Middle East latest: Hamas says no ceasefire talks until Israel frees prisoners as agreed

A Hamas official says Israel's delay in the release of some 600 Palestinian prisoners is a "serious violation" of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, and that talks on a second phase of the accord are not possible until they are freed.

As part of the truce deal, Israel was supposed to release the prisoners last weekend after Hamas returned hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But Israel delayed the release over the treatment of the captives, who were paraded before crowds. A senior Hamas official said Tuesday that the militant group had "fully adhered to all provisions of the agreements," and the delay could cause the ceasefire to collapse.

At least six infants have died from hypothermia in the last two weeks in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people are living in tent camps and war-damaged buildings during the fragile ceasefire, Palestinian medics said Tuesday.

Here's the latest:

Israel-Palestinian peace process is on life support, says a top UN official

This may be the “last chance” to achieve independent states of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, according to the top U.N. official in the Middle East.

“The two-state solution as a viable solution geographically is withering away before our very eyes, and words themselves won’t solve it,” said Sigrid Kaag, the acting U.N. special coordinator for the Mideast peace process. “It needs active political engagement and diplomacy.”

Kaag pointed to the impact of the war in Gaza, Israel’s expanding settlements in the West Bank and its threats to annex the occupied territory, saying, “I think we could not be further away from the lofty ideals” of a two-state solution. She spoke to reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

Desperation grows in northern Gaza as Palestinians struggle to rebuild their homes

When night falls over northern Gaza, much of the cityscape of collapsed buildings and wreckage turns pitch black. Living inside the ruins of their home, Rawia Tambora's young sons get afraid of the dark, so she turns on a flashlight and her phone's light to comfort them, for as long as the batteries last.

“Some people wish the war had never ended, feeling it would have been better to be killed,” Tambora said. “I don’t know what we’ll do long-term. My brain stopped planning for the future.”

Nearly 600,000 Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza under the now month-old ceasefire, according to the United Nations. After initial relief and joy at being back at their homes — even if damaged or destroyed — they now face the reality of living in the wreckage for the foreseeable future.

A 20-year-old student from Gaza City, Huda Skaik, said the “worst part is that we’re just now grasping that we lost it all.”

▶ Read more about Palestinians living in the ruins of Gaza

Syria holds a national dialogue conference as the battered country seeks to rebuild

Syria's new rulers began a long-awaited national dialogue conference as a "rare historical opportunity" to rebuild the country after the fall of former President Bashar Assad and nearly 14 years of civil war.

"Just as Syria has liberated itself by itself, it is appropriate for it to build itself by itself," interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa told the conference.

About 600 people from across Syria were invited to the gathering Tuesday in the presidential palace in Damascus. It was hosted by the new authorities led by Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which spearheaded the offensive that ousted Assad late last year.

Episodes of revenge and collective punishment have been far less widespread than expected. However, many in Syria's minority communities are not convinced by al-Sharaa's promises of coexistence. HTS was formerly affiliated with al-Qaida, although it broke ties.

The transition will also be closely watched by countries weighing whether to lift sanctions.

▶ Read more about Syria

Trial begins in Germany for 4 alleged Hamas members accused of seeking weapons caches across Europe

A trial has begun in Germany for four alleged Hamas members suspected of organizing weapons caches across Europe. They are accused of seeking out and setting up weapons depots for Hamas so militants could later use the firearms and ammunition for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on the continent.

Tuesday’s trial began in Berlin as a pilot case for federal prosecutors. Prosecutors say Hamas considered targeting the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the area around Tempelhof Airport in the capital and the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The defendants were arrested in 2023 after Hamas’ attack against Israel on Oct. 7 of that year.

A freed Israeli hostage addresses the UN Security Council

Freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani wants the world to make sure the final phases of the Gaza ceasefire take place so all the hostages — including her partner — return to their loved ones.

