Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.
Israel said on Thursday the terms of a ceasefire with Hezbollah were not being implemented fast enough and there was more work to do, while the Iran-backed group urged pressure to ensure Israeli troops leave south Lebanon by Monday as set out in the deal.
Two Bulgarian sailors and a Romanian crew member returned home after being held for 14 months by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, receiving a warm welcome from their families and officials at Sofia airport on Thursday.
Residents leave homes in Jenin as Israeli West Bank raid continues
Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.
The operation, involving large columns of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a ceasefire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023.
Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.
“We need to be prepared to continue in the Jenin camp that will bring it to a different place,” said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi.
Armoured bulldozers have dug up roads, making movement in the city difficult, but hundreds of people left their homes in the camp, dragging suitcases or carrying plastic bags of their belongings after they said they heard messages to evacuate.
“Yesterday, we did not want to leave, we were at home,” said 16-year-old Hussam Saadi. “Today, they sent down a drone to our neighbourhood, telling us to leave the camp and that they will blow it up.”
The Israeli military denied that it had told residents to leave their homes. It said it was “enabling any resident who chooses to exit from the area to do so via secure and organised routes with the protection of Israeli security forces”.
As the operation continued, the sound of gunfire and the constant buzz of drones flying overhead could be heard over the refugee camp. In the city, there was little movement on the streets.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed troops detonating what appeared to be roadside explosives.
Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli troops killed two armed men barricaded inside a building in Burqin, outside Jenin, after a gunfight. The two were suspected of carrying out an attack near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq earlier this month, in which three Israelis were killed.
Both were claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled, or were forced, from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war.
Overall since the start of the operation, 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 more wounded, said Palestinian health officials.
The raid, the third major operation by the Israeli military in Jenin in under two years, drew warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel sees more to do on Lebanon ceasefire as deadline nears
Israel said on Thursday the terms of a ceasefire with Hezbollah were not being implemented fast enough and there was more work to do, while the Iran-backed group urged pressure to ensure Israeli troops leave south Lebanon by Monday as set out in the deal.
The deal stipulates that Israeli troops withdraw from south Lebanon, Hezbollah remove fighters and weapons from the area and Lebanese troops deploy there — all within a 60-day timeframe which will conclude on Monday at 4am.
The deal, brokered by the US and France, ended more than a year of hostilities triggered by the Gaza war. The fighting peaked with a major Israeli offensive that displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon and left Hezbollah severely weakened.
“There have been positive movements where the Lebanese army and Unifil have taken the place of Hezbollah forces, as stipulated in the agreement,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters, referring to UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
“We’ve also made clear that these movements have not been fast enough, and there is much more work to do,” he said, affirming that Israel wanted the agreement to continue.
Mencer did not directly respond to questions about whether Israel had requested an extension of the deal or say whether Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon after Monday’s deadline.
Hezbollah said in a statement that there had been leaks talking about Israel postponing its withdrawal beyond the 60-day period and that any breach of the agreement would be unacceptable.
The statement said that possibility required everyone, especially Lebanese political powers, to pile pressure on the states which sponsored the deal to ensure “the implementation of the full [Israeli] withdrawal and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the last inch of Lebanese territory and the return of the people to their villages quickly”.
Any delay beyond the 60 days would mark a blatant violation of the deal with which the Lebanese state would have to deal “through all means and methods guaranteed by international charters” to recover Lebanese land “from the occupation’s clutches”, said Hezbollah.
Bulgarian sailors return home after being freed by Houthis
Two Bulgarian sailors and a Romanian crew member returned home after being held for 14 months by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, receiving a warm welcome from their families and officials at Sofia airport on Thursday.
The trio were part of the 25-member international crew of the vessel Galaxy Leader that the Houthis seized off Yemen’s Red Sea coast more than a year ago.
They were released on Wednesday and handed to Oman following the three-day-old ceasefire in Gaza’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV reported.
Captain Lyubomir Chanev and First Officer Danail Veselinov arrived in Sofia aboard a government plane that was sent to pick them up from Muscat in Oman on the order of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, local media reported.
Saudi Arabia ‘is optimistic about Lebanon under reforms’
Saudi Arabia would continue supporting Lebanon and was optimistic about the country’s future after a ceasefire brought an end to a war between Israel and the militant Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, said the kingdom’s foreign minister from Beirut.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told reporters he stressed the importance of reforms in his meeting with Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun, in the first trip to Beirut by Riyadh’s top diplomat in 15 years.
“I expressed to him that we believe in the importance of the reforms he presented so that Lebanon can overcome its crises,” said Prince Faisal.
The visit reflects seismic political shifts in Lebanon since Israel pummelled Hezbollah in last year’s war, and since Hezbollah’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels in December.
“The kingdom is looking at Lebanon’s future with optimism under the reformist approach that came in the president’s speech after his inauguration.
“These reforms will boost the confidence of Lebanon’s partners and open space for the country to regain its rightful place in the Arab and international spheres,” he added.
