Angelina Jolie visits Egypt's Rafah border crossing with Gaza

Actress Angelina Jolie visited on Friday (January 2) Egypt's Rafah border crossing with Gaza and a local hospital in Arish where Palestinian patients transferred from Gaza are treated.

Her visit comes amid a state of anticipation on the timing of a second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Trump on Monday (December 29) said he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached in October after two years of fighting in Gaza, a progression that entails international peacekeeping forces deployed in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of major breaches of the deal and look no closer to accepting the much more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase. Hamas, which has refused to disarm, has been reasserting its control as Israeli troops remain entrenched in about half the territory.

Israel has indicated that if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully, it will resume military action to make it do so.

Trump heaped the blame on the militant group for not disarming more promptly, arguing that Israel had lived up to its side of the deal and warning that Hamas was inviting grave consequences.

Production: Mai Shams El-Din/Reuters