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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz heads to Israel on Saturday for his first visit since taking office, aiming to reaffirm traditionally solid ties that were shaken during the Gaza war.Merz stopped in Jordan briefly on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II, which Merz told reporters afterwards had focused largely on the fragile peace process in Israel and the Palestinian territories.Speaking before flying on to Israel, Merz urged more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and Hamas fighters to lay down their weapons. He said Jordan and Germany both remain committed to a negotiated two-state solution.”There can be no place for terrorism and antisemitism in this shared future,” Merz said.In Jerusalem on Sunday, Merz is scheduled to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial before meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Given the dark legacy of Nazi Germany’s industrial-scale murder of Jews, German leaders have long seen unflinching support for Israel as a bedrock of the country’s foreign policy.In a speech in September celebrating the reopening of Munich’s synagogue, which was severely damaged by the Nazis, Merz visibly struggled to hold back tears, his voice breaking.But Israeli-German ties were shaken during the Gaza war set off by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country’s history.Merz, who took power in May this year, has repeatedly criticised Israel’s relentless military campaign, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.In August, he also moved to restrict sales of weapons for use in Gaza.Since a fragile US-backed ceasefire and hostage deal ended full-scale fighting, Germany has lifted those export restrictions.Despite the ceasefire deal, more than 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health authorities, as well as three Israeli soldiers. The UN also warns that Israel is still not allowing enough aid into Gaza.Before leaving Berlin on Saturday morning, Merz spoke with Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas. A spokesman said Merz underscored German support for a two-state solution but urged Abbas to push through “urgently necessary reforms” of the PA in order to play a “constructive role” in the postwar order.- ‘Signal of support’ -After the recent strains, Israel expects a “signal of continued support” from Merz, said Michael Rimmel, head of the Jerusalem office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, affiliated with Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU).German-Israeli relations have been strained over the past two years but remain “better than many people think”, Rimmel told AFP.But he said Berlin has little discernible influence on Netanyahu’s government, which has pushed on with West Bank settlements despite protests from Berlin and elsewhere, and dismissed calls for a two-state solution.”Certainly, President Trump and the Americans have greater influence,” said Rimmel, noting that the US president was able to pressure Netanyahu into the Gaza ceasefire.Gil Shohat, head of the Tel Aviv office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is affiliated with Germany’s far-left Die Linke party, sharply criticised Merz for making the trip.Shohat argued that Merz is effectively offering political support to Netanyahu and Israel’s hard-right government.”Netanyahu is a wanted war criminal and is under suspicion of corruption,” said Shohat. “Going there now and legitimising him is a fatal sign of normalisation in a situation that must not be normalised.”- Defence deals -Although Merz’s public criticism of Israel was unusual for a German leader, it was measured by international standards.Merz recently offered Israel full-throated support as European broadcasters weighed whether to exclude the country from the annual Eurovision Song Contest, calling such a possibility “scandalous”.The decision to include Israel in the upcoming Eurovision event, reached on Thursday, was warmly welcomed in Berlin even as it prompted boycotts from Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.Still, despite the close ties, German officials have said there are currently no plans to invite Netanyahu — who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza from the International Criminal Court (ICC) — to Berlin.Merz, not long after his party’s election victory in February, vowed to invite the Israeli leader and told him in a phone call that he would not be arrested.Any tensions in German-Israeli relations have also not disrupted key military ties. Germany last week put into operation the first phase of the Israeli-made Arrow missile defence shield.The $4.5 billion deal was reportedly the largest arms export agreement in Israeli history, and Berlin has also turned to Israeli firms for help in drone defence.The German-Israeli Society — which said Merz’s visit must aim to “repair the damaged German-Israeli relations” — also pointed out that defence ties “have long since reversed”. “Israel is no longer dependent on German technology, but rather German defence depends on Israeli technology.”

A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.A November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.Israel has mainly said it is targeting the Iran-backed group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.”We came to Beirut at a pivotal time for the implementation of… the cessation of hostilities agreement of November of last year,” Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN body, told reporters.”All parties must uphold the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement, and we recognise progress achieved by Lebanon this year,” he said.”We reaffirm the council’s support for Lebanon’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence.””We also reaffirm commitment to the full implementation of Resolution 1701 in support of Lebanon’s — as well as regional — security and stability,” he added, referring to a 2006 Security Council decision that forms the basis of the current truce.Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon’s government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army is set to dismantle the group’s military infrastructure near the border by year end before tackling the rest of the country.”We support the Lebanese government’s decision to ensure the state’s monopoly of arms,” Zbogar said, also urging “intensified international support” for Lebanon’s army.The delegation met senior officials including President Joseph Aoun, and on Saturday went to conflict-hit south Lebanon near the Israeli border, visiting peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).In August, the Security Council voted to extend UNIFIL’s mandate until the end of 2026 and then withdraw the force from Lebanon by the end of the following year.The visit was a chance to “examine options for the implementation of Resolution 1701 following UNIFIL’s departure from Lebanon”, Zbogar said, adding that “this is a topic that will deserve a thorough conversation during 2026”.Zbogar also emphasised that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted”, after Lebanon’s army said it arrested six people following an attack by gunmen on UNIFIL personnel this week.Aoun told the delegation on Friday that Lebanon does not want war with Israel, days after civilian representatives from both sides held their first talks in decades.

