Live: Trump envoy urges Netanyahu to reach ceasefire deal

Israeli forces have positioned themselves in the northern outskirts of Maroun al-Ras, a town in southern Lebanon.

They are stationed near a house and an army patrol has moved towards nearby villages, the Lebanese National News Agency reported.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers. In the past 24 hours, at least 28 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli attacks. Meanwhile on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that he approved a delegation of top security officials to travel to Doha and attend the ongoing talks around a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

This came as Steve Witkoff, US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, urged Netanyahu in a visit to Tel Aviv to reach a ceasefire deal before Trump's inauguration on 20 January.

Here's what else you need to know about Saturday night's developments in Israel's war on Gaza:

• Israel issued new forced displacement orders for the Nuseirat camp's Block 662 in central Gaza. The Israeli military bombed the Nuseirat and Bureij camps.

• The Palestinian Authority's security forces laid siege to the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank as part of an operation against Palestinian fighters. Al Jazeera reported that the PA cut off water and electricity from the camp.

• At least four Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza's Beit Hanoun.

• Israeli media reported that eight Israeli soldiers were wounded after an explosion in northern Jabalia on Friday, although the military did not publicise this at the time.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers. On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that he approved a delegation of top security officials to travel to Doha and attend the ongoing talks around a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

The delegation includes Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and comes after Netanyahu met with Donald Trump's incoming envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

Trump has repeatedly said that he wants a ceasefire deal in Gaza achieved before he enters office, and the last few weeks have seen a renewed sense of urgency to get a deal done.

At the same time, Israel stepped up its attacks on Gaza on Saturday, with several strikes causing Palestinian casualties.

Here's what else you need to know about Saturday's developments in Israel's war on Gaza:

• Anti-government demonstrations were held in Israel calling for the government to bring home the captives still being held in Gaza.

• The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that four of its soldiers were killed while fighting in northern Gaza. Another two were wounded.

• Haaretz reported that Israel's military has approved a plan that would "swiftly withdraw" troops from large parts of the Gaza Strip, including from the Netzarim Corridor.

• The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said on Saturday that it attacked an Israeli military engineering unit at the Netzarim Corridor.

• Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Yemeni group launched several projectiles at a US warship, the USS Harry Truman.

• An Israeli bombardment targeting a school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, northern Gaza, killed at least eight people.

• US envoy Amos Hochstein reportedly assured Lebanese officials that the US guarantees a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon by the end of January.

In a statement on Saturday, Israel’s military said it identified three suspects in the area of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, and attacked the individuals without elaborating.

The army said the individuals were moving inside Lebanese territory.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday that Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and burned their properties in the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

The attack consisted of around 30 settlers, who attacked Palestinian farmers and sheep breeders, beating them and burning their possessions, which included stock barns and tents.

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said on Saturday that its fighters attacked an Israeli military engineering unit at the Netzarim corridor.

The group said that the attack was done in coordination with the Jihad Jibril Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

This past week, Palestinian armed groups have claimed several attacks on the Netzarim corridor, a stretch of land that divides Gaza into its northern and southern parts and is being used by Israeli forces to monitor and control the movement of Palestinians.

Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for the Houthi armed forces, said on Saturday that the Yemeni group launched an attack on a US warship.

The spokesperson for the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said it targeted the USS Harry Truman with cruise missiles and armed drones in the Red Sea. The attack forced the carrier strike group to “leave the theatre of operations and flee to the far north of the Red Sea”.

Ansar Allah has been engaged in battles with the US and UK military for a year now, after the Yemeni group announced it would be stopping any Israel-linked ships from entering their territorial waters. Ansar Allah said the move was made in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's military has approved a plan that would “swiftly withdraw” troops from large parts of the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported on Saturday.

The report from Haaretz said that the military studied numerous ways to pull its troops from Gaza, including via the Netzarim Corridor.

Middle East Eye cannot independently verify this report.

The Netzarim Corridor is a stretch of land that divides Gaza into its northern and southern parts.

It stretches from the Israeli boundary with Gaza City to the Mediterranean Sea, and is being used by Israeli forces to monitor and control the movement of Palestinians.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that four of its soldiers were killed while fighting in northern Gaza.

The identities of the soldiers are: Alexander Fedorenko, 37; Danila Diakov, 21; Yahav Maayan, 19; Eliav Astuker, 19.

The military also said that a reservist officer and another soldier were injured, both of whom are a part of the Nahal Brigade.

Looming over the Palestinian Authority’s battle with anti-occupation armed groups in Jenin are fears that US President-elect Donald Trump is amenable to sidelining the PA’s current leaders in a future post-war Gaza Strip in favour of the United Arab Emirates and its Palestinian allies.

Those concerns led the PA to launch a bigger raid on the city of Jenin as opposed to a smaller operation in the Tulkarm refugee camp that American officials originally floated, one Egyptian official, one former senior Israeli official, and one former senior US official told Middle East Eye this week.

The PA launched its operation at the beginning of December. Since then, fighting has killed at least 16 Palestinians, including six members of the PA’s security forces and at least eight Palestinian residents of the city, including a father and son.

The PA’s concerns about being sidelined in the post-war Gaza Strip come amid signs that Hamas and Israel may be inching closer to a ceasefire in the decimated enclave.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said earlier this week, “we’re very close” to a deal. The US has voiced similar optimism in the past, only for the talks to collapse.

The PA has been at the centre of the Biden administration’s plan for post-war governance of the Gaza Strip since the war erupted after the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, even as Israel has rejected a role for the PA.

But Trump’s return to the White House in less than two weeks has injected new uncertainty into the PA’s future.

Click below to read the full story.

READ MORE: Palestinian Authority fears being sidelined in Gaza by Trump and UAE

Anti-government demonstrations will be held on Saturday and will call for Israel's government to bring home the captives still being held in Gaza.

The main protest will take place in Tel Aviv at what has become known as "Hostages Square", according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which is organising Saturday's demonstration.

Another demonstration will be taking place in front of the Israeli military headquarters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Saturday announced that he has decided to dispatch a delegation of top security officials to Doha to attend the ongoing talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza.

The delegation includes Mossad chief David Barnea, the head of Israel's missing and captive soldiers division and Nitzan Alon, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and political adviser Ophir Falk, according to the Prime Minister's office.

The decision comes after Netanyahu held a meeting with Defence Minister Israel Katz and other top security officials, as well as negotiators with the Biden administration and incoming Trump administration. 

Earlier on Saturday, Netanyahu met with Trump's incoming envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

In response to former Israeli captive Sharon Cunio asking Hamas about the condition of her husband currently being held in Gaza, the Qassam Brigades released a video saying that her husband's fate rests in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "hasn't decided yet".

Cunio and her twin daughters were released by Hamas in November during the ceasefire with Israel, but her husband remains in captivity in Gaza.

A new Israeli attack on Gaza City has killed at least four people and injured more, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

The attack targeted al-Nafaq Street in the city's Daraj area.

Israeli warplanes killed two people after targeting a home in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza city, Wafa news agency reported. 

The attack targeted al-Hayyah family's home on al-Beltaji Street.

This attack followed an earlier Israeli assault on Jabalia in northern Gaza, which killed at least eight people, including two women and two children.