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The number of anti-Muslim incidents in Britain rose to a new high in 2024, according to data compiled by monitoring organisation Tell MAMA, which said the war in Gaza had "super-fuelled" online hate.

Tell MAMA said it verified 5,837 anti-Muslim hate cases - a mix of both online and in-person incidents - last year, compared with 3,767 cases the year before and 2,201 in 2022.

The organisation's data goes back to 2012 and is compiled using data-sharing agreements with police forces in England and Wales.

"The Middle East conflict super-fuelled online anti-Muslim hate," the group said in a statement, adding that "the Israel and Gaza War, the Southport murders and riots ... created a surge in anti-Muslim hate cases reported to Tell MAMA from 2023-2024".

(Reuters) 

Two Israeli soldiers allegedly involved in kidnapping hundreds of civilians in Gaza cut their holiday short in Amsterdam and fled back to Israel over concerns of getting arrested.

The Israeli Genocide Tracker, a pro-Palestinian organisation, reportedly tracked them down on social media and published photos of them.

“After participating in the Gaza genocide, this Israeli tank commander from the 52nd Battalion, who was involved in kidnapping hundreds of civilians (especially in Jabalia) and who enjoyed taking selfies with them, landed in Amsterdam today for a vacation," the organisation said.

Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported the Israeli military decided the soldiers should return to Israel and delete all footage related to the war on Gaza.

The Israeli army has allegedly warned its soldiers to avoid travelling abroad over fears of getting arrested for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

Two Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli tank opened fire on Palestinians in Rafah.

The Israeli army claims it initially fired warning shots as they were being approached by an unidentified person. As they did not retreat, the army fired more shots.

The UN urged Israel and Lebanon to commit to the ceasefire made on 27 November.

"We call on both parties to meet their obligations. A sense of safety among communities of southern Lebanon, who are grappling with the wide-scale destruction of their villages and towns, as well as residents of northern Israel who had to leave their homes, will not be built overnight and cannot come from a continuation of military operations. Rather, sustained political commitment is the only way forward,"��the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Aroldo Lázaro said in a statement.

"Ultimately, Lebanon and Israel must make the solutions envisaged by the November Understanding and resolution 1701 a reality, on both sides of the Blue Line."

The China International Development Cooperation Agency said it would be providing aid to 60,000 families in Gaza.

"Regardless of how the situation evolves, China will continue to firmly support the Palestinian people in their just cause of restoring their legitimate national rights and promote an early and just resolution of the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution," the agency said.

The Israeli military claimed on Tuesday that it struck weapons which it said belonged to the former Syrian administration in southern Syria.

(Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, including 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

"Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes," Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

"Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!" he said.

Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes.

Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!

— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi)

Thirty Palestinians were detained across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday -���²��ڲ���reports.

Israeli forces have frequently been raiding Palestinian houses across the occupied territory.

Israeli forces have 10,000 Palestinian detainees in its prisions, including 365 children and 15 female prisoners - Addameer,��the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that it is open to a new loan agreement with Lebanon after discussing it with the country's recently appointed finance minister.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam appointed Yassine Jaber, a former economy and transport minister, to head the finance ministry. This is an important position as the new administration considers whether to implement painful economic reforms in exchange for fresh financial support from the Fund.

"We look forward to working with the President and new government in addressing the major challenges that the Lebanese economy faces," an IMF spokesperson said in a statement shared with AFP, referring to President Joseph Aoun.

"This could include discussions on a new program that could help restore external and debt sustainability and rehabilitate the economy if the authorities request it."

Lebanon's economy has been in shambles for years, a collapse blamed on corruption and mismanagement.

Several Palestinians suffocated after Israeli forces fired gas grenades during a raid in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. 

More than $50 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza after the 15-month war on Gaza, according to an assessment released by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank on Tuesday.

The Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment said that $53.2 billion is needed for recovery and reconstruction over the next 10 years, with $20 billion needed in the first three.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's civil defence recovered 23 bodies from several border towns on Tuesday after Israeli troops withdrew under a ceasefire deadline, according to a statement carried by official media.

"Specialised teams today... managed to remove 14 bodies from Mais al-Jabal, three from Markaba and three from Kfar Kila, in addition to three from Odaisseh," said the civil defence statement published by the state-run National News Agency.

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names Tuesday of six Israelis held in Gaza due to be released on Saturday under a fragile Israel-Hamas truce deal.

"The Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomes with profound joy the return of Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu this Saturday", the group said in a statement, after Israel and Hamas confirmed that six hostages would be freed.

The US military confirmed that its strategic bombers, escorted by fighter jets and refueling aircraft, conducted operations over the Middle East to demonstrate "force projection capabilities" in the region.

