U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty it was important to closely cooperate to ensure that Hamas can never govern Gaza again, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Israeli forces shot and killed 23-year-old Ayman Naji in the Artah suburb of Tulkarm city in the northern West Bank.

Russia and Syria will hold further talks regarding Russian military bases in Syria, Russia's news agencies reported late on Tuesday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as telling journalists after his talks with Syrian officials.

"This issue requires additional negotiations," TASS news agency cited Bogdanov as saying. Bogdanov is heading Russia's delegation to Damascus for the first time since Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

He added that so far there have been no changes to the presence of Russian military bases in the country.

The United States transferred some 90 Patriot air defense interceptors from Israel to Poland this week to then deliver them to Ukraine, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing three sources with knowledge of the operation.

"We have seen the reports but have nothing to provide at this time," a Pentagon spokesperson said in response to the report.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion to relocate Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza to Jordan and Egypt "unacceptable."

"Any resettlement plans, the idea that the citizens of Gaza will be expelled from there to Egypt or Jordan, is unacceptable," Scholz said, referring at a campaign event in Berlin to Trump's comments.

Israeli strikes wounded 24 people in south Lebanon Tuesday despite a ceasefire in force for more than six weeks, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The first strike hit the southern town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa, wounding 20 people, the ministry said, updating a previous toll of 14 injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by US President Donald Trump to a meeting at the White House on February 4, the Israeli premier's office said on Tuesday.

The UN has said that over 376,000 Palestinians have returned to north Gaza since Monday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded that Israel retract its order for the UN's Palestinian relief agency UNRWA to leave Jerusalem as it clamps down on the body's presence in Israel.

"I regret this decision and request that the Government of Israel retract it," he wrote in a letter dated Monday that stressed the agency's "irreplaceable nature" and rejected Israel's claims of sovereignty over East Jerusalem where UNRWA maintains an office.

An Israeli air strike wounded seven people in south Lebanon on Tuesday despite a ceasefire in force for more than six weeks, the Lebanese health ministry said.

"The Israeli enemy's raid on Nabatieh this evening resulted in an initial toll of seven people injured," the ministry said.

The Palestine branch of the UN Population Fund has backed calls made by the head of the UN's Palestine refugee agency earlier today to prevent Israel from shuttering its operations at the end of January.

“UNFPA stands in solidarity with UNRWA and calls for the protection of its critical mission, in accordance with international law," it wrote in a post on X.

Millions of Palestinian refugees depend on @UNRWA for education, healthcare & social support. Preventing UNRWA from continuing its work would have devastating consequences. We call for respect for their mandate & international law.@UNFPA @UN @UNinPalestine @UNFPA_ASRO #westbank https://t.co/u0r8BxMvyB

— UNFPA Palestine (@UNFPAPalestine) January 28, 2025

The US' acting envoy to the UN has accused the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee relief agency of "exaggerating" the impact of Israel's looming ban on the organisation.

"The United States supports the implementation of this decision," Dorothy Shea told the UN Security Council today, alleging that UNRWA officials were "exaggerating the effects of the laws".

This came following a statement to the Security Council by UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, who called on the international community to prevent the ban and warned of "disastrous" consequences for Palestinians and regional political stability.

One Lebanese soldier and three civilians were injured after coming under fire by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese army.

The incident occurred while the army was escorting residents returning to villages close to the Israeli border, it wrote in a post on X.

The head of the UN's Palestinian relief agency UNRWA appealed to world leaders to prevent Israel from shuttering the organisation, which he said "makes a mockery of international law".

In a statement to the UN Security Council, Philippe Lazzarini warned that the ban will have "disastrous" consequences for Palestinians and for regional stability.

A crippling of the organisation's operations now will compromise international aid efforts in Gaza and undermine the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, he said.

UNRWA has delivered 60 percent of the food brought into Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, he said.

Israel has ordered UNRWA to leave Jerusalem by 30 January following the passage of legislation last year to expel the organisation from the occupied territories.

"The relentless assault on UNRWA is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory. It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security," Lazzarini told the Security Council.

