WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Donald Trump has invited him to go to the White Home on Feb. 4, which might make him the primary international chief to go to Washington in Trump’s second time period.
The go to comes as the US is pressuring Israel and Hamas to proceed a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month struggle in Gaza.
Underneath the ceasefire, greater than 375,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel allowed their return on Monday morning, the United Nations mentioned Tuesday. That represents over a 3rd of the million individuals who fled within the struggle’s opening days.
Most of the Palestinians trudging alongside a seaside highway or crossing in automobiles after safety inspections had been getting the primary view of shattered northern Gaza below the delicate ceasefire that’s now in its second week.
They had been decided, if their properties had been broken or destroyed, to pitch makeshift shelters or sleep outside amid the huge piles of damaged concrete or perilously leaning buildings. After months of crowding in squalid tent camps or former colleges in Gaza’s south, they might lastly be house.
“It’s still better for us to be on our land than to live on a land that’s not yours,” mentioned Fayza al-Nahal as she ready to go away the southern metropolis of Khan Younis for the north.
Hani Al-Shanti, displaced from Gaza Metropolis, seemed ahead to feeling at peace in no matter he discovered, “even if it is a roof and walls without furniture, even if it is without a roof.”
Underneath the ceasefire, the following launch of hostages held in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody, is about to happen on Thursday, adopted by one other trade on Saturday.
Within the ceasefire’s six-week first part, a complete of 33 hostages taken within the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the struggle ought to be launched, alongside over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel this week mentioned a listing offered by Hamas confirmed the fears that eight of the 33 hostages to be freed are useless, bringing contemporary grief to Israeli households who’ve lengthy pressed the federal government to achieve a deal to convey everybody house earlier than time runs out.
On Tuesday, one of many first hostages to be launched below the present ceasefire – simply the second within the struggle – shared a glimpse of life in captivity.
Naama Levy, 20, wrote on social media that she spent a lot of the first 50 days alone earlier than being reunited with different troopers kidnapped from her navy base on Oct. 7, effectively as different civilian captives.
“They gave me strength and hope,” she wrote. “We strengthened each other until the day of our release, and also afterwards.”
A surge in humanitarian assist into Gaza continued below the ceasefire.
“In this past week alone, approximately 4,200 trucks carrying aid have entered the Gaza Strip following inspections,” Israel’s deputy international minister, Sharren Haskel, mentioned.
Underneath the deal, 600 vans of assist are supposed to enter per day.