According to US Central Command, the mission included “live munitions drops at ranges in several partner nations” as a show of readiness to respond to any threats from state or non-state actors.

The announcement follows recent threats by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran.

CENTCOM Conducts Bomber Task Force Mission in Middle East

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted a Bomber Task Force Mission in the Middle East, Feb. 17, to demonstrate force projection capabilities in the region.

Two B-52s from RAF Fairford, U.K., flew across Europe and…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM)

The family of Shiri Bibas and her sons, Ariel and Kfir- the last Israeli children held captive in Gaza- says it has not received any "official confirmation" of their deaths, despite Hamas announcing it would return their bodies this week.

“We are in anguish following the Hamas spokesperson’s statement about the planned return of our beloved Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday,” the family said in a statement.

They added that they have "not yet received any official confirmation" regarding the matter.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday dismissed a proposal by the United States to displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip, saying it "will go nowhere".

Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, leader of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.

"The idiotic American plans or some other plans regarding Gaza and Palestine will go nowhere," Khamenei said.

US President Donald Trump this month proposed a plan for a US takeover of the war-battered Gaza Strip and its Palestinian inhabitants to be relocated elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.

Trump's plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments including Egypt and Jordan as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.

"No plan will be completed without the consent of the resistance and the people of Gaza," Khamenei said, adding that global public opinion favoured the Palestinians.

Iran has already rejected the Trump plan for Gaza, calling it "an unprecedented attack" on international law and the UN Charter.

China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks in Ukraine, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, adding Gaza and the West Bank "are the homeland of the Palestinian people, not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs." 

(Reuters)

 A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to visit Beirut in March, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber told Reuters on Tuesday.

Jaber said he met the IMF's resident representative in Beirut on Tuesday and confirmed that the government plans to move ahead with reforms. 

(Reuters)

The Israeli military announced it has shot down its own drone as it was malfunctioning in order to prevent it from crashing into Lebanon.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), after he criticised Abbas’s decision to end a system of stipends for the families of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of attacks on Israelis, Al Jazeera English reports.

The move follows Abbas’s announcement last week to abolish the so-called "martyrs' fund," a long-standing demand by the US and Israel.

Many Palestinians saw the payments as support for those affected by Israeli military rule.

Hamas condemned Fares’s removal, calling it evidence of the Palestinian Authority’s "oppression and submission to Zionist and American dictates."

Lebanon's president said Tuesday Beirut was in contact with Washington and Paris, which helped broker an Israel-Hezbollah truce, to press Israel to complete its withdrawal from the country after the deadline passed.

"Lebanon is continuing its diplomatic contacts with the United States and France to complete Israel's withdrawal from the remaining territories it occupied in the last war," Joseph Aoun's office said in a statement.

The Israeli army says it carried out overnight operations in coordination with border police and the Shin Bet security agency, arresting 25 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank for alleged involvement in militant activities.

According to the military, two individuals were detained in Jenin, while operations also took place in Hebron and Qalqilya, among other areas.

Weapons were also confiscated during the raids.

⬅️ شاهد..
من داخل مخيم جنين.. جيش الاحتلال يواصل عدوانه الواسع منذ نحو شهر.

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr)

Authorities in Greece said Tuesday they detained 107 migrants in two separate operations near the island of Crete, as the country sees an increase in people trying to cross the eastern Mediterranean.

The coast guard said it intercepted a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, the CL Heidi, which had departed from the Libyan port of Tobruk with 42 male migrants.

Authorities arrested two of the detained men on smuggling charges.

In the second incident, 65 migrants were found on the island of Gavdos south of Crete. One man required medical assistance and was taken to a nearby hospital.

Speaking in parliament, the deputy minister of maritime affairs, Stefanos Gikas, said authorities have been dealing with a surge in illegal migration since late 2023.

Government officials have attributed it to conflicts in the Middle East.

Hamas's top negotiator said on Tuesday the Palestinian group will hand over to Israel this week the bodies of four hostages held in Gaza.

"We decided to hand over four bodies on Thursday... and the enemy will release the corresponding prisoners on Saturday, according to the agreement," said Khalil al-Hayya in a televised address, referring to the truce agreement that went into effect last month.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.

Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on January 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp's residents out.

"We don't know what's going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up," Mohammed al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee, told news agency Reuters.

According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.

"The ones who are left are trapped," said Nihad al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee.

"The Civil Defence, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp."

The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.

An extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza, initially set for next week, has been postponed to March 4, host Egypt said on Tuesday.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said the new date was agreed with Arab League members as part of "substantive and logistical preparations" for the summit.

