International

Israel/Hamas war: First hostages from Gaza to be released Friday

Published

1 year ago

November 23, 2023

Israel/Hamas war: First hostages from Gaza to be released Friday

The start of a four-day truce agreement between Israel and Hamas that was supposed to take effect after nearly seven weeks of fighting is already being hampered by delays.

The agreement aims to release hundreds of hostages and allow aid into Gaza.

The actual start time of the truce, which was supposed to start on Thursday at 10 am (0800 GMT), remained unknown since Israel had not yet announced when it will stop its ground and air offensive in the coastal region.

According to an Israeli army spokesman, the procedure for bringing hostages back to Israel from the Gaza Strip is intricate and not yet finalized.

Daniel Hagari stated late on Wednesday that the military was getting ready to carry out this first part of the hostage exchange agreement.

However, the repatriation of the people abducted to the sealed-off coastal strip could take time and take place in several stages, he said.

“The release (of hostages) will begin according to the original agreement between the parties, and not before Friday,” Israel’s security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi was quoted by newspapers Haaretz and the Times of Israel and the N12 channel as saying.

“The talks on the release of our hostages are progressing and will continue on an ongoing basis.”

The first exchange of hostages kidnapped in Israel for Palestinian prisoners was initially expected to take place on Thursday.

The Times of Israel cited an Israeli official as explaining the delay by saying that both Israel and Hamas would have to sign a document ratifying the agreement for it to come into force.

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Haaretz reported that Israeli officials had said there would be no halt to the fighting as long as there is no finalized timeline for the agreement with Hamas.

The agreement foresees 100 hostages being released from Gaza in exchange for 300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The Israeli Cabinet signed off on the deal early Wednesday after weeks of fraught negotiations mediated by Qatar and the United States.

The deal’s first step involves the release in stages of 50 Israeli women and children that have been held by militants in Gaza since the Oct 7 terrorist attack. In exchange, 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be released.

In a second step, up to 50 further Israeli hostages are also to be exchanged in small groups for up to 150 further Palestinian prisoners.

The ceasefire is to be accompanied by larger aid deliveries for the suffering civilian population in the Gaza Strip, where food, water, electricity, and medical supplies are running scarce.

Israel said the ceasefire will last at least four days but could be extended by one day for every additional 10 hostages released.

A maximum of 10 days is planned for the entire exchange.

After that, the Israeli army’s fight against Hamas and other Islamist extremists in the Gaza Strip is to continue.

Terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups carried out unprecedented massacres in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 240 people hostage.

Of the 240 people who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, four women have so far been released by Hamas.

One young soldier was rescued by the Israeli military.

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The army also found the bodies of two people.

It is unclear how many hostages are still alive.

Local media reported Israel will pass on a first list of names of hostages to be released.

Kidnapped mothers and children were not to be separated.

The Israeli government on Wednesday announced the names and details of the 300 imprisoned Palestinians who are eligible for release from prison.

On list are 123 people under the age of 18, with the youngest being 14.

According to the list, 33 prisoners are girls and women.

They are accused of throwing firebombs, arson, and knife attacks, among other offences.

No prisoners serving time for murder are set for release.

Once free, they are to return to the places where they lived before their imprisonment, such as the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack Israel’s military launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and deployed ground troops with the aim of destroying Hamas.

According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 16,000 people have been killed so far.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that soldiers have destroyed around 400 tunnel shafts since the start of the war.

Many of the tunnels used by Hamas were found under civilian hospitals, schools, and houses.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said more patients are to be evacuated from the ruined al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Fourteen ambulances, accompanied by staff from the UN and Doctors Without Borders, arrived at the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital on Wednesday.

Patients were to be taken to hospitals in the south, where conditions are relatively safer than in the north.

Israel/Hamas war: First hostages from Gaza to be released Friday

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International

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

BBC

International

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

International

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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