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Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue in Damascus, Syria, February 25, 2025.
Israel turns the screws on Syria's new leader
Israel this week conducted a fresh wave of airstrikes on southern Syria, just a day after Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for an Israel-controlled “security zone” in the south of the country.
The context: Ever since jihadist militias led by al-Sharaa overthrew the Assad regime in December, Israel has moved aggressively to neutralize any new security threats from its old foe. Right after Assad fell, Israel struck dozens of Syrian military targets and sent IDF troops several miles into Syria to establish a “buffer zone.”
Netanyahu’s new policy escalates even further. It calls for the Israel-enforced demilitarization of the entire south of Syria. Turkey, which has explored security cooperation with Syria’s new regime, has condemned what it says is Israeli “expansionism.”
Adding to the intrigue, Netanyahu says he’s protecting the Druze, a religious minority in southern Syria. Local Druze leaders have so far responded coolly.
All of this puts al-Sharaa in a tough spot. He is trying to build a viable state in a fragmented country that has suffered decades of dictatorship and a dozen years of civil war. If he doesn’t respond to Israel, he risks looking weak. If he does, he risks a fight he is in no position to win. Advantage Israel?Israeli machinery maneuvers during an Israeli operation in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Feb. 23, 2025.
Gaza ceasefire hits a snag
Uneasy week: Tensions have been high since Hamas mistakenly sent the remains of an anonymous Gazan woman instead of those of Shiri Bibas when it returned the bodies of three Israeli hostages last week.
The Israeli government says it won’t return the Palestinian prisoners until Hamas commits to halting the hostage “ceremonies.” Finalizing the first phase of the deal, which is set to expire next weekend, is contingent upon the release of these detainees. Hamas, in turn, has called the delay a “blatant violation of [the ceasefire’s] terms.”
The second phase of the deal would involve Hamas releasing all remaining Israeli hostages in return for Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza, and the details of the third and final phase still need to be ironed out.
Complicating matters further, the Israel Defense Forces moved tanks into the West Bank on Sunday and told tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians that they could not return to their homes in the occupied area. The moves are reportedly part of the largest Israeli military operation into the Palestinian Authority-controlled territory for more than two decades.Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of the deceased hostages were handed over under by Hamas on Feb. 20, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Israel mourns as bodies return home, Trump stokes pessimism and optimism, McConnell officially retires, Canada calls cartels “terrorists,” Archaeologists make major find in Egypt
3 of 4: On Thursday, Hamas returned the bodies of what they said were four hostages, including two small children and their mother, Shiri Bibas, as well as an elderly activist. The bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, were returned to Israel in a grim spectacle involving black caskets and masked militants, but tests confirmed later that the fourth casket was holding anonymous remains, not the body of Shiri Bibas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement and vowed revenge. Hamas said that the mother’s remains must have been mixed up with others after an Israeli strike. Meanwhile, following explosions on three empty buses in central Israel — nobody was injured in the apparent terror attack — on Thursday night, Netanyahu has ordered an intensive military operation in the West Bank.
53: How’s Donald Trump doing with the public? 53% of respondents in a new CNN poll said they feel either “pessimistic” or “afraid.” Nearly two-thirds said the president hasn’t gone “far enough” to address inflation, while just over half said he had so far gone “too far” in his use of executive power. The partisan split is as stark as ever, with nearly 9 in 10 Republicans saying they are “enthusiastic” or “optimistic” about Trump’s second presidency.
18: After 18 years in the Senate as both majority and minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is officially retiring, he announced Thursday. The wily and cynical tactician drove Democrats nuts with his shrewd use of procedural rules to block their agenda, but he had a complicated relationship with Donald Trump: He enabled the president’s rise even while questioning his assault on establishment norms. McConnell leaves behind a Republican Party that has been reshaped in Trump’s image.
7: Canada on Thursday listed seven transnational crime outfits, including major Latin American drug cartels, as “terrorist” groups. The move, which comes on the heels of similar designations by the US, expands Ottawa’s tools to go after them. In February, PM Justin Trudeau promised this move as part of a deal to postpone US tariffs for 30 days.
