Live blog: Netanyahu 'procrastinating' second phase of Gaza truce — Hamas

Thursday, February 20, 2025

1900 GMT — Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "procrastinating" on negotiations for the second phase of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, after Palestinian fighters returned the bodies of four deceased captives to Israel.

"The second phase negotiations have not practically begun, and we are ready to engage in them as stipulated in the agreement," Hamas spokesperson Abdul Latif Al-Qanou said in a statement, adding that "Netanyahu is procrastinating regarding the second phase".

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1850 GMT — Two children among several Palestinians injured by Israeli attacks

Several Palestinians, including two young brothers, were injured in Israeli attacks in the central and northern occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said an Israeli soldier threw a tear gas canister into a public transport vehicle at the entrance to Turmus Ayya in northeastern Ramallah, causing several passengers to suffer suffocation.

A video circulating on social media showed smoke billowing from inside the vehicle after the attack. In the northern West Bank, brothers Fares and Omar Mohammed Daraghmeh sustained bruises after Israeli forces physically assaulted them in Khirbet Yerza in eastern Tubas.

1840 GMT — Trump's plan for Gaza is not about 'eviction': US Middle East envoy

US Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff said that President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza is not about "eviction."

"That doesn't mean that we're on an eviction plan," Witkoff told a conference in Miami.

"When the president talks about this, it means he wants to shake up everyone's thinking and think about what is compelling and what is the best solution for the Palestinian and Gazan people who live there," he added.

"For instance, do they want to live in a home there, or would they rather have an opportunity to resettle in some sort of better place, to have jobs, upside and financial prospects," Witkoff said.

1750 GMT — ICJ allows African Union to participate in case on Israel's obligations regarding UN activities in occupied Palestinian territories

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) granted the African Union permission to participate in a case on Israel's obligations regarding UN activities in occupied Palestinian territories.

"The International Court of Justice has authorised the African Union, at its request, to participate in the advisory proceedings on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organisations, and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory," a statement from the ICJ read.

The African Union is likely to be able to provide information on the question put to the court's general assembly, it said. Therefore, the union will present a written statement on that question by February 28, 2025, according to the statement.

1730 GMT — Netanyahu vows retaliation against Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge against Gaza after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli prisoners, despite accusations that his prolonged refusal to negotiate their release led to their deaths.

Hamas handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two children -- Ariel and Kfir -- and Oded Lifshitz, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis earlier in the day under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.

The Palestinian resistance group said they were killed in Israeli indiscriminate air strikes during the 16-month genocide on the enclave.

1629 GMT — ‘Bibas family treated humanely, killed by Israeli army’: Palestinian commander

Palestinian resistance factions have provided safe shelter to Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her children and treated them humanely, but their army killed them, a Palestinian commander said.

Hamas handed over the bodies of Shiri, her two children; Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.

The Palestinian group said the four captives were killed in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment during Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

"Shiri had served in the Israeli army’s Southern Command and worked in Unit 8200, Israel’s elite electronic intelligence division," the commander of the Mujahideen Brigades, the military wing of the Mujahideen Movement, said during the handover ceremony of the four killed hostages.

1540 GMT — Palestinian killed by Israeli snipers in Gaza despite ceasefire

A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli snipers in Gaza City despite a ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement, a medical source said.

The source added that the man was killed as he was trying to reach his home in the eastern part of Al Shujaiah neighbourhood.

The ceasefire agreement took effect in Gaza last month, halting Israel’s genocidal war that has killed at least 48,300 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.

Since then, at least 93 Palestinians have been killed and 822 others injured in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

1422 GMT — Gaza death toll passes 48,300 as more bodies found in rubble

Palestinian medics and rescue teams recovered 22 more bodies from the rubble in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll from Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 to 48,319, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement said that 16 injured people were also admitted to hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the number of the injured to 111,749 in the Israeli onslaught.

1355 GMT — Gaza authorities accuse Red Cross of ‘double standards’ over handover of dead Palestinians, Israelis

Gaza's government media office accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of “double standards” regarding the handover of the bodies of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners.

"While the Red Cross holds solemn official ceremonies when receiving the bodies of Israeli hostages, it delivers the bodies of Palestinian martyrs in blue bags tossed into trucks that lack the most basic elements of human dignity," Ismail Thawabta, who heads the media office, said on X.

"This blatant discrimination reflects double standards and exposes the international community’s failure to achieve justice and fairness!"

1320 GMT — Riyadh invites Arab leaders to discuss Gaza on Friday

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has invited the leaders of Gulf Arab countries, Egypt, and Jordan for a meeting in Riyadh on Friday, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

Arab states have pledged to work on a post-war plan for Gaza's reconstruction to counter US President Donald Trump's proposal to redevelop the enclave as an international beach resort after resettling its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia said Friday's meeting would be unofficial and held within "the framework of the close brotherly relations that bring together the leaders", SPA said.

"As for joint Arab action and the decisions issued regarding it, it will be on the agenda of the upcoming emergency Arab summit that will be held in the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt," SPA added, referring to plans for an emergency Arab summit on March 4 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

1307 GMT — Jordan’s king rejects Palestinian displacement as he meets US Congress delegation

Jordan’s King Abdullah II reaffirmed his country's rejection of any attempts to displace Palestinians from besieged Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Speaking during a meeting in Amman with a US congressional delegation headed by Representative Darrell Issa, the monarch warned of the ongoing Israeli military escalation in the occupied West Bank, the royal court said in a statement.

