Trump hosts meeting on postwar Gaza

A White House meeting hosted by US President Donald Trump to discuss plans for post-war Gaza ended late on Wednesday, but no precise details were immediately forthcoming.

The meeting was reportedly attended by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump's son-in-law and former Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, as well as high-ranking US officials.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff had earlier promised it would be a "large meeting," telling Fox News: "It's a very comprehensive plan we're putting together."

A White House spokesman told the Reuters news agency that the meeting was a purely political discussion, the sort of which regularly takes place. On the agenda were all aspects of the situation in the Gaza Strip, including the expansion of food deliveries, the plight of Israeli hostages and plans for after the end of the war.

But no specific details emerged. Earlier this year, Trump stunned the world when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and redevelop it as ocean-front real estate. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had praised the proposal, which sparked a global outcry.

As British prime minister from 1997-2007, Tony Blair oversaw the United Kingdom's entry into the War in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War in 2003, alongside the US. After resigning from office, he served as Middle East envoy for the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at the State Department on Wednesday. Rubio smiled for the cameras as journalists shouted questions, but neither man responded during a brief event.

On social media, Saar called the meeting "productive."

In a post on X, Rubio said the meeting served "to reaffirm our two nations' close cooperation that is vital to ensuring security and prosperity in the region." 

The Venice Film Festival kicks off Wednesday night, with Hollywood A-listers and some of the brightest stars of European and world cinema descending on the iconic Italian city for the annual celebration of cinema.

But away from the glamor, the war in Gaza is expected to play a prominent role at the festival, where protesters against Israel's military offensive and its role in the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave are making themselves heard.

Protesters from a local left-wing group held a banner reading "Free Palestine" and "Stop the Genocide" outside the festival's main building.

The small rally is a prelude to a much bigger protest slated for Saturday in the northern Italian city, where hundreds of protest groups are expected to take part.

Figures from the Italian film industry last week published an open letter calling on the festival to take "a clear and unambiguous position" against the war.

Venice director Alberto Barbera told AFP that the festival "does not take direct political positions, it does not make political statements, as it is a cultural space for dialogue, discussion, and openness." Barbera added artists would not be boycotted or censored.

One of the movies in contention for the prestigious Golden Lion prize is Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's "The Voice of Hind Rajab." 

The film tells the story of the death of a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed last year by Israeli soldiers in January 2024 while she and her relatives were escaping an Israeli military offensive.

Dozens of Israeli army soldiers and armored vehicles were involved in an operation in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The Israeli military has confirmed the raid to AFP news agency, but did not say what the goal of the operation was.

"The assault on Nablus is merely a show of force with no justification," Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told AFP.

The head of the organization Palestinian Medical Relief in Nablus, Ghassan Hamdan, told AFP that the Israeli troops were "storming and searching houses and shops inside the old city, while some houses have been turned into military posts." 

Residents of Nablus said the raid began at around 3:00 a.m. (00:00 UTC). They said Israeli soldiers stormed several districts in the old city, which is home to approximately 30,000 people.

Palestinian media Wafa said the raid lasted nine hours, and resulted in one Palestinian being detained.

Several families were also evacuated from their homes, Wafa reported. 

Since the outbreak of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, violence in the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — has also spiked.

Nablus' old city has seen several major Israeli army operations targeting Palestinian militants.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry voiced harsh criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying his effective acknowledgement of the 1915 killings of Armeniansby the Ottoman Empire as genocide is "an attempt to exploit past tragedies for political reasons."

"Netanyahu who is on trial for his role in the genocide committed against the Palestinian people, is attempting to cover up the crimes he and his government has committed," the ministry said in a statement.

While Netanyahu is currently not on trial on such a charge, he has an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court against him over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas. 

When did Netanyahu make his comment on the Armenian genocide?

The host of the US-based PBD podcast late Tuesday had asked Netanyahu why he had not recognized the Armenian genocide.

In response, Netanyahu said "I just did." The host of the PBD podcast, Patrick Bet-David, has Armenian ancestry.  

Up to 1.5 million people were killed during the Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire, which took place between 1915 and 1917.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have returned to Iran, authorities in Tehran confirmed Wednesday.

The UN watchdog's inspectors had left the country in June in the wake of Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Although IAEA director Rafael Grossi said the experts are set to resume their work, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state television that there was still no agreement on how the UN-backed inspectors would cooperate with Iran.

"No final text has yet been approved on the new cooperation framework with the IAEA and views are being exchanged," Araghchi said. 

Tehran allowed the IAEA inspectors back into the country as a deadline set by Germany, France and the United Kingdom was set to expire.

The three European countries — known as the E3 — had said UN sanctions would be reintroduced if Iran did not resolve the dispute over its nuclear programme diplomatically.

The dispute, as well as the strikes in June, are a result of a belief that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran has strongly and repeatedly denied those allegations, insisting that its nuclear activities are intended for civilian purposes.

