Three Israeli hostages arrive in Israel as fragile ceasefire passes first hurdle
JERUSALEM (AP) — Three Israeli hostages arrive in Israel as fragile ceasefire passes first hurdle.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Three Israeli hostages arrive in Israel as fragile ceasefire passes first hurdle.
Widespread anti-regime protests erupted across Iran on Sunday night as the Islamic Republic marked its 46th anniversary amid growing anger towards the clerics in power.
The group still projects a powerful presence but, after all the damage, it will need to divert blame if the truce collapses
Nearly 500 days after Hamas gunmen seized him from a roadside bomb shelter in southern Israel, Alon Ohel managed to get a message out from the Gaza tunnel where he is being held by the Palestinian militants. He sent a birthday wish for his sister via two other hostages who had been held with him and were freed on Saturday, his mother Idit Ohel said. "Alon has been in the tunnels all this time," Ohel told Reuters in an interview.
STORY: Volunteers in protective clothing were removing decomposing bodies from the Muzenze prison in eastern Congo's Goma on Monday.That grim task taking place two weeks after clashes between Rwanda-backed rebels and the Congolese army led to a mass escape from the facility.Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross were clearing and disinfecting damaged buildings to prevent health risks.Goma resident Pacifique Mughulwa, who lives near the prison, said children had been wandering around the area, leaving them exposed to disease."Regardless of whether they are prisoners, it is truly heartbreaking. They have been there for more than two weeks. The smells are everywhere, everywhere. Truly, it is very heartbreaking."A rebel alliance spearheaded by the M23 group seized Goma on January 27.It is the worst escalation in fighting in eastern Congo in more than a decade and has left thousands dead.Despite announcing a unilateral ceasefire, the rebels have continued to march south towards the city of Bukavu.At the weekend, leaders from Eastern and Southern African blocs held an unprecedented joint summit with the aim of diffusing the crisis.The summit urged all parties to hold direct talks, though Congo has repeatedly refused to hold such talks with the M23.The first-ever summit between the two blocs reflects the continent's deep concern over the violence and the standoff between Congo and neighboring Rwanda - which denies allegations it is fueling the conflict with its own troops and weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and resume its war against Hamas if the militant group does not go ahead with the next scheduled release of hostages on Saturday. Hamas accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement, including by not allowing a surge of tents and shelters into the devastated territory. U.S. President Donald Trump threated that “all hell” will break out if the militant group does not release the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Saturday.
‘There is no way to make it more of a hell. All that is left for them to do is to use a nuclear bomb to annihilate us all’
Surrender is one of the most essential rules in international humanitarian law. Don't expect it any time soon in the Middle East.
A spokesperson for Hamas says it will delay the next hostage release after accusing Israel of violating a ceasefire agreement. Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange, scheduled for Saturday, called for three more Israeli hostages to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Refusal to release next batch of Israeli hostages as planned could derail fragile agreement
He is coming back to area, following the Israel-Hamas war.
As the war moves to the West Bank, Palestinian security forces stun residents as they operate in occupied streets in cooperation with the Israeli army
North Korea has given Russia 200 long-range artillery pieces, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Tuesday, as Moscow and Pyongyang deepen their military ties.The North has given Moscow "some 11,000 troops, missiles, 200 pieces of long-range artillery and a substantial amount of ammunition," the South Korean official said.
The United Nations World Food Program said Tuesday one of its staffers has died in a Yemeni prison three weeks after his detention by Houthi rebels. The announcement came a day after the U.N. suspended its operations in the rebel’s stronghold in northern Yemen, over security concerns following the detentions of dozens of U.N. workers and others in recent months. No cause of death was given in the World Food Program statement.
Dozens of Palestinian families fled on Monday from the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel pushed on with a sweeping military operation.Violence has exploded in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Israeli military on alert as mediators fear a breakdown in three-week-old truce as Hamas says ‘door remains open’
Israel completed its withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday, a key road that splits Gaza in half, as part of its commitments under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
The decision to pause all operations and programmes in northern Saada came after eight UN staff were detained by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.View on euronews
The performer in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show who was detained after showing a Sudanese-Palestinian flag Sunday said he wanted to “highlight the human suffering” of Palestinians. Zül-Qarnain Nantambu, 41, spoke with NBC News after the incident, saying he was accepted about a month ago to perform in the halftime show. Nantambu was detained…
Hamas announced Monday it would postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges under a fragile Gaza ceasefire accusing Israel of violations, while Israel said its military was readying for "any possible scenario".The ceasefire that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that the next hostage release, "which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice", accusing Israel of failing to comply with the terms of the truce.The spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said the resumption of hostage-prisoner exchanges was "pending the (Israeli) occupation's compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks' obligations", without specifying."We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them," he said.The statement was issued as negotiators were due to meet in the coming days in Qatar to discuss the implementation of the truce's first 42-day phase, as well as potentially the next phases which have yet to be finalised.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Hamas announcement was a "complete violation" of the ceasefire agreement, signalling that fighting could resume."I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza," Katz said in a statement.- Trump says 'would own' Gaza -Tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by US President Donald Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than two million inhabitants.On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the displacement proposal as "revolutionary", striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return from Washington.The proposal, which the United Nations and experts have said would violate international law, has already drawn widespread criticism.And on Monday the US president told Fox News Channel's Bret Baier that Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza."I'm talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever -- it's not habitable," said Trump of the devastated Gaza Strip.Asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump said: "No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing."He said he would build "beautiful communities" for Gazans elsewhere, and "in the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future."For Palestinians, any attempt to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948.Trump stunned the world when he announced out of the blue last week that the United States would "take over the Gaza Strip," remove rubble and unexploded bombs and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East".- Help from mediators -The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,208 people in the territory.Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.Netanyahu's office said "all the families of the hostages were informed" of Hamas's announcement on Monday and "made aware that the State of Israel is committed to respecting the agreement".The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group said it had "requested assistance from the mediating countries to help restore and implement the existing deal effectively".The truce has also allowed displaced Gazans to return to the territory's hard-hit north and facilitated a surge of badly needed humanitarian aid.While the violence has subsided in Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out deadly raids in the occupied West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory.bur-ami/dcp
Pro-Palestinian campaigners are urging Cumbrians to attend a national protest in London this month.