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Tag: Hamas

  • Day one of Israel-Hamas negotiations in Egypt shows signs of progress

    Day one of Israel-Hamas negotiations in Egypt shows signs of progress

    The first day of indirect discussions between Israel and Hamas wrapped up positively on Monday in Egypt, with further negotiations anticipated for Tuesday. The meetings, taking place in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, were centered around the 20-point plan proposed by United States President Donald Trump, which aims to conclude the conflict in Gaza.

    Sources close to the talks revealed that a framework was established for the upcoming rounds of discussions. The Hamas team, led by Khalil al-Hayya and Zaher Jabarin, expressed apprehension regarding Israel’s continued airstrikes in Gaza, labeling it a significant barrier to negotiations concerning the liberation of hostages. Both representatives had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Israel in Doha last month that resulted in the deaths of five others.

    Monday’s discussions addressed several crucial issues, such as a potential prisoner and captive swap, a ceasefire, and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump was advocating for an expedited swap of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners to gain momentum for the larger peace effort. “The technical teams are currently in discussions to ensure the conditions are ideal for releasing those hostages,” Leavitt mentioned, noting that both parties were examining the lists of individuals expected to be freed.

    In remarks from the Oval Office, Trump indicated there was “a really good chance of reaching an agreement,” while also emphasizing his own “red lines.” He acknowledged that Hamas had accepted critical points, commending the collaborative Arab-Turkish initiatives to keep the group engaged in negotiations, as well as his envoy Steve Witkoff, who is heading the US delegation. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also reportedly involved in the team.

    The following round of discussions is set to occur on Tuesday, coinciding with the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in 1,139 fatalities and around 200 individuals being taken captive. Israel then unleashed a genocide in Gazsairstrikes killing at least 67,160 Palestinians and injuring 169,679, as reported by local health officials.

    Despite the ongoing negotiations on Monday, Israeli forces allegedly killed at least 10 Palestinians in the genocide, including three individuals who were waiting for humanitarian assistance.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also acknowledged the anniversary, referring to Trump’s recent proposal as “an opportunity that must be seized” in order to resolve the conflict. 


    He stated that achieving a permanent ceasefire and establishing a credible political process are vital to avert further violence.

  • Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks ‘immediately’

    Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks ‘immediately’

    Hamas on Friday said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said Israel’s ongoing offensive killed more than 50 people.

    The announcement came after it held consultations with other Palestinian factions and before a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war, now in its 21st month.

    “The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the terms of a draft US-backed truce proposal received from mediators, the militant group said in a statement.

    Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded “guarantees” that Israel “will not resume its aggression” once hostages held in Gaza are freed.

    Trump, when asked about Hamas’ response aboard Air Force One on Friday, said: “That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”

    The genocide against the Palestinians by Israel worsened after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to a massive Israeli offensive and has killed more than 57,000 innocents civilians in Gaza.

    Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

    Netanyahu earlier on Friday vowed to bring home all the hostages held in Gaza, after coming under massive domestic pressure over their fate.

    “I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them,” he said.

    Trump said on Thursday he wanted “safety for the people of Gaza”.

    “They’ve gone through hell,” he said.

    – 60-day truce proposal –

    A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposals included “a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip” — thought to number 22 — “in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.

    Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

    Nearly 21 months of genocide have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.

    The military said in a statement it had been striking suspected Hamas targets across the territory, including around Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.

    – Civil defence says aid-seekers killed –

    Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people on Friday.

    The Israeli military said it was looking into reports, except for a handful of incidents for which it requested coordinates and timeframes.

    Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.

    In a separate statement, the Israeli military said a 19-year-old sergeant “fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip”.

    Mughayyir said the Palestinians killed included five shot while waiting for aid near a US-run site near Rafah in southern Gaza and several who were waiting for aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the centre of the territory.

    They were the latest in a spate of deaths near aid distribution centres in the devastated territory, which UN agencies have warned is on the brink of famine.

    The US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distanced itself from reports of deadly incidents near its sites.

    – Displaced civilians –

    Mughayyir told AFP that eight people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the tents of displaced civilians near Khan Yunis on Thursday.

    The civil defence official said eight more people were killed in two other strikes on camps on the coast, including one that killed two children early Friday.

    The Israeli military said it was operating throughout Gaza “to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.

