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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday condemned what he called “the poison of antisemitism rising around the world” after a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former German Nazi concentration camp.His visit came as many international delegations are expected to attend the January 27 ceremony commemorating 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the death camp built in occupied Poland.King Charles III will be among those attending the ceremony, Buckingham Palace said Monday, in his first visit to the former camp.”Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say ‘never again’,” Starmer said in a statement following his visit.”But where is never again, when we see the poison of antisemitism rising around the world” in the aftermath of October 7th, he added.The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas staged the deadliest attack in Israeli history.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has left 46,876 people dead, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN has described as reliable.Last week, the Polish government said it would grant free access to Israeli officials wanting to attend the commemoration, despite a warrant issued in November by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had information from the Israeli embassy that the country would be represented by its education minister.The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the warrant in November over the Gaza war, prompting outrage from Israel and its allies.Auschwitz has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million European Jews, one million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.

Chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court Karim Khan met Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday, state media reported, as last month’s ouster of Bashar al-Assad sparks hopes for justice.Sharaa and Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met “a delegation from the International Criminal Court, headed” by Khan, state news agency SANA reported, also publishing images of the meeting.A statement from Khan’s office said he “travelled to Damascus at the invitation of the Syrian Transitional Government”.It said the visit aimed to discuss how the office “can offer its partnership in support of the efforts of Syrian authorities towards accountability for alleged crimes committed in the country”.Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the rebel alliance that toppled Assad on December 8, more than 13 years after the brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that would kill more than 500,000 people.Tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured in the country’s jails, while Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons, including the banned sarin gas, against his own people.”The Prosecutor was grateful for the open and constructive discussions during his visit, during which follow-up actions were put in place,” the statement from Khan’s office said.- ‘Transitional justice’ -The new authorities have pledged justice for victims of atrocities committed under Assad’s rule, vowing that officials involved in torturing detainees will not be pardoned and urging countries to “hand over any of those criminals who may have fled so they can be brought to justice”.The Hague-based ICC, which investigates war crimes, had been unable to investigate Syria because Damascus never ratified the Rome Statute, the tribunal’s founding treaty.With Assad gone, there could now be a national accountability process in Syria and steps could be taken to finally grant the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed in the country.During a visit to Damascus on Wednesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said transitional justice was “crucial” for Syria after Assad’s fall, during the first-ever visit by someone in his post to the country.Last month, Turk said he would “strongly encourage” the new Syrian authorities to ratify the ICC statute, stressing the need to “build up a domestic legal system that allows for fair trials”.Also in December, the visiting head of a UN investigative body for Syria said it was possible to find “more than enough” evidence to convict people of violating international law.- Evidence -But preserving evidence would “need a lot of coordination between all the different actors”, said Robert Petit, who heads the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) set up by the UN in 2016 to prepare prosecutions for major international crimes in Syria.With families rushing to former prisons, detention centres and alleged mass graves to find any trace of disappeared relatives, many have expressed concern about safeguarding documents and other evidence.A UN investigator this month expressed hope of a “good relationship” with Syria’s new rulers as he wrapped up a first visit by his inquiry team, which was barred by Assad.Hanny Megally, of the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry, expressed optimism that “we have an interlocutor we can work with”.The commission has been gathering evidence of crimes committed in Syria since the early days of the conflict.Repeated calls over the years for the situation in war-torn Syria to be referred to the ICC fell on deaf ears as the UN Security Council remained deadlocked.In 2014, Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow blocked a draft Security Council resolution on referring Syria to the ICC.

Donald Trump’s economic plans risk reigniting US inflation, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told AFP, a few days before the president-elect returns to the White House. Trump’s proposals to hike tariffs and curtail immigration would likely constrain the supply side of the economy and push up prices, Gourinchas said in an interview.Other proposals …

