GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A Hamas official said Wednesday that the group would discuss any ideas for a Gaza ceasefire that included an Israeli withdrawal, but had not officially received any comprehensive proposals.
“We have not officially received any comprehensive proposal. We are prepared to engage with any ideas or proposals presented to us, provided they ultimately lead to an end to the war and a withdrawal by the army from the (Gaza) Strip,” the official said.
The official, who preferred to remain anonymous, added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing truce efforts to push an agenda of “genocide, ethnic cleansing and displacement” made possible by the absence of US pressure.
“We have told the mediators that Hamas is ready if (Israel) agrees to a proposal for a ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, return of displaced people to their homes in Gaza including the north, entry of sufficient aid for our people and a serious prisoner exchange deal,” he said, referring to ceasefire conditions Hamas has repeatedly brought to negotiations.
He said that Egypt and Qatar continue to work as mediators in consultations between Hamas and Israel.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meanwhile told troops in Gaza that they must apply military pressure to guarantee the return of hostages held in the Palestinian territory for over a year.
“The central issue here is to continue exerting as much pressure on Hamas as possible, in order to create the conditions necessary to ensure the return of the hostages,” his office reported him saying, suggesting Israel is pushing its advantage to guarantee better ceasefire conditions.
On Tuesday evening, Hamas had confirmed in a statement that some meetings had been held regarding the mediators’ request to discuss “new proposals for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.”
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced he had not received a proposal for a two-day truce and hostage release deal.
He said Israel “has not received a proposal for the release of four hostages in return for a 48-hour ceasefire in Gaza. If such a proposal had been raised, the prime minister would have accepted it immediately,” his office said in a statement.
The statement was referring to a proposal revealed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying for months to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, aid access and talks on longer-term peace.
Israel’s spy chief David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani held their latest round of talks in Doha on Sunday and Monday.
They focused on a “short-term” truce of “less than a month,” a source with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday
“US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal
https://arab.news/ru3bz
Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal
- Hamas official says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing truce efforts to push an agenda of ‘genocide, ethnic cleansing and displacement’
Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK
- President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality
A deputy governor of Istanbul has replaced Ahmet Ozer as CHP mayor of Istanbul’s immigrant-heavy Esenyurt district after he was accused on Wednesday by the chief prosecutor’s office of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Ozer denies the terrorism-related claims, while his party said it would defend him against the “unfounded allegations.”
President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality.
The court order comes days after the PKK claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on Turkish defense company TUSAS that killed five people in Ankara.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the arrest was based on “abstract allegations” and was intended to harm the will of the people.
“We will undoubtedly...defeat this vile mind that does not recognize the nation and does not respect the people’s choices, and will thwart this disgusting plan,” Ozel said in a post on X.
The CHP’s central executive committee will meet on Thursday at CHP Esenyurt headquarters, and Ozel has called on residents to gather around Esenyurt municipality to protest against the decision.
The PKK has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkiye for four decades, with more than 40,000 people killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3
- The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire
RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials said Thursday that an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire. The Israeli military said its forces were targeting militants in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has seen repeated battles in recent months. The military said it eliminated a Hamas militant in the area who was involved in planning attacks on Israelis.
Meanwhile, mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict.
Hezbollah’s newly named leader, Naim Kassem, said the militant group will keep fighting in its war with Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.
The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.
Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says
- Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the laws are “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves”
- Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated the agency
RIYADH: The head of the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further instability in Gaza and the West Bank.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview — the first since the laws were passed — that the legislation is “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves,” effectively denying them a functioning provider of lifesaving services, education and health care.
UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency for survival amid Israel’s nearly 13-month-old war with the militant Hamas group.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in UNRWA-run schools. Other aid groups say the agency’s strong, decades-old infrastructure across Gaza is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has put forward no plan for getting food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s population in UNRWA’s absence.
Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and taking aid — claims for which it has provided little evidence. The laws, passed by parliament this week, sever all ties with UNRWA and ban its operations in Israel.