Israeli troops who seized strategic ground in southern Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad will remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday after visiting troops there.

Mount Hermon overlooks the Damascus countryside as well as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel seized hundreds of square-kilometres of Syrian territory in the wake of Assad's ouster, triggering global condemnation.

Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, today held a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the continuation of their joint mediation efforts in Gaza, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

The officials expressed hope that the ongoing six-week ceasefire reaches its second phase and turns into a permanent ceasefire.

رئيس مجلس الوزراء وزير الخارجية @MBA_AlThani_ يتلقى اتصالاً هاتفياً من وزير الخارجية الأمريكي#الخارجية_القطرية pic.twitter.com/sth9hAVhmj

— الخارجية القطرية (@MofaQatar_AR) January 28, 2025

A Hamas delegation is in Cairo today for talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad on the implementation of the ceasefire and prisoner-exchange agreement with Israel, the Palestinian group said in a statement.

Egypt, together with Qatar and the US, mediated the six-week truce between Hamas and Israel that came into effect on 19 January.

US senators are expected to begin voting today on legislation that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, according to The Washington Post.

The 'Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act' would impose sanctions on anyone involved in the court's attempts to "investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute" a citizen of America or any of its allies.

The bill enjoys bipartisan support and is expected to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

The ICC in November charged Netanyahu and Gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 47,300 Palestinians and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

A "limited quantity of cooking gas" will be delivered to Gaza today for the first time since the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

The gas will be made available to all Gazans, who will be able to buy 8kg for 55 shekels, it wrote on its Telegram channel.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari announced that efforts are ongoing to prepare the groundwork for the second phase of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

Speaking at a press conference, Al-Ansari stated that the talks are set to commence on the sixteenth day following the implementation of the agreement's first phase.

He added that no significant breaches of the ceasefire have been reported so far, according to the operations room overseeing its enforcement.

Iran condemned former US President Donald Trump's suggestion of relocating Palestinians from Gaza, with the Iranian foreign ministry asserting that the territory is their rightful homeland.

"Political coercion and demographic manipulation will not compel Palestinians to abandon their homeland," Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement shared on X.

Baghaei claimed that Palestinians have paid an "extremely high price" to remain in Gaza and reaffirmed Iran’s rejection of any attempts to uproot them from the territory.

France on Tuesday said any forced displacement of Gazans would be "unacceptable" after US President Donald Trump proposed moving them to Egypt and Jordan.

"Any forced displacement of the population in Gaza would be unacceptable," a French foreign ministry spokesman said when asked about Trump's comments.

President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Israel tomorrow to discuss the ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israel Hayom.

Witkoff is in Saudi Arabia today meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington next week for talks with the US president.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Gaza had brought Israel "to its knees", in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

The ceasefire and prisoner-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of war.

"The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth, and fully supported by America, to its knees," Khamenei said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.

A Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance came under fire from an Israeli sniper near Rafah on Tuesday, the medical organisation said in a post on X.

Israeli snipers shot at an ambulance belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent while it was carrying out an urgent mission in the Tel Sultan area, west of #Rafah. pic.twitter.com/LGIYSYIbZO

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 28, 2025

Hospitals in Gaza have received 48 bodies over the past two days as emergency workers continue to recover the dead from the rubble, according to local health authorities.

The newly discovered bodies pushed up the death toll to 47,354 while another 111,563 have been injured, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Syria's foreign minister hailed a European Union decision on Monday to begin easing sanctions against the country after the toppling of president Bashar al-Assad.

"We welcome the positive step taken by the European Union to suspend sanctions on Syria for one year, and look forward to seeing them lifted completely," Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on X.

"We hope that this decision will have a constructive impact on all aspects of life for the Syrian people and ensure sustainable development."

The EU said Monday that it will begin to gradually lift sanctions on the energy and transport sectors and key financial institutions but cautioned that it could reverse course if member states are unhappy with the direction of the new government.

A Russian delegation has arrived in Damascus for the first time since Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad was toppled, Russia's TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday, as Russia tries to secure the future of its military bases in Syria.

