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Gaza rescuers say Israeli forces kill over 50 as ceasefire calls mount

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 51 people, including 24 at a seafront rest area, as fresh calls grow for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.The swift resolution of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has revived hopes for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, where more than 20 months of combat have created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House on July 7, a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.US President Donald Trump recently urged Israel to “make the deal in Gaza”, and the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is visiting Washington this week for talks with US officials.But on the ground, Israel has continued to pursue its offensive across the Palestinian territory.Gaza’s civil defence agency said 51 people had been killed by Israeli forces on Monday, including 24 in a strike on a rest area on Gaza City’s seafront.”I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned… It was a scene that made your skin crawl,” 26-year-old eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab told AFP, recalling a “huge explosion that shook the area”.”The place is always crowded with people because the rest area offers drinks, family seating and internet access.”Another eyewitness, 35-year-old Bilal Awkal, said “blood covered the ground and screams filled the air”. “Women and children were everywhere, like a scene from a movie about the end of the world.”  Approached for comment by AFP, the Israeli army said it was “looking into” the reports. The Hamas government media office reported that photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab was among those killed in the strike.Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the territory.- ‘Targeting was deliberate’ -Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 27 others were killed by Israeli strikes or fire across Gaza, including 11 near aid points in the centre and south.Eyewitnesses and local authorities have reported repeated killings of Palestinians near distribution centres in recent weeks, after Israel began allowing in a trickle of aid at the end of May. Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, told AFP by phone that he had gone with relatives to pick up food in an area of central Gaza around midnight.”Suddenly the (Israeli) army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,” he said.In the southern city of Khan Yunis, the dead and wounded were rushed to a hospital in an open-top trailer after aid seekers said they were fired on by Israeli forces in Rafah.”The targeting was deliberate, aimed at people as they were leaving,” eyewitness Aboud al-Adwi told AFP.”There was no one among us who was wanted or posed any threat. We were all civilians, simply trying to get food for our children,” he added.AFP footage from Nasser Hospital showed the wounded being treated on a blood-stained floor.The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment when asked by AFP about the civil defence reports.- ‘No longer any benefit’ -Netanyahu had said on Sunday that Israel’s “victory” over Iran had created “opportunities”, including for freeing hostages.Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, said on Monday there was “no longer any benefit” to the war.Israel’s defence minister suggested during a meeting with Netanyahu and the army’s general staff that the campaign in Gaza was nearing its goal.”We now face the completion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve its objectives — foremost among them, the release of all hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Israel Katz said.Trump had said on Friday that he was hoping for a new ceasefire in Gaza “within the next week”.Three days later, Washington announced the $510-million sale to Israel of bomb guidance kits and related support.”The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told journalists on Monday that “momentum” had been created by the Iran truce but “we won’t hold our breath for this to happen today and tomorrow”.Israel launched its campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.

