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Israel frees nine Lebanon POWs, PM seeks release of nine more

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday that Israel had freed nine Lebanese prisoners under the terms of a more than six-week-old ceasefire and urged the release of another nine.Israeli forces had been due to withdraw from southern Lebanon by Sunday under the terms of the ceasefire agreement with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah but that deadline was extended until February 18.In a statement released on Tuesday, Mikati thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its role in the release of the nine prisoners of war freed by Israel so far.He also asked the ICRC to work for the release of “nine other Lebanese still held in Israel”.Mikati had already appealed to the United States on Sunday to use its influence with its ally to secure the release of Lebanese detained by Israel during the war.In a statement on Tuesday, the ICRC welcomed the release of the first batch of Lebanese prisoners.The ICRC “remains ready to fulfil its role as a neutral intermediary in facilitating the release, transfer and repatriation of individuals detained in connection with the conflict,” a spokesperson said.A source close to Hezbollah told AFP on Monday that seven of its fighters had been captured during the war.Israeli troops have also detained a number of Lebanese since Sunday who were attempting to return to their homes in the south without waiting for the army to complete its delayed withdrawal.Troops killed 24 returning residents on Sunday and another two on Monday, Lebanese authorities said.On Tuesday, Israeli fire wounded a Lebanese soldier who was deploying to the south in accordance with the ceasefire, along with three civilians, an army statement said.An Israeli air strike also wounded 14 people in the southern city of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Bittersweet homecoming for Gazans returning to north

Columns of Palestinians carrying what belongings they could headed to north Gaza on Tuesday for a second straight day, after Israel permitted their passage in accordance with an ongoing ceasefire.”I’m happy to be back at my home,” said Saif Al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his house.”I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm… (They) slept peacefully despite the cold but we don’t have enough blankets,” the 41-year-old told AFP.On Monday, Israel allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to return to their homes in the north.Although the crowds had thinned somewhat by Tuesday, thousands of men, women, and children were still seen heading north, fully aware they had little waiting for them but the rubble of their homes.In central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, children waved at Egyptian soldiers manning checkpoints along the route as vehicles laden with mattresses, bags and other belongings made their way north.For many, the journey marked not just a return home but a confrontation with the harsh realities of more than 15 months of war in the densely populated territory of 2.4 million people.Mona Abu Aathra managed to travel from central Gaza to Gaza City, though she has yet to assess the full extent of the war’s impact on her home.Her hometown, Beit Hanoun, was among the areas hardest hit by a months-long Israeli military operation which continued right up to this month’s ceasefire.”We returned to Gaza City with nothing, and there’s no drinking water. Most streets are still blocked by the rubble of destroyed homes,” the 20-year-old told AFP.Despite the devastation, Abu Aathra expressed relief at being reunited with her family.”It’s the first night we’re together again, me, my mother and my father. Last night, we gathered with my three brothers who were here in Gaza City.”- ‘We will rebuild our homes’ -The Hamas government press office said 300,000 people returned north on the first day of returns on Monday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the figure at 200,000.The returns had been due to begin on Saturday, but Israel delayed the start, accusing Hamas of reneging on the terms of the ceasefire by failing to include woman civilian Arbel Yehud among the Israeli hostages released at the weekend.After Hamas agreed to release Yehud and two other hostages by Friday, Israel opened the corridor on Monday morning.Mahmoud Kashko, who had decided not to return north on Monday, said he had been swept up in the collective momentum on Tuesday.”I was hesitant to return to Gaza City, but when I saw hundreds of thousands of people coming back, I decided to return,” he told AFP.”I arrived at my home today. Of course, it’s destroyed like most people’s homes.”Others were still waiting to see how the ceasefire unfolds.Another Gaza City resident, Hamouda al-Amsi, explained that his younger brother Amer and his family decided to remain in their tent at a displacement camp in the south.”They don’t want to return to Gaza City yet because there are no houses, tents, water or food there,” Amsi said.”It’s the same across the territory — there are no basic necessities for life.”Although aid deliveries have increased since the ceasefire began, the territory’s needs remain overwhelming.The World Food Programme said it distributed more food in the first four days of the ceasefire than in the entire month of December.But OCHA said that those returning north would need other essential supplies too, like drinking water, shelter equipment and hygiene kits.Amsi refused to be put off.”We will rebuild our homes, and life will return to how it was before (the Hamas attack of) October 7, (2023),” he said confidently.