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In a sprawling tent city in central Gaza, Palestinians displaced by war to other parts of the territory are all waiting for one thing: a ceasefire so they can go home.Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the Israel-Hamas war to other parts of the territory.With a long-awaited truce deal due to take effect on Sunday, they may finally be able to return to their neighbourhoods.Umm Khalil Bakr has been living with her family in the Nuseirat camp, where displaced Palestinians have tried their hardest despite the war to lead a semblance of normal life.There, they bake flatbread on clay ovens, play cards to pass the time when there are no bombings, and sweep the streets as an act of dignity.If the ceasefire takes hold, people will start moving back to their neighbourhoods, though they are under no illusions as to what they might find.”I will take my tent, remove the rubble from the house and place my tent on the rubble, where I will live with my 10 children,” Umm Khalil told AFP.”We know the weather will be cold, and we won’t have blankets for the bedding, but what matters is that we return to our homeland.”Around her, young children gathered to watch their mother speak, bouncing idly on the tent sides.Her determination to rebuild her life despite the utter devastation from 15 months of war was shared by her fellow camp residents.Whatever the state of their homes, the hardships of life in the camp were far worse, said Umm Mohamad al-Tawil.”We will return, and whatever hardships we might face, we will return,” she said. “This is not life, and it is not our life.”- ‘Live in the tent’ -A few kilometres (miles) to the south, in Deir el-Balah, the Moqat family were packing their few belongings into cardboard boxes, ready to go back to Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip.The family were looking for a truck to take them home, said Fatima Moqat. “We will take the tent with us… and live in it just as we stayed here inside the tent,” she said.”There we will live in the tent until they find us a solution for reconstruction.”With the truce not yet in effect, there has been no let-up in the violence.On Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 113 people had been killed by Israeli bombardment of the territory since Qatar and the United States announced the deal.The scale of the destruction in Gaza wrought by month after month of air strikes, shelling and street-to-street fighting means reconstruction could last well into the next decade, international agencies have said.The World Health Organization said rebuilding the territory’s health system alone would cost $10 billion and take five to seven years.According to the UN, United Nations, by December 1, nearly 69 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed or damaged, with the UN Development Programme estimating last year that it could take until 2040 to rebuild all destroyed homes.- ‘Kiss my land’ -The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas staged the deadliest attack in Israeli history.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has left 46,876 people dead, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN has described as reliable.To Moqat, it was the grief over lives lost in the war that would be the hardest to overcome.”Gaza was destroyed and rebuilt a hundred times before… Houses can be replaced, but people cannot be replaced,” she said.Back in Nuseirat, reclining on the floor inside his carpet-lined tent, Nasr al-Gharabli could not wait to return to his home.”I am waiting for Sunday morning when they will announce the ceasefire… I will go to kiss my land,” he said.”If I die on my land it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”

Russia and Iran are poised to sign a new treaty on Friday to cement their military and economic ties, a pact between two of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations that is likely to alarm the West.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are expected to sign the agreement in Moscow later, just days before Iran-hawk Donald Trump enters the White House.The details of the document have not been released, but the Kremlin has said it will strengthen Tehran and Moscow’s “military-political and trade-economic” relations.Moscow has looked to the Islamic republic as a strategic ally since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, worrying Western officials who see both as malign actors on the world stage.The two leaders met earlier at the Kremlin, where both praised the new accord ahead of the signing.”This will give us the opportunity to give additional momentum to almost all areas of cooperation,” Putin told Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, who replied that the text would become a “solid foundation” for relations.Both presidents will give a joint press conference later, said the Kremlin.- ‘constructive’ treaty -Tehran has given little detail on the new treaty, but has ruled out a mutual defence clause like the one included in Moscow’s pact with North Korea last year, Russian state media reported, citing Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.Iran has already supplied Russia with self-detonating “Shahed” drones that Moscow fires on Ukraine in nightly barrages, according to Ukrainian and Western officials. Both have ramped up their trade in response to Western sanctions.The two sides had been working on a new treaty for years. Their current relationship is governed by a 2001 document they have renewed periodically.Russia says its upcoming pact with Iran and the already-signed treaty with Pyongyang are “not directed against any country”.”The treaty … is constructive in nature and is aimed at strengthening the capabilities of Russia, Iran, and our friends in various parts of the world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.It is set to be valid for 20 years, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Iranian ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali.- ‘Global hegemony’ -Russian President Vladimir Putin has made building ties with Iran, China and North Korea a cornerstone of his foreign policy as he seeks to challenge what he calls as a US-led “global hegemony”.Tehran has also sought closer ties with Moscow, after suffering a series of foreign policy setbacks last year.A rebel offensive overthrew Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month, and a war between Israel and Tehran-ally Hezbollah substantially weakened the Islamist militant group.Pezeshkian’s visit to Russia also comes just days before Iran-hawk Trump returns to power.The US president-elect, who is seeking a rapid end to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, has made repeated military threats against the Islamic republic.During his first term, the Republican pulled out of a multinational deal that provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.In 2020, Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike in Iraq on Trump’s orders, prompting a wave of fury in Iran.Trump last year warned the US would “wipe (Iran) off the face of the Earth” if a recent alleged Iranian plot to kill him had been succesful.

