen was initially believed to have been taken hostage by jihadists was actually killed in the 7 October attacks, the Israeli military said in March 2024. It said he had died in combat and his body had been taken to Gaza.

The Israeli government has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the dead hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire deal took effect on 10 October.

Hamas has insisted it is difficult to locate the bodies under rubble.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was still holding within 72 hours.

All the living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

Israel has handed over the bodies of 270 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 19 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.

Five of the seven dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.

All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,800 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Earlier on Tuesday, a hospital official in Gaza City said a man was killed by Israeli fire in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said its troops killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the “Yellow Line”, which demarcates Israeli-controlled territory, and posed a threat to them.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Hamas is ready to transfer the governance of Gaza to a committee made up of Palestinians.

Nov. 2 (UPI) — Israel has received the bodies of three more captives from Hamas and taken them to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine to be examined and identified, the Israeli Defense Forces said Sunday.

The IDF said in a statement that the bodies were presented by Hamas in three caskets to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which collected them and delivered them to Israeli soldiers inside Gaza. The bodies were then escorted across the border into Israel.

“The IDF urges the public to act with sensitivity and wait for official identification, which will first be communicated to the families of the deceased hostages,” the IDF said.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades said Saturday that it was ready to exhume the bodies of the three captives from inside the yellow line and had offered to hand them over to Israel.

Since entering a ceasefire with Hamas in October, Israel has carried out multiple operations beyond the yellow line, which marks the boundaries for Israeli troop deployment under the deal, shooting and bombing Palestinians in areas outside Israeli control.

Hamas has considered these to be violations of the ceasefire agreement.

On Friday, Hamas had returned the partial remains of three people, but Israel said that forensic testing revealed that the bodies did not belong to any of the Israeli captives.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian affairs said Sunday that it continues to operate health facilities in Gaza, with work including the screening of young children for malnutrition.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which they agreed that “humanitarian aid must reach the people of Gaza safely and in sufficient quantities.”

Meanwhile, the family of a Palestinian held captive by Israel for 27 years said he faced a severe health decline, Al-Jazeera reported.

He was arrested in April 1997 and received multiple life sentences.

Palestinian media also reported Sunday that Israeli forces continued to raid several areas across the occupied West Bank, detaining a child in Tubas, as Israeli settlers plowed through Palestinian land in the town of Idhna in preparation to seize and annex it.

Hamas says US claim is ‘unfounded’, calling it ‘an attempt to justify further reduction of already limited’ aid in Gaza.

Hamas has denied accusations by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that the Palestinian group looted aid trucks in the Gaza Strip.

CENTCOM had published drone footage that allegedly showed an aid truck being looted in the enclave. It said in a statement that the drone observed suspected Hamas operatives looting the truck that was travelling as part of a humanitarian convoy in northern Khan Younis on October 31.

On Sunday, Hamas called the United States’ accusations “unfounded” and “part of an attempt to justify the further reduction of already limited humanitarian aid, while covering up the international community’s failure to end the blockade and starvation imposed on civilians in Gaza”.

“All manifestations of chaos and looting ended immediately after the withdrawal of the [Israeli] occupying forces, proving that the occupation was the only party that sponsored these gangs and orchestrated the chaos,” it added.

Hamas said more than 1,000 Palestinian police and security forces had lost their lives and hundreds were wounded while trying to provide protection for humanitarian aid convoys and ensure that assistance reaches those in need.

It affirmed that none of the international or local institutions, nor any driver working with the aid convoys, has filed any report or complaint about looting by Hamas.

“This clearly demonstrates that the scene cited by the US Central Command is fabricated and politically motivated to justify blockade policies and the reduction of humanitarian aid,” it said, blaming the US for failing to document the ongoing Israeli attacks following the ceasefire agreement that killed 254 Palestinians and wounded 595.

CENTCOM said that the MQ-9 aerial drone was flying overhead to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

“Over the past week, international partners have delivered more than 600 trucks of commercial goods and aid into Gaza daily. This incident undermines these efforts,” it said in the statement.

