JERUSALEM: Israel said Friday it had received the names of three hostages to be freed by militants this weekend, after a crisis in the ceasefire threatened to plunge Gaza back into war.
The hostages due for release Saturday are Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
One of them is being held by Hamas’s militant ally Islamic Jihad, which participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Israel had warned Hamas that it must free three living hostages this weekend or face a resumption of the war, after the group said it would pause releases over what it described as Israeli violations of the Gaza truce.
The January 19 ceasefire has been under massive strain since President Donald Trump proposed a US takeover of the territory, under which Gaza’s population of more than two million would be moved to Egypt or Jordan.
Arab countries have come together to reject the plan, and Saudi Arabia will on February 20 host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for a summit on the issue.
The releases of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, as agreed under the terms of the truce, have brought much-needed relief to families on both sides of the war, but the emaciated state of the Israeli captives freed last week sparked anger in Israel and beyond.
“The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage,” the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the exchanges, said in a statement Friday.
“We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages.”
Following Hamas’s handover ceremony last week, during which the captives were forced to speak, the ICRC appealed for future handovers to be more private and dignified.
Israeli-American hostage Keith Siegel, who was released in a previous exchange nearly two weeks ago, described mistreatment during his captivity in a video message.
“I am a survivor. I was held for 484 days in unimaginable conditions, every single day felt like it could be my last,” he said.
“I was starved and I was tortured, both physically and emotionally.”
Trump, whose proposal to take over Gaza and move its 2.4 million residents to Egypt or Jordan sparked global outcry, warned this week that “hell” would break loose if Hamas failed to release “all” remaining hostages by noon on Saturday.
Israel later insisted Hamas release “three living hostages” on Saturday.
“If those three are not released, if Hamas does not return our hostages, by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end,” said government spokesman David Mencer.
If fighting resumes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it would not just lead to the “defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages,” but also “allow the realization of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the ceasefire after attending the Munich Security Conference, where he will hold talks on Ukraine.
Katz last week ordered the Israeli army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza, and the military said it had already begun reinforcing its troops around the territory.
Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group said despite their public disputes, Israel and Hamas were still interested in maintaining the truce and have not “given up on anything yet.”
“They’re just playing power games,” she said.
Arab countries have put on a rare show of unity in their rejection of Trump’s proposal for Gaza.
After the Riyadh summit, the Arab League will convene in Cairo on February 27 to discuss the same issue.
Trump has threatened to cut off a vital aid lifeline to long-standing allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse to come on board.
Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. More than half of the country’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin.
Egypt put forward its own proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza under a framework that would allow for the Palestinians to remain in the territory.
Palestinians in Gaza have also voiced opposition to the plan.
For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.
“Who is Trump? Is he God almighty? The land of Jordan is for Jordanians, and the land of Egypt belongs to Egyptians,” said Gaza City resident Abu Mohamed Al-Husari.
“We are here, deeply rooted in Gaza — the resilient, besieged and unbreakable Gaza.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including at least 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,239 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.
Israel says received names of 3 hostages to be freed Saturday
https://arab.news/9pgnm
Israel says received names of 3 hostages to be freed Saturday
- One of them is being held by Hamas’s militant ally Islamic Jihad
- Israel had warned Hamas that it must free three living hostages this weekend or face a resumption of the war
Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements
JERUSALEM: The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognize more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighborhoods to independent settlement status.
The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of “disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions,” said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.
The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet’s decision, hailed it as an “important step” for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank — as it did in 1967 after capturing east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
“The recognition of each (neighborhood) as a separate community... is an important step that would help their development,” Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a “revolution.”
“Instead of hiding and apologizing, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,” he said.
“This is another important step toward de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” added Smotrich, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.
In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by “an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands.”
The 13 settlement neighborhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some of them are effectively part of the bigger settlements they belong to while others are practically separate.
Their recognition as separate communities under Israeli law is not yet final.
Hailing the “normalization” of settlement expansion, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision.
According to EU figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record in settlement building permits issued by Israel.
