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Israel said Sunday it was suspending the entry of aid into Gaza, where both Israel and Palestinian sources reported Israeli military strikes as Hamas alleged a “coup” against a six-week old truce.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported at least four killed and six wounded in Israeli attacks. As the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close with negotiations inconclusive, Israel early Sunday approved a truce extension it said US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff proposed.The extension would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favouring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase.As outlined by former US president Joe Biden, the second phase would bring a permanent end to the war that began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel.The truce’s first phase saw an increase of aid into the territory, where the war destroyed or damaged most of Gaza’s buildings, displaced almost the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the United Nations.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended”.It said there would be “consequences” for Hamas if it did not accept the temporary truce extension.- A ‘forever’ truce -On a sandy street in Gaza City, Mays Abu Amer, 21, expressed hope the ceasefire can continue “for a longer period of time and forever as well. Because we have so much destruction, we need a lot of time for reconstruction.”Hamas said the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”.Gaza’s civil defence agency reported “artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli tanks” east of Khan Yunis city in southern Gaza. The Israeli army said it was “unaware of any artillery shelling in this area”.The Palestine Red Crescent, however, reported one person killed in an Israeli drone strike in the area, and one more killed in another town nearby.The military said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza targeting suspects it said had “planted an explosive device” near its troops.Including the deaths on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry has recorded 116 people killed by Israel’s military since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, substantially reducing violence.Mediator Egypt, the Red Cross and the UN have all appealed for the truce to be maintained. “There is no alternative to the faithful and full implementation by all parties of what was signed last January,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said. He called for the European Union to exert pressure on the parties “especially the Israeli” side.Following the announcement of the aid suspension, AFP images showed trucks loaded with goods lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing to Gaza.Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is crucial to keeping Netanyahu’s government in power, welcomed the decision to suspend aid.According to Israel, the truce extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem later said Israel “bears responsibility for the consequences of its decision on the people of the Strip and the fate of its prisoners”.Its allied militant group, Islamic Jihad, accused Israel of “sabotaging” the ceasefire.Of the 251 captives taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.- ‘Return all of them’ -On Sunday, Israeli mourners who turned out to farewell Shlomo Mansour, 85, whose body had been held in Gaza, said more should be done to get the remaining captives home.”Return all of them immediately and then think about what to do,” said Vardit Roiter. Mansour’s was among four bodies that militants handed over on Thursday under the truce’s first phase.They were among a total of eight bodies and 25 living hostages Hamas handed over under the initial phase, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.The aid suspension comes as Palestinians in Gaza, alongside much of the Muslim world, mark the second day of the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast.In November, a UN-backed assessment found “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent” within northern Gaza.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday called such warnings “a lie during all this war.”Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliation in Gaza killed more than 48,300 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top military supplier, on Saturday said he signed a declaration “to expedite” delivery of about $4 billion in military assistance to Israel.Abu Mohammed al-Basyuni, 56, had a message for America: “Enough bias towards one party,” he said among debris in Gaza City.”As a people, we have the right to life and the right to coexist. Animals have rights. What about humans?”

