AFP Asia Business

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return to Israel from Washington.Trump set out a plan earlier this week to move the Gazans out of the territory to other countries in the region, while the United States would take charge of redeveloping it, sparking a diplomatic backlash.  Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians were on Sunday able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, a strategic zone cutting the narrow territory in two, after Israeli troops were said to have withdrawn.”Israeli forces have dismantled their positions… and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” said an official from the Hamas-run interior ministry.AFP journalists saw no troops in the area, as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts travelled north and south along the road.Gaza resident Mahmoud al-Sarhi said “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning”.This is “the first time I saw our destroyed house”, he told AFP of his home in the nearby Zeitun area.”The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here.”A senior Hamas official said the Israeli withdrawal from Netzarim had been scheduled for Sunday under the terms of the truce that took effect on January 19.- ‘I thought you were dead’ -Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces had shot dead three civilians in Gaza City north of Netzarim on Sunday. The military said it had fired “warning shots” and hit Palestinians who had approached troops.The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the ceasefire agreed ahead of Trump’s inauguration has largely halted the fighting.The 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,181 people in the territory.Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released. The release also brought the first indication in 16 months that hostage Alon Ohel is alive.But a statement from his family released by campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum added: “He is wounded and not receiving medical treatment.” Halfway around the world in Bangkok on Sunday, five Thai farm workers held hostage by Hamas and freed in an earlier swap wept with joy as they returned home.”You are back, I thought you were dead,” the grandfather of 33-year-old Watchara Sriaoun told him.- ‘Unacceptable’ -Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.Upon his return to Israel from the United States, Netanyahu reiterated his support for the proposal during a cabinet meeting. “President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel — a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing,” the Israeli prime minister said. “He is very determined to implement it, and I believe it opens up many, many possibilities for us,” he added. Israel’s defence minister earlier in the week ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday became the latest world leaders to denounce Trump’s plan.”No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland,” Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul airport before flying to Malaysia.”Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians.” Scholz, speaking during a pre-election debate, described Trump’s plan as “a scandal”, adding: “The relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law.” – ‘Fantasies’ -With the region already on edge over Trump’s proposal, Netanyahu sparked fury when he said in a television interview that a Palestinian state — which he has long opposed — could be “in Saudi Arabia”.The Saudi foreign ministry stressed its “categorical rejection to such statements”, while Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said such ideas “are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions”.Egypt will host an Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “the latest serious developments” concerning the Palestinian territories, its foreign ministry said Sunday.Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was heading to Washington for talks, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II was due to meet Trump at the White House on February 11.

The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people on Sunday, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, while the military said it had “targeted terrorists” in a raid.It later said military police had launched an investigation into the death of the pregnant woman.Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.The Palestinian health ministry said 23-year-old Sundus Jamal Muhammad Shalabi was killed in a pre-dawn incident, with her husband Yazan Abu Shola critically injured.The mother-to-be was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.”Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.When asked by AFP about the shooting of the pregnant woman in Nur Shams, the Israeli military said “following the incident an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division”Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple was “trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car.”The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces”, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting defenceless civilians”.The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.A source in the camp’s popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house”.And late on Sunday the health ministry announced that a third Palestinian, Iyas Adli Fakhri al-Akhras, 20, had been killed “after being shot by Israeli forces” in the camp.The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incidents.AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.The Israeli military earlier said its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria”, using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.”The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area”.The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year.Violence there has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 887 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures. 

