The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip should start on Sunday as planned, despite the need for negotiators to tie up a ’loose end’ at the last minute, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian may discuss the situation in Syria, the Middle East, and Iran’s nuclear programme on Friday, during Pezeshkian’s visit to Russia, said the Kremlin on Thursday.
The leader of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Thursday his group would monitor the implementation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza and continue its attacks on vessels or Israel if the deal was breached.
Gaza ceasefire to start on time despite last minute ‘loose end’, says US
The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip should start on Sunday as planned, despite the need for negotiators to tie up a “loose end” at the last minute, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.
Israel delayed holding a Cabinet meeting to ratify the ceasefire with Hamas, blaming the militant group for the hold-up, even as Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza with airstrikes which Palestinian authorities said killed 77 people in the day since the truce was unveiled.
Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said the group remained committed to the ceasefire deal, scheduled to take effect from Sunday to halt 15 months of bloodshed.
“It’s not exactly surprising that in a process and negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end,” Blinken told a news conference in Washington. “We’re tying up that loose end as we speak.”
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the last remaining dispute was over the identities of some prisoners Hamas wanted released.
President Joe Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk and President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff were both in Doha with Egyptian and Qatari mediators working to resolve the issue, which should be cleared up soon, said the official.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters that Israeli negotiators were in Doha to reach a solution.
The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US to stop the war that began with deadly Hamas attacks on Israel and saw Israeli forces kill tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastate Gaza.
The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Hostages taken by Hamas would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
It paves the way for a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, where the majority of the population has been displaced, facing hunger, sickness and cold. Rows of aid trucks were lined up in the Egyptian border town of El-Arish waiting to cross into Gaza, once the border is reopened.
Peace could also have wider benefits across the Middle East, from heading off war between Israel and Iran to ending disruption to global trade from Yemen’s Houthi movement which has attacked ships in the Red Sea.
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the security Cabinet and government. A vote had been slated for Thursday, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the meeting, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands.
“The Israeli Cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” said Netanyahu’s office.
Hardliners in Netanyahu’s government were still hoping to stop the deal, though a majority of ministers were expected to back it. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party said its condition for remaining in the government would be a return to fighting at the end of the truce’s first phase. Far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also threatened to quit.
In Jerusalem, some Israelis marched through the streets carrying mock coffins in protest at the ceasefire, blocking roads and scuffling with police.
Palestinians who rejoiced at the deal’s announcement were desperate for the bombing to stop as soon as possible.
“We lose homes every hour. We demand for this joy not to go away, the joy that was drawn on our faces — don’t waste it by delaying the implementation of the truce until Sunday,” said Gazan man Mahmoud Abu Wardeh.
The day after the truce announcement saw some of the most intense Israeli bombardment for months. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 81 people had been killed over the past 24 hours and about 188 injured. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said at least 77 of those were killed since the ceasefire announcement.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the military was looking into the reports.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen burst into Israeli border-area communities on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to Gaza authorities.
The first phase would see the release of 33 hostages from among around 98 still in Gaza — alive and dead. Israel would free around 1,000 Palestinian detainees.
Russian, Iranian presidents to discuss Syria, Middle East and nuclear programme
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian may discuss the situation in Syria, the Middle East, and Iran’s nuclear programme on Friday, during Pezeshkian’s visit to Russia, said the Kremlin on Thursday.
Putin and Pezeshkian were set to sign a long-awaited strategic cooperation agreement on Friday in a move likely to worry the West, which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage.
A Kremlin statement on the eve of the meeting said relations between Moscow and Tehran were “on the rise and are being developed intensively on the basis of mutual respect and taking account of [their] interests.”
The statement said the leaders were likely to discuss key issues, specifically Middle East developments, including in Syria and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Also on the agenda were events in the Caucasus region and Iran’s nuclear programme.
Yemen’s Houthis to continue attacks if Gaza ceasefire breached
The leader of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Thursday his group would monitor the implementation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza and continue its attacks on vessels or Israel if the deal was breached.
The Houthi militia, who had on an almost-weekly basis targeted ships using ballistic missiles and drones in waters near Yemen’s shores to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, had long said they would cease these operations if the conflict ended.
The ceasefire is expected to take hold on Sunday.
“We will continue to monitor developments in Palestine during the three days prior to the entry into force of the Gaza agreement. If the Israeli massacres continue, we will continue our operations,” said the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in a televised speech.
“At any stage in which the aggression retreats from the agreement, we will be ready to provide military support to our Palestinian brothers,” he said.