Hamas said the average number of aid trucks entering Gaza daily does not exceed 135, while the rest are commercial trucks bearing goods that Gaza’s population cannot afford “despite our repeated calls to increase the number of humanitarian aid trucks and reduce commercial shipments”.

“The US adoption of the Israeli narrative only deepens Washington’s immoral bias and places it squarely as a partner in the blockade and the suffering of the Palestinian people,” it said.

The ceasefire took effect on October 10 under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.

Phase one of the deal includes the release of the captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 68,500 people and wounded over 170,600 across Gaza.

Gaza residents say they fear a return to Israel’s full-scale bombing as they struggle to find food, water and medicine.

Nov. 1 (UPI) — Hamas handed over the remains of three people, but they don’t match any of the dead hostages, Israeli officials said Saturday.

Forensic testing in Tel Aviv was conducted after the Red Cross received the remains in Gaza and gave them to Israel on Friday night.

They do not belong to the remaining 11 hostages still being held in Gaza, the Times of Israel and Fox News reported.

Al-Qassam Brigades said “the enemy refused to receive the samples and requested to receive the bodies for examination.”

Since the cease-fire began on Oct. 10, Hamas has returned the remains of 17 hostages.

Although the truce agreement required Hamas to return all deceased hostages within 72 hours, it returned only four of the 28 bodies. Twenty living hostages were also released at the time.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross does not take part in locating the remains. In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the parties to locate, collect, and return the dead,” ICRC said in a statement obtained by the Jerusalem Post.

On Thursday, the bodies of hostages Sahar Baruch and Amiram Cooper were returned to Israel.

Hamas said they were ready to continue to work on “extracting the bodies of enemy captives inside the Yellow Line. That area of the Strip is under Israel Defense Forces control.

“The Al-Qassam Brigades demand that the intermediaries and the International Committee of the Red Cross provide and prepare the equipment and teams necessary to recover all the bodies simultaneously,” the terror group added.

The terror group knows where the remaining remains are but is stalling, Israel officials say.

On Friday, Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinian prisoners as part of the cease-fire deal.

Israeli strikes on Gaza this week have killed more than 100 people following the killing of an Israeli soldier, but the shaky ceasefire continues to hold.

California, described by one observer in the late 19th century as “the Jews’ earthly paradise” for the economic and social promise it held, seems to have become newly hostile to Jewish people in recent years. More than any other place on Earth, Jews have shaped much of California’s progress, from Levi Strauss and the founders of the entertainment industry to numerous other leaders in culture, science, real estate and finance.

The current assault expresses itself in politics, in schools from elementaries to universities, on the streets, in literary circles and in anti-Zionist graffiti.

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley Law School (and my fellow contributing writer in the L.A. Times opinion section), expressed two years ago that “nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now.” The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness have filed a lawsuit against Berkeley, alleging “longstanding, unchecked” antisemitism.

This is not just a local issue. California’s population of 1.2 million Jews is roughly three times the size of each of the three largest Jewish diaspora communities outside the U.S. — in France, England and Canada. Los Angeles itself is the world’s third-largest Jewish city. Demographer Ira Sheskin noted recently that unlike New York City, which has lost roughly half its Jewish population since 1950, California’s Jewish populace has continued to grow, albeit more slowly in recent years.

Despite their relative demographic vitality, many California Jews feel increasingly isolated. Even in Hollywood, the Writers Guild, long a bastion of fashionable progressivism, suddenly decided to be neutral rather than making a statement on the Israel-Hamas war. Some leading figures, like Maha Dakhil, co-head of motion pictures at CAA, accused Israel of “genocide,” and others now refuse to work with Israeli film companies. Two thousand actors signed a statement outlining Israel’s “war crimes” with no mention of Hamas’ atrocities.

The political fallout has been considerable, and may become more so. Most California Jews are Democrats, according to the Pat Brown Institute; 20-30% tilt to the GOP. But the anti-Israel caucus, both here and nationally, is almost entirely made up of Democratic progressives. In a show of power, these activists even succeeded in disrupting California’s 2023 state Democratic Party convention. Many are justifiably uncomfortable with the GOP, citing the influence of antisemitism from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and some critics of Israel have found the Democratic Party too cozy with Jerusalem and its supporters, but generally the Republicans, including MAGA young people, are clearly more philosemitic than the Democrats.

