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Trump Sees ‘Progress’ on Gaza, Raising Hopes for Ceasefire

Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Sees ‘Progress’ on Gaza, Raising Hopes for Ceasefire

Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

"I think great progress is being made on Gaza," Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: "Gaza is very close."

He linked his optimism about imminent "very good news" to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas's backer Iran to end their 12-day war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.

"Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours," Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He cautioned, however, that the group had "not yet received any new proposals" to end the war.

The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing "on the battlefield and via negotiations".

- 'No clear purpose' -

Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group's October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

In one of the war's deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441.

The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu's coalition government.

"I still don't understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time," lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Younis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.

At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside young soldiers in uniform.

One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end.

"Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilized," said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel.

"I have seen so many kids like me die. It's time for it to stop."

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war.

"The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan," the group said in a statement.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian gunmen during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.

- Gunfire near aid site -

Gaza's civil defense agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli "bullets and tank shells" in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip".

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the "weaponization of food" in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations there.

The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.

The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.

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Arab World

Lebanon Ex-central Bank Chief's Corruption Case Being Dent to Top Court

The BDL headquarters in Beirut (NNA) 
The BDL headquarters in Beirut (NNA) 
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Lebanon Ex-central Bank Chief's Corruption Case Being Dent to Top Court

The BDL headquarters in Beirut (NNA) 
The BDL headquarters in Beirut (NNA) 

The corruption case of Lebanon's former central bank governor, who is widely blamed for the country’s economic meltdown, has been transferred to the country's highest court, judicial officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Riad Salameh was released on $14 million bail in September after a year in prison while awaiting trial in Lebanon on corruption charges, including embezzlement and illicit enrichment.

The trial of Salameh, 75, and his two legal associates, Marwan Khoury and Michel Toueini, will now be heard at the Court of Cassation, according to a copy of the notice obtained by the AP. Salameh and the others will be issued with arrest warrants if they don't show up for trial at the court.

No trial date has been set yet. Salameh denies the charges. The court’s final ruling can't be appealed, according to the four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren't authorized to speak with the media.

In September 2024, he was charged with the embezzlement of $42 million, with the court later adding charges of illicit enrichment over an apartment rented in France, supposedly to be a substitute office for the central bank if needed. Officials have said that Salameh had rented from his former romantic partner for about $500,000 annually.

He was once celebrated for steering Lebanon’s economic recovery, after a 15-year civil war, upon starting his long tenure in 1993 and keeping the fragile economy afloat during long spells of political gridlock and turmoil.

But in 2023, he left his post after three decades with several European countries investigating allegations of financial crimes. Meanwhile, much of the Lebanese blame his policies for sparking a fiscal crisis in late 2019 where depositors lost their savings, and the value of the local currency collapsed.

On top of the inquiry in Lebanon, he is being investigated by a handful of European countries over various corruption charges. In August 2023, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on Salameh.

Salameh has repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He insists that his wealth comes from inherited properties, investments and his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.

Lebanon’s current central bank governor, Karim Souaid, announced last week that he's filing legal complaints against a former central bank governor and former banking official who diverted funds from the bank to what he said were four shell companies in the Cayman Islands. He didn't name either individual.

But Souaid said that Lebanon's central bank would become a plaintiff in the country's investigation into Forry Associates. The US Treasury, upon sanctioning Salameh and his associates, described Forry Associates as “a shell company owned by Raja (Salameh’s brother) in the British Virgin Islands” used to divert about $330 million in transactions related to the central bank.

Several European countries, among them France, Germany, and Luxembourg, have been investigating the matter, freezing bank accounts and assets related to Salameh and his associates, with little to no cooperation from the central bank and Lebanese authorities.

Souaid said that he will travel later this month to Paris to exchange “highly sensitive” information as France continues its inquiries.

