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With no shoes to protect their tiny dust-covered feet, Hiam Muqdad’s grandchildren toddled unfazed through the bombed-out ruins of their Gaza City neighbourhood in search of clean water.Clutching large black buckets and their grandmother’s hand, the infant trio seemed not to notice the scars left by two years of war, barely registering the enormous piles of rubble, warped metal and toppled buildings lining their path.Muqdad, 62, told AFP she went out every morning with the children to search for water, sometimes finding enough for a few days and sometimes not at all.”Children no longer say ‘I want to go to nursery or school’ but rather ‘I want to go get water or food or a food parcel’,” she said. “The child’s dream is gone”. “In the past they used to go to the park but today children play on the rubble.”Reaching a mound of broken breeze blocks, the children, whose parents live in the southern city of Khan Yunis, diligently scrambled for scraps that could be used to make a fire.Torn pieces of cardboard, a discarded milk carton, a plastic bottle and a few thin twigs made up the haul.Fuel secured, the group began their walk back through the hazy ruins to their makeshift home.- ‘Tear of joy, tear of sadness’ -Muqdad lost both her house and relatives during the gruelling war between Israel and Hamas, which flattened vast swathes of the Palestinian territory and displaced most of its population at least once.After the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on October 10, the family returned from the south to the Al Nasr neighbourhood of Gaza City to pitch a tent in the rubble of their ruined home.”When they said there was a truce, oh my God, a tear of joy and a tear of sadness fell from my eye,” Muqdad said, recalling those she had lost.The war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,519 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run government’s health ministry that are considered reliable by the United Nations.Muqdad’s house was entirely destroyed by a bulldozer, she said, explaining that afterwards she “couldn’t even find a mattress in it”.Sheets of battered corrugated metal mark out the small patch of sand the family now calls home, forming an island of life in the ruins.Outside, the street is flattened, and only the skeletons of collapsed buildings remain. Early each morning, with the sun still low in the sky, Muqdad emerges from the family’s igloo-shaped tent to set about instilling order into the chaos of displacement.Sitting in front of a large Palestinian flag, she delights in showing her grandchildren the pasta they are going to cook on an open fire. While she said it is enough to satisfy their hunger, Muqdad lamented that she “cannot buy vegetables or anything because we do not have cash and no income”.Israel repeatedly cut off supplies into Gaza during the war, exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions.The World Health Organization said on Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since the ceasefire, and no observable reduction in hunger.- ‘Bring life back’ -After two years of war, Gaza’s public services are crippled and the territory is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris, according to UN data analysed by AFP. Three quarters of buildings have been destroyed.”We want to remove all the rubble,” Muqdad said, adding the destruction was particularly affecting the children’s mental health.In the watery sunlight, the young children milled around on large mats spread out on the sand, sometimes passing the time sitting on upturned buckets.After returning from their trip to collect fire material and water, Muqdad sat on the floor to begin washing the family’s clothes by hand in a large metal vat. But as evening fell, the family’s thin foam mattresses were brought back into the tent and the day’s activities halted as darkness descended.  “I light a candle because I don’t have electricity or a battery or anything,” Muqdad said.Despite the suffering and severe lack of daily essentials, Muqdad said she still held out hope that things could get better.”We want to bring life back even a little, and feel that there is hope.”

