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The UK government said it was taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel on Saturday after rushing an emergency law through parliament to avert the shutdown of the country’s last factory that can make steel from scratch.The struggling plant in northern England had faced imminent closure and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government “stepped in …

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Israel said Saturday it planned to expand its military offensive in Gaza after seizing a new corridor as part of a broader effort to take large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.It also told tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern Gaza to evacuate and launched strikes after projectiles were fired from there.”Soon, IDF operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement addressing Gazans.”The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Katz said.”Now is the time to rise up, remove Hamas, and release all the Israeli hostages — this is the only way to end the war.”Katz said the military was also taking over several areas in northern Gaza and the “security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim Corridor”.His announcement came as a Hamas official told AFP the group expected “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the war, ahead of talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.- Hostage video -Since a ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.Israeli officials say the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing its remaining 58 hostages.Hamas said the offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain”.On Saturday Hamas released a video showing Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander criticising Israel’s government for failing to secure his release.The soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis gathered to mark the Passover festival and called for the release of hostages.”Passover has so many meanings, but I think freedom is the most important one, and that’s one thing we are missing for the second year already,” said protester Oren Baron. “So, we are not really celebrating until we are free, until our hostages are free, and until us as a nation are free.”Israel ordered Saturday’s Khan Yunis evacuation after it intercepted four projectiles fired from Gaza — three from the territory’s south.”IDF troops are operating with significant force in the area, and will strike with intensity on any location from which rockets are launched,” the military posted on X.The United Nations warned Friday that expanding evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.Ahead of a meeting between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari mediators later Saturday, a Hamas official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said the group hoped the meeting “will achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war”.Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.Hamas later confirmed its delegation had departed for Cairo.”We in the Hamas movement affirm our positive engagement with any proposals that ensure a permanent ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of occupation forces, an end to the suffering of our Palestinian people, and the achievement of a serious prisoner exchange deal,” it said.- Strikes continue -The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.Since Israel resumed its Gaza strikes, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.The UN said that in dozens of these strikes “only women and children” were killed.The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing an Israeli-American hostage alive, in which he criticises the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified him as Edan Alexander, a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.AFP was unable to determine when the video was filmed.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, published the more than three-minute clip showing the hostage seated in a small, enclosed space.In the video, he says he wants to return home to celebrate the holidays.Israel is currently marking Passover, the holiday that commemorates the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.Alexander, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.”As we begin the holiday evening in the USA, our family in Israel is preparing to sit around the Seder table,” Alexander’s family said in a statement released by the forum.”Our Edan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, is still being held captive by Hamas.”When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other hostages are not home,” the family added.The family did not give a green light for the media to broadcast the footage.- Hostages’ fate ‘uncertain’ -Alexander appears to be speaking under duress in the video, making frequent hand gestures as he criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure his release.The video was released hours after Defence Minister Israel Katz announced military control of what it called the new “Morag axis” corridor of land between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.Katz also outlined plans to expand Israel’s ongoing offensive across much of the territory.In a separate statement earlier Saturday, Hamas said Israel’s Gaza operations endangered not only Palestinian civilians but also the remaining hostages.The offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain”, Hamas said.During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants took 251 hostages.Fifty-eight hostages remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.During a recent ceasefire that ended on March 18 when Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza, militants released 33 hostages, among them eight bodies.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

Israel said Saturday its military had completed the takeover of a new corridor in southern Gaza, advancing its efforts to seize large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.The military also announced a sweeping evacuation order for tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern Gaza ahead of a planned strike after projectiles were fired from there.The seizure of the “Morag axis” came as a Hamas official told AFP the group expected “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the Gaza war, ahead of talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo later Saturday.”The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said, addressing Gaza residents.”Soon, IDF operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones.”Now is the time to rise up, remove Hamas, and release all the Israeli hostages — this is the only way to end the war.”Katz said the Israeli military was also taking over several areas in northern Gaza and the “security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim Corridor”.- Cairo talks -Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people as the military has seized large areas of Gaza.Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have repeatedly said the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the remaining 58 hostages held in the territory.Hamas said the offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain”.In a separate announcement, Israel ordered residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas to evacuate after the air force intercepted three projectiles fired from southern Gaza earlier Saturday.”IDF troops are operating with significant force in the area, and will strike with intensity on any location from which rockets are launched,” the military posted on X. It added that several militants were killed in Gaza City as part of the ongoing assault.The United Nations had warned Friday that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.A Hamas delegation and Egyptian mediators will meet later Saturday in Cairo.”We hope the meeting will achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” a Hamas official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity.The official said Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.”However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he said.- Strikes continue -The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.US President Donald Trump’s envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, was quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days”.Since Israel resumed its Gaza strikes, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.The UN said that in many of these strikes “only women and children” were killed.AFP footage of a strike’s aftermath Saturday showed the shrouded bodies of four men at a hospital, as mourners offered prayers before their funeral.The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

