Gaza risks sliding towards a deadly limbo where a ceasefire is nominally in place but killing continues, a top Qatari diplomat has warned, calling for rapid progress in setting up the international security force and administration to pave the way for full Israeli withdrawal. We don't want to reach a situation of no war, no peace, said Majed al-Ansari, adviser to Qatar's prime minister and spokesperson for the foreign ministry. On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 100 Palestinians, at least 66 of them women and children, in the deadliest day since Donald Trump declared the war was over.
It feels as though, for now, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a favorite of his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Meeting the US president in the Oval Office can be a risky undertaking one never knows what sort of greeting one might get but it hasn't been a problem for Erdogan, yet. For weeks, Trump has been talking about the 71-year-old Turkish leader in glowing terms.
Vice President JD Vance is in Israel, where he is set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Gaza ceasefire has been in place for almost two weeks. Vance says the deal is continuing to progress despite the fighting between Israel and Hamas over the weekend. The vice president, along with several other U.S. officials in Israel, is working to get the two sides to take the next steps under the deal.
Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the bodies of two hostages, which were returned to Israeli security forces in Gaza, Netanyahu's office said in a post on the X social media platform early on Sunday. The prime minister's office said the families of Israeli captives were updated on the return of the remains, and the two bodies had been transferred to Israel's National Centre of Forensic Medicine for identification.
A ceasefire in Gaza has created a hopefully enduring-albeit uneasy-pause in the two-year Israel-Hamas war, with the recent exchange and release of hostages hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough even as questions continue to come about whether this truce will hold. That uncertainty matters across the Middle East because even a small slip up could quickly devolve the region back into chaos with militaries and generals at the table instead of diplomats.
"After 738 days in captivity, on October 13, all 20 surviving hostages were freed from the hands of the terrorist organization Hamas, with four German citizens among them," Merz said. "They're home. They're with their families. And that fills us, and me personally, with great joy and relief."
The peace deal that has been struck, which we welcome, will have no bearing on the case that is before the International Court of Justice, Ramaphosa told parliament. The case is proceeding, and it now has to go to the stage where Israel has to respond to our pleadings that have been filed in the court, and they have to do so by January of next year, he added.
As world leaders arrived in Egypt on Monday to celebrate the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal and discuss the next steps, there was a curious note of disharmony between the US and the UK. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, had appeared on the BBC on Sunday talking about the UK's key role in shaping the agreement only to be slapped down on X by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who called her delusional.
Despite concerns about United States President Donald Trump's proposed plan to end the war on Gaza, which calls for a transitional authority ultimately headed by the US leader, Jamal said there was an immense sense of relief. A sea of red and green, the colours of the Palestinian flag, formed along the embankment of the River Thames in central London, where the largely peaceful march began.
U.S. Central Command is reportedly establishing a "civil-military coordination center" in Israel, staffed with hundreds of troops, to monitor the newly implemented ceasefire in Gaza, U.S. officials have said. U.S. outlets have reported that the military is slated to send 200 troops to Israel for the effort, with some having already been sent. The troops are there, officials said, primarily to provide "security" support and to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, and the timing is kind of hilarious. If Machado ever succeeds in overthrowing her country's dictator, Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump will claim credit for that, like he's claimed credit for so many recent international successes. (To be fair, Trump's forceful anti-Madura policies, which the Nobel winner has supported, will have certainly played a role.)