He also "stressed the need to intensify international efforts to achieve just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution," highlighting the “pivotal” US role in advancing these efforts.

1059 GMT — 1st shipment of mobile homes set out from Egypt to Gaza under ceasefire deal

The first shipment of mobile homes set out from Egypt en route to Gaza under a ceasefire agreement with Israel, Egyptian media said.

Five trucks carrying 15 mobile homes and a bulldozer crossed the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing into the Karam Abu Salem terminal ahead of being allowed into Gaza, Egyptian television channel Al-Qahera News reported.

The channel aired footage showing trucks carrying mobile homes moving from the Rafah border crossing toward the Karam Abu Salem terminal.

1001 GMT — Convoy carrying bodies of hostages from Gaza enters Israel

The Israeli military has said a convoy carrying the coffins of four hostages entered Israel from Gaza.

"A short while ago, IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces brought the coffins of the four deceased hostages over the border into Israel, and they are being taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine to undergo an identification procedure," the military said in a statement.

0952 GMT — Israeli army demolishes Palestinian home in occupied West Bank

The Israeli army has demolished the house of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a knife attack in the occupied West Bank last year amid military escalation.

According to witnesses, Israeli forces evacuated the occupants of the 3-story house and detonated the building in Salfit city in the northern occupied West Bank.

The house belonged to Omar Awdah, whom Israel accused of carrying out a stabbing attack last August in which two Israelis were killed and two others injured in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv.

Awdah was shot dead by Israeli forces.

0843 GMT — Netanyahu's office confirms Israel has received coffins of 4 Israeli hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has confirmed Israel has 'received coffins of 4 Israeli hostages from Gaza' through the Red Cross.

0708 GMT — Hamas hands over coffins of dead Israeli captives to Red Cross

Hamas has handed over the bodies of four hostages killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza to the Red Cross, according to TRT World.

The Red Cross headed to a location in Gaza to receive the bodies of 4 deceased Israeli hostages scheduled to be handed over under the ceasefire deal, Israeli media has reported.

The return of the bodies took place in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Ahead of the transfer hundreds of people gathered around a sandy lot formerly used as a cemetery. A fence had been erected to keep onlookers away from the immediate area where the handover to the Red Cross was to occur.

Hamas displayed 4 black coffins on a stage in Gaza ahead of the handover of hostages' bodies.

The Palestinian resistance group said it would hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas, Kfir, Ariel, and Oded Lifshitz.

0426 GMT — Gaza hospital director says he doesn't know why he is being detained

Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, says he does not know his charges or the reason for his detention.

His statement came during an interview with reporter Yossi Eli of Israel’s Channel 13, which aired Wednesday evening.

It marked the first appearance of Abu Safiya since his arrest by the Israeli army in December.

He was seen in Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank appearing pale-faced and with his hands and feet shackled.

2345 GMT — Israel persists in shirking its commitments under ceasefire: Lebanese army

The Lebanese Army accused Israel of continuing to avoid its commitments under a ceasefire agreement and violating Lebanon's sovereignty.

In its first official response to Israel's ongoing occupation of five border points in southern Lebanon, the army affirmed that its units "continue to deploy across all southern border towns in coordination with the Quintet Committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from these areas."

The Israeli army "remains stationed at several border points inside Lebanese territory, persistently evading its commitments and violating Lebanese sovereignty through continuous aggression against Lebanon's security and its citizens," it added.

2135 GMT — Palestine's Abbas reiterates rejection of expulsion plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed that his country is "not for sale" and his rejection of any calls for the displacement of the Palestinian people.

It came during the opening speech of a meeting of Fatah's Central Committee in Ramallah in the central West Bank, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

Referring to his participation in the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, which concluded Saturday, Abbas stated that he reaffirmed Palestine’s firm stance against any attempts to displace the Palestinian people.

"Palestine is not for sale," he emphasised, reiterating "the firm Palestinian position that no part of its territory — including Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem — would be relinquished."

2059 GMT — Italy's Meloni reaffirms importance of upholding Gaza ceasefire

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the Gaza ceasefire agreement during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at Palazzo Chigi.

The Italian prime minister highlighted that the ceasefire had facilitated the release of hostages and significantly increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, where Italy remains a leading contributor through its "Food for Gaza" initiative, according to a statement released by the Italian government.

During the meeting, "Meloni reiterated Italy's commitment to the stabilisation and reconstruction of Gaza, as well as the need for a political horizon towards a just and lasting peace in the region," the statement said.

2030 GMT — Israel kills three Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Israel killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which the Israeli military claimed were fighters.

"Three people were assassinated, and their bodies are being held" by the Israeli forces, Tubas governor Ahmad al-Asaad told AFP news agency.

2000 GMT — Al-Qassam to hand over bodies of hostages killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza

The Qassam Brigades announced that the four Israeli hostages, whose bodies are to be handed over Thursday, were alive when captured, but the Israeli army killed them by deliberately bombing detention sites during the genocide in besieged Gaza.

"As part of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, the bodies of the Bibas family (three members) and the prisoner Oded Lifshitz will be handed over on Thursday," The Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obaida said in a statement.

For our live updates from Wednesday, February 19, 2025, click here.