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      Relief in Israel as Newly Released Hostages Appear to Be in Better Shape

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      Hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to watch the televised handover of three hostages from Gaza, cheering, waving Israeli flags and shedding tears of joy — a big change from the tears of shock and anguish prompted by a similar release a week ago, when the hostages were clearly in poor physical condition.“Three pieces have returned to my heart,” said Doron Zexer, a prominent advocate for the hostages, part of the crowd watching the ceremony in Gaza where the Red Cross received the three Israelis — Sasha Trupanov, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Iair Horn.At last week’s release, the condition of the hostages set off shock waves across Israel, prompting many to compare them to Holocaust survivors.That fueled pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to secure the release of the remaining hostages as quickly as possible, and contributed to an emotional week in Israel. Hamas initially threatened to delay handing over any more captives, nearly derailing a cease-fire agreement.But Saturday’s release went ahead as planned. There appeared to be fewer people gathered in Hostages Square — a plaza in Tel Aviv where families of the captives and their supporters have gone each week to watch live broadcasts of the hostage releases — than on previous release days.Yair Horn, one of the three hostages released from Gaza on Saturday, being escorted by a Palestinian fighter.Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why Trump’s Plan to Relocate Gazans Is Untenable for Jordan

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      President Trump’s plan would send a huge number of refugees to Jordan, adding new frictions to the kingdom’s often tense, sometimes violent history with displaced Palestinians.President Trump’s proposal that the United States take over the Gaza Strip while other countries take in the Palestinians who live there is a deal King Abdullah II of Jordan cannot make.The monarch rebuffed Mr. Trump gently, telling him at the White House on Tuesday that the American president was essential to peace in the Middle East and pledging that Jordan would host more Palestinians in need of medical care. And the approach seemed to convince Mr. Trump to walk back threats made before the visit about withdrawing aid to Jordan if it rejected his plan.Still, the notion has laid bare dilemmas for King Abdullah, whose family — and the land they have ruled for generations — has a complex relationship with Palestinians that has at times turned violent.Here’s what to know about the president’s plan and the history informing the king’s rejection.Here’s what you need to know:What is the plan?Why is the plan problematic for Jordan?What has been Jordan’s relationship to Palestinians?When did Jordan clash with Palestinians?Are there personal concerns for the king?What is the plan?The Tel al-Zaatar area east of Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesThe president’s proposal is vague and came as a surprise to even his advisers when he presented it last week. Mr. Trump has not been consistent or clear about what it entails except insofar as his plan certainly appears to rely on Jordan and Egypt, among others, accepting a huge influx of Palestinian refugees.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Calls Gaza a ‘Big Real Estate Site,’ Reiterating Plan for U.S. Takeover

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      President Trump again reiterated his proposal for the United States to take over Gaza, telling reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that the strip of land was “a big real estate site” that the United States was “going to own.”He also mentioned building “some beautiful sites for the people, the Palestinians, to live in.” The location of such sites was not clear. Mr. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the two million Palestinians from the enclave be relocated.Mr. Trump’s comments added even more confusion around the proposal, which he first announced last week at a news conference at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The idea has drawn widespread international condemnation, with some critics likening it to ethnic cleansing. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international law and a war crime, according to experts.Top officials in the Trump administration attempted to walk back the president’s comments on Wednesday, a day after he first announced the idea. They insisted President Trump had not committed to sending American troops to Gaza and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary.On Sunday, as Mr. Trump was traveling to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans, he raised the proposal again.“Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it,” he said of Gaza, according to an audio recording from Air Force One that was shared with reporters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Super Bowl Halftime Performer Surprised Organizers With a Sudan-Gaza Flag

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      There it was, in the corner of the screen during the climactic moment of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday: A protester unfurling a combined Palestinian and Sudanese flag just as Lamar — and the entire stadium — sang the “it’s probably A-minooooor” punchline from his chart-topping diss track “Not Like Us.”The N.F.L. said in a statement that the protester was part of the 400-member field cast.“The individual hid the item on his possession and unveiled it late in the show,” the league said. “No one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent.”A representative for Roc Nation, the entertainment company behind the halftime show, said in a statement, “The act by the individual was neither planned nor part of the production and was never in any rehearsal.”Amid the dozens of dancers in red, white, blue and black, the individual could be seen standing on the hood of the stage’s centerpiece, a Buick Grand National GNX, the rare car for which Lamar named his latest album, “GNX.” Images from the ground and clips on social media showed a person in black sweats — matching the extras onstage — with “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on the white swath of the flags, alongside a heart and a solidarity fist.As Lamar transitioned into his final song, “TV Off,” from “GNX,” the flag-bearer could be seen jumping from the car and leaving the stage, running in circles with the flag waving in his hands until being tackled by security and removed from the field.Emmanuel Morgan More

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      Israeli Troops Withdraw From Netzarim Corridor in Gaza