  • Hamas hands over another three Israeli hostages to Red Cross in Gaza

    Hamas hands over another three Israeli hostages to Red Cross in Gaza

    Gaza handed three Israeli hostages over to the Red Cross on Saturday in an exchange that is also set to see the release of 369 Palestinians from Israeli custody, the latest such swap under an ongoing truce deal.

    An AFP journalist saw masked Hamas parade the hostages onto a stage in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, where they were told to address the crowd before their handover to the Red Cross.

    Clutching gift bags given by their captors and a certificate to mark the end of their captivity, the three men, flanked by fighters, called for the completion of further hostage exchanges under the ceasefire deal.

    The release, the sixth since the truce took effect on January 19, came after fears last week that the deal between Israel and Hamas was near collapse. But on Friday both sides signalled that Saturday’s swap would go ahead.

    Dozens of Hamas fighters lined up around the stage bearing the logo of the group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, as Palestinian nationalist music played.

    Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the groups had deployed about 200 militants for the handover ceremony.

    A crowd also gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” to watch the exchange, with many carrying Israeli flags and posters in support of the captives.

    The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had named the hostages as Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn.

    They had been held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks.

    The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel was to release 369 inmates in exchange, with 24 of them expected to be deported.

    Almost all of the rest are “prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7”, the group said.

    After the deal had appeared to be on the brink of collapse, a Hamas official on Friday said the group expected talks on a second phase of the ceasefire to begin early next week.

    United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top backer and one of the truce mediators, is due to arrive in Israel late Saturday ahead of expected talks with Netanyahu on the Gaza truce.

    Last week’s release sparked anger in Israel and beyond after the freed hostages were paraded onstage, with their emaciated state sparking concern over conditions in captivity.

    Israeli-American hostage Keith Siegel, released in a previous exchange, said he was “starved and… tortured, both physically and emotionally” during his captivity.

    There were also fears for Palestinians in Israeli custody after some prisoners required medical treatment following their release in the last swap.

    Riyadh summit

    The ceasefire has been under massive strain since US President Donald Trump proposed a takeover of the Gaza Strip under which the territory’s population of more than two million people would be moved to Egypt or Jordan.

    For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.

    The stage set up for the release on Saturday bore an illustrated poster appearing to depict the final moments of Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in October. It showed the Al-Aqsa Mosque visible through a hole in the wall of a destroyed building along with the slogan: “No displacement except to Jerusalem”.

    Arab countries have come together to reject Trump’s plan, and Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a summit on the issue.

    After the Riyadh summit, the Arab League will convene in Cairo on February 27 to discuss the same issue.

    A joint statement from the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem on Saturday also spoke out against any forced displacement, saying Gazans “who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors, must not be forced into exile, stripped of… their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity”.

    Trump had warned this week that “hell” would break loose if Hamas failed to release “all” remaining hostages by noon on Saturday.

    Israel later insisted Hamas release “three living hostages” on Saturday or “the ceasefire will end”.

    Second phase

    Under the terms of the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, negotiations for a second phase were due to start on February 3.

    Netanyahu had sent negotiators to Doha days later, but the delegation was not mandated to discuss phase two, which is meant to lay out steps towards ending the genocide.

    Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Friday that “we expect the second phase of the ceasefire negotiations to begin early next week”.

    Another source familiar with the talks told AFP that “mediators informed Hamas that they hope to start the second phase of negotiations next week in Doha”.

    The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

    Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

    In retaliation, Israel’s genocide against Palestians has killed at least 48,239 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

  • Pakistan agreed to host 15 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, says Hamas spokesperson

    Pakistan agreed to host 15 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, says Hamas spokesperson

    Hamas spokesperson Dr. Khalid Al-Qadoumi said on Monday that Pakistan has agreed to host 15 Palestinian prisoners who were recently released from Israeli custody under a recent ceasefire agreement.

    “Initially, the number will be 15, but the timeline for their arrival in Pakistan has not yet been determined,” the Hamas spokesperson said while speaking to Independent Urdu in a telephonic conversation.

    However, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has yet to respond to Hamas’ claim.

    The ceasefire, which ended 15 months of war, began on January 15 and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.

    According to the deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, and men over 50, while Israel committed to releasing 30 Palestinian detainees for every civilian hostage and 50 for every Israeli female soldier released by Hamas.