103: Long live the king. No, not the US president but Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II, whose tomb was discovered this week in Egypt’s famed Valley of the Kings. It is the first major discovery of its kind since archaeologists found the tomb of Thutmose’s descendant Tutankhamun 103 years ago.Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands as they make joint statements to the press at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on Feb. 16, 2025.
Gaza: The battle of the plans
When it comes to the future of Gaza, the only thing regional players agree on is that they don’t agree. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports US President Donald Trump’s vision of an American-controlled “Riviera of the Middle East,” relocating approximately 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries – a move widely criticized as ethnic cleansing. Egypt is formulating a reconstruction plan that would rebuild Gaza’s infrastructure, exclude Hamas from governance, and ensure Palestinians remain on their land. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is developing an alternative strategy, advocating for Gaza’s reconstruction, a two-state solution, and no displacement of residents.
Who’s talking to whom? US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Netanyahuon Sunday and declared that Hamas “cannot continue as a military or government force … they must be eliminated.” On Monday, the Israeli cabinet met to review “phase two” of the ceasefire with Hamas, and Defense Minister Israel Katz began the process of creating an agency to facilitate the “voluntary” relocation of Palestinians from Gaza. And where would they go? Katz said the Israeli military should prepare land, sea, and air exit options for Gazans to move to “any country willing to accept them.”
Also on Monday,Rubio met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. A statement issued afterward by the palace made no reference to Gaza, noting only that the two men “reviewed aspects of the bilateral relations between the two friendly countries and ways to enhance and develop them in various fields.”
What’s next? On Feb. 20, Saudi will host a meeting with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, to discuss Egypt’s proposal – and a “representative of Palestine” could be invited as well. The meeting is a precursor to a larger regional summit on Feb. 27, which may now be delayed for “logistical reasons.”Palestinian UN Ambassador on Trump's radical Gaza plan and the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Listen: On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour to discuss the future of Gaza, Trump’s radical proposal, and what Palestinians want. As a fragile ceasefire holds, Trump has suggested that the US take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” while relocating displaced Gazans elsewhere. The idea has been widely rejected by America’s Middle Eastern allies, but does it signal a new phase in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
For Mansour, the issue is about more than just geopolitics—it’s about identity, history, and the right to return. He rejects the idea of mass displacement, pointing to the thousands of Palestinians who have already marched back to their destroyed neighborhoods. “We have very, very strong attachment to the land, whether it is you have a palace on it or whether it is destroyed,” he says. He also warns that Trump’s plan reflects a long-standing effort to erase Palestinian identity, arguing, “The Zionist movement has been working all along to push the idea that Palestine is a land without a people.
Mansour asks whether Gaza's future will be shaped by the people who live there or by the world's most powerful people.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel on Feb. 8, 2025.
Hostage release sparks outrage, Israel withdraws from more of Gaza
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly shocked by their condition and vowed to bring the remaining hostages home. “Due to the harsh condition of the three hostages and the repeated violations of the Hamas terror groups,” his office said in a statement, “the prime minister has ordered that Israel will not gloss over this and will take action as needed.” Hamas, meanwhile, says it won’t release more hostages until Israel withdraws completely from Gaza.
What’s next? Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel withdrew from Gaza’s Netzarim corridor on Sunday, allowing thousands of displaced Palestinians to return north. But military operations continue: Israeli forces on Sunday killed three Palestinians in Gaza and two women in the West Bank, one of whom was pregnant, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
And as nations continue to reject US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to relocate Gaza’s inhabitants to other parts of the Middle East, Netanyahu suggested that a Palestinian state could be established in Saudi Arabia. While the Israeli PM reportedly appeared to be joking, Riyadh immediately repudiated the comments. Qatar, which is set to mediate the next round of the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel this week, also condemned the remarks.
