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Israel’s top general resigned Tuesday, taking responsibility for security failures tied to Hamas’ surprise attack in October 2023 that triggered . The resignation adds to pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has delayed any public inquiry that could potentially implicate his leadership.

Despite 15 months of war with Israel, . Many Palestinians in Gaza are now left picking through the rubble of their former homes amid .

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Here's the latest:

UN says aid is flowing smoothly into Gaza

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Gaza says trucks from the U.N., aid groups, governments and the private sector are arriving and no major looting has been reported – just a few minor incidents.

Nearly 900 trucks of aid entered Gaza on the third day of the ceasefire Tuesday, the United Nations said. That's significantly higher than the 600 trucks called for in the deal.

Muhannad Hadi, who returned to Jerusalem from Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, told U.N. reporters by video that it was one of the happiest days of his 35-year humanitarian career to see Palestinians in the streets looking ahead with hope, some heading home and some starting to clean up the roads.

In his talks with families at a communal kitchen run by the U.N. World Food Program and elsewhere, he said, they all told him they need humanitarian assistance but want to go home, to work and earn money.

“They don’t like the fact that they have been depending on humanitarian aid,� Hadi said. Palestinians talked about resuming education for their children and about the need for shelter, blankets and new clothes for women who have been wearing the same clothes for more than a year. He said a shipment of tents is expected in the coming days.

Hadi, who is also the deputy U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said the U.N. hopes to start “early recovery� programs, beginning with cash-for-work removing the tons of rubble in Gaza. But he said the U.N. must make sure the banking system is operating and electricity is back, stressing the critical role of U.N. member states and the private sector in early recovery.

Hadi said lawlessness and looting happen in any war situation but with the ceasefire in Gaza the U.N. is hoping for a restoration of law and order, and he stressed that the minor incidents reported were not by organized criminals who looted U.N. convoys during the war.

Since the ceasefire, he said some kids jumped on some trucks trying to take a food basket, and some other people tried to take bottled water. “And hopefully, within a few days, this will all disappear once the people of Gaza realize that we will have aid, enough for everybody.�

Hadi said there are logistical challenges now, including trying to move trucks on roads which are destroyed and where people are also traveling.

“They know that their houses are destroyed,� he said. “But all of them simply told me that if I get a tent, I’ll go back there and I’ll live on top of the rubble in my place of origin.�

‘We found nothing.’ Palestinians return to destroyed homes and businesses in Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Many Palestinians from the southern Gaza city of Rafah who returned to the area Tuesday were shocked to find nothing left of their homes and businesses.

Manal Selim, a single mother of six, worked as a hairdresser and owned a shop that rented wedding and evening dresses. Her family lived upstairs.

“We thought we’d find some place to live in or stay," she said. "The destruction is scary. It’s like an apocalypse.�

She broke down in tears seeing it all destroyed, pulling a few ripped dresses from under the rubble.

“This is my house. I built it brick by brick for 25 years,� she said.

Elsewhere, Murad Miqdad found his home and electric appliance store in a three-story building completed destroyed.

“We found nothing," he said. "There's nothing to pull out of the house, and if you were able to pull anything out, you still wouldn't be able to use it.�

4 wounded in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv and the suspect is killed, police say

TEL AVIV, Israel — Four people were wounded in a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, according to Israeli police, who said the attacker was killed by security forces at the scene.

Two people were in moderate condition and two had light wounds, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency rescue service. Ichilov Hospital said one person was in moderate-severe condition with a stab wound to the neck.

Authorities only identified the attacker as a 28-year-old “foreign national� but believe the stabbings were a terrorist act. The attack took place in a bustling area filled with restaurants and cafes.

Another stabbing attack in Tel Aviv over the weekend left one person seriously wounded, and the attacker was also shot and wounded, police said at the time.

Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis across Israel and the occupied West Bank, especially during the past 15 months of the Israel-Hamas war. There has also been a sharp rise in attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers.

In southern Gaza, people search for the dead and make room for the living

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians in southern Gaza have begun the arduous process of recovering bodies from the rubble of bombed buildings while trying to make war-ravaged neighborhoods habitable for returning civilians.

They are confronting after a ceasefire paused more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Crews with the Civil Defense, Gaza’s emergency service, deployed to deserted streets and buildings in the border city of Rafah on Tuesday to find the dead and give them a proper burial.

“We retrieved 120 decomposed bodies over the past two days. They’re completely decomposed with only skeletal remains,� Civil Defense member Haitham Hams told The Associated Press.

AP footage showed members sifting through piles of debris and in one case, unearthing a person’s thigh bone, a ripped shirt and a pair of pants. A body bag inside an ambulance was labeled “unknown� and the discovery date Tuesday.

Cleaning operations have also started in Rafah as local officials prepare for displaced Palestinians coming home, although many buildings have been reduced to ruins.

There isn't nearly enough heavy equipment for the task, said Hani al-Bayoumi, an official with Rafah municipality.

AP footage showed one of two bulldozers pushing rubble aside to create dusty paths where roads and sidewalks used to be, while a few people walked by.

