Amna Nawaz:

The next government will be tasked with implementing the cease-fire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war and it faces an economic crisis that’s gripped the nation for the past six years.

In Gaza, meanwhile, health officials said today that the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has now topped 46,000 people. Of those, more than half were women and children. But officials don’t say how many were fighters and how many were civilians.

That comes as Israel attacked several places across Gaza, including an overnight strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Witnesses say children were among the dead. Israel continues to blame Hamas, which hides in residential areas, for civilian deaths.

In Germany, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced details today of another $500 million in security aid to Ukraine. Austin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used their final meeting to urge the incoming Trump administration to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort. Zelenskyy said a new chapter would begin for Ukraine’s European allies when Trump takes office in less than two weeks.

Austin, meanwhile, urged European nations to stand strong in the face of Russian aggression.

Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense: And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder. Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world. If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.