Updates: Israel threatens ‘new war’ as Gaza ceasefire collapse fears grow

To learn more about the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, read here.

For more on President Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal for the Gaza Strip, see this.

You can watch a video here of Palestinians sharing images of pre-war Gaza after Trump’s “Riviera of the Middle East” plan.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main developments.

• A Hamas delegation is reportedly in Cairo to discuss the continuation of the Gaza ceasefire, and meetings with negotiators are currently under way.
• Israel will restart its war on Gaza with renewed “intensity” if Hamas fails to release Israeli captives, warned the country’s defence minister, Israel Katz.
• Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said there are “positive signals” the captives held in Gaza will be released as planned on Saturday.
• Israel has backed out of the February 18 deadline for withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon – the second time it has reneged on its ceasefire commitment.
• One Palestinian is killed in southern Gaza’s Rafah and another wounded in a drone strike that Israel claims targeted a weapons-smuggling effort.
• Israeli forces continue to storm refugee camps and towns in the occupied West Bank, especially in Tulkarem’s Nur Shams camp where fighting with Palestinian armed groups is raging.

China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, says the two-state solution is key to peace in the Middle East and the US president’s push to displace Palestinians from Gaza is the wrong move.

“China’s position is very clear on this. We do believe there is an urgent need to make sure the ceasefire remains permanent. It should not be reversed,” said Fu.

“And then we do not believe it is the right way to go – to displace the Gazans from Gaza, which will seriously erode the basis for a two-state solution, which we fully support.”

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot to discuss ways to advance Middle East security and peace efforts.

The discussions took place during the Saudi foreign minister’s visit to France, where he led the kingdom’s delegation at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, which was held in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, and attended by many international leaders and tech executives.

The two top diplomats addressed “regional developments and the ongoing efforts to achieve security and peace in the region”, Saudi’s Foreign Ministry said.

The talks come amid growing risks to the Middle East peace process, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution, which has broad international support.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi says there are “positive signals” that the captives held in Gaza will be released as planned on Saturday.

He told The Associated Press that mediators are working to finalise the settlement, but “we have yet to receive Israel’s commitment to implement the full terms of the deal, especially the humanitarian protocol”.

The fragile ceasefire is facing a significant test after Hamas said it would delay the next release of captives scheduled for Saturday, alleging Israel has violated the truce by firing on people in Gaza and not allowing the agreed-upon number of tents, shelters and other vital aid to enter the territory.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced aid is being ramped up to Gaza with at least 801 trucks entering on Wednesday.

“The UN and its partners seize every opportunity afforded by the ceasefire to scale up the provision of water, food, shelter, health, sanitation, hygiene, clothing, education and other assistance to the people of Gaza,” OCHA said in a statement.

More than 800 aid trucks entered the Palestinian enclave “through interactions with the Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire deal”.

Noting the UN agency for Palestine refugees “reached 1.2 million people with food” in the first two weeks of the ceasefire, OCHA said: “The agency opened 37 new shelters for people returning to the north, providing tents, blankets, plastic sheeting and warm winter clothing.

“As of last week, UNRWA was hosting about 120,000 people in 120 shelters including more than three dozen that opened since the ceasefire.”

Supermodel Bella Hadid posted an image on her social media account showing a hand with an inscription reading “Palestine belongs to the Palestinians”.

Her comments come amid growing opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to force residents of Gaza out of their land for the US to take control of the Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, has repeatedly made public remarks criticising the Israeli government and supporting Palestinians over the years.

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The wife of Elkana Bohbot, a Colombian-Israeli man being held by Hamas, says she received proof he is alive and denounced the “terrible” conditions in which he’s being held.

In an interview with Colombia’s Blu Radio, Rebecca Gonzalez said she received news of her husband from Ohad Ben Ami, one of the three captives released by Hamas last weekend. The three were released under the fifth exchange of prisoners since Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce in their 15-month war on January 19.

“He [Ben Ami] brought me proof of life from my husband. I received a message, I even received a song in which he asks me to be strong,” said Gonzalez. “He is alive and we need to get him out of there immediately.”

Relating Ben Ami’s account of his captivity, which left him in a “severe nutritional state” according to doctors, Gonzalez said: “They are in tunnels, they are not allowed to see the light, they are not allowed to go out for air.”

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has left much of the territory unlivable. Now, Trump says Gaza’s people should be “resettled”.

When you destroy homes, bomb hospitals, and cut off water to leave people with no other option but to leave – that’s not “voluntary immigration”. It’s ethnic cleansing.

And now, President Trump wants the US to “take over”.

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According to a post on X by the Jordanian royal court, the Jordanian monarch discussed “dangerous developments” also in the occupied West Bank during a phone call with the French president.

The call comes one day after the Jordanian king met with US President Donald Trump in Washington, where he reiterated his country’s “steadfast position” against Trump’s controversial Gaza displacement plan.

