JERUSALEM: Israel’s Cabinet approved a deal early Saturday for a ceasefire in Gaza that would release dozens of hostages held there and pause the 15-month war with Hamas, bringing the sides a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever.
The government announced the approval after 1 a.m. Jerusalem time and confirmed the ceasefire will go into effect on Sunday. The hourslong Cabinet meeting went well past the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, a sign of the moment’s importance. In line with Jewish law, the Israeli government usually halts all business for the Sabbath except in emergency cases of life or death.
Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the ceasefire on Wednesday, but the deal was in limbo for more than a day as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there were last-minute complications that he blamed on the Hamas militant group. On Friday, the smaller security Cabinet recommended approving the deal.
Key questions remain about the ceasefire — the second achieved during the war — including the names of the 33 hostages who are to be released during the first, six-week phase and who among them is still alive.
Netanyahu instructed a special task force to prepare to receive the hostages. The 33 are women, children, men over 50 and sick or wounded people. Hamas has agreed to free three female hostages on Day 1 of the deal, four on Day 7 and the remaining 26 over the following five weeks.
Palestinian detainees are to be released as well. Israel’s justice ministry published a list of 700 to be freed in the deal’s first phase and said the release will not begin before 4 p.m. local time Sunday. All people on the list are younger or female.
Israel’s Prison Services said it will transport the prisoners instead of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handled transportation during the first ceasefire, to avoid “public expressions of joy.” The prisoners have been accused of crimes like incitement, vandalism, supporting terror, terror activities, attempted murder or throwing stones or Molotov cocktails.
The largely devastated Gaza should see a surge in humanitarian aid. Trucks carrying aid lined up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza.
An Egyptian official said an Israeli delegation from the military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency arrived Friday in Cairo to discuss the reopening of the crossing. An Israeli official confirmed a delegation was going to Cairo. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
Israeli forces will also pull back from many areas in Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be able to return to what’s left of their homes.
“Once Sunday comes around, we would be happier, God willing,” one of Gaza’s displaced people, Ekhlas Al-Kafarna, said during the wait for word on the Israeli Cabinet decision.
Israel’s military said that as its forces gradually withdraw from specific locations and routes in Gaza, residents will not be allowed to return to areas where troops are present or near the Israel-Gaza border, and any threat to Israeli forces “will be met with a forceful response.”
Ceasefire talks had stalled repeatedly in previous months. But Israel and Hamas had been under growing pressure from both the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump to reach a deal before Trump takes office on Monday.
Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people and left some 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel responded with a devastating offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half the dead.
Fighting continued into Friday, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 88 bodies had arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours. In previous conflicts, both sides stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength.
The second — and much more difficult — phase of the ceasefire is meant to be negotiated during the first. The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released during this phase.
But Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.
Longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.
The conflict has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests. It also highlighted political tensions inside Israel, drawing fierce resistance from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
On Thursday, Israel’s hard-line national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened to quit the government if Israel approved the ceasefire. He reiterated that Friday, writing on social media platform X: “If the ‘deal’ passes, we will leave the government with a heavy heart.”
There was no immediate sign early Saturday that he had done so.
Ben-Gvir’s resignation would not bring down the government or derail the ceasefire deal, but the move would destabilize the government at a delicate moment and could eventually lead to its collapse if Ben-Gvir were joined by other key Netanyahu allies.
Israel’s Cabinet approves a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza
https://arab.news/pcx6h
Israel’s Cabinet approves a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza
- Under the deal, 33 of some 100 hostages who remain in Gaza are set to be released over six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel
Palestinians say Israeli fire kills 12 near aid sites. Israel says it fired warning shots
- Palestinian health officials and witnesses say Israeli fire killed at least 12 people as they headed toward two aid distribution points in Gaza
- The past two weeks have seen frequent shootings near the new hubs where thousands of Palestinians are directed to collect food
DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli fire killed at least 12 people and wounded others as they headed toward two aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip run by an Israeli and US-backed group, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said Sunday. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at people who approached its forces.