Demonstrators attend a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, in front of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, February 6, 2025.
Who’s really playing the long game for Gaza?
President Donald Trump is doubling down on his proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza for resettlement. He insisted early Thursday that Israel will give the territory to the US, with no military intervention required (The UN and other international bodies would argue that Gaza is an occupied territory and isn’t Israel’s to hand over).
Trump then signed an order on Thursday imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “illegitimate and baseless actions” for having issued an arrest warrant last year against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The court’s president, Judge Tomoko Akane, has said such sanctions undermine the ICC’s work and put “the very existence of the court at stake.”
The move came just days after Trump discussed turning Gaza into a seaside resort — a “Riviera of the Middle East” — during his press conference with Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday.
After 15 months of bombardment, nearly 70% of the territory’s buildings have been destroyed, with an estimated $18.5 billion in damage. Gaza’s decimated healthcare system is no match for mass starvation and the communicable diseases affecting the remaining population. Though the current cessation in hostilities ostensibly allows more aid to flow into Gaza, that’s more challenging now that the Trump administration has paused USAID funding and Israel has outlawed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Netanyahu and some 80% percent of Jewish Israelis support Trump’s suggestion to move Gazans to neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt. But much of the rest of the world has dismissed it as inhumane and dangerous. Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who meets with Trump on Feb. 11, said that ethnically cleansing Gaza and displacing Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan would incite a new generation of Palestinian resistance and cause further regional upheaval. Jordan and Egypt have flatly rejected the notion of taking in Gazans en masse; Jordan notably absorbed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees following the 1948 and 1967 wars.
Trump wants Gulf states to help fund Gaza’s recovery, but countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE have declined, insisting on a future Palestinian state.
Was this just an opening gambit? The US president may just be pushing the boat out to try and provoke other ideas, says Jon Alterman, Middle East director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “[Other actors] will come up with other ideas, and Trump will begin wheeling and dealing and saying, ‘Look what I could evoke,’” he said.
But regional leaders are unlikely to take steps outside their best interests. The key to leverage in the Middle East is longevity, and Gulf leaders have a much longer time horizon than any US president. It’s important to remember, Alterman says, that US presidents “don’t have the necessity of living with long-term consequences of short-term decisions” the way leaders in the Middle East do.
Gulf leaders “have all seen presidents come and go. The pressures are different, and they're willing to accommodate American presidents and flatter American presidents and ignore American presidents, but it’s all playing a long game.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza for the first time since the early weeks of Israel’s 15-month war with Hamas.
Northern Gaza: After return, reconstruction?
Coupled with a lack of running water and electricity, the destruction means that Gazans will depend on outside assistance for the foreseeable future – but it is not guaranteed. Last week, the UNcalled for $4.1 billion in aid for Palestinian territories this year, with 90% allocated for Gaza, but only 3.6% of the target has been funded so far.
UNRWA out? Israel is also set to close the East Jerusalem office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, on Thursday, due to the alleged collaboration of some of its employees in Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This, together with a ban on UNRWA dealing with Israelis, will make it impossible for it to operate in Gaza. According to Sam Rose, its acting director of emergency operations, UNRWA currently distributes half of the food sent into the territory, even that donated by other organizations, and shutting it down will leave “a gaping hole.”
Hamas makes a reconstruction proposal. While US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “clean out” Gaza and relocate its population to Egypt and Jordan to facilitate reconstruction has beenroundly rejected, Hamas has publishedits own proposal, which may receive a warmer welcome from regional powers that do not want to take in refugees.
“Gaza Phoenix” includes formalizing displacement camps, repairing hospitals, clearing rubble, restoring law and order, as well as long-term goals including a tourism-focused economy, a green belt, and even Dubai-style artificial islands. However, its “wartime resilience” section suggests constructing “an underground connecter” between all Gaza cities – likely a nonstarter for Israel, due to the use by Hamas of its previous tunnel network in its invasion and kidnapping of Israeli hostages, eight more of whom Israel has now learned are dead.