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Trump hosts Netanyahu, hopes for Israel-Hamas deal ‘this week’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Monday US President Donald Trump, who expressed hope for a “deal this week” between Israel and Hamas that sees hostages released from the Gaza Strip.Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday evening in Doha, aiming to broker a ceasefire and reach an agreement on the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Trump said Sunday there was a “good chance” of reaching an agreement.”We’ve gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out,” he told journalists.Netanyahu, speaking before boarding his flight to Washington on Sunday, said his meeting with Trump could “definitely help advance this” deal.The US president is pushing for a truce in the Gaza Strip, plunged into a humanitarian crisis after nearly two years of war.Netanyahu said he dispatched the team to Doha with “clear instructions” to reach an agreement “under the conditions that we have agreed to.”He previously said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire proposal, conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, contained “unacceptable” demands.- ‘Important mission’ -Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.Netanyahu has an “important mission” in Washington, “advancing a deal to bring all our hostages home,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog after meeting him Sunday.Trump is not scheduled to meet the Israeli premier until 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) Monday, the White House said, without the usual presence of journalists.Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Since Hamas’s October 2023 attack sparked the massive Israeli offensive in Gaza, mediators have brokered two temporary halts in the fighting. They have seen hostages freed in exchange for some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.- ‘Enough blood’ -In Gaza, the territory’s civil defense agency reported 26 people killed by Israeli forces on Sunday, 10 of them in a strike in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.”We are losing young people, families and children every day, and this must stop now,” Sheikh Radwan resident Osama al-Hanawi told AFP. “Enough blood has been shed.”Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.- Hundreds killed seeking aid -The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.But its operations have had a chaotic rollout, with repeated reports of aid seekers killed near its facilities while awaiting rations. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.The UN human rights office said last week that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.The Gaza health ministry on Sunday placed that toll even higher, at 751 killed.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,418 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.burs/smw/tc/rsc

Egyptian conservators give King Tut’s treasures new glow

As a teenager, Eid Mertah would pore over books about King Tutankhamun, tracing hieroglyphs and dreaming of holding the boy pharaoh’s golden mask in his hands.Years later, the Egyptian conservator found himself gently brushing centuries-old dust off one of Tut’s gilded ceremonial shrines — a piece he had only seen in textbooks.”I studied archaeology because of Tut,” Mertah, 36, told AFP. “It was my dream to work on his treasures — and that dream came true.”Mertah is one of more than 150 conservators and 100 archaeologists who have laboured quietly for over a decade to restore thousands of artefacts ahead of the long-awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) — a $1 billion project on the edge of the Giza Plateau.Originally slated for July 3, the launch has once again been postponed — now expected in the final months of the year — due to regional security concerns.The museum’s opening has faced delays over the years for various reasons, ranging from political upheaval to the Covid-19 pandemic.But when it finally opens, the GEM will be the world’s largest archaeological museum devoted to a single civilisation.It will house more than 100,000 artefacts, with over half on public display, and will include a unique feature: a live conservation lab.From behind glass walls, visitors will be able to watch in real time as experts work over the next three years to restore a 4,500-year-old boat buried near the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu and intended to ferry his soul across the sky with the sun god Ra.But the star of the museum remains King Tut’s collection of more than 5,000 objects — many to be displayed together for the first time.Among them are his golden funeral mask, gilded coffins, golden amulets, beaded collars, ceremonial chariots and two mummified foetuses believed to be his stillborn daughters.- ‘Puzzle of gold’ -Many of these treasures have not undergone restoration since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered them in 1922.The conservation methods used by Carter’s team were intended to protect the objects, but over a century later, they have posed challenges for their modern-day successors.Coating gold surfaces in wax, for instance, “preserved the objects at the time”, said conservator Hind Bayoumi, “but it then hid the very details we want the world to see”.For months, Bayoumi, 39, and her colleagues painstakingly removed the wax applied by British chemist Alfred Lucas, which had over decades trapped dirt and dulled the shine of the gold.Restoration has been a joint effort between Egypt and Japan, which contributed $800 million in loans and provided technical support.Egyptian conservators — many trained by Japanese experts — have led cutting-edge work across 19 laboratories covering wood, metal, papyrus, textiles and more.Tut’s gilded coffin — brought from his tomb in Luxor — proved one of the most intricate jobs.At the GEM’s wood lab, conservator Fatma Magdy, 34, used magnifying lenses and archival photos to reassemble its delicate gold sheets.”It was like solving a giant puzzle,” she said. “The shape of the break, the flow of the hieroglyphs — every detail mattered.”- Touching history -Before restoration, the Tutankhamun collection was retrieved from several museums and storage sites, including the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Luxor Museum and the tomb itself.Some items were given light restoration before their relocation to ensure they could be safely moved.Teams first conducted photographic documentation, X-ray analysis and material testing to understand each item’s condition before touching it.”We had to understand the condition of each piece — the gold layers, the adhesives, wood structure — everything,” said Mertah, who worked on King Tut’s ceremonial shrines at the Egyptian Museum.Fragile pieces were stabilised with Japanese tissue paper — thin but strong — and adhesives like Paraloid B-72 and Klucel G, both reversible and minimally invasive.The team’s guiding philosophy throughout has been one of restraint.”The goal is always to do the least amount necessary — and to respect the object’s history,” said Mohamed Moustafa, 36, another senior restorer.Beyond the restoration work, the process has been an emotional journey for many of those involved.”I think we’re more excited to see the museum than tourists are,” Moustafa said.”When visitors walk through the museum, they’ll see the beauty of these artefacts. But for us, every piece is a reminder of the endless working hours, the debates, the trainings.” “Every piece tells a story.”

