Middle East latest: 4 Israeli women soldiers will be next hostages freed from Gaza

Meanwhile, Palestinians displaced from war-battered northern Gaza are facing an agonizing wait before the ceasefire allows them to go back to what remains of their homes.

And even as the fighting has stopped in Gaza, Israel is carrying out a major military operation in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 14 people according to health authorities there.

Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The ministry doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war was sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.

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Here's the latest:

Israel say UN agency helping Palestinian refugees must end operations in Jerusalem by Jan. 30

UNITED NATIONS – Israel is telling the United Nations that the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees must end its operations in Jerusalem by Jan. 30.

In a letter sent Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon again accused the agency known as UNRWA of “widespread infiltration” by Hamas militants who carried out the surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel -- which UNRWA denies.

Danon said he was following up on legislation passed in late October by Israel’s Knesset banning UNRWA from operating in the “sovereign territory of Israel” and banning any contact between Israeli authorities and the U.N. agency. It was to take effect in 90 days.

In light of the legislation, he said, “UNRWA is required to cease its operations in Jerusalem, and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city, no later than 30 January 2025.”

Danon said UNRWA had received notices from the Israeli Land Authority on Jan. 14, 2024 and May 28, 2024, indicating that its use of two properties in Jerusalem was done without proper authorization and demanding their evacuation. “These notices were bluntly disregarded by UNRWA, while shielding behind its immunity,” he said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a speech in Oslo last week that for Israel, its sovereign territory refers to “occupied East Jerusalem.”

Its staff there “will be compelled to withdraw under protest,” and “local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and, where possible, education and primary healthcare.”

He said UNRWA will also “stay and deliver” in Gaza and the West Bank, which are occupied Palestinian territories and were not mentioned in Danon’s letter.

UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2 million Palestinians relies on the agency for healthcare and education.

Trump administration wants more time for Israel to pull troops out of Lebanon

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said it wants to give Israel a little more time to pull its troops out of Lebanon, just two days before a withdrawal deadline under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah.

“A short, temporary ceasefire extension is urgently needed” in Lebanon, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement Friday, Israel was supposed to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon by Sunday. The 60-day ceasefire deal in late November halted the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Friday that Israeli forces might still be in Lebanon when the deadline comes. He said the Lebanese government hasn’t yet “fully enforced” the agreement, an apparent reference to the deployment of Lebanese army troops to prevent Hezbollah returning to the border area.

The Lebanese government has said that it can’t deploy its force until Israeli troops pull out. Hezbollah has warned that it could resume fighting if Israel doesn’t withdraw.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring Israeli citizens can safely return to their homes in northern Israel, while also supporting President Aoun and the new Lebanese government. All parties share the goal of ensuring Hezbollah does not have the ability to threaten the Lebanese people or their neighbors,” Hughes said.

He said the U.S. is “pleased that the IDF has started the withdrawal from the central regions.”

Israeli families of hostages confirm that Hamas will next release 4 female soldiers

JERUSALEM — An advocacy group representing the family members of Israelis held in Gaza has confirmed that the four hostages set to be released by Hamas on Saturday are female soldiers.

Under the ceasefire agreement that paused the 15-month war, Israel would release 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees in exchange for the four, including 120 Palestinian militants serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.

The four soldiers — Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19 — were captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war and have had no contact with the outside world since then.

Israel strikes a vehicle in the West Bank, killing 2 Palestinians

JENIN, West Bank — Israel's military said Friday that an airstrike targeted alleged militants in a vehicle in the northern West Bank, where Israeli forces have been carrying out a major military operation during the ceasefire in Gaza.

Two Palestinians were killed in the strike, according to the Health Ministry. The military said the strike was in the town of Qabatiya, roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of Jenin. The city has been the main focus of the Israeli operation.

In Jenin on Friday, drones buzzed overhead and the sound of gunfire and explosions rang out as Israeli military bulldozers and armored vehicles churned through the streets.

Israeli forces have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the northern West Bank in the days since the fragile truce took hold in the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities. Hamas said two of its members were killed in a gunbattle with Israeli forces earlier this week in another town near Jenin. Suspected Jewish settlers have also rampaged through two Palestinian towns.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Escalations in one area frequently spill over, raising further concerns that the second and far more difficult phase of the Gaza ceasefire — which has yet to be negotiated — may never come.

Ruins of a Gaza house where the Hamas leader was killed becomes an attraction for sympathizers

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The owner of the house where Israeli forces purportedly killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar last year says his ruined apartment in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah has become a macabre tourist attraction for admirers of the militant leader now that a ceasefire is in effect.

Ashraf Abu Taha said he returned to the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah late on the night of October 17, shortly after Sinwar's death, to find the ruins of his house mobbed by journalists and residents hoping to get a glimpse of the chair where Israeli drone footage showed Sinwar had been sitting in his final moments.

“I came at 11 o’clock. I was late, and I found people gathered with the journalists, almost thousands. I wondered what was happening. I found that they had come to take photos in the house,” Abu Taha said.

In the video, shot right before Israeli forces killed him and flattened part of the building, Sinwar – badly wounded, covered in dust and wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh – hurled an object toward the drone. Israelis called it a sign of his weakness but Palestinians have hailed it a final show of defiance against the more powerful Israeli army.

The chair on which he died has become somewhat of a Palestinian nationalist symbol, Abu Taha suggested. He and his son have placed the seat and a vest they say was Sinwar’s on top of the ruins of their home.

“People are now saying the neighborhood is not Tal al-Sultan anymore, but it’s Tal al-Sinwar,” he said, referring to the name of his neighborhood.

