Here are Thursday’s updates on Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and the Middle East.
■ U.S. President Donald Trump credited Hamas as « a big factor » in last week’s recovery of the remains of Ran Gvili, the last remaining Israeli hostage in Gaza, and said that the expectation is now that the group will demilitarize and disarm, in a White House cabinet meeting.
■ The Israeli military said it struck a « Hamas terrorist who was planning to carry out an imminent terror attack against IDF troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip. »
■ The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it oversaw the transfer of 15 bodies of Palestinians held by Israel to the Gaza Strip, as part of the exchange of deceased hostages and detainees between Israeli and Palestinian forces following the Israel-Hamas cease-fire.
■ Palestinian media outlets reported that two Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an IDF drone strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
■ EU foreign ministers decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, European Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas announced. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that Europe is « busy fanning the flames » by designating the Guard as a « terrorist organization, » he said in a post on X.
■ Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces will carry out live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital oil export route, on February 1 and 2, Iranian Press TV reported. Meanwhile, an additional U.S. Navy destroyer warship has arrived in the Middle East, a U.S. official told Reuters.