At a local level, politics in many cities have sent a message to the Jews of California. Anti-Israel resolutions have passed in Oakland, Stanton, Burbank and Richmond, where the progressive-controlled City Council accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” Oakland called for an immediate ceasefire without mentioning Hamas’ atrocities. Demonstrators there even suggested that Israel murdered its own people as a pretext to attack Gaza.

And California’s youth are being groomed to hate Israel with hostile curriculums, setting up a whole new generation of antisemitism in the future and in the meantime putting Jewish teachers at risk. San Francisco has experienced anti-Israel walkouts in 10 high schools, organized by an advocacy group with access to student addresses.

At the same time, the drive to “globalize the intifada” affects California’s Jewish community directly. It has forced at least one L.A. synagogue to relocate its services; others have been vandalized. The Brentwood home owned by the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was attacked in 2023 with smoke bombs and red paint. More recently, two years after the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, supporters of Palestinians disrupted a commemoration at Pomona College, warning that “Zionism is a death cult that must be dealt with accordingly.”

These assaults make Jews more concerned about their safety and perhaps more likely to turn inward in their communities. Far less alluring under these circumstances is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Although it is the driving force in many congregations, particularly Reform synagogues, in troubled times it can be eclipsed by concerns about safety.

This new environment favors the Orthodox, pioneers of a kind of “self-segregation,” notes writer Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal. And because of their higher birth rates and the below-replacement birth rates among non-Orthodox American Jews, the Orthodox could triple their share of the U.S. Jewish population by 2060. This trend plays out in California’s Jewish communities such as L.A.’s Pico-Robertson — epicenter of California orthodoxy.

The resurgence of California Jewry matters more today, given that voters in the traditional center of Jewish life, New York, have been supporting a mayoral candidate who was at least at one time sympathetic to “globalizing the intifada.” Many suspect that the once well-connected Jewish community in New York will likely face indifference, if not open hostility, from City Hall if Zohran Mamdani is elected.

Fortunately, the sun has not yet set on California’s Jews. The Golden State can still remain our “paradise” — true to its past. But this will work only by learning how to protect ourselves and make the case to our gentile neighbors so that we can continue to contribute mightily to the future of our common home.

Joel Kotkin is a contributing writer to Opinion, the presidential fellow for urban futures at Chapman University and senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.

The Palestinian group Hamas has handed over two bodies it said were of deceased Israeli captives, a day after the fragile Gaza ceasefire was shattered by a series of deadly Israeli strikes across the besieged enclave.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the two bodies had been received by Israeli forces via the Red Cross in Gaza and would be transported into Israel for identification.

Under the US-brokered accord to halt Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, Hamas released 20 living captives in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Israeli forces have also completed a partial withdrawal from urban centres in Gaza.

But since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, Israeli attacks have killed dozens of Palestinians across the enclave. From Tuesday into Wednesday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said Israeli attacks killed 104 people, including 46 children and 20 women.

As part of the agreement, Hamas committed to returning the remains of all 28 captives, in exchange for the bodies of Palestinians killed in the war. By Thursday, it had handed over 15 sets of remains, saying it continues to press for proper equipment and support to comb through vast mounds of rubble and debris — where thousands of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments are still buried.

Israel claims Hamas has been too slow to hand over the remaining bodies of Israeli captives still in Gaza.

Reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Hamas is still facing “logistical and operational challenges regarding the retrieval of the bodies, specifically in areas that have been impacted by the Israeli bombardment”.

“Hamas has been calling for the entry of heavy bulldozers and machines in order to facilitate the process of recovering bodies. But on the ground, Israel is still accusing Hamas of deliberately procrastinating the release of the bodies,” Abu Azzoum said.

The dispute over the recovery and handover of bodies has been one of the difficulties complicating US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war for good.

