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Tag: International agreements

  • Senior UK jurists have joined calls to stop arms sales to Israel. Other allies face similar pressure

    Senior UK jurists have joined calls to stop arms sales to Israel. Other allies face similar pressure

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    LONDON — More than 600 British jurists, including three retired judges from the U.K. Supreme Court, are calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the deaths of three U.K. aid workers in an Israeli strike.

    Britain is just one of a number of Israel’s longstanding allies whose governments are under growing pressure to halt weapons exports because of the toll of the six-month-old war in Gaza.

    In an open letter to Sunak published late Wednesday, the lawyers and judges said the U.K. could be complicit in “grave breaches of international law” if it continues to ship weapons.

    Signatories, including former Supreme Court President Brenda Hale, said Britain is legally obliged to heed the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza.

    The letter said the “sale of weapons and weapons systems to Israel … falls significantly short of your government’s obligations under international law.”

    Britain is a staunch ally of Israel, but relations have been tested by the mounting death toll, largely civilian, from the war. Calls for an end to arms exports have escalated since an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from the aid charity World Central Kitchen, three of them British.

    Israel says the attack on the aid workers was a mistake caused by “misidentification.”

    The U.K.’s main opposition parties have all said the Conservative government should halt weapons sales to Israel if the country has broken international law in Gaza.

    Several senior Conservatives have urged the same, including Alicia Kearns, who heads the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

    Sunak has not committed to an arms export ban, but said Wednesday that “while of course we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

    British firms sell a relatively small amount of weapons and components to Israel. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has said that military exports to Israel amounted to 42 million pounds ($53 million) in 2022.

    Other allies of Israel are also facing calls to cut off the supply of weapons and to push for a cease-fire in the conflict, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.

    In February, Canada announced it would stop future shipments, and the same month a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel. The Dutch government said it would appeal.

    Other countries, including Israel’s two biggest arms suppliers, the United States and Germany, continue to allow weapons sales.

    Peter Ricketts, a former U.K. national security advisor, said suspension of U.K. arms sales would not change the course of the war, but “would be a powerful political message.”

    “And it might just stimulate debate in the U.S. as well, which would be the real game-changer,” he told the BBC.

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  • Israel and Hamas dig in as international pressure builds for a cease-fire in Gaza

    Israel and Hamas dig in as international pressure builds for a cease-fire in Gaza

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    JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday blasted a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza cease-fire that his country’s top ally, the United States, chose not to block. He said the resolution had emboldened Hamas and he vowed to press ahead with the war.

    As the war grinds through a sixth month, both Israel and Hamas have rejected international cease-fire efforts, each insisting its version of victory is within reach. The passage of the U.N. resolution has also escalated tensions between the U.S. and Israel over the conduct of the war.

    Netanyahu has said Israel can only achieve its aims of dismantling Hamas and returning scores of hostages if it expands its ground offensive to the southern city of Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, many in crowded tent camps. The U.S. has said a major assault on Rafah would be a mistake.

    Hamas says it will hold onto the hostages until Israel agrees to a more permanent cease-fire, withdraws its forces from Gaza and releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. It said late Monday that it rejected a recent proposal that fell short of those demands — which, if fulfilled, would allow it to claim an extremely costly victory.

    Netanyahu said in a statement that the announcement “proved clearly that Hamas is not interested in continuing negotiations toward a deal and served as unfortunate testimony to the damage of the Security Council decision.”

    “Israel will not surrender to Hamas’ delusional demands and will continue to act to achieve all the goals of the war: releasing all the hostages, destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and ensuring that Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.”

    Israel has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The fighting has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, displaced most its residents and driven a third of its population of 2.3 million to the brink of famine.

    The Israeli military announced Tuesday that an airstrike earlier this month killed Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza who helped plan the Oct. 7 attack. Issa is the highest-ranking Hamas leader to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Issa was killed when fighter jets struck an underground compound in central Gaza between March 9 and 10.

    An Israeli strike late Monday on a residential building in Rafah where three displaced families were sheltering killed at least 16 people, including nine children and four women, according to hospital records and relatives of the deceased. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies arrive at a hospital.

    In the face of Hamas’ demands for a more permanent cease-fire, Netanyahu has vowed to resume Israel’s offensive after any hostage release and keep fighting until the militant group is destroyed. But he has provided few details about what would follow any such victory and has largely rejected a postwar vision outlined by the U.S.

    That approach has brought him into increasingly open conflict with President Joe Biden’s administration, which has expressed mounting concern over civilian casualties — though it has continued to supply Israel with crucial military aid and back Israel’s aim of destroying Hamas.

    The passage of Monday’s resolution by the U.N. Security Council resolution further deepened the divisions. The resolution called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza but did not condition the cease-fire on it. The Biden administration, which vetoed previous U.N. resolutions calling for a cease-fire, abstained in Monday’s vote, allowing it to pass.

    In response, Netanyahu cancelled a planned visit by Israeli officials to Washington during which the U.S. side was set to propose alternatives to a ground assault in Rafah.

    The move raised criticism in Israeli media that Netanyahu was straining Israel’s most important alliance in order to placate hard-liners in his governing coalition.

    “He is prepared to sacrifice Israel’s relations with the United States for a short-lived political-media coup. He has completely lost it,” Ben Caspit, a prominent columnist in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, wrote.

    He said Netanyahu has been trying U.S. patience by dragging his feet on ensuring more humanitarian aid gets into Gaza and on drawing up post-war plans. “Now, instead of doing everything to placate them, he is flailing about like a baby throwing a tantrum.”

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in Washington on a separate trip, held talks Tuesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and with top U.S. defense leaders.

    Ahead of the meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described civilian casualties in Gaza as “far too high” and aid deliveries as “far too low.” But he also repeated the belief that Israel has the right to defend itself and the U.S. would always be there to help.

    Gallant said he told Blinken “that Israel will not cease operating in Gaza until the return of all the hostages. Only a decisive victory will bring to an end of this war.”

    Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said the U.N. resolution showed that Israel faces “an unprecedented (level of) political isolation” and was “losing its political cover” at the Security Council. He spoke at a press conference in Tehran after talks with officials in Iran, a key ally of Hamas.

    The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border and attacked communities in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. It is still believed to be holding about 100 hostages and the remains of 35 others, after most of the rest were freed in November in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

    The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent several weeks trying to negotiate another cease-fire and hostage release, but those efforts appeared to have stalled.

    Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which is currently hosting the talks, told reporters that the negotiations were still ongoing, without providing details.

    Hamas has previously proposed a phased process in which it would release all the remaining hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the opening of its borders for aid and reconstruction, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants serving life sentences.

    ___

    Shurafa reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip.

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    Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • UN demand for Gaza cease-fire provokes strongest clash between US and Israel since war began

    UN demand for Gaza cease-fire provokes strongest clash between US and Israel since war began

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    UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council on Monday issued its first demand for a cease-fire in Gaza, with the U.S. angering Israel by abstaining from the vote. Israel responded by canceling a visit to Washington by a high-level delegation in the strongest public clash between the allies since the war began.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the U.S. of “retreating” from a “principled position” by allowing the vote to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages held by Hamas.

    White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the administration was “kind of perplexed” by Netanyahu’s decision. He said the Israelis were “choosing to create a perception of daylight here when they don’t need to do that.”

    Kirby and the American ambassador to the U.N. said the U.S. abstained because the resolution did not condemn Hamas. U.S. officials chose to abstain rather than veto the proposal “because it does fairly reflect our view that a cease-fire and the release of hostages come together,” Kirby said.

    The 15-member council voted 14-0 to approve the resolution, which also demanded the release of all hostages taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. The chamber broke into loud applause after the vote.

