Middle East latest: Israel starts planning for Palestinians to leave Gaza

Israel says it has begun preparations for the departure of Palestinians from Gaza despite widespread international rejection of President Donald Trump’s plan to empty the war-devastated territory of its population. There were no immediate signs of such preparations on the ground Thursday.

Egypt has launched a behind-the-scenes diplomatic blitz against the proposal, warning it would put its peace deal with Israel at risk, officials said. The Palestinians have vehemently rejected Trump’s proposal, fearing Israel would never allow refugees to return.

The Trump administration has already dialed back aspects of the proposal, saying the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. U.S. officials have provided few details about how or when the plan would be carried out.

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Here's the latest:

Rubio will visit Middle East

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

Fresh from his first trip abroad as America's senior diplomat to Central America, Rubio will visit Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference and then go on to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from Feb. 13 to 18, the official told reporters aboard Rubio’s plane. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip hasn’t been formally announced yet.

None of the Arab nations Rubio plans to visit supports Trump’s proposal to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

The Trump administration is hoping to seal an agreement to enter a second phase of a fragile Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would extend the truce and see a further release of hostages. Rubio’s first foray into Middle East peacemaking will follow visits to Washington this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and early next week by Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

WHO describes the scale of Gaza's immense health needs

UNITED NATIONS – The top World Health Organization official for Gaza said only 18 of 36 hospitals were partially functional and just 57 of 142 primary health care centers were operating.

Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 5, there were 139 wounded and ill patients evacuated from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing, alongside 197 companions, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn said Thursday.

He said between 12,000 and 14,000 patients still need medical evacuation including 5,000 children – and at the current rate, medical evacuations will take five to 10 years and critically ill patients will die.

The ceasefire has enabled the WHO to bring in 101 trucks with medical supplies, Peeperkorn told a U.N. press conference by video from Gaza.

He urgently pleaded for the opening of another medical evacuation corridor, for example from northern Gaza through the Eretz crossing with Israel to hospitals in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Trump's secretary of state insists relocating Palestinians out of Gaza would be temporary

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemingly contradicted President Donald Trump again on Thursday when talking about the proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and relocate Palestinians from the territory, insisting this would just be a temporary move.

“I think that’s just a realistic reality that in order to fix a place like that, people are going to have to live somewhere else in the interim,” Rubio said in a press conference in the Dominican Republic. He said the Gaza Strip was “not habitable.”

The top U.S. diplomat and other officials have attempted to walk back the idea that Trump wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.

But Trump took to his social media platform earlier Thursday to insist the U.S. could take over Gaza without sending in soldiers and that Palestinians would be resettled elsewhere in the region with new and modern homes and “would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free.”

Syria cracks down on smuggling along its border with Lebanon

BEIRUT — Syrian security forces are cracking down on smuggling routes for weapons and other contraband along the porous border with Lebanon, Syria’s state-run news agency reported Thursday.

Several people allegedly involved in smuggling were arrested in the Syrian border town of Hawik, where the Border Security Administration also seized arms and other contraband, the media office in Syria’s Homs province told the news agency SANA.

Clashes broke out between security forces and the alleged smugglers, the media office said, and two members of the security forces were briefly captured. Videos circulated on social media and in Syrian and Lebanese news outlets showed two men being beaten while detained by gunmen.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which has relied on Syria as a corridor for weapons shipments from Iran, has operated in villages on both sides of the border for years. Lebanese tribes involved in drug manufacturing and smuggling also use these border areas for their operations.

WFP seeks more help for millions of hungry people in Gaza

ROME — The World Food Program’s deputy executive director on Thursday appealed to the international community to do more to help millions of people in Gaza to rebuild their lives.

WFP has has helped more than 525,000 people with food parcels, hot meals and cash, and is operating 22 bakeries across Gaza.

“This is a strong step in the right direction but it is not enough,” said Carl Skau, following a two-day visit that included stops in Jabaliya, Gaza City and Khan Younis. “The scale of the needs is enormous, and progress must be maintained. The ceasefire must hold.”

He called for broad cooperation on restoring water, sanitation, shelter and getting children back to school.

Spain, Ireland and Norway reject Israeli suggestion that they take in Palestinians from Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post Thursday that Spain, Norway and Ireland should take in Palestinians from Gaza.

