Israel rescues hostage from Hamas tunnel in Gaza; Egypt’s Sisi to visit Turkey

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was preparing to host his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, next week to strengthen ties after years of rancour and to discuss the war in Gaza, according to Turkish officials.

Namibia blocked a vessel that it suspected was carrying weapons destined for Israel from docking at its Walvis Bay port, citing concerns over international law and its support for the Palestinian cause, the New Era reported, citing Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab.

Israel rescues hostage, father of 11, from Hamas tunnel in Gaza

Israeli security forces have rescued a male hostage who was abducted by Hamas on 7 October and taken to Gaza.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old Muslim Israeli from the Bedouin town of Rahat, was freed in a “complex” special forces operation in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet — the country’s internal intelligence agency — said in a statement on Tuesday.

Alkadi was in a stable condition and was being transferred to a hospital for checks, they said.

Alkadi, a father of 11, was rescued from a tunnel, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari. It was the first time Israel had rescued a live hostage from an underground tunnel, Kan News, a state broadcaster, reported.

Hamas built a massive tunnel network that it’s used to hide hostages and thwart Israel’s attacks.

The war in Gaza started after Hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union, sent fighters into southern Israel. They killed 1,200 and took around 250 hostage. Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Hagari said 108 hostages were still held in Gaza. Israeli officials have said that, of those, 40 or so are probably dead.

Most of those freed were released during a week-long ceasefire — the only one so far — that ended on 1 December.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from families of hostages and Israelis more generally so to ensure the remaining captives are released.

Talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt, over a phased cessation of hostilities have been going on for months.

The two sides are divided over several issues. They are yet to agree on how many hostages will be released from Gaza in the first stage of a deal, as well as how which Palestinians can be freed from Israeli jails.

In addition, Hamas wants any truce to end the war, while Israel says it must retain the right to restart fighting and achieve its aim of destroying the group.

In recent weeks, a new sticking point emerged over the so-called Philadelphi corridor. Israel wants to retain troops in that strip, which runs along the Egypt-Gaza border, to prevent weapons smuggling from the Arab state. Hamas says Israeli forces must retreat from the corridor.

Senior Israeli negotiators, including David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, were in Cairo in recent days, along with US President Joe Biden’s main envoy for the Middle East, Brett McGurk to try to move the negotiations forward.

“We are working relentlessly to return all of our hostages,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday after speaking with Alkadi. “We are doing this in two main ways: through negotiations and rescue operations. Both ways require our military presence in the field and unceasing military pressure on Hamas.”

Biden is using his last months in office to try to end the conflict, which has caused huge political divisions globally, including in the US. It’s also roiled the wider Middle East.

Egypt’s Sisi to visit Turkey as regional powers eye closer ties

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was preparing to host his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, next week to strengthen ties after years of rancour and to discuss the war in Gaza, according to Turkish officials.

El-Sisi was expected to pay his first visit as president to Turkey on 4 September, according to people familiar with the matter, as the two Middle Eastern powers also work to boost energy and trade relations.

The visit will come around six months after Erdoğan visited Cairo for the first time in over a decade. The outreach underlines Turkey’s efforts to improve ties with Arab states and get investment from the likes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian officials weren’t immediately available to comment.

Egypt and Turkey were at odds for much of the past decade, in part because of the 2013 military-backed overthrow of El-Sisi’s predecessor, Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist close to Ankara.

Erdoğan, who champions Islamist causes and backed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, was an outspoken critic of El-Sisi long after he came to power. Turkey and Egypt also supported rival sides in regional conflicts, including when a battle raged around for years ago for the capital of Libya.

Now, the two nations are working to increase bilateral trade to $15-billion annually in the next five years from around $6-billion. They are exploring ways to cooperate in the fields of liquefied natural gas  — of which Egypt is a producer — and nuclear energy, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during a visit to Cairo on 5 August.

Turkey and Egypt were also seeking to expand an existing free trade agreement and restart freight shipping between the Turkish port of Mersin and Alexandria in Egypt, Fidan said.

Namibia bars ship suspected of carrying arms to Israel

Namibia blocked a vessel that it suspected was carrying weapons destined for Israel from docking at its Walvis Bay port, citing concerns over international law and its support for the Palestinian cause, the New Era reported, citing Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab.

The Namibian Ports Authority was directed to prevent the MV Kathrin from entering Namibian waters on 18 August because allowing it to do so would be in violation of the southern African nation’s international obligations, the Windhoek-based newspaper cited the minister as saying.

The Madeira-flagged Kathrin is a 130m-long general cargo ship and previously called at a port in Malaysia on 28 July, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Brown University gets warning from 24 states on Israel divestment vote

The top law enforcement officials in 24 states warned Brown University of financial penalties if its trustees vote in favour of a proposal calling for divestment from companies with close ties to Israel.

Some states have begun reviewing pension investment and contracts “to determine if Brown has already violated state law” by agreeing to allow the October vote, the attorneys-general from Arkansas, Florida, Texas and other states told the university’s trustees in a letter on Monday. Approving the measure would have “immediate and profound legal consequences”, they said.

“Adopting that proposal may require our states — and others — to terminate any existing relationships with Brown and those associated with it, divest from any university debt held by state pension plans and other investment vehicles, and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown,” said the group of Republican attorneys general, which was led by Tim Griffin of Arkansas.

Read more: Ivy League money managers confront fresh demands over Israel

The warning underscores the stakes for the Ivy League school, which agreed to consider the demands of pro-Palestinian student activists as part of a deal to clear a protest encampment earlier this year. While school leadership has opposed politicising the management of Brown’s more than $6-billion endowment, the university said it would weigh the proposal after a committee makes a recommendation by the end of September.

Brown declined to comment.

Colleges across the US have been roiled since Hamas’s deadly 7 October attack on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliation in Gaza. Three Ivy League presidents have resigned and universities have faced allegations of tolerating anti-Semitism. Several have also been accused of suppressing the speech of pro-Palestinian students and criticized for sending in police to clear protesters.

The vote at Brown is scheduled for an October meeting of the 54-member board of trustees, which is led by Brian Moynihan, chief executive officer of Bank of America. DM

Read more: Middle East Crisis news hub