A ceasefire has taken effect in Gaza under a breakthrough deal. Bombardment stopped and Israeli troops pulled back in Gaza on Friday under the deal reached between Israel and Hamas. The deal was reached under pressure from the United States, Arab countries, and Turkey, and aims to end the two-year war in Gaza. The agreement includes the release of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. However, many questions remain, including disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza. Trust between the parties is low, and the deal's success depends on continued pressure from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.

The United Nations has added 68 more companies to a blacklist of companies from 11 countries that it says are complicit in violating Palestinian human rights through their business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The new list spotlights companies that do business that's deemed supportive of the settlements, which are considered by many to be illegal under international law. The list, formally known as a "database of companies," now contains 158 companies, the vast majority Israeli. The others are from Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip 20 years ago, dismantling 21 Jewish settlements and pulling out its forces. The Friday anniversary of the start of the landmark disengagement comes as Israel is mired in a nearly two-year war with Hamas. The conflict has devastated the Palestinian territory and is likely to keep troops there long into the future. Israel's disengagement included removing four settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Palestinians. But it bitterly divided Israeli society and led to the empowerment of Hamas, with implications that continue to reverberate today.

Israel says it will authorize 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. They would include new settlements and the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people overnight, with one strike on a home in central Gaza killing 22 people. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision was "a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel."

Arab leaders have endorsed Egypt's postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that would allow its roughly 2 million Palestinians to remain in the territory. The $53 billion plan's endorsement by Arab leaders at a summit in Cairo amounted to a widespread rejection of Trump's proposal. The summit conclusions were welcomed by Hamas, rejected by Israel and met with a lukewarm response by the Trump administration. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi expressed his appreciation for the consensus among Arab countries in supporting the plan, which he said allows the Palestinian People to remain on their land.

A groups that monitors settlements in the West Bank says Israel has budgeted millions of dollars to protect and support the growth of small, unofficial Jewish farms in the Israeli-occupied territory. Documents uncovered by Peace Now illustrate how Israel's pro-settler government has quietly poured money into the unauthorized outposts, some of which have been linked to violence against Palestinians and have been sanctioned by the U.S. The Ministry of Settlements and National Mission, which is headed by a far-right settler leader, has confirmed it budgeted over $20 million last year for security equipment for unauthorized Jewish farms and outposts. The money was quietly authorized in December while the country's attention was focused on the war against Hamas.

A settlement tracking group says Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades. Peace Now said Wednesday that authorities recently approved the appropriation of nearly 5 square miles of land in the Jordan Valley. The group's data indicate it is the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process. The Palestinians view the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement and most of the international community views them as illegitimate. Israel's government considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities. Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency — and a growing feeling among many Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-man War Cabinet are demanding that he come up with detailed postwar plans.