Israel planned to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. However, US President Donald Trump rejected the idea, according to The New York Times. According to the NYT, Trump decided after several months of internal debates.

Israel’s defense minister says its troops will remain in so-called security zones in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely, after Israel unilaterally expanded its frontiers in the war unleashed by Hamas’ Oct.

The zones Israel now holds include extensive land along Gaza’s borders, as well as the so-called Netzarim Corridor that separates the north and south, and a new buffer zone in the south. Altogether, they account for 30 per cent of Gazan territory, according to the Israeli military.

Israeli troops will remain in the buffer zones they have created in Gaza even after any settlement to end the war, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, as efforts to revive a ceasefire agreement faltered.

Hamas has reportedly rejected a six-week Israeli cease-fire proposal that would have cost the armed group to surrender its weapons while Israel continues military assaults on Gaza.

Hamas is “studying” an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza that would see 10 hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, an official with the militant group told CNN.