    The U.S. vetoed past Security Council cease-fire resolutions in large part because of the failure to tie them directly to the release of hostages, the failure to condemn Hamas’ attacks and the delicacy of ongoing negotiations. American officials have argued that the cease-fire and hostage releases are linked, while Russia, China and many other council members favored unconditional calls for a cease-fire.

    The resolution approved Monday demands the release of hostages but does not make it a condition for the cease-fire for the month of Ramadan, which ends in April.

    Hamas said it welcomed the U.N.’s move but said the cease-fire needs to be permanent.

    “We confirm our readiness to engage in an immediate prisoner exchange process that leads to the release of prisoners on both sides,” the group said. For months, the militants have sought a deal that includes a complete end to the conflict.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted: “This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.”

    The U.S. decision to abstain comes at a time of growing tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and Netanyahu over Israel’s prosecution of the war, the high number of civilian casualties and the limited amounts of humanitarian assistance reaching Gaza. The two countries have also clashed over Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state, Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the expansion of settlements there.

    In addition, the well-known antagonism between Netanyahu and Biden — which dates from Biden’s tenure as vice president — deepened after Biden questioned Israel’s strategy in combating Hamas.

    Then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Biden ally, suggested that Netanyahu was not operating in Israel’s best interests and called for Israel to hold new elections. Biden signaled his approval of Schumer’s remarks, prompting a rebuke from Netanyahu.

    During its U.S. visit, the Israeli delegation was to present White House officials with its plans for a possible ground invasion of Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border in southern Gaza where over 1 million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter from the war.

    Last week, Netanyahu rebuffed a U.S. request to halt the planned Rafah invasion – vowing during a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to act alone if necessary. Blinken warned that Israel could soon face growing international isolation, while Vice President Kamala Harris said Israel could soon face unspecified consequences if it launches the ground assault.

    The Security Council vote came after Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution Friday that would have supported “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israeli-Hamas conflict. That resolution featured a weakened link between a cease-fire and the release of hostages, leaving it open to interpretation, and no time limit.

    The United States warned that the resolution approved Monday could hurt negotiations to halt the hostilities, raising the possibility of another veto, this time by the Americans. The talks involve the U.S., Egypt and Qatar.

    Because Ramadan ends April 9, the cease-fire demand would last for just two weeks, though the draft says the pause in fighting should lead to “a lasting sustainable cease-fire.”

    The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the resolution “spoke out in support of the ongoing diplomatic efforts,” adding that negotiators were “getting closer” to a deal for a cease-fire with the release of all hostages, “but we’re not there yet.”

    She urged the council and U.N. members across the world to “speak out and demand unequivocally that Hamas accepts the deal on the table.”

    Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. abstained because “certain edits” the U.S. requested were ignored, including a condemnation of Hamas.

    The resolution, put forward by the 10 elected council members, was backed by Russia and China and the 22-nation Arab Group at the United Nations.

    Under the United Nations Charter, Security Council resolutions are legally binding on its 193 member nations, though they are often flouted.

    Algeria’s U.N. ambassador, Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council, thanked the council for “finally” demanding a cease-fire.

    “We look forward to the commitment and the compliance of the Israeli occupying power with this resolution, for them to put an end to the bloodbath without any conditions, to end the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he said.

    Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the council that the vote “must be a turning point” that leads to saving lives in Gaza and ending the “assault of atrocities against our people.”

    Shortly before Monday’s vote, the elected members changed the final draft resolution to drop the word “permanent” from its demand that a Ramadan cease-fire should lead to a “sustainable” halt in fighting apparently at the request of the United States.

    Russia complained that dropping the word could allow Israel “to resume its military operation in the Gaza Strip at any moment” after Ramadan and proposed an amendment to restore it. That amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes — with three council members voting in favor, the United States voting against, and 11 countries abstaining.

    Since the start of the war, the Security Council has adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none has called for a cease-fire.

    More than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed during the fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

    Gaza also faces a dire humanitarian emergency. A report from an international authority on hunger warned last week that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza and that escalation of the war could push half of the territory’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.

    The United States has vetoed three resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, the most recent an Arab-backed measure on Feb. 20. That resolution was supported by 13 council members with one abstention, reflecting the overwhelming support for a cease-fire.

    Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in late October calling for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, the protection of civilians and a halt to arming Hamas. They said it did not reflect global calls for a cease-fire.

    They again vetoed a U.S. resolution Friday, calling it ambiguous and saying it was not the direct demand to end the fighting that much of the world seeks.

    That vote became another showdown involving world powers that are locked in tense disputes elsewhere, with the United States taking criticism for not being tough enough against its ally Israel, even as tensions between the two countries rise.

    Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China on Monday of using the Gaza conflict “as a political cudgel, to try to divide this council at a time when we need to come together.”

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    Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Colleen Long in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.

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  • US-backed Syrian force that defeated IS 5 years ago warns group still poses international threat

    US-backed Syrian force that defeated IS 5 years ago warns group still poses international threat

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    BEIRUT — The U.S.-backed force that defeated the Islamic State group in Syria five years ago warned Saturday that the extremists still pose grave dangers throughout the world and called on the international community to find solutions for thousands of fighters still held in its jails.

    The statement by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to mark the fifth anniversary since IS lost the last sliver of its self-declared caliphate came hours after the group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in Moscow that left 133 people dead.

    On March 23, 2019, SDF fighters captured the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz marking the end of the extremist group’s caliphate that was carved out of large parts of Syria and Iraq. During its rule, IS brutalized millions of people and attracted thousands of men and women from around the world to join it ranks.

    “The liberation of Baghouz marked a pivotal moment. Our forces freed millions from the organization’s terror, safeguarding not only our region but the world from its barbarity,” the SDF said.

    Despite its defeat, IS sleeper cells and its affiliates in Asia and Africa still claim deadly attacks as well as in Syria and neighboring Iraq where the extremists were defeated in 2017.

    “The terrorist organization still poses a great danger to our regions and the world,” the SDF said, adding that “it seeks to rebuild itself through its sleeper cells and tries to revive its dreams of regaining geographical control over some areas.”

    The SDF said that in order to completely eradicate IS it must dismantle “its ideological breeding ground.”

    The SDF is holding some 10,000 captured IS fighters in northeast Syria in around two dozen detention facilities — including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them. U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters also oversee some 45,000 family members of IS fighters, mostly women and children in the sprawling al-Hol camp. The camp once had a population of 73,000 but dropped as some countries have been repatriating their citizens.

    Many of the women and children remain die-hard IS supporters, and the camp has seen bouts of militant violence. In February, the SDF concluded a dayslong security operation at al-Hol during which they detained 85 people, captured weapons and freed a Yazidi woman who was raped and forced to marry IS fighters.

    “The issue of ISIS detainees requires a global solution,” the SDF said, using a term to refer to IS. It added that their home countries should repatriate their nationals, or an international court established in northeast Syria where they can stand trial.

    The SDF said that ending the case of IS families at al-Hol camp “is a priority that cannot be overlooked or ignored, as the camp is still a ticking time bomb.”

    “Concerns are growing about the children of ISIS who are receiving the organization’s teachings within this terrorist-infested environment,” it said.

    “This in itself poses a threat to the future of the region and the world,” the SDF said.

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  • Gangs target peaceful communities in new round of attacks on Haiti’s capital

    Gangs target peaceful communities in new round of attacks on Haiti’s capital

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Armed gangs launched new attacks in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince early Wednesday, with heavy gunfire echoing across once-peaceful communities near the Haitian capital.

    Associated Press journalists reported seeing at least five bodies in and around the suburbs, and gangs blocked the entrances to some areas.

    People in the communities under fire called radio stations pleading for help from Haiti’s national police force, which remains understaffed and outmatched by the gangs. Among the communities targeted in the pre-dawn hours were Pétion-Ville, Meyotte, Diègue and Métivier.