The countries symbolically recognized a Palestinian state last year and have criticized Israel over its conduct during the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse,” Katz said.

The three Western European nations roundly rejected the idea.

“Gaza is the land of Gazans,” Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE, adding that the territory must be part of a future Palestinian state.

A spokesman for Ireland’s minister of foreign affairs said “the objective must be that the people of Palestine return safely to their home and any comments to the contrary are unhelpful and a source of distraction.”

Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik said international law doesn’t allow civilians to be forced out of a military-occupied territory to another country.

“The Palestinian people have a fundamental, independent right to self-determination and their own state,” he said in a statement

Egypt objects to any Israeli plan for displacing Gaza's population

MADRID — Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Thursday repeated the country's opposition to any Israeli plan for “eliminating the Palestinian cause” by resettling Gaza's population outside the territory — even on a temporary basis.

Egypt, which helped broker the current truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, said Israel's “irresponsible behavior" undermines negotiations over the ceasefire's second phase and risks a return to fighting.

“This behavior provokes the return of hostilities, and poses risks on the entire region and the foundations of peace,” the statement said.

Israeli defense minister tells military to plan for large numbers of Palestinians leaving Gaza by land, sea and air

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister says he has instructed the army to prepare plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip in line with President Donald Trump’s proposal for the war-ravaged territory.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday the plan “will include options for exit at land crossings as well as special arrangements for exit by sea and air.”

He said he welcomed Trump’s “bold plan, which could allow a large population in Gaza to leave for various places in the world.”

He did not say whether Palestinians would be able to one day return to Gaza, which has been rendered largely uninhabitable by Israel’s 15-month military campaign against Hamas.

There were no immediate signs of such preparations on the ground Thursday and Katz did not give details about how the military planned to facilitate the departures.

Trump on Wednesday proposed that most of Gaza’s population be “permanently” resettled elsewhere while the United States rebuilds the territory.

Palestinians say they don’t want to leave. Trump’s plan was roundly rejected by the Palestinians and much of the international community. Rights groups said it would amount to forcible displacement in violation of international law.

U.S. officials later said the relocation would only be temporary, but Palestinians fear Israel would never allow them to return, deepening and perpetuating a refugee crisis dating back to the establishment of the state.

Displaced Palestinians endure second cold, wet winter since war began

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Frigid winds have blown down tents in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands are still homeless despite a two-week-old ceasefire.

Palestinians in the territory are enduring their second cold, wet winter since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack ignited the war with Israel. Hundreds of thousands returned to northern Gaza last month after the truce took hold, but many found their homes had been smashed to rubble.

Temperatures dropped to 8 degrees Celsius (46 F) overnight.

Israel sentences reserve soldier to prison for beating Palestinian detainees

TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli military court has sentenced a reserve soldier to seven months in prison for beating Palestinian detainees at a detention facility where rights groups say abuses were rampant.

The military said the soldier, who served as a guard at the Sde Teiman facility, was convicted of beating detainees with his fists and weapons on several occasions while they were handcuffed and blindfolded.

It said these acts “were committed in the presence of other soldiers, some of whom called on him to stop, and were even recorded on the defendant’s cell phone.”

The facility is where Israel has held Palestinian prisoners throughout the war in Gaza. Israel has long been accused of failing to hold its soldiers accountable for crimes committed against Palestinians, and the allegations have intensified during the war in Gaza. Israel says its forces act in accordance with military and international law.

In July, Israeli military police arrested 10 soldiers from Sde Teiman over the suspected sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee at the facility. The high-profile case triggered protests in support of the soldiers and calls by politicians for their release. At least five of them were released without charge.

An investigation by The Associated Press and multiple reports by rights groups have exposed abysmal conditions and abuses at Sde Teiman. After the accusations of harsh treatment prompted a legal appeal last year to close the facility, Israel said it was transferring the bulk of Palestinian detainees out of Sde Teiman and upgrading it.

Trump: ‘No US soldiers would be needed’ for his Gaza proposal

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said “no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. He added that Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

He added that the U.S. would work “with great development teams from all over the World,” and “slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”

The comments come two days after Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, stunned the world with his plan for relocating Gaza residents and redeveloping the land.

