Middle East latest: Hamas will free 6 Israeli hostages and the bodies of 4 others

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This article was published 18/02/2025 (595 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hamas said Tuesday it will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday instead of three, as well as the bodies of four others on Thursday. The surprise increase by the militant group apparently comes in return for Israel allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip.

Israel is expected to continue releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks, in exchange for hostages.

The warring sides have yet to negotiate a second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.

Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.

Here’s the latest:

China rejects Trump’s proposal for Gaza, supports 2-state solution

UNITED NATIONS — China’s foreign minister rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for Palestinians to leave Gaza so it can be rebuilt as a U.S.-run Mideast Riviera, saying it is the Palestinian homeland, “not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs.”

Without naming Trump or the United States, Wang Yi said Gaza “should not be a sacrifice in international politics,” and the parties involved should continue implementing the cease-fire agreement in Gaza and advancing follow-up negotiations “in a constructive manner.”

He told the U.N. Security Council and a follow-up press stakeout Tuesday that “the Palestinians governing Palestine is an important principle that must be followed in the post-conflict governance of Gaza.”

China calls on all parties to overcome differences and “to speed up efforts in advancing the two-state solution and support establishing an independent state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders,” he said.

Rebuilding Gaza will cost over $50 billion, a new report says

The World Bank, United Nations and the European Union are pointing to a formidable international reconstruction effort ahead for Gaza, which they estimate will cost $53.2 billion.

“Funding will require a broad coalition of donors, diverse financing instruments, private sector resources and significant improvements in the delivery of reconstruction materials to Gaza,” said the report released Tuesday.

The organizations said they would work with partners to devise a “strategic plan” to oversee the recovery and reconstruction.

The report identified almost $30 billion in damage as a result of the war — with nearly half of that due to destruction of homes. The war has displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population, and since a ceasefire took effect last month, many displaced Palestinians have returned to find their former homes in ruins.

The report said Gaza would require about $20 billion for recovery and reconstruction needs over the next three years. It says an additional $33 billion will be needed in the long term, including funds to rebuild the territory’s social and health services and the battered economy.

▶ Watch: Drone video shows the destruction in Gaza

Palestinians in northern Gaza say they’ll never accept displacement

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel have called for Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinian residents to be expelled from the war-ravaged territory. Trump suggested they could be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, but both countries are vehemently opposed.

So are the Palestinians.

“We will not leave our country, no matter what happens,” Muhammad Shaaban, a resident of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, told The Associated Press.

Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp, was hit by some of the fiercest ground and air bombardment during the war, and most of the camp’s buildings and infrastructure is destroyed or damaged.

Mohammad Bahjat, also from Jabaliya, said Trump’s plans were “unacceptable” and that he and his family would resist being expelled.

Salim Halawa, another Palestinian man, said he supports the deal to end the 15-month war and release Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

“We are peaceful people. We don’t support wars, bombings, or destruction,” he said. “What we have seen during the year and a half that passed is enough for us.”

Details about the next Israeli hostages being released

An Israeli group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza has named the six male Israelis set to be freed by Hamas on Saturday in a larger-than-expected release. These would be the last living hostages set to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it “welcomes with profound joy” the expected return of Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu.

Cohen, 27, was pulled by the militants from a bomb shelter near the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Shoham, 40, was abducted from Kibbutz Beeri, a communal farm that was one of the hardest hit in the Hamas attack. His wife and their two children as well as three other female relatives were also kidnapped and were later released.

Shem Tov, 22, and Wenkert, 23, were also abducted from the Nova festival. Wenkert’s family has expressed concern throughout his captivity that he was not receiving the necessary medication to treat his digestive disease.

Al-Sayed, 36, and Mengistu, 39, have both been held in Gaza since long before the Oct. 7 attack. Al-Sayed, a member of Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority, independently crossed the border into Gaza in 2015 and was taken hostage by Hamas. Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descent, crossed into Gaza in 2014.

▶ Read more about hostages freed from Gaza.

Israel starts letting heavy equipment into Gaza

Israel started to allow rubble-removing equipment like bulldozers into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as part of the ceasefire deal, according to an Associated Press journalist and Egypt’s state-run media.

The AP journalist in southern Gaza saw two bulldozers clearing rubble in an area not far from the Palestinian side of Rafah border crossing.

The bulldozers entered the city of Rafah earlier Tuesday through the Kerem Shalom crossing after undergoing inspection by the Israeli military, one Egyptian driver, Mohamed Attia, told the AP.

