Israel kills 24 in Gaza including child, as ceasefire violations continue

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

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

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 (NCAG) was formed to handle day-to-day affairs until the PA completes a reform programme.

Beirut accused Israel on Wednesday of spraying the herbicide glyphosate on the Lebanese side of their shared border, with President Joseph Aoun decrying a "crime against the environment".

More than a year after a ceasefire was struck to end a war between Israel and Hezbollah, border areas in Lebanon remain largely deserted, and Israel continues to carry out regular air strikes in the south.

After collecting samples following the recent spraying, the agriculture and environment ministries said some of them showed concentrations of glyphosate "20 to 30 times higher than the average" in the area.

In a joint statement, they expressed worries about "damage to agricultural production" and soil fertility.

Aoun denounced the spraying as a "flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime against the environment and health".

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Monday that it had been notified by Israel of its plans to spray a "non-toxic chemical substance" near the border and warned to take shelter.

The spraying forced UNIFIL to "cancel over a dozen activities".

Iran will hold nuclear negotiations with the United States on Friday in Oman, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

"Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States are set to be held on Friday in Muscat," said the Tasnim news agency, adding that they "will be limited to the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions on Iran".

ISNA news agency carried a similar report, saying Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will head the Iranian delegation, which will also include senior diplomats Majid Takht-Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi.

US envoy Steve Witkoff will represent Washington in the talks, ISNA added, noting that President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner may also be present.

Tehran has repeatedly stressed that talks should remain focused solely on the nuclear issue, rejecting negotiations over its missile programme or defence capabilities.

Araghchi and Witkoff led five rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States last year before negotiations were derailed when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign two days ahead of a planned sixth round, triggering a 12-day war.

Friday's talks will be held amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, as the United States has in recent days deployed an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East following a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Palestine's Ministry of Health on Wednesday confirmed at least 24 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since dawn, violating the ceasefire agreement. 

The toll includes three children, while an additional 38 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli attacks. 

Israeli strikes targeted displacement shelters and homes in southern Khan Younis, Gaza's Civil Defence agency said in a statement. 

US Central Command said on Wednesday that it carried out five strikes against multiple Islamic State targets in Syria, including a weapons storage facility with 50 precision munitions.

The strikes were carried out between 27 January and 2 February, it said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was "outraged" by the killing of an on-duty colleague on Wednesday in Gaza, where Israel is waging its genocidal war.

The IFRC said Hussein Hassan Hussein Al-Samiri, "a dedicated paramedic" with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, "was killed while performing life-saving humanitarian duties in Khan Younis during an attack in the Al-Mawasi area" of the southern Gaza Strip.

"The IFRC sends its deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues and expresses its full solidarity with PRCS."

The IFRC said the death brings the number of PRCS staff and volunteers killed in Gaza in the line of duty to 30 since the conflict began in October 2023.

The Syrian government has prevented an al Qaeda-linked book from being displayed at a Damascus book fair after a request from Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said on Wednesday, as Iraq seeks to improve ties with Syria's government.

The book, containing a collection of audio addresses by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - al Qaeda's leader in Iraq until he was killed in 2006 - "promotes hatred and fuels sectarianism at a time when the Iraqi government is seeking to build good relations with Damascus", the official said.

Damascus is hosting its International Book Fair for the first time since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by Syria's new President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander who severed ties to the jihadist group a decade ago and has vowed to protect religious and ethnic minorities since taking power.

Naqsh Publishing House, based in the northern city of Idlib, had announced on its official social media accounts that it would launch a new edition of the book, Have You Heard the Talk of the Rafida?, at the fair, which opened on Monday. "Rafida" is a derogatory term for Shia Muslims.

It later deleted the posts.

Plans are being finalised to hold direct talks between Iran and the United States in Oman on Friday, a Gulf official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying that talks in Turkey were no longer under consideration.

The official said the talks would open with the issue of Iran's nuclear programme and then address other topics step by step.

The United States is ready to meet Iran this week, but discussions must cover its missile and nuclear programs, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

Rubio did not confirm a meeting on Friday with Iran's clerical state, which has violently put down some of the most serious protests against its rule since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

"If the Iranians want to meet, we're ready," Rubio told reporters.

"They've expressed an interest in meeting and talking. If they change their mind, we're fine with that too," he said, after President Donald Trump ordered a sharp military buildup near Iran's coast and threatened to strike.

"In order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes their sponsorship of terrorist organisations across the region, that includes their nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people," Rubio said.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call that comes as the US administration pushes Beijing and others to isolate Tehran.

Iran will hold nuclear negotiations with the United States on Friday in Oman, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

"Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States are set to be held on Friday in Muscat," said the Tasnim news agency, adding that they "will be limited to the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions on Iran".

At least 50,834 people have been arrested in connection with the Iranian government's crackdown on protests, activists tracking the number of people who have been killed or detained said on Wednesday.

The crackdown on the demonstrations has also killed at least 6,876 people, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in other rounds of unrest in Iran. It fears that even more may be dead.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll due to the internet shutdown.

Talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place in Oman, but the scope of the discussions needs to be agreed upon, an Arab diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.

"A meeting is requested in Oman by the Iranians, and the Americans have approved the location, but the parameters of discussions are still being worked on," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

He added that the situation remained fluid.

Prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges against 12 Israeli suspects, including reservist soldiers, for offences including "assisting the enemy in wartime," over the alleged smuggling of prohibited goods into war-shattered Gaza.

A justice ministry statement said the smuggled goods were worth millions of Israeli shekels and included cartons of cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, communication cables, car parts and more.

It described the operation as a "serious case of organised, systematic, and sophisticated smuggling of various goods into the Gaza Strip for profit," which began in the summer of 2025, when war was still being waged in Gaza.

The justice ministry statement said charges had been filed against 12 individuals and one company.

A joint statement from the police and Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency confirmed they had "arrested several Israeli citizens and Gaza Strip residents who smuggled goods prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip".

It said those arrested included reservists in the Israeli military.

The statement added that the suspects had been "willfully ignoring the direct contribution of this activity to the strengthening of terrorist organisations in the Strip," notably Hamas.

"This morning (Wednesday), the Southern District Prosecutor's Office filed indictments against 12 of the suspects for offences including assisting the enemy in wartime, performing actions with property for terrorist purposes, obtaining something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, bribery offences, and economic offences," it added.

Israeli media reported that the brother of Israel's Shin Bet chief, David Zini, was allegedly linked to smuggling cigarettes into Gaza.

Reports said that Bezalel Zini was expected to be indicted on Thursday.

The Syrian Petroleum Company signed a memorandum of understanding with US oil major Chevron, and Qatari-based Power International Holding for oil and gas exploration in Syrian territorial waters, state-run Ekhbariya news said.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a proposal to remove uranium from Iran as part of a deal to ease US concerns was still on the table, but that it was for Tehran to decide whether or not to remove it.

A prominent Iranian news agency has in recent days published without comment images of US bases in the Middle East as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington despite the prospect of direct talks.

The images carry no comment and only the day of the week and the date according to the Persian calendar.

The picture for Tuesday showed an aerial view of the Al Dhafra air base outside Abu Dhabi, which is used by US and French forces.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, Fars showed the Isa Air Base in US ally Bahrein where US planes have also deployed.

But images aroused concern in France due to its troops stationed in the UAE, and President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Paris was watching the situation closely.

"We are obviously very vigilant regarding this situation," Macron said.

"We have taken all necessary measures to ensure that our soldiers there are deployed in optimal security conditions," he added.

Six British pro-Palestinian activists were acquitted on Wednesday of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on a factory operated by Israeli defence firm Elbit, with a jury unable to reach verdicts on charges of criminal damage.

Prosecutors at London's Woolwich Crown Court said the six defendants, whose trial began in November, were members of the now-banned group Palestine Action, which organised the assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August last year.

The six: Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, all denied charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage. 

The patient evacuation of Palestinians through the Rafah crossing will resume soon, after being informed this morning that today's evacuation had been cancelled.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told Al Jazeera that preperations were being made for a group to travel.

Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 20 Palestinians, including four children, in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials said, the latest violence to undermine a truce in the enclave.

Among the dead was a medic who rushed to help victims of a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis and was then killed by a second attack on the same location, health officials said.

Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a 5-month-old boy was killed. 

Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 18 people, including four children, in Gaza on Wednesday. 

Iran decided to move talks with the United States from Istanbul to Oman because it wanted the discussions to be a continuation of previous negotiations there over its nuclear programme, a regional official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran had since the beginning stressed that it would only discuss its nuclear programme in the talks, while Washington wanted other issues on the agenda as well.

The regional official said Tehran was aware that countries in the region were invited to participate in the talks in Istanbul during the planning process. 

Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, stormed the compounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. 

Dozens of settlers entered the compound in groups and performed Jewish rituals near the Dome of the Rock.

This is the third time this year settlers have raided the compound.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the death toll from a series of Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling on Wednesday rose to 17, including three children and six women.

Nine people were killed in a series of strikes, with at least 31 others wounded.

Three bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital after Israeli strikes hit tents and homes in the southern Khan Yunis area, the agency said.

Six more bodies were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital following similar strikes in Gaza City, the territory's largest urban centre, it added.

Nuclear talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place in Oman on Friday, a regional diplomat said, with a possible confrontation looming as US President Donald Trump builds up forces in the Middle East.

The Trump administration agreed to an Iranian request to move the talks from Turkey, and negotiations are still ongoing about whether Arab and Muslim countries from the region will join the talks in Oman, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on Tuesday, citing an Arab source.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday: "We are negotiating with them right now." But he did not elaborate and declined to say where he expected the talks to take place.

A source familiar with the situation said Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to take part in the talks, along with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Ministers from several other countries in the region, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, had also been expected to attend, but a regional source told Reuters that Tehran now wants only bilateral talks with the US.