Middle East: Trump's Gaza plan rejected by UAE

Three people were killed after Israeli forces opened fire on a house in the al-Faraa camp near Tubas in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday evening.

WAFA cited security forces as saying that Israeli troops had fired bullets at the house, which was also shelled.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed in a statement that the three victims were "wanted terrorists who sold weapons for terror purposes," adding that two further individuals were detained.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it has received the names of the four hostages whose bodies will be handed over on Thursday, as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal.

The Prime Minister's Office added that it had "updated the families of the hostages through IDF [military] representatives."

The office did not name the hostages. But an Israeli group campaigning for the hostages' release said it had received news of the deaths of three members of the Bibas family.

"We received the heart-shattering news that Shiri Bibas, her children Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz are no longer with us," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Wednesday, also naming the fourth hostage whose body is due to be handed over.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said Thursday would be "a very difficult day" for Israel.

"An upsetting day, a day of grief. We bring home four of our beloved hostages, deceased. We embrace the families, and the heart of an entire nation is torn. My heart is torn," he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that it would resume the mass campaign to vaccinate Gaza's children against polio this weekend.

The new campaign is set to run from February 22 to February 26, targeting more than half a million children in the devastated Palestinian enclave.

"The current environment in Gaza, including overcrowding in shelters and severely damaged water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, which facilitates fecal-oral transmission, create ideal conditions for further spread of poliovirus," the WHO statement said.

"Extensive population movement consequent to the current ceasefire is likely to exacerbate the spread of poliovirus infection," it added.

Last August, a 10-month-old child was infected with the virus and paralyzed, the first case to be confirmed in the Palestinian region in 25 years. While the WHO said no more polio cases have been reported since then, the virus was found in wastewater samples in December and January.

One person was killed in a drone strike on car in a village in Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported.

The strike, which hit the village of Aita al-Shaab, was the first since Israeli troops withdrew from southern border areas in Lebanon under a US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The agency also said that Israeli troops opened fire on the Lebanese side of the border, wounding two people.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire after a year of fighting, including two months of all-out war, that followed the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

That agreement ended on Sunday. 

The Israeli military announced that it charged five reservist soldiers for abusing a Palestinian detainee.

"Today, the military prosecution has filed an indictment against five reservist soldiers under the charges of causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances."

The abuse, some of which was allegedly sexual violence, happened in July last year at the Sde Teiman detention facility where Israel has been holding Gazans.

"The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee's bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee's rectum," the military said in a statement.

The detainee suffered multiple traumatic wounds, including cracked ribs and a punctured lung, and required surgery for his intestinal injuries.

The indictment was related to just one of a series of similar reported incidents that Palestinians and human rights groups said formed a pattern of abuse.

Israel says it will begin indirect talks with Hamas this week on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. In the first phase, tens of thousands of Gazans have returned to what remained of their homes in the north.

United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan informed visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his country rejects the displacement of Palestinians from their land.

Rubio's visit to the UAE comes ahead of a Friday summit in Saudi Arabia of the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, and Jordan, in order to respond to US President Donald Trump's plan for post-war Gaza.

Trump has proposed "taking over" the Palestinian enclave and relocating its 2.4 million inhabitants, primarily to neighboring Jordan and Egypt. He described Gaza as uninhabitable.

Reconstruction in Gaza is clearly necessary. After over a year of Israeli bombardment — in retaliation for the October 7, 2023, attacks by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas — much of the enclave lies in ruins. A fragile ceasefire is currently in effect.

Hamas will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday, doubling the number initially planned.

These are the last living hostages set to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire that started in January. 

The militants reportedly increased the number after Israel allowed mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip.

The hostages are expected to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The warring sides have yet to negotiate a second, more challenging phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas has announced plans to return the bodies of four hostages on Thursday, including the two youngest captives. 

According to Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, the bodies to be released include those of Shiri Bibas and her young children, Kfir and Ariel.

They were nine-months and four-years-old when they were taken during the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.

Hamas claims that three members of the Bibas family were killed in Israeli attacks during the early months of the war in Gaza, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.

"In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil," surviving members of the Bibas family said in a statement released Tuesday by a group representing the relatives of hostages.

"Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over."

The children's father, Yarden, was released by Hamas earlier this month.