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal’s first phase. Its initial steps saw Israeli troops pull back behind a so-called “yellow line” within Gaza’s borders, while Palestinian militant group Hamas released the living hostages it still held and handed over the remains of all but one of the deceased.”Now we are at the critical moment… A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces (and) there is stability back in Gaza,” Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference.Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, helped secure the long-elusive truce, which remains delicate as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching its terms. Key sticking points have also emerged over the implementation of the second phase, which has yet to begin, including the question of Hamas’s disarmament.Under the plan endorsed by the UN in November, Israel is to withdraw from its positions, Gaza is to be administered by a transitional governing body known as the “Board of Peace”, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed.”We need to deploy this force as soon as possible on the ground because one party, which is Israel, is every day violating the ceasefire,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at the Doha Forum. The Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement that Abdelatty and Sheikh Mohammed met on Saturday, with both stressing “the importance of continuing efforts to implement” the peace agreement.Arab and Muslim nations, however, have been hesitant to participate in the new force, which could end up fighting Palestinian militants.Meanwhile US President Donald Trump would theoretically chair the “Board of Peace”, while the identities of the other members have yet to be announced.- ‘Main objective’ -Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the forum that talks on the stabilisation force were ongoing, with critical questions remaining as to its command structure and which countries would contribute. But its first goal, Fidan said, “should be to separate Palestinians from the Israelis”. Abdelatty seconded the idea, calling for the force to be deployed along “the yellow line in order to verify and to monitor” the truce.There have been multiple deadly incidents of Israeli forces firing on Palestinians in the vicinity of the yellow line since the ceasefire went into effect.Hamas is supposed to disarm under the 20-point plan first outlined by Trump, with members who decommission their weapons allowed to leave Gaza. The militant group has repeatedly rejected the proposition.Turkey, which is also a guarantor of the truce, has indicated it wants to take part in the stabilisation force, but its efforts are viewed unfavourably in Israel.Fidan later said at the Doha Forum that the disarmament of Hamas should not be the main priority in Gaza.”That cannot be the first thing to do in the process, the disarming. We need to put things in (their) proper order, we have to be realistic,” he said. He also urged the US to intervene with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure the plan succeeds. “If they don’t intervene, I’m afraid there is a risk the plan can fail,” Fidan said. “The amount of daily violations of the ceasefire by the Israelis is indescribable at the moment and all indicators are showing that there is a huge risk of stopping the process,” he added. – Rafah crossing -Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar and the other truce guarantors were “getting together in order to force the way forward for the next phase” of the deal. “And this next phase is just also temporary from our perspective,” he said, calling for a “lasting solution that provides justice for both people”.The ceasefire plan calls for Gaza’s Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt to be reopened to allow in aid.Israel this week said it would open the checkpoint, but “exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”.Egypt swiftly denied that it had agreed to such a move, insisting the crossing be opened both ways.Israel’s announcement drew expressions of concern from several Muslim-majority nations, who said they opposed “any attempts to expel the Palestinian people from their land”.Abdelatty insisted on Saturday that Rafah “is not going to be a gateway for displacement”, but only an entry point for aid.

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year’s preparation to take on the hardest role of her career — the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world.Marwan Hamed’s “El Sett” (“The Lady”) premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced.”I was very scared at the beginning,” she said. “I didn’t know where to start.”Zaki is one of Egypt’s more recognisable actors but her fears were not unfounded.Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum remains a towering cultural figure across the region, distinguished by her unmistakable voice, marathon-length performances, and signature scarf and sunglasses.So telling the story of a woman in a small Nile Delta village in 1898 who grew up to enrapture millions of listeners proved difficult for Zaki.The 49-year-old actor said she spent 15 months studying the singer’s physicality, posture and vocal timbre, even though she does not sing in her own voice in the film.- ‘Alive among us’ -The film does not open in Egypt but in Paris, where Umm Kulthum took to the stage in 1967 before a sold-out, frenzied Olympia.She begins “Enta Omri”, her most celebrated ballad, as a euphoric fan rushes towards her and collapses before her feet.The singer donated profits from that show to the Egyptian army for its war against Israel, which was then occupying the Sinai Peninsula.The movie then rewinds to her childhood in the Nile Delta, where her imam father would disguise her as a boy to perform religious chants in public.Her father recognised her talent early on, but still feared the ire of an early 20th-century conservative society.”There’s something unbelievable about her journey,” said director Hamed, who like many Arabs grew up mesmerised by Umm Kulthum’s singing.”She has all the elements of a unique story.”Hamed told AFP the singer remains “quite alive among us” half a century after her death.”Not only because of her voice, but also because of what her voice carried for the people,” he said.- Power, vulnerability -Listeners beyond the Arab world have also been mesmerised by Umm Kulthum, with Bob Dylan once calling her “one of my favourite singers of all time”.Her music revolutionised Arabic music, blending classical poetry with grand orchestral arrangements.But her hours-long live performances further set her apart from her peers.”When you watch her on stage, you see a lot of power, but actually behind that was a lot of vulnerability,” Hamed said.”The struggles and the obstacles that she had to go through, her power and her strength were really phenomenal.”After her covert performances in her Egyptian village, Umm Kulthum moved to Cairo in the 1920s and within a decade she rose to fame beyond Egypt.”She is the voice of the Arab people and embodies hope, strength, and resistance,” said Zaki.Hamed lauded Umm Kulthum for forcing “her choices on the audience, whether in Egypt, the Arab world, or beyond”.He said the film would be a celebration of “her legacy and how she created that legacy” for decades beyond her life.”Her journey of transformation is not a simple journey,” he said.