Numerous major obstacles still lie ahead, including the future administration of Gaza and the demand for Hamas to disarm.

‘Essential role of NGOs’

Earlier, witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 air strikes in areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, and tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City in the north before dawn.

The Israeli military said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to the troops” in the areas of Gaza where its forces are still present.

Meanwhile, a UN official said more than 24,000 tonnes of UN aid have reached Gaza since the start of a ceasefire, while calling for NGOs to be allowed to assist in its distribution.

While aid volumes are significantly up compared with the period before the ceasefire, humanitarians still face funding shortfalls, the UN says, as well as issues coordinating with Israeli authorities, which are continuing to seal vital border crossings.

The World Food Programme’s Middle East Regional Director Samer Abdel Jaber said in 20 days of scale-up following the ceasefire, they “have collected about 20,000 metric tons of food inside Gaza”.

“The implementation of the 20-point [ceasefire] plan remains to be the central point and the central condition for us to be able to deliver humanitarian assistance in a holistic manner,” Alakbarov said.

He called on Israel to allow more NGOs to participate in the delivery of aid in Gaza, which Israel has banned.

“The persisting issue of registration of NGOs remains to be a bottleneck issue. We continue to emphasise the essential role of NGOs and national NGOs, which they play in humanitarian operations in Gaza, and we have escalated this now,” he said.

Israel’s assault has displaced most of Gaza’s more than two million people, many of them several times. The majority haven’t yet returned to their ravaged neighbourhoods, fearing they could soon be displaced once again or killed by Israeli forces.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army carried out home demolitions east of the Tuffah and Shujayea neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City on Thursday.

Israel has been demolishing homes since the start of its renewed ground incursion in the area earlier this month, part of what residents describe as a systematic campaign to clear large swaths of residential blocks.

Entire streets have been levelled, with bulldozers flattening homes and infrastructure as Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza City’s eastern districts.

Oct. 29 (UPI) — Human rights organization Amnesty International said Wednesday that a U.S. airstrike that hit a Houthi detention center in Yemen in April should be investigated as a war crime.

The April attack on Saada, in the northwestern part of Yemen, was part of Operation Rough Rider and killed civilian migrants held in a Houthi detention center because of their immigration status, Amnesty said.

The migrants often come through Yemen from the horn of Africa to get to Saudi Arabia for work.

At the time of the attack, the Houthis reported that at least 68 African migrants were killed and 47 were injured.

On Wednesday, Amnesty also released a report, It is a miracle we survived: U.S. Air Strike on Civilians Held in Sa’ada Detention Centre, in which it interviewed 15 survivors and did analysis on satellite imagery and footage.

“The harrowing testimonies from survivors paint a clear picture of a civilian building, packed with detainees, being bombed without distinction,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.

“This was a lethal failure by the U.S. to comply with one of its core obligations under international humanitarian law: to do everything feasible to verify whether the object attacked was a military objective.”

She called on the United States to give reparations to the migrants and their families, “including financial compensation. Given the air strike killed and injured civilians, the U.S. authorities should investigate this attack as a war crime,’ she said.

“Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should prosecute any person suspected of criminal responsibility, including under the doctrine of command responsibility.”

The U.S. air strikes were conducted to protect the Red Sea from Houthi attacks, which had begun in response to the war between Israel and Hamas. The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, support Hamas.

“The U.S. must conduct a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into the air strike on the Saada migrant detention center and make the results public,” Beckerle said.

“Survivors of this attack deserve nothing less than full justice. They must receive full, effective, and prompt reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, through an effective and accessible mechanism.”

On April 27, CENTCOM released a statement saying, “These operations have been executed using detailed and comprehensive intelligence ensuring lethal effects against the Houthis while minimizing risk to civilians.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations. We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”

Israeli drone attack close to the southern city of Khan Younis kills at least 2 people despite ceasefire.

Hamas has handed over the remains of another dead captive to Israel, hours after an Israeli drone attack in southern Gaza killed two Palestinians amid a fragile ceasefire.

