US and Arab mediators made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, said Palestinian sources close to the talks on Thursday.
Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who has US support and showing the weakened sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
Palestinian Authority security forces are struggling to win the trust of residents of Jenin as they try to assert control over the city, a historic centre of Islamist militancy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
US, Arab mediators ‘make some progress in Gaza peace talks’
US and Arab mediators made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, said Palestinian sources close to the talks on Thursday.
As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 23 people on Thursday, said Palestinian medics.
The deaths brought to 76 the number of people killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Qatar, the US and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by Islamist group Hamas before President Joe Biden leaves office.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be “hell to pay” if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on 20 January.
On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and this was the most serious attempt so far.
“There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet,” he told Reuters, without giving further details.
Another Palestinian official confirmed progress had been made during the talks but cited a new Israeli condition that could undermine reaching a deal.
“However, Israel still insists on keeping a 1km landscape along the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip, which will restrict the return of residents to their homes and represent a retreat from what it [Israel] had agreed upon in July,” said the official.
“This undermines reaching an agreement and the mediators are exerting effort to convince Israel to return to what had been agreed in the past,” said the official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the talks.
There was no Israeli comment on the allegations.
On Tuesday, Israel said it was fully committed to reaching an accord to return hostages but faced obstruction from Hamas.
The two sides have been at an impasse for a year over two key issues. Hamas has said it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
On Thursday, the death toll from Israel’s military strikes included eight Palestinians killed in a house in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. Nine others, including a father and his three children, died in two airstrikes on two houses in central Gaza, said health officials.
Later on Thursday, six Palestinians were killed in two separate airstrikes, four of them at a school sheltering displaced families near Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory’s 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Lebanon’s army chief elected president, showing weakened Hezbollah
Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who has US support and showing the weakened sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
In a speech to the chamber, Aoun (60) vowed to work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, drawing loud applause as legislators from Hezbollah — which runs its own military forces — sat still.
He promised to rebuild south Lebanon and other parts of the country he said had been destroyed by Israel, and also to prevent Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which was mired in deep economic and political crises even before the latest conflict. “Today, a new phase in the history of Lebanon begins,” he said.
His election reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year’s war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.
It also indicated a revival of Saudi influence in a country where Riyadh’s role was eclipsed by Iran and Hezbollah long ago.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar congratulated Lebanon, saying on X he hoped Aoun’s election would contribute towards stability and good neighbourly relations.
US ambassador Lisa Johnson, attending the session, told Reuters she was “very happy” with Aoun’s election.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.
Security operations in Jenin put spotlight on Palestinian Authority
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces are struggling to win the trust of residents of Jenin as they try to assert control over the city, a historic centre of Islamist militancy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The security forces entered Jenin in early December and set up checkpoints around the city and its adjacent refugee camp, hoping to strengthen the PA’s position before a shakeup of Palestinian politics that is expected once the war in Gaza ends.
PA officials say the Authority wants to prevent Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants from gaining the upper hand in Jenin and the wider West Bank and establishing a rule similar to that of Hamas in Gaza which might antagonise Israel.
The PA also hopes that by proving itself in the West Bank, it will boost its chances of having a role in post-war Gaza, say political analysts.
But the PA security forces have faced strong opposition in Jenin, and have fought clashes with militant fighters in the small city in the north of the West Bank. Clashes have also broken out in other West Bank cities including Tubas in the Jordan Valley and Tulkarm in the north.
Some Jenin residents complain about the price they are paying as the PA, which is seen by many Palestinians as corrupt and ineffective, tries to assert its authority in Jenin.
The PA security forces have made large numbers of arrests in Jenin refugee camp and at least 13 people have been killed in clashes in the city and camp so far including six PA security officers and one gunman, say officials.
The militants seem unfazed.
“We are a small group and they want to eliminate us in order to receive control over Gaza,” said a masked Palestinian militant.
Referring to the militants’ resistance, the fighter said: “Thank God, from the hornets’ nest in Jenin we let out our hornets on them, and we will maintain our steadfastness, God willing.”
Commenting on the PA security forces’ operation in Jenin, an Israeli security official said: “They have a strong desire to carry out security operations but their abilities are not good.”