‘In our blood’: Egyptian women reclaim belly dance from stigma

As belly dancing gains popularity internationally, young Egyptian performers are working to restore its reputation at home, pushing back against decades of stigma to reclaim the dance as part of their artistic heritage.Once iconic figures of Egypt’s cinematic golden age, belly dancers have watched their prestige wane, their art increasingly confined to nightclubs and wedding halls.”No woman can be a belly dancer today and feel she’s truly respected,” said Safy Akef, an instructor and great-niece of dance legend Naima Akef, a fixture on the silver screen during the 1950s.Despite her celebrated lineage, Safy, 33, has never performed on stage in Egypt.”Once the show ends, the audience doesn’t respect you, they objectify you,” she told AFP.Today, belly dance is known for skin-baring theatrics performed by foreign dancers and a handful of Egyptians. The shift has fuelled moral disapproval in the conservative society and pushed even the descendants of iconic starlets away.”People ask me all the time where they can see belly dancing that does justice to the art,” said Safaa Saeed, 32, an instructor at a Cairo dance school. “I struggle to answer,” she told AFP.Saeed, who was enchanted by Akef as a child, is now part of a movement led by choreographer Amie Sultan to reframe the art as part of Egyptian heritage, fit for theatres, festivals and UNESCO recognition.- Colonial baggage -A classically trained ballerina turned belly dancer, Sultan prefers to call what is formally known as oriental dance baladi, from the Arabic word “balad”, meaning homeland.”Baladi reflects the soul of who we are.””But now it carries images of superficial entertainment, disconnected from its roots,” she told AFP.This disconnection, Sultan said, stems from shifting moral codes — and colonial baggage.In her book “Imperialism and the Heshk Beshk”, author Shatha Yehia traces the artform’s roots to ancient Egypt, but says the modern colloquial term only emerged in the 19th century, coined by French colonisers as danse du ventre, or “dance of the belly”.While descriptive, the phrase exoticised the movement and shaped perceptions both at home and abroad.”Heshk beshk”, an old onomatopoeic Egyptian expression evoking a performer’s shaking moves, “is not merely a label for the dancer”, Yehia writes. “It is the Egyptian vernacular version of a femme fatale, the destructive woman who wields her body and feminine power to get what she wants. It’s not just a label of vulgarity or immorality, it’s synonymous with evil and debauchery.”Yehia argues that views on “heshk beshk” — now shorthand for provocative, lowbrow dancing — were shaped both by Western imperialism and local conservatism.The fallout has been generational.Akef’s great-aunt was a star who “acted, danced and created iconic film tableaux”.But Safy instead has chosen to train others, including in Japan, where she spent three years teaching Egyptian folk and belly dance.  – ‘Place of our own’ -Sultan launched the Taqseem Institute, named after the improvisational solos of Arabic music, in 2022.Since then, dozens of women have been trained at the school, seven of whom now teach full-time.The students are trained not only in choreography, but also in musicality, history and theory.They study the evolution of Egyptian dance from pre-cinema figures like Bamba Kashshar and Badia Masabni through the golden age icons like Tahiya Carioca and Samia Gamal.Sultan even takes the message to universities, giving talks to demystify the art form for new audiences, while her dancers work to preserve its history.In 2023, she staged El-Naddaha, a performance blending Sufi themes with traditional and contemporary Egyptian movement.Still, challenges remain.”We want to have a place of our own — like the old theatres — a teatro where we can regularly perform,” Saeed said.Sultan is also pushing for official recognition.She has begun the process of campaigning for the dance to be inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.But the path is long and requires support from the country’s culture authorities.For the time being, the dancers at Taqseem focus on their next performance.Barefoot and clad in fitted dancewear, they hold one final run-through, undulating to a melody by Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum as the beat of a tabla drum echoes.It’s a dream come true for Saeed, who has been dancing since she was a child.”I believe it’s in our blood,” she said with a smile.

Trump dismantles Syria sanctions program as Israel ties eyed

President Donald Trump on Monday formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, hoping to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy as Israel eyes ties with its new leadership.Trump lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia and Turkey after former Islamist guerrilla Ahmed al-Sharaa ended a half-century of rule by the Assad family.In an executive order, Trump terminated the “national emergency” in place since 2004 that imposed far-reaching sanctions on Syria, affecting most state-run institutions including the central bank.”These actions reflect the president’s vision of fostering a new relationship between the United States and a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.Rubio said he would start the potentially lengthy process of examining whether to delist Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation dating from 1979 that has severely discouraged investment.He also said he would look at removing the terrorist classification of Sharaa and his movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once linked to Al-Qaeda. The United States already removed a bounty on Sharaa’s head after he came to power.Brad Smith, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, said the new actions “will end the country’s isolation from the international financial system.”Syria recently carried out its first electronic transfer through the international banking system since around the time it descended into a brutal civil war in 2011.The orders still maintain sanctions on elements of the former government, including Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia late last year.Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani hailed the US move as a “major turning point.””With the lifting of this major obstacle to economic recovery, the long-awaited doors are opening for reconstruction and development” as are the conditions “for the dignified return of displaced Syrians to their homeland,” he wrote on X.- Israel sees opportunity -Israel kept pounding military sites in its historic adversary after the fall of Assad and initially voiced skepticism over the trajectory of its neighbor under Sharaa, who has swapped jihadist attire for a business suit.But Israel said earlier Monday that it was interested in normalizing ties with Syria as well as Lebanon in an expansion of the so-called “Abraham Accords,” in what would mark a major transformation of the Middle East.Iran’s clerical state’s once-strong influence in Syria and Lebanon has declined sharply under pressure from Israeli military strikes since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.Trump administration officials argued that lifting the sanctions on Syria would better integrate the country into the region and incentivize it to open up to Israel.Israel’s intensive attacks on Iran in June opened a “window that has never existed,” said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who serves as Trump’s pointman on Syria.”It’s an opportunity that we have never, ever seen, and this president’s put together a team that can actually get it done,” Barrack told reporters.Despite his upbeat picture of the new Syrian leader, the country has seen a series of major attacks against minorities since the fall of Assad, a largely secular leader from the Alawite minority sect.At least 25 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a suspected Islamist attack against a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus on June 22.Until Trump’s surprise announcement of sanctions relief during a trip to Saudi Arabia, the United States had insisted on progress first in key areas including protection of minorities.

