GAZA CITY: Hamas’ chief says Israel is ignoring the terms of an indirect cease-fire agreement for the Gaza Strip.
Ismail Haniyeh told foreign reporters in Gaza on Thursday that the understandings, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the UN, now are “in the danger zone.”
He said Israel has shown “no respect” for the terms and the 2 million residents of blockaded Gaza who “have not felt” any improvement to their living conditions.
Israel acknowledges no formal arrangements.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade after the Islamic militant group violently seized control of the coastal Palestinian enclave in 2007.
Since March 2018, Hamas has led mass protests along the Israel-Gaza fence against Israel.
The two have fought three wars over the past decade and the informal understandings are aimed at preventing another war.
Hamas chief: Israel ignoring cease-fire terms for Gaza
Hamas chief: Israel ignoring cease-fire terms for Gaza
- Ismail Haniyeh said the 2 million residents of Gaza didn’t see any improvements after the agreement
- Hamas is leading mass protests along the Israel-Gaza border since March 2018
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
