Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he approved on Wednesday a major gas export deal with Egypt worth nearly $35 billion with fragile Gaza ceasefire barely holding.

"Today, I approved the largest gas deal in Israel's history. The deal is worth 112 billion shekels ($34.7 billion). Of this total, 58 billion shekels ($18 billion) will go to the state coffers," Netanyahu said during a televised address.

"The agreement is with the American company Chevron, with Israeli partners who will supply gas to Egypt," Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu said the money would "strengthen education, healthcare, infrastructure, security, and the future of the next generations", as well as bolster "Israel's status as a regional energy power".

The United Nations and aid groups warned on Wednesday that humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza, were at risk of collapse if Israel does not lift impediments that include a "vague, arbitrary, and highly politicized" registration process.

Dozens of international aid groups face de-registration by December 31, which then means they have to close operations within 60 days, said the UN and more than 200 local and international aid groups in a joint statement.

"The deregistration of INGOs (international aid groups) in Gaza will have a catastrophic impact on access to essential and basic services," the statement read.

"INGOs run or support the majority of field hospitals, primary healthcare centers, emergency shelter responses, water and sanitation services, nutrition stabilisation centers for children with acute malnutrition, and critical mine action activities," it said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani in Washington amid growing concerns that continued violations could jeopardise the fragile ceasefire framework in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. 

According to officials, the talks focused on Qatar’s central role as a mediator and on efforts to push both sides toward the second phase of former US President Donald Trump’s proposed 20-point plan, aimed at sustaining the agreement and preventing further escalation.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has warned that children in Gaza are facing “no respite” as severe weather driven by Storm Byron further exacerbates the enclave’s humanitarian crisis.

Philippe Lazzarini said the storm’s impact is particularly devastating for a population already displaced by conflict and living among rubble, in makeshift shelters and fragile tents.

“Whilst the storm is a natural hazard, its consequences are man-made for a population forced to live amid collapsing ruins,” Lazzarini said in a post on X, stressing that far greater suffering could be prevented.

He added that conditions in Gaza would improve significantly if humanitarian assistance were allowed to enter the territory without obstruction, underscoring ongoing restrictions on aid flows.

Dozens of residents from the West Bank's emptied Nur Shams refugee camp returned to retrieve belongings ahead of the Israeli military's demolition of 25 residential buildings there.

Loading furniture, children's toys and even a window frame onto small trucks, Palestinian residents hurried to gather as much as they could under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

Troops performed ID checks and physical searches, allowing through only those whose houses were set to be demolished. Some who were able to enter salvaged large empty water tanks, while others came out with family photos, mattresses and heaters.

More than 32,000 people remain displaced from the now-empty camps, where Israeli troops are stationed, according to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.

The ambulance and emergency services in Gaza said that at least nine Palestinians were injured in an air attack by an Israeli drone in the centre of Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported.

At least 17 residential buildings have completely collapsed and around 90 others have been partially damaged after heavy rains and strong winds battered the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defence said.

Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said winter storms have flooded nearly 90% of tents sheltering displaced families, leaving thousands without protection from the cold.

Civil Defence teams have received more than 5,000 emergency calls since severe weather began affecting the enclave last week.

Basal added that at least 17 people have died due to extreme cold, including four children, while dozens more were killed after buildings weakened by months of bombardment collapsed amid the storms.

Pakistan has dispatched another aid consignment for war-hit Gaza Strip via Lahore's Allama Iqbal Airport.

The consignment comprises non-food items and includes blankets, tents clothes and medical kits, said Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman.

Noting that Pakistan previously sent 27 aid consignments, the minister said that the process of sending relief goods will continue.

Pakistan has called for full respect of Gaza ceasefire with no unilateral military actions. The call was made by Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Asim Iftikhar Ahmad at the UN Security Council Briefing on the Middle East.

He emphasised that withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza remains essential besides safe and unimpeded humanitarian access must be guaranteed.

Iftikhar said reconstruction should begin without delay, with no annexation, forced displacement or fragmentation of occupied Palestinian land.

He emphasised that a time-bound and irreversible political process, anchored in relevant UN resolutions must lead to the establishment of a sovereign, independent and contiguous State of Palestine on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

The Ambassador said Pakistan stands firmly with the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle for dignity, justice and self-determination, and for the realization of an independent Palestinian State in accordance with international legitimacy.