Security forces from the new Islamist government in Damascus deployed Saturday around a strategic dam in northern Syria, under a deal with the autonomous Kurdish administration, state media reported.Under the agreement, Kurdish-led fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will pull back from the dam which they captured from the Islamic State group in late 2015.The Tishrin dam near Manbij in Aleppo province is one of several on the Euphrates and its tributaries in Syria that play a key role in the nation’s economy by providing it with water for irrigation and hydro-electric power.On Thursday, a Kurdish source said the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria had reached agreement with the central government on running the dam.A separate Kurdish source told AFP on Saturday that the deal, supervised by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, stipulates that the dam remain under Kurdish civilian administration.Syria’s state news agency SANA reported “the entry of Syrian Arab Army forces and security forces into the Tishrin Dam … to impose security in the region, under the agreement reached with the SDF”.The accord also calls for a joint military force to protect the dam, and for the withdrawal of Turkey-backed factions “that seek to disrupt this agreement”, SANA said.It is part of a broader agreement reached in mid-March between Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, aiming to integrate the institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration into the national government.The dam was a key battleground in Syria’s civil war that broke out in 2011, falling first to rebels and then to IS before being captured by the SDF.Days after Sharaa’s Islamist-led coalition overthrew Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December, Turkish drone strikes targeted the dam, killing dozens of civilians, Kurdish officials and Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israel announced on Saturday that its military had completed the takeover of a new corridor in southern Gaza, advancing its efforts to seize large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.The military also announced a sweeping evacuation order for tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern Gaza ahead of a planned strike after projectiles were fired from there earlier in the day.The seizure of the “Morag axis” came while Hamas expected “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official from the group told AFP, with senior leaders from the Palestinian movement scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo later on Saturday.”The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement addressed to residents of Gaza.”Soon, IDF operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones.”In northern Gaza as well — in Beit Hanoun and other neighbourhoods — residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” he added.- Cairo talks -Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has displaced hundreds of thousands of people while the military has seized large areas of the war-battered territory.Top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said that the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the remaining 58 hostages held in Gaza.Hamas said the offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain”.In a separate announcement, the military ordered residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas to evacuate after the air force intercepted three projectiles fired from south Gaza earlier in the day.”IDF troops are operating with significant force in the area, and will strike with intensity on any location from which rockets are launched,” the military said on X. The United Nations had warned a day before that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.Later on Saturday, a Hamas delegation and Egyptian mediators were to meet in Cairo.”We hope the meeting will achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” a Hamas official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity.According to him, Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.”However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he added, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression” in Gaza.- Strikes continue -The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.US President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting this week that “we’re getting close to getting them (hostages in Gaza) back”.Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days”.Since Israel resumed its Gaza strikes, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” the UN human rights office said Friday.AFP footage of the aftermath of a strike on Saturday showed the bodies of four men, wrapped in white shrouds, at a local hospital, while several individuals gathered to offer prayers before the funeral.The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.

The United States and Iran opened high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday with President Donald Trump threatening military action if they fail to produce a deal.The two sides entered “indirect” talks — via an intermediary — in the Omani capital Muscat, Iran’s foreign ministry said. The Americans had called for the meetings to be face-to-face.Disagreement over the format indicated the task facing the long-term adversaries, who are seeking a new nuclear deal after Trump pulled out of an earlier agreement during his first term in 2018.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is leading the Iranian delegation while Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff heads the US team.”Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement from an equal position,” Araghchi said in a video posted by Iranian state TV.Iran, weakened by Israel’s pummelling of its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, is seeking relief from wide-ranging sanctions hobbling its economy.Tehran has agreed to the meetings despite baulking at Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of ramping up sanctions and repeated military threats.Meanwhile the US, hand-in-glove with Iran’s arch-enemy Israel, wants to stop Tehran from ever getting close to developing a nuclear bomb.- Witkoff open to ‘compromise’ -Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal earlier that “our position today” starts with demanding that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear programme — a view held by hardliners around Trump that few expect Iran would ever accept.”That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries,” Witkoff told the newspaper.”Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponisation of your nuclear capability,” he added.The talks were revealed in a surprise announcement by Trump as he met the press alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.Hours before they begin, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country. But they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser Ali Shamkhani said Tehran was “seeking a real and fair agreement”, adding that “important and implementable proposals are ready”.Saturday’s contact between the two sides, which have not had diplomatic relations for decades, follows repeated threats of military action by both the United States and Israel.”If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked what would happen if the talks fail to produce a deal.Responding to Trump’s threat, Tehran said it could expel United Nations nuclear inspectors, a move that Washington warned would be an “escalation”.- ‘Survival of the regime’ -The 2015 deal that Trump exited aimed to make it practically impossible for Iran to build an atomic bomb, while at the same time allowing it to pursue a civil nuclear programme.Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany were the other parties to the agreement, of which Araghchi was a key architect.Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes, stepped up its activities after Trump abandoned the 2015 agreement.The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report noted with “serious concern” that Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 percent.Karim Bitar, a Middle East Studies lecturer at Sciences Po university in Paris, said negotiations “will not focus exclusively on… the nuclear programme”.”The deal would have to include Iran stopping its support to its regional allies,” a long-standing demand by US allies in the Gulf, he said.For Iran, it could be a matter of the government’s very survival.”The one and only priority is the survival of the regime, and ideally, to get some oxygen, some sanctions relief, to get their economy going again, because the regime has become quite unpopular,” Bitar said.