    “When I woke up to go to work, I found I could not leave because the neighborhood was in the hand of the bandits,” said Samuel Orelus. “They were about 30 men with heavy weapons. If the neighborhood had mobilized, we could have destroyed them, but they were heavily armed, and there was nothing we could do.”

    By Wednesday afternoon, another victim had been reported: a police officer killed in broad daylight in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood known as Delmas 72, according to the SYNAPOHA police union.

    As the attacks continued, the U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it had completed its first evacuation of American citizens from Port-au-Prince. More than 15 Americans were airlifted to neighboring Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

    More than 30 U.S. citizens will be able to leave Port-au-Prince daily aboard the U.S. government-organized helicopter flights, the agency said.

    “We will continue to monitor demand from U.S. citizens for assistance in departing Haiti on a real-time basis,” the department said.

    On Sunday, the agency evacuated more than 30 U.S. citizens from the coastal city of Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti to Miami International Airport.

    “We hope that conditions will allow a return of commercial means for people to travel from Haiti soon. We and the international community and the Haitian authorities are working for that to become a reality,” the State Department said.

    Also on Wednesday, a plane chartered by the Florida Department of Emergency Management evacuated 14 Florida residents, including children, out of Haiti, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the state agency, at an airport in Sanford, Florida where the passengers were expected to land.

    More than 300 Floridians are in Haiti, and the Florida-sponsored operation was working on getting them out on future flights despite bureaucratic obstacles from the U.S. government and safety threats in Haiti, Guthrie said at a news conference, where he was accompanied by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    “We understand there are people really in danger right now who are fellow Floridians,” DeSantis said.

    Wednesday’s attacks in parts of Port-au-Prince came two days after gangs went on a rampage through the upscale neighborhoods of Laboule and Thomassin in Pétion-Ville, with at least a dozen people killed.

    The violence forced the closure of banks, schools and businesses across Pétion-Ville, which until now had been largely spared from the attacks that gangs launched on Feb. 29.

    Gunmen have set fire to police stations, forced the closure of Haiti’s main international airport and stormed the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

    Scores of people have been killed and some 17,000 others have been left homeless amid the violence.

    Meanwhile, Haitians await the possibility of new leadership as Caribbean officials rush to help form a transitional presidential council that will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister and a council of ministers.

    A top official with regional trade bloc Caricom who was not authorized to speak to the media told The Associated Press late Wednesday that the Pitit Desalin party of Jean-Charles Moïse accepted to be a voting member of the council after initially rejecting a seat. The party was the last remaining holdout, meaning that the nine-member council is now fully formed, although its members have not been disclosed publicly.

    Moïse recently formed an alliance with Guy Philippe, a former rebel leader who helped overthrow former President Jean-Bertrand Artistide and who was repatriated to Haiti in November after serving time in a U.S. prison after he pleaded guilty to money laundering.

    Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was locked out of Haiti when the airports closed, has said he will resign once the council is formed.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana; Matthew Lee in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.

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  • US and Japan seek UN resolution calling on all nations to ban nuclear weapons in outer space

    US and Japan seek UN resolution calling on all nations to ban nuclear weapons in outer space

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    UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Japan are sponsoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the U.S. ambassador announced Monday.

    Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a U.N. Security Council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous, and unacceptable.”

    The announcement that the U.S. and Japan had circulated a resolution follows White House confirmation last month that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.

    The Outer Space Treaty ratified by about 114 countries including the United States and Russia prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

    Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who chaired the council meeting, said that even during “the confrontational environment” of the Cold War, the rivals agreed to ensure that outer space remained peaceful. That prohibition on putting any weapons of mass destruction into orbit must be upheld today, she said.

    Thomas-Greenfield said all parties to the treaty must commit to the ban on nuclear and other destructive weapons, “and we must urge all member states who are not yet party to it to accede to it without delay.”

    She said the United States looks forward to engaging with the other members of the 15-nation Security Council “to forge consensus around this text.”

    Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow’s initial impression is that the proposed resolution is “yet another propaganda stunt by Washington,” “very politicized” and “divorced from reality.”

    He criticized the text, saying the wording wasn’t worked out by experts nor discussed at specialized international platforms such as the U.N. Conference on Disarmament or the U.N. Committee on Outer Space.

    Outside the Security Council, Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is interested in engaging with parties to the treaty “to explore ways to increase confidence in compliance” with the ban on nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in outer space.

    “The United States has already begun considering approaches to help ensure that countries cannot deploy nuclear weapons in orbit undetected, and we intend to engage with other states parties as our ideas evolve,” she said.

    Thomas-Greenfield also reiterated to the council the United States is willing to engage Russia and China right now, without preconditions, on bilateral arms control issues.

    But Russia’s Polyansky accused the West of “trying to inflict strategic defeat on my country.”

    “Any interaction will only be possible if the United States and NATO review their anti- Russian course, and when they show that they are ready to participate in comprehensive dialogue, taking into account all of those strategic stability factors and removing all of the concerns that we have about our security,” he said.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed the council, saying “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”

    He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”

    “Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.

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  • Israel’s wartime Cabinet is shaken by a dispute between Netanyahu and his top political rival

    Israel’s wartime Cabinet is shaken by a dispute between Netanyahu and his top political rival

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    TEL AVIV, Israel — A top Israeli Cabinet minister headed to Washington on Sunday for talks with U.S. officials, sparking a rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to an Israeli official, in a sign of widening cracks in Israel’s wartime government nearly five months into its war with Hamas.

    The trip by Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival who joined Netanyahu’s hard-line government early in the war following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, comes amid deep disagreements between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden over how to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and create a post-war vision for the enclave.

    Talks aimed at brokering a Gaza cease-fire were underway in Egypt. International mediators hope to broker a deal that would pause the fighting and free some of the remaining hostages before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10.

    The U.S. was prompted to airdrop aid into Gaza on Saturday after dozens of Palestinians rushing to grab food from an Israel-organized convoy were killed last week. The airdrops circumvent an aid delivery system that has been hobbled by Israeli restrictions, logistical issues in Gaza and the fighting inside the tiny enclave. Aid officials say airdrops are far less effective than aid sent via trucks.

    U.S. priorities in the region have increasingly been hampered by Netanyahu’s hard-line Cabinet, where ultranationalists dominate. Gantz’s more moderate party at times acts as a counterweight to Netanyahu’s far-right allies.

    An official from Netanyahu’s Likud party said Gantz’s visit was without authorization from the Israeli leader. The official said Netanyahu had a “tough talk” with Gantz about the trip and told him the country has “just one prime minister.”

    An Israeli official said Gantz had informed Netanyahu of his intention to travel to the U.S. and to coordinate messaging with him. The official said the visit is meant to strengthen ties with Washington, bolster support for Israel’s ground campaign and push for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

    Gantz is set to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to his National Unity party.

    Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the dispute with the media.

    Netanyahu has tanked in popularity since the war broke out, according to most opinion polls, with many Israelis holding him responsible for Hamas’ cross-border raid that left 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead and roughly 250 people, including women, children and older adults, abducted and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

    The subsequent fighting has killed at least 30,410 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and U.N. agencies say hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.

    Critics say Netanyahu’s decision-making has been tainted by political considerations, a charge he denies. The criticism is particularly focused on plans for postwar Gaza. Netanyahu has released a proposal that would see Israel maintain open-ended security control over the territory with local Palestinians running civilian affairs.

    The U.S. wants to see progress on the creation of a Palestinian state, envisioning a revamped Palestinian leadership running Gaza with an eye toward eventual statehood.

    That vision is opposed by Netanyahu and the hard-liners in his government. Another top Cabinet official from Gantz’s party has questioned the handling of the war and the strategy for freeing the hostages.

    Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s most conservative and religious ever, has also been rattled by a court-ordered deadline for a new bill to broaden military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews, many of whom are exempted to pursue religious studies. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed since Oct. 7, and the military is looking to fill its ranks.