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      Israel’s military withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor under the cease-fire with Hamas. During the war, troops patrolled the zone that splits the territory, preventing evacuated Palestinians from returning north.Israel’s military withdrew Sunday from a key corridor dividing the Gaza Strip, leaving nearly all of the territory’s north as required by a tenuous cease-fire with Hamas ahead of any negotiations for a longer-lasting agreement.The military’s departure from the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza came as the Israeli government sent a delegation to Qatar over the weekend to discuss the next group of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed during the cease-fire agreement’s initial phase, which came into effect last month and is ongoing. The gaunt appearances of three Israeli hostages who were released on Saturday, stoking public comparisons to Holocaust victims, heaped new pressure on the negotiations.In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said troops were “implementing the agreement” to leave the corridor and allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to continue returning home to northern Gaza.Two Israeli military officials and a soldier in Gaza who were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly or by name said the troops had already left the Netzarim Corridor by Sunday morning.Hamas also said that Israeli troops had departed from the Netzarim Corridor, saying in a statement that it was “a victory for the will of our people.”A drone view after Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday.ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      USAID Turmoil Threatens Key Aid Supplies to Gaza, Officials Say

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      The Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the United States Agency for International Development have endangered the funding for food, tents and medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, according to U.S. officials and workers for humanitarian groups funded by the agency.Officials said that the threats to the aid supply chain risked destabilizing the fragile cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which is contingent on the weekly entry of 4,200 aid and commercial trucks to the territory.With almost all U.S.A.I.D. staff set to be placed on administrative leave by Friday night, there will be only a handful of officials left to sign off on and audit hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding payments to the agency’s partners on the ground in Gaza, raising alarm about how those groups will fund their operations.Of more than 200 officials in the agency’s Mideast team, just 21 will remain in post to manage its entire regional portfolio, according to an internal agency email reviewed by The New York Times. The team that organizes emergency aid supplies in dozens of crisis zones around the world each year, of which Gaza was just one, is down to just 70 staff members from more than 1,000.This is expected to slow or prevent the delivery of food packages to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as well as tents, mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits and medical treatment, according to three officials and an aid worker. All four people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.While the aid agency does not operate inside Gaza, it has provided roughly $1 billion in aid to international aid groups on the ground since the war began in October 2023 — about a third of the total aid response, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of millions of dollars have yet to be disbursed and now may never be transferred to United Nations agencies and other major aid organizations, three officials said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Imposes Sanctions on the ICC, Accusing It of Targeting the U.S. and Israel

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      President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, saying that his administration would “impose tangible and significant consequences” on people who work on investigations that threaten the national security of the United States and its allies, including Israel.The court faced backlash from the U.S. and Israel in November over its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of its conflict with Hamas in Gaza.Mr. Trump’s order said that the court’s actions against Israel and its preliminary investigations concerning the United States “set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel” by exposing them to harassment and the risk of international criminal prosecution.“The I.C.C. has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power” in issuing the warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, the order said.The order said the sanctions could include the blocking of purchases of property and assets, and barring I.C.C. officials and their immediate family members from entering the United States.Neither the United States nor Israel recognizes the I.C.C.’s jurisdiction, but the court accepted Palestine as a member in 2015, giving it jurisdiction over international crimes that take place in Gaza.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Netanyahu Tells Trump Israel Must ‘Complete Its Victory’

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      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he had told President-elect Donald J. Trump in a telephone conversation over the weekend that Israel needed to “complete its victory” over Iranian proxies and bring back hostages held in Gaza.Mr. Netanyahu, who described Mr. Trump as a friend, said in a statement on Sunday that their latest discussion had been “very friendly, warm and important.” The Israeli prime minister has been quick to cultivate his relationship with Mr. Trump, and was among the first leaders to call him after his victory in November.Many analysts have said that the incoming president, who has called for a halt to the war in Gaza, is broadly supportive of the Israeli government’s goal of ending the conflict with Hamas on its terms. This month, Mr. Trump threatened “hell to pay” if the hostages in Gaza were not freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20, prompting praise from Mr. Netanyahu, who said the statement added to pressure on Hamas.Mr. Netanyahu said that he had explained to Mr. Trump in their call on Saturday that Israel had dealt “a tough blow” to both the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and to Hamas, which attacked Israel in October 2023, setting off the war in Gaza. Both groups have been supported by Iran. Mr. Trump did not immediately comment on the call.Israel has largely destroyed Hamas as a military organization, and killed its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in an offensive that has shattered the enclave and killed tens of thousands of people. It also launched an intense campaign of airstrikes and ground attacks in Lebanon that severely weakened Hezbollah, killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The two sides began observing a cease-fire last month. In recent days, amid the fall of Syria’s longtime leader, Bashar al-Assad, Israeli forces have also moved into Syria beyond the Golan Heights and launched airstrikes on military targets in that country.Mr. Netanyahu said he had told Mr. Trump that Israel was “committed to preventing Hezbollah’s rearmament” and used the statement to repeat a warning to Hezbollah and Iran that Israel “will continue acting against you as much as necessary, on any front and at any time.”The Biden administration, in its final weeks, has intensified efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza. The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said last week that the administration aimed to seal a deal this month that would halt fighting in exchange for a return of hostages, although months of talks involving Israel and Hamas have failed to reach a breakthrough. More