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Israel PM says ‘committed’ to Trump’s Gaza plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he was “committed” to a US proposal to take over Gaza and displace its Palestinian residents, as Washington’s top diplomat was in Saudi Arabia to push the plan opposed by Arab states.As US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began a visit to Saudi Arabia, a Saudi source told AFP Riyadh would host a regional summit later this week “to discuss Arab alternatives” to President Donald Trump’s widely criticised plan for the Gaza Strip.Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait will be represented at the Friday summit, the source said.Rubio travelled to Riyadh from Israel, where he kicked off his first Middle East trip as Trump’s secretary of state.Following his meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday, Rubio said Hamas “must be eliminated”, while the Israeli premier touted a “common strategy” between the two allies.In a statement Monday, Netanyahu said he was “committed to US President Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza”, also promising the after the war, “there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” ruling the territory.The United States, 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”.The United States has been pushing for a historic deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognise Israel, for which Riyadh has demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state — long opposed by Israeli leaders and potentially in contradiction with Trump’s Gaza plan.Since it came into effect nearly a month ago, Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the Gaza truce, which has been further strained by Trump’s proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and move its more than two million residents.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 negotiators dispatched to Cairo would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after the cabinet meeting.- ‘Restarting the war’ -Earlier Netanyahu said he spoke with Rubio about “Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future” — which experts have warned would violate international law — and about way to “ensure that vision becomes a reality”.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which appeared close to collapse 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 took effect on January 19, a total of 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.The families of the hostages still in Gaza on Monday marked 500 days of their captivity, holding pictures of their loved ones and banners reading “Home Now” as dozens marched towards Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.”My eyes burn from the tears I have shed for the past 500 days,” said Einav Tzangauker, whose son Matan is among those held in Gaza.Addressing lawmakers, she pleaded with them to “do everything possible to bring my son Matan and the other hostages home alive”.In a statement, Rubio called for the immediate release of all remaining captives.- ‘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.A Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike in the southern city of Sidon on Monday killed Mohammed Shahine, a military unit commander from Hamas. The Israeli military claimed the strike, accusing Shahine of planning attacks.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.Iran on Monday condemned Netanyahu’s remarks, calling them “a gross violation of international law”.Hamas’s October 7 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.burs/jsa/ami

France tries five for kidnapping journalists in Syria

Five men went on trial in France on Monday charged with holding four French journalists hostage for the Islamic State jihadist group in war-torn Syria more than a decade ago.IS emerged in 2013 in the chaos that followed the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, slowly gaining ground before declaring a caliphate in large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.The jihadists kidnapped a number of foreign journalists and aid workers before US-backed forces eventually defeated the group in 2019.Reporters Didier Francois and Edouard Elias, and then Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres, were abducted 10 days apart while reporting from northern Syria in June 2013. The journalists were held by the IS group in Aleppo for 10 months until their release in April 2014. They were found blindfolded with their hands bound in the no-man’s land straddling the border between Syria and Turkey.More than a decade later, jailed jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, is among five men accused of their kidnapping at a trial to last until March 21.Nemmouche is already in prison after a Belgian court jailed him for life in 2019 for killing four people at a Jewish museum in May 2014, after returning from Syria.”I was never the jailer of the Western hostages or any other hostage, and I never met these people in Syria,” Nemmouche told the Paris court, breaking his silence after not speaking throughout the Brussels trial or during the investigation.All four journalists told investigators they were sure Nemmouche was their jailer.Henin, in a magazine article in September 2014, recounted Nemmouche, then called Abu Omar, punching him in the face and terrorising Syrian detainees.He described him as “a self-centred fantasist for whom jihad was finally an excuse to satisfy his morbid thirst for notoriety. A young man lost and perverse”.- Two defendants believed dead -Also in the dock are Frenchman Abdelmalek Tanem, 35, who has already been sentenced in France for heading to fight in Syria in 2012, and a 41-year-old Syrian called Kais Al Abdallah, accused of facilitating Henin’s kidnapping. Both have denied the charges.Belgian jihadist Oussama Atar, a senior IS commander, is being tried in absentia because he is presumed to have died in Syria in 2017. He has already been sentenced to life over attacks in Paris in 2015 claimed by IS that killed 130 people, and Brussels bombings by the group that took the lives of 32 others in 2016.French IS member Salim Benghalem, who was allegedly in charge of the hostages, is also on trial though believed to be dead.Governments have said hundreds of Westerners joined extremist groups in Syria.Two US journalists, James Foley and Stephen Sotloff — with whom all four French journalists said they were kept for a period — were videotaped being beheaded by a militant who spoke on camera with a British accent.El Shafee Elsheikh, a jihadist from London, was found guilty in 2022 of hostage-taking and conspiracy to murder US citizens — Foley and Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — and supporting a “terrorist” organisation.

‘Now or never’ for pandemic accord, says WHO chief after US pulls out

The head of the World Health Organization insisted on Monday it was “now or never” to strike a landmark global accord on tackling future pandemics, despite the United States withdrawing from negotiations.WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said no country could protect itself from the next pandemic on its own — three days after US President Donald Trump’s administration formally told the United Nations health agency it would play no further part in the pandemic agreement talks.”We are at a crucial point as you move to finalise the pandemic agreement in time for the World Health Assembly” in May, Tedros told WHO member states at the opening of the week-long 13th round of negotiations at the organisation’s Geneva headquarters.”It really is a case of now or never. But I am confident that you will choose “now” because you know what is at stake.”A further one-week session is planned to finalise the agreement before the WHO’s annual decision-making assembly.In December 2021, fearing a repeat of the devastation wrought by Covid-19 — which killed millions of people, crippled health systems and crashed economies — countries decided to draft a new accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.While much of the draft text has been agreed, disputes remain over some key provisions, notably over sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential and then equitably sharing the benefits derived from them, such as vaccines, tests and treatments.- ‘Protect future generations’ -“You remember the hard-won lessons of Covid-19, which left an estimated 20 million of our brothers and sisters dead, and which continues to kill. “They are why we are here — to protect future generations from the impact of future pandemics,” said Tedros.”The next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. There are reminders all around us — Ebola, Marburg, measles, mpox, influenza and the threat of the next disease X.”Hours after returning to office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to start the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, an organisation he has repeatedly criticised over its handling of Covid-19.The order also said that during the withdrawal process, Washington would “cease negotiations” on the pandemic agreement.Tedros said Washington had formally notified the WHO on Friday of its withdrawal from the agreement talks.”No country can protect itself by itself. Bilateral agreements will only get you so far,” Tedros said, adding that prevention, preparedness and response was the responsibility of all countries.”Like the decision to withdraw from WHO, we regret this decision and we hope the US will reconsider,” he said.

Israel security cabinet to discuss new phase of Gaza truce

Israel’s security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, as top US diplomat Marco Rubio began a visit to Saudi Arabia where he will push Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza.Rubio travelled to Riyadh from Israel, where he kicked off his first Middle East trip as Trump’s secretary of state.”Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated,” Rubio said in Israel of the Palestinian Islamist group whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered a 15-month war that has devastated Gaza.Standing beside him, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy”, and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages 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 move its more than two million residents out of the territory.”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’ -The United States, 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 a Palestinian state would be “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.After 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.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which came close to collapse 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 took effect on January 19, a total of 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 on 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.Iran on Monday condemned Netanyahu’s remarks, calling them “a gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter”.Hamas’s October 7 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.burs/ser/dv