Netanyahu meets Trump as fears of West Bank annexation rise

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The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests has reached at least 7,002 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists said Thursday.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest figures, has been accurate in previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths.

Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, given authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.

Three Palestinians on Wednesday evening sustained injuries in an attack by Israeli settlers in al-Malha area, east of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, security sources told the Wafa agency. 

The settlers stormed the area and assaulted local residents, resulting in three injuries. 

Israeli settlers have carried out frequent violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank over the years, which has escalated amid the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed to US President Donald Trump that his country's security was his priority in Washington's nuclear talks with Iran, Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the two leaders met at the White House.

"The prime minister insisted on the security needs of the state of Israel in relation to the negotiations," his office said, adding that they agreed to "coordinate and remain in contact."

The son of a British couple held in Iran said Wednesday his parents were "caught in the middle" of geopolitical tensions as he urged the British government to act on their case.

Joe Bennett -- whose mum Lindsay Foreman and stepdad Craig Foreman have been held in Iran since January last year -- said "very difficult" UK-Iran relations and other current events were complicating their situation.

But he hit out at what the family sees as British inaction, calling the lack of recent contact with them by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Keir Starmer "alarming".

"It's very difficult," he told AFP outside the UK parliament, after meeting lawmakers to discuss his parents' plight.

"There is a massive unrest in the country at the moment (and) with what's going on geopolitically my parents are caught in the middle of it," Bennett said, as fears swirl US President Donald Trump could order strikes on Iran.

"All we can say is that if there is an intervention, that that intervention is positive for the outcome of getting them home," he added.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both in their early fifties, were seized on 3 January 2025, according to relatives, as they passed through central Iran during a round-the-world motorbike trip.

The following month Iranian state media announced their arrest on espionage charges, which the couple deny. Their family knew little about their whereabouts for months.

Both are now being held in the country's notorious Evin Prison.

US President Donald Trump said nothing definitive was decided during his "very good" meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday but that negotiations with Iran toward a deal would continue.

"There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Additionally, we discussed the tremendous progress being made in Gaza, and the Region in general."

Israeli settlers demolished around 15 Palestinian homes and an animal pen in a village near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, residents and activists told AFP on Wednesday.

The structures, several of them tin shacks, were torn down in Al-Duyuk Al-Tahta the day before, amid rising settler violence that has repeatedly forced families to flee.

The latest violence came days after Israel's security cabinet approved measures to tighten control over the West Bank, paving the way for further settlement expansion.

"About 50 settlers arrived, forced everyone out of the houses and began demolishing them. Then they took everything -- even the chickens," village resident Mustafa Kaabneh, who has lived in the area for nearly two decades, told AFP.

He said most of the settlers were armed and masked and were accompanied by an Israeli army vehicle before returning with a bulldozer.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

Another resident, Bassem Kaabneh, 23, said settlers beat women and children, expelled families from their homes and seized personal belongings.

"They told me: 'Enough, you don't have a home here anymore'".

Lebanon’s government will decide next week how to move to the second phase of a plan to extend its authority and place all arms under state control in areas north of the Litani River, its information minister said on Wednesday.

The decision will be based on a presentation by the army outlining its needs and capabilities, the minister, Paul Morcos, told reporters during a visit to Kuwait, where he was attending an Arab meeting.

The Lebanese army said in January that it had taken operational control in the area between the Litani River and the border with Israel. The cabinet asked the army to brief it in early February on how to pursue disarmament in other parts of the country.

"We have completed the first phase, south of the Litani River. Next week the government will take a decision regarding the second phase considering what the army commander sets out in terms of needs and capabilities, so that we can decide accordingly, based on that explanation," Morcos said.

Lebanon has been seeking to place all arms under state control, in line with a November 2024 US-brokered ceasefire that ended a war between Israel and the Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

Morcos ruled out the possibility of any confrontation between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, saying the objective was "to extend state authority and achieve stability, and insofar as these goals can be achieved together, we will proceed".

Hundreds of foreigners were among the Islamic State group detainees transferred in recent weeks by the US military from Syria to Iraq, an Iraqi security official told AFP on Wednesday.

Iraq has so far received 5,046 of the around 7,000 IS detainees previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month.

The detainees who have arrived in Iraq include 3,245 Syrians, 271 Iraqis and another 610 detainees from other Arab countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

They also include more than 900 foreigners from Europe, Asia and even Australia.

The largest group of Europeans is from Germany, with 27 detainees.

There are also 10 suspects from the Netherlands, nine from the United Kingdom, 13 from Australia, four from Sweden and three from France, among others.

The foreigners also include more than 130 Russians and 160 suspects from Turkey.

US forces have evacuated the al-Tanf military base in eastern Syria and relocated troops stationed there to Jordan, two sources aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

The al-Tanf base is strategically located in the tri-border area of Syria, Jordan and Iraq. It was established in 2014 as a key hub for operations by the global coalition against Islamic State militants.

The United Nations Development Programme began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City's oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk.

Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid-waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave's main city.

He put the volume of the dump at more than 300,000 cubic metres (390,000 cubic yards) and 13 metres (14 yards) high.

It formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr al-Dik area - adjacent to the border with Israel - when the Gaza war began in October 2023.

The area in Juhr al-Dik is now under full Israeli control.

Over the next six months, UNDP plans to transfer the waste to a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.