    During the telephonic interview, the Hamas spokesperson expressed gratitude to the leadership and people of Pakistan, stating, “This once again proves that Pakistan is a big brother and its soul is connected to Jerusalem… Pakistan and its people have always fulfilled the promises they made.”

    Qadoumi asserted that the Palestinians intending to travel to Pakistan will transit through Egypt and Turkey, though they have not yet left Egypt.

    “Several Islamic countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Algeria, have expressed willingness to host a group of Palestinian prisoners released under the Tufan al-Ahrar agreement. Discussions with these countries are currently ongoing,” he further claimed.

    The Palestinian news agency Quds Press had earlier reported that Pakistan was among four countries agreeing to host prisoners released under the Gaza ceasefire.

    The news agency, while citing a “senior Hamas official,” on Monday reported, “The [Hamas] movement is currently negotiating with several countries to secure approval for hosting the remaining released prisoners.”

    As per the media report, Hamas was in talks with Algeria and Indonesia regarding the acceptance of prisoners, while Tunisia has declined to do so.

    Since the onset of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza in October 2023, Pakistan has supplied humanitarian aid and launched a public donation fund to support the war-affected population in Gaza.

    The conflict has led to the devastating loss of life, with more than 47,000 Palestinians reportedly killed and widespread destruction in Gaza, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

  • Hamas announces ‘national unity’ deal with Palestinian rivals

    Hamas announces ‘national unity’ deal with Palestinian rivals

    Hamas announced Tuesday it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organizations, including rivals Fatah, to work together for “national unity”, with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the war ends.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk, Fatah envoy Mahmud al-Aloul and emissaries from 12 other Palestinian groups, said they had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza. “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity and we call for it,”

    Abu Marzuk said after meeting Wang and the other envoys. The announcement comes more than nine months into the genocide.

    Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Gaza.

    The relentless fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis. China has sought to play a mediator role in the conflict, which has been rendered even more complex due to the intense rivalry between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which partially governs the occupied West Bank.

    Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it destroys Hamas, and world powers, including key Israeli backer the United States, have scrambled to imagine scenarios for the governance of Gaza once the war ends. As Tuesday’s meeting wrapped up in Beijing, Wang said the groups had committed to “reconciliation”.

    “The most prominent highlight is the agreement to form an interim national reconciliation government around the governance of post-war Gaza,” Wang said following the signing of the “Beijing Declaration” by the factions in the Chinese capital.

    “Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community,” Wang said. China, he added, was keen to “play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East”. Beijing, Wang said, called for a “comprehensive, lasting and sustainable ceasefire”, as well as efforts to promote Palestinian self-governance and full recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN.

    Hamas and Fatah have been bitter rivals since Hamas fighters ejected Fatah from the Gaza Strip after deadly clashes that followed Hamas’s resounding victory in a 2006 election.

    Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Several reconciliation bids have failed, but calls have grown since October 7, with violence also soaring in the West Bank, where Fatah is based.

    China hosted Fatah and Hamas in April, but a meeting scheduled for June was postponed. China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  • Amid Gaza genocide, Israel aims to send Lebanon “back to Stone Age”

    Amid Gaza genocide, Israel aims to send Lebanon “back to Stone Age”

    Israel launched air strikes on Gaza Thursday after warning Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, to avoid a large-scale war that would send the neighbouring country “back to the Stone Age”.

    Defence Minister Yoav Gallant made the comment during a visit to Washington, where he discussed the Gaza war, long-running efforts toward a truce, and ways to avoid a wider regional conflagration.

    As cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have risen, Gallant stressed that “we do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario”.

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during his visit to Washington this weekDrew ANGERER

    “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched,” he said of the fighter group.

    Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily cross-border fire since October 7.

    But tensions have surged since Israel said this month that its Lebanon war plans are ready, sparking threats from Hezbollah that, in the event of all-out war, none of Israel would be safe.

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Gallant this week that a war with Hezbollah could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East” and urged a diplomatic solution.

    A Palestinian boy sits on a war-damaged road at al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 26, 2024Eyad BABA

    UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that Lebanon was “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints” and that a full war would be “potentially apocalyptic”.

    Germany has joined Canada in advising its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country, reiterating warnings first issued shortly after October 7.