    Gantz, who polls show would earn enough support to become prime minister if a vote were held today, has remained vague about his view of Palestinian statehood.

    A visit to the U.S., if met with progress on the hostage front, could further boost Gantz’s support. Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it, a senior U.S. official said Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House to brief reporters.

    Israelis, deeply traumatized by Hamas’ attack, have broadly backed the war effort as an act of self-defense, even as global opposition to the fighting has increased.

    But a growing number are expressing their dismay with Netanyahu. Some 10,000 people protested late Saturday to call for early elections, according to Israeli media. Such protests have grown in recent weeks, but remain much smaller than last year’s demonstrations against the government’s judicial overhaul plan.

    If the political rifts grow and Gantz quits the government, the floodgates will open to broader protests by a public that was already unhappy with the government when Hamas struck, said Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

    “There is a lot of anger,” he said, listing grievances that were building well before Oct. 7. “The moment you have that anger and a coalition that is disconnected from the people, there will be fireworks.”

    Fighting raged on in Gaza, with Israeli strikes late Saturday killing more than 30 people, including women and children, according to local health officials.

    At least 14 were killed in a strike on a home in the southernmost city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, according to Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the hospital where the bodies were taken. He said the dead, including six children and four women, were from the same family. Relatives said another nine people were under the rubble.

    Israeli airstrikes also hit two homes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, a dense, residential area in northern Gaza, killing 17 people, according to the Civil Defense.

    ___

    Shurafa reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip and Magdy from Cairo.

    ___

    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Palestinians: Israeli troops fired at people seeking food

    Palestinians: Israeli troops fired at people seeking food

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    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said. More than 100 people were killed in the chaos, bringing the death toll since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to more than 30,000, according to health officials.

    Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic stampede for the food aid and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.

    The violence was quickly condemned by Arab countries, and U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern it would add to the difficulty of negotiating a cease-fire in the nearly five-month conflict.

    The Gaza City area was among the first targets of Israel’s air, sea and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel.

    While many Palestinians fled the invasion in the north of the enclave, a few hundred thousand are believed to remain in the largely devastated and isolated region. Several deliveries of aid reached the area this week, officials said.

    The deadly chaos in Gaza City will likely fuel criticism of Israel when it comes to allowing aid in.

    Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys. The U.N. says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation; around 80% have fled their homes.

    Military officials said the pre-dawn convoy of 30 trucks driving to northern Gaza were met by huge crowds of people trying to grab the aid they were carrying. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the stampede, and some were run over by the trucks as the drivers tried to get away, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson.

    Israeli troops guarding the area fired warning shots toward the crowd because they felt endangered, he said.

    “We didn’t open fire on those seeking aid. Contrary to the accusations, we didn’t open fire on a humanitarian aid convoy, not from the air and not from land. We secured it so it could reach northern Gaza,” he said.

    Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa Hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food. “We’ve been eating animal feed for two months,” he said.

    He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd as people pulled boxes of flour and canned goods off the trucks, causing the Palestinians to scatter, with some hiding under cars. After the shooting stopped, people went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.

    At least 112 people were killed, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The ministry described it as a “massacre” and said more than 700 others were injured.

    Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan accused Israel of targeting civilians in the incident. In separate statements, they called for increased safe passages for humanitarian aid. They also urged the international community to take decisive action to pressure Israel to abide by international law and to reach an agreement for an immediate cease-fire.

    Biden spoke with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar about the deaths, according to U.S. officials, and the U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency closed consultations on them for later Thursday.

    “We are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

    The increasing alarm over hunger across Gaza has fueled international calls for a cease-fire, and the U.S., Egypt and Qatar are working to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas for a pause in fighting and the release of some of the hostages Hamas took during its Oct. 7 attack.

    Mediators hope to reach an agreement before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts around March 10. But so far, Israel and Hamas have remained far apart in public on their demands.

    Biden had earlier expressed hope that a deal would be done by Monday. He said Thursday that looked unlikely.

    “Hope springs eternal,” Biden told reporters. “I was on the telephone with people from the region. Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful.”

    When asked if the bloodshed in Gaza City on Thursday would complicate those efforts, he said, “I know it will.”

    In a statement condemning Thursday’s attack, Hamas said it would not allow the negotiations “to be a cover for the enemy to continue its crimes.”

    Medics arriving at the scene of the bloodshed Thursday found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.

    Another man in the crowd — who gave only his first name, Ahmad, as he was being treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds to the arm and leg — said he waited for two hours before someone with a horse-drawn cart had room to take him to Shifa.

    The violence came more than a month after witnesses and health officials in Gaza accused Israeli troops of firing on a previous aid distribution in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people.

    Dr. Mohammed Salha, the acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, said the facility received 161 wounded patients, most of whom appeared to have been shot. He said the hospital can perform only the most essential surgeries because it is running out of fuel to power emergency generators.

    The Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to 30,035, with another 70,457 wounded. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

    The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, maintains detailed records of casualties. Its counts from previous wars have largely matched those of the U.N., independent experts and even Israel’s own tallies.

    The Hamas attack into southern Israel that ignited the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the militants seized around 250 hostages. Hamas and other militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of about 30 more, after releasing most of the other captives during a November cease-fire.

    Violence has also surged across the West Bank since Oct. 7. An attacker shot and killed two Israelis at a gas station in the settlement of Eli on Thursday, according to the Israeli military. The attacker was killed, the military said.

    Meanwhile, U.N. officials have warned of further mass casualties if Israel follows through on vows to attack the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has taken refuge. They also say a Rafah offensive could decimate what remains of aid operations.

    Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are believed to remain in northern Gaza despite Israeli orders to evacuate the area in October, and many have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The U.N. says 1 in 6 children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting.

    COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said around 50 aid trucks entered northern Gaza this week. It was unclear who delivered the aid. Some countries have resorted to airdrops in recent days.

    The World Food Program said earlier this month that it was pausing deliveries to the north because of the growing chaos, after desperate Palestinians emptied a convoy while it was en route.

    Since launching its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel has barred entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies, except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. Despite international calls to allow in more aid, the number of supply trucks is far less than the 500 that came in daily before the war.

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    By WAFAA SHURAFA, KAREEM CHEHAYEB and MELANIE LIDMAN – Associated Press

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  • Majority of countries argue Israel violated international law in last historic hearing at UN court

    Majority of countries argue Israel violated international law in last historic hearing at UN court

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    THE HAGUE — The United Nations’ highest court on Monday wrapped up historic proceedings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought by Palestinians for a future state, with most voices at the hearing arguing against the Israeli government.

    Over six days, the International Court of Justice heard from an unprecedented number of countries and the majority argued Israel was violating international law and called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

    “The real obstacle to peace is obvious — the deepening occupation by Israel of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and failure to implement the two-state vision, Israel and Palestine living side by side,” Turkey’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Yildiz said.

    The hearings addressed a request by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding opinion on the legality of Israel’s policies. The court says it will issue its opinion in “due course.” On average, advisory opinions are released six months after oral proceedings.

    Fiji was one of a handful of countries to argue that the court should refuse the request and directly mentioned the Hamas attacks that set off the war in Gaza and left about 1,200 people dead while Hamas militants also took nearly 250 others hostage.

    “The events of 7 October 2023 have shown us what could happen if there were a complete and unconditional withdrawal without the necessary arrangements in place to guarantee the security of Israel,” Filipo Tarakinikini said on behalf of the South Pacific Island nation.

    The United States also cautioned the court against issuing an opinion, calling for an immediate withdrawal from the territories. Acting State Department legal adviser Richard Visek said last week the judges should not seek to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict “through an advisory opinion addressed to questions focusing on the acts of only one party.”

    Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki had previously urged the 15-judge panel to uphold the Palestinian right to self-determination and to declare “that the Israeli occupation is illegal and must end immediately, totally and unconditionally.”

    Though the hearings were held against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, it pre-dated this round of conflict and focused instead on Israel’s open-ended occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

    Late last month, the court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its military offensive in Gaza. South Africa also filed a separate case accusing Israel of genocide because of its actions in the Strip, a charge that Israel denied.

    Israel rejects accusations that its treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid and has accused U.N. bodies and international tribunals of bias.

    It did not participate in the oral proceedings but, in a five-page written submission, Israel said the questions put to the court are prejudiced and “fail to recognize Israel’s right and duty to protect its citizens.”

    Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israel considers the West Bank to be a disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations.

    The peace process has repeatedly stalled because of Palestinian attacks, Israel’s expansion of settlements in occupied territory and the inability of the two sides to agree on issues like final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

    In 2004, the court said that a separation barrier Israel built through east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was “contrary to international law.” It also called on Israel to immediately halt construction. Israel has ignored the ruling.

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  • Air Force member in critical condition after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy in DC

    Air Force member in critical condition after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy in DC

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    WASHINGTON — An active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force was critically injured Sunday after setting himself ablaze outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., while declaring that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide,” a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

    The man, whose name wasn’t immediately released, walked up to the embassy shortly before 1 p.m. and began livestreaming on the video streaming platform Twitch, the person said. Law enforcement officials believe the man started a livestream, set his phone down and then doused himself in accelerant and ignited the flames. At one point, he said he “will no longer be complicit in genocide,” the person said. The video was later removed from the platform, but law enforcement officials have obtained and reviewed a copy.

    The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

    Police did not immediately provide any additional details about the incident.

    The incident happened as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking the cabinet approval for a military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah while a temporary cease-fire deal is being negotiated. Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, however, has drawn criticisms, including genocide claims against the Palestinians.

    Israel has adamantly denied the genocide allegations and says it is carrying out operations in accordance with international law in the Israel-Hamas war.

    In December, a person self-immolated outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta and used gasoline as an accelerant, according to Atlanta’s fire authorities. A Palestinian flag was found at the scene, and the act was believed to be one of “extreme political protest.”

    In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said its officers had responded to the scene outside the Israeli Embassy to assist U.S. Secret Service officers and that its bomb squad had also been called to examine a suspicious vehicle. Police said no hazardous materials were found in the vehicle.

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  • In water-stressed Singapore, a search for new solutions to keep the taps flowing

    In water-stressed Singapore, a search for new solutions to keep the taps flowing

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    SINGAPORE — A crack of thunder booms as dozens of screens in a locked office flash between live video of cars splashing through wet roads, drains sapping the streets dry, and reservoirs collecting the precious rainwater across the tropical island of Singapore. A team of government employees intently monitors the water, which will be collected and purified for use by the country’s six million residents.

    “We make use of real-time data to manage the storm water,” Harry Seah, deputy chief executive of operations at PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, says with a smile while standing in front of the screens. “All of this water will go to the marina and reservoirs.”

    The room is part of Singapore’s cutting-edge water management system that combines technology, diplomacy and community involvement to help one of the most water-stressed nations in the world secure its water future. The country’s innovations have attracted the attention of other water-scarce nations seeking solutions.

    A small city-state island located in Southeast Asia, Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet. In recent decades the island has also transformed into a modern international business hub, with a rapidly developing economy. The boom has caused the country’s water consumption to increase by over twelve times since the nation’s independence from Malaysia in 1965, and the economy is only expected to keep growing.

    With no natural water resources, the country has relied on importing water from neighboring Malaysia via a series of deals allowing inexpensive purchase of water drawn from the country’s Johor River. But the deal is set to expire in 2061, with uncertainty over its renewal.

    For years Malaysian politicians have targeted the water deal, sparking political tensions with Singapore. The Malaysian government has claimed the price at which Singapore purchases water — set decades ago — is too low and should be renegotiated, while the Singaporean government argues its treatment and resale of of the water to Malaysia is done at a generous price.

    And climate change, which brings increased intense weather, rising seas and a rise in average temperatures, is expected to exacerbate water insecurity, according to research done by the Singaporean government.

    “For us, water is not an inexhaustible gift of nature. It is a strategic and scarce resource,” Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the opening of a water treatment facility in 2021. “We are always pushing the limits of our water resources. And producing each additional drop of water gets harder and harder, and more and more expensive.”

    Seeking solutions to its water stresses, the Singaporean government has spent decades developing a master plan focusing on what they call their four “national taps”: water catchment, recycling, desalination and imports.

    Across the island, seventeen reservoirs catch and store rainwater, which is treated through a series of chemical coagulation, rapid gravity filtration and disinfection.

    Five desalination plants, which produce drinking water by pushing seawater through membranes to remove dissolved salts and minerals, operate across the island, creating millions of gallons of clean water every day.

    A massive sewage recycling program purifies wastewater through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet irradiation, adding to drinking supply reservoirs. Dubbed “NEWater”, the treated wastewater now provides Singapore 40% of its water, with the government hoping to increase capacity to 55% of demand in years to come. To help build people’s confidence in the safety, Singapore’s national water agency collaborated with a local craft brewery to create a line of beer made from treated sewage.

    Innovation has been possible partially because of the involvement of private businesses, Seah said.

    “Sometimes private sectors may have a different way of doing things, and you can learn from them. Industry involvement in us is very important,” Seah said.

    Getting community participation and buy in has been an effective method to improved awareness and conservation as well, Seah said.

    In 2006 the government launched the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters Program, which transformed the country’s water systems into more public areas. Through the program, residents can kayak, hike and picnic on the reservoirs, giving a greater sense of ownership and value to the country’s water supplies. Several water facilities now have public green spaces on the roofs where the public can picnic amid big lush green lawns.

    In schools, children are taught about best practices for water use and conservation. Schools hold mock water rationing exercises where water taps are shut off and students collect water in pails.

    The international community has tapped into Singapore’s water innovation as well. The country has become a global hub for water technology, as home to nearly 200 water companies and over 20 research centers and hosts a biennial International Water Week.

    Water technology developed and used in Singapore, such as portable water filters, water testing technology and flood management tools, have been exported to over 30 countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal.

    But not all of the solutions used in Singapore will relevant to other countries, especially those with less-developed infrastructure concedes Seah.

    Despite the leaps that Singapore has made in its journey for water security, Seah warns that continued progress is essential for the island.

    “After more than two decades we are still constantly analyzing the water,” he said. “We can never be complacent.”

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  • Netanyahu says a cease-fire deal would only delay ‘somewhat’ an Israeli military offensive in Rafah

    Netanyahu says a cease-fire deal would only delay ‘somewhat’ an Israeli military offensive in Rafah

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    TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah could be “delayed somewhat” if a deal is reached for a weekslong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, and claimed that total victory in the territory would come within weeks once the offensive begins.

    Netanyahu confirmed to CBS that a deal is in the works, with no details. Talks resumed Sunday in Qatar at the specialist level, Egypt’s state-run Al Qahera TV reported, citing an Egyptian official as saying discussions would follow in Cairo with the aim of achieving the cease-fire and release of dozens of hostages held in Gaza as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

    Meanwhile, Israel is nearing the approval of plans to expand its offensive against the Hamas militant group to Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, where more than half the besieged territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge. Humanitarian groups warn of a catastrophe. Rafah is Gaza’s main entry point for aid. The U.S. and other allies say Israel must avoid harming civilians.

    Netanyahu has said he will convene the Cabinet this week to approve operational plans that include the evacuation of civilians to elsewhere in Gaza.

    “Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion. Not months,” Netanyahu told CBS. ““If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway.” He said four of the six remaining Hamas battalions are concentrated in Rafah.

