Israeli team heads to Qatar for Gaza truce talks

Displaced Palestinian children push into a queue to get a portion of cooked food from a charity kitchen in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, ahead of iftar during Ramadan on March 9, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinian children push into a queue to get a portion of cooked food from a charity kitchen in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, ahead of iftar during Ramadan on March 9, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 10 March 2025
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Israeli team heads to Qatar for Gaza truce talks

Displaced Palestinian children push into a queue to get a portion of cooked food from a charity kitchen in Beit Lahia in Gaza.
  • Ahead of the negotiations, Israel disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza
  • Hamas denounced the move as “cheap and unacceptable blackmail”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s negotiating team left for Qatar Monday for talks aimed at extending the fragile Gaza ceasefire, after Israel cut the Palestinian territory’s electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.
Ahead of the negotiations, Israel disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza, a move Hamas denounced as “cheap and unacceptable blackmail.”
The first phase of the truce deal expired on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages that should secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
There are differences over how to proceed — Hamas wants immediate negotiations on the next phase, but Israel prefers extending phase one.
Hamas accused Israel of reneging on the ceasefire deal, saying in a statement Monday Israel “refuses to commence the second phase, exposing its intentions of evasion and stalling.”
An Israeli official familiar with the negotiations told AFP the country’s team had left for Doha. Media reports said the delegation was led by a top official from the domestic security agency Shin Bet.
Israel has halted aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock, and said Sunday it was cutting the electricity supply.
“We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after” the war, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said.
The move echoed the early days of the war when Israel announced a “complete siege” on the Palestinian territory, severing the electricity supply which was only restored in mid-2024.
Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanoua said Israel’s move will impact its hostages still held in Gaza.
“The decision to cut electricity is a failed option and poses a threat to its (Israeli) prisoners, who will only be freed through negotiations,” Qanoua said in a statement on Monday.
Germany and Britain both criticized Israel over its latest decisions.
Germany foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said Gaza was “again threatened with a food shortage” and that cutting off electricity was “unacceptable and not compatible with (Israel’s) obligations under international law.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman told reporters: “We’re deeply concerned by these reports and urge Israel to lift these restrictions.”
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority also slammed Israel, calling the move an “escalation in the genocide” in Gaza.
The sole power line between Israel and Gaza supplies its main desalination plant, and Gazans now mainly rely on solar panels and fuel-powered generators to produce electricity.
Hundreds of thousands now live in tents across Gaza, where temperatures currently reach a night-time low of about 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit).
Top Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq called Israel’s decision “to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water” a “desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance.”
Gaza residents told AFP the electricity cut will only worsen their situation.
“The decision to cut off electricity is proof of a war of extermination,” Dina Al-Sayigh said from Gaza City.
“The occupation never stops killing Palestinian civilians, whether by bombing, missiles or by starvation.”
Hamas has repeatedly demanded that the second phase of the truce — brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States — include a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the reopening of border crossings to end the blockade.
Spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP Hamas wanted the mediators to ensure Israel “complies with the agreement... and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms.”
Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase involving hostage releases and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.
US envoy Adam Boehler, who has held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, told CNN Sunday a deal could be reached “within weeks” to secure the release of all remaining hostages, not just the five dual US-Israelis, most of whom have been confirmed dead.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the October 7 attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed dead.
Boehler told CNN a “long-term truce” was “real close,” but later Sunday he told Israel’s Channel 12 that Washington would back any Israeli decision, including a return to war.
In late February, US President Donald Trump issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas, threatening further destruction if it does not release all remaining hostages.
The initial 42-day phase of the truce, which began on January 19, reduced hostilities after more than 15 months of relentless fighting that displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
During phase one, 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies were exchanged for about 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.
The truce also allowed in much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,467 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.


