JERUSALEM: In a sign that mediators believe a Gaza ceasefire deal is imminent, a US official said Friday that Mideast negotiators are working out logistics for the potential release of hostages and distribution of aid as part of any agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war.
The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity in keeping with rules set by the White House, said the proposal currently on the table basically bridges every gap between Israel and Hamas and mediators were making preparations before a final deal is approved.
It was unclear what measures were being taken, but the official said a new “implementation cell” was being established in Cairo in advance. The cell would focus on logistics, including freeing hostages, providing humanitarian aid for Gaza and ensuring that the terms of the pact are met, the official said.
The comments came hours after mediators expressed hope that a deal was within reach. They said two days of talks had wrapped up in Qatar and that they plan to reconvene in Cairo next week to seal an agreement to stop the fighting.
Israel issued a vague statement saying it appreciated the mediators’ efforts, and a statement from Hamas did not sound enthusiastic about the latest proposal to end the devastating 10-month war and free Israeli hostages held in Gaza. A ceasefire is seen as the best hope for heading off an even larger regional conflict.
US President Joe Biden seemed optimistic, saying, “We are closer than we’ve ever been” to an agreement. Biden has expressed optimism for a deal before, only for talks to break down.
“As of an hour ago, it’s still in play,” he said, as he was traveling to spend the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. “It’s far from over. Just a couple more issues, I think we got a shot.”
Both sides agreed in principle to the plan Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed amendments, and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to tank a deal.
The US official said the latest proposal is the same as Biden’s with some clarifications based on ongoing talks. The way it’s structured poses no risk to Israel’s security but enhances it, the official added.
Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants.
Hamas quickly cast doubt on whether an agreement was near.
In a statement, the militant group said the latest proposal diverged significantly from the previous iteration they had agreed to in principle, implying they were not disposed to accept it.
The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement saying it “appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage release deal.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to travel to Israel over the weekend to “continue intensive diplomatic efforts” toward a ceasefire and to underscore the need for all parties in the region to avoid escalation, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
Blinken was expected to meet with Netanyahu on Monday to discuss the new deal, said an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with official requirements.
The new push for an end to the Israel-Hamas war came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities, whose counts do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Fears were still high that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.
International mediators believe the best hope for calming tensions would be a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the fighting and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
International diplomacy to prevent the war from spreading intensified Friday, with the British and French foreign ministers making a joint trip to Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that he told his British and French counterparts that if Iran attacks Israel, Israel expects its allies not just to help it defend itself, but to join in attacking Iran.
He also warned Iran — which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, all of whom have attacked Israel since the Gaza war started — to stop the attacks.
“Iran is the head of the axis of evil, and the free world must stop it now before it’s too late,” Katz said on X.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November, and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.
Israel’s military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Thursday that Israel had killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants in Gaza in the war, without providing evidence.
Diplomats hoped a ceasefire deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.
The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
While talks were ongoing, Israel continued its offensive in Gaza.
On Friday it dropped leaflets asking civilians to evacuate from areas in northern Khan Younis and eastern Deir Al-Balah, saying forces plan to respond to rocket fire that targeted Israel. After the orders were given, airstrikes hit some areas of Khan Younis, sending people fleeing. A video showed plumes of black smoke rising into the air after loud booms.
Also Friday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke to Biden and agreed to intensify joint efforts in the coming days to reach an agreement, said a spokesman for the presidency. El-Sisi also urged regional self-restraint.
In a clear message to Israel, Hezbollah released a video, with Hebrew and English subtitles, showing underground tunnels where trucks were transporting long-range missiles.
A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was speaking about military affairs, said the missiles in the video have a range of about 140 kilometers (86 miles), capable of reaching deep inside Israel.
Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones that the group says give it the ability to hit anywhere in Israel. Hezbollah started attacking Israel on Oct. 8 and says it will stop only when the Gaza war ends.
US official says Mideast mediators are preparing for implementation of ceasefire deal in advance
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US official says Mideast mediators are preparing for implementation of ceasefire deal in advance
- The comments came hours after mediators expressed hope that a ceasefire deal was within reach
- They said two days of talks had wrapped up in Qatar and they plan to reconvene in Cairo next week
Israel hospital says woman killed in stabbing attack in coastal city
- Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested
“She was brought to the hospital with multiple stab wounds while undergoing resuscitation efforts, but the hospital staff was forced to pronounce her death upon arrival,” Tel Aviv Ichilov hospital said in a statement. Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested.
Yemen Houthis claim missile attack on Tel Aviv airport: statement
- Houthis also launched drones at Tel Aviv and a ship in the Arabian Sea
SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Friday claimed a strike against the airport in Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Friday, after Israeli air strikes hit rebel-held Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen.
The Israeli strikes on Thursday landed as the head of the UN’s World Health Organization said he and his team were preparing to fly out from Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital.
Hours later on Friday, the Houthis said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion airport and launched drones at Tel Aviv as well as a ship in the Arabian Sea.
No other details were immediately available.
