Live updates on Israel's war against Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "seeks to inflict the same level of damage and destruction" on Lebanon as Israeli forces had wrought on the Gaza Strip, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Sanchez appeared before the lower house to explain his government's stance against the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Four people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported, citing Wafa news agency.

Despite a ceasefire, Israel continues its military campaign in the besieged territory, carrying out lethal strikes and limiting access to food and other essential supplies for Palestinians.

Pakistan, alongside the United Kingdom and other Arab, OIC and European members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), has reiterated strong opposition to the annexation of any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the forcible displacement of Palestinians, in line with the UN Charter and relevant Security Council resolutions.

Delivering a joint statement at a press stake-out, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Asim Iftikhar, underscored the group’s rejection of all attempts to alter the demographic composition, character and status of Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.

The statement recalled that the Security Council has previously condemned such actions, stressing that they violate international law, undermine ongoing peace efforts and run counter to broader peace frameworks, thereby jeopardising prospects for a just and lasting resolution.

The Gaza envoy for US President Donald Trump's new "Board of Peace" initiative urged UN Security Council members to pressure Hamas to disarm, as part of a ceasefire to end over two years of war.

"I ask the council members to use all means at their disposal to urge Hamas and all Palestinian factions to accept this framework without delay," said Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat named the board´s high representative for Gaza.

"Every hour, every day wasted, carries a human cost and further erodes the process for credible and lasting peace," he told a Security Council meeting on the Palestinian conflict.

Trump's administration, along with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza.

In January, Washington said it was moving into the second phase of the peace plan that calls for the disarmament of Hamas.

It also calls for the gradual retreat of Israeli forces and the deployment of an international stabilising force.

But despite the reduced violence, Israeli strikes have at times continued, resulting in hundreds of deaths since the ceasefire, and Hamas has refused to disarm under conditions it says are imposed by Israel.

"The laying down of arms by armed groups would represent a decisive break from cycles of violence that have defined life in Gaza for decades," Mladenov said.

Trump's Board of Peace has promised a wave of reconstruction and investment aid for Gaza in the case of a lasting truce.

The world has given Israel "a licence to torture Palestinians", a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories "a continuum of physical and mental suffering".

Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.

"Israel has effectively been given a licence to torture Palestinians, because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it," she said, as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council.

Indonesia's president, under fire at home for signing up to US counterpart Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace", has insisted his country would not pay the $1 billion joining fee for permanent membership.

Jakarta had only committed peacekeeping troops for the initiative, Prabowo Subianto said in a statement published on the presidential YouTube channel Sunday.

The "Board of Peace" came together after the Trump administration, teaming up with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza.

Countries that want to be permanent members must pay $1 billion — sparking criticism the board could become a "pay-to-play" version of the UN Security Council.

Prabowo, a former general, has come under criticism from Indonesian Muslim groups for joining the board and pledging to send 8,000 peacekeeping troops to Gaza.

But he later said he would withdraw from the board if it does not bring benefits to Palestinians or align with Indonesian national interests.

At least 10 Palestinians were injured in attacks on the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers who rampaged through nearby villages after holding a funeral for a settler killed in a car crash a night earlier, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the wounded in Deir al-Hatab included a 45-year-old man shot in the foot and a woman suffering from smoke inhalation.

Videos obtained by The Associated Press show cars and homes ablaze as army flares lit up the sky near the village east of Nablus and next to the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh.

The arson and assaults in four Nablus-area villages on Sunday came a day after the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported simultaneous attacks in at least six communities overnight – the latest spates of violence in the occupied West Bank.

Germany has withdrawn its support for Israel in the genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

A deputy spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said that Germany will not intervene in the case. South Africa had filed a case against Israel at The Hague over alleged genocide during the Gaza conflict. 

Israel has barred Palestinians from offering Eid ul Fitr prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, drawing widespread condemnation, marking the first time since 1967 that the mosque was completely closed at the end of Ramadan, with barriers erected at its entrances.

Israeli security forces also fired tear gas at Palestinians who had gathered for the prayers. Israeli authorities stated that the move was taken in light of ongoing tensions related to Iran.

Palestinians have denounced the action as a dangerous precedent, warning that it could have serious consequences in the future.