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Tag: Palestinians

  • ‘By Next Monday We’ll Have A Ceasefire’: US President Biden On Israel-Hamas conflict | world news

    US President Joe Biden highlighted that he hopes there will be a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict by “next Monday,” as reported by CNN.

    He further said that we are close to it but it’s not done yet. “Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, I mean, the end of the weekend,” Biden said after being asked when a ceasefire might start. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close, it’s not done yet. And my hope is that by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added. Earlier on Monday, according to CNN, Hamas backed off some key demands in the negotiations for a hostage deal and paused the fighting in Gaza following Israeli accusations that its position was “delusional”.

    It brought the negotiating parties closer to an initial agreement that could halt the fighting and see a group of Israeli hostages released, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

    Following the meeting held in Paris between the US, Egyptian, and Israeli intelligence chiefs and the Qatari prime minister, a senior Biden administration official said, “The major obstacles have been resolved in terms of Hamas insisting on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end the war.”

    “Hamas’ requirements for the number of Palestinians (prisoners that) would have to be freed have declined,” the official added. Meanwhile, a diplomatic source familiar with the discussions said that Hamas softened its position ahead of an agreement on the first phase of a deal, according to CNN.

    However, it is expected that more challenging hurdles will emerge later when complex issues like Hamas releasing male IDF hostages and an end to the war are discussed. Furthermore, those involved in the discussions said that an agreement would likely be implemented in multiple phases and once an initial deal is made, it could lead to a truce lasting for as long as six weeks with a group of Israeli hostages released, including women, children, the elderly and the sick, in exchange for a smaller number of Palestinian prisoners than Hamas had initially demanded.

    According to CNN, the second phase is where discussions are expected to get even more complicated. Reportedly, Israeli leaders have made it clear that they intend to launch a military offensive into Rafah, while in an earlier proposal, Hamas said they want to use a second phase to discuss “the requirements necessary for the continuation of the mutual cessation of military operations.” .”

    Earlier on Sunday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the Paris meeting resulted in “an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire would look like.”

    “There will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas because ultimately they will have to agree to release the hostages. That work is underway. And we hope that in the coming days, we can drive to a point where there is actually a firm and final agreement on this issue. But we will have to wait and see,” he added.

  • Israel To Directly Deliver Humanitarian Aid Via Northern Gaza, Bypassing Hamas | world news

    To bypass Hamas, Israeli humanitarian aid to Gaza will be delivered through a reopened crossing on the northeastern side of the Strip, Israel’s War Cabinet decided.

    Till now, humanitarian aid has passed through either the Kerem Shalom crossing or Egypt’s Rafah crossing. Both are on the southern end of Gaza, next to Rafah, where Hamas reportedly has four battalions. Hamas has been hijacking trucks carrying food, water, medicine, fuel and other aid.

    In the coming days, deliveries to areas of Gaza under Israeli control will be routed through the site of the old Karni crossing, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Karni was a cargo terminal that opened in 1994 after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

    It was closed in 2011 for security reasons as deliveries were increasingly routed through the larger and more modern Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel demolished Karni’s remaining structures in 2022.

    Humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza are unpopular among Israelis.

    For weeks, protesters chanting “Don’t feed Hamas” have tried to disrupt the aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing and other points where the deliveries are inspected.

    Netanyahu has defended the aid transfers, saying a degree of aid is necessary to continue the war to free hostages and remove Hamas from control of Gaza.

    At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.

  • Palestinian assailants shoot lifeless Israeli guard in West Financial institution

    Palestinian assailants shot and killed a safety guard on the front of a Jewish agreement within the occupied West Financial institution past due Friday, the Israeli army mentioned. The recent assault may just additional gasoline Israeli-Palestinian tensions that experience soared up to now two months.

    The Israeli army mentioned early Saturday that the attackers arrived on the Ariel agreement front and shot the guard in his submit ahead of fleeing the scene. The army introduced a pursuit of the suspects within the West Financial institution.

    In a separate incident, Israeli troops shot and killed a 27-year-old Palestinian guy throughout clashes at Azoun village close to the city of Qalqilya early Saturday, the Palestinian Well being Ministry mentioned.

    A string of Palestinian assaults in Israel and the West Financial institution during the last two months have left 15 Israelis lifeless. A minimum of 27 Palestinians had been killed by way of Israeli safety forces in contemporary weeks.

    Hamas, the militant team ruling Gaza, praised the assault however stopped in need of claiming duty for it.