    U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC that President Joe Biden hadn’t been briefed on the Rafah plan. “We believe that this operation should not go forward until or unless we see (a plan to protect civilians),” Sullivan said.

    Early Monday, Netanyahu’s office said the army had presented to the War Cabinet its “operational plan” for Rafah as well as plans to evacuate civilians from the battle zones. It gave no further details.

    His office also said the War Cabinet had approved a plan to deliver humanitarian aid safely into Gaza.

    United Nations agencies and aid groups say the hostilities, the Israeli military’s refusal to facilitate deliveries and the breakdown of order inside Gaza make it increasingly difficult to get vital aid to much of the coastal enclave. In some chaotic scenes, crowds of desperate Palestinians have surrounded delivery trucks and stolen the supplies off them.

    Heavy fighting continued in parts of northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, where the destruction is staggering.

    “We’re trapped, unable to move because of the heavy bombardment,” said Gaza City resident Ayman Abu Awad.

    He said that starving residents have been forced to eat animal fodder and search for food in demolished buildings. In nearby Jabaliya, market vendor Um Ayad showed off a leafy weed that people pick from the harsh, dry soil and eat.

    “We have to feed the children. They keep screaming they want food. We cannot find food. We don’t know what to do,” she said.

    Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, said it has not been able to deliver food to northern Gaza since Jan. 23, adding on X, formerly Twitter, that “our calls to send food aid have been denied.”

    Israel said that 245 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday — less than half the amount that entered daily before the war.

    A senior official from Egypt, which along with Qatar is a mediator between Israel and Hamas, has said the draft cease-fire deal includes the release of up to 40 women and older hostages in return for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women, minors and older people.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the proposed six-week pause in fighting would include allowing hundreds of trucks to bring desperately needed aid into Gaza every day, including the north. He said both sides agreed to continue negotiations during the pause for further releases and a permanent cease-fire.

    Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

    Hamas says it has not been involved in the latest proposal developed by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but the reported outline largely matches its earlier proposal for the first phase of a truce.

    Hamas has said it won’t release all of the remaining hostages until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws its forces from the territory, and is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants. Netanyahu has rejected those conditions.

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday made clear that a cease-fire deal for Gaza wouldn’t affect the military’s daily low-level clashes with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

    “We will continue the fire, and we will do so independently from the south,” he said while visiting the Northern Command.

    Israel declared war after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. More than 100 hostages were released in a cease-fire deal in November. More than 130 remain in captivity, a fourth of them believed to be dead.

    Families have followed the negotiations with hope and anguish.

    “It feels like Schindler’s list. Will he be on the list or not?” Shelly Shem Tov, the mother of Omer, 21, told Israeli Army Radio of his chances of being freed.

    Israel’s air and ground offensive has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population from their homes, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation and the spread of disease. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says 29,692 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and children.

    The ministry’s death toll doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says its troops have killed more than 10,000 militants, without providing evidence.

    The war has devastated Gaza’s health sector. Less than half of hospitals even partially function.

    At the Emirates Hospital in Rafah, three to four newborns are placed in each of its 20 incubators, which are designed for just one.

    Dr. Amal Ismail said two to three newborns die in a single shift, in part because many families live in tents in rainy, cold weather. Before the war, one or two newborns in incubators there died per month.

    “No matter how much we work with them, it is all wasted,” she said. “Health conditions in tents are very bad.”

    ___

    Wafaa Shurafa reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip, and Samy Magdy from Cairo.

    ___

    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Brazil’s president accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, doubling down after earlier uproar

    Brazil’s president accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, doubling down after earlier uproar

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Brazil’s president alleged Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on harsh rhetoric after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust.

    Israel has vehemently pushed back against genocide claims, saying its war is targeting the militant group Hamas, not the Palestinian people. It has held Hamas responsible for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.

    The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the bodies of 92 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments were brought to hospitals over the past 24, raising the overall toll in nearly five months of war to 29,606. The total number of wounded rose to nearly 70,000.

    The ministry’s death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it has said two-thirds of those killed were children and women. Israel says its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has not provided details.

    Israel declared war after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. More than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.

    The steadily rising civilian death toll and a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza have amplified calls for a cease-fire. Hunger and infectious diseases are spreading and some 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with about 1.4 million crowded into the southern city of Rafah o n the border with Egypt.

    Negotiators from the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar were meeting in Paris this weekend to try to reach a deal on pausing the fighting. Egypt and Qatar serve as mediators between Israel and Hamas.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight until “total victory,” but has dispatched a delegation to Paris to seek the release of hostages in exchange for a temporary truce. Negotiators face wide gaps and an unofficial deadline — the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan around March 10.

    Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood,” an apparent reference to calls for him to retract comments comparing Israel’s conduct in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews perished during World War II.

    “What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” he wrote Saturday. “Children and women are being murdered.”

    In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology. In retaliation, Lula recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Israel for consultations.

    Last month, South Africa filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. The court issued a preliminary order in the landmark case two weeks later, ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.

    Israel, created in part as a refuge for survivors of the Holocaust, has accused South Africa of hypocrisy.

    Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his right-wing government drew an angry response from the United States, its closest ally, over plans to build more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Netanyahu’s fire-brand finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said the plans came in response to a Palestinian shooting attack earlier in the week that killed one Israeli and wounded five.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that he was “disappointed” to hear of the Israeli announcement. “It’s been long-standing U.S. policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace,” he said in Buenos Aires. “They’re also inconsistent with international law.

    The Biden administration also restored a U.S. legal finding dating back nearly 50 years that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are “illegitimate” under international law.

    Blinken said the U.S. believes settlements are inconsistent with Israel’s obligations, reversing a determination made by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo.

    ___

    Magdy reported from Cairo.

    ___

    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Live updates | New attempts at Gaza cease-fire are underway, Israel’s Gantz says

    Live updates | New attempts at Gaza cease-fire are underway, Israel’s Gantz says

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    New attempts are underway to reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war in Gaza, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet said late Wednesday.

    “Initial signs indicate a possibility of moving forward,” said Benny Gantz, a former military chief and defense minister. It’s the first Israeli indication of renewed cease-fire talks since negotiations stalled a week ago.

    However, Gantz repeated his pledge that unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Israel will launch a ground offensive into the crowded southern city of Rafah during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Israel’s war in Gaza has driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with Egypt.

    Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.

    The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. About a fourth of some 130 captives still being held are believed to be dead. Israel has laid waste to much of the Palestinian territory in response. Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed.

    Currently:

    — Why isn’t desperately needed aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza?

    — Attacks on ships and U.S. drones show Yemen’s Houthis can still fight despite U.S.-led airstrikes

    — Rape and sexual assault took place during Hamas attack, Israeli association says

    — An attempt by U.K. lawmakers to vote on a cease-fire in Gaza descended into chaos

    — U.S. says U.N. top court shouldn’t urge Israel to immediately withdraw from Palestinian-claimed lands

    — Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

    Here’s the latest:

    UNITED NATIONS – Leaders of major U.N. and humanitarian organizations are calling on Israel to provide food and medicine and facilitate aid deliveries to the 2.3 million Palestinians in conflict-wracked Gaza – and on world leaders “to prevent an even worse catastrophe from happening.”

    A statement from the heads of 12 U.N. agencies, six major humanitarian organizations, and the U.N. special investigator on the human rights of displaced people says Israel must fulfil its obligations under international law to protect civilians and the infrastructure they rely on, including homes, hospitals and schools.

    The leaders’ call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the immediate release of hostages taken during Hamas’ surprise attack Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, and security and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid.

    To do their work, the statement says the U.N. agencies and aid organizations also need passable roads, neighborhoods cleared of explosive devices, stable communications, a halt to campaigns that seek to discredit their work, and funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which they called “the backbone of the humanitarian operations in Gaza.”