“Our life cannot go on without them,” said Argamani, who is the first Gaza hostage to address the U.N. Security Council. The initial phase of the ceasefire ends Saturday and talks on the second phase have not yet started.

"The hostages are in hell," she said, describing feeling left behind when other captives were freed. She and three other hostages were rescued by Israeli forces in June.

Argamani said Israel believes 24 of 63 hostages are alive in Gaza.

“Without immediate action many more innocent people will be killed, including my partner Avinatan Or,” she said. “Until Avinatan returns, my heart is in captivity.”

▶ How many hostages are left in Gaza?

Trial starts for American landlord charged with hate crime and murder of a Palestinian American boy

A trial is set to start Tuesday of a landlord in the United States who is accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime over the deadly attack on a Palestinian American woman and her young son.

Joseph Czuba, 73, is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023 — just days after the war in Gaza began and amid rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the U.S.

The boy was stabbed 26 times. Prosecutors allege Czuba became increasing paranoid about the war because of listening to commentary on conservative talk radio. Shaheen told police that Czuba attacked them after she had urged him to “pray for peace.” Czuba has pleaded not guilty.

Israeli opposition politician wants Egypt to rule Gaza for years

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has suggested the Gaza Strip could be ruled and rebuilt by neighboring Egypt. In exchange, he said, Gulf Arab countries and the international community would help Egypt with its spiraling economic crisis by paying off billions of dollars in foreign debt.

Lapid said Egypt could lead a “peace force” backed from regional allies that would govern a demilitarized Gaza for eight years, possibly as long as 15 years.

“During that period, the conditions for self-governance in Gaza will be created,” Lapid said, speaking Tuesday at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank.

There was no immediate comment from Egypt, which alongside other Arab states has sought to link any postwar plan for Gaza to progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state — a nonstarter for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Lapid, a fierce critic of Netanyahu, has voiced support for a two-state solution in the past.

▶ Read more about Donald Trump's plan for Gaza

Israel's spy chief gives details about exploding pager operation against Hezbollah

The head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency on Tuesday called the exploding pagers and walkie talkies operation against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria a "turning point of the war," which gave Israel momentum to deal a heavy blow to Hezbollah.

The devices used by hundreds of Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously in two waves on Sept. 17 and 18. The attack killed at least 12 people — including two young children — and wounded thousands more.

Mossad chief David Barnea spoke while accepting an award for the operation from a Tel Aviv think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies.

Barnea said the first 500 pagers outfitted with explosives arrived in Lebanon just a few weeks before the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, but that officials involved in the operation decided to wait to detonate them until more pagers had arrived and were in use.

He said the operation involving the walkie talkies with explosives started more than a decade ago, while the pager operation began in 2022.

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Correction: This post has been updated to correct the dates of the attacks.

Funeral procession for Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz draws thousands of mourners

Thousands of Israelis stood silently with flags along the 100-kilometer (60-mile) funeral procession for one of the four Israeli hostages whose bodies were returned last week from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Oded Lifshitz, 84, was one of the oldest hostages held by Hamas. He was laid to rest in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where he lived and was captured on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who attended the funeral, asked for “forgiveness, that the State of Israel did not protect you, your family, and your kibbutz.”

The Israeli military did not release information about how Lifshitz was killed but said an autopsy determined he died around November 2023.

Israeli hostage's wife says their captivity shook her to the core

A founding member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Oded Lifshitz was a journalist and peace activist who campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights. In retirement, he volunteered to drive Palestinians from the Gaza border to medical appointments in Israel as part of a group called On the Way to Recovery.

His wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, was abducted with him and freed before the first ceasefire agreement.

“We fought all these years for social justice and unfortunately we were dealt a severe blow by the people we helped on the other side,” she said, adding that she will “continue on our path and continue to fight to free all the hostages.”

The couple’s eldest son, Arnon, said that had his father survived, he would never have mentioned the word revenge — “only rehabilitation.”