The past two weeks have seen frequent shootings near the new hubs where thousands of Palestinians — desperate after 20 months of war — are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed, according to Gaza hospital officials.
In all, at least 108 bodies were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory’s Health Ministry said. Israel’s military said it struck dozens of militant targets throughout Gaza over the past day.
Eleven of the latest bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces fired on some at a roundabout around a kilometer (half-mile) from a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in nearby Rafah.
Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at approaching “suspects” who ignored warnings to turn away. It said the shooting happened in an area that is considered an active combat zone at night.
Al-Awda Hospital said it received the body of a man and 29 people who were wounded near another GHF aid distribution point in central Gaza. The military said it fired warning shots in the area at around 6:40 a.m., but didn’t see any casualties.
A GHF official said there was no violence in or around its distribution sites, all three of which delivered aid on Sunday. The group closed them temporarily last week to discuss safety measures with Israel’s military and has warned people to stay on designated access routes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The new aid hubs are set up inside Israeli military zones where independent media have no access. The GHF also said it was piloting direct delivery to a community north of Rafah.
Witnesses fear for their safety
Witnesses said the first shootings in southern Gaza took place at around 6 a.m., when they were told the site would open. Many headed toward it early, seeking desperately needed food before crowds arrived.
Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians are almost completely reliant on international aid because nearly all food production capabilities have been destroyed.
Adham Dahman, who was at Nasser Hospital with a bandage on his chin, said a tank fired toward them.
“We didn’t know how to escape,” he said. “This is trap for us, not aid.”
Zahed Ben Hassan said someone next to him was shot in the head.
“They said it was a safe area from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. ... So why did they start shooting at us?” he said. “There was light out, and they have their cameras and can clearly see us.”
The military announced on Friday that the sites would be open during those hours, and the areas would be a closed military zone the rest of the time.
Children cried over their father’s body at the hospital.
“I can’t see you like this, Dad!” one girl said.
Aid distributed inside Israeli military zones
The new aid hubs are run by GHF, a new group of mainly American contractors. Israel wants it to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups.
Israel and the United States accuse the Hamas militant group of stealing aid. The UN denies there is systematic diversion. The UN says the new system is unable to meet mounting needs, allows Israel to use aid as a weapon by determining who can receive it and forces people to relocate to where aid sites are positioned.
The UN system has struggled to deliver aid, even after Israel eased its blockade of Gaza last month. UN officials say their efforts are hindered by Israeli military restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting.
Experts warned earlier this year that Gaza was at critical risk of famine, if Israel didn’t lift its blockade and halt its military campaign. Both were renewed in March.
Israeli officials have said the offensive will continue until all hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile.
Israel says it identified Hamas chief Mohammed Sinwar’s body
On Sunday, Israel’s military invited journalists into Khan Younis to show a tunnel under the European Hospital, saying they found the body of Mohammed Sinwar, the head of Hamas’ armed wing, there after he was killed last month. Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza independently since the war began.
“(Israeli forces) would prefer not to hit or target hospitals,” army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. Sinwar’s body was found in a room under the hospital’s emergency room, Defrin said.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Talks mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar have been deadlocked for months.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead, but doesn’t say how many civilians or combatants were killed. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population.
Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg, ministry says
- Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the British-flagged Madleen boat is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly toward the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel
- Gaza’s health ministry says over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have taken command of a charity vessel that had tried to break a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and the boat with its crew of 12 including activist Greta Thunberg is now heading to a port in Israel, officials said on Sunday.
The British-flagged yacht Madleen, which is operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was aiming to deliver a symbolic amount of aid to Gaza later on Monday and raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis there.
However, the boat was boarded during the night before it could reach shore, the FFC said on its Telegram account. The Israeli Foreign Ministry later confirmed that it was under Israeli control.
