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Israel’s security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, after top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front against Hamas and Iran.Rubio was in Israel on his first Middle East trip as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, and was slated to leave for Saudi Arabia on Monday.”Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated,” Rubio said of the Palestinian Islamist group that fought Israel for more than 15 months in Gaza until a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.Standing beside him, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy”, and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages still held by militants in Gaza are not freed.The comments came a day after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners — the sixth such swap under the ceasefire deal, which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which has been further strained by Trump’s widely condemned proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.”We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu said.The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month as Netanyahu visited Washington lacked details, but he said it would entail moving Gazans to Jordan or Egypt. – ‘The only plan’ -Washington, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Rubio has said for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan”.However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have rejected his proposal, and instead favour the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday said establishment of a Palestinian state was “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.After visiting Saudi Arabia, Rubio will also travel to the United Arab Emirates.The United States has been pushing for a potentially historic deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognise Israel, but Trump’s Gaza plan is complicating that effort. Riyadh has said repeatedly that it needs to see progress towards a Palestinian state before taking such a step.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which nearly collapsed last week.”At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war and displacing people,” said Nasser al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis.Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.In a statement, Rubio condemned Hamas’s hostage-taking as “sick depravity” and called for the immediate release of all remaining captives, living and dead, particularly five Israeli-American dual nationals.Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two.It said the prime minister was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one.The team would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after the cabinet meeting, the office said.- ‘Finish the job’ -The Gaza war has rippled across the Middle East, triggering violence in Yemen and Lebanon, where Iran backs militant groups.  Israel fought a related war with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, severely weakening itbefore a ceasefire took effect on November 27.Israeli troops were meant to withdraw over a 60-day period but this was later extended to February 18.Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Sunday “Israel must fully withdraw” on the Tuesday deadline.”It is the responsibility of the Lebanese state” to exert every effort “to make Israel withdraw”, he said in a televised address.There have also been limited direct strikes by Iran and Israel against each other.Rubio called Iran the “single greatest source of instability in the region”.Netanyahu said that with the support of the Trump administration, “I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job” against Iran.He later hailed Israel’s cooperation with Trump, saying “there has never been such a partnership, and there has never been the potential to remove threats and truly bring opportunities we simply never dreamed of”.The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,271 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near south Gaza’s Rafah in what the militant group called a “serious violation” of the truce. Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in south Gaza.It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire began.burs/rsc/tym

Kolkata locals cherish their city’s past, which is why many in the one-time Indian capital are mourning a vanishing emblem of its faded grandeur: a hulking and noisy fleet of stately yellow taxis.The snub-nosed Hindustan Ambassador, first rolling off the assembly line in the 1950s with a design that barely changed in the decades since, …

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Japan’s economic growth slowed sharply last year, official data showed Monday, although the rate for the fourth quarter topped expectations.The figures come as Japanese companies fret over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, including import tariffs, on the world’s fourth largest economy.Gross domestic product expanded 0.1 percent in 2024, well down …

Japan 2024 growth slows despite stronger fourth quarter Read More »