Israel’s security cabinet approved in a vote on Friday a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend, the prime minister’s office said.The agreement, which must now go to the full cabinet for a final green light, would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza’s deadliest-ever war.It would also launch on Sunday the release of hostages held in the territory since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Under the deal struck by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the ensuing weeks should also see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people since the deal was announced. Israel’s military said on Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the past day.The full cabinet will convene later Friday to approve the deal. The ceasefire would take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.Saying the proposed deal “supports achieving the objectives of the war”, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the security cabinet recommended that the government approve it.His office had earlier said the release of hostages would begin on Sunday.Even before the start of the truce, Gazans displaced by the war to other parts of the territory were preparing to return home.”I will go to kiss my land,” said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south in the territory.”If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”In Israel, there was joy but also anguish over the 251 hostages taken in the deadliest attack in the country’s history.Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest hostage.Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri had died in an air strike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to hope.”I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers,” said 70-year-old Osnat Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery with the Bibas brothers.- ‘Confident’ -Two far-right ministers had voiced opposition to the deal, with one threatening to quit the cabinet, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.”I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds since the the deal was announced on Wednesday.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom… into a tragedy”.The war began with the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.- Trump and Biden -The ceasefire agreement followed intensified efforts from mediators after months of fruitless negotiations, and with Trump’s team taking credit for working with US President Joe Biden’s administration to seal the deal.”If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said in an interview on Thursday.A senior Biden official said the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released, including women, “children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.The Israeli authorities assume the 33 are alive, but Hamas has yet to confirm that.Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, he said.Two sources close to Hamas told AFP three Israeli women soldiers would be the first to be released on Sunday evening.The women may in fact be civilians, as the militant group refers to all Israelis of military age who have undergone mandatory military service as soldiers.Once released they would be received by Red Cross staff as well as Egyptian and Qatari teams, one source said on condition of anonymity.They would then be taken to Egypt where they would undergo medical examinations and then to Israel, the source said.Israel “is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences”, the source added.Egypt was on Friday hosting technical talks on the implementation of the truce, according to state-linked media.French President Emmanuel Macron said French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi were on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase.Biden said the second phase could bring a “permanent end to the war”.In aid-starved Gaza, where nearly all of its 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry about the monumental task ahead.”Everything has been destroyed, children are on the streets, you can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP.burs-ser/kir

The EU is prepared to redeploy a monitoring mission to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s war in the territory, the bloc’s top diplomat said Friday.”We are ready to do it,” foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told journalists after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Brussels.Kallas said the EU needed an invitation from the Palestinian and Israeli sides and agreement from Egypt before it could “go forward”.The 27-nation bloc set up a civilian mission in 2005 to help monitor the crossing, but that was suspended two years later after militant Islamists Hamas took control of Gaza.The comments came as Israel’s security cabinet met Friday to vote on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend.If approved, the agreement would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza’s deadliest-ever war and initiate on Sunday the release of dozens of hostages held in the territory since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Kallas called the truce deal a “positive breakthrough”, but warned that the road ahead was fraught with potential peril.”It is still too soon to say whether the war is truly over and we know that there is risk in every step here,” she said. The EU on Thursday announced a 120 million euros ($123 million) in humanitarian aid for Gaza after the ceasefire deal was struck.”The European Union will continue to work closely with our partners to deliver humanitarian support,” Kallas said. The Rafah crossing is a crucial entry into Gaza and Egyptian officials have said talks are underway to reopen it to surge aid into the territory.The EU monitoring mission would include up to 10 European staff, officials said.  Kallas said that in the longer term the EU was working on a new “multi-year support programme for the Palestinian Authority” and was “ready to assist” in rebuilding Gaza.