And since the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must go through Israeli authorities, the laws threaten to close its activities there as well. The laws are expected to come into effect in three months.
If the Israeli decision is implemented “this would be a total disaster, it is like throwing (out) the baby with the water,” Lazzarini told the AP, speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he is attending a conference to discuss the Mideast conflict.
“This would create a vacuum. It would also feed more instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Having UNRWA ending its activities within the three months would also mean more people will die in Gaza.”
He said the agency is looking for “creative ways to keep our operation going.” He appealed for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to keep providing services and called on Israel to rescind the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel has not officially communicated with the agency following the adoption of the laws.
For decades, UNRWA has operated networks of schools, medical facilities and other services around Gaza and the West Bank — as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza especially, it plays a major role in maintaining social services and the economy, as the territory’s largest single employer and the source of education and health care for much of the population.
The laws threaten to shut down all those operations, impacting the education and welfare of hundreds of thousands of children well into the future, he said.
“We have today 1 in 2 persons in Gaza below the age of 18, among them 650,000 girls and boys living in the rubble, deeply traumatized at the age of primary and secondary school,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way to tell these children that you will have no future. We are just sacrificing your education. Education is the only thing which has never, ever been taken away from the Palestinians.”
UNRWA was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It now offers support to the refugees and their descendants, who number some 6 million around the region.
Lazzarini said the Israeli laws are the “culmination of years of attack against the agency.” He said “the objective is to strip the Palestinian from refugee status.”
International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel has refused to allow their return, saying it would end the Jewish majority in the country. Israel has said the refugees should be taken in by their host countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians’ hopes for return alive.
In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said the Israeli laws and campaign against the agency “will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s services, but will severely harm their lives and future.”
Israel claims hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen employees took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the latest war.
The UN has fired nine staffers after internal investigations found they may have participated in the attack. UNRWA has nearly 30,000 staff around the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, most of them Palestinians. Israel also says Hamas fighters operate in UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza — and has hit many of them with airstrikes.
UNRWA denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.
Lazzarini said Israel has not responded to inquiries from UNRWA for details about other allegations, including that the agency’s premises are used by militant groups.. With the continued fighting, the agency has been unable to verify the claims, he said and called for an independent investigation.
At least 237 UNRWA staff have been killed in the war in Gaza, a toll among UN staff not seen in any other conflict. Over 200 UNRWA facilities have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 560 people sheltering there.
Lazzarini spoke on the sidelines of the conference by the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, a Saudi government-created initiative attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.
“If we want to be successful in any future political transition, we need an agency like UNRWA taking care of education and the primary health of the Palestinian refugees” until there is a viable functioning state or administration to do so, he said.
In Egypt, prospect of Trump win raises fears over school funding
- USAID in Egypt allocated approximately $200 million in grants to various sectors, including agriculture, coastal communities, renewable energy, and education
CAIRO: In Egypt, education officials are watching the US election with concern, worried that if Republican Donald Trump wins he could reduce US financial support for schools catering to students who hope to help lead the energy transition.
The former president has pledged to roll back key climate policies implemented by his predecessor, Joe Biden, and 10 international applied technology schools in Egypt could be affected if funds are cut, some experts say.
The 10 secondary schools were created through a partnership between the US Agency for International Development, the Egyptian government and the private sector. Around 20,000 students apply annually for 8,000 places.
“The funding of these schools is likely to be affected (if Trump wins the election) due to his position on environmental policies, which are in contrast with those of the current administration,” Karim Ebeid, president of Al Adl Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“This may affect the non-renewal or expansion of such schools, which affects Egypt’s development plans,” he said, adding that if US funding dried up, Egypt could turn to other international partners, such as China, Russia or Japan.
“China, especially, for the past two decades, has been working to strengthen its investments in African countries through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation,” he said.
The schools offer free tuition to all students but require certain conditions for enrollment, such as achieving high grades in English, science, and maths. Applicants are also interviewed.