The driver, who is from the city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, said dozens of bulldozers and tractors were waiting at Kerem Shalom crossing for Israeli permission to enter Gaza.

Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News TV reported that heavy equipment crossed the Egyptian gate of Rafah crossing on Tuesday, on their way to the inspection area before being allowed into Gaza. The broadcaster aired video of at least four bulldozers and many trucks driving on a road after crossing the gate.

As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies

U.S. tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services. But the number of civilians killed has also soared, along with fears that these tools are contributing to the deaths of innocent people.

Israel’s recent wars mark a leading instance in which commercial AI models made in the United States have been used in active warfare, despite concerns that they were not originally developed to help decide who lives and who dies.

The Israeli military uses AI to sift through vast troves of intelligence, intercepted communications and surveillance to find suspicious speech or behavior and learn the movements of its enemies. After a surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, its use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed, an Associated Press investigation found.

The AP investigation also revealed new details of how AI systems select targets and ways they can go wrong, including faulty data or flawed algorithms. It was based on internal documents, data and exclusive interviews with current and former Israeli officials and company employees.

Israel says the goal of its war in Gaza is to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a “game changer” in yielding targets more swiftly.

Israeli troops partially withdraw from southern Lebanon

Israeli forces withdrew Tuesday from border villages in southern Lebanon under a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

Lebanese soldiers have moved into the areas from where the Israeli troops pulled out and began clearing roadblocks set up by Israeli forces and checking for unexploded ordnance.

Israeli forces, however, have remained in five strategic overlook points inside Lebanon along the border with Israel — a sore point with Lebanese officials and the militant group Hezbollah. They have maintained that Israel was required to make a full withdrawal by Tuesday.

Villagers in Lebanon return home to widespread destruction

Many villagers’ homes and businesses in southern Lebanon were demolished during the yearlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah or in the two months after November’s ceasefire agreement when Israeli forces were still occupying the area.

In the border village of Kfar Kila, people were stunned by the amount of destruction. Some knelt on the ground and prayed Tuesday in the village’s main square.

“What I’m seeing is beyond belief. I am in a state of shock,” said Khodor Suleiman, a construction contractor, pointing to his destroyed home on a hilltop.

Kfar Kila’s mayor, Hassan Sheet, told The Associated Press that 90% of the village’s homes are completely destroyed while the remaining 10% are damaged.

Ayman Jaber entered his hometown of Mhaibib, perched on a hill close to the Israeli border, that was leveled by a series of explosions on Oct. 16.

“Not a single house in the village is still standing,” Jaber said. “It is like an earthquake wiped out the village.”

“The situation breaks my heart,” Jaber said, as he stood inside the village’s cemetery. “They dug up the graves and opened the vaults. I don’t understand what security threat the dead posed to them.”

Hamas says it will free 6 Israeli hostages on Saturday

A top Hamas leader says the militant group will release six Israeli hostages on Saturday.

The six are the last living hostages set to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Three hostages had been expected to be freed on Saturday.

The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya announced the decision in prerecorded remarks on Tuesday.

The releases have come in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Palestinian President Abbas fires official who criticized him for ending ‘martyrs’ fund’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has fired an official who criticized his decision to end a system that paid stipends to the families of prisoners, including those convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.

Abbas announced the replacement of Qadoura Fares as head of a prisoner affairs body on Tuesday, without providing an explanation.

Last week, Abbas put an end to what was known as the “martyrs’ fund,” acquiescing to longstanding demands by the United States and Israel. Many Palestinians viewed the payments as compensation for people harmed in the course of their struggle against Israeli military rule.

The United States and Israel had long criticized the practice, saying it incentivized violence.

Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, many of whom view his Palestinian Authority as corrupt and autocratic.

The Hamas militant group, which drove Abbas’ forces from Gaza in 2007, criticized Fares’ firing, saying it reflected the “oppression and exclusion” practiced by the authority and its “submission to Zionist and American dictates.”

UN agency says Israel shuts 4 schools in east Jerusalem

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by U.N. officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the U.N. buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a U.N. facility.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the raids were “a clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

Egypt postpones Arab summit on Gaza

Egypt has postponed an emergency Arab summit to counter President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip and take over the territory.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a terse statement on Tuesday that the summit would be held in Cairo on March 4 allow for further “logistical and objective preparations,” without elaborating.

The summit, which had been scheduled for Feb. 27, came after Trump’s proposal sent shockwaves across the region.

Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected any displacement of the territory’s population. Israel has welcomed the proposal, which human rights groups say could amount to forced displacement in violation of international law.