Gaza

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Scouts marched under a clear blue sky and bagpipes sent familiar carols ricocheting off stone alleys, as Bethlehem stepped out from the shadow of the Gaza war to celebrate its first festive Christmas in more than two years. For two consecutive holiday seasons, the biblical birthplace of Jesus scaled back gatherings amid the war that began after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. This year, with a fragile truce holding in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank city restored the sights and…

In a quiet housing estate in Navan, Co Meath, a Palestinian orthopedic surgeon scrolls through family photos that have become a catalogue of loss. Dr. Mahmoud Abumarzouq’s younger brother, four nieces and nephews, and countless friends are gone — killed in Gaza since the war erupted after the Oct. 7 attacks — and he is pleading for the world to deliver more aid to those who remain. “This genocide, or you call war or ethnic cleansing — bombardment, all day and night,” he said, searching for the words to contain his grief. “My…

UNICEF warns of ‘catastrophe’ as heavy rains flood Gaza displacement camps, children left soaked and sick Severe rains have flooded makeshift encampments across Gaza, creating a “catastrophe” for thousands of displaced families living under tarps and plastic sheeting, UNICEF said, warning that existing supplies are “completely insufficient” to protect children from cold, illness and contaminated water. Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s spokesperson in Palestine, said the agency has documented widespread flooding and worsening…

Hamas said Tuesday that the Gaza ceasefire plan cannot move to its second phase while it accuses Israel of ongoing violations, even as an Israeli official announced the Allenby crossing would reopen to allow aid trucks bound for Gaza for the first time since late September. The U.S.-sponsored truce, in effect since Oct. 10, has halted large-scale fighting but remains fragile amid near-daily allegations of breaches by both sides. Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran accused Israel of failing to meet commitments under…

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the second phase of a U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza is close, but several critical details remain unresolved — most notably whether a multinational security force will be deployed to the strip. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Netanyahu said he would raise the outstanding questions with U.S. President Donald Trump when the two meet at the White House at the end of the month. The prime minister’s office…

Negotiations to consolidate the US-backed truce in Gaza are at a "critical" moment, Qatar's prime minister said Friday, as mediators press to move the cease-fire to its next phase while violence continues to flare. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a Doha Forum panel that mediators were working to "force the next phase" of the cease-fire forward, calling the current halt in fighting a pause rather than a resolution. "We are at a critical moment. It's not yet there," he said. The truce took effect Oct. 10 and…

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israeli-backed private organisation that took over large-scale aid distribution in Gaza this year, announced it is ending its mission after delivering more than 187 million free meals, the group said in a statement Thursday. GHF said the operation marked the “successful completion of its emergency mission in Gaza,” and that it has been in talks with other international humanitarian organisations and the Civil-Military Coordination Centre — a task force created by the U.S.…

UN Security Council backs U.S.-led Gaza peace plan The United Nations Security Council voted 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining, to endorse a U.S.-authored Gaza peace plan that creates a transitional authority for the territory and calls for an international stabilisation presence. The resolution marks a rare Council alignment behind a U.S. blueprint after intensive diplomacy and textual changes that reference a "credible path" to Palestinian statehood. The vote authorises a Board of Peace and an International…

A fragile peace, an international watch and a humanitarian clock In a hastily converted warehouse on the edge of southern Israel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck an optimistic tone this week about a deal that could finally end nearly two years of grinding war in Gaza. The caveat was blunt: Israel will have veto power over who makes up any international force sent into Gaza to police a ceasefire — a condition that could preclude some of the region’s most powerful and politically consequential militaries. The scene…

Bodies, borders and a bitter ceasefire: what the recent exchanges reveal about Gaza’s fragile pause The exchange of bodies and a single identified Israeli remains a grim marker of a ceasefire that is at once fragile and consequential. Over recent days, Israeli forces and Hamas have overseen the handover of human remains in a transaction that follows the contours of a wider, uneasy truce — one that has temporarily halted the fiercest fighting but has not ended the humanitarian catastrophe or the political tectonics that…