Friday marks six months since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect, but progress remains limited. The fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants has mostly stopped, yet challenges persist. Disarming Hamas, deploying an international stabilization force and beginning reconstruction are pending. The U.S.-created Board of Peace has not met since its initial meeting, and Hamas has not responded to a disarmament proposal. Such challenges could represent what's to come in the latest war in the Middle East, as U.S. President Donald Trump's approach to peacemaking appears to focus on stopping bombardment while leaving the bigger picture for others to work out.
By BASSEM MROUE, JON GAMBRELL, SAMY MAGDY and SAM METZ Associated Press
A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appears to be hanging by a thread after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House demanded Wednesday that the channel be reopened and sought to keep peace talks on track. The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, killing least 112 people in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
By JON GAMBRELL, ELENA BECATOROS and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. is talking with a "respected" Iranian leader and claims the Islamic Republic is eager for a deal to end the war. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, saying Monday that it has an additional five days. Trump's turnaround, which held out the possibility of resolving the war now in its fourth week, served to drive down oil prices and jolt stocks. It offered a reprieve after the U.S. and Iran traded threats over the weekend with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.
President Donald Trump has announced at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting that nine members have agreed to pledge $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package. He also says five countries have agreed to deploy troops as part of an international stabilization force for the war-battered Palestinian territory. While lauding the pledges, Trump faces the unresolved challenge of disarming Hamas, a sticking point that threatens to delay or even derail the Gaza ceasefire plan that his administration notched as a major foreign policy win. The dollars pledged on Thursday, while significant, represent a small fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace is set to meet for the first time on Thursday in Washington. It's an early test of whether one of his marquee foreign policy initiatives can gain broad support or advance the shaky ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. Trump's ballooning ambitions for the board extend from governing and rebuilding Gaza as a futuristic metropolis to challenging the United Nations Security Council's role in solving conflicts. But they could be tempered by the realities in Gaza, where there has so far been limited progress in achieving the narrower aims of the ceasefire.
By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press
Updated
Health officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes have killed at least 24 Palestinians, including two babies. Israel says it killed three militant leaders and that some of the strikes were in response to an attack that wounded a soldier. The strikes come as an already fragile ceasefire deal is under increasing strain. Hospital officials report that among the dead are at least five children, seven women and an on-duty paramedic. The violence since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10 has killed more than 550 Palestinians. Eight Arab and Muslim countries have condemned Israel's actions. The ceasefire deal aimed to end a 2-year-old war between Israel and Hamas.
By WAFAA SHURAFA and TOQA EZZIDIN Associated Press
A Gaza Health Ministry official says Israel has turned over the bodies of 15 Palestinians just days after recovering the remains of the last Israeli hostage. The transfer on Thursday marks the last hostage-detainee exchange between Israel and Hamas. The return of all remaining hostages living or dead had been a key part of the first phase in the ceasefire that paused the war in October. A spokesperson at Gaza's health ministry says the bodies handed over Thursday were taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. It comes after Israel announced Monday it found and identified the remains of the last Israeli hostage at a cemetery in northern Gaza.
Israel's military says the ceasefire is back on in Gaza after it carried out heavy airstrikes overnight across the Palestinian territory. Local health officials in Gaza said on Wednesday that the strikes killed 104 people, including 66 women and children. They were the deadliest since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10 and marked the most serious challenge to the tenuous truce to date. Israel said its overnight strikes were in retaliation for the shooting and killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah. Israel also accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire when the militant group this week handed over body parts that Israel said were partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war.
President Donald Trump is warning Hamas "we will have no choice but to go in and kill them" if internal bloodshed persists in Gaza. The grim warning from Trump came Thursday after he previously downplayed the internal violence in the territory since a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect last week in the two-year war. Trump said Tuesday that Hamas had taken out "a couple of gangs that were very bad" and had killed a number of gang members and said that didn't bother him much. The Republican president hasn't said how he'd follow through on his threat posted on his Truth Social platform.
