International
Accept Biden proposal, Israeli captive families tell govt
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Palestinians-make-their-way-as-they-inspect-the-damage-after-Israeli-forces-withdrew-from-the-Jabalia-refugee-camp.jpg)
Accept Biden proposal, Israeli captive families tell govt
Family members of Israeli captives held in Gaza have called on their country’s government to accept a ceasefire plan presented by United States President Joe Biden, calling on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly support the proposal.
In a weekly press conference held on Saturday, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that it was calling for the “the citizens of Israel to take to the streets in order to ensure the completion of the deal”.
The forum believes that Netanyahu may be obstructing a deal, after Biden said in a news conference at the White House on Friday that Israel had put forward “a comprehensive new proposal” to end the war.
The three-phase plan described by Biden seeks to implement a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that involves the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of all Israelis held captive in the strip.
Hamas has indicated that it is open to the proposal, raising hopes of a halt to Israel’s eight-month war.
In a statement, the group said it “reaffirms its readiness to positively engage and cooperate with any proposal based on the foundation of a permanent ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction, the return of displaced people to their homes, and the completion of a genuine prisoner exchange deal, provided that the occupation announces its explicit commitment to this”.
And in a joint statement, the US, Qatar, and Egypt jointly called on Hamas and Israel to finalise an agreement.
But on Saturday, Netanyahu was adamant in declaring that for Israel’s war on Gaza to end, Hamas must be destroyed.
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“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” his office said in a statement.
It said those conditions must be met, “before a permanent ceasefire is put in place”.
“The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” it added.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that Netanyahu was under pressure from within his own government.
“There is a minority that is blackmailing Netanyahu and threatening the deal, and we must support the deal and not leave the arena to extremists,” a spokesperson said.
In a post on the social media platform X, American news publication Axios reported that Israel’s ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have told Netanyahu that they will leave the coalition and topple the government if the proposal for the hostage deal presented by Biden goes through.
Abdullah al-Arian, professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, pointed out a “major contradiction” in Israel’s demands, with both Israel and its staunch ally the US saying they do not want a future in Gaza in which Hamas has any kind of political role left.
“At the same time, this is an agreement that would have to be reached through negotiations with Hamas, so, how do you do that? How do you eliminate them as a political force and at the same time reach a negotiated solution that is agreed upon by all parties,” he told Al Jazeera.
Another “major sticking point” to an eventual deal would be Israel remaining as an occupying force in some parts of Gaza, which he said Palestinians have continuously rejected.
Alon Liel, former director of Israel’s foreign ministry, said Biden’s announcement was “music to the ears of the Israelis who want to end the war”.
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But, there is a “mixed message again coming from Washington,” he told Al Jazeera. “The surprising thing was that [the ceasefire proposal] was described as an Israeli offer. This contradicts many things that Netanyahu said recently; it looks more like an American offer that is presented as an Israeli one,” Liel said.
The armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, expressed “suspicion” of the plan announced by Biden saying the “cessation of aggression” must involve “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Blinken lobbies Middle East leaders
Even as Biden presented the new plan, Israel continued its deadly attacks in Gaza, with artillery fire hitting residential buildings in the northern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, killing several Palestinians.
Another early morning Israeli strike in Gaza City also killed a journalist, identified as Ola al-Dahdouh, according to the Palestinian TV channel Al-Aqsa.
Israeli forces also hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery, while witnesses in the east and centre of Rafah described intense artillery shelling.
In the shadow of the continuous Israeli bombardment, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held discussions with the top diplomats of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey amid efforts to gather support for the new Gaza ceasefire plan.
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Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud received a call from Blinken, during which they discussed the latest proposal, the Saudi state news agency said.
According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, Blinken “emphasised that Hamas should accept the deal without delay”, in those telephone calls from his plane as he returned from a NATO meeting in Prague.
“[Blinken] underscored that the proposal is in the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the long-term security of the region,” Miller added.
In Israel, opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to agree to the deal, saying his party would support it even if right-wing factions in the governing coalition rebelled, meaning a deal would likely pass in parliament.
Families of the people held captive in Gaza also called on all parties to immediately back the proposal outlined by Biden, warning that time was running out with the onus on both Israel and Hamas to accept the deal.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s president-elect, Prabowo Subianto, welcomed Biden’s ceasefire proposal as a step in the right direction. He said his country is willing to send peacekeeping troops to maintain a ceasefire in Gaza if required.
“When needed and when requested by the UN, we are prepared to contribute significant peacekeeping forces to maintain and monitor this prospective ceasefire as well as providing protection and security to all parties and to all sides,” he told a security conference in Singapore on Saturday.
Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least 36,379 people and wounded 82,407 others, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault on the besieged territory after a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel killed about 1,140 people.
Accept Biden proposal, Israeli captive families tell govt
International
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
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Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
At the centre of the claim is the allegation the UK government and BA received a series of warnings during the night but did not act on them.
It is alleged that one reason for this was the desire of the government to insert a special forces team who could carry out reconnaissance within the country.
Stephen Davis wrote a book about the incident and says he has interviewed members of the team anonymously.
He believes the authorities did not expect the airport to fall to invading Iraqi forces so quickly and the intention was for the men to disembark before the plane went on to its next destination.
The BA cabin services director on the flight previously told the BBC that a British man in military uniform greeted him at the plane’s door on arrival in Kuwait.
The man said he had come to meet 10 men on the flight who had boarded at Heathrow. They were brought to the front, disembarked and were never seen again. But by then, it was too late for the plane to leave.
A UK official serving in the Kuwait embassy at the time previously said he believed there had been a “deniable” operation to hastily put boots on the ground without the full knowledge of the embassy.
Anthony Paice was responsible for political intelligence, a role widely assumed to be cover for MI6.
“I am convinced that the military intelligence exploitation of British Airways Flight 149 did take place, despite repeated official denials,” he told the BBC in his first interview in 2021.
In November 2021, the Foreign Office admitted that Parliament and the public were misled for decades about Flight 149.
Newly released files revealed the British ambassador in Kuwait did warn the Foreign Office about the invasion, but BA was not told.
However, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated earlier denials that the flight was being used for a secret intelligence mission.
“There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience,” said Matthew Jury, from the law firm behind the claim, McCue Jury and Partners.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government did not comment on ongoing legal matters. BA did not respond to a request for comment.
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
BBC
International
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Six-Palestinians-killed-as-Israeli-forces-pound-southern-and-northern-Gaza.jpg)
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.
For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.
She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.
“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.
International
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
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One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
One person was killed and five others sustained gunshot wounds in northeastern France when several masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony, police sources said on Sunday.
According to sources, the incident in the northeastern city of Thionville was the result of a drug trafficking dispute.
According to an AFP report, the shooting took place overnight, from Saturday to Sunday, in a reception hall with approximately 100 individuals present.
Two people were gravely injured, and one was in critical condition.
The perpetrators of the shooting, however, fled the scene.
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“It was during a wedding,” a police source said.
“At a quarter past one in the morning, a group of people went outside to smoke in front of the hall, and then three heavily armed men arrived and opened fire in their direction.”
According to the informant, the intruders arrived in a 4×4 vehicle, “probably a BMW.” It was unclear where the vehicle had come from.
Thionville is located near the borders of Luxembourg and Germany. Law enforcement officials suspect that the violence was motivated by a desire to settle scores related to narcotics trafficking.
“The wedding was not targeted as such; it was people who were at the wedding,” a source told me.
On Sunday morning, a bullet-pierced glass door was seen at the scene. In the nearby village of Villerupt, five individuals were injured in May 2023 during shootings between rival gangs at a drug distribution site.
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
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