    More than 16 nations suspended funding for UNRWA after Israel alleged that 12 of its staffers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.

    The leaders of U.N. and aid organizations warned that further violence in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge, “would cause mass casualties” and “could also deal a death blow to a humanitarian response that is already on its knees.”

    Israel’s prime minister says Rafah is a stronghold of Hamas and has vowed to move the offensive there.

    LONDON — The U.K. says it and Jordan have air-dropped aid directly to a hospital in northern Gaza.

    Britain’s Foreign Office says a Jordanian Air Force plane delivered a U.K.-funded aid shipment to the Tal Al-Hawa Hospital. It says the 4 metric ton shipment was equipped with GPS trackers and included medicine, fuel, and food for hospital patients and staff.

    The Jordanian military said this was its 12th aid drop into Gaza during the war. Britain is working with the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation to procure and deliver 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) worth of U.K. aid to Gaza.

    Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “thousands of patients will benefit and the fuel will enable this vital hospital to continue its life saving work.”

    “However, the situation in Gaza is desperate and significantly more aid is needed — and fast,” he said. “We are calling for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow additional aid into Gaza as quickly as possible and bring hostages home.”

    United Nations agencies and aid groups say the ongoing hostilities, the Israeli military’s refusal to facilitate deliveries and the breakdown of order inside Gaza make it increasingly difficult to bring vital aid to much of the besieged enclave.

    Aid groups said they’ve faced a cumbersome inspection process that allowed only a trickle of aid to enter even as needs mounted. Israel says the inspections are needed for security reasons.

    JERUSALEM — A member of Israel’s three-person War Cabinet says there are new attempts underway to reach a cease-fire deal to pause the war in Gaza.

    But Benny Gantz says Israel is ready to press ahead with its offensive in the southern city of Rafah during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite widespread international opposition.

    Israel is seeking the release of the more than 100 hostages that Hamas is still holding in Gaza. Hamas wants an end to the war, withdrawal of all Israeli troops and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    Weeks of efforts by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have so far not yielded a deal. However Gantz, a former military chief and defense minister, said there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”

    “We will not stop looking for the way and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” he added.

    Israel has identified Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border where over half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, as its next target. It says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold after nearly five months of fighting.

    Gantz said Israel will evacuate the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Rafah before striking, but repeated his pledge that the offensive will take place during Ramadan if hostages are not released.

    “I repeat — if there is no outline for the (hostage) release, we will also operate during Ramadan,” he said.

    The U.S. and other members of the international community have urged Israel not to strike Rafah without a plan to protect civilians.

    Ramadan is expected to begin around March 10.

    GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization says he hasn’t spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a decade and will “probably” make contact now, at a time when Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has devastated medical facilities there.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, when asked about his contact with Netanyahu in recent months, said he had not been in touch with the Israeli leader since he served as Ethiopia’s foreign minister in 2014.

    “So probably I will take that as a recommendation and make contact,” Tedros told a WHO news conference on Wednesday, noting that the organization’s country office has been in contact with Israeli authorities.

    Tedros has made repeated heartfelt statements on how Israel’s war in Gaza has decimated the health sector. However, his comments Wednesday were the first time he publicly said he hasn’t tried talking to Netanyahu about the how the war is being conducted.

    Tedros, who led the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, has over the years met with many world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, before the pandemic was declared, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

    Hospitals in Gaza have repeatedly come under fire by Israel’s military during the monthslong war. Israel has accused the militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, of using medical facilities as cover for its operations.

    WHO has listed a total of 754 “attacks on health care” — including strikes that hit ambulances, medical facilities, health care workers and any other attacks that affect the provision of health care — in occupied Palestinian areas since Oct. 7.

    On Tuesday, WHO said 32 patients in critical condition had been transferred from Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza to other facilities in recent days, after the complex became “non-functional” following an Israeli siege and military raid.

    “The health and humanitarian situation in Gaza is inhumane and continues to deteriorate,” Tedros said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.

    GENEVA — Switzerland will ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the government said Wednesday.

    Under the ban, Swiss authorities can more easily apply preventative measures to deny entry or expel anyone suspected of affiliation with Hamas, and exchange information with foreign authorities more openly in cases of suspected terrorism financing linked to the group.

    The Federal Council, Switzerland’s seven-member executive branch, said the ban will affect Hamas and any potential successor organizations. The Swiss government already listed Hamas as a terror organization just days after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

    Acts of support for Hamas could be punishable with penalties of up to 20 years in prison, depending on the level of influence in the group, the government said in a statement. However, the ban so far is limited to five years, but it can be extended by parliament.

    TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s parliament has given overwhelming approval to a declaration expressing opposition to international efforts to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.

    Wednesday’s vote, approved by 99 of 120 lawmakers, is not binding but reflects the widespread sentiment in Israel as it battles Hamas militants in Gaza for a fifth month. Only nine lawmakers voted against the measure.

    “Israel outright rejects international edicts regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. The settlement, to the extent that it is reached, will be solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions,” it says.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet adopted the declaration earlier in the week.

    Netanyahu went on the offensive after media reports arose last week of a possible roadmap toward establishing a Palestinian state from the U.S. administration and Arab countries. The United States has also said Palestinian statehood is a key element in a broader vision for the normalization of relations between Israel and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

    The international community overwhelmingly supports an independent Palestinian state as part of a future peace agreement. Netanyahu’s government is filled with hard-liners who oppose Palestinian independence.

    TEL AVIV, Israel — The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel says it found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that ignited the war in Gaza.

    The report said that “in some cases, rape was conducted in front of an audience, such as partners, family, or friends, to increase the pain and humiliation for all present.” Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of the association, says that in many cases, the bodies of male and female victims, including their genitals, were severely mutilated.

    The report, published on Wednesday, did not specify the number of cases it had documented or identify any victims, even anonymously. Sulitzeanu said such determinations were difficult because many of the victims were killed after being assaulted, and first responders were so overwhelmed by the scale of death and destruction that they did not document signs of sexual abuse.

    The report’s authors said they based their research on confidential and public interviews with officials and first responders, as well as media reports. Sulitzeanu said they also relied on “confidential sources” but declined to say whether they had spoken to victims.

    An Associated Press investigation also found that sexual assault was part of an atrocity-filled rampage by Hamas and other militants who killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took around 250 hostages on Oct. 7. Hamas has rejected allegations that its gunmen committed sexual assault.

    According to the Israeli report, which was submitted to the United Nations and U.N. investigators carrying out a similar investigation, the sexual and gender-based violence occurred in four main places – the Nova music festival, communities near the Gaza border, Israeli military bases that were overrun by Hamas and places where hostages were held in Gaza.

    Sulitzeanu says the purpose of the report was to document how the sexual violence was similar across multiple sites, indicating it was organized and directed by Hamas.

    The association represents multiple rape crisis centers across Israel.

    BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike on a southern village has killed a woman and her daughter.

    Wednesday’s airstrike on the village of Majdal Zoun came after a series of strikes overnight, including one on Safi Mountain in the Hezbollah stronghold of Apple Province and another near the southern town of Khiam.

    NNA identified the woman killed as Khadija Salman, 40. Security officials speaking on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations, identified her 7-year-old daughter, who later succumbed to her wounds, as Amal al-Dur.

    The Iran-backed Hezbollah has been striking at Israeli posts along the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out following the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel.

    More than 200 people, the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters, have been killed in Lebanon since the latest round of violence broke out more than four months ago. The dead include more than 30 civilians.

    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.

    The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah says it received 44 bodies after multiple strikes in central Gaza. Associated Press reporters saw the bodies arriving in ambulances and private vehicles. Relatives held funeral prayers in the hospital courtyard early Wednesday.

