Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks

For days, various media outlets have been briefed the same line by Israeli sources: Qatar asked Hamas to leave Doha, with Gaza ceasefire talks going nowhere.

Now there are new reports saying the Palestinian movement's leaders are moving to Turkey instead.

Qatar itself has formally denied that Hamas's political bureau in Doha is closing, though that hasn't stopped a narrative building that Turkey will become Hamas's main base of operations outside Palestine.

Officials in Ankara say they find the timing confusing and suspicious.

Turkish foreign ministry officials have repeatedly underlined this week that Hamas members have been in Turkey since Israel sent them there as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal.

Read more: What's behind the claims Hamas is moving to Turkey?

An Israeli air strike on a residential building in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, killed at least eight Palestinians, according to the official news agency, Wafa.

Witnesses said the attack targeted a building housing members of the al-Kahlout family and displaced civilians. Emergency responders managed to retrieve some victims, transferring them to Kamal Adwan hospital, Wafa reported.

Rescue efforts have been hindered by ongoing air strikes and extensive destruction, leaving some trapped beneath the rubble.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Turkey refused to allow Israeli President Isaac Herzog to fly through its airspace en route to the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan.  

“We did not allow the Israeli president to use our airspace to attend the COP summit. We suggested alternative routes and other options,” Erdogan said during a press briefing at the G20 Summit in Brazil.

“But whether he was able to go or not, I honestly don’t know,” he added.  

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations, following Israel’s war on Gaza last year. However, diplomatic ties remain intact, and Israel’s embassy in Ankara continues to operate.  

For the past decade, Miriam Adelson has ascended in Republican circles in the US and in the political scene in Israel, where she grew up.

The Israeli-American billionaire and casino owner has become a kingmaker in conservative American politics, following in the footsteps of her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021.

Her $100m donation to President-elect Donald Trump's campaign was a watershed moment. With Trump's victory, many eyes are on Miriam and her possible influence on his future policy decisions, most notably on Israel.

Trump is on record vowing to end Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

At the same time, he began changing his critical rhetoric of the war after receiving the whopping campaign boost from Miriam, and several of Trump's nominees have links to the Adelson family.

Read more: Miriam Adelson: Who is the Israeli billionaire backing Trump?

Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, accused Israel of violating international law and using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, blaming the international community’s inaction.  

“Failure by the international community to act has allowed Israel to violate international law and use starvation as a method of war,” Safadi said during a meeting with the UN’s senior humanitarian coordinator, Sigrid Kaag, to discuss efforts to deliver aid to the besieged enclave.  

“Numerous UN organisations have warned that little to no supplies are entering Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, where famine is the brutal reality,” Safadi added. “Yet Israel is maintaining the siege. This brutality should not stand. The aggression has to end. Supplies must be allowed into Gaza.”  

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, will begin a Middle East tour on Wednesday, visiting Jordan, Cyprus, and Lebanon to discuss steps toward sustainable ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.  

According to a statement from his office, the talks will also focus on advancing a long-term solution grounded in a two-state framework between Israel and Palestine.  

During his visit, Borrell is set to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman and deliver a keynote address at the University of Jordan.  

The UN Secretary-General has condemned the ongoing looting of humanitarian aid in Gaza, following reports of 20 deaths during a security operation against criminal gangs in the besieged enclave.  

“Armed looting has become systematic and must end immediately. It is hindering life-saving aid operations and further endangering the lives of our staff,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres.  

He also stressed that “the use of law enforcement operations must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate.”  

Israel's total blockade of Gaza, imposed early in last year’s war, has pushed parts of the territory to the brink of famine, the UN warned on 9 November.  

Residents of southern Gaza have described gangs, who appear to operate with implicit Israeli backing, as making their already difficult situation all the more nightmarish.

Two Palestinian men on Tuesday were fatally shot by the Israeli army in the eastern part of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to the health ministry.  

The Palestine Red Crescent Society earlier reported that nine Palestinians were injured when Israeli forces opened fire in the area.  

Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank have escalated since the Gaza war began last year, with Israeli forces arresting over 11,500 Palestinians during this period and killing more than 700 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday a $5m reward for anyone who secures the release of captives held in Gaza by Hamas.  

“Anybody who brings out a hostage will find with us a secure way for them and their family to leave [Gaza],” Netanyahu stated in a video filmed within Palestinian territory. “We will also give them a reward of $5m for each hostage.”

Some Democrats will read this piece in hopes of finding an apology, or maybe simply an acknowledgement of a strategic miscalculation on the part of many Muslim leaders who advocated for third-party voting in the recent US presidential election.

They will find no such concession here, and I urge them to self-reflect instead on the state of their party - one that oversaw and continues to oversee the Israeli genocide of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a process that has continued for more than 13 months. 

Their party didn’t sit silently as this happened, nor did it turn a blind eye; rather the Biden administration actively supported the genocide financially, militarily, and in every way imaginable.

As for the incoming president, Donald Trump, his America First policy agenda - peddled since his last term in office not as a departure from US global dominance, but as a shift to balancing global powers and making “foreign policy decisions based on outcomes, not on ideology” - has been touted as a reprioritisation of American citizens and their concerns. 

But Trump’s first tenure revealed this promise to be smoke and mirrors - and his second-term cabinet nominations paint an even bleaker picture.

Read more: Trump is not America First. Like Biden, he's Israel First

The Lebanese army confirmed that three of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday when an Israeli strike targeted one of its centres in the town of Sarafand, located in the Sidon district of southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly turned down a new ceasefire agreement mediated by Turkey, according to a Hamas leadership source cited by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the sister site of The New Arab.  

Turkey had offered to mediate between Israel and Hamas to help end the ongoing war on Gaza and expressed willingness to negotiate directly with Hamas leaders.  

Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, secretly visited Turkey last Saturday.

During the visit, he discussed the fate of Israeli captives held by Hamas and other Gaza-based factions with Turkish intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin.

Two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli forces in the eastern area of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed on Tuesday.  

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported earlier that nine Palestinians were wounded during the raid when Israeli troops opened fire in the area.  

Israeli operations in the West Bank have escalated significantly since the war on Gaza began last year, with Israeli forces arresting over 11,500 Palestinians during this period.  

Amana, an Israeli group supporting illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, criticised the US decision to impose sanctions against it.  

US authorities announced sanctions on Amana, its construction arm Binyanei Bar Amana, and others linked to “violent actors in the West Bank” .

Despite the move, settlers are optimistic that President-elect Donald Trump will reverse the sanctions after taking office in January.  

“We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted,” Amana said, referencing Trump’s expected leniency toward Israeli policies.  

Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council overseeing northern West Bank settlements, described the sanctions as “the final act of the Biden administration, which is cynical and hostile towards the Near East’s only democracy” .

Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed Israel’s complaint to the UN Security Council regarding attacks by Iraqi Shia militias. He called the move a “pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and an attempt to “expand the war in the region.”  

Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shared a letter to the Security Council, stating: “Israel has the inherent right to self-defence … and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”  

Iraqi militias under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have conducted drone strikes on Israeli targets in recent months, backing Hamas and Hezbollah in the region's ongoing conflicts.  

Saar claimed that some of these militias are part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, urging Baghdad to “take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks.”  

Al-Sudani’s office responded, affirming Iraq’s refusal to engage in the regional conflict and emphasizing efforts to provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians and Lebanese affected by the crisis.