US says Gaza ceasefire to start as planned despite ‘loose end’

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (AFP)
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People hold a banner as members of Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM Britain) attend a rally in London on January 16, 2025, in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and to mark the announcement of a ceasefire. (REUTERS)
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Moroccans celebrate in front of the parliament building in Rabat on January 16, 2025, following the news of a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel. (AFP)
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Updated 17 January 2025
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US says Gaza ceasefire to start as planned despite ‘loose end’

  • A US official earlier said the sole remaining dispute was over the identities of some prisoners Hamas wanted released
  • Media say Netanyahu’s cabinet to vote on deal on Friday or Saturday

DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: The Gaza Strip ceasefire should begin on Sunday as planned, despite the need for negotiators to tie up a “loose end” at the last minute, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
With longstanding divisions apparent among ministers, Israel delayed cabinet meetings to ratify the ceasefire with Hamas, and media reports said voting could occur Friday or even Saturday, although the deal is expected to be approved.
Israel blamed the militant group for the hold-up, even as Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza in some of the most intense strikes for months. Palestinian authorities said at least 86 people were killed in the day since the truce was unveiled.
Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said the group remained committed to the ceasefire deal, which is scheduled to take effect from Sunday to halt 15 months of bloodshed
“It’s not exactly surprising that in a process and negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end,” Blinken told a press conference in Washington. “We’re tying up that loose end as we speak.”
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the parties were making good progress in ironing out the last-minute obstacles. “I think we’re going to be okay,” the official told Reuters.
Earlier the official said the sole remaining dispute was over the identities of some prisoners Hamas wanted released. Envoys of President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump were in Doha with Egyptian and Qatari mediators working to resolve it, the official said.
Inside Gaza, joy over the truce gave way to sorrow and anger at the intensified bombardment that followed the announcement.
Tamer Abu Shaaban’s voice cracked as he stood over the tiny body of his young neice wrapped in a white shroud on the tile floor of a Gaza City morgue. She had been hit in the back with shrapnel from a missile as she played in the yard of a school where the family was sheltering, he said.
“Is this the truce they are talking about? What did this young girl, this child, do to deserve this? What did she do to deserve this? Is she fighting you, Israel?” he asked.

The ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US to stop the war that began with deadly Hamas attacks on Israel and saw Israeli forces kill tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastate Gaza.
The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. Dozens of hostages taken by Hamas would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
It paves the way for a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, where the majority of the population has been displaced, facing hunger, sickness and cold. Rows of aid trucks were lined up in the Egyptian border town of El-Arish waiting to cross into Gaza, once the border is reopened.
Peace could also have wider benefits across the Middle East, including ending disruption to global trade from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement which has attacked ships in the Red Sea. The movement’s leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said his group would monitor the ceasefire and continue attacks if it is breached.

Meeting revealed
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the security cabinet and government. A vote had been expected on Thursday, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the meeting, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands.
“The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Israeli media outlets reported the cabinet was expected to vote on Friday or Saturday, but the prime minister’s office declined to comment on the timing.
Hard-liners in Netanyahu’s government were still hoping to stop the deal, though a majority of ministers were expected to back it and ensure its approval.
Hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday he would resign from the government if it ratifies the Gaza deal.
But opposition leader Yair Lapid told the prime minister in a post on X that he would “get every safety net you need to make the hostage deal,” suggesting opposition lawmakers would support the government to ensure the return of hostages.
In Jerusalem, some Israelis marched through the streets carrying mock coffins in protest at the ceasefire, blocking roads and scuffling with police. Other protesters blocked traffic until security forces dispersed them.
The agreement leaves the fate of most of the remaining 98 Israeli hostages still in Gaza unresolved for now. The list of 33 due to go free in the first phase includes women, children, elderly, sick and wounded.
Palestinians said they were desperate for the bombing to stop as soon as possible.
“We lose homes every hour. We demand for this joy not to go away, the joy that was drawn on our faces — don’t waste it by delaying the implementation of the truce until Sunday,” said Mahmoud Abu Wardeh.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanized Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to Gaza authorities.


Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

Updated 10 February 2025
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Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

  • “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it,” Trump said
  • He said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice

MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip: New details and growing shock over emaciated hostages renewed pressure Sunday on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a fragile Gaza ceasefire beyond the first phase, even as US President Donald Trump repeated his pledge that the US would take control of the Palestinian enclave.
Talks on the second phase, meant to see more hostages released and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, were due to start Feb. 3. But Israel and Hamas appear to have made little progress, even as Israeli forces withdrew Sunday from a Gaza corridor in the latest commitment to the truce.
Netanyahu sent a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator, but it included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough. Netanyahu, who returned after a US visit to meet with Trump, is expected to convene security Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.
Trump weighs in on Gaza again
Speaking on Sunday, Trump repeated his pledge to take control of the Gaza Strip.
“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished,” he told reporters onboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Super Bowl.
Trump said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice.
“They don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area — the only reason they’re talking about returning to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza.”
Trump also suggested he was losing patience with the deal after seeing the emaciated hostages released this week.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said.
Israel has expressed openness to the idea of resettling Gaza’s population — ”a revolutionary, creative vision,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday — while Hamas, the Palestinians and much of the world have rejected it.
Egypt said it will host an emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss the “new and dangerous developments.”
Trump’s proposal has moral, legal and practical obstacles. It may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic to pressure Hamas or an opening gambit in discussions aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia condemned Netanyahu’s recent comment that Palestinians could create their state there, saying it aimed to divert attention from crimes committed by “the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”
Qatar called Netanyahu’s comment “provocative” and a blatant violation of international law.
Hostage families say time is running out
Families of remaining hostages said time is running out as some survivors described being barefoot and in chains.
“We cannot let the hostages remain there. There is no other way. I am appealing to the cabinet,” said Ella Ben Ami, daughter of a hostage released Saturday, adding she now understands the toll of captivity is much worse than imagined.
The father of a remaining hostage, Kobi Ohel, told Israel’s Channel 13 the newly released men said his son, Alon, and others “live off half a pita to a full pita a day. These are not human conditions.” Ohel’s mother, Idit, sobbed as she told Channel 12 her son has been chained for over a year.
Michael Levy said his brother, the newly released Or Levy, had been barefoot and hungry for 16 months. “The decision-makers knew exactly what his condition was and what everyone else’s condition was, and they did not do enough to bring him back with the urgency that was needed,” he said.
On Saturday, as Israelis reeled, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said on social media that the deterioration in hostages’ conditions was something “Israel has known about for some time.”
The ceasefire’s extension is not guaranteed
The ceasefire that began on Jan. 19 has held, raising hopes that the 16-month war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.
The latest step was Israel forces’ withdrawal from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, which was used as a military zone. No troops were seen in the vicinity Sunday. As the ceasefire began last month, Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to cross Netzarim and return to the north.
But the deal remains fragile. On Sunday, civil defense first responders in Gaza said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. Israel’s military noted “several hits” after firing warning shots and warned Palestinians against approaching its forces.
Cars piled with belongings headed north. Under the deal, Israel should allow cars to cross Netzarim uninspected. Troops remain along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the troops’ withdrawal showed the militant group had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands” and thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”
Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops.
During the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel has said Hamas confirmed that eight of the 33 are dead.
Families of the hostages gathered in Tel Aviv to urge Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire, but he is also under pressure from far-right political allies to resume the war. Trump’s proposal for the US to take control of the Gaza Strip may also complicate the situation.
“They are dying there, so we need to finish this deal in a hurry,” said Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, who died in captivity.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Much of the territory has been obliterated.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank during the war and intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation against Palestinian militants in the territory’s north.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli gunfire killed two women, one of them, Sundus Shalabi, eight months pregnant. It said Rahaf Al-Ashqar, 21, was also killed. The shooting occurred in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations.
Israel’s military said its police had opened an investigation.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday announced the expansion of the operation that started in Jenin several weeks ago. He said it was meant to prevent Iran — allied with Hamas — from establishing a foothold in the West Bank.
 


Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’

Updated 10 February 2025
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Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’

  • Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary,” following his return to Israel from Washington.
Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday, during a week-long visit by the Israeli premier to the United States, that Washington should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.
On his return to Israel, addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said the two allies agreed on war aims set out by Israel at the start of its 15-month war against Hamas including “ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel — a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing” the Israeli prime minister said, referring to the president’s Gaza plan.
“He is very determined to implement it and I believe it opens up many, many possibilities for us,” Netanyahu added.
Despite criticisms from international allies and Arab states in particular, Trump on Thursday doubled down on the plan, saying the “Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
“No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!” he wrote in social media post.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz later on Thursday ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.
“This visit, and the discussions we had with President Trump, carry with them tremendous achievements that could ensure Israel’s security for generations,” Netanyahu said.
Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel.
The State Department signed off on the sale of $6.75 billion in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660 million in Hellfire missiles, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Israel launched a hugely destructive offensive against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Palestinian militant groups October 7 attack.
The war has devastated much of the Gaza Strip — a narrow coastal territory on the eastern Mediterranean — but a ceasefire has been in effect since last month that has brought a halt to the deadly conflict and provides for the release of hostages seized by Hamas.


UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government

Updated 10 February 2025
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UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government

  • New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country

UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres has welcomed the formation of a new government in Lebanon, affirming the international body’s commitment to that country’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence,” a spokesman said Sunday.
“The United Nations looks forward to working in close partnership with the new government on its priorities, including the consolidation of the cessation of hostilities,” said a statement from spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric was referring to a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed on November 27, with Beirut’s military due to deploy in the country’s south alongside UN peacekeepers as Israel withdraws from those areas over 60 days.
Fighting between Israeli forces and long-dominant Hezbollah since October 2023 has weakened the group, helping bring a new Lebanese government to power after almost two years of caretaker authorities being in charge.
New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country.
Salam said Saturday that he hoped to head a “government of reform and salvation,” pledging to rebuild trust with the international community after years of economic collapse blamed on corruption and mismanagement.
Long the dominant force in Lebanese politics, Hezbollah suffered staggering losses in a war with Israel that saw its leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in a massive air strike in September.
Hezbollah suffered another seismic blow with the ouster on December 8 of Bashar Assad in Syria, which it had long used as its weapons lifeline from Iran.
After more than two years of political stalemate, the weakening of Hezbollah allowed former army chief Joseph Aoun, widely believed to be Washington’s preferred candidate, to be elected president and Salam approved as his premier.
 

 


Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed

Updated 10 February 2025
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Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed

  • “Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day

JERUSALEM: Freed Israeli hostage Or Levy suffered the “hardest blow” upon his release from Gaza when he learned that his wife was killed by Hamas militants in the 2023 attack in which he was abducted, his brother said Sunday.
On Saturday, Hamas militants released Levy along with two other hostages, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, as part of an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.
“The hardest blow awaited Or when he was freed — his greatest fear was confirmed,” Michael Levy told journalists at a hospital where his brother is being treated.
“Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day. For 491 days, he held on to the hope that he would return to her. For 491 days, he didn’t know she was no longer alive,” Michael Levy added.
Or and Einav Levy had attended the Nova music festival when Hamas militants stormed it during their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
They had left their son Almog, two years old at the time, with his grandparents.
The usually inseparable couple, who met at school, tried to hide from the attackers along Route 232, the only path away from the festival.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, Einav was killed in the attack while Or was abducted along with other young men.
Until now, it had been unclear whether Or knew of his wife’s fate.
“He only found out yesterday,” said Michael Levy.
“Or is alive. He is here. But this happiness is mixed with an immense sadness, a pain that cannot be described.”
“After everything he went through, he finally met Mogi, his little son. A three-year-old boy who hadn’t seen his father for 16 months!” the brother added.
 

 


Palestinians say Israeli forces kill 3 in West Bank raid

Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Updated 10 February 2025
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Palestinians say Israeli forces kill 3 in West Bank raid

  • A pregnant woman was dead when she arrived at a local hospital
  • At least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in 2025

TULKAREM: The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people on Sunday, including a woman who was eight months pregnant.
Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said 23-year-old Sundus Jamal Muhammad Shalabi was killed in a pre-dawn incident, with her husband Yazan Abu Shola critically injured.
The mother-to-be was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.
“Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.
When asked by AFP about the shooting of the pregnant woman in Nur Shams, the Israeli military said “following the incident an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division."
Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple was “trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces,” accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting defenseless civilians.”
The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah Al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.
A source in the camp’s popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house.”
And late on Sunday the health ministry announced that a third Palestinian, Iyas Adli Fakhri Al-Akhras, 20, had been killed “after being shot by Israeli forces” in the camp.
AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.
The Israeli military earlier said its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria,” using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area.”
The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year.
Violence there has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 887 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.
At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.