Lebanon says one dead as Israel resumes strike on south
- The NNA also reported separate Israeli strikes on Sunday on Naqurah, Shihin and Labbouneh in the south
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed Sunday in an Israeli drone strike, a day after the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
“The Israeli enemy raid with a drone on a car in Aita Al-Shaab led to the death of one citizen,” the health ministry said, after the official National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike on the southern village.
The NNA also reported separate Israeli strikes on Sunday on Naqurah, Shihin and Labbouneh in the south, near the Israeli border.
Saturday saw the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire halted the war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said seven people were killed on Saturday, including in an attack on Tyre which a security source told AFP targeted a Hezbollah official.
Israel said the strikes were “a response to rocket fire toward Israel and a continuation of the first series of strikes carried out” in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah denied any involvement in the rocket attack, and called Israel’s accusations “pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon.”
The November ceasefire brought relative calm after a year of hostilities, including two months of open war, between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon after the ceasefire, targeting what it said were Hezbollah military sites that violated the agreement.
Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems “strategic.”
Paramilitary shelling kills 3 in Omdurman after Sudan army gains
- Eyewitnesses in the area reported seven rounds of shelling rocking residential neighborhoods controlled by the army
- In recent days, the army regained most of central Khartoum’s government district from the RSF
KHARTOUM: Three civilians including two children were killed Sunday in an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, a medical source told AFP.
Eyewitnesses in the area reported seven rounds of shelling rocking residential neighborhoods controlled by the army, which in recent days regained most of central Khartoum’s government district from the RSF.
“Two children and a woman were killed and eight others injured in the shelling,” said the medical source at Al-Nao hospital, one of the city’s last functioning health facilities, requesting anonymity for their safety.
Since April 2023, the RSF has battled Sudan’s regular army in a war that has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
The army and allied groups on Friday recaptured the country’s presidential palace, launching a clearing operation to push the RSF out of central Khartoum’s administrative and financial district.
On Saturday, they claimed several strategic state institutions that had been overrun by paramilitaries, including the central bank, state intelligence headquarters and the national museum.
RSF fighters remain stationed in parts of central Khartoum including the airport, as well as the capital’s south and west.
From their positions in western Omdurman, they have regularly launched strikes on civilian areas.
In February, over 50 people were killed in a single RSF artillery attack on a busy Omdurman market.
Despite the army’s advances in the capital, Africa’s third largest country remains effectively split in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
Turkish court jails Istanbul mayor Imamoglu pending trial
- Ruling likely to stoke tensions after four days of protests
- The court said Imamoglu and at least 20 others were jailed as part of a corruption investigation
ISTANBUL: A Turkish court jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Sunday pending trial, state media and other broadcasters said, in a move likely to stoke the country’s biggest protests in more than decade.
The decision to send Imamoglu — who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival — to prison comes after the main opposition party, European leaders and tens of thousands of protesters criticized the actions against him as politicized.
The court said Imamoglu and at least 20 others were jailed as part of a corruption investigation. A separate ruling on a terror-related investigation has yet to be issued.Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said on Sunday that he will not bow down after court ruled to jail him pending trial over corruption related investigation.
"We will, hand in hand, uproot this blow, this black stain on our democracy... I am standing tall, I will not bow down," Imamoglu said in a post on X.
Israel military says it intercepted missile from Yemen
- The Houthis said early on Saturday they had “targeted Ben Gurion airport” with a ballistic missile
- United States began launching heavy strikes against Yemen’s Houthis last week
Jerusalem: Israel’s military said early on Sunday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded in several areas across the country.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli Air Force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
The latest interception is part of an escalation between Israel and the Houthis after the Iran-backed group claimed a series of missile launches this week.
The Houthis had threatened to escalate attacks in support of Palestinians following Israel’s renewal of attacks against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began on Tuesday.
The Israeli military also said late on Friday it had intercepted another missile launched from Yemen.
The Houthis said early on Saturday they had “targeted Ben Gurion airport” with a ballistic missile, calling it the third launch in two days.
Israeli airspace would remain unsafe “until the aggression against Gaza stops,” the group said in the statement.
The United States began launching heavy strikes against Yemen’s Houthis last week.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the Houthis “will be completely annihilated” and warned Tehran against continuing aid for the group.