Trump’s top diplomat and his chief spokesperson on Wednesday walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rebuffed his suggestion that the U.S. take “ownership” of the territory.

Human Rights Watch says Trump plan could amount to ‘ethnic cleansing’

AMMAN, Jordan — Human Rights Watch says President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, if implemented, could amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

The euphemism, which came into wide use after the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, refers to the forcible displacement of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.

Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it is unclear if Trump’s plan will be implemented, but that the statement of intent was “very concerning.”

“If it were to transform into state policy, it would potentially amount to ethnic cleansing. And if done with intent, it would be forced displacement. And if that forced displacement was done as part of a systematic and widespread attack against the civilian population as a matter of state policy, it would actually be a crime against humanity,” he said.

Trump and Israeli officials who support the plan portray it as voluntary migration and have called on other countries to absorb Palestinians who want to leave. Palestinians insist they want to stay in their homeland and fear Israel would never allow them to return.

Coogle said countries are obliged to consider individual applications for asylum, but “do not have an obligation to participate in the forced displacement of the entire population of the Gaza Strip.”

Palestinians hold protest against Trump's Gaza proposal

DEIR AL-BALAH, The Gaza Strip — Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have protested President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate most of the territory’s population.

Thursday’s protest outside a hospital in central Gaza was organized by a breakaway faction of the secular Fatah movement that is led by Mohammed Dahlan, who is closely allied with the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020, has joined other Arab countries in rejecting any expulsion of Palestinians and reiterating calls for a Palestinian state

Emad Mohsen, an organizer of the demonstration, said they were protesting against Trump’s “criminal hellish plan” and affirming their desire to remain in their homeland. The protesters carried signs calling for the rebuilding of Gaza by its own residents.

Trump, and Israeli officials who have welcomed his plan, depict the proposed relocation from war-ravaged Gaza as voluntary, but the Palestinians have universally expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.

Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave.

Pakistan calls Gaza proposal ‘deeply troubling’

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan says the “proposal to displace the people of Gaza is deeply troubling and unjust."

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the “Palestinian land belongs to the Palestinian people and the only viable and just option is the two-state solution” under the UN Security Council resolutions.

“Any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land as well as to continue illegal settlements would be a blatant violation of the international law, and undermine the peace and security of the entire region,” it said.

Pakistan also reiterated its call for the return of all displaced Palestinians to their homes, including in Gaza, and “a complete withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the occupied territories”.

Egyptian officials try to head off Trump's proposal for Gaza

CAIRO — Egypt has launched a behind-the-scenes diplomatic blitz to try and head off President Donald Trump’s proposal for the mass relocation of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has warned that such a plan could undermine its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability and American influence in the Middle East for decades.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not publicly responded to Trump’s stunning proposal that most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians be relocated and the United States take charge of rebuilding the territory.

But two Egyptian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said Cairo has made clear to the Trump administration and Israel that it will resist any such proposal, and that the peace deal with Israel — which has stood for nearly half a century — is at risk.

They said the message has been delivered to the US. government and Congress, as well as Israel’s Western European allies, including Britain, France and Germany.

A Western diplomat in Cairo, also speaking anonymously because the discussions have not been made public, confirmed receiving the message from Egypt through multiple channels. The diplomat said Egypt viewed the plan as a threat to its national security.

The diplomat said Egypt rejected similar proposals from the Biden administration and European countries early in the war, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel. The earlier proposals were broached privately, while Trump announced his plan Tuesday at a White House press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

-- By Samy Magdy

2 Israeli soldiers die after crane accidentally collapses in Gaza

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says two soldiers died and another was severely injured in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli media on Thursday reported that the deaths were caused by the accidental collapse of a crane in the border area. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

They are the first Israeli soldiers to die in Gaza since a ceasefire agreement took hold last month, halting the 15-month war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire, which runs until early March, Israeli forces have withdrawn from most of the territory and are mainly concentrated along the border. The military has warned Palestinians to avoid areas where troops are operating and has opened fire on people accused of violating the terms of the agreement.

In the current phase, Hamas is set to gradually free a total of 33 hostages captured in the initial attack in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The terms of the second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in return for more prisoners and a lasting ceasefire, have yet to be agreed upon.