VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will visit Cyprus and Greece next month, the Vatican said on Friday, returning to the island of Lesbos, a major port of entry for migrants into Europe.
His 35th trip abroad comes just five months after the Argentine pontiff, who turns 85 in December, was hospitalized following surgery on his colon.
“Pope Francis will travel to Cyprus from 2 to 4 December, visiting the city of Nicosia, and to Greece from Dec. 4 to 6, visiting Athens and the island of Lesbos,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a brief statement.
The Argentine pontiff has traveled widely since he took office in 2013, and although his schedule was suspended by the coronavirus pandemic, this year he has already made a historic trip to Iraq and visits to the Hungarian capital and Slovakia.
Migration has been a key theme — his first trip as pope, in July 2013, was to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
While there, he criticized the “globalization of indifference” over migrants.
In April 2016, he visited Lesbos at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, where he paid a trip to Moria, the continent’s largest migrant camp that was destroyed by fire last year.
Lesbos has for years been the main entry point into Europe for asylum seekers.
Josif Printezis, the Catholic archbishop for Greek islands in the Aegean, said earlier this month that the pope “wishes to see the evolution of the refugee issue, the fruits of Greece’s efforts and make a humanitarian statement.”
He would say “that the Church and all European peoples care about refugees, and that the weight borne by Greece should be recognized by the other European countries,” Printezis said.
After his last visit to Lesbos, Francis took three Syrian families from the camp home with him, in what he described as a humanitarian gesture.
The Vatican said later that the group, selected on the grounds that their paperwork was sufficiently in order, had settled into life in Rome and started to learn Italian.
The last papal visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was by Benedict XVI in 2010.
Several other visits are in the works.
The pope said in October he intends to visit Oceania for the first time next year, without saying where, and also had “in my head” trips to Congo and the rest of Hungary.
Speaking to Argentine news agency Telam, he said he was overdue a trip to Papua New Guinea and East Timor originally planned for 2020.
The pope had expressed hope he could fly to Glasgow for this month’s UN talks on climate change, another subject close to his heart, but in the end he sent only a video message.
Despite his busy schedule, there are signs that his age is catching up with him.
On returning from a grueling three-day trip to Iraq, the pope admitted he “felt a lot more tired” than during other visits.
Pope to revisit island of Lesbos on trip to Cyprus, Greece
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Pope to revisit island of Lesbos on trip to Cyprus, Greece
- In April 2016, he visited Lesbos at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, where he paid a trip to Moria, the continent’s largest migrant camp that was destroyed by fire last year
Palestinian president condemns ‘any projects’ to displace Gazans
- Trump said on Saturday that he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take Palestinians from Gaza, suggesting “we just clean out that whole thing”
RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned on Sunday “any projects” to relocate the people of Gaza outside the territory, after US President Donald Trump suggested moving them to Egypt and Jordan.
Without naming the US leader, Abbas “expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said, adding that the Palestinian people “will not abandon their land and holy sites.”
Trump, less than a week into his second term as president, said on Saturday that he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take Palestinians from Gaza, suggesting “we just clean out that whole thing.”
The idea was swiftly rejected by Jordan, while Egypt has previously spoken out against any suggestions that Gazans could be moved there.
In the statement issued by the Palestinian presidency, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Abbas said: “We will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes that befell our people in 1948 and 1967.”
The former is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were displaced during the war the coincided with Israel’s establishment.
The 1967 Arab-Israeli war, during which Israel conquered Gaza and the West Bank, is known as the Naksa, or “setback,” and saw several hundred thousand more displaced from those territories.
Abbas also rejected what he called “any policy that undermines the unity of the Palestinian land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.”
He called on Trump to “continue his efforts to support” the ceasefire in Gaza that began on January 19 and said the Palestinian Authority remained ready to take on the governance of the war-battered territory.
Palestinian sources say to free Gaza hostage demanded by Israel before next swap
- Arbel Yehud will be handed over within days, sources say
- In exchange, 30 prisoners serving life sentences will be released
CAIRO: Two Palestinian sources told AFP on Sunday that an Israeli woman held hostage in Gaza, and whose release Israel has demanded before allowing the return of displaced Palestinians, will be handed over within days.