Israel army says killed another Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike

Updated 3 sec ago
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Israel army says killed another Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike

Israel army says killed another Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike
“A Hezbollah terrorist was struck and eliminated by the IDF (military),” the military said

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it killed a member of Hezbollah in a strike in south Lebanon on Friday evening, after announcing the killing of another operative from the Lebanese armed group earlier in the day.
“Earlier this evening, a Hezbollah terrorist was struck and eliminated by the IDF (military) in the area of Ayta Al-Shab in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement. It earlier said it had killed another militant in the area of Sidon.

Israeli strikes hit dozens of targets in Gaza as ceasefire efforts stall

Israeli strikes hit dozens of targets in Gaza as ceasefire efforts stall
Updated 18 April 2025
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Israeli strikes hit dozens of targets in Gaza as ceasefire efforts stall

Israeli strikes hit dozens of targets in Gaza as ceasefire efforts stall
  • Defense Minister Israel Katz repeated that Israel intended to achieve its war aims
  • “The IDF is currently working toward a decisive victory in all arenas,” he said

JERUSALEM: Israeli airstrikes hit about 40 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military said on Friday, hours after Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire offer that it said fell short of its demand to agree a full end to the war.
Last month the Israeli military broke off a two-month truce that had largely halted fighting in Gaza and has since pushed in from the north and south, seizing almost a third of the enclave as it seeks to pressure Hamas into agreeing to release hostages and disarm.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would make a special statement on Saturday evening but gave no detail on what it would be about.
Palestinian health authorities said that at least 43 people were killed in strikes on Friday, adding to more than 1,600 deaths since Israel resumed airstrikes in March.
The military said troops were operating in the Shabura and Tel Al-Sultan areas near the southern city of Rafah, as well as in northern Gaza, where it has taken control of large areas east of Gaza City.
Egyptian mediators have been trying to revive the January ceasefire deal that broke down when Israel resumed airstrikes and sent ground troops back into Gaza, but there has been little sign the two sides have moved closer on fundamental issues.
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
But he dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza.
On Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz repeated that Israel intended to achieve its war aims.
“The IDF is currently working toward a decisive victory in all arenas, the release of the hostages, and the defeat of Hamas in Gaza,” he said in a statement.
The ceasefire offer it made through Egyptian mediators includes talks on a final settlement to the war but no firm agreement.
Katz also said this week that troops would remain in the buffer zone around the border that now extends deep into Gaza and cuts the enclave in two, even after any settlement.


‘War has taken everything’: AFP reporter returns home to Khartoum

‘War has taken everything’: AFP reporter returns home to Khartoum
Updated 18 April 2025
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‘War has taken everything’: AFP reporter returns home to Khartoum

‘War has taken everything’: AFP reporter returns home to Khartoum
  • Bombs tore through homes, fighters took over the streets and hundreds of thousands scrambled to escape
  • Since the war broke out, the paramilitaries have been notorious for taking over and looting homes, selling the contents or taking it for themselves