An Egyptian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if US funding for the schools were to stop under a second Trump administration, Egypt would have to develop alternative plans for financing, management, and partnerships.
The schools provide critical skills to thousands of young Egyptians like Zeyad Maged, a third-year student at Elsewedy International School for Applied Technology and Software in New October City in the Giza Governorate.
“Last year, I led a capstone (final year) project with my team focused on environmental sustainability, developing a website to promote recycling and foster a healthier community,” said the 17-year-old, who specializes in software development.
“The school provides full scholarships, covering the costs of laptops, uniforms, and books, he added.
“All of this comes at a very high quality.”
Teaching ‘critical topics’
Trump, who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris, has put Biden’s climate and energy agenda in the crosshairs on the campaign trail, meaning that billions in clean energy funding could hinge on who wins the Nov. 5 election.
Biden’s policies include tax breaks and incentives for electric vehicles and stricter environmental regulations for power plants and automobiles. Trump has also threatened to once again pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Mohamed Azzazy, head of surveys at the Natural Resources Department at the University of Sadat City, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the curricula in the 10 applied technology schools prepare young people for environmental sustainability challenges.
“Students today must engage with critical topics like global warming, renewable energy, carbon footprints, and biodiversity to ensure a sustainable future,” Azzazy said.
“These subjects are often missing from conventional Egyptian education, particularly in practical application, but the schools are bridging that gap,” he said, adding that the schools offered hands-on activities like clean-up operations and recycling workshops.
Egypt wants to accelerate the provision of renewable energy that could ease electricity shortages and supply green power to Europe, but faces challenges in funding updates to its grid and unlocking investments for new wind and solar plants.
Between 2021 and 2022, USAID in Egypt allocated approximately $200 million in grants to various sectors, including agriculture, coastal communities, renewable energy, and education.
According to the USAID website, the schools and other education initiatives account for $70 million of funding from 2021 to 2026, with plans to expand the number of schools to cover 15 governorates, up from the current eight.
USAID did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Amr Basila, the director of the operation and management unit for the International Applied Technology Schools, said the institutions provided internationally certified credentials, hands-on experience, and access to job markets in competitive fields including artificial intelligence, digital arts, software engineering and logistics.
“Though still emerging in Egypt, these sectors offer significant opportunities for workforce development and economic growth,” he said.
Some Egyptian observers fear that if Trump wins again, funding for such projects could be cut.
Mohamed Rabie El-Dehy, deputy head of the independent Dialogue Center for Political and Media Studies in Cairo, noted that in 2017, then-president Trump said he intended to reduce US aid to the Middle East, particularly for climate change and renewable energy programs, by around 30 percent.
“Environmental schools of this kind were not established until the Biden administration. Under Trump, no environmental schools were built; the focus was limited to teacher training programs in other schools,” El-Dehy said.
“Similarly, should Trump return to office, we are unlikely to see an expansion in the number of international applied technology schools,” El-Dehy said.
This article is published in collaboration with Egab.
Locked in Middle East wars and battered by sanctions, Iran is wary over US presidential election
- Many Iranians are split on which candidate would be better for their country – if at all
- Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have offered hardline views on Iran, making Iranians wary
TEHRAN: America’s presidential election next week comes just after Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis – and for many, tensions between Tehran and Washington feel just as high as they did then.
Iran remains locked in the Middle East wars roiling the region, with its allies – militant groups and fighters of its self-described “Axis of Resistance” – battered as Israel presses its war in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas and its invasion of Lebanon amid devastating attacks against Hezbollah. At the same time, Iran still appears to be assessing damage from Israel’s strikes on the Islamic Republic last Saturday in response to two Iranian ballistic missile attacks.
Iran’s currency, the rial, hovers near record lows against the dollar, battered by international sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program of enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
In public spaces, women still openly defy Iran’s mandatory law on the headscarf, or hijab, a result of the mass demonstrations over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini that still haunts the country.