The displacement of Gaza City's population is "inevitable," an Arabic language spokesperson for the Israeli military has said.

The IDF has intensified its offensive as part of plans to take control of the city, the biggest in the Palestinian enclave, in recent weeks.

"Evacuating Gaza City is inevitable," Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

The spokesman dismissed "false rumors" that there is no space in the south of Gaza for people to go to.

"There are vast empty areas in the southern Strip, just as is the case in the central camps and in Al-Mawasi," Adraee said.

"Every family that relocates to the south will receive the most abundant humanitarian aid," he said.

Israel has been heavily criticized by the United Nations, aid organizations and numerous countries for failing to prevent the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where a famine was declared last week.

Israeli authorities have consistently denied those allegations. 

Iran's security forces killed at least 13 militants in the southeast of the country, state media reported on Wednesday.

In a statement broadcast by Iranian state television, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said "13 terrorists have been killed and a number of others arrested" in Zahedan, in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The TV report said that some of the dead were suspects in last Friday's killing of five police officers who were on a patrol in the province. 

Those killings have been claimed by Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni separatist militant group that wants greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority.

The group is classified as a terrorist organization by Iran and the United States.

The state-run Tasnim news agency reported that eight others were killed in the city of Iranshahr, during an operation by local police and the IRGC.

Last month, Jaish al-Adl stormed a courthouse in Zahedan, killing nine people and injuring 22 others.

The province, which is home to a large Sunni Baluch community, is one of the poorest in Shiite-majority Iran.

Gideon Sa'ar's trip to Washington comes amid stalled efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel's military campaign shows no sign of relenting.

Israel on Wednesday said its forces were "engaged in combat" in Jabaliya and on the outskirts of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave.

In a statement published on Telegram, the IDF said their action "enables the expansion" of its offensive in Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses in Gaza City said Israeli tanks had entered a new area on the outskirts of the city, which was the enclave's most populated before the war began in October 2023.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar is heading to Washington, D.C. for a meeting with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

The trip will be Sa'ar's first in the role, which he took over in November last year. The pair met during Rubio's visit to Israel in February.

US President Donald Trump will chair a meeting of top US and Israeli officials at the White House on Wednesday, envoy Steve Witkoff said.

It was unclear which officials would attend the meeting, which is expected to focus on post-war plans for the devastated Palestinian enclave.

Witkoff reportedly said Tuesday that Washington expects the conflict in the war-torn territory to be resolved by the end of 2025.

The White House meeting is the latest attempt by Trump — who has portrayed himself as a "peacemaker" — to bring about an end to the conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has even nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earlier this year, Trump stirred widespread outrage when he suggested that the US take control of the Gaza Strip and redevelop the enclave into a Mediterranean resort.

Attempts to broker a ceasefire have so far proved unsuccessful. 

The Islamist militant group Hamas said recently that it has agreed to a ceasefire deal proposed by mediators Qatar and Egypt. But Qatar said on Tuesday that Israel has yet to respond.

That proposal, which was a revision of one initially put forward by Witkoff, would see the staggered release of hostages over 60 days in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Last week, Netanyahu ordered talks with Hamas to secure the release of the remaining 50 hostages, only 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

But Netanyahu also insisted that Israel would push on with widely decried plans to seize Gaza City.

German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan, who is on a visit to Israel and the Middle East region, was brought to an air raid shelter on Wednesday after Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a missile at Israel.

The IDF said air raid sirens sounded "in several areas in Israel following a projectile that was launched from Yemen." The IDF statement added that the missile had been intercepted.

Alabali Radovan said that after the alarm sounded, German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) officers, who were accompanying her on the trip, brought her from her hotel room in East Jerusalem to an air raid shelter.

The politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partner in Germany's governing coalition, then continued her trip as planned.

She met in Tel Aviv with the relatives of Israeli hostages, and also visited villagers in the central West Bank. 

After visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories, Alabali Radovan is due to travel to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The missile launch from Yemen comes amid an escalation in recent days between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Israel.

Israel's Air Force on Sunday pounded Yemen's capital city Sanaa, killing at least 10 people, in response to a missile fired last week that targeted Tel Aviv airport.

Israeli authorities said that attack marked the first time the Houthis had used cluster munitions.

Since the conflict in the enclave began in October 2023, the rebels have repeatedly attacked Israel with drone and rocket-fire. 

The Houthis say their attacks on Israel are in solidarity with Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired another missile at Israel early on Wednesday morning.

After air raid sirens had sounded, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the projectile was intercepted.

German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan, who is visiting the Middle East this week, was brought from her hotel room in East Jerusalem to an air raid shelter.

The missile is the latest that the Houthis have launched at Israel. Last week, the rebels fired a rocket towards Tel Aviv airport that, according to the IDF, was equipped for the first time with a warhead containing cluster bombs.

Stay tuned for more live updates of developments in Israel and the Middle East.