Ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon appeared at risk on Sunday as disputes continued over key deadlines, and local health officials said that Israeli forces opened fire on both fronts.
In Gaza, Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire there by changing the order of hostages it has released. Citing that, Israel has stopped thousands of Palestinians from returning to the northern part of the Gaza Strip as expected by Sunday. Local health officials said that Israeli forces fired on the crowd, killing two.
Israel said civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud should have been released before the four soldiers freed on Saturday. Mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt were working on the issue.
In Lebanon, health officials said that Israeli forces opened fire on protesters in the south who demanded that Israel withdraw in line with the ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22.
Separately, officials with Hamas and Jordan rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that most of Gaza’s population should be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel in an attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and abducted around 250. Israel’s retaliatory military operation has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of the victims children and women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Here is the latest:
France will consider allowing Israeli companies to take part in Paris Air Show
PARIS — France will consider allowing Israeli companies to participate in the Paris Air Show in June, thanks to ceasefire agreements in Gaza and Lebanon, the French president’s office said Sunday.
That was among the results of a conversation Sunday between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Macron said France hopes to help speed up the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, two of whom are French citizens. Macron also urged Israel to allow for a ″massive″ facilitation of aid to Gaza’s population, and to fulfill its promises to withdraw troops from Lebanon under a truce brokered by the U.S. and France.
Netanyahu asked about Israeli participation in the upcoming Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, a major industry event. The French president said Israeli participation ″could be favorably considered, as a consequence of the cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon,″ according to Macron's office.
Tensions surrounded Israel’s participation in two arms shows in France last year, Eurosatory and Euronaval. The French government did not want Israel displaying any weapons used in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Islamic Jihad group says the dispute over a hostage has been settled
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militant group, says the dispute over an Israeli hostage that has kept Palestinians from returning home to northern Gaza has been settled.
Mohamed al-Hajj Mousa added in a statement that the group told mediators that the hostage, Arbel Yehoud, will be released before Saturday, when the next exchange of hostages from Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody is set to take place.
There is no immediate comment from Israel, which has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. It expected Yehoud to be freed this weekend, and it has put the movement of Palestinians into northern Gaza on hold.
UNRWA warns of far-reaching consequences if Israel goes ahead with its closure
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says that if Israel carries out its threat to close its east Jerusalem headquarters on Thursday, the outsize effects will be felt acutely and immediately by tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The agency, known as UNRWA, runs 12 facilities that provide critical public services across east Jerusalem, including schools enrolling at least 1,200 children and free clinics serving over 70,000 people.
“That’s the thing, it has an impact on people’s lives,” Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said of the potential closure.
In the Shuafat refugee camp, an impoverished neighborhood, “people today can walk just a few meters and they’re in an excellent clinic,” Touma said. But if it's shuttered, she said, tens of thousands of Palestinians would have to cross a difficult checkpoint, pay for transport and, even if they’re eligible for Israeli primary health care, also pay for medicine in order to see a doctor or get a blood test.
“We’re talking about the poorest of the poor,” Touma said. “Right now, they have no alternative.”
The closure of UNRWA schools would raise all sorts of problems given that there are already too few classrooms in the overcrowded Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem, she said.
Touma said much remains unclear about the Israeli order, including whether the closure would apply to operations in east Jerusalem only or to the entirety of the Palestinian territories.
Israel says the agency has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the U.N.
Israeli far-right leaders back Trump's suggestion to resettle Palestinians
TEL AVIV, Israel — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both want Israel to establish Jewish settlements in Gaza, supported Trump's remarks, calling it “voluntary emigration."
Palestinians and many of their supporters view it as code for ethnic cleansing.
In a post on X Sunday, Smotrich called the idea of “helping (Palestinians) find other places to start new, good lives” great and said he would work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to that end.
Ben-Gvir, who quit Netanyahu’s government over the current ceasefire in Gaza, said Trump’s remarks gave Israel the green light to move ahead on “voluntary emigration.”
“When the president of the world’s largest superpower brings it up himself, the government of Israel should implement it,” he said in a statement.
Netanyahu has said building Jewish settlements in Gaza is not realistic. Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains a blockade with Egypt on the territory.
UNRWA says Israel ordered it to vacate Jerusalem headquarters
JERUSALEM — The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says its staff was directed to vacate the premises by Thursday.
Israel passed legislation last year cutting all ties with the agency and barring it from operating in its territory. It says the agency, which is the main provider of aid in the Gaza Strip, has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the U.N.
In a statement Sunday, the agency, known as UNRWA, said the order to vacate “is in contradiction to international law obligations of U.N. member states,” including Israel. “United Nations premises are inviolable and enjoy privileges and immunities under the United Nations Charter."
UNRWA closed its east Jerusalem headquarters last May after Israeli protesters set fire to its perimeter.
Senior Hamas official rejects Trump's proposal to relocate Palestinians
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Bassem Naim said that “even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction," the Palestinian people will never agree to such a proposal.
He also said the Palestinians can rebuild Gaza “even better than before” if Israel lifts its blockade.
Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces fired on the crowds on three occasions overnight and into Sunday. Those killed included a child, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza as part of the ceasefire, which came into force last Sunday, but the military has warned people to stay away from its forces, which are still operating in a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border and in the Netzarim corridor.