The site covers 75,000 square metres and will also accommodate daily collection, Mrakic said in a statement sent to Reuters. The project is funded by the Humanitarian Fund and the European Union's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a low-profile arrival at the White House on Wednesday for talks on Iran with US President Donald Trump, an AFP photographer said.

Netanyahu arrived by a side road, in a black SUV with Israeli and US flags that drove the Israeli premier the short distance from Blair House, where visiting dignitaries stay.

France is calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made allegedly targeting Israel at a conference, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticised, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," Jean-Noel Barrot told French lawmakers.

Albanese has denied making the comments.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it killed a senior Hamas operative who had been convicted of orchestrating two bus bombings in 2004 that left 16 civilians dead and dozens more wounded.

The bombings were among the deadliest attacks during the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.

In a joint statement, the military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said their forces killed Basem Hashem Al-Haymouni in a strike in the Gaza Strip last week.

They described him as "a senior operative" for Hamas who "had been active since 2004" as part of a cell responsible for carrying out deadly attacks in Israel.

They identified him as the mastermind of an August 2004 attack in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva, in which suicide bombers blew up two buses.

He "dispatched several suicide bombers to carry out a coordinated attack on two buses in Beer Sheva, in which 16 Israeli civilians were murdered and approximately 100 others were injured", the statement said.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will attend the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" in Washington this month, Jakarta's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

"The government has accepted an invitation to the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, and President Prabowo Subianto plans to attend," ministry spokesman Vahd Nabyl Achmad Mulachela told AFP.

France will increase the number of visas for Iranians seeking asylum as a result of the recent crackdown by Iranian authorities, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.

Speaking in parliament, Barrot said Paris wanted to support the Iranian people by any means possible.

"In particular by welcoming opponents persecuted by the regime who are seeking asylum and refuge in France. We will increase our humanitarian visas for asylum purposes for these individuals whom we must protect," he said.

Germany on Wednesday criticised Israeli plans to tighten control over the occupied West Bank as "a further step towards de facto annexation", as international anger mounts over the move.

"Israel remains an occupying power in the West Bank, and as an occupying power it is a violation of international law to build settlements, including transferring certain administrative functions to civilian Israeli authorities," a German foreign ministry spokesman said in Berlin.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for a "firm response" from the United States and the international community to Israel's plan to tighten its control of the occupied West Bank.

During a visit to Oslo, Abbas said he had discussed the issue with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, as well as those of Israeli settler violence and Israel's freezing of "$4 billion" intended for the Palestinian people.

"These serious violations require a firm response from the US administration and the international community because they hinder (US) President (Donald) Trump's efforts and constitute a violation of international law," Abbas told reporters.

Qatar's ruler discussed regional de-escalation with Iran's top security official, the emir's office said.

The emir's office said Sheikh Tamim had met Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council in Doha.

The pair discussed "developments in the region, efforts to reduce escalation and enhance regional security" according to a statement, with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also in present.

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that in the last 24 hours, eight Palestinians have been killed, with a further 20 wounded in Israeli attacks on the enclave. The ministry added that three bodies had been recovered.

Iran's missile capabilities are its red line and are not a subject to be negotiated, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader said on Wednesday according to Nournews.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on the village of Deir al-Dik, west of Jericho, have forced 15 families to leave their homes, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that his country is ready for "any verification" of its nuclear programme and insisted Tehran is not seeking an atomic weapon.

"We are not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. We have stated this repeatedly and are ready for any verification," he said on the 47th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution, which is being marked against the backdrop of military threats from the United States.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Mohammad Kazem, told the privately owned Shafaq News website yesterday that Tehran "will not give up its right to possess nuclear technology and defence means despite repeated US pressure and threats".

Kazem made the remarks during a celebration in the holy city of Najaf commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

He added that Iran "is progressing and prospering" despite challenges and "will triumph over the enemies".

The UN's agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has condemned new Israeli measures in the occupied West Bank that make it easier for Israeli's to buy land in the territory, with chief Philippe Lazzarini saying that they "pave the way for accelerated expansion of settlements in the West Bank, further undermining the future of Palestinians."

"It is a recipe for increased control, hopelessness and violence," he added.

"New Israeli measures pave the way for accelerated expansion of settlements in the West Bank, further undermining the future of Palestinians.

It is a recipe for increased control, hopelessness and violence.

These measures also mark a new blow against international law, setting… pic.twitter.com/M6z82QhFbX

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 11, 2026

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that his country would "not yield to excessive demands" on its nuclear programme, after Tehran resumed talks with the United States.

"Our country, Iran, will not yield to their excessive demands," he said in a speech at Azadi Square in the capital for the 47th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution.

"Our Iran will not yield in the face of aggression, but we are continuing dialogue with all our strength with neighbouring countries in order to establish peace and tranquillity in the region."

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and U..President Donald Trump discussed efforts for regional de-escalation and stability in a phone call, the Emiri Diwan said on Wednesday, as Washington and Tehran pursue diplomatic solutions to Iran's nuclear program.

The call comes ahead of a meeting between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu where the Israeli prime minister is expected to press him to widen US talks with Iran to include curbs on Tehran's missile arsenal and other security threats beyond its nuclear programme.

Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, arrived in Qatar on Wednesday and was expected to meet with the emir, as Washington and Tehran prepare to resume negotiations.

The emir and Trump discussed "supporting diplomatic efforts aimed at addressing crises through dialogue and peaceful means," the Diwan said.