    “The operation proves that revolution is raging everywhere the West Financial institution,” mentioned spokesman Hazem Qassem. “This can be a sensible implementation of our other people’s declaration that Jerusalem is a pink line.” Tensions larger this month at a big Jerusalem holy web page, with Palestinian worshippers clashing day by day with Israeli police. The web page comprises Al-Aqsa Mosque, the 3rd holiest web page in Islam, and lengthening numbers of Palestinians cross there to hope throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Previous on Friday, Palestinians hurled stones and Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets on the web page, which has observed a wave of unrest in contemporary weeks.

    The police say Palestinians within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound started hurling stones and fireworks round break of day within the course of a closely guarded gate that results in the Western Wall, the holiest position the place Jews can pray. The police complex into the compound, firing rubber-coated bullets.

    The violence ended round an hour later after different Palestinians within the compound intervened, convincing the stone throwers and the police to tug again.

    The Palestinian Crimson Crescent emergency provider mentioned greater than 40 other people had been wounded, with 22 requiring remedy at native hospitals. It mentioned Israeli forces avoided first responders from coming into the compound throughout the clashes, and that considered one of its medics used to be crushed by way of police. The Israeli police mentioned they had been unfamiliar with the claims that they’d avoided clinical employees from coming into the world, calling it a “distorted” model of occasions. Additionally they mentioned 3 other people had been arrested.

    The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is constructed on a hilltop that’s the maximum sacred web page for Jews, who seek advice from it because the Temple Mount as it used to be the positioning of the Jewish temples in antiquity. It has lengthy been a flashpoint within the Israeli-Palestinian warfare.

    In contemporary weeks, Israeli police and Palestinians have clashed there on quite a lot of events. Israeli government accuse Hamas of inciting violence and say safety forces had been compelled to intrude to halt stone-throwing.

    The Palestinians say the presence of Israeli police on the web page, and common visits by way of expanding numbers of nationalist and spiritual Jews, are a contravention of decades-old casual preparations governing the web page. The visits had been halted closing week for the closing 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which concludes this weekend.

  • Israeli-Arab summit convenes, US seeks to reassure allies on Iran

    Israeli and Arab companions convened for a unprecedented summit in Israel on Sunday attended by means of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who sought to reassure america allies over Washington’s international relations with Iran.

    The problem is more likely to dominate the two-day collecting, which contains overseas ministers from 3 Arab states that normalised ties with Israel in 2020, whilst peacemaking with the Palestinians remained stalled.

    Blinken’s talk over with comes as some US allies within the area query President Joe Biden management’s dedication and brace for fallout from an Iranian nuclear deal and the Ukrainian disaster. The nuclear talks were with regards to an settlement a number of weeks in the past till Russia made last-minute calls for of the USA, insisting that sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine will have to now not have an effect on its industry with Iran.

    Restoring a 2015 nuclear deal “is one of the simplest ways to place Iran’s nuclear programme again in to the field it was once in”, Blinken stated.

    However whether or not or now not that occurs, “our dedication to the core concept of Iran by no means obtaining a nuclear weapon is unwavering,” he stated along Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid in Jerusalem, ahead of the summit were given below approach. “America will proceed to get up to Iran when it threatens us or when it threatens our allies and companions,” Blinken stated.

    In Israel, interior safety considerations deepened when Arab assailants, known by means of safety officers as Israeli electorate and Islamic State sympathisers, shot and killed two border law enforcement officials in Hadera, a town 50 km north of Tel Aviv. Police shot the 2 males useless. Islamic State claimed duty for the assault, in step with a commentary posted at the workforce’s Telegram account.

    On Twitter, Blinken wrote: “We condemn as of late’s terrorist assault in Hadera, Israel. Such mindless acts of violence and homicide don’t have any position in society.”

    On the summit, Blinken may be anticipated to press Arab allies to step up strengthen for Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion as a number of Gulf countries have to this point stopped wanting offering significant help. After talks with Blinken, Israeli High Minister Naftali Bennett, who has cautioned {that a} nuclear handle Iran would now not be binding on Israel, stated he was hoping Washington “will listen the involved voices from the area, Israel’s and others”.

    Attending the Lapid-hosted summit in a wilderness lodge would be the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, that have been a part of the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by means of the Trump management to normalise ties with Israel.

    Egypt’s overseas minister, whose nation on Saturday marked 43 years of peace with Israel, can even sign up for the summit.

    “Normalisation is turning into the brand new commonplace within the area,” Blinken stated, including that Washington was hoping “to convey others in”.

    Prior to travelling to the summit venue, Blinken held talks within the occupied West Financial institution with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and voiced persisted US dedication to a two-state answer of the Israeli-Palestinian war.

    The venue for the overseas ministers’ assembly is Sde Boker, the place Israel’s founding father and primary high minister, David Ben-Gurion, retired and is buried.