Israel said Sunday that it was suspending the entry of supplies into Gaza, with deadly attacks reported in the territory after it and Hamas hit an impasse over how to proceed with their fragile ceasefire.As the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close, Israel gave its backing to an extension it said was put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favouring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase, which would see the release of all remaining hostages and a more permanent end to the fighting in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended,” his office said in a statement.”If Hamas persists with its refusal, there will be other consequences,” it added.Hamas slammed the move, saying in a statement that the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”.Gaza’s civil defence agency, meanwhile, reported “artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli tanks” east of Khan Yunis city, in the southern Gaza Strip.Approached for comment, the Israeli army said it was “unaware of any artillery shelling in this area”.The Palestine Red Crescent, however, reported one person killed in an Israeli drone strike in the area, and one more killed in another town nearby.The army also said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza targeting suspects it said had “planted an explosive device” near its troops.Gaza’s health ministry later reported at least four killed and six wounded in Israeli attacks on Sunday.- ‘Punitive measures’ -Following the announcement of the aid suspension, Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri wrote on X: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.”Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is crucial to keeping Netanyahu’s government in power, welcomed the decision to suspend aid as “an important step in the right direction”, calling for a renewed fight “until total victory” against Hamas.”We have remained in government to ensure this,” he added.According to Israel, the truce extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.Hamas called on “mediators and the international community to pressure” Israel to “put an end to these punitive, immoral measures against more than two million people in the Gaza Strip”.Its spokesman Hazem Qassem later said Israel “bears responsibility for the consequences of its decision on the people of the Strip and the fate of its prisoners”.A senior Hamas official had earlier told AFP the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.At a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, supporters and family members of the hostages demanded the government secure their freedom.”The current crisis in the negotiations is a deliberate crisis, orchestrated and manipulated by Netanyahu,” said Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is still in Gaza.- ‘Iftar on our land’ -Under the first phase, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight others, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.Of the 251 captives taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.More than 15 months of war created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly warning the territory was on the brink of famine before the ceasefire allowed a surge of aid to enter.But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday dismissed warnings of famine in Gaza.”With regards to this starvation [claim], that was a lie during all this war,” Saar told a press conference.The suspension of aid comes as Palestinians in Gaza, alongside much of the Muslim world, mark the second day of the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast.On Saturday evening, Gazans gathered amid destroyed buildings for a fast-breaking iftar meal as they entered their second Ramadan under the shadow of war.”We are here in the midst of destruction and rubble, and we are steadfast despite the pain and our wounds,” said Beit Lahia resident Mohammed Abu Al-Jidyan.”Here we are eating iftar on our land and we will not leave this place.”The war has left much of Gaza in ruins, displaced the vast majority of its residents and killed more than 48,388 people, mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures the UN has deemed reliable.It began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.Washington has announced it is boosting its military aid to Israel.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late Saturday he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance”.

Israel endorsed a proposal on Sunday to temporarily extend the truce in Gaza as a bridging measure after the first phase of its ceasefire with Hamas drew to a close.The first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas was set to expire over the weekend without any certainty as to the second phase, which is hoped to bring a more permanent end to the Gaza war.Negotiations have so far been inconclusive, with the fate of hostages still held in Gaza and the lives of more than two million Palestinians hanging in the balance.The extension, which according to the Israeli prime minister’s office was put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, would last through Ramadan, due to end late March, and Passover in mid-April.According to the Israeli statement, the extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza released on the day the deal comes into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.Hamas has previously rejected the idea of an extension in favour of moving on to phase two. “The only way to achieve stability in the region and the return of the prisoners is to complete the implementation of the agreement… starting with the implementation of the second phase,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said in a statement given to AFP on Sunday.The standoff over how to proceed with the truce process comes as world leaders and international organisation urge against any resumption of fighting, which after 15 months devastated Gaza, displaced almost the entire population of the coastal strip and sparked a hunger crisis.United Nations head Antonio Guterres warned against a “catastrophic” return to war and said a “permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages are essential to preventing escalation and averting more devastating consequences for civilians”.Meanwhile Washington announced late Saturday it was boosting its military aid to Israel.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance,” noting that a partial arms embargo imposed under former president Joe Biden had been reversed.Israeli officials engaged in ceasefire negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators in Cairo last week. But by early Saturday there was no sign of consensus as Muslims in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan with coloured lights brightening war-damaged neighbourhoods. A senior Hamas official told AFP the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.”Hamas will not be happy to drag on phase one, but it doesn’t really have the capacity to force Israel to go on to phase two,” Max Rodenbeck, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, told AFP.- Hamas hostage video -Under the six-week ceasefire that took effect on January 19, Gaza militants freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.The deal, reached following months of gruelling negotiations, largely halted the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.While Hamas on several occasions reiterated its “readiness to engage in negotiations for its second phase”, Israel preferred to secure more hostage releases under an extension of the first phase.A Palestinian source close to the talks told AFP that Israel had proposed to extend the first phase in successive one-week intervals with a view to conducting hostage-prisoner swaps each week, adding that Hamas had rejected the plan.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack, 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Hamas’s armed wing released footage showing what appeared to be a group of Israeli hostages in Gaza, accompanied with the message: “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive”. AFP was unable to immediately verify the video, the latest that militants have released of Gaza captives. Netanyahu’s office called it “cruel propaganda” but Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the Horn family, two of whose members appear in the video, had given permission for the footage of them to be published.Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn was released on February 15 but his brother Eitan remains in captivity in Gaza.”We demand from the decision-makers: Look Eitan in the eyes. Don’t stop the agreement that has already brought dozens of hostages back to us,” the family said.- Netanyahu’s coalition worries -Domestic political considerations are a factor in Netanyahu’s reluctance to begin the planned second stage.Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the far-right faction in the governing coalition, has threatened to quit if the war is not resumed.”The Israeli government could fall if we enter phase two,” said Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence for risk management consultancy Le Beck International.Israel has said it needs to retain troops in a strip of Gaza along the Egyptian border to stop arms smuggling by Hamas. The Hamas attack that began the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, while the Israeli retaliation has killed 48,388 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, figures from both sides show.

