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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel will not withdraw from its current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed and pushed back on a recent deal announced by US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu's remarks cast more doubt on the deal to disarm Hamas, which was seen as a potential breakthrough for ending the war. It also marked a rare public display of friction with the Trump administration. The agreement called for Hamas to begin disarming and for Israel to halt its strikes and begin withdrawing from the roughly 60 per cent of Gaza it currently controls. It was based on an October ceasefire agreement that ended major military operations and brought about the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza but has stalled on other fronts. Netanyahu, who faces a tough battle for reelection in October, reiterated his stance that disarmament should come first. He said Israeli forces would continue to "do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our .
The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza's postwar transition met Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas. Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza, held "constructive and detailed" talks with the prime minister and his team, the Board of Peace said in a statement. "The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance," it said. According to two people familiar with the meeting, Mladenov also pressed Netanyahu to halt Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. Mladenov and his team, including senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, are pressuring Israel to stop striking Gaza as they push ahead with the agreement to decommission the weapons held by Hamas. President Donald Trump announced the agreement, which is part of a broader ceasefire deal reached last year, late
President Donald Trump said that a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles, conditions and long timelines remained to wind down the war in the Palestinian territory. Neither Hamas nor Israel gave immediate indication that they had agreed. The White House announcement on Thursday comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. "The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases," Trump said on social media. "As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbours." Trump's 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the Iran-backed militant group to surrender its weapo
Israel's defence minister said Monday that Israel won't withdraw from land seized in Lebanon as the interim deal between Iran and the United States is pending. Israel Katz's remarks were the first official Israeli comments after the announcement of the interim deal. The two sides plan to meet Friday in Geneva to sign it, Pakistan has said. Katz said Israel plans to stay "indefinitely" in lands it holds in Lebanon, as well as Syria and the Gaza Strip. Iran has tied the interim deal over the war to halting Israel's attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Katz also threatened that if Iran attacks Israel over Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Israel will strike Iran with "great force." Over the past two and a half years, Israel has taken control of areas in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria amounting to 1,000 square kilometres of territory - an area that is slightly smaller than New York City.
In their bare-bones tent in southern Gaza, Mostafa Shaaban built his family's makeshift toilet behind a curtain in a corner. He dug a shallow pit in the sandy soil, poured a concrete slab around it, fixed a bottomless bucket over the hole, then topped it off with a battered, plastic toilet seat. It reeks with a foul odour and buzzes with flies and mosquitoes only a few feet from where they sleep and prepare meals. Every week, Shaaban has to dig the sewage sludge out of the pit. But at least it's more private than the fetid communal latrines used by hundreds of other people in their sprawling tent camp. "I did not want the kids and my wife to use any public toilet. It is humiliating," said the 38-year-old Shaaban, who was driven from his home city of Rafah by Israeli forces two years ago and eventually settled in a tent camp in Khan Younis. "The situation is revolting," he said of having the toilet inside the tent, "but at least it has more dignity." There is not a single proper toi
Friday marks six months since Gaza's ceasefire deal took effect, a milestone largely lost in the confusion over the new and even more fragile ceasefire in the Iran war. The ravaged Palestinian territory of 2 million people has seen the most intense fighting stop between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants. But most of the ceasefire work remains to be done, from disarming Hamas and ending its two-decade rule to deploying an international stabilisation force and beginning vast reconstruction. Gaza residents are in limbo, with limited aid entering through a single, Israeli-controlled border post. Such challenges could represent what's to come in the latest war, as US President Donald Trump's approach to peacemaking appears to be stopping bombardment and leaving the bigger picture for others to work out. Whether Trump can force through that kind of deal on Iran, with more actors in play and global markets quivering at every statement, is yet to be seen. The Board of Peace goes ...
At least 12 Palestinians, including two boys, a pregnant woman and eight police officers, were killed Sunday by Israeli airstrikes in the war-torn Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said. A strike Sunday morning hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza and killed four people, including a couple in their 30s and their 10-year son, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The woman had been pregnant with twins, the hospital said. The fourth fatality, a 15-year-old neighbor, was taken to the Awda hospital in Nuseirat. "We were sleeping and got up to the strike of a missile. The strike was strong," said Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb, a neighbor. "There was no prior warning." Another strike Sunday afternoon hit a police vehicle on the south-north Salah al-Din route at the entrance of the central town of Zawaida, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. The strike killed eight police officers, including Col. Iyad Ab Yousef, a senior police official in central Gaza, th
The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the government has "abandoned" the Palestinians and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to Israel despite that country's attacks on civilians in Gaza continuing "mercilessly". Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Modi government makes cynical and hypocritical statements on its commitment to the cause of the Palestinians but in reality it has abandoned them. Israel's dispossession and displacement of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has intensified and drawn worldwide condemnation, Ramesh said on X. Israel's attacks on civilians in Gaza continue mercilessly, he said. Ramesh also pointed out that Israel and the US are planning air assaults on Iran. "Yet the Prime Minister is going to Israel tomorrow (where there is a Modani connection as well) to embrace his good friend Mr. Netanyahu, who faces very serious corruption charges," the Congress leader said. "The Opposition in Israel is
The European Union's top diplomats are set to meet Monday with the director of the Board of Peace in Brussels after a shaky and controversial embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, will meet the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia. Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at the Rafah border crossing, and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority. The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split national capitals from Nicosia to Copenhagen. The EU is supportive of the United Nations' mandate in Gaza. EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are fu
President Donald Trump announced Thursday at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting that nine members of the body have agreed to pledge USD 7 billion toward a Gaza relief package. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait are the countries that are making pledges, Trump added. "But every dollar spent is an investment in stability and the hope of new and harmonious (region)," said Trump, thanking the donors. The amount, while significant, represents a fraction of the estimated USD 70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war. Trump also announced the US was pledging USD 10 billion for the Board of Peace, but didn't specify what the money will be used for. "The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built, starting right here in this room," Trump said.
India has joined over 100 countries and global organisations in condemning Israel's "unilateral" decisions and measures aimed at expanding its "unlawful presence" in the West Bank. A statement was issued by the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN on Wednesday on behalf of the 100 countries and organisations "condemning Israel's unilateral measures and rejecting annexation." According to the statement, the signatories "strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel's unlawful presence in the West Bank." "Such decisions are contrary to Israel's obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed. We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation," it said. Earlier, 85 nations had condemned Israel's unilateral measures and policies in the occupied West Bank through the statement issued on February 17. India was not among these initial nations that had jointly issued the statement. Later, Ne
Members of the United Nations Security Council called Wednesday for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and blasted Israeli efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution, coming on the eve of President Donald Trump's first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories. The high-level UN session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board's meeting for the same day and it became clear that it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations' most powerful body and Trump's new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the UN Security Council. Pakistan, the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join the Board o