Hezbollah’s chief said Sunday it was the government’s responsibility to ensure the Israeli army withdraws from Lebanon by a looming ceasefire deadline, as Israel carried out air strikes in the country.The developments came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking from Jerusalem, called on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah following its recent war with Washington’s closest regional ally Israel.Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), meanwhile, reported Israeli forces opened fire towards the southern border town of Hula “after residents entered”, killing a woman.The violence followed unrest this week over the government’s decision to block Iranian flights, which saw a UN peacekeeper convoy attacked during a protest.”Israel must fully withdraw on February 18, it has no excuse,” Hezbollah’s Naim Qassem said in a televised address.”It is the responsibility of the Lebanese state” to exert every effort “to make Israel withdraw”, he added.A fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group has been in effect since November 27 after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war.Under the deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was later extended to February 18.Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.Both sides have accused the other of violations.NNA also reported on Sunday three Israeli air strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley.The Israeli military said it conducted air strikes targeting Hezbollah military sites storing weapons including rocket launchers in Lebanon, without specifying where.- ‘Must be disarmed’ -During a joint address with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, top US diplomat Rubio said that “in the case of Lebanon, our goals are aligned… A strong Lebanese state that can take on and disarm Hezbollah”.Netanyahu said Israel would do what it has to in order to “enforce” the ceasefire.”Hezbollah must be disarmed. And Israel would prefer that the Lebanese army do that job, but no one should doubt that Israel will do what it has to do to enforce the understandings of the ceasefire and defend our security,” Netanyahu said.Hezbollah was left weakened by the war, which saw a slew of senior commanders and even its longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli strikes.Qassem called for broad participation in Nasrallah’s funeral, set for next Sunday, as a show of the group’s strength. Protests erupted this week when authorities blocked Iranian planes from landing in Beirut, and a UN convoy was attacked near Beirut airport during a protest involving Hezbollah supporters, wounding two peacekeepers.Qassem said that the prime minister’s office had been informed “that Israel will strike the Beirut airport runway if the Iranian plane lands”.Israel’s military warned this week that Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah were using civilian flights to smuggle money for re-arming the Lebanese group.Israel has previously accused Hezbollah of using Beirut’s airport to transport Iranian weapons, allegations the group and the Lebanese authorities deny.- ‘Gravely mistaken’ -“The prime minister decided to prevent it under the banner of aviation and civilian safety… The problem is that this is implementing an Israeli order,” Qassem added.A Lebanese source told AFP on Saturday that Lebanon had denied permission for Iranian flights to land twice this week, after the United States warned Israel might strike the airport.Hezbollah earlier Sunday urged the government to reverse the decision.Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted the head of its civil aviation organisation Hossein Pourfarzaneh as saying the body was “following up on this issue daily” and “waiting to see what will happen on February 18”.Hezbollah lost a supply route when Islamist-led rebels in December ousted ally Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.Rubio said that “while the fall of Assad is certainly promising”, Washington would be watching Syria “very carefully”.Netanyahu warned “Israel will act to prevent any threat from emerging near our border in southwest Syria”.”If any force in Syria today believes that Israel will permit other hostile forces to use Syria as a base of operations against us, they are gravely mistaken,” he added.Israel conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria after war broke out there in 2011, mainly targeting Assad government forces and pro-Iran groups including Hezbollah.It also conducted strikes after Assad’s fall, and Israeli troops have entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front Sunday against their common enemies, threatening to “open the gates of hell” on Hamas and “finish the job” against Iran.The pledges came during a joint address to reporters in Jerusalem, where Rubio began his first Middle East trip as secretary of state in President Donald Trump’s new administration.”Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated,” Rubio said of the Palestinian Islamist group that fought Israel for more than 15 months in Gaza until a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.Standing beside Rubio, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy”, and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages still held by militants in Gaza are not freed.The comments came a day after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners — the sixth such swap under the ceasefire deal, which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.Netanyahu’s comment echoed one made by Trump ahead of Saturday’s swap. Trump had said “all hell” would break loose and that he would call for the truce deal’s cancellation if the hostages weren’t freed on Saturday.Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of ceasefire violations.Adding to strain on the deal, Trump has made a widely condemned proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.”We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu said.The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month while Netanyahu visited Washington lacked details, but he said it would entail moving Gazans to Jordan or Egypt. Trump said Palestinians had “lived a miserable existence” in Gaza, and suggested the coastal territory could be redeveloped into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.- ‘The only plan’ -Washington, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Rubio has said that for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan”.The international community, however, including Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, is largely in favour of a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state alongside Israel.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday said establishment of a Palestinian state was “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.Rubio is heading to Saudi Arabia on Monday, and will also visit the United Arab Emirates.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which nearly collapsed last week.”At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war and displacing people,” said Nasser al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis.Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.In a statement on Sunday, Rubio condemned Hamas’s hostage-taking and called for the immediate release of all remaining captives, living and dead, particularly five Israeli-American dual nationals.”The fact that these terrorists continue to hold hostages and even dead bodies reflects their sick depravity,” Rubio said. “I call on our partners to help impress upon Hamas’s leaders that they are playing with fire.”Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two.Separately, it said he was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one.The team would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after Monday’s meeting, the office said.- ‘Finish the job’ -The Gaza war triggered violent fallout throughout the Middle East, where Iran backs militant groups including in Yemen and Lebanon. Israel fought a related war with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, severely weakening it. There were also limited direct strikes by Iran and Israel against each other.Rubio called Iran the “single greatest source of instability in the region”.Netanyahu said that with the support of the Trump administration, “I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job” against Iran.The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,271 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near south Gaza’s Rafah in what the militant group called a “serious violation” of the truce. Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in south Gaza.It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire began.burs-lb/it/smw