Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce, one-time hostages release

Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen run by the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 26, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 27 April 2025
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Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce, one-time hostages release

  • An Israeli pullout and a “permanent end to the war” would also have occurred — as outlined by then-US president Joe Biden — under a second phase of a ceasefire that had begun on January 19 but collapsed two months later

CAIRO: Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said Saturday as the group’s negotiators held talks with mediators.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo discussing with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, while, on the ground, rescuers said Israeli strikes killed at least 35 people.
Nearly eight weeks into an Israeli aid blockade, the United Nations says food and medical supplies are running out.
The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group “is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years.”
The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier this month as “partial,” calling instead for a “comprehensive” agreement to halt the war ignited by the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The rejected Israeli offer, according to a senior Hamas official, included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.
Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to the war’s end, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid.
An Israeli pullout and a “permanent end to the war” would also have occurred — as outlined by then-US president Joe Biden — under a second phase of a ceasefire that had begun on January 19 but collapsed two months later.
Hamas had sought talks on the second phase but Israel wanted the first phase extended.
Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a “red line.”
“This time we will insist on guarantees regarding the end of the war,” Mahmud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said in a statement.
“The occupation can return to war after any partial deal, but it cannot do so with a comprehensive deal and international guarantees.”
Later on Saturday, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan reiterated that “any proposal that does not include a comprehensive and permanent cessation of the war will not be considered.”
“We will not abandon the resistance’s weapons as long as the occupation persists,” he said in a statement.

Israel pounded Gaza again on Saturday.
Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, an official with the territory’s civil defense rescue agency, told AFP that the death toll had risen to at least 35.
In Gaza City, in the territory’s north, civil defense said a strike on the Khour family home killed 10 people and left an estimated 20 more trapped in the debris.
Umm Walid Al-Khour, who survived the attack, said “everyone was sleeping with their children” when the strike hit and “the house collapsed on top of us.”
Elsewhere across Gaza, 25 more people were killed, rescuers said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the latest strikes but it said that “1,800 terror targets” had been hit across Gaza since the military campaign resumed on March 18.
The military added that “hundreds of terrorists” were also killed.
Qatar, the United States and Egypt brokered the truce which began on January 19 and enabled a surge in aid, alongside exchanges of hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
With Israel and Hamas disagreeing over the ceasefire’s next phase, Israel cut all aid to Gaza before resuming bombardment, followed by a ground offensive.

Since then, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, at least 2,111 Palestinians have been killed, taking the overall war death toll in Gaza to 51,495 people, mostly civilians.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel says the military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.
On Friday, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said the hot meal kitchens it was supplying with food in Gaza “are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.”
On Saturday, AFP footage showed queues of people waiting for food in front of a community kitchen.
“There is no food in the free kitchen, there is no food in the markets... There is no flour or bread,” said north Gaza resident Wael Odeh.
A senior UN official, Jonathan Whittall, said Gazans were “slowly dying.”
“This is not only about humanitarian needs but also about dignity,” Whittall, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told journalists.

 


Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

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Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

  • Yair Yaakov was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, as Israel presses its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and “an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication” from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day.
The military statement said he had been abducted and killed by fighters from Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally.
Yaakov was abducted along with his partner Meirav Tal, as they sheltered in their safe room in Nir Oz.
She was freed on November 28, 2023 during the first truce.
Abducted separately at the home of their mother, Yair’s two children Yagil and Or were also released on November 27 during the first truce.
Nir Oz was one of the communities hit hardest by the attack, with nearly a quarter of its residents killed or taken hostage.


Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

Argentine President Javier Milei attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem. (Reuters)
Updated 11 June 2025
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Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

  • “I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei told Israeli parliament Wednesday

JERUSALEM: Argentine President Javier Milei said Wednesday his country would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the status of which is one of the most delicate issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei said in a speech in the Israeli parliament during an official state visit.
Argentina’s embassy is currently located near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Several countries, including the United States, Paraguay, Guatemala and Kosovo, have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, breaking with international consensus.
Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel treats the city as its capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem to become the capital of a future state.
Most foreign embassies to Israel are located in the coastal hub city of Tel Aviv in order to avoid interfering with negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2017, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking Palestinian anger and the international community’s disapproval.
The United States transferred its embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018.


