Trump appoints Blair, Kushner and Rubio to Gaza ‘board of peace’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/16/trump-gaza-board-rubio-blair
White House says seven-strong board, chaired by Trump, will steer Gaza through next phase of reconstruction
Donald Trump has appointed the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and former British prime minister Tony Blair to a newly created Gaza “board of peace”, a body he claims will steer the next phase of reconstruction and governance in the war-ravaged territory.
The White House said the seven-strong “founding executive board” will also include Trump’s special envoy, the property developer Steve Witkoff; the World Bank president, Ajay Banga; and the president’s son-in-law and long-time adviser Jared Kushner. Trump himself will serve as chair, with further appointments expected in the coming weeks.
“Each executive board member will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success, including, but not limited to, governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization,” a White House statement said.
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Blair’s inclusion is likely to prove contentious in the region. The former Labour leader remains a divisive figure in the Middle East for his role in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Soon after leaving office in 2007 he became special representative of the Quartet, a group composed of the US, EU, Russia and the UN seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But he became seen as too close to the Israelis and stepped down in 2015.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/16/trump-gaza-board-rubio-blair
Palestine urges urgent international pressure on Israel to halt Gaza humanitarian crisis
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Palestinian Cabinet on Tuesday called for urgent international pressure on Israel to halt the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, as displaced families continue to endure severe cold and widespread destruction of shelters.
In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the Cabinet urged the international community to intervene immediately to end the “humanitarian tragedy in Gaza”. It stressed that any meaningful solution requires lifting the siege, reopening border crossings, and allowing the entry of humanitarian aid, construction materials and mobile homes to address the growing needs of the population.
The Cabinet held the occupying authorities and the international community fully responsible for the deaths of children caused by exposure to extreme cold, particularly after thousands of tents sheltering displaced families were flooded, uprooted or destroyed.
READ: UNICEF says more than 100 children killed in Gaza since ceasefire
Earlier on Tuesday, authorities in the Gaza Strip reported that the number of people who have died from cold-related causes since the start of the winter season had risen to seven, bringing the total to 24 deaths, including 21 children, since the outbreak of the Israeli war in October 2023.
During its meeting, the Cabinet reviewed the work of the government’s emergency operations room in Gaza. Despite severe restrictions imposed by Israel, the statement said the operations room had managed to carry out several relief measures, including distributing hundreds of locally produced tents, relocating families to safer areas, reinforcing water supplies and clearing rubble from key roads.
The Palestinian Cabinet reiterated that the scale of the crisis requires immediate and decisive international action to protect civilians and alleviate their suffering.
READ: UN reports nearly 95,000 child malnutrition cases in Gaza Strip in 2025
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike
Four more who had paused their strikes choose not to continue after government opts against giving contract to Elbit Systems UK
Three Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners have announced the end of their hunger strike after the government decided not to award a £2bn contract to the Israeli arms company subsidiary Elbit Systems UK – with another four who had paused their protest choosing not to continue.
Fears had been growing for the welfare of those taking part. On Wednesday, Heba Muraisi, 31, would have been on day 73 of refusing food, the same number of days as reached by the Irish republican hunger striker Kieran Doherty, who survived the longest of 10 men who died in a 1981 action. The earliest death among the Irish republicans was after 46 days, raising fears about the risk to life of the prisoners in jail awaiting trial for offences relating to protests claimed by Palestine Action.
Among their demands had been to shut down Elbit Systems, a slogan used by Palestine Action in its campaign against the company’s UK sites.
Late on Wednesday, Prisoners for Palestine said the decision not to grant Elbit Systems UK the contract, under which it would have trained 60,000 British troops a year, fulfilled a key demand. It said the company had won more than 10 public contracts since 2012, and so the decision by the Ministry of Defence marked a shift in thinking among officials.
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The Guardian understands that Umar Khalid, 22, who resumed his hunger strike on Saturday after previously pausing it, is continuing to refuse food.
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Muraisi’s transfer back to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey had been accepted by HMP New Hall in Wakefield, to which she was moved last year, hundreds of miles from her family and friends. Her transfer had been another demand of the hunger strikers.
Prisoners for Palestine said Hoxha had been offered a meeting with the head of the joint extremism unit at her prison, which it said “orchestrates the prisoners’ treatment as ‘terrorists’”.
Another demand had been an end to the censorship of prisoners’ communications. The group said: “During the hunger strike, some of the prisoners started receiving bulk packages of withheld mail, and in one case received an apology from prison staff for a letter that was delayed by six months. Books on the topics of Gaza and feminism have also been given after months of waiting.
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See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/14/three-palestine-action-protesters-end-their-hunger-strike
Israel’s attacks on Gaza intensify, as freezing temperatures cost more lives
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Israel has committed hundreds of ceasefire violations since October 2025, thwarting the possibility of advancing to phase two of the talks
Three months after the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal took effect, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued carrying out grave violations across the besieged enclave.
At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a group of civilians in the Al-Balad area in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, January 12.
A woman also sustained injuries on Monday after being shot at by Israeli soldiers in the Al-Batn al-Sameen area of Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced that the police chief of Khan Younis, Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud Al-Astal, was assassinated by an Israeli-backed militia in the Al-Mawasi area west of the city.
21 Palestinians, including 18 children, freeze to death
As the blockade imposed by the IOF on the war-torn territory still persists, the humanitarian crisis has aggravated, leaving many displaced people without shelter and heating during the cold weather.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry reported that three Palestinian children, including a newborn and a two-month-old baby, have frozen to death since Sunday, January 11.
The ministry added that 21 Palestinians, including 18 children, died in Gaza due to the cold weather since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression on October 7, 2023.
In a statement released on Monday, the ministry further indicated that 442 Palestinians died, while 1,240 others were injured, as a result of Israeli violations of the truce agreement that came into force in October 2025.
This takes the official death toll of Palestinians, who were killed by the IOF across Gaza in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks to 71,419 people.
In spite of Israel’s continued atrocities, mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire deal, above all the Trump administration, remain unmoved, crushing every hope for advancing towards phase two of the agreement.
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.