Netanyahu’s office denies Hamas has agreed to outline of ceasefire deal despite reports
An Israeli official has said that Hamas has agreed an outline deal for a limited release of hostages and a ceasefire and partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, however the office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost immediately issued a denial that this was the case.
“Contrary to reports, the Hamas terror organisation has not yet returned its response to the deal,” the prime minister’s office said.
Alongside other Israeli media outlets, The Times of Israel had reported:
Officials in Jerusalem tell Israeli media that the deal is expected to be signed tonight, and that a joint declaration is anticipated tonight or tomorrow.
This means that if the deal is approved by the cabinet this evening or tomorrow, with a 24-48 hour period to allow for appeals against the deal to the supreme court, implementation could begin with the first hostages going free on Sunday.
The deal is expected to initially involve the release of 33 hostages including women, the elderly and wounded, and the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. A partial withdrawal of Israeli troops is expected to take place in Gaza, with the Rafah crossing reopening to allow in humanitarian aid. Negotiations would take place during this phase on a more permanent second phase, which would see the release of the remaining hostages.
Some members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government have said they do not support the deal, but it is believed he has enough support across the Knesset and in government for it to be implemented.
More details soon …
Key events
Qatar’s prime minister is to hold a press conference in Doha amid Gaza ceasefire negotiations, according to a breaking news line from Reuters.
More details soon …
UN high commissioner for human rights says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, on Wednesday said transitional justice was “crucial” for Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, during the first-ever visit by someone in his post to the country, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Since rebels seized Damascus last month, the UN has called for Assad and others to be held accountable for the crimes committed during more than 13 years of civil war.
“Transitional justice is crucial as Syria moves forward,” the UN high commissioner for human rights said at a press conference in Damascus. “Revenge and vengeance are never the answer.”
Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011 after Assad’s brutal crackdown of anti-government protests. More than half a million people were killed and millions displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands of people have been detained and tortured in the country’s jails, while Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons including banned sarin gas against his own people.
“The enforced disappearances, the torture, the use of chemical weapons, among other atrocity crimes, must be fully investigated,” Türk said. “And then justice must be served, fairly and impartially,” he added.
Türk said “such acts constitute the most serious crimes under international humanitarian law”. Among them, “that banned chemicals were used against civilians … and not just once, says a lot about the extreme brutality of the tactics used by the former regime,” Türk said.
The new authorities have sought to reassure Syrians and the international community in recent weeks that they will respect the rights of minorities while rebuilding the country.
Türk said during the visit that he and the country’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, discussed “the opportunities and challenges awaiting this new Syria”.
“He acknowledged and assured me of the importance of respect for human rights for all Syrians and all different components of Syrian society,” Türk said, according to AFP. He said Sharaa also backed “the pursuit of healing, trust building and social cohesion and the reform of institutions”.
After a war that has ravaged Syria’s economy and infrastructure, Türk also called for an easing of certain western sanctions imposed on Syria under Assad’s rule.
“I … call for an urgent reconsideration of … sanctions with a view to lifting them,” he said, adding that they had “a negative impact on the enjoyment of rights” of Syrians.
Türk said he had visited the notorious Saydnaya prison and met a former detainee, “a former soldier suspected of being a defector”. “He told me of the cruel treatment he endured. I cannot even bear to share the stories of beatings and torture that he shared with me,” he said.
Thousands of detainees poured out of prisons after Assad’s fall. But many Syrians are still looking for traces of tens of thousands of loved ones still missing, with many believed to have been buried in mass graves.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have approved a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, two Palestinian sources close to negotiations in Doha told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.
“The resistance factions reached an agreement among themselves and informed the mediators of their approval of the (prisoner) exchange deal and ceasefire,” one source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another Palestinian source confirmed their approval of the deal.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
Hamas official says group has not yet given written response to Gaza ceasefire proposal
Hamas has not yet given a written response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal under negotiation in Qatar, an official from the group, who refused to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Reuters has a breaking news line quoting a Hamas official who says the group has not yet given a written response to the ceasefire proposal. Earlier, Israeli media reported that Hamas had given its response.
More details soon …
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires illustrating the conflict in Gaza.
The briefing and counter-briefing that has emerged over the last few hours appears to show how precarious negotiations for a proposed ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have been.
Details of the lengths of specific phases and the number of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released have been contradictory depending on the source of the briefing.
There is also vocal opposition within Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to agreeing a deal. National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has already said he and his Otzma Yehudit party will oppose it, and yesterday made a public appeal to finance minister Bezalel Smotrich to join him in that position.