The aftershocks of the Gaza war have stoked tensions in the West Bank, with Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians in addition to the clashes between PA security forces and militant fighters.
The PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, was set up three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords and given limited authority in the West Bank and Gaza, where Palestinians hope for an independent state. It was driven out of Gaza by Hamas in a 2007 civil war.
Israel says it believes the PA should have no role in Gaza after the war ends there, but most Western and Arab countries say Gaza must be run by Palestinians and they expect a role for the PA.
In the past few weeks, heavily armed Palestinian security forces in armoured personnel carriers have set up checkpoints around Jenin and its refugee camp, where there have been repeated protests by residents against the operation.
The city and refugee camp have long been a centre of Palestinian militancy, where fighters have clashed with Israeli forces mounting large-scale raids that left trails of smashed roads and infrastructure.
Cyprus holds security talks with Israeli president, UAE foreign minister
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides held meetings with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed on Thursday, the Cypriot presidency said, discussing with each how to reinforce regional security.
A Cypriot government source said Christodoulides met separately with the two officials. It was not immediately clear if there was also a joint meeting. Bin Zayed’s visit to the island was not previously announced.
Media were not permitted access to the presidential palace, where the meeting took place.
Bin Zayed and his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar met on 7 January, where the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and regional and international efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire were discussed. Cyprus established a maritime corridor sending direct humanitarian aid into Gaza in early 2024.
Bin Zayed and Christodoulides discussed regional issues, specifically the situation in Syria and the possible impact it could have in the region. They also discussed “the potential of cooperation between the two countries in maintaining and reinforcing security and stability” said a statement from government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis.
In a separate statement, Letymbiotis said Christodoulides and Herzog discussed regional issues and that Syria was also discussed. “The stabilising importance of Cyprus as a bridge between the region and the European Union was also underlined,” said a statement from his office.
Several hundred people gathered outside the presidential palace to protest Herzog’s visit, holding Palestinian flags and declaring Herzog “not welcome”.
Israeli military tightens media rules over war crimes prosecution concern
The Israeli military placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on active combat duty amid growing concern at the risk of legal action against reservists travelling abroad over allegations of involvement in war crimes in Gaza.
The move came after an Israeli reservist vacationing in Brazil left the country abruptly when a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to open an investigation following allegations from a pro-Palestinian group that he had committed war crimes while serving in Gaza.
Under the new rules, media interviewing soldiers of the rank of colonel and under will not be able to display their full names or faces, similar to the rules that already exist for pilots and members of special forces units, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson told reporters.
The interviewees must not be linked to a specific combat event they participated in.
“This is our new guideline to protect our soldiers and to make sure they are safe from these types of incidents hosted by anti-Israel activists around the world,” said Shoshani.
He said that under existing military rules, soldiers were already not supposed to post videos and other images from war zones on social media “even though that’s never perfect and we have a large army”. There were also long-standing rules and guidelines for soldiers travelling abroad, he said.
Shoshani said activist groups, such as the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation, which pushed for the action in Brazil, were “connecting the dots” between soldiers who posted material from Gaza and then posted other photos and videos of themselves while on holiday abroad.
Pope calls situation in Gaza ‘shameful’
Pope Francis on Thursday stepped up his recent criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “very serious and shameful”.
In a yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide, Francis appeared to reference deaths caused by winter cold in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.
“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians,” said the text.
“We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”
The pope (88), who was present for the address but asked an aide to read it as he is recovering from a cold, also condemned anti-Semitism; called for an end to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world; and expressed concern over climate change.
Polish government ‘will ensure representatives of Israel can visit Auschwitz safely’
The Polish government said on Thursday it would ensure free and safe participation in the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp for the highest representatives of Israel.
Polish President Andrzej Duda asked the government to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could choose to attend the anniversary without fear of arrest under an ICC warrant, said a senior aide.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Duda had written to Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying Poland should ensure Netanyahu would be “unhindered” in attending the 27 January Auschwitz commemoration given the event’s exceptional nature.
Malgorzata Paprocka, the head of Duda’s office, confirmed to state news agency PAP on Thursday that such a letter had been sent.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War Two. DM
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