The delegation, which is expected to hold talks with Syria's new rulers, includes Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Alexander Lavrentiev, the Kremlin's special envoy for Syria, TASS said.

Russia, which granted Assad refuge and helped him militarily against rebel forces for years before his downfall, is hoping to retain its two bases in Syria, a naval facility in Tartous and the Hmeimim air base near the port city of Latakia.

Qatar reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump repeated his call to move Palestinians out of Gaza to Egypt or Jordan.

"Our position has always been clear to the necessity of the Palestinian people receiving their rights, and that the two-state solution is the only path forward," foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told media, when asked about Trump's comments.

An Egyptian official has denied reports of a phone call between President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and his US counterpart Donald Trump as the new US president continues to push for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt and Jordan.

Trump said on Monday that he had discussed his plan to "clean out" Gaza with the Egyptian president, telling reporters that he was "sure" that Sisi would agree.

Egypt has repeatedly expressed its rejection of attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians into Egypt since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, and reiterated the message on Sunday after Trump proposed moving Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday to discuss the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, the State Department said.

"The Secretary and King Abdullah discussed implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of hostages, and creating a pathway for security and stability in the region," it said in a statement.

The conversation took place as US president Donald Trump called on Jordan and Egypt to take in millions of Palestinians from Gaza under a plan condemned around the world as an attempt to ethnically cleanse the territory.

The EU will restart a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

“Everyone agrees that EUBAM Rafah can play a decisive role in supporting the ceasefire,” Kallas said.

“Today, EU foreign ministers agreed to redeploy it to the Rafah Crossing Point between Gaza and Egypt. This will allow a number of injured individuals to leave Gaza and receive medical care,” she added.

A civilian EU mission to help monitor the Rafah crossing was agreed in 2005 but suspended in June 2007 as a result of Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could travel to the US for talks with US president Donald Trump next week, according to Israeli media.

Netanyahu's visit has not yet been confirmed and will depend on his health as he recovers from prostate surgery, The Times of Israel reported Monday, citing two Israeli officials.

Trump said on Monday night that he would be meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Washington "very soon".

Al-Azhar expressed its "categorical rejection" of plans floated by US president Donald Trump to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza, calling it a "miserable and unjust attempt to enable the occupation to take over their land".

The US president has twice called in recent days for Egypt and Jordan to take in Gaza's 2.2 million population.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), released a Telegram video on Monday of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud, who is held by the group in Gaza.

Yahud said she had recorded her message on 25 January, and that she had been well and hoped to return to Israel like other hostages.

The hostage said she had served in the Israeli army for two years starting in October 2013, and cited her ID and military number, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had described her in its statements as "a civilian".

She urged Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to "do their best to guarantee the continuation of the ceasefire as planned until all those kidnapped [from Israel], and the Palestinian prisoners can return back home safely".

The Times of Israel reported that she was due to be released over the past weekend, but rearrangements resulted in the expected release date moving to 30 January.

An Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed one civilian and injured several others on Monday night, according to local reports.

Eyewitnesses said the strike targeted a bulldozer that was trying to free a trapped vehicle in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

US President Donald Trump on Monday renewed calls on Monday for Egypt and Jordan to take in Gaza's 2.2 million population, a plan condemned around the world as an attempt at ethnically cleansing the territory of Palestinians.

The president on Saturday floated the idea to "clean out" Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel, which he said had reduced the Palestinian territory to a "demolition site."

Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters Monday evening on Air Force One he would "like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much".

Trump has held talks in recent days with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who have historically opposed displacing Palestinians.

"I wish he would take some," Trump said of al-Sisi. "We helped them a lot, and I'm sure he'd help us."

"As they say, it's a rough neighborhood, but I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too," he added.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to northern Gaza on Monday after Israel opened the Netzarim Corridor as agreed under its ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to the Gaza government media office.

“More than 300,000 displaced people from the southern and central Gaza governorates returned to Gaza and Northern governorates today via the Rashid (west) and Salah al-Din (east) streets, after 470 days,” it said in a statement Monday.