U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to lift the Biden administration's freeze on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in his first days in office, Walla News reported on Monday, citing an interview with the Israeli envoy to Washington.
Israel's jobless rate slipped to 2.6% in December from 2.7% a month earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, indicating that military conflict continued to impact the country's labour market.
The 90 Palestinian prisoners that were in Israeli custody have been released, an Israeli prison service spokesperson said in a statement early Monday morning local time – about 80 minutes past the conclusion of Day 1 of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage exchange deal.
The ceasefire as agreed to in Qatar is set to last 42 days. Over that period, 33 hostages are expected to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, there will be a slow withdrawal of the Israeli military from urban centers in Gaza and a surge of humanitarian aid.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is due to start at 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Sunday.
For the first time in 471 days, Palestinian medics in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip didn't report a single death from Israeli military action on Monday, as a tense ceasefire between Hamas and Israel settled into place.
Three female hostages were freed by Hamas under the terms of an Israeli cease-fire agreement, which was delayed by several hours Sunday.
The Israeli military also moved into dozens of new positions across southern Lebanon in the first 40 days of the ceasefire.
As the cease-fire deal is underway between Israel and Hamas terrorists, some military and political commentators in Israel are worried that the deal will enable the Iran-backed terror group to rearm.
Multiple people on social media, including conservative media personality Candace Owens, have claimed that Israeli lobbying groups have pushed the U.S. to ban TikTok because of the high number of pro-Palestine content being created and shared on the app.
Families of hostages and deceased loved ones who are still in Gaza were recognized during Steve Witkoff’s speech during the inaugural parade on Monday. Witkoff is the newly appointed Special Envoy to the Middle East.