Syrian, Egyptian foreign ministers hold talks at Oslo Forum

Updated 11 June 2025
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Syrian, Egyptian foreign ministers hold talks at Oslo Forum

  • Lawmakers exchange views on challenges to regional security

LONDON: The foreign ministers of the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt held talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum 2025 in Norway.

Asaad al-Shaibani and Badr Abdelatty discussed ways to improve collaboration between their countries and exchanged views on the challenges to security and stability in the region, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan also met Abdelatty on the sidelines of the forum to discuss bilateral relations and the escalating situation in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

The Oslo Forum is an annual event organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Switzerland. It provides a platform for global leaders, decision-makers and conflict mediators to share their experiences and discuss pathways to peace.


Smotrich’s move to cut bank ties risks Palestinian supply crisis

Updated 11 June 2025
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Smotrich’s move to cut bank ties risks Palestinian supply crisis

  • The waiver had allowed Israeli banks to process shekel payments for services and salaries tied to the Palestinian Authority, without the risk of being charged with money laundering and funding extremism

JERUSALEM: An Israeli move to cut off cooperation with Palestinian banks could halt the supply of essential goods such as food and fuel to the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Monetary Authority said on Wednesday.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the cancelation of a waiver on cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks on Tuesday.
This move risks the Palestinian banking system, trade, and overall economy. Israeli banks Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank work with Palestinian banks.
Some 53 billion shekels ($15.2 billion) were exchanged at Palestinian banks in 2023, official data show.

BACKGROUND

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the cancelation of a waiver on cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks on Tuesday.

Canceling the waiver would require approval by Israel’s security Cabinet. No date for a vote has been set, and it was not clear whether it would pass.
The PMA said it was following developments and warned that such disruption posed a serious threat to Palestinian access to basic goods and services.
It noted it has ongoing coordination with the political leadership and international community to safeguard correspondent banking relationships.
“These efforts are vital to ensuring the continuity of commercial transactions and the payment of essential imports and services, including food, electricity, water, and fuel,” the PMA said.
Smotrich said his decision came against the “delegitimization campaign” by the Palestinian Authority against Israel globally.
The waiver had allowed Israeli banks to process shekel payments for services and salaries tied to the Palestinian Authority, without the risk of being charged with money laundering and funding extremism.
Without it, Palestinian banks would be cut off from the Israeli financial system.
The PMA said depositors’ funds within the Palestinian banking sector are secure and that the banking system remains integrated with the global financial network through a broad range of correspondent banks and continues to provide services to individuals and businesses domestically and internationally.

Smotrich, under US pressure, had in late 2024 signed a waiver to extend cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks through November 2025.
In the past, Smotrich sought to end the waiver but ultimately signed it due to pressure from the US and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His latest decision came hours after the UK and four other nations imposed sanctions on him and another far-right minister, accusing them of inciting violence in the West Bank.
The sanctions included a freeze on assets and travel bans.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the action by the five countries was “outrageous.”

 


Egypt backs ‘pressure on Israel’ but says Gaza actions need approval

Updated 11 June 2025
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Egypt backs ‘pressure on Israel’ but says Gaza actions need approval

  • Foreign ministry says foreign delegations seeking to visit border area with Gaza must receive prior official approval

CAIRO: Egypt said on Wednesday that it backs efforts to put “pressure on Israel” to lift its blockade on Gaza, but added that any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must receive prior approval through official channels.
Egypt “asserts the importance of putting pressure on Israel to end the blockade on the (Gaza) Strip,” the foreign ministry said as hundreds of activists in a Gaza-bound convoy head to the Egyptian border on their way to the besieged Palestinian territory, but added “we will not consider any requests or respond to any invitations submitted outside the framework defined by the regulatory guidelines and the mechanisms followed in this regard.”