A highly anticipated trial of several prominent Tunisian opposition figures accused of plotting against state security is set to start Tuesday, with critics and rights groups denouncing it as unfair and politically motivated.The case has named around 40 high-profile defendants — including former diplomats, politicians, lawyers and media figures — some of whom have been outspoken critics of President Kais Saied.Many were detained following a flurry of arrests in February 2023, after Saied dubbed them “terrorists”.The group faces charges of “plotting against the state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to lawyers, which could entail hefty sentences.They include politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek, a former senior figure in the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party Abdelhamid Jelassi, and Issam Chebbi, a founder of the opposition National Salvation Front (FSN) coalition — all staunch critics of Saied.Saied was elected in 2019 after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy following the Arab Spring.But in 2021, he staged a sweeping power grab, and human rights groups have since warned of a rollback on freedoms.- ‘Judicial madness’ -The long-awaited case has also charged activists Khayam Turki and Chaima Issa, businessman Kamel Eltaief, and Bochra Belhaj Hmida, a former member of parliament and human rights activist now living in France.French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy was also named among the accused, as a number of them are suspected of getting in contact with foreign parties and diplomats.Addressing the public in a letter from his cell, Ben Mbarek said the case aimed at “the methodical elimination of critical voices” and he denounced “judicial harassment”.Ben Mbarek was one of the founders of the FSN, which remains the main opposition coalition to Saied.His sister Dalila Msaddek, a lawyer who is part of the defence committee, told AFP the charges were “based on false testimony”.The defence committee has said that judicial authorities decided to hold the trial remotely, without the presence of the detained defendants.Their relatives and rights groups said the move was not fair, calling for all the defendants to stand before the judge.”It’s one of the conditions for a fair trial,” said Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the FSN and himself named in the case.Riadh Chaibi, a former Ennahdha official, said the case had “no reasoning”.”This is a case where the witnesses are secret, the evidence is secret and they want the trial to be secret too,” he told reporters in the capital Tunis.Also a member of Ennahdha, lawyer Samir Dilou called it “judicial madness”.- ‘Arbitrary detentions’ -Ben Mbarek’s father, leftist activist Ezzeddine Hazgui, told AFP he felt “bitter” about voting for Saied in 2019.His son, too, “had fought like a devil” to get Saied elected, according to Msaddek.She said while several people prosecuted in the case are in custody, some remain free pending trial and others have fled abroad.Other critics of Saied have been detained and charged in different cases, including under a law combatting “false news”.In early February, Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi, 83, was sentenced to 22 years in prison — also for plotting against state security, though in a separate case.The United Nations urged Tunisian authorities last month to bring “an end to the pattern of arrests, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment of dozens of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, activists and politicians”.Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry expressed “astonishment” over the UN’s “inaccuracies and criticisms”.It insisted the cases cited by the UN involved “public law crimes unrelated to political, party or media activities, or the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression”.”Tunisia can give lessons to those who think they are in a position to make statements,” it added.

A high-stakes father-and-son feud has plunged Singapore property giant City Developments Ltd (CDL) into turmoil, with the private boardroom dispute of one of the city-state’s wealthiest families erupting into public view this week. The battle of words between CDL’s executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng and his son Sherman Kwek has exposed deep rifts within the Forbes-ranked …

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