Author: Disha Mishra
Israel airstrikes killed at least 77 people in Gaza overnight on Thursday, residents and authorities in the enclave said, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced to bring an end to 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East. The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands…
The ceasefire in Gaza represents a “great victory” for the Palestinian resistance, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday, warning against any possible breach by Israel. Palestinian armed group Hamas and Israel reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Sunday. The agreement provides for the release of Israeli hostages held there during 15 months of conflict that devastated the enclave and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. “The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire on the Zionist regime (Israel) is a clear and great victory for Palestine and a…
Significant progress was made on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal once the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump began working hand in hand to make the case for urgency, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told Reuters.. Lew’s 15 months as President Biden’s envoy overlapped with a war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel followed by an Israeli assault on Gaza. He spoke on Tuesday before a deal was reached. Lew, 69, will hand over the ambassador’s role to Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, when…
Palestinians burst into celebration across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday at news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with some shedding years of joy and others whistling, clapping and chanting “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest). “I am happy, yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy,” said Ghada, a mother of five displaced from her home in Gaza City during the 15-month-old conflict. “We are being reborn, with every hour of delay Israel conducted a new massacre, I hope it is all getting over now,” she told Reuters via a chat app from a shelter in Deir…
Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza gathered on Wednesday in the Tel Aviv square where they have held rallies for more than a year, as news trickled out of the agreement struck with Hamas to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring the hostages home. After more than 15 months in Hamas captivity, the first of an initial group of 33 hostages is expected to be returned to Israel on Sunday before negotiations on the release of the remaining 65 begin around two weeks later. The first group, made up of children, women, men over 50 as well as…
A long-sought Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal emerged at the end of an intense 96 hours of negotiations in Doha brokered by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari diplomats who persuaded Israel and Hamas finally to conclude the agreement. A senior Biden administration official credited the presence of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as being critical to reaching the agreement announced on Wednesday after 15 months of war that devastated the Palestinian enclave and spread conflict across the Middle East. Leading the U.S. side was President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy, Brett McGurk, who had been in the region since…
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested and questioned for hours by investigators on Wednesday in relation to a criminal insurrection probe, ending a weeks-long standoff with authorities. His arrest, the first ever for a sitting president in South Korea, is the latest head-spinning development in one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies, even though the country has a history of prosecuting and imprisoning former leaders. Since lawmakers voted to impeach and strip him of his duties after his short-lived Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, Yoon has been holed up at his hillside residence, guarded by a small…
The threat of powerful wind gusts, combined with bone-dry humidity, in Los Angeles on Wednesday could test firefighters who have been battling to keep monstrous fires in Los Angeles in check since last week. Some 6.5 million people in the Los Angeles area were under a critical fire threat as winds were forecast to be 20 to 40 miles (32-64 km) an hour with gusts up to 70 mph and humidity dropping into the single digits, the National Weather Service said. The death toll from the fires rose by one on Tuesday to 25, according to the Los Angeles medical…
Negotiators in Qatar appeared on Wednesday to be close to sealing a deal on a ceasefire in the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas after 15 months of death and destruction. An Israeli official said Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire and hostage return proposal shared by Qatari negotiators. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said shortly afterward that Hamas had not yet given a response. A Hamas official who declined to be named also said that the group had not yet given a written response to the proposal. Officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt…
The Palestinian Authority must be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Wednesday, as expectations grew that a deal to halt fighting and start returning Israeli hostages was near. Who will run Gaza after the war remains one of the great unanswered questions in the negotiations, which have focused on an immediate ceasefire and exchanging hostages still held in the enclave for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Speaking at a conference in Norway, Mustafa said pressure must continue to agree the ceasefire in Gaza and allow in more humanitarian aid for…