JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday asked war cabinet minister Benny Gantz not to resign after threats to quit over the lack of post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip.
Gantz said last month he would resign from the emergency body if Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.
“I call on Benny Gantz — do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity,” Netanyahu said on social media platform X.
Gantz canceled a news conference that was scheduled for Saturday, his office said, after the Israeli military said security forces had rescued four hostages alive from Gaza earlier in the day.
Without directly addressing speculations he had been planning to resign, Gantz appeared on Israeli television on Saturday evening after the captives were freed.
“Alongside the justified joy over this achievement, it should not be forgotten that all the challenges Israel is facing... have remained as they were,” Gantz said.
“Therefore, I say to the prime minister and the entire leadership — today, too, we must look responsibly at what is right and how we can continue from here.”
His centrist National Union Party submitted a bill last week to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and hold early elections.
Gantz has been seen as a favorite to form a coalition in the event that Netanyahu’s government is brought down and early elections are called.
The former army chief, one of Netanyahu’s main rivals before he joined the war cabinet, had said this week that returning hostages from Gaza was a “priority.”
The army said Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday.
All four had been kidnapped by Hamas militants from the Nova music festival on October 7, the military said in a statement, adding the four had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition.”
During their October 7 attack on southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel PM asks war cabinet minister Gantz not to quit after ultimatum
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Israel PM asks war cabinet minister Gantz not to quit after ultimatum
- Gantz said last month he would resign from the emergency body if Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza
Young Turks drive protests against Erdogan as new generation seeks change
“I think growing up under just one regime makes us a generation looking for change, looking for proof we live in a democracy,” said Yezan Atesyan, a 20-year-old student at Middle East Technical University (METU).
“The idea of a power that lasts forever scares us.”
Hundreds of thousands of Turks nationwide have heeded opposition calls to protest since Imamoglu was detained last week.
Protests have been mostly peaceful, but more than 2,000 people have been detained.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), other opposition parties, rights groups and some Western powers have all said the case against Imamoglu is a politicised effort to eliminate a potential electoral threat to Erdogan.
The government denies any influence over the judiciary and says the courts are independent.
Students from across Turkey have mobilized, facing police blockades and water cannon trucks. Drone footage from METU captured clashes between protesters and state security forces.
Atesyan said all were targetted in the crackdown: "Not just minorities, not just women, not just the LGBT community — it is against all of us."
A GENERATION ON EDGE
Beyond political frustration, economic hardship has fueled the unrest. High inflation and unemployment have made young people feel their future is slipping away.
“I graduated in 2024, but I can’t find a job, and my family struggles financially,” said 25-year-old protester Duygu at an opposition rally in Istanbul.
She fears for her safety but also worries about her friends. “Some of them have already been detained.”
Concerns over the state's response are growing. “I don’t want to show my face because the police could come for me,” said Duygu, who wears a mask at protests. “If that happens, it would devastate my family.”
Despite the risks, demonstrators remain resolute.
“This feels like our last chance,” Atesyan said.
“If we don’t succeed, many of us will have to leave Turkey.”
The government dismisses the protests as politically motivated, but the youth-driven unrest signals a growing divide.
“Imamoglu represents hope,” Atesyan said. “The possibility of real change.”
As protests continue, young Turks insist their demands are simple: democracy, accountability, and a future worth staying for.
Israel expands military effort in Gaza, 15 killed since morning
- Katz said there would be large-scale evacuation of population from areas where there is fighting
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel.
In a statement, Katz said there would be large-scale evacuation of population from areas where there is fighting, and urged Gazans to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages as the only way to end the war.
He did not make clear how much land Israel intends to seize, however.
Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes on two houses
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on two houses in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on Wednesday killed at least 15 people, including children.
“Thirteen martyrs, including children, were killed at dawn when occupation forces (the Israeli army) bombed a house sheltering displaced people in central Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding two other people were kiled in an Israeli strike on a house in the Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza.
Israel has already set up a significant buffer zone within Gaza, expanding an area that existed around the edges of the enclave before the war and adding a large security area in the so-called Netzarim corridor through the middle of Gaza.
At the same time, Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave, after US President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under US control.
Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza and sent ground troops back in this month, after two months of relative calm following the conclusion of a US-backed truce to allow the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Efforts led by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to get back on tracks talks aimed at ending the war have failed to make progress yet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the application of military pressure is the best way to get the remaining 59 hostages back.
US adding second aircraft carrier to fleet in Middle East
- The Harry S. Truman carrier strike group will be joined by the Carl Vinson “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement
WASHINGTON: The United States is increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping one that is already there and sending another from the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The announcement comes as US forces hammer Yemen’s Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.
The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
“To complement the CENTCOM maritime posture, the secretary also ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities,” Parnell said, referring to the US military command responsible for the region.
“The United States and its partners remain committed to regional security in the CENTCOM (area of responsibility) and are prepared to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the region,” he added.
The Houthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic. Ongoing attacks are forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
A day before the carrier announcement, US President Donald Trump vowed that strikes on Yemen’s Houthis would continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.
“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Trump added that the Houthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night — Harder and harder.”
He has also ramped up rhetoric toward Tehran, with the president threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program.
Trump’s threats come as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leak of a secret group chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.
The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was inadvertently included in a chat on the commercially available Signal app where top officials were discussing the strikes.
The officials, including Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence — unaware that the highly sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media.