The Israeli military said on Monday that the Red Cross had taken custody of the coffin and was in the process of transporting it to the army’s troops in Gaza.

Under the terms of a United States-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, Hamas has undertaken to return the bodies of all the 28 deceased captives. The remains of 16 had been handed over as of Monday.

The 20 surviving captives were freed on October 13 as part of the truce.

The release of the latest body comes as the families of some of the captives called on the Israeli government to pause the ceasefire if Hamas fails to locate and hand over the bodies.

“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

“The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel,” the association added.

The statement echoed the Israeli government’s claim that Hamas knows where the remains are.

On Saturday, Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said there were “challenges” in locating the captives’ bodies because “the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza”.

He suggested that some of those who had buried the bodies had been killed during the war, while others had forgotten the burial locations.

The day after al-Hayya’s comments, Israel permitted an Egyptian technical team to enter Gaza to help with the task of finding the bodies. The search involves the use of excavator machines and trucks.

Despite the ceasefire, an Israeli drone attack close to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis killed at least two people on Monday, according to Nasser Hospital.

In total, eight Palestinians have been killed and another 13 injured in Israeli attacks across the enclave over the last 48 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Monday. At least 68,527 people have died and 170,395 have been injured since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, it added.

Speaking on board Air Force One on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Israel had not violated the truce through its strike against a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group on Saturday.

“We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire,” he said, accusing the target of planning an attack on Israeli troops.”They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that.”

In the more than two weeks since the truce began, about 473,000 people have returned to northern Gaza, where they face widespread destruction of property and critical shortages of basic necessities like food and water, according to the United Nations.

Younis al-Khatib, the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, has warned that Gaza’s population still faces the same desperate humanitarian emergency as it did before the truce.

“Rebuilding human beings is more difficult than rebuilding destroyed homes,” he said during meetings with Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister in Oslo, noting that residents would need mental health care for years to come.

The World Health Organization also warned that the number of Palestinians in Gaza who need mental health support had risen from about 485,000 to more than one million after two years of Israel’s war.

Almost all the children in the enclave need such help, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, which has said that Gaza has been “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” over the last two years.

Tess Ingram, the group’s spokesperson in Gaza, explained that this is because of the “sheer number of children who’ve been killed and injured, displaced, separated from their families [or] who have lost a loved one”.

“A classroom of children was killed every single day for two years in this conflict, and the scars of what the children have endured will last for many, many years to come,” Ingram told Al Jazeera, speaking from the al-Mawasi area in the south.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — The United Nations said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon came under Israeli fire over the weekend, and were forced to “neutralize” one of its drones.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon accused Israel of violating a U.N. Security Council resolution as well as Lebanon’s sovereignty with the attacks. It said in a statement that the military actions “show disregard for safety and security of peacekeepers implementing Security Council-mandated tasks in southern Lebanon.”

UNIFIL said it thrice came into contact with Israeli forces on Sunday near Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli drone flew over a UNIFIL patrol in what it described as “an aggressive manner,” prompting peacekeepers to take “necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralize the drone.”

Then, at about 5:45 p.m. local time, an Israeli drone flying close to a UNIFIL patrol in the same area dropped a grenade, followed by an Israeli tank firing toward the peacekeepers as well as UNIFIL assets, it said.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed UNIFIL had shot down one of its drones, The Times of Israel reported, asserting the aerial posed no threat to the peacekeepers.

According to the report, the IDF said it flew a second drone in the area after UNIFIL shot down the first one, which had dropped the grenade prevent others from approaching the downed aerial.

The IDF also denied one of its tanks having fired toward UNIFIL, saying it had detected no gunfire in the area.

UNIFIL has twice previously this month accused Israel of dropping grenades near UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

On Oct. 12, UNIFIL said a grenade exploded near a UNIFIL position in Kfar Kila. On Oct. 2, grenades were dropped near peacekeepers in Maroun al-Ras.

UNIFIL maintains about 10,500 peacekeepers from 50 countries to monitor the 2006 cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and prevent a large conflict from spiraling.

It comes as the stages of fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza are being implemented.