KHARTOUM: It had been nearly two years since AFP journalist Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali set foot in his home in war-torn Khartoum, after the sound of children playing in the street gave way to the fearsome fire of machine guns.
Sudan’s once-peaceful capital awoke to the sound of bombs and gunfire on April 15, 2023 as war broke out between its two most powerful generals — army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Bombs tore through homes, fighters took over the streets and hundreds of thousands scrambled to escape — among them Abdelmoneim, his wife, his son and three daughters.
Since then they have been displaced five times — fleeing each time the front line closed in.
Eventually the 59-year-old journalist sent his family to safety in another African country while he settled down to work alone from Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Then last month he was able to briefly return to his home in Khartoum North during a reporting trip escorted by the army after it recaptured the city.
He found his beloved neighborhood, known as Bahri, abandoned.
“The whole place is cloaked in silence, no grocery store chit-chats, no boisterous games of football on the corner, nothing,” he said.
“The last time I was here, the neighbors were all in the street saying goodbye, praying for each other’s safety, promising we would meet again soon.”
Now their doors hung ajar, beds dragged out onto the street, apparently by RSF fighters who used them to sleep in the open air.
Since the war broke out, the paramilitaries have been notorious for taking over and looting homes, selling the contents or taking it for themselves.
When he got to his landing, Abdelmoneim braced himself for what he would find inside.
“It was like an earthquake had hit. The furniture was upside-down and thrown around, pieces shattered on the ground,” he said.
He clambered slowly from room to room, taking in the damage.
The couch was pocked with burn marks where the fighters had put out cigarette after cigarette.
His daughters’ closets were ripped open and emptied of every last dress.
And on the floor of his office, lying among the tattered remains of his library, was a photo of his wedding to his wife Nahla, with her image torn out.
“I don’t get what they have against my books and my wedding photos,” he said.
“I knew they had stolen furniture. I couldn’t imagine they would destroy everything else.”
In March, the army recaptured Khartoum, to the joy of millions of displaced Sudanese anxious to return to their homes.
“But my girls say they never want to come back,” Abdelmoneim said.
“How can they ever forget sleeping huddled together in the living room, terrified by the sound of every air strike?“
Abdelmoneim shudders at the thought of the horrors they have seen since.
“When we were leaving Khartoum, there were bodies lying in the street and an old man standing over them, trying to keep a plastic sheet in place.
“When I stopped to ask him if he was okay, he said, ‘I’m trying to keep the dogs away.’ I wish my kids had never heard that.”
For seven months, Abdelmoneim tried to wait out the fighting in Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, hoping against hope they could go home.
“The moment I realized this wouldn’t end for years was when the war came to Wad Madani,” he said.
Again they took everything they could carry, and again they joined a wave of hundreds of thousands of people running away, this time on foot, heading east.
The veteran journalist and his wife made the painful choice to separate the family — she and the children would go to another country; and he would go to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, home to the United Nations, the army-aligned government and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Abdelmoneim, like countless Sudanese caught in the war’s crossfire, has lost family members, his life savings and any hope for the future.
“This war has taken everything from us,” he said.
“And everything they haven’t taken, they’ve destroyed.”
For years he had been building up a tiny homestead on the outskirts of Khartoum, lined with fruit trees and a few simple crops he could tend when he retired. The RSF destroyed it in their rampage.
His family’s home and land, in the agricultural state of Al-Jazira, were looted and cut off from power and water — his relatives left starving and powerless to defend themselves against the RSF’s predations.
Now both Al-Jazira and Khartoum are under army control but the war, and the suffering it has wrought, is far from over.
Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 12 million uprooted, including almost four million who fled to other countries.
Hundreds of thousands are returning to areas recaptured by the army, choosing destitution at home over displacement, but most of these areas still lack clean water, electricity and health care.
Famine still stalks Sudan, with around 638,000 people already in famine and eight million on the brink of mass starvation.
The country remains divided, and the RSF — in control of nearly all of the western region of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south — has not given up the fight.
In recent weeks, the paramilitaries have killed hundreds of people in famine-stricken displacement camps, while RSF chief Dagalo has announced a rival administration to rule over the ashes.
For many like Abdelmoneim, even their modest dreams now seem impossible.
“If this war ends tomorrow, all I want is to be somewhere quiet and safe with my family, farming in peace.”


Iraqi and Syrian leaders meet in Qatar, marking significant first encounter

Iraqi and Syrian leaders meet in Qatar, marking significant first encounter
Updated 18 April 2025
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Iraqi and Syrian leaders meet in Qatar, marking significant first encounter

Iraqi and Syrian leaders meet in Qatar, marking significant first encounter
  • Meeting brokered by Qatar, with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani present

