Pope Francis remains stable and prognosis reserved, Vatican says
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(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis’ condition remained stable on Tuesday, and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.
The pope had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.
The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.
He will resume noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight and into Wednesday morning, “as planned,” according to the Vatican.
The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.
The Holy See had earlier on Tuesday said the pontiff “slept all night” and that “now he continues his rest.”
The episodes on Monday were caused by a “significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm,” the Vatican said.
According to doctors, acute respiratory failure indicates the pope was not responding to oxygen therapy. Endobronchial mucus means there is mucus and fluid in the deep parts of the lung or lungs, causing a bronchospasm, also known as a coughing attack, doctors said.
The pope’s prognosis “remains reserved,” the Vatican said in its Monday evening update.
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Many residents of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon are expected to return to their homes in the coming days and weeks, with most of the fighting in both areas paused under Israeli ceasefire agreements with Hamas and Hezbollah.
Under Israel’s multi-phased deal with Hamas, some hostages held in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have started to be released. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to continue amid the first phase of the deal, which was slated to last about six weeks.
Israeli troops to remain in Syria for ‘unlimited period of time’
The IDF will remain on the summit of Hermon and in the security zone for an indefinite period, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.
“The IDF will remain on the summit of Mount Hermon and in the security zone for an unlimited period of time to ensure the security of the residents of the State of Israel. We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria — from here to the Sweida-Damascus axis, and we will not be dependent on others for our defense,” Katz said.
Israel warns Lebanese residents to avoid areas near border
Israel issued a warning to Lebanese residents on Tuesday, telling them to avoid multiple areas near the Israeli border as it redeploys in various locations in southern Lebanon.
At least 22 were killed over the weekend.
“The deployment process is taking place gradually and in some sectors it is being postponed and requires more time in order to ensure that Hezbollah is not able to re-establish its strength in the field,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
”Hezbollah, as usual, puts its narrow interests above the interests of the Lebanese state and tries through its mouthpieces to heat up the situation, despite being the main reason for the destruction of the south,” the IDF said.
Palestinians on returning home: ‘It feels like we’re reborn!’
Emotional scenes played out all over the Gaza Strip on Monday as families and friends reunited for the first time in over 15 months after the Israeli military allowed movement between northern and southern Gaza.
A sea of people swept the shoreline heading north along the sandy remains of the coastal highway. Many traveled on foot trudging through sand, a Palestinian flag flickering in the wind above them.
“It feels like we’re reborn!” Om Wael, a grandmother from Gaza City, told ABC News as she carried her granddaughter in her arms, with a look of joyful determination on her face.
“Even if our home is flattened, we’re so happy to return to our city, to our homes, unharmed. Thank God,” she said.
Mirvat Ajur, 29, from the Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City, told ABC News that she walked for about five hours until she reached central Gaza.
“It was a difficult journey, but the people were very happy, singing, clapping and dancing in joy at returning to their homes,” she said.
Approximately 300,000 people made the journey home, according to figures released by Gazan authorities. Samira Halas, 55, was among them.
“I know that my home is damaged and burned, but I want to return to it,” Halas, from Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood, told ABC News, describing the destruction she saw upon her return “like an earthquake had hit it.”
“I want to live in those burned and destroyed rooms,” she continued. “I am like a fish dying far from the sea.”
-ABC News’ Ruwaida Amer and Zoe Magee
At least 300,000 return to northern Gaza
At least 300,000 Palestinians returned home to northern Gaza on Monday, according to the Gaza government office, after Israel allowed them to cross into the north for the first time in over a year.
135,000 tents needed in Gaza
As people return to northern Gaza on Monday, the Gaza government said it “immediately and urgently” needs at least 135,000 tents because 90% of the buildings have been destroyed.
The government called on the international community to help provide “basic supplies” for Palestinians.
8 dead hostages among 33 being released in 1st phase: Israel
Of the 33 Israeli hostages set to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire, eight have been killed by Hamas, according to Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer.
Seven hostages have already been released since the start of the ceasefire, meaning 18 more living hostages will be released by Hamas in the coming weeks.
More hostages are set to be released on Thursday and Saturday, Mencer said.
Threats to ceasefire will ‘bear the full cost,’ Israeli minister says
Katz Israel, the Israeli defense minister, said on Monday that his country would “firmly” enforce the ceasefires that have paused fighting in Gaza.
“Anyone who violates the rules or threatens IDF forces will bear the full cost,” he said in Hebrew on social media. “We will not allow a return to the reality of Oct. 7.”
Tens of thousands trek into northern Gaza
Tens of thousands of people were marching and driving on Monday back to northern Gaza, after Israel allowed them to cross into the north for the first time in over a year.
Long lines of Palestinians — some singing, others smiling and some kneeling to kiss the soil as they stepped into the northern part of the strip — were seen making their way home.
Those returning home were moving along two main routes.
Many of those who were were walking home were moving along al-Rashid Street, a path expected to be taken by about 300,000 people.
Many of those who were driving north were doing so along Salah al-Din Road.
A line of cars could be seen stretching for about 8 miles on Monday morning, as they waited for permission to cross into the northern part of Gaza.
-ABC News’ Sami Zyara, Diaa Ostaz, Jordana Miller, Nasser Atta and Samayeh Malekian
1 dead, 4 injured after IDF fired at ‘dozens of suspects’ in central Gaza
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its team evacuated one person who was killed, and four people who were injured, after an attack by Israeli snipers near the Wadi Gaza Bridge on Sunday.
Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that troops fired “warning shots” at “several gatherings of dozens of suspects” who the IDF said posed a threat to them.
