Just 12 Palestinians cross Rafah on first day of reopening amid Israeli restrictions

This live blog has ended, thanks for following us.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in Oman not Turkey, and that the scope be narrowed.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump wouldn't say where the talks later this week would be held.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said consultations for the venue of talks with the United States were underway, Iran's Nour News reported on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said planning has been carried out to hold the negotiations with the U.S. in the coming days.

Palestinian health officials said Tuesday that Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded three others in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.

"The young man Saeed Nael Saeed al-Sheikh, 24, was martyred by occupation gunfire in Jericho, and three others were injured to varying degrees," the Ramallah-based health ministry said.

The man's death was confirmed to AFP by Riad Eid, director of the Jericho Governmental Hospital.

An Iranian drone completed a "surveillance mission in international waters," Iranian media including the semi-official Fars news agency said on Tuesday.

The U.S. military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that "aggressively" approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the U.S. military said earlier.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Jerusalem Tuesday that Iran "cannot be trusted", ahead of a meeting between Washington and Tehran this week.

"Ahead of envoy Witkoff's trip to meet with an Iranian representative, the Prime Minister made clear his position that Iran has proven time and again that its promises cannot be trusted," a statement from Netanyahu's office read.

The United States is still planning talks with Iranian officials this week, the White House said Tuesday, even after a US warplane shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.

"I just spoke with special envoy (Steve) Witkoff, and these talks as of right now are still scheduled," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that they were due to happen "later this week."

"President Trump is always wanting to pursue diplomacy first, but obviously it takes two to tango," Leavitt said outside the West Wing.

Leavitt added that the US president was keeping open the possibility of military action against Iran, with a large number of US warships now in the region.

"Of course, the president has always a range of options on the table, and that includes the use of military force," Leavitt told Fox News in a separate interview. She added that "the Iranians know that better than anyone," referring to US military strikes that hit Iran's nuclear programme last year.

Iraq's former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, nominated by a powerful alliance of Shia political parties to return to the premiership, said on Tuesday that he would welcome a decision to replace his candidacy.

On January 27, U.S. President Donald Trump said that if Maliki, who served as prime minister for most of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, were chosen to return to the post, Washington would no longer help Iraq, a major oil producer and close U.S. ally.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoy Steve Witkoff in Jerusalem Tuesday that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) would not be part of post-war Gaza's governance "in any way".

Under US President Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan, the PA's post-war role in Gaza was left unclear. The technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza was formed to handle day-to-day affairs until the PA completes a reform programme.

"The Prime Minister clarified that the Palestinian Authority will not be involved in administering the Strip in any way," Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the meeting ended.

Netanyahu also "reiterated the uncompromising demand for the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, and the fulfilment of the war objectives prior to the reconstruction of the Strip," according to his office.

Israel has insisted that neither Hamas nor the PA should be involved in the governance of post-war Gaza.

A US stealth warplane shot down an Iranian drone that "aggressively" approached an American aircraft carrier as it sailed in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, a US military spokesman said.

"An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board," Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said in a statement.

Iranian authorities have arrested over 50,000 people as part of their crackdown on protests, an NGO said on Tuesday, adding that fresh detentions were ongoing.

Rights groups have accused Iran's security forces of killing thousands of people in a crackdown on protests that peaked on January 8 and 9 and have since subsided.

But police have also been rounding up large numbers of people from all sections of society nationwide, with the Islamic republic's leaders blaming "rioters" supported from abroad for the unrest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had counted at least 50,235 arrests linked to the protests.

Arrests have targeted "a wide range of citizens, including students, writers and teachers", it said.

"In some cases, arrests were accompanied by home searches and the confiscation of personal belongings."

HRANA said it had counted over 300 forced confessions linked to the protests in which suspects made televised statements after being subjected to physical or psychological torture.

Amnesty International said in a statement last week that thousands of people, including children, had been arrested in the crackdown.

It said they were at "grave risk of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, deaths in custody and prolonged imprisonment and arbitrary executions following grossly unfair trials".

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei has vowed "no leniency" against offenders while the judiciary has indicated that some could be charged with crimes that carry the death penalty.

Among those arrested most recently were screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian, co-writer on Jafar Panahi's film "It was Just an Accident", which was nominated as best international picture at this year's Oscars and won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes festival.

Abdollah Momeni and women's rights activist Vida Rabbani were also detained in the same case after they signed a joint statement with over a dozen other activists condemning an "organised state crime against humanity" in the crackdown, according to the foundation of detained Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi.

Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel peace prize laureate, was arrested at a demonstration in December before the current protest wave began and has only been allowed a single phone call with her family since.

Her foundation said prosecutors will only allow her a new phone call if she adheres to rules over what she says and she has refused these terms.

A Palestinian former prisoner has died a week after being released from an Israeli jail, with rights groups citing medical negligence.

Khaled al-Saifi, 67, died after his health rapidly declined following his release, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

In a joint statement, the groups said al-Saifi, who was from the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, had been detained twice since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. He spent at least four months in Ramla Prison, where they said his health severely worsened due to torture, mistreatment and starvation.

The organisations said al-Saifi was freed in critical condition and transferred to Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, where he died on Monday.

They added that at least 21,000 Palestinians have been arrested across the West Bank since the start of the war.

UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have reported what they described as “unacceptable” behaviour by Israeli forces during a routine patrol near Kfar Kila.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said two Israeli drones hovered in an aggressive manner above its peacekeepers before dropping a stun grenade around 50 metres (164 feet) from the patrol.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the patrol continued,” UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that the incident occurred earlier on Tuesday and involved a crossing of the Blue Line in violation of Security Council resolution 1701.

“Such use of armed drones is unacceptable. We reiterate to the [Israeli army] its obligation to respect the Blue Line, ensure the safety of peacekeepers, and cease attacks on or near them,” the statement said.

UNIFIL said the incident breached resolution 1701 and international law, warning that such actions obstruct peacekeepers’ Security Council-mandated duties and threaten efforts to restore stability along the Blue Line.

US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, an Israeli official said, during a visit that followed the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The official told AFP news agency that the meeting was taking place in Jerusalem, but declined to provide details on the agenda.

It came as the United States was expected to hold talks with Israel's arch-foe Iran later this week.

An Arab official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the meeting was likely to take place in Turkey on Friday, following diplomatic interventions by Ankara, as well as Egypt, Oman and Qatar.

Witkoff's talks with Netanyahu on Tuesday marked his second encounter with the Israeli prime minister in less than a fortnight. His previous visit took place days before the Rafah crossing was reopened.

Israeli media reported at the time that Witkoff and fellow US envoy Jared Kushner had pressed for the reopening of the crossing.

A Palestinian teenager has been shot dead by Israeli forces in southern Gaza, despite a US-brokered ceasefire.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said Ahmed Abdel-Al, 19, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday morning in an area outside zones where the Israeli military has established full control in southern Gaza.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Abdel-Al is the latest of 529 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the President Trump-backed peace process on October 10, 2025.

The ministry said the death toll since the beginning of the war in October 2023 has now reached 71,803 Palestinians.

Two young Swedes were sentenced to jail terms Tuesday for throwing grenades at Israel's embassy in Denmark over a year ago.

A Copenhagen court condemned an 18-year-old to 12 years in prison and a 21-year-old to 14 years after finding them guilty of "terrorism" in the October 2024 incident.

"The two men threw the grenades with the intention of seriously frightening the Israeli and Danish populations -- the attack therefore constitutes a terrorist act," police said in a statement.

The Copenhagen court also ruled that the two men, aged 16 and 18 at the time, acted in concert after prior agreement with one or more unidentified accomplices belonging to a criminal network in Sweden.

During the hearing, the youngest of the two, who is also being prosecuted in Sweden for shooting at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, admitted to being a member of the Foxtrot criminal network, which had recruited him during his secondary school years.

"The criminal network acted as the armed wing of a Middle Eastern terrorist organization in Denmark, where the Israeli embassy had been designated as the target of the attack," prosecutor Soren Harbo said in the press release.

In the middle of the night on October 2, 2024, two grenades damaged the terrace of a house next to the diplomatic mission in the upscale Hellerup neighbourhood. No one was injured.

Police identified the DNA of the younger man on a grenade found in the building's garden.

The two were also convicted of attempted murder against the occupants of the house, but acquitted of endangering the lives and physical safety of the soldiers guarding the embassy. They will be expelled to Sweden after serving their time.

In May 2024, Swedish intelligence services claimed that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to carry out "acts of violence" against Israel, a claim Tehran denied.

Iranian authorities have arrested over 50,000 people as part of their crackdown on protests, an NGO said on Tuesday, adding that fresh detentions were ongoing.

Rights groups have accused Iran's security forces of killing thousands of people in a crackdown on protests that peaked on January 8 and 9 and have since subsided.

But police have also been rounding up large numbers of people from all sections of society nationwide, with the Islamic republic's leaders blaming "rioters" supported from abroad for the unrest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had counted at least 50,235 arrests linked to the protests.