Netanyahu says Trump meeting could ‘advance’ Gaza deal ahead of Doha talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he hoped an upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump could “help advance” a Gaza ceasefire deal, after sending negotiators to Doha for indirect talks with Hamas. Under mounting pressure to end the war, now approaching its 22nd month, the Israeli premier is scheduled to sit down on Monday with Trump, who has recently made a renewed push to end the fighting.Speaking before boarding Israel’s state jet bound for Washington, Netanyahu said: “We are working to achieve this deal that we have discussed, under the conditions that we have agreed to.”He added he had dispatched the team to Doha “with clear instructions”, and thought the meeting with Trump “can definitely help advance this (deal), which we are all hoping for”.Netanyahu had previously said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire proposal contained “unacceptable” demands.Later Sunday, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks told AFP that indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas towards a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip had started in Qatar.”Negotiations are about implementation mechanisms and hostage exchange, and positions are being exchanged through mediators,” the official said.Speaking to reporters Sunday, Trump said: “I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week, during the coming week.”- ‘Enough blood’ -Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian official told AFP that Hamas would also seek the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing to evacuate the wounded. Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya was leading the delegation in Doha, the official told AFP.Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 26 people had been killed by Israeli forces on Sunday.It said 10 had been killed in a pre-dawn strike on Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, where AFP images showed Palestinians searching through the debris for survivors with their bare hands.”The rest of the family is still under the rubble,” Sheikh Radwan resident Osama al-Hanawi told AFP.”We are losing young people, families and children every day, and this must stop now. Enough blood has been shed.”Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.Since Hamas’s October 2023 attack sparked the massive Israeli offensive in Gaza, mediators have brokered two temporary halts in the fighting during which hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.- ‘Hunger as a weapon’ -The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.Karima al-Ras, from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, said “we hope that a truce will be announced” to allow in more aid.”People are dying for flour,” she said.A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.The UN human rights office said last week that more than 500 people had been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.The Gaza health ministry on Sunday put the toll at 751 killed.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a frequent critic of Israel, again accused it of committing “genocide” in Gaza at a meeting of the 11 BRICS emerging nations in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.”We cannot remain indifferent to the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the use of hunger as the Brazilian president, popularly known as Lula, told leaders from China, India and other nations. Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,418 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.burs-jj/gv

Hezbollah chief says won’t surrender under Israeli threats

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Sunday his group would not surrender or lay down its weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the Lebanese militants to disarm.His speech came ahead of a visit Monday by US envoy Thomas Barrack during which Lebanese authorities are due to respond to a request to disarm Hezbollah by year’s end, according to a Lebanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity.”This (Israeli) threat will not make us accept surrender,” Qassem said in a televised speech to thousands of his supporters in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, during the Shiite Muslim religious commemoration of Ashura.Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of a war between Israel and Hezbollah last year that left the Iran-backed group severely weakened have repeatedly vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms, while demanding Israel comply with a November ceasefire that sought to end the hostilities.Qassem, who succeeded longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah after an Israeli strike killed him in September, said the group’s fighters would not abandon their arms and asserted that Israel’s “aggression” must first stop.Israel’s military has continued to occupy positions in Lebanon and to strike the country despite the November ceasefire, saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives and accusing Beirut of not doing enough to disarm the group.Lebanon’s official National News Agency Sunday reported a series of Israeli strikes in the country’s south and east, a day after authorities said one person was killed and six others wounded in Israeli raids in the south.Later Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed it had carried out strikes in the eastern Bekaa valley and in the south against what it called Hezbollah military sites and weapons systems.- ‘Not now, not later’ -Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier.Israel was to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them deployed in five areas that it deemed strategic.Lebanese authorities say they have been dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the south near the Israeli border.Qassem said Israel must abide by the ceasefire agreement, “withdraw from the occupied territories, stop its aggression… release the prisoners” detained during last year’s war, and that reconstruction in Lebanon must begin.Only then “will we be ready for the second stage, which is to discuss the national security and defence strategy” which includes the issue of group’s disarmament, he added.Supporters dressed in black for Ashura marched through Beirut’s southern suburbs before his speech, waving Hezbollah banners as well as the Lebanese, Palestinian and Iranian flags.Some also carried posters of the slain leader Nasrallah.Hussein Jaber, 28, originally from south Lebanon, said the group’s weapons “can’t be handed over, not now, not later. Those who think Hezbollah will turn in its arms are ignorant.”In his speech, Qassem also said his movement “will not accept normalisation with the Israeli enemy”, after Israel’s top diplomat said his government was “interested” in such a move.Lebanon, which is technically still at war with Israel, did not comment.Syria, also mentioned by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, said it was “premature” to discuss normalisation.- ‘No pilgrims’ -Shiites in other countries around the region were also marking Ashura, which commemorates the death of the Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in a seventh century battle in modern-day Iraq.Iraq saw the largest commemorations on Sunday, particularly in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.In south Lebanon, hundreds of people participated in commemorations in Nabatiyeh, an area regularly targeted by Israeli strikes.In Sunni Muslim majority Syria, several hundred faithful marked Ashura under the protection of security forces at the Sayyida Zeinab shrine south of Damascus, an AFP correspondent said.Syria’s Shiite minority has been worried since Sunni Islamists in December toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was backed by Iran.Unlike in previous years, there were no processions in the Sayyida Zeinab area, where pro-Iran groups used to be heavily entrenched before Assad’s ousting.”The Syrian state has bolstered its protection at this time,” said Jaafar al-Amine, an official at the holy site.”This year, there have been no pilgrims from other countries” like Iran, Iraq or Lebanon, he added.