Yemen’s civil aviation authority said the airport planned to reopen on Friday after the strikes that it said occurred while the UN aircraft “was getting ready for its scheduled flight.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they knew at the time that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was there. Israel’s attack came a day after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed the firing of a missile and two drones at Israel.
Yemen’s Houthis have stepped up their attacks against Israel since late November when a ceasefire took effect between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Houthis Al-Masirah TV said the Israeli strikes killed six people, after earlier Houthi statements said two people died at the rebel-held capital’s airport, and another at Ras Issa port.
The strikes targeting the airport, military facilities and power stations in rebel areas marked the second time since December 19 that Israel has hit targets in Yemen after rebel missile fire toward Israel.
In his latest warning to the rebels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “continue until the job is done.”
“We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil,” he said in a video statement.
UN chief condemns ‘escalation’ between Yemen’s Houthis and Israel
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls Israeli strikes on Sanaa airport ‘especially alarming’
NEW YORK: The UN chief on Thursday denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi militias and Israel, terming strikes on the Sanaa airport “especially alarming.”
“The Secretary-General condemns the escalation between Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming,” said a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
Israeli air strikes pummeled Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday, with Houthi militia media reporting six deaths.
The attack came a day after the Houthis fired a missile and two drones at Israel.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media he was at the airport during the strike, with the UN saying that a member of its air crew was injured.
The United Nations put the death toll from the airport strikes at three, with “dozens more injured.”
UN chief Guterres expressed particular alarm at the threat that bombing transportation infrastructure posed to humanitarian aid operations in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population is dependent on aid.
“The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and reiterates his call for all parties concerned to cease all military actions and exercise utmost restraint,” he said.
“He also warns that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sana’a airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.”
The UN chief condemned the Houthi militias for “a year of escalatory actions... in the Red Sea and the region that threaten civilians, regional stability and freedom of maritime navigation.”
The Houthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” alliance against Israel.
Bodies of about 100 Kurdish women, children found in Iraq mass grave
TAL AL-SHAIKHIA, Iraq: Iraqi authorities are working to exhume the remains of around 100 Kurdish women and children thought to have been killed in the 1980s under former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, three officials said.
The grave was discovered in Tal Al-Shaikhia in the Muthanna province in southern Iraq, about 15-20 kilometers (10-12 miles) from the main road there, an AFP journalist said.
Specialized teams began exhuming the grave earlier this month after it was initially discovered in 2019, said Diaa Karim, the head of the Iraqi authority for mass graves, adding that it is the second such grave to be uncovered at the site.
“After removing the first layer of soil and the remains appearing clearly, it was discovered that they all belonged to women and children dressed in Kurdish springtime clothes,” Karim told AFP on Wednesday.
He added that they likely came from Kalar in the northern Sulaimaniyah province, part of what is now Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, estimating that there were “no less than 100” people buried in the grave.
Efforts to exhume all the bodies are ongoing, he said, adding that the numbers could change.
Following Iraq’s deadly war with Iran in the 1980s, Saddam’s government carried out the ruthless “Anfal Operation” between 1987 and 1988 in which it is thought to have killed around 180,000 Kurds.
Saddam was toppled in 2003 following a US-led invasion of Iraq and was hanged three years later, putting an end to Iraqi proceedings against him on charges of genocide over the Anfal campaign.
Karim said a large number of the victims found in the grave “were executed here with live shots to the head fired at short range.”
He suggested some of them may have been “buried alive” as there was no evidence of bullets in their remains.
Ahmed Qusai, the head of the excavation team for mass graves in Iraq, meanwhile pointed to “difficulties we are facing at this grave because the remains have become entangled as some of the mothers were holding their infants” when they were killed.
Durgham Kamel, part of the authority for exhuming mass graves, said another mass grave was found at the same time that they began exhuming the one at Tal Al-Shaikhia.
He said the burial site was located near the notorious Nugrat Al-Salman prison where Saddam’s authorities held dissidents.
The Iraqi government estimates that about 1.3 million people disappeared between 1980 and 1990 as a result of atrocities and other rights violations committed under Saddam.
Brother of suspected ‘terrorist’ stabs Tunisia National Guard officer
TUNIS: The brother of a suspected “terrorist” on Thursday stabbed a Tunisian National Guard officer in the eastern Monastir governorate, a judicial source told AFP.
Earlier in the day, a National Guard unit attempted to arrest the suspect — accused by authorities of being a member of a “terrorist group” — at his home, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
During the arrest operation, his brother attacked the officer, the source added.
The source said the officer was hospitalized following the stabbing in his abdomen and was recovering after undergoing surgery.
An investigation was opened by the judicial division combatting terrorism, the source added.
Neither of the brothers, both of whom were taken into police custody, have been named, and the Tunisian interior ministry did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Tunisia saw a surge in jihadist groups after the 2011 revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Attacks claimed by jihadists in recent years have killed dozens of soldiers and police officers, as well as some civilians and foreign tourists.
Jihadist attacks in Sousse and the capital Tunis in 2015 killed dozens of tourists and police, but authorities say they have since made significant progress against extremism.