    In the latest clashes on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported about 10 Israeli strikes near the border, while Hezbollah claimed six attacks against Israeli military positions.

    A US official said Washington was engaged in “fairly intensive conversations” with Israel, Lebanon and other actors and believed that no side sought a “major escalation”.

    Meanwhile, the Gaza war at the heart of regional tensions ground on, despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “intense phase” of the assault on Gaza was nearing an end.

    An Israeli Air Force F-16 Jet fighter aircraft flies over the border area between northern Israel and southern LebanonJACK GUEZ

    Israeli air strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least five people in Gaza City, said Gaza’s civil defence agency and Al-Mamdani hospital medics.

    One person was killed when a warplane bombed a house in Beit Lahia, paramedics said.

    Heavy fighting, artillery shelling and helicopter fire were reported Thursday around northern Gaza’s Shujayia market, as well as approaching Israeli ground vehicles.

    Hamas’ press office in Gaza reported “a significant displacement of residents” there and said people “are fleeing to areas of refuge in Gaza City that are already overcrowded”.

    An anonymous witness told AFP the situation was “very difficult and frightening in Shujayia after the arrival of occupation (Israeli) vehicles and air fire.”

    “Residents are running through the streets in terror… a number of wounded and martyrs lie in the streets.”

    A handout picture released by the Jordanian army shows humanitarian aid being airdropped from a military aircraft over southern Gaza on June 25, 2024-

    Shelling also targeted Gaza City, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, and Israeli forces blew up several buildings in far-southern Rafah, witnesses said.

    The Israeli military also said it had “attacked terrorists who were in a school complex in Khan Yunis” in the south, where the civil defence agency said it had recovered several bodies.

    US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope a Gaza ceasefire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on the Lebanese border.

    However, months of talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have so far failed as Israel has rejected Hamas’ demands for a permanent end to fighting and full troop withdrawal.

    Israel has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.

    This handout picture released by the Israeli army on June 25, 2024 shows an Israeli army tracked vehicle during operations in the Gaza Strip-

    The war and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, with Gaza hospitals struggling to function and food, drinking water and other essentials hard to come by.

    USAID officials said Wednesday that just 1,000 of the 7,000 tonnes of aid shipped from Cyprus to Gaza had been distributed, blaming looting and security problems.

    Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is intense, said US doctors and nurses returning from the territory, who reported patients in the few remaining hospitals were dying in large numbers.

    Israeli tanks seen in central Gaza, gunfire heard
    Israeli tanks seen in central Gaza, gunfire heard

    One of the volunteer medics, former US army combat surgeon Adam Hamawy, said he had worked in many war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries in the past 30 years.

    “But the level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I’d seen before,” the 54-year-old told AFP.

    “Most of our patients were children under the age of 14,” he said. “This has nothing to do with your political views.”

  • Israeli military spokesman admits Hamas can’t be destroyed, enraging Netanyahu

    Israeli military spokesman admits Hamas can’t be destroyed, enraging Netanyahu

    Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has acknowledged that the Palestinian resistance organization Hamas is an ideology that cannot be defeated. The statement has exposed the rift between the country’s political and military leadership, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently claimed that only the destruction of Hamas can bring an end to the war on Gaza.

    In an interview with CBS News, the spokesman of the Israeli army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that anyone who thinks that we will eliminate Hamas is mistaken. “Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people – whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong,” Hagari was seen saying.

    The statement of Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari is being taken as proof of a conflict between the Israeli army and the government, an example of which is the replacement of the Israeli war cabinet with a reduced kitchen cabinet.

    However, Netanyahu’s office strongly denied the statement of the spokesman of the Israeli army and reiterated his determination to eliminate Hamas completely.


    Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that Netanyahu’s office was “fuming” at Hagari’s remarks.


    “This just gives you an idea of what Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are in this war, and the army on the ground saying it is actually not realistic,” she stressed.

    On the other hand, the Israeli military said that the statement of Admiral Daniel Hagari is being taken out of context, and he has clearly declared the elimination of Hamas as the ideology of the Israeli army, which we are determined to achieve.


    Hagari’s comments, the statement said, “referred to the destruction of Hamas as an ideology and an idea, and this was said by him very clearly and explicitly,” the military statement added. “Any other claim is taking things out of context.”


