Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes martyred 21 Palestinians including six children in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials said, the latest violence to undermine a truce in the enclave.

Among the dead was a medic who rushed to help victims of a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis and was then killed by a second attack on the same location, health officials said.

Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a 5-month-old boy was killed. The attacks come three days after Israel reopened Gaza's main border crossing with Egypt, a major step in the US-backed truce.

Tents in Mawasi, a coastal area near Khan Younis crowded with Gazans displaced by the conflict, had been ripped apart by the strikes. Nearly all of Gaza's over 2 million population has been forced to flee their homes.

Palestinian patients preparing to cross through the newly opened Rafah border crossing to Egypt were told that Israel had postponed the passage of patients through the border. A few hours later the patients were told to prepare again to cross the border.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes has killed 18 people, including four children, with Tel Aviv also halting the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing, said the Palestinian officials.

The Israeli military said tanks had fired on Gaza and airstrikes had been launched after a gunman shot at Israeli soldiers and seriously injured a reservist.

The strikes targeted Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis. A Gazan health official told Reuters that Israel had also halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt.

A spokesperson for the Red Crescent said patients had arrived at a hospital in Khan Younis in preparation for crossing Rafah for treatment, only to be informed that Israel had postponed the evacuations.

"They called the patients and said today there is no travel at all, the crossing is closed," Raja'a Abu Teir, a Palestinian patient who was set to be evacuated, told Reuters at the hospital, where several patients were waiting in ambulances.

The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said in a statement that Rafah crossing remained open, but they had not received the necessary coordination details from the World Health Organisation to facilitate the crossing.

The WHO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoy Steve Witkoff in Jerusalem that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) would not be part of post-war Gaza's governance "in any way".

"The PM clarified that the Palestinian Authority will not be involved in administering the Strip in any way," Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the meeting ended.

Under US President Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan that ended a two-year war in the Palestinian territory, the PA's post-war role in Gaza was left unclear.

The technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) was formed to handle day-to-day affairs until the PA completes a reform programme.

Witkoff held talks with Netanyahu on Tuesday, during a visit that followed the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt. This was the second meeting between the two in less than a fortnight.

At the meeting, Netanyahu also "reiterated the uncompromising demand for the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, and the fulfilment of the war objectives prior to the reconstruction of the Strip," according to his office.

US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli official said, during a visit that followed the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The official told AFP that the meeting was taking place in Jerusalem, but declined to provide details on the agenda.

An Arab official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the meeting was likely to take place in Turkiye on Friday, following diplomatic interventions by Ankara, as well as Egypt, Oman and Qatar.

Witkoff’s talks with Netanyahu on Tuesday marked his second encounter with the Israeli prime minister in less than a fortnight. His previous visit took place days before the Rafah crossing was reopened.

A second group of Palestinians has returned to Gaza through Rafah crossing after the opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Egyptian media reported, marking another small step in the limited reopening of the territory’s only non-Israeli gateway.

The arrivals came a day after Israel partially reopened Rafah, ending months of near-total closure.

Israeli media said that only about 50 Palestinians will be allowed to enter Gaza on Tuesday, while roughly 150 patients and their companions are scheduled to leave the enclave for treatment in Egypt.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that only the first five patients in Gaza were transferred through Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt on Monday, Al Jazeera reported.

“On the second of February, WHO and partners supported the medical ​evacuation ‌of five patients and seven companions to Egypt via ‌the Rafah crossing,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.

He maintained that more than 18,000 patients are awaiting urgent evacuation ‌after Israel’s more than two-year war.

Germany on Monday welcomed the reopening of the Rafah border crossing and called for additional Gaza crossings to be opened to speed the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential supplies, Anadolu reported.

A spokesperson for Germany’s foreign ministry said Rafah was open for passenger traffic to and from Gaza as of Monday, calling it an important step in implementing a “20-point plan” linked to US President Donald Trump’s peace initiative.

The spokesperson said the move would initially allow sick and wounded people to receive medical treatment abroad and offered hope to Gaza’s population, adding that Germany was committed to the systematic opening of other crossings for the delivery of goods and supplies. The spokesperson said the European Union and Germany would continue to support these efforts.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Hamas would be given a “two-month ultimatum” to disarm by US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, Anadolu reported, citing Israeli media.

“The Board of Peace will issue a two-month ultimatum to Hamas to disarm,” Smotrich said in comments carried by the local newspaper Makor Rishon.

He added that Israel would not end its war on the Gaza Strip “before Hamas is destroyed”. “There will be no Hamas in Gaza, neither militarily, nor civilianly, nor in government. We made a commitment, and that is the main objective of the war,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Trump’s “Board of Peace” on Smotrich’s remarks.

Smotrich also claimed the Israeli army controls more than half of the Gaza Strip “and controls everything”, and said the second phase of the ceasefire was focused on disarmament. “The second phase (of the ceasefire) is for disarmament. It is unfortunate that we didn’t begin it three months ago,” he said.

A bus carrying travelers from Egypt marked a new arrival into Gaza via the Rafah crossing.