Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

US President Donald Trump said he will announce on Thursday that Board of Peace member states have pledged more than $5 billion for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

In a Sunday post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that member states have also committed thousands of personnel toward a UN-authorised stabilisation force and local police in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli government, in an effort to extend its occupation of Palestinian territory, has approved a proposal to register the occupied West Bank as “state property”, Al Jazeera reported, citing Israeli broadcaster KAN.

“We are continuing the settlement revolution to control all our lands,” said Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Palestinian Presidency slammed the action, which they described as a “serious escalation”, and said the Israeli move effectively nullifies signed agreements, Wafa news agency reported.

However, Palestinian resistance group Hamas condemned the decision, calling it an attempt “to steal and Judaise lands in the occupied West Bank by registering them as so-called ‘state lands’”.

“It is an attempt to forcibly impose settlement and Judaisation on the ground, in flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” it added.

Israel fired airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 11 Palestinians, Palestinian officials said, in what the military called a response to ceasefire violations by Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Gaza medics said an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment housing displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in the south and another person was shot dead in the north.

Airstrikes also targeted what was thought to be a commander of the Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas, in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City.

The Palestinian resistance group condemned Israel’s barbaric actions against displaced Palestinians, describing them as a “serious violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Al Jazeera reported.

In a statement, spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that Israel “committed a new massacre by targeting displaced people in their tents.”

“This criminal escalation comes ahead of the Board of Peace meeting, in a clear attempt to impose a bloody reality on the ground and send a message that all efforts and bodies concerned with establishing calm in Gaza are meaningless, and that the occupation is continuing its aggression despite all parties speaking of the necessity of adhering to the ceasefire agreement,” he added.

The Hamas spokesperson called on the Board of Peace, at its upcoming meeting, “to pressure the occupation to stop its repeated violations and compel it to implement what was agreed upon without delay or manipulation.”

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: At least nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in northern and southern Gaza Strip, saud Palestinian civil defence and health officials.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment housing displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in the south.

An Israeli military official claimed IDF was striking Hamas in response to "a violation [on Saturday] in Beit Hanoun where terrorists emerged from a tunnel east of the yellow line".

The official called Sunday's strikes "precise" and in line with international law, and said Hamas had committed more than six violations of an October ceasefire, including deploying east of the "Yellow Line" agreed under the ceasefire to demarcate Israeli- and Hamas-controlled areas.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Saturday for the removal of "all obstacles", he said Israel has imposed on the implementation of phase two of the Gaza ceasefire.

"We emphasise the need to lift all obstacles imposed by the Israeli occupation on the implementation of the provisions related to the second phase of the agreement," Abbas said, in a speech read by his prime minister Mohammed Mustafa at an African Union summit in Ethiopia.

This included the work of a technocratic committee established to oversee the daily governance of Gaza, he added.

Removal of the obstacles was needed to "ensure continuity of services, coordinate humanitarian efforts and enable a swift recovery", the president said.

Abbas accused Israel of "continuing to violate" the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas that took effect in October and was backed by the United States.

"From the announcement of the ceasefire until today, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed (in Gaza), which threatens the durability of the truce and the full implementation of its second phase," he added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar will attend US President Donald Trump's first formal Board of Peace meeting on February 19, two Israeli officials said.

US officials told Reuters this week that Trump will announce a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a UN-authorised stabilisation force for the Palestinian enclave at the meeting in Washington.

The US officials said the meeting will focus on Gaza, where two years of war have left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins.

Medecins Sans Frontieres has halted "non-critical" medical activities at a major hospital in southern Gaza following reports from patients and its own staff of armed men inside the facility and concerns over the movement of weapons within it.

The Geneva-based medical charity said non-essential operations at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were suspended on January 20 over concerns with the "management of the structure, the safeguarding of its neutrality, and security breaches."

In recent months, patients and personnel had "seen armed men, some masked," in areas of the hospital compound, MSF said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called for the removal of "all obstacles", he said Israel has imposed on implementing phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, in a speech at an African Union summit in Ethiopia.

"We emphasise the need to lift all obstacles imposed by the Israeli occupation on the implementation of the provisions related to the second phase of the agreement," Abbas said, in a speech read by his prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa.

Removal of the obstacles was needed to "ensure continuity of services, coordinate humanitarian efforts and enable a swift recovery", the president said.

"From the announcement of the ceasefire until today, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed (in Gaza), which threatens the durability of the truce and the full implementation of its second phase," he added.

From a small studio in the central city of Deir el-Balah, Sylvia Hassan's voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory's first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.

Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station "Here Gaza", delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck.

"This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep," Hassan told AFP.

"It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience."

Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.

"The radio station's goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war," said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.

The station's launch is funded by the European Union and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organisation that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media centre at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

The station is planning to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.

Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now able to broadcast uninterrupted sound.