Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Muslim-majority countries and several European states condemned Israeli moves to further its control over the occupied West Bank, characterising them as attempts to annex the territory and undermine Palestinian statehood.

Israel's decision to reclassify Palestinian land as Israeli "state land" and to accelerate illegal settlements there "are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation", the countries said in a joint statement.

"Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution."

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Palestinian resistance group Hamas may soon be given a deadline to lay down its weapons.

"We estimate that in the coming days, Hamas will be given an ultimatum to disarm and completely demilitarise Gaza," Smotrich said in an interview with public broadcaster Kan.

"If it does not comply with it, the IDF (Israeli army) will have international legitimacy and American backing to do it itself, and the IDF is already preparing for this and is making plans," said the minister, who is a member of Israel’s security cabinet charged with approving large-scale military operations.

"The (Israeli military) will definitely enter and occupy Gaza if Hamas does not disband," Smotrich said.

Jailed PTI leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, Umar Sarfraz Cheema and Mian Mahmood Rashid have called for a multi-party conference on the issue of peace in the Middle East, especially the resolution of the Palestine issue.

Sustainable peace is not possible in the region without a two-state solution and justice, the PTI leaders said in their statement issued via a lawyer.

Stressing that all parties should reiterate their support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the PTI leaders decried continued ceasefire violations by Israel which, they noted, have resulted in more than 600 fatalities.

The PTI leaders further questioned Israel's place in President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" and also highlighted the lack of discussion on the Palestine issue and Middle East tensions in the parliament.

A Palestinian-Syrian film director accused Germany of being "partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel" at the Berlin Film Festival, prompting a German minister to walk out of the awards ceremony.

The remarks by Abdallah Al-Khatib, whose "Chronicles From the Siege" won the Berlinale's Perspectives section for emerging filmmakers, capped a politically charged festival, with organisers facing criticism from actors and directors for not taking a stance on the war in Gaza.

"Some people told me, maybe you have to be careful before you say what I want to say now, because you are a refugee in Germany, and there are so many red lines. But I don't care. I care about my people, about Palestine," said Al-Khatib, standing on stage with a keffiyeh scarf draped on his shoulder and raising a Palestinian flag at the end of his speech late on Saturday.

"So I will say my final word to the German government. You are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this truth, but you choose to not care."

German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, who was in the audience, walked out following the remarks. 

A senior Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian resistance group was in the final phase of selecting a new leader, with two prominent figures competing for the position.

Hamas recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council, a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars, as well as a new political bureau.

Members of the council are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas’s three branches: the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and the movement's external leadership.

Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote.

"The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

He added that the race for the group’s leadership is now between Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya.

Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati said that the group’s only choice was "resistance" after an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon killed eight of the group’s fighters the day before.

"What happened yesterday in the Bekaa is a new massacre and a new aggression, exceeding all the previous levels of aggression against Lebanon," Qamati said in a speech broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar network during a protest in Beirut.

"What option do we have left to defend ourselves and our country? What option do we have other than resistance? We no longer have any (other) option."

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have dispatched 100 tonnes of emergency relief supplies for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, Khaleej Times reported.

The aid was sent by Bahrain's Royal Humanitarian Foundation in coordination with the Emirates Red Crescent.

According to official sources, the shipment was transported through El Arish International Airport in Egypt and will be delivered to Palestinians via the Rafah Border Crossing, located between Gaza and Egypt.

The relief consignment includes medical and hygiene supplies specifically for children and women, along with basic food items, medicines, and essential medical equipment.

US envoy Mike Huckabee suggested he would not object if Israel expanded across much of the Middle East, framing the issue as what he called the Jewish people’s right to the land, Al Jazeera reported.

In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson aired on Friday, Huckabee was pressed on Israel’s geographical borders, which he said are rooted in the Bible. 

Carlson cited a verse promising land to the descendants of Abraham, describing a span from the Euphrates River to the Nile River, a stretch that would include modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said, adding when challenged that Israel was not seeking to “take it over” and “they’re not asking to take it over.”

The death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s east and south reached 12 on Friday, with Israel saying it targeted Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas.

A statement from Hezbollah in the eastern Bekaa Valley said a "commander" had been killed in the raids there.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting the group but occasionally also Hamas fighters.

"Israeli enemy strikes on several locations in the Bekaa Valley killed 10 people and wounded 24," Lebanon's health ministry said, adding that three children were among the wounded.

The state-run National News Agency had earlier reported six dead and 25 wounded after "heavy strikes" hit in the region.

Israel's army said in a statement that it hit "Hezbollah command centres".

The raids came hours after an Israeli strike on the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp killed two people, according to the health ministry, with Israel's army saying it had targeted Hamas.