From 2h ago 06.37 EST Hamas says it will continue implementing Gaza deal, including hostage exchange Hamas said on Thursday it would release the next group of Israeli hostages as planned, paving the way toward resolving a major dispute that threatened the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
According to various newswires, the militant group said Egyptian and Qatari mediators have affirmed that they will work to “remove all hurdles,” and that it would implement the truce deal.
The statement indicated three more Israeli hostages would be freed on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Israel on Hamas’s announcement, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Hamas’s move should allow the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to continue for now, but its future remains in doubt.
Hamas had threatened to delay the next release of Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of failing to meet its obligations to allow in tents and shelters, among other alleged violations of the truce. Israel, with the support of US president Donald Trump, had threatened to renew its offensive if hostages were not freed.
According to the AP, Hamas said its delegation held talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials and was in contact with Qatar’s prime minister about increasing the entry of shelters, medical supplies, fuel and heavy equipment for clearing rubble into Gaza.
Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV, which is close to the country’s security services, reported that Egypt and Qatar had succeeded in resolving the dispute. The two Arab countries have served as key mediators with Hamas and helped broker the ceasefire, which took effect in January, 15 months into the war.
Egyptian media also aired footage showing trucks carrying temporary housing and bulldozers on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza. They reported that the trucks were heading to an Israeli inspection area before crossing into Gaza. Share Updated at 06.39 EST
1m ago 08.12 EST We reported earlier that, according to state-linked Egyptian media, dozens of pieces of heavy machinery, including bulldozers and construction equipment, were lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing ahead of their entry into Gaza. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer has also confirmed seeing the vehicles, including trucks carrying caravans, waiting at the border. However, an Israeli government spokesperson said heavy machinery would not be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt. “There is no entry of caravans (mobile homes) or heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip, and there is no coordination for this,” Omer Dostri, a spokesperson for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote on X. “According to the agreement, no goods are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing,” he added, reports AFP. Under an ongoing truce agreement, Rafah has been opened for evacuation of the injured and sick. Other aid is also allowed to enter the territory via the Kerem Shalom crossing. “We stand behind them (Palestinians) and hopefully better days are ahead,” Ahmed Abdel Dayem, a driver at the border, told an AFP reporter. Egypt will host a summit of Arab nations later this month and announced this week that it would present a “comprehensive vision” for Gaza’s reconstruction in a way that ensures Palestinians remain on their land. Share
31m ago 07.43 EST Ohad Ben Ami, an Israeli hostage released by Hamas at the weekend, has left hospital, and was greeted by schoolchildren as he arrived near a home his family have rented in Tel Aviv. Hebrew media outlet Ynet quotes the 55-year-old saying to the children “Keep fighting, until everyone returns home, well done to you.” His wife, who was also kidnapped during the 7 October attack and released during the brief 2023 ceasefire, said “We are happy.” Ynet also quotes the couple’s daughter, Ella, who said “We see the people of Israel, and that’s what’s important. It’s a little hard not to return to the kibbutz yet, but we will continue the struggle until all the abductees return.” Or Levy, 34, and Eli Sharabi, 55, who were also released at the weekend, remain in hospital. Earlier on Thursday, also in Tel Aviv, protesters calling for the return of hostages blocked a road. View image in fullscreen Protesters hold cutout pictures of hostages as they block a road in Tel Aviv during a demonstration demanding the immediate return of hostages. Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters Share
41m ago 07.32 EST Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said two people had been taken to hospital after being beaten by Israeli forces at a checkpoint north of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Share
1h ago 07.18 EST Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Tehran’s enemies may be able to strike the country’s nuclear centres but they cannot deprive it of its ability to build new ones. “They threaten us that they will hit nuclear facilities. If you strike a hundred of those we will build a thousand other ones. You can hit the buildings and the places but you cannot hit those who build it,” Pezeshkian said, Reuters reports, citing state media. Earlier on Thursday the Washington Post reported that according to US intelligence sources that had briefed the paper, Israel has been preparing strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme. In a separate development Iran’s Tasnim news agency carried a document the Iranian foreign ministry has issued and described as a “fact sheet” about “the hostile actions of the administration of US president Donald Trump” in which it said “Tehran will respond to maximum pressure with maximum resistance.” It continued: While the US accuses the Islamic Republic of Iran of human rights violations, it has not only turned a blind eye to the genocide and war crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza but has fully supported these atrocities. Now, it is using the destruction caused by the criminal attacks of the Zionist regime as a pretext for the forced displacement of the Palestinians from the Strip and the seizure of their lands. The US cannot position itself to criticize or raise claims in the field of human rights. Share
1h ago 06.57 EST Israeli settlers push on with fresh West Bank land grab Peter Beaumont Israeli settlers are pushing ahead with a largely unnoticed de facto annexation of large areas of rural land in the occupied West Bank that has already seen the almost total displacement of Bedouin in large areas. While settler activity, including violence, has long been well-documented in the section of the West Bank designated by the 1993 Oslo accords as under Israeli security and administrative control – the so-called Area C of the occupied territory, including the south Hebron Hills – settlers have switched their focus to mostly rural Area B, which was designated to be under Palestinian civil control initially. All three of the Oslo areas – Area A being the major Palestinian cities – were intended under the accords to be transferred to a future Palestinian state. At a time when the US president, Donald Trump, has talked about the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, effectively endorsing its ethnic cleansing, a process of displacement is already advancing in Area B as West Bank Palestinians come under pressure from settlers and their far-right political backers in Israel. In one section of Area B in the arid desert hills between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea near the Israeli settlement of Tko’a all evidence of Bedouin who once lived there appears to have been erased, while in a second area those that remain are being harassed by settler violence. You can read the full report by Peter Beaumont and Quique Kierszenbaum in Tko’a here: ‘Last nail in the coffin’: Israeli settlers push on with fresh West Bank land grab Read more Share
2h ago 06.37 EST Hamas says it will continue implementing Gaza deal, including hostage exchange Hamas said on Thursday it would release the next group of Israeli hostages as planned, paving the way toward resolving a major dispute that threatened the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
According to various newswires, the militant group said Egyptian and Qatari mediators have affirmed that they will work to “remove all hurdles,” and that it would implement the truce deal.