Emmanuel Macron has voiced concerns over Israel’s catastrophic attacks on Gaza, and also criticised Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to send troops into ground operations in Lebanon, saying the priority should be to “avoid escalation”.

In October 2024, France’s leader called for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel.

According to Bloomberg and Reuters, President Donald Trump is set to attend a meeting of business executives hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund next week in Miami.

The event will take place amid growing criticism from Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, against the US President’s proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild the territory.

Trump enjoyed close ties with Gulf states during his first tenure as president, including Saudi Arabia, which has invested $2bn with a firm of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former aide.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has called on Arab, Muslim and world leaders to reject plans to displace Palestinians from their land.

In a statement, the Cairo-based institution called for supporting Egyptian and Arab positions on rebuilding the Gaza Strip without relocating its population.

“No one has the right to force or compel the Palestinian people to accept proposals that are inapplicable, and the entire world must respect the Palestinians’ right to live on their land and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital,” it said.

The prestigious institution urged “Arab, Muslim and world leaders to reject displacement schemes that aim to obliterate the Palestinian cause forever by forcing Palestinians to leave their homeland”.

“The international community’s failure to support the oppressed and downtrodden will push the entire world – from East to West – into instability, transforming it into a real jungle where the strong devour the rights of the weak and marginalised,” it warned.

It also called on religious institutions worldwide “to direct the voice of religion in defence of the marginalised in Palestine”.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II says recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the implementation of a two-state solution are key to achieving regional stability.

According to a royal court statement, Abdullah reaffirmed “regional stability cannot be achieved without fulfilling the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of their independent state on the June 4, 1967, border with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

The king called for “maintaining the Gaza ceasefire and stepping up international efforts to boost humanitarian response” for the war-battered enclave.

He warned of grave consequences for the Israeli escalation in the occupied West Bank, settlement activity, and “violations” of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, the statement said.

Jordan and Egypt are facing mounting US pressure to take in Palestinians after President Donald Trump called for seizing control of Gaza and relocating Palestinians, an idea vehemently rejected by Palestinians and Arab leaders.

Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital Beirut and its southern suburbs, marking the first such incident since the November 27 ceasefire agreement.

The escalation coincides with reports of Israel postponing the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon, despite a February 18 deadline.

According to the state-run National News Agency, Israeli fighter jets conducted low-altitude flights over the capital, the Matn district in Mount Lebanon, and parts of the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon.

Lebanese officials have denied any agreement to extend the deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon has reported nearly 900 Israeli ceasefire violations, killing and injuring dozens, including women and children, since November 27.

Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, says it has attacked Israeli soldiers operating in the al-Manshiya neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp.

“Our fighters, along with their comrades in the resistance factions, were able to attack an infantry force of 10 soldiers in a complex ambush,” the group said in a statement on Telegram, claiming it wounded an unidentified number of Israeli soldiers.

“Our fighters are also currently engaged in fierce battles with the support forces, showering them with heavy volleys of bullets and explosive devices, achieving direct hits.”

Qatar announces it will double the amount of fuel it is transferring to Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live outside in harsh weather.

The Gulf country is “supplying the Gaza Strip with 15 million litres of fuel, bringing total Qatari fuel support to 30 million litres”, the official Qatar News Agency reported.

A truce brokered by Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators came into force on January 19, pausing fighting in the 15-month war that devastated the Palestinian enclave.

On January 20, Qatar said it would send 1.25 million litres of fuel per day to Gaza for 10 days.

Israel controls everything that enters or leaves the Gaza Strip, and it has imposed severe restrictions on goods that it considers could be used for military purposes, including fuel. Hospitals, in particular, are short of fuel.

In a message on its website, the armed group calls on people to go out “in mass demonstrations in all cities of the world and let the coming Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays be a global movement” against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The statement comes after Trump doubled down on his proposal for the US to take control of the Strip, push its inhabitants off their land into Jordan and Egypt, and rebuild the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

It also comes as Israeli forces continue to attack and expel Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is facilitating captive-prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hamas under a fragile Gaza truce, urged both sides to “maintain the ceasefire”.

The truce that came into effect last month largely halted more than 15 bloody months of war, but has come under increasing strain in recent days.

“Countless lives have been saved over the three weeks of the ceasefire,” a statement said. “Any reversal risks plunging people back into the misery and despair that defined the last 16 months.

“We call on the parties to maintain the ceasefire so that these crucial efforts can continue. Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it.”

As the saying goes, consistency builds trust. For decades, the US has been a global superpower.

But in a little more than three weeks President Donald Trump has bewildered friends and bamboozled foes.

So how will his second term reshape the role of the US on the world stage? And can the world still trust the United States?

Trump believes it would be “more majestic” for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza, the White House says.

However, it acknowledged Jordan’s King Abdullah II rejected the plan during talks a day earlier.

“The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news briefing. “But the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas.”