Additionally, a rocket was destroyed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, according to the IDF’s statement.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had introductory call with Israel’s Netanyahu
Newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had an introductory call on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement from a U.S. senior defense official.
“Both leaders discussed the importance of advancing mutual security interests and priorities, especially in the face of persistent threats,” according to the statement.
Hegseth, who won Senate confirmation after being selected by President Donald Trump for the role, stressed to Netanyahu that the U.S. is “fully committed” to ensuring that Israel “has the capabilities it needs to defend itself,” according to the statement.
Additionally, the defense official said that “both leaders agreed to remain in close contact.”
Israel-Lebanon ceasefire extended to Feb. 18
The White House announced Sunday that the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended until Feb.18.
Lebanon, Israel and the U.S. will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after Oct. 7, 2023.
(LONDON) — Egypt plans to “present a comprehensive vision for the reconstruction” of the Gaza Strip that does not require the displacement of Palestinians, the country’s foreign ministry said.
Cairo said it will work with President Donald Trump’s administration “to achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region by reaching a just settlement of the Palestinian cause that upholds the rights of the region’s peoples,” the statement posted to X on Tuesday said.
Cairo’s reconstruction proposal will ensure “the Palestinian people remain in their homeland” and will align “with their legitimate and legal rights,” the statement said.
Any solution should “avoid endangering the gains of peace in the region” and address “the root cause of the conflict by ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and implementing the two-state solution as the only path to stability and coexistence among the region’s peoples,” the ministry added.
Egypt’s proposal comes as Arab states scramble to respond to Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to “take over” and “clean out” Gaza, relocating its 2 million people and reconstructing the territory devastated by the war between Israel and Hamas since October 2023.
A source told ABC News on Wednesday that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will meet in Riyadh to discuss how to address Trump’s Gaza displacement proposal. The source said the talks will likely take place later next week before the Arab Summit in Cairo on Feb. 27.
Trump has suggested that regional partners like Jordan, Egypt or Saudi Arabia should rehome displaced Palestinians, whom he said would not be allowed to return to Gaza. Regional leaders have rejected the proposal.
“I don’t have to threaten that, I don’t think. I think we’re above that. I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said Tuesday. The president’s comments came after Abdullah announced in the Oval Office that Jordan would take in 2,000 sick children from Gaza, but didn’t commit to anything beyond that.
Abdullah told Trump during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday that Arab states were putting together their own post-war plan for Gaza. The king will join other Arab leaders at a special summit in Egypt later this month to discuss Cairo’s counterproposal to Trump’s resettlement plan.
The king later said he reiterated to Trump Jordan’s “steadfast position” against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. “This is the unified Arab position,” he said in a post to X.
Saudi Arabia has also pushed back on Trump’s controversial plan, with its foreign ministry saying last week there would be no normalization deal with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The establishment of the Palestinian state is a firm, unwavering position,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X.
De facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “has affirmed this position in a clear and explicit manner that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances,” the statement added.
Hamas, meanwhile, rejected Trump’s plan as “absurd.” In a statement, the group said the president’s comments “reflect a profound ignorance about Palestine and the region. Gaza is not a piece of real estate to be bought and sold; it is an inseparable part of our occupied Palestinian land.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw his weight behind Trump’s proposal, describing it as “a totally different vision, a much better one for the state of Israel.”
Netanyahu — who met with Trump at the White House last week — described the plan as “revolutionary, creative — and we’re discussing it. He is very determined to carry it out. It opens up many opportunities for us.”
The prime minister’s security cabinet met for several hours on Tuesday to discuss Trump’s Gaza plan. An Israeli official told ABC News that all members expressed support for what they called Trump’s “revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza.”
Netanyahu and his cabinet also discussed Hamas’ Monday announcement that it would delay the planned release of a group of Israeli hostages. Hamas said the delay was a response to alleged repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal signed in January.
The delay prompted Trump’s threat that “all hell is going to break out” if all remaining Gaza hostages were not released by Saturday at noon. The Israeli official said the country’s security cabinet was in full support of Trump’s remarks.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will be terminated, and the [Israel Defense Forces] will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Trump later told reporters of the deadline, “It’s going to be a big moment. We’ll see what happens. I don’t expect much happening with these people, but we’ll see what happens.”
ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy, Morgan Winsor, Sarah Kolinovsky, Will Gretsky, Joe Simonetti and Jordana Miller contributed to this report.
(TIBET) — At least 126 people were killed and more than 188 others were injured as a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck near Tibet’s holy city on Tuesday, according to Chinese state media.
The earthquake occurred in Dingri County, Shigatse City, Tibet, just after 9 a.m. with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. More than 3,600 houses had collapsed, state media said.
The U.S. Geological Survey placed the earthquake’s magnitude at 7.1, pinpointing the epicenter in Xizang, the local name for the Tibet Autonomous Region.
“The region near the India and Eurasia plate boundary has a history of large earthquakes,” the USGS said in a summary of the quake. “In the past century, there have been 10 earthquakes of magnitude 6 and greater within 250 km of the January 7, 2025, earthquake.”
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s exiled spiritual leader, said in a statement that he was “saddened” to learn of the deadly earthquake.
“It has caused the tragic loss of many lives, numerous injuries, and extensive destruction to homes and property,” he said. “I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and extend my wishes for a swift recovery to all who have been injured.”
The Chinese media also reported that as of 10 a.m. local time, multiple aftershocks were recorded, the largest of which was 4.4.
The death toll has risen steadily in the hours since the earthquake, according to Xinhua, a state media outlet. First reported at 53, with about 60 other injured, it climbed hours later to about 95 dead and 130 injured, the outlet reported.