Arab World

Howling Winds Collapse Walls on Gaza Tent Camps, Killing 4, Child Dies of Hypothermia

Palestinians walk past tents used by displaced people, during a windy winter day, in Gaza City, January 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk past tents used by displaced people, during a windy winter day, in Gaza City, January 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Howling Winds Collapse Walls on Gaza Tent Camps, Killing 4, Child Dies of Hypothermia

Palestinians walk past tents used by displaced people, during a windy winter day, in Gaza City, January 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk past tents used by displaced people, during a windy winter day, in Gaza City, January 13, 2026. (Reuters)

At least four people died overnight in Gaza from walls collapsing onto their tents as strong winds lashed the Palestinian coastal territory, hospital authorities said Tuesday. 

Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since Oct. 10. But aid groups say that Palestinians broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms. 

The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to Shifa hospital, Gaza City’s largest hospital, which received the bodies. 

Meanwhile, the child death toll in Gaza ticked up. The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight, while the spokesman for the UN’s children agency said over 100 children and teenagers have been killed in the territory by “military means" since the ceasefire began. 

Family mourns 

Three members of the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 8-meter-high (26-foot-high) wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, Shifa hospital said. At least five others were injured in that collapse. 

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors. 

“The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.” 

A second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, Shifa hospital said. 

The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. When storms now strike the territory, Palestinian rescue workers warn people against seeking shelter inside damaged buildings, saying they could fall down on top of them. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce. 

In the central town of Zawaida, Associated Press footage showed inundated tents Tuesday morning, with people trying to rebuild their shelters. 

Yasmin Shalha, a displaced woman from the northern town of Beit Lahiya, stood against winds that lifted the tarps of tents around her as she stitched hers back together with needle and thread. She said it had fallen on top of her family the night before, as they slept. 

“The winds were very, very strong. The tent collapsed over us,” the mother of five told the AP. “As you can see, our situation is dire.” 

Mohamed al-Sawalha, a 72-year-old man from the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, criticized the conditions that most Palestinians in Gaza endure. 

“It doesn’t work neither in summer nor in winter,” he said of the tent. “We left behind houses and buildings (with) doors that could be opened and closed. Now we live in a tent. Even sheep don’t live like we do.” 

Israel’s bombing campaign has reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and half-standing structures. Residents aren’t able to return to their homes in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip. 

Child death toll in Gaza rises  

The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia in the central town of Deir al-Balah, the seventh fatality due to the cold conditions since winter started, including a baby just seven days old and a 4-year-old girl whose deaths were announced the day before. 

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 people were killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect just over three months ago. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. 

Meanwhile, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said Tuesday at least 100 children under the age of 18 — 60 boys and 40 girls — have been killed in Gaza since the truce began due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition.  

Those figures, he said, reflect incidents where enough details have been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He also said hundreds of children have been wounded. 

While “bombings and shootings have slowed” during the ceasefire, they have not stopped, Elder told reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. 

“So what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else,” he told 

The Palestinian territory's population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay, amid shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed during the winter months.  

It's the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when gunmen stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza. 

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's retaliatory offensive began in the territory. 

Arab World

Syrian Army Tells Kurdish Forces to Withdraw from Area East of Aleppo City

Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP)
Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP)
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Syrian Army Tells Kurdish Forces to Withdraw from Area East of Aleppo City

Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP)
Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP)

Syria's army told Kurdish forces on Tuesday to withdraw from an area they control east of Aleppo after dislodging fighters from two neighborhoods in the city in deadly clashes last week.

State television published an army statement with a map declaring a large area a "closed military zone" and said "all armed groups in this area must withdraw to east of the Euphrates" River.

The area begins near Deir Hafer, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Aleppo city and extends to the Euphrates further east, as well as towards the south.

On Monday, Syria accused the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces of sending reinforcements to Deir Hafer and said it sent its own personnel there in response.

The SDF denied any build-up of its forces in the region.

An AFP correspondent saw government forces bringing military reinforcements including artillery to the Deir Hafer area on Tuesday.

On the weekend, Syria's government took full control of Aleppo city after taking over its Kurdish neighborhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish-controlled areas in the country's northeast following days of clashes.

The violence started last Tuesday after negotiations stalled on integrating the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and forces into the country's new government.

The SDF controls swathes of the country's oil-rich north and northeast, much of which they captured during Syria's civil war and the fight against the ISIS group.