“The ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” the ministry wrote on X.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Vessel aimed to deliver aid, raise awareness of Gaza crisis
• Crew includes climate activist Greta Thunberg
• Israel says all aboard are safe, heading to an Israeli port
• UN rapporteur urges more boats to challenge Gaza blockade
All passengers were safe and unharmed, the ministry later added. “They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over.”
Among the 12-strong crew are Swedish climate campaigner Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
“The crew of the Freedom Flotilla was arrested by the Israeli army in international waters around 2 a.m.,” Hassan posted on X. A photograph showed the crew seated on the boat, all wearing life jackets, with their hands in the air.
The yacht is carrying a small shipment of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula. The Foreign Ministry said it would be taken to Gaza. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” it wrote.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military on Sunday to prevent the Madleen from reaching Gaza, calling the mission a propaganda effort in support of Hamas.
Israel imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
The blockade has remained in place through multiple conflicts, including the current war, which began after a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed more than 1,200 people, according to an Israeli tally.
Gaza’s health ministry says over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign. The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents are facing famine.
The Israeli government says the blockade is essential to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas.
The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has supported the FFC operation and on Sunday, urged other boats to challenge the Gaza blockade.
“Madleen’s journey may have ended, but the mission isn’t over. Every Mediterranean port must send boats with aid & solidarity to Gaza,” she wrote on X.
Israeli hostages highlighted at Boulder Jewish Festival after attack on group urging their release
- Demonstrators handed out stickers stamped with “611,” representing the 611 days since the first Israeli hostages were taken by Hamas militants
BOULDER, Colorado: For the 611 days since Omri Miran was taken hostage by Hamas, his family has lived in fear, his brother-in-law told those gathered at the Boulder Jewish Festival on Sunday, one week after a man firebombed a group calling for the release of Israeli hostages at the mall where Moshe Lavi now spoke.
“We received only partial, limited and at times horrifying proof of life,” Lavi said to a hushed crowd. “We don’t know how much he’s suffering, deprived of food, water, sunlight, tortured, abused, as I speak to you now.”
For its 30th year, the Jewish cultural festival centered on the stories of Israeli hostages after authorities said man who yelled “Free Palestine” threw Molotov cocktails at Boulder demonstrators calling for their release. Festival organizers said they reimagined it to focus on healing and center the group’s cause — raising awareness of the 55 people believed to still be in captivity in Gaza.
Authorities said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. They include eight women and seven men, ranging in age from 25 to 88. One is a Holocaust survivor.
Not all were physically injured, and some are considered victims for the legal case because they were present and could potentially have been hurt.
Run for Their Lives, the group targeted in the attack, started in October 2023 after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. The Boulder chapter, one of 230 worldwide, walks at the mall every weekend for 18 minutes, the numerical value of the Hebrew word “chai,” which means “life.”
Several hundred people joined the Sunday walk that typically draws only a couple dozen. Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper was among the participants. Demonstrators handed out stickers stamped with “611,” representing the 611 days since the first Israeli hostages were taken by Hamas militants.
On a stage near the site of the attack, hundreds gathered to listen to speakers and songs. Vendors sold traditional Jewish and Israeli cuisine. In tents marked “Hostage Square,” rows of chairs sat empty save for photos of the hostages and the exhortation “Bring them home now!”
Lavi thanked local demonstrators for their bravery in advocating for his family. He described Miran as a gentle and loving gardener, husband and father to two young children.
Merav Tsubely, an Israeli-American who came to the festival from a city north of Boulder, watched as hostages’ families thanked those gathered in recorded video messages. One of Miran’s children appeared on screen and said in Hebrew, “When daddy comes back from Gaza, he’ll take me to kindergarten.”
“Just seeing them speaking to us, here, with all they’re going through, their supporting us is kind of mind blowing,” Tsubely said, her eyes welling. “It just reminds us how connected we all are.”
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was charged for the attack Thursday in Colorado state court with 118 counts, including attempted murder, assault, illegal use of explosives and animal cruelty. He was also charged with a hate crime in federal court.
Soliman, an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the US illegally, told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people,” a reference to the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
The violence in downtown Boulder unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitism in the US It also came at the start of the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai in Egypt.