With no majority in parliament and surrounded by allies outraged by his acceptance of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have set his sights on Israel’s next elections.A political phoenix, Netanyahu is the country’s longest-serving prime minister, has been its dominant political figure for decades and heads one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israel’s history.But he does not hold an absolute parliamentary majority after an ultra-Orthodox party quit in July, protesting against the government’s failure to pass a law to exempt its community from military service.The summer parliamentary recess came at just the right time to shield the government, which now holds just 60 of 120 seats, from motions of no confidence.But the resumption of the Knesset’s work on October 20 heralded the return of transactional politics and potential threats for the government.Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas that came into effect on October 10 after more than two years of war in Gaza.His far-right allies vehemently denounced the agreement, arguing that the military should retain control of the entire Gaza Strip and crush the Palestinian Islamist movement for good.And while they are not abandoning the ship of government, they are raising the price to keep them on board.- June 2026 election? -“The coalition has been weakened by the ceasefire agreement,” said independent analyst Michael Horowitz.”For Netanyahu, the issue is no longer so much about preserving his coalition until the end as it is about positioning himself to win the next elections — even if they are brought forward,” he told AFP.In a televised interview on October 18, Netanyahu said that he would run for office in the next elections and that he expected to win.Those polls are required to take place by late October 2026 but Netanyahu, who has just turned 76, may call early elections or be forced into a fresh vote if another of his allied parties abandons the ruling coalition.Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has already threatened to stop voting with the coalition if his bill calling for “the death penalty for terrorists” is not put to a parliamentary vote by November 9.Netanyahu must grapple with ideological differences from his far-right partners, who favour resuming the war in Gaza with a view to taking over the territory, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005.He must also contend with pressure from his allies in the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas party — which has 11 lawmakers and has distanced itself from the government.Without formally leaving the coalition, Shas ministers resigned from the cabinet in July over the issue of military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews.The coalition’s other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, quit both the government and the coalition.Several Israeli journalists including the high-profile Amit Segal, who is known to be close to Netanyahu, have suggested the premier would opt for June 2026 for early elections.For now, Netanyahu must overcome several obstacles to remain in power, most notably the issue of conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jews.Shas says it will pull its support unless military service exemption is enshrined in law, while the far-right and many in Netanyahu’s Likud party want to force ultra-Orthodox conscription.- Likud in front -If the fragile ceasefire holds, Netanyahu will also have to find post-war solutions for Gaza that will satisfy his far-right partners. They are demanding a vote on at least partial annexation of the occupied West Bank in return for what they see as the relinquishing of Gaza.The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed its opposition to such a move.Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist said that in a bid to shore up its unity, the coalition planned to swiftly pass laws that would give it a better chance of election victory.Among them would be the lowering of the threshold of votes needed to be represented in parliament — an apparent gift to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose far-right Religious Zionism party would not reach the required limit under current rules, according to several polls.Another measure would be to lower the voting age to 17, which would give a demographic advantage to the ultra-Orthodox parties.Netanyahu, who is on trial in several corruption cases, is assured of being re-elected as head of Likud at the end of November, as there are no other candidates.And despite strong popular discontent with the government, his party remains the frontrunner according to all polls.

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 01:30:04 GMT

US President Donald Trump on Saturday thanked Qatar’s emir and prime minister for being a “big factor” in helping secure a Gaza ceasefire deal, during a refueling stop on his way to Asia.The Qatari leaders boarded Air Force One when it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the regional headquarters for the US military and thousands of American troops.Trump said the duo had played a crucial role in the Middle East peace process, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had been his “friend to the world.””What we’ve done is incredible peace to the Middle East, and they were a very big factor in it,” Trump said.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, fresh off a trip to Israel as part of an all-out diplomatic push by Washington to keep the Gaza truce on track, was present for the meeting with Qatar’s leaders.Trump is traveling to Asia for the first time since retaking office in January, with two regional summits and face-to-face meetings with China’s Xi Jinping and other leaders on the agenda.Qatar has played a key mediating role in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since the outbreak of the war, and is among the guarantors of the fragile peace deal, along with Egypt, the United States and Turkey.Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss the highly sensitive next steps in the deal, including the establishment of a security force in Gaza and the fate of Hamas.Qatar’s prime minister has also been a key negotiator since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.The talks aboard Air Force One came as Israel conducted an air strike targeting an alleged Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza.Despite the ceasefire between Hamas, an ally of Islamic Jihad, and Israel, the latter reserves the right to defend itself and its forces from militant attacks.”Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform after the talks with Qatar’s leaders.