The Houthi attacks, which started in November 2023, have disrupted international commerce, forcing some ships to take the long route around southern Africa rather than the Suez Canal, leading to an increase in insurance rates, delivery costs and time that stoked fears of a new bout of global inflation.
The Houthis, who control most parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa since seizing power in late 2014, have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
The armed group has also launched missiles and drones towards Israel, hundreds of kilometres to the north. Israel has responded by striking Houthi areas on several occasions, including last week when Israeli warplanes bombed two ports and a power station.
Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
Journalists berate Blinken over Gaza policy at his final press conference
Several journalists who are outspoken critics of US support for Israel loudly lambasted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the war in Gaza on Thursday, repeatedly interrupting his final press conference as he sought to defend his handling of the 15-month-old conflict.
Israel’s assault on Gaza is likely to define the foreign policy legacy of the outgoing Biden administration, despite a deal reached with Hamas on Wednesday on a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages.
“Criminal! You belong in The Hague,” shouted Sam Husseini, an independent journalist and longtime critic of Washington’s approach to the world. The Hague is where the International Criminal Court is located.
The unusually confrontational scene in the State Department briefing room only ended when security personnel forcibly picked up Husseini and carried him out of the room as he continued to heckle Blinken.
Blinken has faced criticism for providing Israel with weapons and diplomatic support since the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on 7 October 2023.
“Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone, an outlet that strongly criticises many aspects of US foreign policy, called out to Blinken, before he was escorted out.
Blinken, who leaves office on Monday when the administration of President-elect Donald Trump takes over, calmly asked for quiet while he delivered his remarks, and later took questions from reporters.
Syria’s de facto leader says country ready to welcome UN forces in buffer zone
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday his country was ready to welcome UN forces into the UN-established buffer zone with Israel.
“Israel’s advance in the region was due to the presence of Iranian militias and Hezbollah. After the liberation of Damascus, I believe that they have no presence at all. There are pretexts that Israel is using today to advance into the Syrian regions, into the buffer zone,” he said, answering a Reuters question.
WHO calls for international support to fund aid in Gaza
The World Health Organization (WHO) called for the international community to step up and fund a scaled-up aid response in Gaza after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal to end 15 months of war in the region earlier this week.
The UN health agency said its member states, donors and the global community, including the private sector, should support both the urgent health needs and the longer-term rebuilding of Gaza’s healthcare system.
“The UN cannot deliver the response alone,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking at a virtual press conference on Thursday.
Part of the ceasefire deal requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza every day from when it is due to begin, on Sunday. Peeperkorn said the WHO was ready to deliver, although the “significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza” needed to be removed. He urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire deal.
He said the costs for rebuilding the health system in Gaza were enormous, estimated at around $3-billion for the next year and $10-billion in the next six or seven years, although these are only early estimates.
Iraq ‘wants Iran-backed factions to lay down weapons’
Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions in the country that have fought US forces and fired rockets and drones at Israel to lay down their weapons or join official security forces, said Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
The push comes with a backdrop of seismic shifts in the Middle East that have seen Iran’s armed allies in Gaza and Lebanon heavily degraded and Syria’s government overthrown by rebels.
The incoming US Trump administration promises to pile more pressure on Tehran, which has long backed a number of political parties and an array of armed factions in Iraq.
Some Baghdad officials are concerned the status quo there may be upended next, but Hussein played this down in an interview with Reuters during an official visit to London.
“We don’t think that Iraq is the next,” said Hussein.
The government was in talks to rein in the groups while continuing to walk the tightrope between its ties to both Washington and Tehran, he said.
“Two or three years ago it was impossible to discuss this topic in our society,” he said.
But now, having armed groups functioning outside the state was not acceptable.
“Many political leaders, many political parties started to raise a discussion, and I hope that we can convince the leaders of these groups to lay down their arms, and then to be part of the armed forces under the responsibility of the government,” said Hussein.
Iraq’s balancing act has been tested by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups’ attacks on Israel and on US troops in the country they say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war.
Rome’s chief rabbi criticises Pope Francis over Israel remarks
Rome’s chief rabbi on Thursday sharply criticised Pope Francis over the pontiff’s recent ramping up of criticism against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, in an unusually forceful speech during an annual Catholic-Jewish dialogue event.
Francis had unfairly focused his attention on Israel compared to other ongoing world conflicts, including those in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia, said Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, spiritual leader of Rome’s Jewish community since 2001.
“Selective indignation … weakens the pope’s strength,” said Di Segni.
“A pope cannot divide the world into children and stepchildren and must denounce the sufferings of all,” he said. “This is exactly what the pope does not do.”
Francis, leader of the 1.4 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas. Last week, he called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “very serious and shameful”. DM
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