A Hamas official said Israeli troops completed their withdrawal on Sunday from a strategic road cutting through the Gaza Strip, part of a fragile truce deal that Israel said it was implementing.But diplomatic tensions were high after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest in an interview that a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi territory, drawing the ire of Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.As negotiations are set to begin on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which is intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war, Palestinians on Sunday were able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, where an Israeli checkpoint used to stand.An official from the Hamas-run interior ministry said “Israeli forces have dismantled their positions… and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions.”AFP journalists saw no troops in the area as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts travelled both north and south along the road.Gaza resident Mahmoud al-Sarhi said that “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning”.This is “the first time I saw our destroyed house,” he told AFP of his home in the nearby Zeitun area.”The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here.”A senior Hamas official said Israel’s Israeli withdrawal from Netzarim had been scheduled for Sunday under the terms of the truce that took effect on January 19.Asked about Sunday’s withdrawal, an Israeli security official told AFP on condition of anonymity: “We are preparing to implement the ceasefire agreement according to the guidelines of the political echelon.”This came as Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces shot dead three civilians in Gaza City north of Netzarim Sunday, with the military saying it fired “warning shots” and hit Palestinians who had approached troops.The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the ceasefire agreed ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration has largely halted the fighting.- ‘I thought you were dead’ -The 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the war has killed at least 48,181 people in the territory.Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.Netanyahu denounced Hamas as “monsters” after the handover of the three captives, who appeared emaciated and were forced to speak on a stage flanked by Hamas gunmen.The hospital treating former hostages Or Levy and Eli Sharabi said they were in a “poor medical condition”, while Ohad Ben Ami was in a “severe nutritional state”.Of the prisoners freed from Israeli jails, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said seven required hospitalisation, decrying “brutality” and mistreatment in jail.Half way around the world in Bangkok on Sunday, five Thai farm workers held hostage by Hamas and freed in an earlier swap wept with joy as they returned home.”You are back, I thought you were dead,” the grandfather of 33-year-old Watchara Sriaoun told him.- ‘Fantasies’ -On Saturday, Netanyahu ordered negotiators to return to Qatar, which helped mediate the truce, “to discuss technical details of the agreement”, his office said.It added that on his return to Israel from the United States where met Trump, Netanyahu will “hold a security cabinet meeting regarding negotiations for the second phase of the hostage release deal”.Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim on Saturday warned that Israel’s “lack of commitment in implementing the first phase… exposes this agreement to danger and thus it may stop or collapse”.Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.Israel’s defence minister later ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.Trump has ruled out sending in American troops, and in an interview with Fox News aired Saturday, Netanyahu said Israel was willing to “do the job”.With the region already on edge over Trump’s proposed displacement of Palestinians, Netanyahu sparked fury when he said in a television interview that a Palestinian state — which he has long opposed — could be “in Saudi Arabia”.The Saudi foreign ministry stressed its “categorical rejection to such statements”, while Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said such ideas “are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions”.Egypt will host an Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “the latest serious developments” concerning the Palestinian territories, its foreign ministry said Sunday.Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was heading to Washington for talks, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II was due to meet Trump at the White House on February 11.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead two women on Sunday, including one who was eight months pregnant, with the military saying it had “targeted terrorists” in a raid.It later said military police had launched an investigation into the death of the pregnant woman.Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.The Palestinian health ministry said 23-year-old Sundus Jamal Muhammad Shalabi was killed in a pre-dawn incident, with her husband Yazan Abu Shola critically injured.The mother-to-be was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.”Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.When asked by AFP about the shooting of the pregnant woman in Nur Shams, the Israeli military said “following the incident an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division”Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple “were trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car.”The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces”, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting defenceless civilians”.The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.A source in the camp’s popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house”.The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into both incidents.AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of what appeared to be empty buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.The Israeli military earlier said its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria”, using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.”The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area”.The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year.Violence there has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 886 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures. 