Drone footage shows mounds of rubble stretching

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister says he plans to visit Lebanon after years of strained relations

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister announced plans to visit Lebanon this week, which would mark the first such trip in years amid strained relations between the two countries.

Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in , Switzerland, Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan hailed Lebanon’s recent political breakthroughs as “extremely positive.�

Lebanon's new and are seen as independent of Lebanon’s entrenched political class.

“We will need to see real action, real reform and a commitment to a Lebanon that is looking to the future, not to the past, in order for us to re-raise our engagement,� Frahan said.

Saudi-Lebanese relations have been strained for years, driven by issues such as the growing influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah and the smuggling of the amphetamine-like stimulant in produce shipments, which prompted a trade ban on Lebanon.

“It is really up to the Lebanese to decide and make the choices and to take Lebanon in a different direction,� he added. He did not specify which day he would arrive in Lebanon this week.

After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.

The militant group has not only survived Israel’s 15-month military campaign — among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory — but it remains firmly in control of the ruined coastal territory.

For all the might it deployed in Gaza, Israel failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That makes a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that 72 bodies had been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours, almost all of them recovered from attacks before the ceasefire. An unknown number of bodies remain unreachable because they are in northern Gaza, where access remains restricted, or in buffer zones where Israeli forces are.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities but do not say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Over 900 trucks of aid entered Gaza on the second day of the ceasefire Monday, the United Nations said — significantly higher than the 600 trucks called for in the deal — in a rush to supply food, medicines and other needs it has described as “staggering� for the population of over 2 million people.

Israel's top general resigns over failure to stop Hamas attack on Oct. 7

JERUSALEM — Israel’s top general has resigned, citing the security failures that allowed Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi is the most prominent Israeli official to resign over the attack.

He announced his resignation Tuesday, just days into a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, head of Israel’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Gaza, also tendered his resignation.

will likely add to calls for a public inquiry into the Oct. 7 failures, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said must wait until the war is over.

Halevi’s resignation letter noted that the military’s investigations into those failures were “currently in their final stages.�

And Halevi made his most explicit call yet for a public inquiry in comments to journalists, saying it would be “granted full transparency� by the military.

Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, by Netanyahu in November after the two clashed on a number of issues, including Gallant’s pushing for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who resigned as Public Security Minister on Sunday over his opposition to the ceasefire, welcomed Halevi’s announcement and called on Netanyahu to appoint a new chief of staff who will be “strong and on the offensive� in order to demolish Hamas.

Trump rescinds sanctions on far-right Israeli settlers

WASHINGTON — Among other Biden-era executive orders that President Trump rescinded Monday is one that authorizes sanctions on people who undermine peace in the occupied West Bank.

The Biden administration used the executive order to impose a handful of sanctions on extremist settlers accused of using violence against Palestinians who live in the West Bank after violence erupted after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

Settlers in the territory have celebrated the incoming Trump administration, believing it will take a more favorable approach to illegal settlements. During his first term, Trump took unprecedented steps to support Israel’s territorial claims, including recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there, and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.

Trump not confident ceasefire in Gaza will hold

WASHINGTON — Trump said Hamas is weakened, but he’s hardly certain that the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas will hold.

“I’m not confident,� Trump told reporters. “That’s not our war. It’s their war.�

He said that his administration “might� help rebuild Gaza, which he compared to a “massive demolition site.�

“Some beautiful things could be done with it,� said Trump, the real estate developer turned commander in chief, noting the territory’s coastline and “phenomenal� weather and location. “Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza. Some beautiful things could be done with Gaza.�

Israel launches a military operation in the West Bank, killing at least 9 Palestinians

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A major Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank killed at least nine Palestinians on Tuesday and left 40 more people wounded, Palestinian health officials said.

Israel's ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza does not apply to the West Bank, where Israeli troops have carried out during the war that often ignite gunbattles.

The built-up Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank has long been a bastion of armed struggle, and has been a focus of Israeli raids. The Israeli military said in a statement that “forces have initiated a counterterrorism operation� in the area.

Earlier Tuesday the Palestinian Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on the Jenin refugee camp killed two people. Their identity was not immediately clear.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, launched its own raid late last year into the Jenin area, hoping to position itself as a serious player in governing postwar Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 800 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on security forces to use “maximum restraint� in the West Bank, a spokesman said.

Major influx of aid into Gaza on second day of ceasefire, UN says

UNITED NATIONS — Gaza has received a major influx of aid and goods, with 915 trucks crossing into the territory on the second day of the ceasefire, the United Nations said.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said colleagues in Gaza informed the U.N. that 915 trucks – significantly higher than the 600 trucks called for in the ceasefire – entered Gaza on Monday, based on information from Israeli authorities and the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Sunday the needs in Gaza are staggering and his office said Monday that aid workers are ramping up the delivery of food, clean water, shelter materials and other essential supplies.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the more than 2 million people in Gaza, about half of them children, depend on this aid, Haq said.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has a 60-day plan to increase beds and deploy overseas health workers to Gaza hospitals, but some 30,000 Palestinians have life-changing injuries and need specialized care, Haq said.