CAIRO: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani met on Thursday in Qatar with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the first encounter between the two leaders, Iraqi and Syrian state news agencies reported.
The meeting was brokered by Qatar, with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani present. It came ahead of Sharaa’s expected attendance at the Arab Summit in Baghdad on May 17.
In January, Sharaa was named as interim president and pledged to form an inclusive transitional government that would build up the Syrian Arab Republic’s gutted public institutions and run the country until elections, which he said could take up to five years to hold.
Syria issued a constitutional declaration, designed to serve as the foundation for the interim period led by Sharaa. The declaration kept a central role for Islamic law and guaranteed women’s rights and freedom of expression.
During Thursday’s meeting, Al-Sudani called for the beginning of a comprehensive political process and the protection of social, religious, and national diversity in Syria, especially after an attack on Alawites last month.
Hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria’s western coastal region in apparent retribution for a deadly ambush on Syria’s new security forces by armed loyalists to toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad, an Alawite.
The Iraqi prime minister also stressed the importance of the new Syrian government taking serious steps to combat Daesh militants.
He said progress made on these issues could help in building growing relations between Baghdad and Damascus.
Both leaders agreed to respect the sovereignty of the two countries and reject all kinds of foreign interference.


Yemen’s Houthi militants say 74 killed in US airstrikes targeting oil port

Yemen’s Houthi militants say 74 killed in US airstrikes targeting oil port
Updated 18 April 2025
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Yemen’s Houthi militants say 74 killed in US airstrikes targeting oil port

Yemen’s Houthi militants say 74 killed in US airstrikes targeting oil port
  • The attack is the deadliest known attack in the American airstrike campaign that began Mar. 15
  • Houthis strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes

DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi militants said Friday that the toll from US airstrikes targeting oil port jumped to 74 people killed and 171 others wounded.
The toll from the militants’ Health Ministry in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, reflected the destruction from the overnight strikes that left fuel trucks burning and sent fireballs into the night sky.
The attack is the deadliest known attack in the American airstrike campaign that began Mar. 15 under President Donald Trump.
The US military’s Central Command declined to comment when asked about civilian casualties from the strikes.
Assessing the campaign’s toll has been incredibly difficult as the Central Command so far has not released any information on the campaign, its specific targets and how many people have been killed. Meanwhile, the Houthis strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.
But the strike on the Ras Isa oil port, which sent massive fireballs shooting into the night sky, represented a major escalation for the American campaign.
The Houthis immediately released graphic footage of those killed in the attack.
In a statement, Central Command said that “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years.”
“This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully,” it added. It did not acknowledge any casualties and declined to comment when asked by The Associated Press regarding civilians reportedly being killed.
The Iranian-backed Houthis later Friday launched a missile toward Israel that was intercepted, the Israeli military said. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and other areas.
The war in Yemen, meanwhile, further internationalized as the US alleged a Chinese satellite company was “directly supporting” Houthi attacks, something Beijing declined to directly comment on Friday.
US strikes spark massive fireball
The Ras Isa port, a collection of three oil tanks and refining equipment, sits in Yemen’s Hodeida governorate along the Red Sea. NASA satellites that track forest fires showed an intense blaze early Friday at the site just off Kamaran Island, targeted by intense US airstrikes over the past few days.
The Houthis’ Al-Masirah satellite news channel aired graphic footage of the aftermath, showing corpses strewn across the site. It said paramedic and civilians workers at the port had been killed in the attack, which sparked a massive explosion and fires.
The Ras Isa port also is the terminus of an oil pipeline stretching to Yemen’s energy-rich Marib governorate, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled government. The Houthis expelled that government from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, back in 2015. However, oil exports have been halted by the decadelong war and the Houthis have used Ras Isa to bring in oil.
The Houthis denounced the US attack.
“This completely unjustified aggression represents a flagrant violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and independence and a direct targeting of the entire Yemeni people,” the Houthis said in a statement carried by the SABA news agency they control. “It targets a vital civilian facility that has served the Yemeni people for decades.”
On April 9, the US State Department issued a warning about oil shipments to Yemen.
“The United States will not tolerate any country or commercial entity providing support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Houthis, including offloading ships and provisioning oil at Houthi-controlled ports,” it said.
The attack follows Israeli airstrikes on the Houthis which previously hit port and oil infrastructure used by the militants after their attacks on Israel.