The Israeli military on Wednesday ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appeared to inch closer to a ceasefire in the 14-month war.
“This is an advance warning ahead of an offensive,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X. The order included four residential block areas in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, where Adraee claimed that Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Israel.
He asked the residents to move to a “humanitarian zone” in the Muwasi area. The Israeli media have issued frequent evacuation orders for different parts of Gaza throughout the war, displacing more than 90% of the population, most of them multiple times.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he will meet Wednesday with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Adam Boehler, at his home in Jerusalem. Boehler, a former aid to Jared Kushner, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.
Talks to broker the ceasefire and hostage release deal have restarted after a monthslong pause. The deal on the table includes a six week pause in fighting in which Hamas would release 30 hostages, including three of four dual Israeli-U.S. citizens, in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Trump has said he wants a quick end to the war.
Israeli bombardment and offensives in Gaza have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians over the past 14 months, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says more than of half the dead were women and children.
Israel launched its campaign in retaliation for Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others, around 100 of whom remain in captivity.
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JERUSALEM — A group of Israeli settlers have briefly crossed the border into Lebanon before they were removed by troops, the military acknowledged Wednesday.
The civilians who crossed the border came from the Uri Tzafon movement, a group calling for Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon. Photos posted by the group online Saturday showed a small group of activists holding signs and erecting tents inside Lebanon while Israeli soldiers were present.
After first denying the reports to Israeli media, the military said Wednesday that civilians had crossed the border “by a few meters” and were removed by troops.
The military called the border breach a “serious incident” and said it was investigating.
“Any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese territory without coordination poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the IDF’s ability to operate in the area and carry out its mission,” the military said, using the acronym for the Israel Defense Forces.
The settler group Uri Tzafon, which means “Awaken the North” in Hebrew, crossed the border in the area of the Lebanese village of Maroun A Ras. In the past, the movement has said the area is home to an old Hebrew settlement.
Groups of settler activists also have breached the Gaza border more than once since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, at one point erecting small wooden tents before they were evacuated by troops. Daniela Weiss, the leader of the movement to resettle Gaza, claims she has entered Gaza twice since the start of the war.
Israel’s settler movement has been emboldened by its current government — the furthest-right in Israeli history — and is now seeking to expand to parts of southern Lebanon and the north of the Gaza.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The U.N. envoy to Syria said after concluding a visit to Damascus and meeting the new administration that the country needs a ” a political transition that will be credible, inclusive and include the broadest range of the Syrian society and Syrian parties.”
Geir Pedersen said Wednesday that the process should take place under a U.N. resolution adopted in 2015 to help negotiate a political solution between the government of now-deposed President Bashar Assad and the opposition.
“There is a lot of hope. We can all see the beginning of a new Syria … that in line with Security Council Resolution 2254 will adopt a new constitution that will ensure that there is a new social contract for all Syrians and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes after a transitional period, also in line with Security Council Resolution 2254,” Pedersen said.
It is not yet clear if Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the main former rebel group now in control of Syria, will pursue such a process. The group has set up an interim administration comprising members of its “salvation government” that had ruled its former stronghold in northern Syria. It will oversee the country until March, but the new ruler have not made clear how the transition to a new, fully empowered government would take place.
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