Kan News reports that Ben-Gvir has cancelled his schedule for today, and is “in talks with Smotrich’s people in an attempt to convince him to resign from the government.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has immediately contradicted Israeli media reports that Hamas has given its response to the ceasefire proposal, and says that it has not.
More details soon …
Netanyahu’s office denies Hamas has agreed to outline of ceasefire deal despite reports
An Israeli official has said that Hamas has agreed an outline deal for a limited release of hostages and a ceasefire and partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, however the office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost immediately issued a denial that this was the case.
“Contrary to reports, the Hamas terror organisation has not yet returned its response to the deal,” the prime minister’s office said.
Alongside other Israeli media outlets, The Times of Israel had reported:
Officials in Jerusalem tell Israeli media that the deal is expected to be signed tonight, and that a joint declaration is anticipated tonight or tomorrow.
This means that if the deal is approved by the cabinet this evening or tomorrow, with a 24-48 hour period to allow for appeals against the deal to the supreme court, implementation could begin with the first hostages going free on Sunday.
The deal is expected to initially involve the release of 33 hostages including women, the elderly and wounded, and the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. A partial withdrawal of Israeli troops is expected to take place in Gaza, with the Rafah crossing reopening to allow in humanitarian aid. Negotiations would take place during this phase on a more permanent second phase, which would see the release of the remaining hostages.
Some members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government have said they do not support the deal, but it is believed he has enough support across the Knesset and in government for it to be implemented.
More details soon …
Reuters has a quick snap that an Israeli official has said Hamas has approved a Gaza deal.
More details soon …
There have been clashes between protesters and Israeli police in Tel Aviv, where ultra-Orthodox men have been protesting about plans to end their exemption from being conscripted into Israel’s military.
We reported earlier that Oslo is host today to a meeting of the global alliance for the implementation of the two-state solution. This photograph shows Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre and the Palestinian prime minister Muhammed Mustafa meeting today.
Al Jazeera reports that “Israeli artillery shelling has cut off the power at the the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza.”
It continued “An Al Jazeera correspondent added that Israeli vehicles were beginning to bulldoze the western side of the hospital.”
Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Israel’s military has issued an order for residents in the north of the Gaza Strip to flee their homes ahead of an attack.
#عاجل ‼️ الى سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في منطقة D5 (قرية جباليا) هذا تحذير مسبق قبل الهجوم!
⭕️تطلق المنظمات الإرهابية من جديد القذائف الصاروخية من هذه المنطقة المحددة التي تم تحذيرها عدة مرات في الماضي.
⭕️من أجل أمنكم، انتقلوا فوراً الى المآوي في مركز مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/vnl1riYBU9
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) January 15, 2025
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey is watching developments in the Gaza ceasefire talks carefully, and also issued a warning for other countries to “take their hands off” Syria.
In comments made in parliament, reported by Reuters, Erdoğan said:
If there is really a fear of the Islamic State threat in Syria and the region, the biggest power that has the will and power to resolve this issue is Turkey. Everyone should take their hands off Syria and we, along with our Syrian siblings, will crush the heads of Islamic State, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and other terrorist organisations in a short time.
Additionally, on the topic of Gaza, Haaretz quoted the Turkish president saying Turkey is “closely following the cease-fire negotiations … where genocide and massacres have been ongoing for 15 months.”
Earlier on Wednesday Israel’s military issued a statement claiming to have seized over 3,000 military assets and weapons during its ground operation inside Syria, which it launched after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The funeral has been taking place in Jenin today of six Palestinians, including a 15-year-old child, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank yesterday.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported “The funeral procession set off from in front of Jenin Governmental hospital, where mourners carried the bodies of the martyrs on their shoulders and toured the streets of the city and the camp, arriving at the homes of their families in the camp to bid them farewell.”
Earlier the Palestinian presidency issued a condemnation of the Israeli strike, calling it “a completely unacceptable step.”
Israel’s military, which has been operating inside the south-west of Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has issued a statement claiming it has seized “over 3,300 enemy assets”.
In a post on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said:
The forces have located and confiscated over 3,300 enemy assets, including: Syrian armed forces tanks, weapons, anti-tank missiles and RPGs, shells, mortars and mortar shells, observation equipment, and additional weapons.
The statement additionally claimed that “over 170,000 enemy means have been confiscated by IDF forces and the enemy assets confiscation unit from all combat regions – the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza has issued an updated casualty toll, claiming that at least 46,707 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military offensive since 7 October 2023. In addition it states that 110,265 Palestinians have been wounded.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.