“Arbel Yehud is expected to be freed before the next (hostage-prisoner) exchange” scheduled for February 1, said a source from the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Another Palestinian source familiar with the issue said Yehud is expected to be released by Friday.
“The release of Arbel Yehud will happen most likely by next Friday in exchange for 30 prisoners serving life sentences,” the source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.
Israel has accused Hamas of reneging on the ceasefire deal by not releasing Yehud when the second hostage-prisoner took place on Saturday.
As a civilian woman, Yehud “was supposed to be released” as part of the second hostage-prisoner swap under the truce deal, a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Labelling it a violation by Hamas of the ceasefire deal, Netanyahu’s office said it “will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud... is arranged.”
On Saturday, two Hamas sources told AFP that Yehud was “alive and in good health,” with one source saying she would be “released as part of the third swap set for next Saturday.”
But on Sunday, the two Palestinian sources said she was expected to be released following an intervention by mediators Egypt and Qatar.
“The crisis has been resolved,” said the source familiar with the issue.
Tens of thousands of displaced Gazans massed on Sunday on the road to the north but were not allowed to pass through, AFP correspondents reported.
Netanyahu says France assures Israel its firms can take part in Paris Air Show
- Israeli defense companies were last year banned from participating in a defense industry exhibition held in Paris
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron had given him assurances that Israeli companies would be able to take part in the Paris Air Show.
The two had a phone conversation during which the assurance was given, according to a statement by the prime minister’s office.
Separately, Macron’s office said in a statement that the presence of Israeli companies at the air show “could be favorably considered, as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.”
Israeli defense companies were last year banned from participating in a defense industry exhibition held in Paris as Macron called for Israel to cease some military operations in Gaza.
That ban strained relations, but a French court in October overturned a government ban on Israeli companies taking part in a naval arms exhibition near Paris.
The Paris Air Show, the world’s largest, is held every two years, alternating every other year with Farnborough in Britain. It is due to take place from June 16 until June 22. Leading aerospace, aviation and defense companies from around the world typically take part in both events.
A ceasefire agreement reached this month between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which it has been fighting in Gaza, remains in effect, as does another truce agreement struck last year between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Emirati explorer circles Antarctica in two helicopters with adventurers
- The journey took a month and covered 19,050 kilometers
- Explorers encounter massive icebergs, frozen rivers and strong winds
LONDON: Emirati explorer Ibrahim Sharaf Al-Hashemi participated in an air mission that completed the first circular flight around Antarctica using two helicopters.
Al-Hashemi is the first Emirati to participate in this historic expedition, which launched on Dec. 4, 2024, and concluded on Jan. 17, 2025, according to WAM, the official news agency of the UAE.
The journey covered 19,050 kilometers and took a month, starting and ending at Union Glacier Camp. The trip reportedly took seven years of meticulous planning to tackle the region’s logistical challenges and extreme weather.
The team flew over remote icy landscapes under explorer Frederik Paulsen’s leadership, encountering massive icebergs, frozen rivers and strong winds.
Al-Hashemi’s endeavor illustrates the UAE’s growing role in global missions and long-haul flights in harsh environments, WAM added.
Palestinian health ministry in Gaza Strip says war toll at 47,306
- New bodies are found under the rubble
- Health ministry said war had also left 111,483 people wounded
GAZA STRIP: The Palestinian health ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday the death toll from the war with Israel had reached 47,306, with numbers rising in spite of a ceasefire as new bodies are found under the rubble.
The ministry said hospitals in the Gaza Strip had received 23 bodies in the past 72 hours — 14 “recovered from under the rubble,” five who “succumbed to their injuries” from earlier in the war, and four new fatalities.
It did not specify how the new fatalities occurred.
The ministry said the war had also left 111,483 people wounded.
Some Gazans have died from wounds inflicted before the ceasefire, with the health system in the Palestinian territory largely destroyed by more than 15 months of fighting and bombardment.
The ministry again reiterated its appeal for Gazans to submit information about dead or missing people to help update its records.
The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas was sparked by the militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
