Ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon appeared at risk on Sunday as disputes continued over key deadlines, and local health officials said that Israeli forces opened fire on both fronts.
In Gaza, Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire there by changing the order of hostages it has released. Citing that, Israel has stopped thousands of Palestinians from returning to the northern part of the Gaza Strip as expected by Sunday. Local health officials said that Israeli forces fired on the crowd, killing two.
Israel said civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud should have been released before the four soldiers freed on Saturday. Mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt were working on the issue.
In Lebanon, health officials said that Israeli forces opened fire on protesters in the south who demanded that Israel withdraw in line with the ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22.
Separately, officials with Hamas and Jordan rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that most of Gaza’s population should be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel in an attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and abducted around 250. Israel’s retaliatory military operation has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of the victims children and women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Here is the latest:
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has sharply condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and request that Egypt and Jordan take in more Palestinians.
In a statement, the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, says the prospect of mass displacement from the Gaza Strip “constitutes a violation of the red lines that we have repeatedly warned against.”
“Our people will not leave,” the statement said. “We warn of the repercussions of such a dangerous Israeli policy that contributes to severing the ties of the Gaza Strip, and displacing its people, which will lead to destabilization and security.”
Trump’s remarks suggesting that Palestinians be encouraged to leave Gaza gets at the core of Palestinian fears that they will be driven from their remaining homeland.
The Palestinian presidency said it was “ready to assume its full duties in the Gaza Strip” in hopes of eventually establishing an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, briefly controlled Gaza after Israeli troops withdrew in 2005, only to be driven out by its rival Hamas two years later.
PARIS — France will consider allowing Israeli companies to participate in the Paris Air Show in June, thanks to ceasefire agreements in Gaza and Lebanon, the French president’s office said Sunday.
That was among the results of a conversation Sunday between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Macron said France hopes to help speed up the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, two of whom are French citizens. Macron also urged Israel to allow for a ″massive″ facilitation of aid to Gaza’s population, and to fulfill its promises to withdraw troops from Lebanon under a truce brokered by the U.S. and France.
Netanyahu asked about Israeli participation in the upcoming Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, a major industry event. The French president said Israeli participation ″could be favorably considered, as a consequence of the cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon,″ according to Macron’s office.
Tensions surrounded Israel’s participation in two arms shows in France last year, Eurosatory and Euronaval. The French government did not want Israel displaying any weapons used in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militant group, says the dispute over an Israeli hostage that has kept Palestinians from returning home to northern Gaza has been settled.
Mohamed al-Hajj Mousa added in a statement that the group told mediators that the hostage, Arbel Yehoud, will be released before Saturday, when the next exchange of hostages from Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody is set to take place.
There is no immediate comment from Israel, which has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. It expected Yehoud to be freed this weekend, and it has put the movement of Palestinians into northern Gaza on hold.
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