That has left a feel of fatalism among some on the streets of the capital, Tehran, as Americans cast ballots for either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. Many are split on which candidate would be better for their country – if at all.
“All US presidents elected after the (1979) revolution had the same views about Iran and I think that’s unlikely to change,” said Sadegh Rabbani, 65.
Harris and Trump have offered hardline views on Iran, making Iranians wary.
Both candidates have either undertaken or expressed tough stances on Iran.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled America out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, setting off years of attacks across the Middle East even before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Trump has been briefed on Iranian plots to retaliate against him, as well over his decision to launch a 2020 drone strike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.
Harris, meanwhile, vowed at the September presidential debate that she would always “give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”
For its part, the Biden administration did try indirect negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program that produced no tangible results, though it did reach one prisoner swap deal that saw five Americans detained for years in Iran walk free in September 2023.
In an outdoor coffeeshop in downtown Tehran, popular among the youth, 22-year-old Zahra Rezaei said she preferred a Harris win.
“We saw Trump in the past and he just ran an anti-Iran policy,” Rezaei told The Associated Press. “It is time for a woman ... I think she (Harris) will better since she is not after war.”
Ebrahim Shiri, a 28-year-old postgraduate political sciences student, agreed.
“I think Harris knows the world better,” he said. “She and (Joe) Biden convinced Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. This mean moving toward peace.”
Others believe Trump, with his promises of dealmaking, might be a better fit.
“I do not know what the American people think, but Trump is able to get a quick deal with Iran,” said Mohammad Ali Raoufi, 43, who runs a double-glazed window workshop. “The Biden administration including Harris failed to reach any (deal) with Iran over the past years when they were in power.”
Reza Ghaemi, a 31-year-old taxi driver, also suggested Trump may lessen tensions in the region since he pushed to withdraw US troops from the Middle East during his term in office.
Iran’s government wants sanctions gone and hopes for another nuclear deal
Many declined to speak to the AP on camera – Iran has only state-run television and radio stations, so people are suspicious of reporters with video cameras working openly on the street. A woman walking by immediately tightened her previously loose headscarf after seeing the camera.
Those who did speak to the AP mostly expressed worries about a direct United States-Iran war – especially if Trump wins.
While saying he wants Trump to win “for my own reasons,” 53-year-old Ahmad Moradi claimed that would make a US-Iran war “100 percent” sure to happen.
A woman who only gave her name as Mahnaz, fearing repercussions for speaking openly, suggested that Harris, as a woman, couldn’t reach any deals with Iran because “men can talk to men.”
“I think if Trump is elected, it will be much harder for our kids. Of course it doesn’t matter which one is elected, it’s already tough for us,” said Fariba Oodi.
“We the Iranian people are trapped in some political game. And our kids are paying a price for that,” she added. “But I still think if it’s Trump, it will be more difficult, especially for my son who is a student and plans to apply” to study in America.
Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected after a helicopter crash killed hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi in May, came to power on a promise to reach a deal to ease Western sanctions.
Iranian officials maintain that separating nuclear negotiations from Middle East wars is possible, even as the US has accused Iran of meddling in the November election, which Tehran denies.
Fatemeh MoHajjerani, a spokeswoman for Pezeshkian’s administration, said Tehran wants to see a change in US policies and a respect for the “national sovereignty of other countries.” It also wants Washington to “avoid tension-making activities as we witnessed in recent years,” she said.
Analysts, however, see a difficult road ahead for any possible US-Iran talks, no matter who wins next Tuesday.
“The talks will be a war of attrition,” Ali Soufi told the pro-reform Shargh newspaper. Saeed Nourmohammadi, another analyst, suggested such talks “are unlikely to be fruitful.”
But ultimately, any decision rests with Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“You know, Khamenei has seen eight US presidents” come and go, said Abbas Ghasemi, a 67-year-old retired teacher “He knows how to deal with the next one.”
