Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq

Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq
In this Sept., 2018 selfie image provided by Emma Tsurkov, right, she and Elizabeth Tsurkov are shown in Santa Clara Valley, California. (AP/File)
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Updated 09 January 2025
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Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq

Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq
  • The official said Thursday that the matter was raised in a meeting of special envoys for hostage affairs in Jerusalem this week
  • Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations

JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli official says the government is working with allies in a renewed push to win the freedom of an Israeli-Russian researcher who is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago.
The official said Thursday that the matter was raised in a meeting of special envoys for hostage affairs in Jerusalem this week.
He said the envoys met the family of Elizabeth Tsurkov and that Israel asked the representatives – from the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Canada – to have their embassies in Baghdad lobby the Iraqi government and search for a way to start negotiations. Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations. He said he hopes other countries will help.
“We are counting on our allies,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing closed-door discussions. “And I hope that other nations will suggest assistance in helping us release Elizabeth. Many nations have embassies and contacts with the Iraqi government.”
Tsurkov, a 38-year-old student at Princeton University, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate. She had entered the country on her Russian passport. The only sign she was alive has been a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But Israel believes she is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that it says also has ties to the Iraqi government.
The Israeli official said that after months of covert efforts, Israel believes the “changes in the region” have created an opportunity to work publicly for her release.
During 15 months of war, Israel has struck Iran and its allies, and Iran’s regional influence has diminished. Iraq also appears to have pressured militia groups into halting their aerial attacks against Israel.


Palestinian PM meets Arab League’s chief in Cairo

Palestinian PM meets Arab League’s chief in Cairo
Updated 3 sec ago
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Palestinian PM meets Arab League’s chief in Cairo

Palestinian PM meets Arab League’s chief in Cairo
  • Mohammad Mustafa says priority is to back Palestinians’ right to remain in Gaza

LONDON: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said during his visit to Egypt on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority was coordinating with Arab countries to address the urgent reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Mustafa met Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, at the organization’s headquarters in Cairo. The parties discussed ongoing humanitarian efforts to assist residents of the Gaza Strip.

Mustafa said that Palestinians in Gaza were experiencing “a difficult period” following US President Donald Trump’s remarks about relocating them to other countries, including Jordan and Egypt, both of which had rejected the idea.

He commended the Arab League’s support and said that the PA had already set in motion actions for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. Israel has bombed the region into rubble since late 2023, killing about 47,000 Palestinians.

Mustafa added that Gaza was part of Palestinian territory and emphasized that PA’s priority was to support Palestinians in the area to remain in the enclave.

He said: “We want to assure our people in the Gaza Strip that we will not leave them in this situation, and the coming days will be better.”

The meeting was attended by Maj. Gen. Ziad Hab Al-Rih, Palestine’s minister of interior; Palestine’s Ambassador to the Arab League Muhannad Al-Aklouk; The Arab League’s Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine Ambassador Saeed Abu Ali; and Ambassador Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League.


Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit

Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit
Updated 22 min 34 sec ago
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Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit

Jordanian king arrives in UK ahead of US visit
  • King Abdullah II met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London
  • He will meet with US President Donald Trump next week in Washington, D.C.

LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrived in the UK on Thursday afternoon ahead of a visit to the US next week.

He met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London. They discussed historical relations between the two kingdoms, Petra news agency reported.

The Jordanian king will meet US President Donald Trump next week in Washington, D.C. Their talks are expected to focus on events in the Gaza Strip. The king is also scheduled to visit Boston and will be accompanied by Crown Prince Hussein during his trip, Petra added.


Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians

Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians
Updated 06 February 2025
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Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians

Egypt says it will not be part of any proposal that displaces Palestinians
  • Egypt denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza
  • The ministry said: “Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act“

CAIRO: Egypt rejects and will not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, following President Donald Trump’s plan for the US to take over the enclave and his call to Egypt to take in resettled Palestinians.
Egypt, which borders the tiny enclave, denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza under US control.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents from the strip, Israeli media reported.


Apparently referring to Katz’s order, the ministry said: “Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act which weakens the ceasefire negotiations, and would squash them and incite a return of fighting.”
In January Egypt, alongside Qatar and the US, brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ending a 15-month-long war that upended the Middle East. Talks about the second phase of the deal were supposed to get under way this week.


Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees

Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
Updated 06 February 2025
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Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees

Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
  • The court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private.
  • The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held

JERUSALEM: An Israeli soldier who was found to have struck Palestinian detainees while they were restrained and blindfolded has been sentenced to seven months in jail by an Israeli military court.
The Israeli military on Thursday announced the court had accepted a plea agreement with the soldier, a reservist who it said admitted to having “severely abused” Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military detention center near the border with the Gaza Strip.
“The defendant was convicted of several incidents in which he struck detainees with his fists and his weapon while they were bound and blindfolded,” the military said. It did not name the soldier or detail the charges he was convicted of.
The military statement did not identify where the Palestinian detainees were from, why they had been detained or whether they had since been charged or convicted of crimes or released from detention.
In addition to seven months imprisonment, the court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private. The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held. Israeli media reported the soldier’s jail sentence included time that he had already spent in detention.
The military court found that other masked soldiers had participated in the abuse but that their identities had not been determined, the military said, without saying how many.
The convicted soldier had beaten the detainees in front of other soldiers, some of whom had told him to stop, the military said, adding that a recording of the abuse had been found on the mobile phone of the convicted soldier.
The military has been investigating allegations that soldiers had abused Palestinians from Gaza held in military detention since the start of the war in October 2023. The military on Thursday did not say whether investigations were still ongoing or if any other soldiers had been charged.
In July last year, right-wing Israeli protesters broke into Sde Teiman detention facility and another Israeli military compound after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse.
Sde Teiman was opened after the war started and held captured Palestinians from Gaza. Israel last year said it would close the facility.


UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port

UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port
Updated 06 February 2025
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UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port

UAE Sheikha Fatima’s aid ship for Palestinians in Gaza arrives at Al-Arish Port
  • Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak is a prominent advocate for women’s education and children’s well-being
  • Ship carries 5,800 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, shelter, medical essentials

LONDON: A ship from the UAE carrying almost 6,000 tons of aid relief to Palestinians arrived on Thursday at Al-Arish Port in Egypt, destined for the Gaza Strip.

The aid shipment is a gift from Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the wife of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the late founder and first president of the UAE.

Known as the Mother of the Nation, she is a prominent advocate for women’s education and children’s well-being.

The ship carries 5,800 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, shelter materials, and medical essentials. It sailed from Al-Hamriyah Port in Dubai on Jan. 20 as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, aimed at addressing the urgent needs of Palestinians in Gaza.

The aid vessel’s timely arrival before the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, ensures emergency relief for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, the Emirates News Agency reported.

Maitha bint Salem Al-Shamsi, the Emirati minister of state; Rashid Mubarak Al-Mansouri, secretary-general of the Emirates Red Crescent; and Maj. Gen. Khaled Megawer, governor of North Sinai, received the ship at Al-Arish Port.

The delegation visited the UAE Floating Hospital in Al-Arish, which provides medical care to Palestinians, and learned about the services available for the injured.

Emirati aid to Palestinians in Gaza was made possible through contributions from the Emirates Red Crescent, the Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan Foundation, the Khalifa bin Zayed Foundation, the Dar Al-Ber Society, and Sharjah Charity International.