New backlash over Trump plan to move people out of Gaza

An idea floated by US President Donald Trump to move Gazans to Egypt or Jordan faced a renewed backlash Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the Israel-Hamas war returned to their devastated neighbourhoods.A fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal took effect earlier this month, intended to end more than 15 months of war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.After the ceasefire came into force, Trump touted a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, reiterating the idea on Monday as he called for Palestinians to move to “safer” locations such as Egypt or Jordan.The US president, who has repeatedly claimed credit for sealing the truce deal after months of fruitless negotiations, also said he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington “very soon”.Jordan, which has a tumultuous history with Palestinian movements, on Tuesday renewed its rejection of Trump’s proposal.”We emphasise that Jordan’s national security dictates that the Palestinians must remain on their land and that the Palestinian people must not be subjected to any kind of forced displacement whatsoever,” Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said.Qatar, which played a leading role in the truce mediation, on Tuesday said that it often did not see “eye to eye” with its allies, including the United States.”Our position has always been clear to the necessity of the Palestinian people receiving their rights, and that the two-state solution is the only path forward,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said.Following reports that Trump had spoken with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the weekend, Cairo said there had been no such phone call.”A senior official source denied what some media outlets reported about a phone call between the Egyptian and American presidents,” Egypt’s state information service said.On Monday, Trump reportedly said the pair had spoken, saying of Sisi: “I wish he would take some (Palestinians).”After Trump first floated the idea, Egypt rejected the forced displacement of Gazans, expressing its “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land”.- ‘No matter what’ -France, another US ally, on Tuesday said any forced displacement of Gazans would be “unacceptable”.It would also be a “destabilisation factor (for) our close allies Egypt and Jordan”, a French foreign ministry spokesman said.Moving Gaza’s 2.4 million people could be done “temporarily or could be long term”, Trump said on Saturday.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he was working with the prime minister “to prepare an operational plan to ensure that President Trump’s vision is realised”.Smotrich, who opposed the ceasefire deal, did not provide any details on the purported plan.For Palestinians, any attempts to force them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.”We say to Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said displaced Gazan Rashad al-Naji.Almost all of the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants were displaced at least once by the war that has levelled much of the Palestinian territory.The ceasefire hinges on the release during a first phase of 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.On Monday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said eight of the hostages due for release in the first phase are dead.Since the truce began on January 19, seven Israeli women have been freed, as have about 290 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.On Monday, after Hamas and Israel agreed over the release of six hostages this week, “more than 300,000 displaced” Gazans were able to return to the north, according to the Hamas government media office.”I’m happy to be back at my home,” said Saif Al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his destroyed house.”I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm… (they) slept peacefully despite the cold, but we don’t have enough blankets,” the 41-year-old told AFP.- Under the rubble -Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.During the attack, militants took into Gaza 251 hostages. Eighty-seven remain in the territory, including dozens Israel says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,317 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.”In terms of the death toll, yes, we do have confidence. But let’s not forget, the official death toll given by the Ministry of Health, is deaths accounted in morgues and in hospitals, so in official facilities,” World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Tuesday.”As people go back to their houses, as they will start looking for their loved ones under the rubble, this casualty figure is expected to increase,” he added.

AI fears weigh on tech stocks, as tariff talk boosts dollar

Japanese tech firms sank Tuesday following a rout on Wall Street after China’s DeepSeek chatbot upended the artificial intelligence sector and sparked questions about huge investments by US titans.The dollar rallied on a report saying Washington was considering universal tariffs on a range of goods, fanning fresh fears about a trade war. Other Asian equity indices …

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