Algeria downs drone near its border with Mali as tensions between them simmer
- Algeria has denounced the direction that Mali’s new government has taken and its expanded efforts to quash rebellion in historically volatile parts of northern Mali
- Algeria once served as a key mediator during more than a decade of conflict between Mali’s government and Tuareg rebels
BAMAKO, Mali: Algeria said Tuesday it shot down a military drone near the country’s border with Mali in the first incident of its kind during growing tensions between the two countries governing a vast portion of the Sahara.
The country’s army said in a statement that the armed reconnaissance drone had entered Algerian airspace Monday near Tin Zaouatine, a border town and stronghold for Tuareg separatists opposed to Mali’s government. Mali’s army acknowledged that one of its drones had crashed in the area, but did not confirm whether it was shot down by Algeria.
Rida Lyammouri, a Sahel expert at the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South, said the shooting down of the drone — rather than issuing a warning — reflected simmering frustrations.
It “confirms the serious tensions between the countries and unwillingness and zero tolerance by Algeria to allow the use of its airspace and territory by Malian forces,” he said.
The incident comes as tensions rise between Algeria and its southern neighbors, including Mali.
Algeria once served as a key mediator during more than a decade of conflict between Mali’s government and Tuareg rebels. But the two countries have grown apart since a military junta staged coups in 2020 and 2021, putting military personnel in charge of the country’s key institutions.
Algeria has denounced the direction that Mali’s new government has taken and its expanded efforts to quash rebellion in historically volatile parts of northern Mali. Afraid of conflict spilling over the border, Algerian officials have denounced Mali’s use of Russian mercenaries and armed drones near Tin Zaouatine, which is divided by the border separating the two countries.
But failures to curb instability in northern Mali have led to the downfall of previous governments and Mali’s Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga addressed the issue in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last year, promising to respond swiftly to violence in the north.
Algeria has one of Africa’s largest militaries and has long considered itself a regional power but military leaders in neighboring Mali and Niger have distanced themselves as they’ve championed autonomy and sought new alliances, including with Russia.
Algeria did not specify who the drone it intercepted belonged to. A spokesperson for Mali’s army declined to comment when asked about Algeria’s alleging that an armed drone had crossed its border, but said the crash didn’t hurt anyone or cause property damage.
Unverified video circulating on social media showed images of an Akinci drone manufactured by Baykar downed in Tin Zaouatine. Mali purchased at least two from the Turkish company last year and has used them against armed separatists as well as fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.
Three injured in Iraq when an axe-wielding man attacks an Assyrian Christian new year parade
- Witnesses said the attacker, who has not been officially identified, ran toward the crowd shouting Islamic slogans
- He struck three people with the axe before being stopped by participants and security forces
IRBIL: The annual parade by Assyrian Christians in the Iraqi city of Dohuk to mark their new year was marred Tuesday when an axe-wielding man attacked the procession and wounded three people, witnesses and local officials said.
The parade, held every year on April 1, drew thousands of Assyrians from Iraq and across the diaspora, who marched through Dohuk in northern Iraq waving Assyrian flags and wearing colorful traditional clothes.
Witnesses said the attacker, who has not been officially identified, ran toward the crowd shouting Islamic slogans.
He struck three people with the axe before being stopped by participants and security forces. Videos circulated online showed him pinned to the ground, repeatedly shouting, “Daesh, the Daesh remains.”
The victims included a 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman, both of whom suffered skull fractures. A member of the local security forces, who was operating a surveillance drone, was also injured. All three were hospitalized, local security officials said.
At the hospital where her 17-year-old son Fardi was being treated after suffering a skull injury in the attack, Athraa Abdullah told The Associated Press that her son had come with his friends in buses. He was sending photos from the celebrations shortly before his friends called to say he had been attacked, she said.
Abdullah, whose family was displaced when Daesh militants swept into their area in 2014, said, “We were already attacked and displaced by Daesh, and today we faced a terrorist attack at a place we came to for shelter.”
Janet Aprem Odisho, whose 75-year-old mother Yoniyah Khoshaba was among the wounded, said she and her mother were shopping near the parade when the attack happened.
“He was running at us with an axe,” she said. “All I remember is that he hit my mother, and I ran away when she fell. He had already attacked a young man who was bleeding in the street, then he tried to attack more people.”
Her family, originally from Baghdad, was also displaced by past violence and now lives in Ain Baqre village near the town of Alqosh.
Assyrians faced a wave of hate speech and offensive comments on social media following the incident.
Ninab Yousif Toma, a political bureau member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), condemned the regional government in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region and Iraqi federal authorities to address extremist indoctrination.
“We request both governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic and religious extremism,” he said. “This was obviously an inhumane terrorist attack.”
However, he said that the Assyrian community had celebrated their new year, known as Akitu, in Duhok since the 1990s without incidents of violence and acknowledged the support of local Kurdish Muslim residents.
“The Kurds in Duhok serve us water and candy even when they are fasting for Ramadan. This was likely an individual, unplanned attack, and it will not scare our people,” he said, adding that the community was waiting for the results of the official investigation and planned to file an official lawsuit.
“The Middle East is governed by religion, and as minorities, we suffer double because we are both ethnically and religiously different from the majority,” he said. “But we have a cause, and we marched today to show that we have existed here for thousands of years. This attack will not stop our people.”
Despite the attack, Assyrians continued the celebrations of the holiday, which symbolizes renewal and rebirth in Assyrian culture as well as resilience and continuous existence as an indigenous group.
At one point, as the injured teenager was rushed to the hospital, some participants wrapped his head in an Assyrian flag, which was later lifted again in the parade— stained with blood but held high as a symbol of resilience.
