Israel-Hamas latest: Netanyahu deploys troops in Gaza amid threat to end ceasefire if hostages not released

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House as long as the agenda includes US president Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, two Egyptian security sources have said.

Mr Trump has infuriated the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim U.S. control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

He has demanded Egypt and Jordan take in the Palestinians, and has threatened to withdraw aid from the two U.S.-allied Arab states if they refuse.

Egypt has said Mr Trump had extended an open invitation to Sisi to visit the White House earlier this month. A US official said no date for such a visit has been set. The Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that peace efforts in the region should be on the basis of a two-state solution for the conflict conflict, state news agency WAM reported.

It said the UAE, one of the few Arab countries that normalised relations with Israel, categorically rejected any attempt to displace the Palestinians and deny them “inalienable rights”.

US president Donald Trump caused outrage in the Arab world earlier this week when he proposed the US should take over the Gaza Strip and Gazans should be resettled elsewhere

As uncertainty continues over the truce, we’ve put together an explainer on why the deal is at risk of collapse, and what could happen next:

Pictures taken today showing humanitarian aid coming into the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

On Sunday, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said famine had been mostly averted in Gaza thanks to the surge of aid entering the territory during the fragile ceasefire.

As concerns grow that the month-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will break down, we’re just hearing that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mobilised troops in the Gaza region.

Under the ceasefire deal, the Palestinian militant group agreed to free three more hostages on Saturday – but has since said it was suspending the handover because of what it said were Israeli violations of the terms.

Mr Netanyahu has warned Israel would resume “intense fighting” if Hamas did not meet the deadline, but did not say how many hostages should be freed.

He said he had ordered the military to gather forces in and around Gaza, and the military announced shortly afterwards that it was deploying additional forces to Israel’s south, including mobilising reservists.

The Israeli military says it struck two people in the southern Gaza Strip who were flying a drone.

It said Wednesday that the drone was observed entering Gaza from Israel after past attempts to use drones to smuggle in weapons.

Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s health ministry, said Tuesday that at least 92 Palestinians have been killed and more than 800 wounded by Israeli fire since the fragile ceasefire took hold last month.

The Israeli military says it has fired upon people who approach its forces or enter certain areas in violation of the truce.

Hamas has threatened to delay the next release of hostages, accusing Israel of violating the agreement by firing on people and by not allowing the stipulated amounts of tents, shelters and other vital aid to enter the territory.

Israel, with the support of President Donald Trump, has warned that it will resume the fighting if hostages are not freed on Saturday.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II once again rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians after meeting with President Donald Trump, who has called for the Gaza Strip’s roughly 2 million residents to be removed from the war-ravaged territory.

Trump has suggested they could be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, both of which are vehemently opposed to any such scenario.

The Palestinians also reject Trump’s plan, which they view as an attempt to forcibly displace them from part of their homeland. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have also rejected such plans.

During his meeting with Trump, Abdullah volunteered to accept up to 2,000 children from Gaza who have cancer or otherwise require medical treatment.

But in a post on X after the meeting, he “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” adding that it was a “unified Arab position.”

Jordan and Egypt have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza’s population could make that impossible.

It’s still early days for the Trump administration, and we’re yet to see how exactly the US president will deal with North Korea in his second term in office.

Last week, he said his team “will have relations with North Korea”, adding that he gets “along with them very well”.

During his first term, Mr Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on three occasions, becoming the first sitting US president to step on North Korean soil since the end of the Korean war.

However, the pair are in disagreement over the future of Gaza, with North Korea a strong critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Now the country’s news agency has called the US a “ferocious robber” over Mr Trump’s plan to take ownership of the Gaza region.

North Korea has also raised alarm over the docking a US submarine in the South Korean city of Busan.

We will have to see how, and if, Mr Trump responds to North Korea in the coming days

North Korea has become the latest country to condemn Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza.

Last week, the US president announced plans to take ownership of the war-torn region and make it the “Rivera of Middle East”.

Under his plan, two million Palestinians would be resettled in neighbouring countries – which have opposed the idea.

Now North Korea has joined the opposition to the plan, condemning the idea as “bluster” and accusing Washington of robbery.

Commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency said: “The world is now boiling like a porridge pot over the U.S.’ bombshell declaration’”.

It also criticised the Trump administration over its calls to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, and its decision to change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America”.

“The US should awaken from its anachronistic daydream and stop at once the act of encroaching upon the dignity and sovereignty of other countries and nations,” the KCNA report said, while calling the U.S. a “ferocious robber”.

The UK government has called on all parties involved in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to “cooperate” to ensure the truce holds.

“Our focus absolutely remains on the true the ceasefire can be sustained,” a government spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We need to see the release of hostages this Saturday. This is a fragile deal.

“We’re committed to building confidence on all sides to help sustain it, and we encourage all parties to engage, to sustain the ceasefire, to see all hostages released, and indeed continued flow of aid into Gaza, but [for] this deal to work really good parties [need] to cooperate in order to ensure all stages of the ceasefire are completed.”