Oct. 25 (UPI) — Qatari officials are preparing peacekeeping troops for Gaza if needed to help maintain a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, President Donald Trump said during a refueling stop.

Air Force One stopped in Qatar on Saturday evening to refuel while the president is flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, amid a Southeast Asia trip that includes a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.

Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani joined Trump on Air Force One for a short meeting.

Trump announced Qatar likely will be among the nations providing troops to maintain peace in Gaza while seated between the Emir and the prime minister, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Emir Al Thani told Trump he wanted to visit him at the refueling stop when he learned of the brief refueling stop by Air Force One.

“The Emir is one of the great rulers of the world,” the president responded, adding that the “prime minister has been my friend.”

He said they were instrumental in accomplishing the “incredible” feat of bringing about “peace in the Middle East.”

Also traveling to Southeast Asia on a separate flight is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made a stop in Qatar.

While there, he and other U.S. officials on Sunday will discuss a potential United Nations resolution or an international agreement to authorize the use of a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza, according to The Times of Israel.

“Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level, whether it be monetary or personnel or both, are going to need that because their domestic laws require it,” Rubio said of a resolution or an international agreement.

He said a team is working to outline a possible resolution or agreement.

Rubio also spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to discuss continuing efforts to end all conflict in Gaza, State Department principal deputy spokesman Tommy Piggot said in a news release.

“During the call, Sec. Rubio and Prime Minister Netanyahu affirmed the strategic relationship between the U.S. and Israel,” Piggot added.

Rubio is also bound for Busan, South Korea, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is scheduled from Monday through Nov.1.

Oct. 24 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that diplomats will help American military officers monitor the cease-fire in Israel and Gaza.

Rubio is visiting Israel as part of a series of visits by American officials that have been in Israel this week.

While touring the new Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat Friday, Rubio made the comments.

“There’s going to be ups and downs and twists and turns, but I think we have a lot of reason for healthy optimism about the progress that’s being made,” The New York Times reported that Rubio said.

Steven Fagin, ambassador to Yemen, will lead the effort at the center, the State Department said.

A reporter asked on Friday if Israel would need to apply for permission from the United States to resume fighting. “I wouldn’t phrase it that way,” Rubio responded, The Washington Post reported. “The bottom line is that there’s no nation on Earth that’s contributed more to help Israel and its security.”

Israelis have been increasingly alarmed at the United States’ presence in the cease-fire, wondering how much control America will have over Israel.

The United States is also committed to Israel’s long-term security, including ensuring that Hamas is demilitarized, Rubio said.

There is “no plan B,” he said. “It’s not just the United States. … Over two dozen countries signed onto this, including regional Arab countries … that there would be a demilitarized Gaza and that there would not be a Hamas with the capability to threaten Israel.”

On Thursday, a far-right faction in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, voted to annex the West Bank, drawing rebuke from President Donald Trump, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump, in an interview with Time Magazine, said that he would not allow it.

“We don’t think it’s going to happen,” Trump said. “Because I gave my word to the Arab countries. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

Earlier this week, Vance arrived in Israel with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and investor Jared Kushner. They opened the CMCC in Israel, and Vance said the peace plan is “durable.”

Rubio said he plans to join Trump in Qatar to fly to Asia this weekend to attend leadership summits in Malaysia and South Korea, the Post reported. He said he also plans to visit Japan.

The body of a Thai farm worker killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was returned home to Thailand. Sonthaya Oakkharasri’s body had been held in the Gaza Strip. Thai officials say 45 nationals have died in the conflict — the highest foreign toll among Israel’s foreign workers.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — Israel’s Knesset on Wednesday, in a preliminary vote, approved sovereignty in the West Bank for Israel, described as a political ploy by the right-wing opposition during U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the nation.

President Donald Trump said last month that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

The bill, which is called “Application of Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, 2025,” passed 25-24 by the parliament, and was transferred to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. It must still pass three additional votes in the plenum session.

The legislation says that “the laws, judicial system, administration, and sovereignty of the State of Israel shall apply to all areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria.”

