DUBAI/CAIRO: Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.
The militant group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable.
A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday his office said talks would continue next week and emphasized that gaps between the sides still remained.
The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since Hamas attacked southern Israeli cities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to official Israeli figures.
The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha, where the exiled Hamas leadership is based.
A regional source said the US administration was trying hard to secure a deal before the presidential election in November.
Netanyahu said on Friday that the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had returned from an initial meeting with mediators in Qatar and that negotiations would continue next week.
Hamas accepts US proposal on talks over Israeli hostages 16 days after first phase
https://arab.news/4gzj8
Hamas accepts US proposal on talks over Israeli hostages 16 days after first phase
- The group has dropped demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement
- The proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war
While Biden warns Israel against escalation, Trump suggests striking Iran nuclear facilities
- “If I were in their (Israelis) shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden said in response to a reporter's question
- Weighing in, Trump said Biden “got that one wrong,” adding, "... the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later.”
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.
But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Biden said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” US support for Israel when deciding on next steps.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
Biden added that the Israelis “have not concluded how they’re, what they’re going to do” in retaliation for a huge ballistic missile attack by Iran on Israel on Tuesday.
The price of oil had jumped after Biden’s remarks Thursday.
Any long-term rise could be damaging for US Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.
Meanwhile Trump, campaigning in North Carolina, offered a far more provocative view of what he thinks a response to Iran should be, referencing a question posed to Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“They asked him, ‘what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?’ And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.
Biden “got that one wrong,” Trump said.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
Trump has spoken little about the recent escalation in tensions in the Middle East. But he issued a scathing statement this week, holding Biden and Harris responsible for the crisis.
Biden’s appearance at the famed briefing room podium was not announced in advance, taking reporters by surprise.
It comes at a tense time as he prepares to leave office with the Mideast situation boiling over and political criticism at home over his handling of a recent hurricane that struck the US southeast.
Biden said he was doing his best to avoid a full-scale conflagration in the Middle East, where Israel is bombing Lebanon in a bid to wipe out the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
“The main thing we can do is try to rally the rest of the world and our allies into participating... to tamp this down,” he told reporters.
“But when you have (Iranian) proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis (of Yemen)... it’s a hard thing to determine.”
Biden however had tough words for Netanyahu, with whom he has had rocky relations as he seeks to manage Israel’s response following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The Israeli premier has repeatedly ignored Biden’s calls for restraint on Lebanon, and on Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Biden deflected a question on whether he believed Netanyahu was hanging back on signing a Middle East peace deal in a bid to influence the US presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden said.
“And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Biden said he had still not spoken to Netanyahu since the Iranian attack, which involved some 200 missiles, but added their teams were in “constant contact.”
“They’re not going to make a decision immediately, and so we’re going to wait to see when they want to talk,” the US leader added.
Iran said its attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Dept says
- State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen
WASHINGTON: An American killed in Lebanon this week was a US citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the US congresswoman representing his district.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a US citizen,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”
Israel says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, who have been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began a year ago.
Its recent military campaign in Lebanon has killed hundreds and wounded thousands, according to the Lebanese government, which has not said how many of the casualties were civilians versus Hezbollah members. The Israeli bombardment has also driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes.
The governor of Michigan has urged the US government to do more to rescue Americans stuck in Lebanon, many of them from Michigan, during Israel’s military offensive in the country.
Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
- The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years
TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisians marched in the capital on Friday, escalating protests against President Kais Saied, two days before what they say is an unfair presidential vote in which Saied has removed most other candidates to remain in power.
Protesters, who held up banners reading “Farce elections” and “Freedoms, not a lifelong presidency,” marched to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Tunis and a focus point in 2011 protests that toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Political tensions in the North African country have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three other prominent candidates, and an independent court has been stripped of authority to adjudicate on election disputes by the parliament.
The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years.
He has been in jail since he was arrested a month ago on charges of forging electoral documents.
Saied now faces just two rival candidates, Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, who was a former Saied ally and then turned critic.
Protesters chanted slogans against Saied: “The people want the fall of the regime” and Dictator Saied ... your turn has come.”
“Tunisians are not accustomed to such an election. In 2011, 2014 and 2019 they expressed their opinions freely, but this election does not allow them the right to choose their destiny,” said Zied Ghanney, an opposition figure.
Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
- “The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government
- A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation
CAIRO: The Islamist group Hamas rejected what it called “a false narrative and fabricated story” about a Yazidi woman Israel said was freed in Gaza in a secret operation involving Israel, the United States and Iraq.
The woman, whom Israeli officials have said was taken captive when she was 11 years old and sold to a Hamas member, had never been abducted or sold, and was able to leave Gaza with the knowledge of the Hamas authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Friday.
It said the 25-year old woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, was married to a Palestinian who fought alongside the Syrian opposition forces before he was killed. She later moved to live with his mother in Turkiye before traveling to Egypt, where she continued to live with her mother-in-law and later crossed into Gaza legally.
Years after she moved to live in Gaza, she married her husband’s brother before he was killed during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, Hamas said.
“She requested to contact her family because she felt increasingly unsafe in Gaza amid the intense bombing and brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation. She asked for evacuation, especially after her husband was martyred,” the Gaza government media office said.
“The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government. The occupation did not ‘rescue’ her, as falsely claimed in its statement aimed at misleading public opinion,” it added.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment on Thursday, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US Embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
“In a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” it said.
A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation.
She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told Reuters on Thursday.
Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.
“The narrative the occupation attempted to promote is entirely false. The woman traveled to Gaza through multiple airports and official border crossings,” the Hamas statement said.
“How could she pass through all these checkpoints without security noticing, only for the occupation to later claim she was kidnapped?” it added.
Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread
- But bakers, millers and consumers fear the product will smell and taste different
RIYADH: Egypt plans to save millions of dollars in import costs by replacing a fifth of the wheatflour in the nation’s bread with cheaper ingredients such as corn or sorghum, industry sources said on Friday.
But bakers and millers reacted with anger when the plan was put to them by the Supply Ministry, and consumers fear their bread will taste different. “The change could be unpopular, producing bread with a different texture and smell,” said Hesham Soliman, a trader in Cairo.
Bakeries oppose the plan because coarser flour requires lengthier baking and would increase labor costs. Mills are also opposed because they are paid based on how much wheat they process, which would be reduced.
Egypt has tried wheat substitution to reduce imports before. Corn was used for several years two decades ago before campaigning by industry groups pushed the government to abandon it.
In another money-saving move, the government raised the price of subsidised bread this year for the first time in decades.
Egypt needs about 8.25 million tonnes of wheat a year to make subsidised bread available to more than 70 million people. It is one of the world’s largest wheat importers, mostly from Russia, at a cost of more than $2 billion a year.
