WADI GAZA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to do so in Trump’s second term.
The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza. Talks about the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, are set to begin on Feb. 3.
There was no immediate comment from the White House. Trump teased the upcoming visit in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, but didn’t provide details. “I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not too distant future,” he said.
The meeting would be a chance for Netanyahu, under pressure at home, to remind the world of the support he has received from Trump over the years, and to defend Israel’s conduct of the war. Last year, the two men met face-to-face for the first time in nearly four years at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.
Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid, and Netanyahu is likely to encourage Trump not to hold up some weapons deliveries the way the Biden administration did, though it continued other deliveries and overall military support.
Even before taking office this month, Trump was sending his special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region to apply pressure along with the Biden administration to get the current Gaza ceasefire achieved.
But Netanyahu has vowed to renew the war if Hamas doesn’t meet his demands in negotiations over the ceasefire’s second phase of the ceasefire, meant to discuss a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”
Under the deal, more than 375,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel allowed their return on Monday morning, the United Nations said Tuesday. That represents over a third of the million people who fled in the war’s opening days.
Many of the Palestinians trudging along a seaside road or crossing in vehicles after security inspections were getting their first view of shattered northern Gaza under the fragile ceasefire, now in its second week.
They were determined, if homes were damaged or destroyed, to pitch makeshift shelters or sleep outdoors amid the vast piles of broken concrete or perilously leaning buildings. After months of crowding in squalid tent camps or former schools in Gaza’s south, they would finally be home.
“It’s still better for us to be on our land than to live on a land that’s not yours,” said Fayza Al-Nahal as she prepared to leave the southern city of Khan Younis for the north.
At least two Palestinians set off for the north by sea, crowding into a rowboat with a bicycle and other belongings.
Hani Al-Shanti, displaced from Gaza City, looked forward to feeling at peace in whatever he found, “even if it is a roof and walls without furniture, even if it is without a roof.” One newly returned woman hung laundry in the ruins of her home, its walls blown out.
Under the ceasefire, the next release of hostages held in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody, is set to occur on Thursday, followed by another exchange on Saturday.
Israeli PM says Trump has invited him to the White House on Feb. 4
https://arab.news/2et9u
Israeli PM says Trump has invited him to the White House on Feb. 4
- This would make Benjamin Netanyahu the first foreign leader to visit the White House in Trump’s second term
- Meeting would be chance for Netanyahu to remind world of US support, defend Israel’s conduct of Gaza war
India launches attack on 9 sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir
The Indian armed forces launched "Operation Sindoor," hitting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted, the statement added.
Germany’s Merz voices ‘concern’ on Gaza, to send foreign minister to Israel
- Friedrich Merz said FM Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that ‘we are currently preparing this trip together’
- Friedrich Merz: ‘Israel must remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations’
BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday voiced “considerable concern” about the Gaza conflict and said he would send his foreign minister to Israel this weekend.
The conservative Merz, 69, long a strong supporter of Israel, said that Israel has a right to fight the Palestinian militant group Hamas but must follow international law.
Merz, who took office on Tuesday, said Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that “we are currently preparing this trip together.”
Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans for the “conquest” of Gaza, an official said Monday, and Israel’s military has said expanded operations would entail displacing “most” of its residents to the southern part of the territory.
Merz, speaking to public broadcaster ARD, said: “We view the developments of the last few days with considerable concern.”
“Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed,” said Merz.
“But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip, where this confrontation with Hamas terrorists is necessarily taking place.”
He added that “it must be clear that the Israeli government must fulfil its obligations under the international law of war and that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be provided.”
Belarus opens case against a 78-year-old activist who became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement
- Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws
- Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement
TALLINN: Authorities in Belarus opened a criminal case against a 78-year-old activist who became the face of the country’s pro-democracy protests in 2020, a rights organization said Tuesday.
Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws on holding and organizing protests, Belarus’ Viasna human rights center said.
Authorities accused Bahinskaya of repeatedly walking the streets of the Belarusian capital displaying symbols striped with white, red and white: the same colors used by Belarus’ pro-democracy opposition. If found guilty, the activist faces up to three years in prison.
Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement, which reached its peak during mass protests in the summer of 2020, shortly after the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was declared president for a sixth consecutive term.
Observers widely condemned the vote as rigged. In March, Lukashenko was sworn in to a seventh term.
Bahinskaya’s defiance and caustic tongue quickly has made her a popular opposition figure. When told by police in 2020 that she was violating a government ban on unauthorized demonstrations, she simply responded, “I’m taking a walk” — a snappy reply that was adopted by thousands and chanted at demonstrations.
“I noticed that the riot police more rarely beat protesters when they see elderly people among them,” she told The Associated Press at the time. “So I come out to protest as a defender, an observer and a witness. I’m psychologically and intellectually stronger than the police. Even among those who detained me, there were people who respected me.”
The 2020 protests triggered a wave of police violence from Belarusian security services, and political repression that has engulfed the country of 9.5 million people.
More than 65,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been beaten by police, and independent media and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down and outlawed, prompting condemnation and sanctions from the West.
Belarus holds about 1,200 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. At least six political prisoners have died in prison, according to human rights activists.
Bahinskaya has been previously detained on multiple occasions, collecting fines totaling 7,200 Belarusian rubles (about $2,400).
As part of the case against her, Bahinskaya was detained in early May and taken for a forced psychiatric examination, Viasna said. In April, UN experts reported that Belarusian authorities had resumed the Soviet practice of forced psychiatric treatment as a punishment for political dissent, and that at least 33 cases of punitive psychiatry had already been recorded against political prisoners.
“Bahinskaya is a symbol of resistance to totalitarianism within the country, and it is important for the authorities to break her,” Viasna representative Pavel Sapelka told the AP. “This is a show case against an elderly person who has dedicated her entire life to the fight for freedom.”
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives and works in exile in Lithuania, also condemned the case.
“Today, the regime is still afraid of Nina Bahinskaya’s courage,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “For decades, Nina has stood up to tyranny.”
Putin tells Pezeshkian Russia wants ‘fair’ US-Iran nuclear deal
- The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing ‘logistical reasons’ for the delay
- Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022
MOSCOW/TEHRAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow wants a “fair” nuclear deal between the US and Iran and was ready to help advance talks, the Kremlin said.
“The Russian side confirmed its readiness to contribute to the promotion of this dialogue with the goal of reaching a fair agreement based on the principles of international law,” the Kremlin said in a readout of a call between the leaders.
The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons” for the delay.
The two countries have held three rounds since April 12, their highest-level contact since the US withdrew from a landmark deal with Iran in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as president.
Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
The two countries, both under massive Western sanctions, signed a strategic partnership earlier this year.
Most recently, Moscow has sent two planes to help put down a fire after a deadly explosion in Iran’s biggest commercial port.
Russia earlier confirmed its readiness to help find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Washington and Tehran, and to play any role in the talks.
A fourth round of talks is likely to take place over the weekend in Muscat, with Iranian state media pointing to May 11 as a probable date.
Cautioning that the timing was not yet finalized, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team said: “The talks will take place over two days in Muscat, either on Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.”
Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff also said Washington was trying to hold the next round of talks this weekend, according to the news site Axios, a day after Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated
US President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached with his administration to resolve the long-standing dispute.
Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.
Indonesia bus crash leaves at least 12 dead
PADANG: A bus carrying 34 passengers sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and leaving others injured, police said.
The inter-province bus was on its way to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, from Medan in North Sumatra province when its brakes apparently malfunctioned near a bus terminal in West Sumatra’s Padang city, said Reza Chairul Akbar Sidiq, the director of West Sumatra traffic police.
He said police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but survivors told authorities that the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of steep hills in Padang after the brakes malfunctioned.
The 12 bodies, including those of two children, were mostly pinned under the overturned bus, Sidiq said. All the victims, including 23 injured people, were taken to two nearby hospitals, he said.
Thirteen of the injured were treated for serious injuries, Sidiq said. The driver was among those in critical condition.
Local television footage showed the mangled bus on its side, surrounded by rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured victims and the dead.
Road accidents are common in Indonesia because of poor safety standards and infrastructure.