Arrests have targeted "a wide range of citizens, including students, writers and teachers", it said.

"In some cases, arrests were accompanied by home searches and the confiscation of personal belongings."

HRANA said it had counted over 300 forced confessions linked to the protests in which suspects made televised statements after being subjected to physical or psychological torture.

Amnesty International said in a statement last week that thousands of people, including children, had been arrested in the crackdown.

It said they were at "grave risk of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, deaths in custody and prolonged imprisonment and arbitrary executions following grossly unfair trials".

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei has vowed "no leniency" against offenders while the judiciary has indicated that some could be charged with crimes that carry the death penalty.

Among those arrested most recently were screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian, co-writer on Jafar Panahi's film "It was Just an Accident", which was nominated as best international picture at this year's Oscars and won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes festival.

Abdollah Momeni and women's rights activist Vida Rabbani were also detained in the same case after they signed a joint statement with over a dozen other activists condemning an "organised state crime against humanity" in the crackdown, according to the foundation of detained Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi.

Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel peace prize laureate, was arrested at a demonstration in December before the current protest wave began and has only been allowed a single phone call with her family since.

Her foundation said prosecutors will only allow her a new phone call if she adheres to rules over what she says and she has refused these terms.

Israel's army will appoint its highest-ranking Muslim woman to replace chief Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, the public face for Palestinians and Lebanese of its military campaigns, a military source said on Tuesday.

Major Ella Waweya will replace Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee, who for people in Gaza and Lebanon is indelibly linked with Israel's deadly bombing campaigns and known for what are seen as provocative uses of colloquial Arabic, Quranic verses and humour in his messages.

Waweya, 36, was born in Qalansawe, an Arab city in central Israel, and volunteered with the Israeli army at 24. As a deputy to Adraee, she was previously known online as "Captain Ella", the source said.

"As a child, she watched Arab media, and out of curiosity discovered the Israeli and Zionist narrative", the source said.

Around 20 percent of Israel's population are Palestinians or their descendants who remained in what is now Israel after its creation in 1948.

"She currently serves as the most senior Muslim female officer in the IDF (military)," the source said, adding Waweya would soon be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Adraee is known to the Arabic-speaking world through videos shared on military social media channels in which he gave details of ongoing Israeli military operations.

Many Lebanese have notifications activated for his social media posts, knowing that they often presage Israeli strikes.

His videos gained prominence after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, followed by the start of hostilities between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel.

During both wars, and still in Gaza, Adraee issued official military evacuation warnings addressed to local populations ahead of Israeli air strikes in their areas.

Adraee, who is Jewish, was born in the mixed Arab-Jewish Israeli city of Haifa, and was on occasion mocked by Arab world celebrities for his accent in Arabic.

Lebanon's prime minister said Tuesday he will not allow his country to be dragged into a new conflict, after Hezbollah warned any attack on its Iranian backer would be an attack on the group.

"We will never allow anyone to drag the country into another adventure," Nawaf Salam said during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, in response to a question about comments made by Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem last week.

Qassem had responded to American threats of military action against Iran, saying "We will choose at that time how to act... but we are not neutral."

Salam said Hezbollah's decision to enter the Gaza war in support of its ally Hamas had "very big" consequences for Lebanon and that "no one is willing to expose the country to adventures of this kind".

More than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, badly weakened the group.

The government has begun implementing a plan to disarm it starting in the south, one of its main traditional strongholds.

In January, Lebanon's army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Salam said that the state had "worked to regain control over decisions on war and peace".

"The Lebanese army has full operational control over the south," he added.

Iran is "neither optimistic nor pessimistic" over the talks in Istanbul with the U.S., an Iranian diplomatic source told Reuters news agency on Tuesday, adding that Tehran would not negotiate over its defensive capabilities.

Iran frames its ballistic missile program as an essential component of its defensive capabilities.

Syrian government forces started entering the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on Tuesday under an integration deal agreed with the Kurds last week, state media reported.

"A convoy of internal security forces began entering the city of Qamishli," the official SANA news agency said.

According to AFP news agency, a convoy of armoured vehicles and personnel were removing towards the outskirts of the city, the main stronghold of the Kurdish autonomous administration.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received a report of an incident 16 nautical miles north of Oman, within the inbound traffic separation scheme of the Strait of Hormuz.

An Iranian business tycoon is under investigation after he was arrested over alleged support for nationwide protests last month, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

Mohammad Saedinia, who owns a well-known Iranian confectionery brand and multiple cafes across the country, was arrested on January 13 on charges of "inciting unrest".