A long line of cars, tuk-tuks, small lorries and carts stretched along Gaza’s Salaheddin Road on Sunday after Israel withdrew its forces from a strategic area bisecting the territory.The traffic crawled slowly along the road, where mounds of earth had been piled high by now-departed Israeli bulldozers, into the eastern part of the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the northern Gaza Strip from its south.After more than 15 months of war, a fragile truce with Hamas that went into effect last month saw Israeli forces limiting their presence in the Gaza Strip.The Netzarim Corridor and Salaheddin Road reopened fully on Sunday, enabled by the Israeli withdrawal following the completion of a fifth hostage-prisoner exchange the day before as part of the truce deal.Among the vehicles wending their way along the dusty dirt road were lorries piled high with household belongings, blankets, carpets and furniture.Finally able to move around the area, many Palestinians returned to their homes to find them destroyed in the fighting.”What we saw was a catastrophe, horrific destruction. The (Israeli) occupation destroyed all the homes, shops, farms, mosques, universities and the courthouse,” said Osama Abu Kamil, a resident of Al-Maghraqa just north of Netzarim.The 57-year-old said he had been displaced by the war for more than a year, living in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.Now back to the north, Abu Kamil said he “will set up a tent for me and my family next to the rubble of our house. We have no choice.”He said that as displaced Gazans in makeshift shelters, they had “lived through severe suffering”.”Life in Gaza is worse than hell.”- ‘Very dangerous’ -The war, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023, saw the Israeli military relentlessly bombarding Gaza, leaving much of the already impoverished territory in ruins.More than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, and over 90 percent of Palestinians there have been displaced at least once, according to the United Nations.The violence has largely halted, but the population has been left drained and traumatised by the violence.Mahmoud al-Sarhi, a resident of Zeitun neighbourhood near the Netzarim Corridor, said that Sunday was “the first time I saw our destroyed house”.”Arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death — until this morning,” said the 44-year-old.While the Israeli forces have left, Sarhi said he still did not feel safe.”The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here. Israeli tanks can invade at any time. The area is unfit for normal living. It is very dangerous.”The scale of the destruction was visible on Al-Shuhada Street, which also crosses the Netzarim Corridor, with dozens of houses and some university buildings reduced to rubble.In some places, the road itself had been damaged in the fighting, with large craters visible.Workers had begun repairing some of the road.Mohamed Ali, 20, travelling from Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said conditions on the roads were “difficult because of the amount of destruction and bombing”.”God willing, the road will be better again,” he said.

Authorities in Iran ordered schools and offices in at least 10 provinces to close on Sunday to conserve energy amid a severe cold snap and heavy snowfall, state media reported.Freezing temperatures have gripped the northern half of the country over the past few days, causing a spike in energy consumption.”All government offices and schools are closed on Sunday, and remote learning has been arranged for students,” the state news agency IRNA announced.Among the provinces affected are Lorestan in the west, Semnan in the east and Gilan in the north.Some parts of Gilan, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Tehran, saw snow fall to a depth of 220 centimetres (87 inches), meteorologist Mohammad Dadras told the Fars news agency.The shutdown decision followed a similar measure on Saturday, when authorities ordered closures in more than 20 of the country’s 31 provinces because of the extreme weather.The capital also saw closures on Saturday but those affected reopened on Sunday — a working day — despite the wintry conditions.IRNA said on Sunday some areas of Tehran received up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) of snow overnight.The snowfall caused widespread traffic disruption, and some residents cleared snow as others enjoyed snowball fights in city parks.Snow is not unusual for Tehran in February, but the combination of heavy snow and sudden temperature drops caught many people off guard.Heavy snow and rain across most of the country on Sunday also led to road closures.IRNA reported travel disruptions in 25 provinces, with the heaviest impacts in the north and west where authorities advised people to stay at home for the next 24 hours.Temperatures in at least 19 provinces fell to zero degrees Celsius or lower on Sunday, IRNA said.Iran often orders educational institutions and offices to close during winter, citing extreme weather and fuel shortages.

A Thai farm worker held hostage in Gaza for more than a year said he felt “reborn” as he and four compatriots arrived home on Sunday to tears of joy from their relieved families.The five Thais smiled as they walked into the arrivals hall at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after being freed on January 30 as part of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the Gaza war.The five — Watchara Sriaoun, Pongsak Tanna, Sathian Suwannakham, Surasak Lamnau and Bannawat Saethao — were met by a small group of overjoyed relatives and officials before travelling on to their hometowns.Watchara was embraced by his parents and nine-year-old daughter as he arrived at his simple two-storey home in northeastern Udon Thani province and was handed bright yellow marigolds, a Thai symbol of prosperity.”Thank you to everyone who helped me out, I feel like I have been reborn,” the 33-year-old Christian said, before eating his first meal with his family in several years — boiled rice with pork.Weeping, his 85-year-old grandfather told him: “You are back, I thought you were dead.”His mother Viewvaew said he had little to eat in captivity, and was sometimes not allowed to shower, but kept himself sane by drawing on whatever he could find, including his blanket.”I am really glad that I can hug him in person, I thank God that my son is healthy both mentally and physically,” she said. Pongsak told reporters at the airport that he was at a “loss for words” as he saw his family, and wanted to thank everyone who helped get them out safely.”We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for them. We can finally return to our motherland,” he said.Somboon Saethao, the father of Bannawat, was joyful as his son arrived in Bangkok but told AFP: “I don’t think I want him to be far from home again.”Bannawat moved to Israel nine months before his kidnap in search of a better income for the family, he said.- ‘Never gave up’ -Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said it was “very inspiring” to witness the hostages’ return and that officials would monitor their reintegration into Thai society, “focusing on their mental health”.”We never gave up on these hostages,” he said during a news conference at the airport.Boonsong Tapchaiyut, a labour ministry official, said at the airport each hostage would receive a one-time payment of around $18,000 (600,000 baht), along with a monthly salary of $900 until the age of 80, to ensure they did not have to return to Israel.Thirty-one Thais were abducted when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, with 23 released by the end of that year and two confirmed dead in May.One Thai national is still believed to be alive in Gaza.The handover of the five hostages in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza last month was marked by chaotic scenes as Islamic Jihad and Hamas fighters struggled to hold back hundreds of spectators.Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said after their release she was “elated” that they were out of captivity and thanked Israel, as well as Qatar, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and the United States for their work to secure the releases.A total of 46 Thai workers have been killed since October 2023, according to the foreign ministry in Bangkok, the majority in the Hamas attack and some by rockets fired by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.Thailand’s labour ministry said last week the country will expand its workforce in Israel by 13,000.