The meeting was called in response to US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia is set to host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to present their own plan for Gaza's reconstruction while ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land.

Trump's Gaza plan has sparked outcry across the Arab world, prompting a rare show of unity among Arab nations to block it.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to travel to Riyadh on Thursday for discussions on an Arab plan for Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said.

Arab states are expected to discuss a post-war plan for Gaza reconstruction, possibly to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to redevelop the strip under U.S. control.

Efforts were underway to secure the release this week of a larger number of Israeli hostages held in Gaza than is provided for in the truce deal between Israel and Hamas, Israeli and Palestinian sources said Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu is making tremendous efforts" to release six living hostages and the bodies of four others this week, an Israeli official source told news agency AFP.

A Palestinian source close to the negotiations said mediators were making "efforts" to ensure "the bodies of several Israeli prisoners (be delivered) before Friday" and to increase the number of living hostages to be released on Saturday.

A Palestinian woman has died from wounds sustained earlier today when Israeli forces opened fire east of the Ash-Shawka municipality in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Three others were also injured in the attack.

Israel will begin negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal including an exchange of Israeli hostages with Palestinian detainees, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday, adding that Israel demanded a complete demilitarisation of the enclave.

Lebanon's new government will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a new programme and will work to deal with the country's financial default and public debt, according a policy statement approved by the cabinet late on Monday.

The statement, a copy of which was reviewed by news agency Reuters, said the government would work for an economical revival that could only be achieved through restructuring the banking sector.

The statement did not include language used in previous years that was seen to legitimize a role for the Iran-backed Hezbollah in defending Lebanon, saying instead "we want a state that has the decision of war and peace".

A senior Hamas official told Israeli news site Ynet that there is a "high chance" the Palestinian group will release six living Israeli captives on Saturday.

“There are negotiations, and it depends on the price Israel will pay,” the unnamed official said.

According to the official, Hamas is demanding that Israel commit to talks on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and provide guarantees on humanitarian issues, including allowing the entry of mobile homes and heavy construction equipment.

Under the current agreement, Hamas is expected to release four bodies on Thursday and three living captives on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Israel has been pushing for the immediate release of more live hostages.

This comes amid growing concerns over the deteriorating physical condition of both Israeli and Palestinian captives freed in recent exchange deals.

Lebanon will consider any remaining Israeli presence on its lands an occupation and has the right to use all means to ensure an Israeli withdrawal, a spokesperson for the Lebanese presidency said on Monday, the deadline for the US-brokered ceasefire that halted last year's war with Hezbollah.

Oxfam has warned of a sharp rise in waterborne and infectious diseases in Gaza, driven by a severe lack of clean water and overflowing untreated sewage in the enclave’s streets.

Citing a World Health Organization (WHO) study, Oxfam reported that 88 percent of environmental samples tested in Gaza were contaminated with polio, posing an "imminent risk of outbreak."

Cases of infectious diseases—including acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory infections, now the leading causes of death—are surging, with 46,000 cases, mostly among children, recorded each week.

Chickenpox, scabies, and impetigo are also spreading rapidly, particularly among displaced populations in northern Gaza suffering from extreme water shortages.

"Rebuilding water and sanitation is vital for Gaza to have a path to normalcy after 15 months of horror. The ceasefire must hold, and fuel and aid must flow so that Palestinians can rebuild their lives," said Clémence Lagouardat, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator in Gaza.

Israeli forces have launched a series of violent raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In the town of Meithalun, near Jenin, troops fired a tear gas canister at a 16-year-old boy, injuring him, and "severely beat" another young man, Wafa reported.

Those arrested include:

• At least two individuals in and around Nablus
• Six people near Ramallah
• Seven from Bethlehem
• Three from Azzun, east of Qalqilya

The World Bank will release an assessment of damages to infrastructure in Gaza in coming days, along with an updated assessment of damages in Ukraine on February 25, Anna Bjerde, the bank's managing director of operations, said on Monday.

Bjerde said the Gaza report, prepared together with the United Nations and European Union, would provide a fuller overview of damage to the Palestinian enclave after an interim report in April showed it suffered $18.5 billion in damages to critical infrastructure in the first four months of the war.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Tuesday that troops remained in "five positions" in south Lebanon past a pullout deadline, vowing action against any truce violation by group Hezbollah.

The military "will remain in a buffer zone in Lebanon with five control positions, and will continue to act forcefully and uncompromisingly against any Hezbollah violation," said Katz in a statement shortly after an extended deadline expired for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon under the November 27 truce deal.