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Middle East
Hostage release sparks outrage, Israel withdraws from more of Gaza
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.
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.
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.”
Silhouettes of soldiers stand in front of a computer screen displaying an image of President Donald Trump, alongside a Palestinian flag, on Feb. 05, 2025.
Unsurprisingly, much of the world reacted with horror to US President Donald Trump’s call on Monday, at a press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, for the deportation of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million people and a US takeover of the enclave.
But the Trump administration was forced to reckon with blowback in Washington too as lawmakers, even within the Republican Party, questioned the cost and wisdom of the plan.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that despite Trump’s pledge to make Gaza “the Riviera of the Middle East,” the US does not intend to spend money on any Gaza reconstruction projects and that Trump’s plans did not entail “boots on the ground” in the enclave.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly fielded a barrage of questions about these issues during a closed-door session with GOP lawmakers on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lauded Trump’s willingness to “think outside the box” but said only that the Pentagon would “look at all options.”
Sec. of State Marco Rubiosaid Trump had made a “generous” offer and contradicted his boss’s resettlement proposal by saying that the displacement of Gazans would be “temporary.”
Notably, no administration officials ruled out the core of Trump’s proposal, which was the forced removal of the entire Gazan population. According to legal scholars, this would amount to a “straightforward” crime against humanity under international law.
On Thursday, notably, the Israeli defense minister asked the army to formulate a plan under which Palestinians could “voluntarily” leave Gaza by land, air, or sea. And Trump posted to his social platform Thursday morning that the Gaza Strip will “be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
What does Putin mean when he says Europe "will stand at the feet of the master"?
It means that he loves to troll his adversaries. Don't you remember when he said that he actually thought Biden would be a better president from Russia's perspective than Trump? He trolls. It's all misinformation. It's propaganda. It's all served to undermine and show that he's powerful, and he can say whatever he wants. And of course, he would love to see a fight between the Americans and their allies, whether it's the Nordics on Greenland or it's Canada on 51st state, or it's Panama on the canal, or it's Europe on tariffs. And he wants to undermine the countries that gets a divide and conquer kind of response from Putin. And that is what he is doing when he trolls the Europeans.
What's next for Panama after deciding to exit China's Belt and Road Initiative?
Well, certainly, of all the countries that are facing a deeply asymmetric relationship on the back of threats from President Trump, Panama is high on that list. And they really are trying to find a way to avoid tariffs and avoid the Americans squeezing them on the canal. And an easy way to do that, because they've heard this now directly from Trump and from Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is that the Chinese have too much influence over transit. And that is particularly true through these port facilities that a Hong Kong-based company, read, China, is in charge of. And so, they are opening investigations into the contract and into how they engage there. And they're also saying they'll pull out of Belt and Road. All of that is clearly going to upset and antagonize the Chinese. And I think that the Panamanians are very, very comfortable showing that they are going to orient much more towards the United States, given how much more they rely on the Americans.
How would a potential Turkey defense pact with Syria reshape power dynamics in the Middle East?
Given who's on the ground in Syria and the fact that the Americans are likely to pull out the over 2,000 troops they have there, and that Trump has said it's really up to Turkey to maintain that relationship, they were the ones that were closest to the rebels that ended up defeating, overthrowing Assad's regime. Not surprised at all that that is where the diplomacy is heading. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be stable, and it certainly doesn't mean that the Kurds on the ground are going to be handled well. And that will be what we need to watch carefully. But Turkey, a NATO ally that has a lot of influence across the region and particularly now on the ground with Syria, I think that'll be relatively stable given the support from the United States. That's it for me, and I'll talk to you all real soon.
Syria's newly appointed President for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, February 4, 2025.
In early December, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria – a longstanding ally of Iran – left a power vacuum at the heart of the region.
Now, someone is moving into it. On Tuesday, Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss a security pact that would reportedly involve Turkey setting up air bases in Syria and training a new Syrian military.
This isn’t surprising: Turkey was a primary backer of al-Sharaa’s jihadist militia, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which led the campaign that toppled Assad in December. Erdogan’s main interests in Syria are to squelch Kurdish militant groups operating there and to create conditions for the return of millions of Syrian refugees from Turkey. (See more here.)
Other interested players are watching. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Emirates all view Turkey’s Islamist politics with suspicion, though Erdogan has sought to smooth ties recently. Russia, meanwhile, is still trying to hang on to its Syrian military bases. And Donald Trump has said Syria is “not our fight” but also wants to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State there. This is why US troops are still deployed with precisely the Kurdish groups in Syria that Erdogan wants to crush.
As ever, it’s complicated: But Turkey is now the first big outside player in the new Syria.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump after signing the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in Washington DC, in 2020. This week Netanyahu arrives for fresh talks with Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump on Tuesday as part of a weeklong visit to the US that includes talks with lawmakers and military officials, making him the first foreign leader to meet with the US president in person since the start of his second term.
What’s on the agenda?
Gaza: Phase one of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and prisoner exchange has largely held, but a second phase – envisioning further exchanges and mapping out Gaza’s post war governance – is in limbo. Netanyahu has signalled he wants to return to fighting soon as Hamas regroups in the devastated Gaza strip, but Trump has pledged to broker an end to the war.
Saudi Arabia: Trump has long sought normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a major regional reconfiguration, especially now that Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival, Iran, is hurting. But the Saudis have conditioned any deal on progress towards creating a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu opposes.
Iran: Israel’s pummeling of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the collapse of the allied Assad regime in Syria, have diminished Iran’s strategic reach, raising concerns that Tehran might accelerate its nuclear program. If so, would the US support an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities?
Lebanon and Syria: The futures of post-Assad Syria, and a Lebanon where Hezbollah is now weakened, are crucial security issues for Israel as well. The initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon will expire in two weeks.Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, right, and President Donald Trump's envoy Richard Grenell shake hands at the Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 31, 2025.
6: On Friday, Venezuela released six detained Americans, sending them home with Richard Grenell, the US envoy for special missions, following his talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said Saturday that Venezuela had agreed to take back the Venezuelan migrants facing deportation from the US and to “supply the transportation.”
18: Pakistan said Saturday that 18 of its soldiers were killed while fighting separatist insurgents who had set up a roadblock on a key highway in the restive Balochistan region. Twenty-three rebels were also killed in the fighting, and the roadblock has been removed, according to security forces.
1: Syria’s newly named interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, on Sunday made his first international trip since leading his rebel group in the overthrow of former President Bashar Assad in December. Al-Sharaa landed in Saudi Arabia, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pledged his support for Syria.
4.2: Northern Queensland, Australia, is facing its worst flooding in 60 years. One woman has died and thousands have fled their homes as 4.2 feet of rain fell on the region over the weekend. More rain was predicted for Monday.
1,400: Russia launched more than 1,400 airstrikes against Ukraine last week, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is appealing for more Western support. On Saturday, he accused Moscow of hitting its own civilians in the Kursk region.
6: If you’re tired of the cold weather, this is going to come as bad news: Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Sunday, Groundhog Day, and predicted six more weeks of winter. Bundle up!