Netanyahu to visit White House as Gaza truce pressure mounts

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week for talks with President Donald Trump, a US official said Monday, as Washington ramps up the pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza.The July 7 visit — Netanyahu’s third since Trump returned to power in January — comes after Trump said that he hoped for a truce in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory within a week.A Trump administration official confirmed the visit to AFP on condition of anonymity.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Netanyahu had “expressed interest” in a meeting with Trump and that both sides were “working on a date.”This has been a priority for the president since he took office, to end this brutal war in Gaza,” Leavitt told reporters in a briefing.”It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end.”A senior Israeli official, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, is due to visit the White House this week for talks to lay the ground for Netanyahu’s visit, Leavitt said.Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to visit Trump in his second term in February, when the US president surprised him by suddenly announcing a plan for the United States to “take over” Gaza.The Israeli premier visited again in April.The end of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has provided a window of opportunity for a deal, with Trump keen to add another peace agreement to a series of recent deals he has brokered.”We think even next week, we’re going to get a ceasefire,” Trump told reporters on Friday. He followed up by pressing Israel in a post on his Truth Social network on Sunday to “make the deal in Gaza”.But on the ground, Israel has continued to pursue its offensive across the Palestinian territory in a bid to destroy the militant group Hamas. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 51 people on Monday, including 24 at a seafront rest area.Trump meanwhile appeared to leverage US aid to Israel at the weekend as he called for that country’s prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Netanyahu.”The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Trump posted.The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Of these, 49 are still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.

Over 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June ahead of return deadline: IOM

More than 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June, most of them deported, as returns surge ahead of a deadline set by Tehran, the United Nations migration agency said on Monday.The number of returns from Iran rose dramatically in recent weeks. Afghans have reported increased deportations ahead of the July 6 deadline announced by Iran for undocumented Afghans to leave the country.From June 1-28, 233,941 people returned from Iran to Afghanistan, International Organization for Migration spokesman Avand Azeez Agha told AFP, with 131,912 returns recorded in the week of June 21-28 alone. Since January, “691,049 people have returned, 70 percent of whom were forcibly sent back”, he added. For several days last week, the number reached 30,000 per day, the IOM said, with numbers expected to increase ahead of the deadline.Afghans spilled into an IOM-run reception centre out of buses arriving back-to-back at the Islam Qala border point in western Afghanistan’s Herat province on Saturday. The recent returns have been marked by a sharp increase in the number of families instead of individuals, the UN said, with men, women and children lugging suitcases carrying all their belongings.Many have few assets and few prospects for work, with Afghanistan facing entrenched poverty and steep unemployment.The country is four years into a fragile recovery from decades of war under Taliban authorities, who have called for a “dignified” return of migrants and refugees from neighbouring countries.Kabul’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi raised the Taliban government’s concerns in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador, according to a statement, saying: “A coordinated mechanism should be put in place for the gradual return of migrants.” The cash-strapped government faces challenges in integrating the influx of returnees, which has piled on to hundreds of thousands also forced out in recent years from Pakistan — another traditional host of Afghans fleeing conflict and humanitarian crises.Severe international aid cuts have also hamstrung UN and NGO responses, with the IOM saying it was “only able to assist a fraction of those in need”.”On some high-volume days, such as recently at Islam Qala, assistance reached as few as three percent of undocumented returnees,” it said in a recent statement.Returnees AFP spoke to in recent days at the border cited mounting pressure by Iranian authorities and increased deportations, with none pointing to the recent Iran-Israel conflict as a spur to leave the country.However, “regional instability — particularly the fallout from the Israel-Iran conflict — and shifting host country policies have accelerated returns, overwhelming Afghanistan’s already fragile humanitarian and development systems”, the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said in a statement.Samiullah Ahmadi, 28, was seeing his country of origin for the first time when he crossed the border.Unsure of what he would do once he reached the Afghan capital Kabul with his family, he was defiant in response to the pressures to return.”I was born there (Iran). But the situation for Afghans is such that no matter how good you are or even if you have valid documents, they still don’t treat you with respect.”