Page 3 - Gaza Conflict

Fattah el-Sisi, Trump to chair Gaza peace summit in Egypt on Monday

The meeting will see the participation of leaders from more than 20 countries

Israel refuses to release top Palestinian leader Barghouti from prison

The most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is not among the prisoners Israel intends to free in exchange for hostages held by Hamas under the new Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel has also rejected freeing other high-profile prisoners whose release Hamas has long sought, though it was not immediately clear if a list of around 250 prisoners issued Friday on the Israeli government's official website was final. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told the Al Jazeera TV network that the group insists on the release of Barghouti and other high-profile figures and that it was in discussions with mediators. Israel views Barghouti as a terrorist leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2004 in connection with attacks in Israel that killed five people. But some experts say Israel fears Barghouti for another reason: An advocate of a two-state solution even as he backed armed resistance to occupation, Barghouti could be a powerf

Several Palestinians return to Gaza as US-brokered ceasefire takes effect

Tens of thousands of Palestinians headed back to the heavily destroyed northern Gaza Strip on Friday as a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect in a deal that raised hopes for ending the Israel-Hamas war. All the remaining hostages were set to be released within days. Questions remain over who will govern Gaza as Israeli troops gradually pull back and whether Hamas will disarm, as called for in US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who unilaterally ended a ceasefire in March, hinted that Israel might renew its offensive if Hamas does not give up its weapons. The latest truce nevertheless marks a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war that was triggered by Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced around 90 per cent of the Gaza population of some 2 million, often multiple times. Many of them will find fields of rubble where their homes once stood. The military confirmed the ..

Israeli forces start pulling back from parts of Gaza under ceasefire deal

Israeli forces withdrew from the Mediterranean coastal road into Gaza City, allowing hundreds to return to the main urban centre after a month of Israeli assault

Paves way for just peace: Saudi Arabia welcomes Gaza ceasefire deal

'The Kingdom appreciates the active role of US President Donald Trump and the mediation efforts by the State of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Republic of Turkiye to reach this agreement'

US to deploy 200 troops to Israel to support, monitor Gaza ceasefire deal

The United States is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the ceasefire deal in Gaza as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organisations and private sector players, US officials said Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorised for release, said US Central Command is going to establish a civil-military coordination centres in Israel that will help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory wracked by two years of war.

PM Modi calls Netanyahu to congratulate on progress on Gaza peace deal

During the conversation, PM Modi congratulated Israeli PM on the progress made under US President Donald Trump's Gaza Peace Plan

Israeli govt approves ceasefire, hostage release under Trump peace plan

The government has now approved the outline for the release of all the hostages - the living and the dead," the Israeli Prime Minister's office announced

None of it would have been possible without Trump: Rubio on Gaza peace plan

Rubio said the Gaza peace plan, once thought impossible, became feasible after Trump convened a "historic" meeting of Muslim-majority nations, including Indonesia and Pakistan, at UN on September 23

Modi, Trump discuss Gaza peace plan and trade progress over phone call

PM Modi congratulated US President Donald Trump on the success of the Gaza peace plan and discussed progress in India-US trade talks during a phone conversation

PM Modi's 'unqualified praise' for Israeli PM 'morally atrocious': Congress

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcoming the agreement on the first phase of US President Donald Trump's peace plan for West Asia, the Congress on Thursday termed as "shameful and morally atrocious" the prime minister's "unqualified praise" for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and slammed his "silence" on the future of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine. Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, also said that Modi said nothing on the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. "The prime Minister has welcomed the new developments regarding Gaza and hailed President Trump. That eagerness to do so is not surprising. But what is shocking, shameful, and morally atrocious is Mr Modi's unqualified praise for the Israeli PM Mr Netanyahu - who has unleashed a genocide in Gaza over the past twenty months," Ramesh said. "Mr Modi has also maintained a total silence on the future of an independent, sovereign state of Palesti

Families of Israeli hostages erupt into joy as freedom nears for captives

For 24 months, it's been Israel's ground zero of anguish, uncertainty, torment and despair. But early Thursday, the central Tel Aviv area that's become known as Hostages Square was a burst of unfettered jubilation. A Champagne bottle was popped open to cheers from the crowd. Sweets were doled out. Tears of joy mixed with laughter and long embraces as the news sunk in: The struggle to free Israeli captives held in Gaza appears to finally be coming to a close. Matan is coming home! yelled Einav Zangauker, arguably the most prominent face of the 2-year-long campaign to free the hostages, referring to her captive son. Her arms raised to the sky, she shouted out Thank you! as a crowd of supporters, families of hostages, and former hostages freed earlier in the war filled the square. I want to smell his smell, she told reporters of her son. "If I have one dream, it is seeing Matan sleep in his own bed. After their loved ones were kidnapped in Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack that sparked the

Israel, Hamas agree to first phase of Gaza peace plan, says Trump

In a major breakthrough, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first stage of a US-mediated peace deal to halt Gaza fighting, release hostages, and begin Israeli troop withdrawal

Nearly 55K kids in Gaza under age 5 may be acutely malnourished: UN study

After two years of war and dire food shortages, more than 54,600 children younger than 5 in Gaza may be acutely malnourished, with more than 12,800 severely affected, according to a new study by a United Nations agency. By early August, roughly 16 per cent of children ages 6 months to just under 5 years in Gaza were suffering from a life-threatening type of malnutrition known as acute wasting, including nearly 4 per cent with severe wasting, according to the analysis by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the primary health care provider to Palestinian refugees in the region. Wasting requires treatment with therapeutic food over several weeks and, sometimes, hospitalization. The study, published Wednesday in The Lancet medical journal, is the most comprehensive study of child hunger in the region to date, the authors said. It relied on screenings of nearly 220,000 children from dozens of health centres and medical sites in Gaza between January 202

Day 2 of Gaza peace talks: Hamas seeks 'guarantees' Israel will end war

The talks will continue on Wednesday, with senior officials from the US and Qatar set to join the negotiations in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh

Day 1 of Israel-Hamas meet on Gaza peace plan: Talks end on positive note

During the meeting, which was held indirectly in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, a roadmap was drawn regarding how the talks would move forward

US Gaza plan needs Trump's stamina and focus, not Nobel Prize distraction

Neither Israel nor Hamas fully supports the deal, with both sides issuing caveats and misrepresenting or ignoring key terms regarding Gaza's future

We're dealing with killers, savages, terrorists: US secy of State on Hamas

Trump says global negotiations with Hamas for hostage release and ending Gaza war are "very successful and proceeding rapidly"

Gaza becomes 'news graveyard' as journalists die bringing war to the world

Minutes after journalists gathered outside a Gaza hospital to survey the damage of an Israeli strike, Ibrahim Qannan pointed his camera up at the battered building as the others climbed its external stairs. Then Qannan watched in horror while broadcasting live as a second strike killed the friends and colleagues he knew so well. We live side by side with death, Qannan, a correspondent for the Cairo-based Al-Ghad TV said in an interview. I still cannot believe that five of our colleagues were struck in front of me on camera and I try to hold up and look strong to carry the message. May no one feel such feelings. They are painful feelings. The deaths of the five journalists in the August 25 strikes on Nasser Hospital add to a toll of nearly 200 news workers killed by Israeli forces while working to bring Gaza's story to the world. Those killed in the attack, which left a total of 22 people dead, included Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press

UK confronts rising long-term terror threat linked to ongoing Gaza conflict

The fatal Manchester attack by Jihad Al-Shamie has heightened UK security concerns since Oct. 7, 2023, though his motives and path to the standoff remain unclear