The statement indicated three more Israeli hostages would be freed on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Israel on Hamas’s announcement, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Hamas’s move should allow the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to continue for now, but its future remains in doubt.
Hamas had threatened to delay the next release of Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of failing to meet its obligations to allow in tents and shelters, among other alleged violations of the truce. Israel, with the support of US president Donald Trump, had threatened to renew its offensive if hostages were not freed.
According to the AP, Hamas said its delegation held talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials and was in contact with Qatar’s prime minister about increasing the entry of shelters, medical supplies, fuel and heavy equipment for clearing rubble into Gaza.
Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV, which is close to the country’s security services, reported that Egypt and Qatar had succeeded in resolving the dispute. The two Arab countries have served as key mediators with Hamas and helped broker the ceasefire, which took effect in January, 15 months into the war.
Egyptian media also aired footage showing trucks carrying temporary housing and bulldozers on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza. They reported that the trucks were heading to an Israeli inspection area before crossing into Gaza. Share Updated at 06.39 EST
2h ago 06.34 EST More than 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump’s Gaza plan Maya Yang More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!” The ad follows Trump’s proposal to “take over Gaza” and leave 2 million Palestinians who have survived Israel’s deadly onslaught against the narrow strip with “no alternative” but to leave their homes. Trump has called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians – a proposal that has been met with widespread criticism from Arab countries and other allies while being condemned as an ethnic-cleansing plan. Cody Edgerly, director of the In Our Name Campaign and one of the organisers of the ad, said it came at “a critical time as political redlines that were once thought immovable are rapidly shifting as the Trump-Netanyahu alliance takes hold again”. He said it had been “heartening to witness such a rapid outpouring of support from across the denominational and political spectrum”, adding: Our message to Palestinians is that you are not alone, our attention has not wavered, and we are committed to fighting with every breath we have to stop ethnic cleansing in Gaza.” ‘No to ethnic cleansing’: over 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump’s Gaza plan Read more Share
2h ago 06.17 EST Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that US sanctions were depriving his people of basic necessities, vowing his government would find a way to overcome the country’s challenges, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Why are you blocking the people’s access to food, water, and medicine?” Pezeshkian said of the sanctions during a visit to the southern Bushehr province. “They cannot block our path, we will find a way,” he added in remarks broadcast on state TV. US president Donald Trump, who returned to the White House on 20 January, has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran over concerns the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has consistently denied it is seeking an atomic bomb. His administration announced new sanctions earlier this month targeting a network accused of shipping Iranian oil to China after Trump ordered the government to adopt a campaign “to drive Iran’s export of oil to zero” and to “modify or rescind sanctions waivers”. Trump has also recently called for striking a deal with Iran, suggesting in a Monday interview that stopping it from developing nuclear weapons could be achieved either “with bombs” or with an agreement. “I’d love to make a deal with them without bombing them,” he told Fox News. But, according to AFP, Pezeshkian brushed off those remarks, saying “they do not want to talk to us, they want us to be humiliated … and we won’t be”. He added: “We are able to solve many of our own problems by relying on our own strengths.” On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, said there should be no new negotiations with the US. Trump had earlier called for a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran. “No problem will be solved by negotiating with America,” Khamenei said. On Wednesday, Khamenei called for developing Iran’s military capabilities to “defend the country against evildoers”. Share
2h ago 06.00 EST The UK said on Thursday it would adapt its Syria sanctions regions following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule late last year, but will ensure asset freezes and travel bans imposed on members of the former government remain in place, reports Reuters. “We are making these changes to support the Syrian people in re-building their country and promote security and stability,” said Stephen Doughty, minister for Europe, North America and overseas territories. “The government remains determined to hold Bashar al-Assad and his associates to account for their actions against the people of Syria.” Share
3h ago 05.35 EST The Associated Press (AP) reports that Hamas said, in its statement on Thursday, that Egyptian and Qatari mediators have affirmed that they will work to “remove all hurdles,” and that the group will implement the ceasefire deal.
The statement indicated three more Israeli hostages would be freed on Saturday, reports the AP. Share
3h ago 05.24 EST Hamas said on Thursday it will continue implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal, including a hostage exchange within the agreed timeframe, reports Reuters. We will share more details as they come in. Share Updated at 06.39 EST