Hamas names the four hostages it plans to release Saturday

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Hamas militant group on Friday published the names of four hostages it said it would release the following day as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate confirmation of the names from Israel. The hostages are to be freed Saturday in exchange for the release of dozens of Palestinians imprisoned or detained by Israel.

Relatives of hostages still being held by militants in Gaza had earlier Friday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that all remaining captives are freed, while also appealing to U.S. President Donald Trump to continue pressing for their release.

Palestinians hold Friday prayers in the ruins of mosques in the Gaza Strip

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Palestinians have gathered for weekly Muslim prayers in the ruins of mosques in the Gaza Strip that were destroyed by Israeli strikes.

The prayers were held on the first Friday since a ceasefire went into effect that is aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war and bringing about the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned or detained by Israel.

Dozens of worshippers gathered amidst the crumbled walls and drooping ceiling of a mosque in the southern city of Khan Younis, while others prayed outside.

In the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, children climbed on the destroyed minaret of a mosque. Pages of a Quran were scattered among the rubble of a prayer area.

Israel's 15-month military campaign, launched after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack, caused vast destruction across Gaza.

Israel blames the devastation on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas. Over the course of the war, the military released photos and video showing the placement of tunnels and other militant infrastructure near homes, mosques and schools.

The Palestinian Authority says more than 800 mosques were completely destroyed and more than 150 were damaged.

Saudi Arabia calls for lifting crippling sanctions on Syria

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister stressed on Friday the need to lift sanctions on Syria during a landmark visit to Damascus, the first since Islamist rebels overthrew former President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions on Syria over its brutal crackdown during the civil war, crippling the economy and restricting the country’s reconstruction efforts.

Saudi Arabia swiftly engaged with Syria’s new leadership after Assad fell late last year, hosting its foreign minister in early January to discuss rebuilding and political stability. This marked a shift from earlier efforts to normalize ties with Assad, including the reopening of embassies in 2023 and a visit by the Saudi foreign minister to Damascus in April 2023.

“We will continue to work with our brothers in Syria until we reach a final lifting of the sanctions imposed on their country,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said in a press conference alongside the interim Syrian foreign minister. Farhan added that Saudi Arabia has been facilitating dialogue with the U.S. and the EU to push for sanctions relief.

Iraq says Kurdish separatist group in Turkey attacked Iraqi border guards, killing 2

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Friday in a statement that two members of the Iraqi border guards were killed and another wounded in an attack that it said was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the area of Zakho, in northwestern Iraq near the borders with Turkey and Syria.

Iraq last year officially banned the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s and is considered by Ankara to be a terrorist group.

A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the PKK has previously targeted military points of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi border guards.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Baghdad on Sunday, where he is expected to discuss regional security issues and Turkish military operations against the PKK and affiliated groups.

The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have controlled northeast Syria for the past decade, is under attack by the Syrian National Army, an umbrella organization of Turkish-backed armed groups, which regards the SDF as an extension of the PKK.

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By Qassim Abdul-Zahra

Netanyahu suggests Israel might not complete withdrawal from Lebanon by deadline

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Friday that Israel might not withdraw all of its forces from Lebanon by a deadline set in its ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Under the deal reached in November, Israel is supposed to complete its withdrawal from the country by Sunday. Hezbollah militants are to pull back to the north of the Litani River, and the Lebanese armed forces are to patrol the buffer zone in southern Lebanon alongside United Nations peacekeepers.

Netanyahu said in a statement that the ceasefire “is based on the understanding that the withdrawal process could possibly continue beyond the 60 days.” It went on to say that the Lebanese government has not yet “fully enforced” the agreement, an apparent reference to the deployment of Lebanese troops.

Israeli officials have held talks in recent days with the United States, which brokered the agreement. There was no immediate response to Netanyahu’s statement from Lebanon or Hezbollah.

The Lebanese government has said it cannot send its forces into areas until Israeli troops have fully withdrawn. Hezbollah has warned that it could resume its rocket fire on Israel if it does not withdraw from Lebanon in accordance with the ceasefire.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are allies of Iran, and Hezbollah said it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes, and the sides traded fire for more than a year.

UN suspends all trips into Houthi-held areas after more staffers detained

The United Nations on Friday suspended all travel into areas held by Yemen's Houthi rebels after more of their staff were detained by the rebels.

The Houthis have already detained U.N. staffers, as well as individuals associated with the once-open U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and aid groups.

“Yesterday, the de facto authorities in Sanaa detained additional U.N. personnel working in areas under their control,” the U.N. statement read. “To ensure the security and safety of all its staff, the United Nations has suspended all official movements into and within areas under the de facto authorities’ control.”

Before Friday, the U.N. had a total of 16 Yemeni staff in Houthi detention. Staffers were trying to get a headcount across the U.N. agencies working in the country and had halted their work, which provides food, medicine and other aid to the impoverished nation.

In June, the U.N. acknowledged 11 Yemeni employees were detained by the Houthis under unclear circumstances as the rebels increasingly cracked down on areas under their control. Several dozen others from aid agencies and other organizations are also held.

Iran says it is conducting a naval drill

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard says it is conducting a naval drill in the waters of the Persian Gulf and in the country’s southern provinces of Bushehr and Khuzestan.

The Guard’s website reported Friday that surface-to-surface missiles, precision-strike drones, and several torpedoes were used in the drill. It added that the military exercise will continue into Saturday and will feature the use of modern military equipment.

The Revolutionary Guard holds such drills each year.

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