Israel-Gaza newest: Hamas to launch three hostages together with US-Israeli citizen this Saturday

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday Tehran’s enemies may be able to strike the country’s nuclear centres but cannot deprive it or its ability to build new ones.

He made his comments after the Washington Post reported that US intelligence believes Israel is likely to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear program by mid-year.

In a rare rebuke of the US president, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against what he called Donald Trump’s “challenges” to the world – including a proposal to expel Palestinians from Gaza – saying his actions pose a threat to global peace.

Erdogan and Trump had formed a close personal relationship during Trump’s first term and referred to each other as friends, despite the often-strained ties between the two NATO countries.

“To btell the truth, I do not find Mr. Trump’s behaviour in the past period and his current statements and challenges to many countries in the world to be right, and I do not see these as a positive development,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish president was in Jakarta on Wednesday and was interviewed by Indonesian television anchor Najwa Shihab, which aired on YouTube on Thursday.

Israeli military says more than 90 militants arrested over the past week in the West Bank.

Yemen’s Houthis will immediately take military action if the US and Israel try to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza, the Iran-backed group’s leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday.

An Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza’s devastating 15-month-old war took effect on January 19 but has appeared close to collapse his week amid mutual accusations of violations.

US President Donald Trump has infuriated the Arab world in presenting a plan to permanently displace Palestinians from Gaza and take over the enclave to turn it into a beach resort.

Houthi said his group would intervene with missiles and drones and attack vessels in the Red Sea if the United States and Israel tried to remove Palestinians from Gaza by force.

“I call on all the armed forces to be ready for military intervention if the criminal Trump carries out his threat,” Houthi said.

The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships off the shores of Yemen since November 2023 in support of Gaza Palestinian militants fighting Israel, disrupting global shipping trade and causing route changes and losses.

As the two leaders met in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that the U.S. would not endeavor to purchase Gaza, despite statements made in the last few days in which he’d suggested that some sort of monetary transaction would allow for America to lay claim to the war-torn territory.

“We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza,” he said when asked about his prior statement about purchasing the long-occupied piece of land.

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Hamas named three Israeli hostages Friday set to be released in a weekend trade for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the latest sign that the shaky Gaza ceasefire deal appears to be holding in spite of a tense dispute that has threatened to renew fighting.

The militant group and a forum representing the families of hostages identified the three men set to be freed Saturday as Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn, 46; Israeli-American Sagui Dekel Chen, 36; and Israeli-Russian Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, 29. The trio were abducted from a kibbutz in southern Israel that was ravaged during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that ignited the devastating war.

Full report here:

The truce faces a much bigger challenge in the coming weeks.

The first phase is set to conclude at the beginning of March, and there have not yet been substantive negotiations over the second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an end to the war.

Trump’s proposal to remove some 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and settle them in other countries has thrown the truce’s future into further doubt. The plan has been welcomed by Israel but vehemently rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, which have refused to accept any influx of refugees. Human rights groups say it could amount to a war crime under international law.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies are already calling for a resumption of the war after the first phase with the goal of implementing Trump’s plan and annihilating Hamas, which remains in control of the territory after surviving one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

Yesterday, we reported that Israel was considering strikes on Iranian nuclear sites this year, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence agencies.

The Washington Post has reported that this attack could take place by the middle of this year.

It would set back Iran’s nuclear programme by weeks or months but would risk a wider conflict, US intelligence reports found.

The White House, Israeli government, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence all declined to comment.

One of the hostages freed from captivity this month says his captors treated him worse as the 15-month war intensified, kicking him, spitting on him and holding him without water or light.

In a video message addressed to Donald Trump, Keith Siegel, 65, implored the US president to use his “leadership and strength” to ensure the ceasefire held and all hostages returned home.

The statement was one of the first accounts of Hamas captivity from a hostage released during the ceasefire.

Siegel is originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Concern has been growing about the remaining hostages’ condition, particularly after the release of three last Saturday, who emerged looking emaciated and frail.

Away from the headline proposals on Gaza’s future, many Palestinians now fear the prospective Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have escalated attacks since the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Dr Sara Husseini writes: