Officials tout Gaza ceasefire deal and plan to free hostages, Israel says details still in flux

Palestinians react as they wait for news of a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 15, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Updated 15 January 2025
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Officials tout Gaza ceasefire deal and plan to free hostages, Israel says details still in flux

  • Three officials from US, one from Hamas confirm deal has been reached
  • Deal promises release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases

DOHA: Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, multiple officials announced Wednesday, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.
The deal, coming after weeks of painstaking negotiations in the Qatari capital, promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and would allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes. It also would flood badly needed humanitarian aid into a territory ravaged by 15 months of war.
Three officials from the US and one from Hamas confirmed that a deal had been reached, while the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said final details were still being ironed out.
All three US officials and the Hamas official requested anonymity to discuss the contours of the deal before the official announcement by mediators in Doha.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that it hoped “details will be finalized tonight.” Any agreement needs to be approved by Netanyahu’s Cabinet.
Once official, the deal is expected to deliver an initial six-week halt to fighting that is to be accompanied by the opening of negotiations on ending the war altogether.
Over six weeks, 33 of the nearly 100 hostages are to be reunited with their loved ones after months in in captivity with no contact with the outside world, though it’s unclear if all are alive.
It remained unclear exactly when and how many displaced Palestinians would be able to return to what remains of their homes and whether the agreement would lead to a complete end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza — key Hamas demands for releasing the remaining captives.
Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction after a brutal conflict that has destabilized the broader Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.
Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a fierce offensive that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, displaced an estimated 90 percent of Gaza’s population and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
More than 100 hostages were freed from Gaza in a weeklong truce in November 2023.
The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, have brokered months of indirect talks between the bitter enemies that finally culminated in this latest deal. It comes after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November, after more than a year of conflict linked to the war in the Gaza.
Israel responded with a brutal air and ground offensive that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. They do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.
UN and international relief organizations estimate that some 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times. They say tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and hospitals are barely functioning. Experts have warned that famine may be underway in northern Gaza, where Israel launched a major offensive in early October, displacing tens of thousands of residents.




Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip on January 15, 2025. (AP)

“The best day in my life and the life of the Gaza people,” Abed Radwan, a Palestinian father of three, said of the ceasefire deal. “Thank God. Thank God.”
Radwan, who has been displaced from the town of Beit Lahiya for over a year and shelters in Gaza City, said he will try to return to his hometown, and “rebuild my house, and rebuild Beit Lahiya.”
He spoke to AP over the phone. His voice has been overshadowed by celebrations. “People are crying here. They don’t believe it’s true.”
In Israel, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to be completed. Many held posters of hostages held by Hamas, others hoisted candles in the air.
As the deal was announced, some people were unaware that it had gone through. Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded is being held in Gaza, told the AP by phone she was stunned and grateful but won’t believe it until she sees all the hostages come home.
“I’m so desperate to see them if by some miracle my father has survived,” she said.
US President Joe Biden, who has provided crucial military aid to Israel but expressed exasperation over civilian deaths, announced the outline of the three-phase ceasefire agreement on May 31. The agreement eventually agreed to followed that framework.
He said the first phase would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older adults and wounded people, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Humanitarian assistance would surge, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza each day.
The second and most difficult phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war.
Hamas had been demanding assurances for a permanent end to the war and complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has repeatedly said it would not halt the war until it destroys Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.
The various players have conducted months of on-again, off-again negotiations. But with Biden’s days in office numbered and President-elect Donald Trump set to take over, both sides had been under heavy pressure to agree to a deal.
Trump celebrated the soon-to-be-announced agreement in a posting on his Truth Social social media platform: “WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!”
Hezbollah’s acceptance of a ceasefire in Lebanon after it had suffered heavy blows, and the overthrow of President Bashar Assad in Syria, were both major setbacks for Iran and its allies across the region, including Hamas, which was left increasingly isolated.

 


Israel has come under heavy international criticism, including from its closest ally, the United States, over the civilian toll. Israel says it has killed around 17,000 militants — though it has not provided evidence to support the claim. It also blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, accusing the group of using schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.
The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court, a separate body also based in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and a Hamas commander for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war.
Israel and the United States have condemned the actions taken by both courts.
Netanyahu also faced great domestic pressure to bring home the hostages, whose plight has captured the nation’s attention. Their families have become a powerful lobbying group with wide public support backed by months of mass protests urging the government to reach a deal with Hamas.
Israeli authorities have already concluded that more than a third of the roughly 100 remaining people held captive are dead, and there are fears that others are no longer alive. A series of videos released by Hamas showing surviving hostages in distress, combined with news that a growing number of abducted Israelis have died, put added pressure on the Israeli leader.
Hamas, a militant group that does not accept Israel’s existence, has come under overwhelming pressure from Israeli military operations, including the invasion of Gaza’s largest cities and towns and the takeover of the border between Gaza and Egypt. Its top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was believed to have helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, have been killed.
But its fighters have regrouped in some of the hardest-hit areas after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, raising the prospect of a prolonged insurgency if the war continues.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But it has never been clear what that would entail or if it’s even possible, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society, its presence in Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, and its exiled leadership.
If the ceasefire takes hold, both sides face many difficult and unanswered questions.
As the war winds down, Netanyahu will face growing calls for postwar investigations that could find him at least partially responsible for the security failures of Oct. 7 — the worst in Israel’s history. His far-right governing partners, who opposed a ceasefire deal, could also bring down the coalition and push the country into early elections.
There is still no plan for who will govern Gaza after the war. Israel has said it will work with local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. But it is unclear if such partners exist, and Hamas has threatened anyone who cooperates with Israeli forces.
The United States has tried to advance sweeping postwar plans for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with Arab and international assistance. As part of those plans, the US hope Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for US security guarantees and aid in setting up a civilian nuclear program.
But those plans depend on credible progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu and much of Israel’s political class oppose. Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza as well as the occupied West Bank, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their future state.
In the absence of a postwar arrangement with Palestinian support, Hamas is likely to remain a significant force in Gaza and could reconstitute its military capabilities if Israeli forces fully withdraw.

 


Israeli security official says military readying to withdraw from Lebanon

Updated 14 February 2025
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Israeli security official says military readying to withdraw from Lebanon

  • Hezbollah was also expected to vacate its positions in the south, near the Israeli border, during that timeframe

Jerusalem: The Israeli military is prepared to withdraw from Lebanese territory and hand over areas to the Lebanese army “within the timeline” set by a US-French-mediated ceasefire agreement, a senior Israeli security official said.
Under the ceasefire that took effect November 27, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, later extended until February 18.
Hezbollah was also expected to vacate its positions in the south, near the Israeli border, during that timeframe.
“We are still deployed in accordance with the US monitored agreement and we are working closely with the US to make sure that handing over responsibility to the Lebanese army will happen within the timeline,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with protocols, said on Thursday.
His comments came as Israeli fighter jets overnight hit what the army said were Hezbollah military sites “containing weapons and launchers, which pose a direct threat to the Israeli home front.”
Lebanese media reported that Israeli aircraft had targeted sites near the town of Yater. Warplanes were also seen flying over southern Lebanese villages and towns.
Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berrih said on Thursday the United States had informed him that, while Israel would withdraw on February 18, “it will remain in five locations.”
Lebanon rejected this, he said in a statement.
The Israeli official did not comment on whether the withdrawal also applied to the five locations mentioned by Berrih. The official, said however that the military withdrawal was in motion and “the next step of the agreement stipulates that we will withdraw to Blue Line handing over in orderly fashion to the Lebanese army in the area where we pull out from.”
The Israeli military, however, was continuing to monitor Hezbollah’s movements, he said, adding: “We have seen several clear incidents where Hezbollah was trying to breach the agreement such as infiltrating south in civilian clothes, trying to restore or remove munitions and also smuggling arms in the Bekka valley.”
The UN as well as Hezbollah have also accused Israel of committing violations during the ceasefire.
Hezbollah and Israel clashed for more than a year, including in two months of all-out war, before the November 27 agreement came into effect.
The Iran-backed Lebanese armed group said its hostilities with Israel were in solidarity with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, where Israel fought a deadly war for more than a year before international mediators brokered a fragile truce in January.


Turkiye’s Erdogan says US making “wrong calculations” in Mideast

Updated 14 February 2025
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Turkiye’s Erdogan says US making “wrong calculations” in Mideast

  • Erdogan said he expected Trump to realize his election campaign promises of taking steps for peace, rather than create new conflicts

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the administration of US President Donald Trump was making “wrong calculations” regarding the Middle East, adding that heeding “Zionist lies” would only exacerbate conflicts.
Turkiye has rejected Trump’s plan to remove the more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” It has also said Israel’s assault on Gaza amounted to a genocide, while calling for international measures against its government.
“Unfortunately, the United States is making a wrong calculation about our region. One should not be engaged in an approach that disregards the region’s history, values, and accumulation,” he said, according to a transcript of comments to journalists on a return flight from Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Erdogan said he expected Trump to realize his election campaign promises of taking steps for peace, rather than create new conflicts.
He said he saw no real signs of a ceasefire in Gaza despite a truce agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, and added the Muslim world had still not been able to take a collective step on the issue.


Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts

Updated 14 February 2025
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Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts

  • A UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for the massive suicide bombing that killed him and 21 others

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday marked 20 years since former prime minister Rafic Hariri’s assassination, with seismic political changes underway that have weakened Hezbollah and its backers and could herald a comeback for Hariri’s son Saad.
Rafic Hariri, a towering political figure who oversaw Lebanon’s reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war, had recently resigned as premier when he was killed on February 14, 2005.
In 2022, a UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for the massive suicide bombing that killed him and 21 others, though the group has refused to hand them over.
His son Saad, who served three times as prime minister, is based in the United Arab Emirates but has again returned for the annual commemorations.
This time, he is back in a changed Lebanon.
The commemoration comes days before the deadline for implementing a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, which ended more than a year of hostilities that weakened the group.
Concerns have mounted for the fragile truce after Beirut rejected Israel’s demand to remain in five southern locations after the February 18 deadline.
But Hezbollah still carries weight, with supporters Thursday blocking the airport road after two Iranian planes were barred from landing.
A day earlier, Israel’s army had accused Iran of sending funds to arm the group through the Beirut airport.
On Friday morning, a few thousand Hariri supporters carrying Lebanese flags gathered near his father’s burial site in downtown Beirut.
“For the first time in 20 years, our joy is double: first because the Syrian regime fell... and second because Sheikh Saad is among us,” homemaker Diana Al-Masri, 52, told AFP.
A source close to Hariri said he was due to give a speech addressing developments “in Lebanon and the region,” though he may not resume political activities right away.
“His supporters are calling on him to return to political life,” said the source, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Until early 2022, Hariri was the main Sunni Muslim leader in a country where political power is shared along sectarian lines.
Once enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri’s relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated because of his conciliatory attitude toward Hezbollah.
In 2017, Hariri resigned as premier in a shock address from Riyadh, citing Iran’s “grip” on Lebanon through Hezbollah and prompting accusations he was being held against his will.
French President Emmanuel Macron had to intervene to secure his return to Lebanon, where Hariri rescinded his resignation.
He resigned again as prime minister after nationwide protests in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon’s political class.
In a tearful 2022 announcement, he said he had suspended his political activities and those of his party, citing “Iranian influence” among other reasons.
The source told AFP that all these reasons had now “vanished.”
For decades, Hezbollah was Lebanon’s dominant political force, but its arsenal and leadership were decimated during its war with Israel, while Syrian ally Bashar Assad’s ouster cut the group’s vital arms supply lines.
’New chance’
In January, former army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president after a more than two-year vacuum.
He was widely seen as the United States and Saudi Arabia’s preferred choice.
This month, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who had been presiding judge at the International Criminal Court, formed a government. On Friday, Salam visited Rafic Hariri’s tomb to pay his respects.
“Lebanon has been given a new chance as Iranian influence is declining and the international community has returned,” the source said.
Riyadh has recently retaken an interest in Lebanese politics after distancing itself for years over Hezbollah’s influence.
“Saudi Arabia seeks a strong, organized Sunni leadership,” said Imad Salamey, head of the International and Political Studies Department at the Lebanese American University.
“If (Saad) Hariri can present himself as that figure, his return would serve both his interests and those of the kingdom.”
His father’s assassination anniversary “will serve as an opportunity to assess his ability to mobilize support and reassert his leadership within the Sunni community,” Salamey added.
Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following his father’s murder, widely attributed to Damascus and Hezbollah at the time, which triggered massive protests that drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years of occupation.
Rafic Hariri was a billionaire and the architect of Lebanon’s reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, is desperate to prove it has not lost ground to political rivals.
After the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers stranded in Iran using two Middle East Airlines planes.
But on Friday a source from the national carrier told AFP that Tehran had denied them permission to land in a tit-for-tat move.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims the group and Lebanese officials have denied, with the army reinforcing security measures there in past months.


Fourteen Gaza children flown to Italy for treatment

Updated 14 February 2025
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Fourteen Gaza children flown to Italy for treatment

Rome: Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza following the Hamas-Israel war, the foreign ministry said Friday.
The children and their families, a total of 45 people, had on Wednesday crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, where they underwent medical checks at the Italian hospital in Cairo, officials said.
They were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Treating the children was part of Italy’s efforts to promote peace and dialogue in the region, he said Friday, a “diplomacy made of solidarity, which restores hope to the most fragile and defenseless.”
Some of the children were due to be treated in the capital, the others heading north for treatment in hospitals including in Turin and Milan, a ministry spokesman said.
Two of the children disembarked in Rome were headed for the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which treated nine other Palestinian children last year.
All those nine, ranging from one to 15 years old, have been discharged, a hospital spokesman told AFP.
Italy is among several European countries to treat children injured or suffering from disease in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023.
“Every child we bring to Italy is a sign of hope, a commitment to life and the future,” Defense Secretary Guido Crosetto said.
The first 11 Palestinian children arrived in Italy in January 2024, followed by dozens more in the months that followed, some flown in and some transported on the Italian naval ship Vulcano.


The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice

Updated 14 February 2025
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The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice

  • “Woody,” “spicy” and “sweet” were the top descriptions
  • They studied mummies as old as 5,000 years from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

LONDON: At first whiff, it sounds repulsive: sniff the essence of an ancient corpse.
But researchers who indulged their curiosity in the name of science found that well-preserved Egyptian mummies actually smell pretty good.
“In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies,” said Cecilia Bembibre, director of research at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage. “We were surprised at the pleasantness of them.”
“Woody,” “spicy” and “sweet” were the leading descriptions from what sounded more like a wine tasting than a mummy sniffing exercise. Floral notes were also detected, which could be from pine and juniper resins used in embalming.
The study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society used both chemical analysis and a panel of human sniffers to evaluate the odors from nine mummies as old as 5,000 years that had been either in storage or on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The researchers wanted to systematically study the smell of mummies because it has long been a subject of fascination for the public and researchers alike, said Bembibre, one of the report’s authors. Archaeologists, historians, conservators and even fiction writers have devoted pages of their work to the subject — for good reason.
Scent was an important consideration in the mummification process that used oils, waxes and balms to preserve the body and its spirit for the afterlife. The practice was largely reserved for pharaohs and nobility and pleasant smells were associated with purity and deities while bad odors were signs of corruption and decay.
Without sampling the mummies themselves, which would be invasive, researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia were able to measure whether aromas were coming from the archaeological item, pesticides or other products used to conserve the remains, or from deterioration due to mold, bacteria or microorganisms.
“We were quite worried that we might find notes or hints of decaying bodies, which wasn’t the case,” said Matija Strlič, a chemistry professor at the University of Ljubljana. “We were specifically worried that there might be indications of microbial degradation, but that was not the case, which means that the environment in this museum, is actually quite good in terms of preservation.”
Using technical instruments to measure and quantify air molecules emitted from sarcophagi to determine the state of preservation without touching the mummies was like the Holy Grail, Strlič said.
“It tells us potentially what social class a mummy was from and and therefore reveals a lot of information about the mummified body that is relevant not just to conservators, but to curators and archaeologists as well,” he said. “We believe that this approach is potentially of huge interest to other types of museum collections.”
Barbara Huber, a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany who was not involved in the study, said the findings provide crucial data on compounds that could preserve or degrade mummified remains. The information could be used to better protect the ancient bodies for future generations.
“However, the research also underscores a key challenge: the smells detected today are not necessarily those from the time of mummification,” Huber said. “Over thousands of years, evaporation, oxidation, and even storage conditions have significantly altered the original scent profile.”
Huber authored a study two years ago that analyzed residue from a jar that had contained mummified organs of a noblewoman to identify embalming ingredients, their origins and what they revealed about trade routes. She then worked with a perfumer to create an interpretation of the embalming scent, known as “Scent of Eternity,” for an exhibition at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark.
Researchers of the current study hope to do something similar, using their findings to develop “smellscapes” to artificially recreate the scents they detected and enhance the experience for future museumgoers.
“Museums have been called white cubes, where you are prompted to read, to see, to approach everything from a distance with your eyes,” Bembibre said. “Observing the mummified bodies through a glass case reduces the experience because we don’t get to smell them. We don’t get to know about the mummification process in an experiential way, which is one of the ways that we understand and engage with the world.”