Updates: Israel says Hamas must release three living captives on Saturday

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For a deeper look at US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan and why it has been widely rejected, go here.

It has been 16 months since Israel’s war on Gaza began, and the enclave lies in ruins. How much will it cost to rebuild it? Read more here.

Before closing up, here’s a look at the latest developments:

• The US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan.
• Senior Hamas official, Basem Naim, has told Al Jazeera that the group has agreed to release Israeli captives this weekend as scheduled after assurances from mediators Egypt and Qatar that Israel is committed to all aspects of the ceasefire agreement, including moving to the second phase of the deal.
• The Israeli army has launched an air attack in the Gaza Strip, claiming the strike targeted a rocket launcher used to fire a rocket from inside the enclave.
• Denmark has pledged to provide additional support of 10.2 million kroner ($1.4m) to UNRWA, adding that its annual contribution of 105 million kroner ($14.7m) to the UN agency’s budget will be disbursed immediately rather than divided over the year.
• Two Palestinians, including a child, have been killed in the central Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire in the enclave, a medical source has told the Anadolu news agency.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US is eager to hear new proposals by Arab states on Gaza, after President Donald Trump’s plan to forcibly displace the territory’s entire population was roundly rebuked.
• A total of 452 patients and 620 people accompanying them have left Gaza in the 12 working days since the Rafah crossing reopened for medical evacuations, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, Salama Maroof, says in a statement on X.
• France has put together a proposal for UN peacekeepers, including French troops, to replace Israeli forces at key points by a February 18 deadline, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says.

Palestinians in Gaza are again bracing for war after Israeli leaders warned that if captives are not released, the onslaught would resume.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman because it is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held a security and situational assessment in southern Israel, which lasted more than four hours. Officials say they went over a wide variety of scenarios there, including a return to full-scale war in Gaza.

It’s something Netanyahu, in addition to his Defence Minister Israel Katz, has been threatening over the last few days. Katz said that this war would be much more “severe” in the Gaza Strip if Hamas did not release the captives on Saturday.

It’s important to note that Hamas accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire in many different ways, specifically by not allowing critical humanitarian aid into Gaza.

That includes tents, caravans and other temporary housing structures that Palestinians need until they’re able to rebuild their homes in the later phases of this deal.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister said that Israel is not negotiating for phase two and that there are other things on the agenda for them.

Two Australian nurses are being investigated by police over a video which showed them bragging about killing and denying treatment to Israelis.

Hezbollah supporters blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tyres on Thursday to protest against a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.

Some of the young men raised Hezbollah’s yellow flag and held pictures of Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in September, as well as Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, footage from the AFP news agency showed.

The Lebanese army had been deployed there, the National News Agency said, with videos online showing scuffles between angry protesters and soldiers.

An official at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport told AFP that the Public Works and Transport Ministry had asked the facility to inform Iranian carrier Mahan Air that Lebanon could not welcome two of its Beirut-bound flights.

One flight was scheduled for Thursday and another for Friday, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “The two flights were rescheduled to next week,” he added, without saying why.

That date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a November 27 ceasefire agreement that ended more than a year of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities including about two months of all-out war.

More than two-thirds of Democrats in the House of Representatives have urged President Donald Trump to retract remarks proposing a US “takeover” of the Gaza Strip, calling it “morally indefensible”, according to a report by Axios.

Citing a letter signed by 145 of the 215 House Democrats, Axios reported that lawmakers warned the move would “not only be morally indefensible,” but harm the US’s global standing, put US troops in harm’s way and fuel terrorism.

The letter was led by Representatives Sean Casten from Illinois and Brad Sherman of California.

“We are alarmed that an American president would advocate for the forcible removal and permanent displacement of two million people,” it said.

The lawmakers also argued that Trump’s comments “risk jeopardising the opportunity for the United States to work with our Arab partners” on the reconstruction of Gaza and finding a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Zul-Qarnain Nantambu, who gained attention by unfurling Palestinian and Sudanese flags during the US National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl halftime show’s live broadcast on Sunday, said the act was in solidarity with persecuted Muslims.

The NFL has banned him from attending games for life. A devoted New Orleans Saints fan, he hopes the decision will be overturned in four or five years.

Speaking to the Anadolu news agency, Nantambu said he joined the performers at the game and revealed Sudanese and Palestinian flags with “Gaza” inscribed on them during the widely watched halftime show, seen by more than 127 million people in the US.

While US President Donald Trump was in the stadium, Nantambu emerged from among the dancers, waving the flags he concealed in his costume. Initially, many assumed it was part of the show, but the 41-year-old continued displaying the flags until security removed him from the field, with the moment repeatedly aired during the broadcast.

