Live Blog Update| Israel's war on Gaza
This is an entry from: Live: Trump threatens Gaza residents with death as his team holds direct talks with Hamas about captives

Evening recap

6 March 2025 00:33 GMT

Our liveblog is now closed until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- In a stunning post to his TruthSocial platform on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump threatened members of Hamas and all residents of Gaza that they would be "DEAD" if they don't do as he says: release all captives, and leave the enclave.

- This came as US hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler was given the authority to talk directly with Hamas by President Donald Trump, the White House announced on Wednesday. The talks are unprecedented as the US has long designated the group as a terrorist organisation. The two sides have been meeting face to face in Doha. 

- The Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, known as Ynet, is reporting that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has told Israel to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza until his arrival in the region to discuss next steps. A date for the trip has not been set, but it was initially expected sometime this week. 

- Israel must meet international obligations regarding the provision of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

- The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza updated its total death toll since the start of Israel's war there. It noted 35 fatalities, consisting of four newly killed, 30 found bodies and one person who succumbed to their wounds. The total number of deaths in Gaza is now 48,440 since 7 October, 2023.

- Israeli forces have launched a series of overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, detaining multiple Palestinians. The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that four individuals were seized from Kafr ad-Dik, west of Salfit, while six others were arrested in Nablus and the adjacent Balata camp, where troops assaulted a local resident.

- The Trump administration has approved a waiver for $95m in military assistance to Lebanon in a sign that it sees it's making progress against Hezbollah. The approval marks one of the rare instances of foreign military aid moving through the Trump administration.

- Al-Arabiya's United Nations bureau has been informed by a US official that the US military flew a B-52 bomber over the Middle East this week, making it "the third Bomber Task Force mission ordered by Washington in the past month", the channel's UN correspondent said on X. Israeli fighter jets participated in this latest round.