As Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds, over 500,000 return to northern Gaza
- More than half a million displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza after 15 months of war, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office.
- At least two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in the past day and two others have succumbed to their injuries as 59 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Trump claims condom shipments used by Hamas to make bombs
US President Donald Trump has said his administration temporarily halted foreign spending to “look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that’s taking place in our government for too long”.
That included $50m “sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, the president said, repeating a claim made earlier by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“You know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs,” Trump said in televised remarks.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) contraceptive funding for 2023 does not list any funding for condoms for the entire Middle East region that year.
Israeli air strike kills three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
An Israeli air strike has killed at least three Palestinians in Tubas in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, adding there were also a number of injuries reported.
The Israeli military, in its latest war update, said that its aircraft had attacked a group of fighters in the Tammun area in the northeast of the occupied West Bank.
We will bring you more information as we get it.
Displaced Palestinians building a new life in northern Gaza
More than half a million Palestinians have made their way north from central and southern Gaza over the past three days.
They’ve been met by a landscape of annihilation, with hardly a single building still standing after Israel’s 15 months of war.
Returning residents are putting up tents where their homes once stood.
Israeli air strike kills three Turkish people trying to cross from Lebanon to Israel, Turkiye says
An Israeli air strike killed three Turkish citizens who attempted to cross illegally from Lebanon to Israel, Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this unlawful attack that resulted in the death of our citizens,” the ministry said in a statement, without mentioning when the incident took place.
Procedures are under way to repatriate their bodies to Turkiye, said the statement.
“As we have emphasised on every occasion, Israel must immediately end its aggressive policies that disregard human life and escalate tensions in our region,” the ministry said.