“It was very important to display these flags in front of the president, the other influencers, millionaires, billionaires, and people all over the world when they wouldn’t want that,” he said, describing it as “God’s grace” that he was able to carry out his protest despite strict security measures from the Secret Service, CIA and FBI.

Israeli authorities expect to receive a list of three captives on Friday set for release by Hamas on Saturday, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reports.

Earlier today, Hamas said it will release Israeli captives as planned after mediators Egypt and Qatar pledged to remove obstacles to the implementation of a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said there was no agreement with Hamas regarding the exchange of prisoners and captives on Saturday.

Kan, citing unnamed government sources, said there are ongoing discussions with Hamas regarding the implementation of the agreement.

Denmark has pledged to provide additional support of 10.2 million kroner ($1.4m) to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), adding that its annual contribution of 105 million kroner ($14.7m) to the UN agency’s budget will be disbursed immediately rather than divided over the year.

In a statement, the Danish government said extra contributions will be used to enhance the internal reform process of UNRWA as well as to support its work.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said enhanced funding is a sign of his country’s support for the UN agency’s work.

UNRWA has been providing support to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East for more than 70 years, but on October 28, the Israeli Knesset banned its activities in Israel and areas under Israeli control.

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a young Palestinian man in Bani Naim, a town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Wafa news agency has reported.

Local sources told the agency that the man was rushed to hospital for treatment after Israeli forces opened fire him at the western entrance of the town, injuring him in the foot.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US is eager to hear new proposals by Arab states on Gaza, after President Donald Trump’s plan to forcibly displace the territory’s entire population was roundly rebuked.

Rubio, who will travel to the Middle East on Thursday, said he hoped to discuss ideas during his stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well as Israel, after talks in Washington with Egypt and Jordan.

“Hopefully, they’re going to have a really good plan to present the president,” Rubio said of Arab states.

“Right now, the only plan – they don’t like it – but the only plan is the Trump plan. So if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it,” he told the radio show of conservative hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

The head of the UN Office for Project Services has likened the destruction in the Gaza Strip to the aftermath of “a massive earthquake.”

He warned that early recovery efforts must begin immediately to avoid a further “humanitarian catastrophe”.

“What I saw in Gaza is similar to what you see in a massive earthquake, where things collapse completely,” Jorge Moreira da Silva said during a virtual news conference after spending the day in Gaza.

He emphasised the urgent need to restore critical infrastructure, and said, “The recovery in Gaza is possible the same way that has been possible in places affected by massive earthquakes.”

He noted the “severe” shortages of medical supplies that hospitals are facing and said it leads to further dire consequences.

“Surgeries are being performed without anaesthesia, and infections are spreading due to the lack of antibiotics,” he said, adding that newborns are among the most vulnerable.

Asked about US President Donald Trump’s plans to “take over” Gaza and relocate the population, Moreira da Silva pushed back against any proposal for forced displacement.

“Forced displacement is not consistent with international law,” he said. “Let’s not make the situation more difficult and complex than it is now.”

Frank Smyth, senior adviser for the Committee to Protect Journalists, talks to Al Jazeera about the unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli military and what it means for international law.

The Houthis have gone through something of a transformation in their reputation since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

A rebel group from Yemen’s far north, the Houthis had fought the Yemeni government and a Saudi-led coalition for almost a decade, proving a degree of military prowess, but had little ability to project power regionally, even as they occasionally fired missiles and drones towards Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

And domestically, among many Yemenis, they were unpopular, regarded by their enemies as a theocratic and repressive group that wanted to end Yemen’s republic – even as the Iranian ally defended their takeover of much of Yemen as a popular revolution.

Is it the same now? Read the full story here.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has criticised US President Donald Trump’s proposal to uproot Palestinians from Gaza.

“The Palestinian population must remain on its land,” Parolin said on the sidelines of the Italy-Vatican summit, ANSA news agency reported.

“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” he added.

France has put together a proposal for UN peacekeepers, including French troops, to replace Israeli forces at key points by a February 18 deadline, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says.

On Wednesday, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said the US had authorised a “long-term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon after sources told the Reuters news agency Israel had sought an extension to a February 18 deadline to withdraw its forces from the area.

Under a truce brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since early October.

Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone, and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.

“We have worked to formulate a proposal that can satisfy the security expectations of Israel, which planned to stay longer at certain points on the Blue Line,” Barrot told reporters after a conference on Syria in Paris.

He said the proposal would see UN peacekeepers, including French forces, substituting Israeli forces at observation points. The UN has backed the idea, he said.

The Israeli army has launched an air attack in the Gaza Strip, despite a ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian territory.

A military statement claimed that the strike targeted a rocket launcher used to fire a rocket from inside the enclave.

According to witnesses, an Israeli drone fired a missile at an agricultural area east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

No injuries were reported and there was no immediate Palestinian comment on the Israeli attack.