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Israeli Leaks Test Prospects for Gaza Deal’s Second Phase

A young girl stands in front of tents that burned after candles were lit for lighting at a displacement camp in Gaza City on Friday (AFP)
A young girl stands in front of tents that burned after candles were lit for lighting at a displacement camp in Gaza City on Friday (AFP)
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Israeli Leaks Test Prospects for Gaza Deal’s Second Phase

A young girl stands in front of tents that burned after candles were lit for lighting at a displacement camp in Gaza City on Friday (AFP)
A young girl stands in front of tents that burned after candles were lit for lighting at a displacement camp in Gaza City on Friday (AFP)

A stream of Israeli leaks has highlighted moves toward alternative scenarios in Gaza if the disarmament of Hamas is not carried out soon.

The options being floated range from freezing reconstruction across the enclave and limiting rebuilding to areas under Israeli control to the prospect of renewed military operations.

Experts who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat described the leaks about alternative plans to confront Hamas as pressure tactics and contingency plans, saying they reflect expectations that the main plan to disarm the resistance will not be implemented immediately.

They said such measures further complicate the path of the second phase, making it, even if launched, a lengthy process due to Israeli obstacles.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Friday, citing sources, that the army is preparing alternative plans to carry out a new military operation in Gaza to dismantle Hamas infrastructure if an international force fails in its mission.

This followed earlier Israeli talk of starting partial reconstruction in the southern city of Rafah before Hamas is disarmed, according to Israel’s Channel 12. That proposal contradicts efforts by Arab states to pursue a comprehensive reconstruction of Gaza.

The leaks came after a meeting last week between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel Hayom reported at the time that the two had agreed on Jan. 15 as the date to begin the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, with a two-month deadline to dismantle Hamas’ weapons, amid presidential threats against the Palestinian movement if it fails to comply.

Mokhtar Ghobashy, Secretary General of the Al-Farabi Center for Strategic Studies, stated that the second phase of the Gaza agreement is inherently complex and that Israel does not want to enter it except on terms that serve its interests.

He said this became clear after the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, noting that there appears to be an agreed path allowing the launch of the second phase, but at a slow pace. Any acceleration, he said, would depend on the interests achieved by both sides, not just the Palestinians.

Barakat Al-Farra, a former Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, said that the repeated Israeli leaks since last week’s Trump-Netanyahu meeting indicate attempts and contingency plans aimed at complicating the second phase, even if it begins, and that its implementation would be delayed due to Israeli obstacles.

Amid the Israeli leaks, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye and Qatar issued a joint statement on Friday calling for the implementation of Trump’s Gaza agreement.

They stressed the need for the immediate, full and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza through the United Nations and its agencies, as well as the rehabilitation of infrastructure and hospitals and the opening of the Rafah crossing in both directions.

The eight ministers emphasized the urgent need to immediately launch and expand early recovery efforts, including providing permanent and dignified shelter to protect residents from harsh winter conditions.

The statement also renewed the eight countries’ full support for UN Security Council Resolution 2803 and for the comprehensive plan presented by Trump.

The ministers said they are committed to contributing to its successful implementation in a way that ensures the sustainability of the ceasefire, ends the war in Gaza, secures a dignified life for Palestinians, and leads to a credible path toward Palestinian self-determination and statehood.

Resolution 2803 was adopted by the Security Council in November and welcomed Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza conflict, which was issued on September 29, 2025.

Despite the end of the war after the ceasefire agreement entered into force on Oct. 10, 2025, living conditions have not improved significantly due to Israel’s failure to meet its commitments under the deal.

These include allowing the agreed-upon quantities of food, relief, and medical supplies, as well as mobile homes, and opening border crossings.

Ghobashy said the joint statement by the eight Arab and Islamic countries extends pressure efforts to accelerate the move toward the second phase and to enforce Israel’s delayed commitments from the first phase, particularly those related to opening the Rafah crossing in both directions and increasing the flow of aid.

Al-Farra, meanwhile, said mediators have no option but to continue applying pressure to prevent any further complications for the second phase, predicting that 2026 will not differ from previous periods since the Gaza agreement began in October.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.