Gazans ready tent camps for families returning to north after ceasefire
Palestinians in northern Gaza prepared tent encampments for displaced families on Thursday, two days before they were expected to return to their home areas in accordance with the timeline of a ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas.
On open ground surrounded by blown-out buildings, a group of men began putting up rows of white tents to receive families who are planning to return north on Saturday when Hamas is due to release a second batch of hostages in return for dozens of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expected to head back to the northern Gaza Strip will return to homes in ruins after a 15-month Israeli military offensive that has laid waste to the enclave and killed more than 47,000 Gazans.
In October, Israeli forces returned to areas of the north in a major anti-Hamas operation focused on the Jabalia refugee camp near Gaza City and Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya towns, clearing the area of its inhabitants and razing most of its buildings.
“Is this the tent that we dreamed of? This will have to fit 10 people. This tent is for my children coming from the south. Really, is this adequate space?” asked Wael Jundiya, as he prepared a tent for his children who will return from where they have been sheltering in the Mawasi coastal area of the south.
“On Saturday, people will come from the south and flood Gaza [City];, where will they go? This camp will fit 100, 200 people. There will be 1.5 million coming from the south,” Jundiya told Reuters.
Hamas published a statement on Thursday saying the return of the displaced families would begin after Saturday’s exchange was complete and once Israeli forces had pulled out from the coastal road to the north. At least four hostages are expected to be handed over to Israel on Saturday.
Highlighting concerns by many Palestinians over how strong the phased ceasefire is, an Israeli tank shelling killed two Gazans in Rafah in the south of the enclave, said the local civil emergency service.
The Israeli military said they were looking into the report.
Hamas said people would be allowed to return on foot along the coastal road, meaning a walk of several kilometres to the official northern area from where they could try to get rides in vehicles, which would be searched at checkpoints. People returning must not carry arms, said Hamas.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was in contact with several Arab and international parties who would assist in the return and relief operation, including providing tents. He said Hamas, which governs the enclave, would start work immediately to repair houses not fully destroyed.
In Jabalia, the biggest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, and the focus of Israel’s campaign in the past three months, many have returned to live inside their wrecked homes, setting small fires to try to warm their children.
“They are talking about a truce, a ceasefire, and the delivery of aid. It has been three days since we came back, and we cannot find water to drink. We cannot find covers to keep our children warm. We depend on bonfires all night. We wish to have some firewood for the bonfire, we use plastic, which causes diseases,” said Mohammed Badr, a father of 10.
His wife, Umm Nidal, said she could not believe the destruction.
“There is nothing left, you cannot walk in the streets. Houses collapsed on top of each other. You get lost, you don’t know if this is your home or not,” she said. “The smell of dead bodies, and the martyrs are in the streets.”
Gaza ceasefire traps Netanyahu between Trump and far-right allies
Even before it was signed, the Gaza ceasefire forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a tight spot — between a new US president promising peace and far-right allies who want the war to resume. That tension is only likely to increase.
The stakes for Netanyahu are high — keeping his coalition government on the one hand and on the other, satisfying US President Donald Trump who wants to use the ceasefire momentum to expand Israel’s diplomatic ties in the Middle East.
One of Netanyahu’s nationalist allies has already quit over the Gaza ceasefire, and another is threatening to follow unless war on Hamas is resumed at an even greater force than that which devastated much of Gaza for 15 months.
The clock is ticking. The first stage of the ceasefire is meant to last six weeks. By day 16 — 4 February — Israel and Hamas are due to start negotiating the second phase of the ceasefire, whose stated aim is to end the war.
Former police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party quit the government on Sunday and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he would stay in government only if war resumes after the first phase until the total defeat of Hamas, whose 7 October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
“We must go back in a completely different style. We need to conquer Gaza, instate a military rule there, even if temporarily, to start encouraging [Palestinian] emigration, to start taking territory from our enemies and to win,” Smotrich said in an interview with Channel 14 on Sunday.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, however, said on Wednesday he was focused on ensuring the deal moved from the first to the second phase, which is expected to include a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
“Netanyahu is pressed between the far right and Donald Trump,” said political analyst Amotz Asa-El, with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. “Netanyahu’s coalition now is fragile and the likelihood that it will fall apart sometime in the course of 2025 is high.”
Syria orders freeze of bank accounts linked to former regime
Syria’s central bank has ordered commercial banks to freeze all accounts tied to people and companies linked to the ousted regime of former President Bashar al-Assad, according to a document seen by Reuters and people familiar with the decision.
The circular, issued on Thursday, calls on banks to “freeze all bank accounts of companies and individuals linked to the defunct regime”, and to inform the central bank of the details of all accounts frozen within three working days
It specifically calls on banks to freeze accounts belonging to the Katerji Group, known for its involvement in the Syrian oil trade. The group was run by brothers Baraa and Hussam Katerji.
Baraa Katerji was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Syria near the Lebanese border in July.
Hussam Katerji and his businesses are under US sanctions, including for “facilitating petroleum shipments and financing to the Syrian Regime”, according to the US Treasury website. DM
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