WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he believes all the hostages held in Gaza, including the bodies of those deceased, will be “coming back” Monday after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire.
“So much is happening to get the hostages freed, and we think they’ll all be coming back on Monday, so it looks like that’s the thing, and that’ll include the bodies of the dead,” Trump said in a phone interview on Fox News.
The Republican president spoke late Wednesday, hours after he announced the 20-point peace plan aimed at ending two years of a brutal war that left Gaza in ruins and unleashed a humanitarian disaster.
Under the plan, Palestinian militant group Hamas would release all hostages while Israel would pull its troops back to an agreed-upon line, Trump said after talks in Egypt resulted in an agreement.
He was quick to suggest the deal could ripple through the region, to even include contributions from Israel’s and Washington’s longtime foe Iran.
“This is more than Gaza, this is peace in the Middle East,” he told Fox, adding he believes “Iran is going to be actually a part of the whole peace situation.”
“The world has come together around this deal,” he continued, saying it was “great for Israel, so great for Muslims, for the Arab countries, and so great for this country.”
The American leader has long suggested the Palestinian enclave along the Mediterranean Sea could eventually be rebuilt into a flourishing hub if tensions in the region ease, and he hinted at those hopes again Wednesday, adding that the United States would be involved.
Gaza is “going to be a place that reconstructs, and other countries in the area will help it reconstruct, because they have tremendous amounts of wealth, and they want to see that happen,” he said.
“And we’ll be involved in helping them make it successful and helping it stay peaceful.”
Trump says he thinks Gaza hostages will be ‘coming back’ Monday
https://arab.news/4xk8z
Trump says he thinks Gaza hostages will be ‘coming back’ Monday
- The Republican president spoke late Wednesday, hours after he announced the 20-point peace plan aimed at ending two years of a brutal war that left Gaza in ruins and unleashed a humanitarian disaster
- Under the plan, Palestinian militant group Hamas would release all hostages while Israel would pull its troops back to an agreed upon line
Soleimani warned Al-Assad about ‘spy’ Luna Al-Shibl: Al-Majalla
LONDON: The late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani confronted Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk in late 2019 after seeing Luna Al-Shibl leaving his office. Al-Majalla magazine claims its reporters reviewed a document containing the full Arabic transcript of their exchange.
Soleimani reportedly asked, “Who is this?” and Mamlouk replied, “She is Louna Al-Shibl, the president’s adviser.”
The Quds Force commander pressed further: “I know, I know… but who is she really? Where did she work?”
According to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, he said her former salary was “ten thousand dollars,” compared with her current salary of “five hundred thousand Syrian pounds,” before asking: “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy.”
Both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s powerful Fourth Division, had warned the ousted president’s inner circle about Al-Shibl, Al-Majalla reported.
‘Suspicious’ car crash
On July 2, 2024, Al-Shibl was involved in what officials described as a traffic accident on the Damascus-Dimas highway. She was hospitalized and died four days later.
But Al-Majalla reported that photos of her armored BMW showed only minor damage, raising immediate questions among those close to the case.
Eyewitnesses told the magazine that the crash was intentional. One said, “a car approached and rammed her vehicle,” and before her bodyguard could exit, “a man attacked her and struck her on the back of the head,” causing paralysis that led to her death.
She was first taken to Al-Saboura clinic, then transferred to Al-Shami Hospital. Several senior regime-linked figures, including businessman Mohammed Hamsho and an aide to Maher Al-Assad, were present when her condition deteriorated. One witness told Al-Majalla that when her bodyguard tried to explain what had happened, “he was arrested immediately in front of the others.”
The presidency later issued a brief statement announcing her death. Her funeral was attended only by a handful of officials. Then president Al-Assad did not attend.