    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that it is impossible to end the war without eliminating Hamas, but even though the Zionist forces have martyred nearly 40,000 Palestinians in the ongoing genocide since October 7, they have failed to eliminate Hamas.

  • Israel PM Netanyahu says Rafah strike a ‘tragic accident’

    Israel PM Netanyahu says Rafah strike a ‘tragic accident’

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a deadly strike that hit a displacement camp in Gaza’s Rafah was a “tragic accident” that his government was investigating.

    “In Rafah, we evacuated a million uninvolved residents and, despite our best efforts, a tragic accident happened yesterday,” Netanyahu told parliament.

    He added that “we are investigating the case and will draw the conclusions” after Gaza’s health ministry reported 45 dead as the strike late Sunday sparked a fire that tore through a tent city for displaced Gazans.

    The ministry in the Gaza Strip also said that 249 people were wounded.

    Israel faced a wave of international condemnation on Monday over the Rafah strike, including from across the region as well from the European Union, France, and the United Nations.

    The Israeli military said it had launched a probe into the strike which it said was carried out based on “precise intelligence information” about two Hamas militants who it said were killed.

    It also said “the strike did not occur in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, to which the IDF (army) has encouraged civilians to evacuate” since the ground operation began in Rafah.

    Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in his Knesset address while being heckled by relatives of hostages held in Gaza, and vowed to keep up the battle to destroy Hamas.

    “There is no substitute for absolute victory” in Gaza, he told the chamber.

    Netanyahu denounced pressure, both internal and external, that he said his government has faced since the war in Gaza began.

    “They pressured us then,” said Netanyahu, before listing calls to refrain from military operations which Israel carried out anyway.

    “Don’t enter Gaza. We entered! Do not enter Shifa! We entered! Do not enter Khan Yunis! We entered! Do not enter Rafah! We entered!” he said.

    “I don’t give up and I won’t give up! I stand up to pressures from home and abroad.”

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza has caused the death of 36,050 Palestinians.

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israel army says retrieved bodies of three Gaza hostages

    Israel army says retrieved bodies of three Gaza hostages

    The Israeli military said Friday its forces had retrieved the bodies of three hostages in an overnight operation in the northern Gaza Strip’s Jabalia.

    The bodies of Israeli hostage Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux “were rescued overnight” and their families were notified after forensic identification, the military said in a statement.

    Both Yablonka, 42, and Hernandez Radoux, 32, were abducted from a music festival when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, triggering the ongoing war.

    Nisenbaum, a 59-year-old resident of the Israeli town of Sderot near Gaza, was last contacted on his way to an army base on the border to pick up his granddaughter on the day of the attack.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under increasing domestic pressure to secure the release of remaining hostages, said in a statement Friday that “together with the Israeli people, my wife Sara and I bow our heads in deep sorrow and embrace the grieving families in their difficult time”.

  • Austria to resume aid to UN agency for Palestinians

    Austria to resume aid to UN agency for Palestinians

    Austria said on Saturday that it will restore its funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after suspending it over allegations that staff were involved with the Hamas.

    Israel alleged in January that some United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees may have participated in the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that triggered the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

    In the weeks that followed, numerous donor states, including Austria, suspended or paused some $450 million in funding.

    Many, including Germany, Sweden, Canada and Japan, had since resumed funding, while others have continued to hold out.

    “After analysing the action plan in detail” submitted by UNRWA “to improve the functioning of the organization,” Austria has decided to “release the funds,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    A total of 3.4 million euros ($3.7 million) in funds have been budgeted for 2024, and the first payment is expected to be made in the summer, the statement said. 

    An UNRWA staff member checks a burned area at a school housing displaced Palestinians that was hit during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on May 17, 2024. (Credit: AFP)

    “Some of the Austrian funds will be used in the future to improve internal control mechanisms at UNRWA,” it added.

    Austria said it will “closely monitor” the implementation of the action plan with other international partners, noting that “a lot of trust had been squandered.”

    The Alpine country said it has substantially increased support for the suffering Palestinian population in Gaza and the region since Oct. 7, making 32 million euros ($34.8 million) in humanitarian aid available to other international aid organizations.

    Israel’s has massacred at least 35,303 people, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the health ministry in the Gaza territory.