UN Security Council to Hold Urgent Monday Session on Israel’s Recognition of Somaliland

Here are Saturday’s latest updates on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank:

■ Hamas is preparing to hold elections for a new head of the group’s political bureau, sources close to its leadership told Saudi-owned Asharq Al Awsat TV.

■ Police said that protesters threw stones at a Jerusalem demonstration on the anniversary of the death of a hilltop youth who was killed in a West Bank car accident.

■ Anti-government protests took place across Israel, amid recent revelations in the Qatargate affair, which centers on allegations that staff members in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office received payments from Qatar to promote Doha’s interests while working in the Prime Minister’s Office during the war.

■ In Yemen, Saudi Arabia called on the Southern Transitional Council, a UAE-backed separatist group, to withdraw from territory seized earlier in December and threatened to take action.

■ The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency session on Monday to address Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, the first and only nation thus far to recognize the political entity that independently seceded from Somalia.

■ Italian authorities arrested nine people linked to three charitable organizations on suspicion of raising millions of euros in funds for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, anti-terrorism prosecutors said in a statement Saturday.

■ Police and Shin Bet arrested two brothers of the assailant who carried out a stabbing and ramming attack in northern Israel on Friday.

■ Settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in two West Bank villages. Seven Palestinians and one settler were wounded.