𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The UK government has called on all parties involved in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to “cooperate” to ensure the truce holds.

“Our focus absolutely remains on the true the ceasefire can be sustained,” a government spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We need to see the release of hostages this Saturday. This is a fragile deal.

“We’re committed to building confidence on all sides to help sustain it, and we encourage all parties to engage, to sustain the ceasefire, to see all hostages released, and indeed continued flow of aid into Gaza, but [for] this deal to work really good parties [need] to cooperate in order to ensure all stages of the ceasefire are completed.”

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan is the first to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorised by US president Donald Trump targeting Israel’s war crimes tribunal.

Mr Khan, who is British, was named in an annex to an executive order signed by Trump last week, Reuters reported.

The ICC on Friday condemned the sanctions, pledging to stand by its staff and “continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it”.

In the nearly three weeks that have passed since Israel and Hamas concluded the ceasefire agreement, there have been five exchanges of hostages and prisoners. These exchanges have not been without last-minute hitches and delays, but they have taken place – to the immense joy and relief of the families and friends of those who have returned, and doubtless to the satisfaction of the many officials who concluded and helped to broker the agreement.

The procession of displaced Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, many seemingly in good heart, has also been an extraordinary testament to human resilience, given that most were setting off on the journey more in hope than in confidence that they would have any sort of home to return to. Their determination to return is all the more impressive given the immediate need that exists for food and medical aid, not to mention the gargantuan task of reconstruction that lies ahead.

Read The Independent’s view:

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and prime minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen discussed the Gaza truce in a phone call on Tuesday, according to a readout from Egypt’s government.

“President El-Sisi and the Danish Prime Minister reiterated the crucial need for the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement in its three stages, the exchange of hostages and detainees, as well as facilitating immediate and unfettered access for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip to end the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the sector,” it read.

“They also underscored the imperative to begin the reconstruction of Gaza to make it livable again, without displacing its Palestinian population, safeguarding their rights and ability to live on their land.”

At least 48,219 Palestinians have been killed and 111,665 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.

In the past 24 hours, 11 deaths were recorded and 10 people went into hospitals injured, health authorities said according to Wafa news agency.

Israel’s fatal shooting of a pregnant Palestinian woman raises fears in the West Bank

The call came in the middle of the night, Mohammed Shula said. His daughter-in-law, eight months pregnant with her first child, was whispering. There was panic in her voice.

“Help, please,” Shula recalled her saying. “You have to save us.”

Minutes later, Sondos Shalabi was fatally shot.

Shalabi and her husband, 26-year-old Yazan Shula, had fled their home in the early hours of Sunday as Israeli security forces closed in on Nur Shams refugee camp, a crowded urban district in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Israeli military vehicles surrounded the camp days earlier, part of a larger crackdown on Palestinian militants across the northern occupied West Bank that has escalated since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza took effect last month.

Pregnant woman Sondos Shalabi was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. Read more here:

Away from the headline proposals on Gaza’s future, many Palestinians now fear the prospective Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have escalated attacks since the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has described Donald Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza as a “serious crime that will ultimately fail”.

Trump has called for Palestinians to be removed from Gaza to make way for a US-owned major development site.

“I believe no power can drive people from their land. Many countries have tried to do it and they have all failed, especially during the recent war in Gaza over the past year and a half,” Mr Sharaa said.

“Over 80 years of this conflict, all attempts to displace them have failed; those who left have regretted their decision. The Palestinian lesson that every generation has learned is the importance of holding on to their land.”

Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations have also opposed any attempt to push Palestinians over the border.