US immigration officials took Soliman’s wife and five children, who also are Egyptian, into custody Tuesday. They have not been charged in the attack. A federal judge on Wednesday granted a request to block their deportation.
The Boulder Police Department and the FBI coordinated to provide increased security at the festival as well as local synagogues and the Boulder Jewish Community Center. Officers guarded the event’s entrances, and police Chief Stephen Redfearn said some plainclothes officers would be present in the crowd. On a rooftop near the stage, three held rifles and used binoculars to monitor the crowd as drones buzzed overhead.
Matan Gold-Edelstein’s father was present last weekend and helped douse the fire that burned an older woman. Gold-Edelstein, a 19-year-old college student, said the well-attended festival was a great show of humanity, regardless of religion or politics.
“We’re not here to be in support of a war,” he said. “We’re here in support of our religion, in support of our people and in support of the innocent people who are still being held hostage.”
Israel reveals tunnel under Gaza hospital, says body of Sinwar’s brother found there
- Hamas leaders Sinwar, Shabana found dead in tunnel after an Israeli strike
- Weapons and documents also found in tunnel
KHAN YOUNIS: The Israeli army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas’ military chief, Mohammed Sinwar, in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month.
Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas.
“This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again,” said Defrin.
“We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar’s death last month, but Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him.
Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana.
Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and which triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Shabana was one of Hamas’s most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids.
The drive to Khan Younis in Israeli military vehicles showed widespread devastation, with countless buildings lying in ruins, and piles of rubble collected at the roadside.
The Israeli military has raided or besieged numerous hospitals during the war, alleging that Hamas uses them to conceal fighters and orchestrate operations — a charge Hamas has repeatedly denied. While Israel has presented evidence in certain cases, some of its assertions remain unverified.
Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it.
A large trench dug in front of the Emergency Room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel, which was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said.
During the search of the site, Israeli forces recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.
“We will dismantle Hamas because we cannot live with this terror organization right in our backyard, right across our border,” Defrin said.
More than 54,000 Palestinians have died during the ongoing Israeli assault, according to Gaza health authorities. The UN has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine.
Iranian authorities expand ban on dog walking
- Local authorities have periodically introduced bans on walking dogs in public spaces or carrying them in vehicles as part of a wider campaign to discourage their ownership
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have expanded a ban on walking dogs in public to multiple cities nationwide, citing public health, social order and safety concerns, domestic media reported on Sunday.
The ban —which echoes a 2019 police directive that barred walking dogs in Tehran — was expanded to Ilam city in the west on Sunday, according to reports.
At least 17 other cities recently introduced similar bans, including Isfahan in the center and Kerman in the south.
Owning and walking dogs has been a contentious topic since the 1979 revolution in Iran, though there is no law outrightly banning dog ownership.
Many religious scholars, however, consider petting dogs or coming into contact with their saliva as "najis" or ritually impure, while some officials view them as a symbol of Western cultural influence.
Local authorities have periodically introduced bans on walking dogs in public spaces or carrying them in vehicles as part of a wider campaign to discourage their ownership.
Enforcing the restrictions has been largely inconsistent, as many owners continue to walk their dogs in Tehran and elsewhere across Iran.
On Sunday, the Etemad newspaper quoted an official from Ilam city as saying that "legal action will be taken against violators."
On Saturday, a state newspaper said the latest measures are aimed at "maintaining public order, ensuring safety and protecting public health."
"Dog walking is a threat to public health, peace and comfort," said Abbas Najafi, prosecutor of the western city of Hamedan, as quoted by Iran newspaper.
In 2021, some 75 lawmakers condemned pet ownership as a "destructive social problem," saying it could "gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life."
In 2017, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that "keeping dogs for reasons other than herding, hunting, and guard dogs is considered reprehensible."
"If this practice resembles that of non-Muslims, promotes their culture, or causes harm and disturbance to neighbours, it is deemed forbidden," he added.