US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will imperil attempts to forge landmark ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and fuel anti-American sentiment in the oil-rich kingdom, analysts said.Trump’s proposal to redevelop Gaza and oust the more than two million Palestinians living in the territory prompted a global backlash and enraged the Arab world, making it difficult for the Saudis to consider normalisation.”If this is going to be his policy, he shut the door on Saudi recognition of Israel,” James Dorsey, researcher at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, told AFP.Recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is seen as a grand prize of Middle East diplomacy intended to calm chronic tensions in the region.But Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and the Middle East’s largest economy, now faces the spectre of instability on its borders if neighbouring Jordan and Egypt suddenly house large numbers of Gaza exiles.At the same time, Riyadh must maintain cordial relations with Washington, its long-time security guarantor and bulwark against key regional player Iran.”When it comes to security, Saudi Arabia has nowhere to go but to Washington,” Dorsey said. “There’s nobody else. It’s not China. They’re not willing and they’re not able. “And post-Ukraine, do you want to rely on Russia?”- Quick reaction -The Saudis were engaged in tentative talks on normalisation via the United States until the outbreak of the Gaza war, when they paused the negotiations and hardened their position.They reacted with unusual speed to Trump’s proposal, made during an appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.About an hour after his comments, at around 4:00 am Saudi time, the foreign ministry posted a statement on X that “reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of… attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.In the same statement, the Saudis rejected Netanyahu’s comment that normalisation was “going to happen”, repeating their insistence there would be no ties without a Palestinian state.Trump’s plan carries real risks for Riyadh, which is throwing everything at an ambitious post-oil economic makeover that relies on stability to attract business and tourism.If Gazans are displaced to Egypt and Jordan, it “will weaken two countries essential to regional stability and particularly to Saudi security”, said Saudi researcher Aziz Alghashian.”Trump’s plan, coupled with Netanyahu’s approach, poses major risks for Saudi Arabia. “It highlights that they are not true partners for peace in Riyadh’s eyes — especially Netanyahu, who appears to want all the benefits without making concessions.”- ‘Making normalisation harder’ -Trump’s declarations “will further destabilise the region and fuel anti-American sentiment, particularly in Saudi Arabia”, said Anna Jacobs, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.”He is making Saudi-Israel normalisation harder, not easier.”Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said Saudi Arabia would not agree meekly to normalisation if ordered by Washington.Prior to the Gaza war, the Saudis were negotiating for security guarantees and help building a civilian nuclear programme in return for Israeli ties.”They are not a US vassal state and so they’re not just taking a diktat from Trump,” said Andreas Krieg of King’s College London.”And I think it will stand firm on their positions, willing to negotiate here and there. But the principal red lines remain.”Nobody in Saudi Arabia has an interest in selling out Palestinian statehood. That is the last and the most important bargaining chip that the Saudis have in terms of authority and legitimacy in the Arab and Muslim world.”But the question is how Saudi Arabia and its 39-year-old de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will proceed.”I don’t think that the Saudis will take any major steps now,” said Krieg.”They obviously have their own levers that they can use for pressure on America, particularly in the energy sector. I don’t think the Saudis will want to use it at this point.”