A more limited annexation bill passed 32-9, also in a preliminary reading. The bill applies sovereignty to the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim near Jerusalem.

Militant Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and not the West Bank, said in a statement that the recent bill “reflects the ugly face of the colonial occupation.”

As a “flagrant violation of all relevant international laws and resolution,” Hamas said Israel “insists on continuing its attempts to ‘legitimize’ settlements and impose Zionist ‘sovereignty’ over the occupied Palestinian territories.”

In 2007, the Palestinian territories were split into two separate administrations.

Israel maintains military control of the 2,263 square miles of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority, led by the Fatah party, has jurisdiction over civil and security authority in specific zones, based on the 1995 Oslo Accords.

The West Bank has been divided into three zones.

Area C, which makes up about 60% the West Bank, is under full Israeli military and civilian control. Area C includes agricultural land, water springs, quarries and land for future infrastructure for Israelis.

In August, Israel approved final plans for a settlement project in E1 of Area C between East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. This arrangement would sever the West Bank for a contiguous Palestinian State, which Israel opposes as a two-state solution.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank out of the total population of 4 million.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and applies its civil law there, though the international community does not recognize this annexation. About 500,000 Israelis live there.

“By applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, we are correcting a historical wrong that is long overdue,” Avi Maoz, head of the far-right Noam party, said. “Since the government has hesitated, it is our duty as members of Knesset to act.”

All but one Likud minister boycotted the vote, with Yuli Edelstein breaking ranks to cast a decisive vote. Likud then removed Edelstein from his seat on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a spokesperson for the lawmaker confirmed to The Times of Israel.

Maoz denied a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the vote.

Netanyahu’s Likud party said the vote was an attempt to embarrass the government while U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited the country.

“We strengthen settlements every day with actions, budgets, construction, industry, and not with words,” the Times of Israel reported by Likud. “True sovereignty will be achieved not with a show-off law for the protocol, but by working properly on the ground and creating the political conditions appropriate for the recognition of our sovereignty, as was done in the Golan Heights and in Jerusalem.”

The United Arab Emirates said in September that annexation of the West Bank would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords.

The West Bank was captured during the Six-Day War in 1967, except for East Jerusalem, as a “temporary belligerent occupation.”

The historic city of Bethlehem is in the West Bank and is under Israeli occupation. It has historic ties to the Jewish religion, as well as to Christianity and Islam.

In 2024, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in the West Bank was unlawful under international law because it is no longer temporary.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — The International Court of Justice said Wednesday that Israel must allow humanitarian aid to Gaza by the United Nations.

The opinion by the United Nations’ highest court is non-binding but has moral and diplomatic weight.

It also said that Israel has not proven its allegations that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees had a significant number of employees that were members of Hamas. The United Nations denied those claims. There are 13,000 employees of the UNRWA in Gaza.

“The occupying power may never invoke reasons of security to justify the general suspension of all humanitarian activities in occupied territory,” Judge Iwasawa Yuji said while delivering the opinion. “After examining the evidence, the court finds that the local population in Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the opinion was “entirely predictable from the outset regarding UNRWA.”

“This is yet another political attempt to impose political measures against Israel under the guise of ‘international law,'” it added. Israel said it will not cooperate with UNRWA.

Israel has alleged that UNRWA has more than 1,000 Hamas-affiliated employees and that they teach hatred of Israel in its schools.

In December, the U.N. General Assembly asked the ICJ to decide what legal obligations Israel had regarding U.N. relief agencies. This happened after Israel’s parliament passed a law banning any UNRWA activity in Israeli territory.

Sam Rose, UNRWA’s acting Gaza director, told the BBC that the opinion “underscores the obligations of Israel under international law.”

“The ruling of today says that Israel’s laws against UNRWA have gone against those obligations, as have its actions on the ground,” he said.

While the world recognized that there was famine and starvation in Gaza last summer, Israel continued to deny it, often blocking any aid to reach hungry Gazans.

“The IDF emphasizes that there is no starvation in Gaza,” an IDF post said in July. “This is a false campaign promoted by Hamas.”