Hamas and allied Palestinian factions have reiterated that any decision on the future governance of Gaza is “an internal Palestinian matter” as the ceasefire in the territory takes effect.

In a joint statement on Friday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) joined Hamas in lauding the steadfastness of Palestinians, which they said foiled Israel’s plans for mass forced displacement in Gaza.

“We renew our rejection to any foreign guardianship, and we stress that the nature of the administration of the Gaza Strip and its institutions are an internal Palestinian matter to be determined by the national component of our people directly,” the statement said.

The groups added that they are working on an “urgent comprehensive national meeting” to discuss next steps after the ceasefire.

“This will unify the Palestinian position, formulate a comprehensive national strategy, and rebuild our national institutions on the foundations of partnership, credibility, and transparency,” they said.

It is not clear whether Fatah, the faction that dominates the Palestinian Authority, has agreed to be part of the meeting.

United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan includes the creation of a new international body, dubbed the “Board of Peace”, that would be tasked with overseeing an interim authority of technocrats to govern Gaza.

According to the scheme, Trump himself would chair the board, which would also include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Archive link https://archive.is/CsYzJ

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order in which the United States pledges to guarantee Qatar’s security, including retaliatory military action, if the country were to come under attack again, in the wake of Israel’s unprecedented attack on the country last month that drew regional and global outrage.

Israel said that attack targeted the Hamas leadership, who were in the capital Doha discussing a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza under Qatari auspices. It killed several members of the Palestinian group’s team, but not the leaders. It was also killed a Qatari security officer.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu apologised to Qatar for the killing of its citizen. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani received the apology on Monday in a joint call from Trump and Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House.

Archive Link https://archive.ph/s84u9

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the military’s top officers — hundreds of generals and admirals — to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, confirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week.”

Across the military, there are 800 generals and admirals of all ranks. Many command thousands of service members and are stationed across the world in more than a dozen countries and time zones.

The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, comes on the heels of several unusual and unexplained actions that Hegseth has taken involving military leaders.

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon killed five people Sunday, including three children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Two others were wounded, including the mother in the family.

The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hezbollahmilitant, and that he “operated from within a civilian population.” It acknowledged that civilians were killed and that it was reviewing the incident.

Israel frequently says it is targeting Hezbollah militants or infrastructure in the tiny country’s battered southern region. Hezbollah has only claimed firing across the border once since the ceasefire, but Israel says the militant group is trying to rebuild its capabilities.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said four of those killed, the three children as well as their father, held U.S. citizenship. The U.S. State Department, however, said none of the five appeared to be a U.S. citizen, but the situation was still “fluid.”

Since a ceasefire agreement was reached in November to end Israel’s monthslong war with the Hezbollah militant group, Israel has continued to strike southern and eastern Lebanon almost daily.

[…] Speaking to reporters at the National Ploughing Championships as one of his last major public appearances before the end of his term in office, Mr Higgins reacted to the findings of what he described as a “very important document”.

Me Higgins said: “I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments.

“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this at our fellow human beings.”

Israeli air strikes hit the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday, targeting senior Hamas officials who had gathered to discuss the latest US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.

Multiple explosions were heard across the city, with smoke seen rising over the Katara district.

According to media reports, around 12 air strikes hit residential buildings.

The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the strikes, stating it targeted the senior leadership of Hamas.

However, there was no immediate confirmation of who was hit or their condition.

A drone fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses on Sunday and slammed into the country’s southern airport, the Israeli military said, blowing out glass windows, wounding one person and briefly shutting down commercial airspace.

The damage to Ramon Airport appeared limited and flights resumed within hours. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike.

The attack follows Israeli strikes on Yemen’s rebel-held capital that killed the Houthi prime minister and other top officials in a major escalation of the nearly 2-year-old conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

Israel has faced global condemnation for back-to-back strikes on the biggest hospital in southern Gaza this week, which killed at least 22 people, including health workers, emergency response crews and five journalists.

The attack on the hospital came just after 10 a.m. local time on Monday when a balcony at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was hit by what appears to be a tank shell, killing a Reuters cameraman and others. Nine minutes later, as a group of rescue workers and other journalists attended to the victims, they were hit as the Israeli military fired again on the hospital – a tactic known as a “double tap.”

New video obtained by CNN reveals that this second “tap” was in fact two near-simultaneous strikes. These second and third strikes appear to have caused most of the deaths.

Intentionally attacking rescue workers, journalists and other civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conceded the incident was a “tragic mishap.”

But on Tuesday, the Israeli military defended the assault on the hospital, claiming that six “terrorists” had been killed in the attack, which it said was directed at a “camera that was positioned by Hamas.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was continuing to investigate “several gaps” in its understanding of what happened. It insisted that the IDF “does not intentionally target civilians.”

Lebanon has launched a plan to disarm Palestinian groups in its refugee camps, beginning with the handover of weapons from Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut.

The prime minister’s office announced on Thursday that the weapons transfer to the Lebanese army marks the start of a wider disarmament campaign. More handovers are expected in the coming weeks across Burj al-Barajneh and other camps nationwide.

A Fatah official told the Reuters news agency the arms handed over so far were only illegal weapons that had entered the camp within the previous day. Television footage showed military vehicles inside the camp, though Reuters could not verify what type of weapons were being surrendered.

The initiative follows Lebanon’s commitment under a US-backed truce between Israel and Hezbollah in November, which restricted weapons to six state security forces. Since the November 27, 2024, ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon, often on a weekly basis.

The government has tasked the army with producing a strategy by the end of the year to consolidate all arms under state authority.

According to the prime minister’s office, the decision to disarm Palestinian factions was reached in a May meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The U.S. special envoy to Lebanon said Monday that his team would discuss the long-term cessation of hostilities with Israel, after Beirut endorsed a U.S.-backed plan for the Hezbollah militant group to disarm.

Tom Barrack, following a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, also said Washington would seek an economic proposal for post-war reconstruction in the country, after months of shuttle diplomacy between the U.S. and Lebanon.

Leaked Transcript Confirms Netanyahu Chose to Starve Gaza as a Method of War

Cabinet meeting minutes show how Netanyahu chose to create famine in Gaza over securing release of Israeli hostages.

The Trump administration said states and cities will not receive funding to prepare for natural disasters if they choose to boycott Israeli companies.