Authorities later ordered the seizure of his assets.

"The case is still under investigation," judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters on Tuesday.

"If it is proven in court that his actions caused damage, he will not only face legal punishment" but his assets will go towards compensation, he added, without elaborating.

Jahangir said the investigation into Saedinia was launched following intelligence reports alleging that he "had provided support to rioters".

The exact value of Saedinia's assets is unknown but the Fars news agency said last month that it was "almost equal to the material damage inflicted on the capital", without elaborating.

Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani said the capital suffered 3 trillion tomans (more than $19 million) in damages during the unrest.

Protests against the rising cost of living broke out in Iran in late December before morphing into nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

Tehran has acknowledged that more than 3,000 deaths occurred during the unrest but insists that most of those killed were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to "terrorist acts".

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,854 deaths, mostly protesters killed by security forces, with other rights groups warning the figure is likely far higher.

Iranian authorities have said the rallies began as peaceful demonstrations before turning into "riots" involving killings and vandalism, which they say were inflamed by Iran's arch-foes, the United States and Israel.

A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that the first five patients were transferred through Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt, which reopened on Monday.

"On the second of February, WHO and partners supported the medical evacuation of five patients and seven companions to Egypt via the Rafah crossing," said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.

"It was the first medical evacuation through this route since sometime in 2025," he said referring to a limited number of evacuations during an early 2025 ceasefire.

Over 18,500 patients are awaiting evacuations after the two-year war, he said, with trauma injuries from the war as well as chronic conditions such as cancer and diabetes.

A UNICEF spokesperson said that more than 3,000 of them were children. Gaza health authorities are choosing whom to prioritise among the sick and wounded, Lindmeier said.

"We know that patients have died basically waiting for evacuation, and that's something which is horrible when you know just a few miles or kilometers outside that border, help is available," he added.

US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, an Israeli official said, following the reopening of Gaza's key Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The Israeli official did not confirm the location or subject of the meeting, but Israeli media reported Witkoff will arrive in Israel on Tuesday.

Witkoff and US envoy Jared Kushner held talks with Netanyahu in late January in which they reportedly pushed for the reopening of the Rafah crossing.

Iranian authorities arrested 139 foreign nationals in central parts of the country during recent anti-government protests, local media reported Tuesday.

Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted the police chief in the city of Yazd as saying those arrested were involved "in organising, inciting and directing riotous actions, and in some cases were in contact with networks outside the country".

The nationalities of those held were not specified.

"During the review of cases related to the recent rioters, it was determined that 139 of those arrested in these disturbances were foreign nationals," police chief Ahmad Negahban said.

Protests against the rising cost of living broke out in Iran on December 28 before morphing into nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

 The Middle East does not need another confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, and Tehran needs to reach a nuclear deal with Washington, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said at a World Governments Summit panel in Dubai.

"I think that the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations. I don't think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don't have these issues every other day," he said.

Iran and the United States will resume nuclear talks on Friday in Turkey, Iranian and U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned that with big U.S. warships heading to Iran, bad things would probably happen if a deal could not be reached.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet in Istanbul in an effort to revive diplomacy over a long-running dispute about Iran's nuclear programme and dispel fears of a new regional war, while a regional diplomat said representatives from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt would also participate.

Tensions are running high amid a U.S. naval buildup near Iran, following a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed on Tuesday that he had ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, after his counterpart Donald Trump threatened "bad things" if no deal is reached.

The US leader has talked of military action and sent an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East following anti-government protests in Iran last month that were met with a deadly crackdown.

Trump has maintained he is hopeful that Washington will "work something out" with Tehran but also warned that "bad things would happen" if no deal is reached.

Tehran has insisted it wants diplomacy, while vowing an unbridled response to any aggression.

"I have instructed my Minister of Foreign Affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists -- one free from threats and unreasonable expectations -- to pursue fair and equitable negotiations," Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X.

The talks will be held "within the framework of our national interests", he said, adding that it followed requests "from friendly governments".

A massive fire broke out Tuesday at a bazaar west of the Iranian capital, state media reported, although the cause of the blaze was unclear.

The fire had "so far resulted in no injuries", said Mohammad Behnia, operations commander of Tehran emergency services.

The fire erupted at a market in the Jannat Abad neighbourhood in Tehran's west, an area filled with stalls and shops, state TV quoted a spokesman for Tehran's fire department as saying.

"The fire is extensive, to the extent that it is visible from various parts of Tehran," Jalal Maleki said.

State TV said firefighters were immediately dispatched to the site to contain the blaze.

Footage of the fire showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area.