▶ Read more about the hostages released by Hamas

Hamas official says Israel's delay in releasing prisoners puts ceasefire at risk

A Hamas official says Israel's delay in the release of some 600 Palestinian prisoners constitutes a "serious violation" of the ceasefire agreement, and suggested that talks on a second phase of the accord are not possible until they are returned.

As part of the agreement, Israel was supposed to release the prisoners last weekend after Hamas freed hostages from its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But Israel delayed the release over the treatment of the captives, who were paraded before crowds.

In a written statement, Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group had “fully adhered to all provisions of the agreements” and that Israel’s delay “puts the agreement at risk of collapse, potentially leading to a resumption of war.”

The first phase of the ceasefire is due to end Saturday, and while negotiations on a second phase were to have started weeks ago, they have not yet begun.

A U.S. diplomat is returning to the region this week with the hope of extending the first phase to buy time for further negotiations, but Naim suggested Hamas was unwilling to talk until the prisoners were released.

▶ Read more about a key deadline in the Gaza ceasefire

At least 6 infants have died from hypothermia in the Gaza Strip

Palestinian medics say at least six infants have died from hypothermia in the last two weeks in the Gaza Strip.

A fragile ceasefire that took hold last month paused 15 months of war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. But hundreds of thousands of people are still living in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings with little shelter from the cold, and temperatures have plunged in recent days.

Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatric department at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told The Associated Press that it received the body of a 2-month-old girl on Tuesday. He said another two infants were treated for frostbite, with one of them discharged.

Saeed Saleh, of the Patient’s Friends Hospital in Gaza City, said five infants aged one month or younger have died from the cold over the last two weeks.

Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department, said it has recorded 15 deaths from hypothermia this winter.

The territory on the Mediterranean coast experiences cold and wet winters, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.

▶ Read more about babies freezing to death in Gaza

Freed Israeli hostage says faith kept her going through Gaza captivity

Agam Berger, a former hostage released by Hamas, said it was her Jewish faith that sustained her during her 16-month ordeal in the Gaza Strip.

Berger was a military spotter who was captured during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

Berger told Israeli public radio Reshet Bet on Tuesday that she was held in tunnels and apartments with other female captives. She was given two meals a day, pita and rice, and had some access to media.

In January 2024, Berger said her captors brought her and other hostages two Jewish prayer books, as well as other objects left behind by Israeli soldiers, such as a newspaper and military maps. She said around the first Hanukkah she spent in captivity in December 2023, in a tunnel with four other hostages, they asked their captors for candles to mark the holiday, and they brought them one.

▶ Read more from the interview with Agam Berger

Lebanon's prime minister says only armed forces can defend the nation

Lebanon’s new prime minister has read his government policy statement stating that only the country’s armed forces should defend the nation in case of war.

Nawaf Salam was picked to form a new government last month after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah that killed over 4,000 people and caused widespread destruction.

Hezbollah has kept its weapons over the past decades saying it is necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel. But many in Lebanon have been calling on the group to disarm, and such calls intensified during the latest war that stopped when a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27.

Salam said Tuesday that the government asserts that Lebanon has the right to defend itself in case of “aggression” and only the state has the right to have weapons. He also said that the government takes measures to liberate land occupied by Israel “through its forces only.”

▶ Read more about the ceasefire in Lebanon

Trump administration's suspension of funds to WHO freezes $46 million for Gaza

A Trump administration move to suspend funding to the World Health Organization has frozen $46 million for its operations in Gaza, a top WHO official in the region said Tuesday.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the “freezing” would leave six areas underfunded, including EMT operations, rehabilitation of health facilities, coordination with partner organizations, and medical evacuation operations.

Speaking from Gaza to reporters a U.N. briefing in Geneva, Peeperkorn said money for such operations remained in WHO’s funding pipeline and “we’re still going full steam ahead” with activities.

Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, said he did not have figures about how the U.S. funding cuts affected the entirety of its operations worldwide.

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