Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Senior Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad underlined the “blatant and outrageous violations” that have been carried out by Israel since the ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported.

In a statement, he said that Israel attempted 813 times to violate the ceasefire since it occurred, while mediators confirmed that Hamas did not commit a single violation of the agreement and fully adhered to it.

Hamad added that repeated violations indicate the Israeli government's plan against Gaza, their forces repeatedly crossing the yellow line, preventing the aid entry under the pretext that it was used for other purposes.

Some pushed cars through the Gaza Strip’s flooded streets, while others took to donkey-pulled carts to wade through the floodwaters after fresh winter rains lashed the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The rains have flooded tents and makeshift shelters in Gaza, where most of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged by two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said a two-week-old baby named Muhammad Khalil Abu Al-Khair died because of severe hypothermia caused by extreme cold.

The ministry said the baby had been admitted to a hospital two days ago and placed in intensive care, but died on Monday.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that two Palestinians have been killed and six wounded in Israeli attacks during the 24-hour period, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the ministry, Israel has killed at least 393 and 1,074 wounded since the ceasefire.

The overall death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has now reached 70,667, with 171,151 people wounded since October 7, 2023.

Gaza’s largest medical complex, Al-Shifa Hospital, sustained expensive damage as severe floods and storms hit the medical facility, Al Jazeera reported, citing Anadolu Agency.

The report said that the hospital had already sustained severe damage during two years of Israeli oppression in Gaza, with the Gaza Health Ministry to complete rehabilitation efforts.

Israeli army said that it killed 16-year-old boy, Ammar Yasser, over throwing stones on soldiers in occupied West Bank, saying a “riot” erupted in the area near Bethlehem, and stones were thrown at the Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reported.

“The troops used riot dispersal means and then opened fire on a main instigator,” the military said, adding that “a hit was identified.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged renewed international action on the refugee crisis, warning the situation has deteriorated since the last Global Refugee Forum as conflicts grow, displacement rises, borders tighten and humanitarian funding is cut, Anadolu reported.

The second Global Refugee Forum Progress Review, organised by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Swiss government, has begun in Geneva, with Guterres addressing participants via a video message.

He called for stronger backing for countries hosting refugees, noting that low- and middle-income nations shelter nearly three-quarters of the world’s displaced people.

Guterres also urged governments to do more to include refugees in local economies and support self-reliance. “We must boost refugee inclusion and self-reliance a dignified way to unlock human potential,” he said, adding that it could strengthen local economies and reduce dependence on aid.

Despite the catastrophic state of the Palestinian economy, Faraj al Atrash, operator of a quarry in the occupied West Bank, proudly points to an armada of machines busy eating away at sheer walls of dusty white rock that stretch into the distance.

"This here is considered the main source of revenue for the entire region", Atrash said at the site near the town of Beit Fajjar, close to the city of Hebron.

The quarry is a source of Jerusalem stone, the famed pale rock used throughout the Holy Land and beyond for millennia and which gives much of the region its distinctive architectural look.

But Atrash, in his fifties, said "our livelihood is constantly under threat".

"Lately, I feel like the occupation (Israel) has begun to fight us on the economic front," he said. Atrash fears the confiscation of the quarry's industrial equipment, the expansion of Israeli settlements and the Palestinian financial crisis.

The Palestinian territories are "currently going through the most severe economic crisis ever recorded," according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development presented in late November.

Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, has recently set up hundreds of new checkpoints across the territory, paralysing commercial transport. Beyond restrictions on freedom of movement, a halt in permits for West Bank Palestinians seeking work inside Israel has also had a severe impact.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza is already running and that more countries would be added.

"I think that, in a form, it's already running," Trump said in the Oval Office. "More and more countries are coming into it. They're already in but they'll send any number of troops that I ask them to send."