    An airstrike on a home in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah killed a family of eight, according to Marwan al-Hams, the director of the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital. Nasser Abuel-Nour, a university professor; his wife, Nour, a human rights lawyer; their five children and grandchild were all killed in the strike.

    Al-Hams says another two people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Rafah. At least seven people were killed in strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, the main focus of Israel’s offensive in recent weeks, and another six were killed in Muwasi, an area Israel had declared a safe zone, the hospital said.

    The war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes.

    Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million have crowded into Rafah. Israel has vowed to expand its ground offensive to the southernmost city as it seeks to destroy Hamas, which is still fighting Israeli forces across the territory.

    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The aid group Doctors Without Borders says two people were killed when a shelter housing staff in the Gaza Strip was struck during an Israeli operation in an area where Palestinians have been told to seek shelter.

    “While details are still emerging, ambulance crews have now reached the site, where at least two family members of our colleagues have been killed and six people wounded. We are horrified by what has taken place,” the group said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    The attack took place in Muwasi, a sandy, mostly undeveloped strip of land along the coast that has been transformed into a sprawling tent camp with little in the way of basic services.

    Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, did not identify the source of fire. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

    Israel has continued to carry out strikes in all parts of the territory, and has vowed to expand its ground offensive to the southernmost city of Rafah, adjacent to Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.

    The Qatari Foreign Ministry said Hamas has started delivering medication for the approximately 100 hostages held in Gaza, a month after the medications arrived in Gaza.

    Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari said Tuesday evening that Hamas confirmed they had begun to deliver the medications to the hostages in exchange for medicines and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    France and Qatar mediated a deal in January for the shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The deal was the first agreement between Israel and the militant group since a weeklong cease-fire in November, but there was no evidence that the medications had arrived.

    France said it took months to organize the shipment of the medicines. Qatar, which has long served as a mediator with Hamas, helped broker the deal that will provide three months’ worth of medication for chronic illnesses for 45 of the hostages, as well as other medicine and vitamins.

    The United Nations’ World Food Program announced a pause in food and aid deliveries to northern Gaza on Tuesday after its drivers faced gunfire and violence from desperate residents swarming the trucks.

    The convoys “faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order,” according to a statement from the program. WFP had attempted to resume aid deliveries in northern Gaza after a three-week pause following an Israeli strike on an aid convoy.

    In a rare public criticism of Israel, a top U.S. envoy, David Satterfield, said this week that its targeted killings of Gaza police commanders guarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely.

    The WFP said 1 in 6 children under age 2 are acutely malnourished and people are dying of hunger-related causes.

    “In these past two days our teams witnessed unprecedented levels of desperation,” the WFP said.

    Hamas’ government media office described the WFP decision as a “death sentence” for hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza. It called on all UN agencies to return and avert “catastrophic consequences of the famine” there.

    Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels are still able to launch attacks in a crucial Red Sea corridor despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes.

    The rebels claimed more attacks Tuesday night after seriously damaging a ship and apparently downing an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars in recent days. The U.S. shot down 10 bomb-carrying Houthi drones, as well as a cruise missile heading toward a U.S. destroyer over the last day, Central Command said Tuesday. The U.S. military also targeted a Houthi surface-to-air missile launcher and a drone prior to its launch.

    The Houthi have said they aim to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea until Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip, even though few of the ships targeted have any direct links to Israel. Their guerrilla-style attacks show the difficulty of suppressing asymmetrical warfare, and the U.S.-led campaign to protect the shipping route has boosted the rebels’ standing in the Arab world.

    So far, no U.S. sailor or pilot has been wounded, but the U.S. continues to lose drones worth tens of millions of dollars and fire off million-dollar cruise missiles to counter the Houthis, who are using far-cheaper weapons that experts believe largely have been supplied by Iran.

    Based off U.S. military’s statements, American and allied forces have destroyed at least 73 missiles before they were launched, as well as 17 drones, 13 bomb-laden drone boats and one underwater explosive drone, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Those figures don’t include the initial Jan. 11 joint U.S.-U.K. strikes that began the monthlong campaign. The American military also has shot down dozens of missiles and drones already airborne as well since November.

    LONDON — Prince William, the heir to the British throne, called Tuesday for an end to fighting in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, lamenting the “terrible human cost” since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel and the “desperate need for increased humanitarian support for Gaza.”

    William stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as the House of Commons prepares for a vote on that issue on Wednesday. The message, written in white on a black background, was placed under William’s cypher on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    “Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home,’’ William said.

    William used careful language focused on universal humanity rather than taking sides. The prince plans to meet with aid workers active in the region and, separately, join a discussion at a synagogue with young people of different faiths who are fighting antisemitism.

    “Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair,″ William said. “I continue to cling to the hope that a brighter future can be found and I refuse to give up on that.”

    The U.S. vetoed an Arab-backed U.N. resolution Tuesday demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled Gaza Strip.

    The vote in the Security Council reflected wide global support for ending the more than four-month war that started with Hamas’ surprise invasion of southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel’s military response has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.

    It was the third U.S. veto of a Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

    In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the U.S. circulated a rival U.N. Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the draft resolution obtained by the AP says.

    U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told several reporters Monday that the Arab-backed resolution is not “an effective mechanism for trying to do the three things that we want to see happen — which is get hostages out, more aid in, and a lengthy pause to this conflict.”

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  • Top UN court to hold hearings on legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian-claimed lands

    Top UN court to hold hearings on legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian-claimed lands

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    THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The United Nations’ highest court opens historic hearings Monday into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, plunging the 15 international judges back into the heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Six days of hearings are scheduled at the International Court of Justice, during which an unprecedented number of countries will participate, as Israel continues its devastating assault on Gaza.

    Though the case occurs against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel’s open-ended occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

    Palestinian representatives, who speak first on Monday, will argue that the Israeli occupation is illegal because it has violated three key tenets of international law, the Palestinian legal team told reporters Wednesday.

    They say that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land, has violated the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.

    “We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

    “They’ve had to consider the word genocide in the South Africa case,” he said, referring to a separate case before the court. “Now we want them to consider apartheid.”

    Awadallah said an advisory opinion from the court “will give us many tools, using peaceful international law methods and tools, to confront the illegalities of the occupation.”

    The court will likely take months to rule. But experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.

    “The case will put before the court a litany of accusations and allegations and grievances which are probably going to be uncomfortable and embarrassing for Israel, given the war and the already very polarized international environment,” said Yuval Shany, a law professor at Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.

    Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement. Shany said Israel will likely justify the ongoing occupation on security grounds, especially in the absence of a peace deal.

    It is likely to point to the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants from Gaza killed 1,200 people across southern Israel and dragged 250 hostages back to the territory.

    “There is this narrative that territories from which Israel withdraws, like Gaza, can potentially transform into very serious security risks,” Shany said. “If anything, Oct. 7 underscored the traditional Israeli security rationale to justify unending occupation.”

    But Palestinians and leading rights groups say the occupation goes far beyond defensive measures. They say it has morphed into an apartheid system, bolstered by settlement building on occupied lands, that gives Palestinians second-class status and is designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel rejects any accusation of apartheid.

    The case arrives at the court after the U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin in December 2022 to ask the world court for a non-binding advisory opinion on one of the world’s longest-running and thorniest disputes. The request was promoted by the Palestinians and opposed vehemently by Israel. Fifty countries abstained from voting.

    In a written statement before the vote, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the measure “outrageous,” the U.N. “morally bankrupt and politicized” and any potential decision from the court “completely illegitimate.”

    After the Palestinians present their arguments, 51 countries and three organizations — the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the African Union will address the panel of judges in the wood-paneled Great Hall of Justice.

    Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations.

    It has built 146 settlements, according to watchdog group Peace Now, home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15% in the last five years according to a pro-settler group.

    Israel also has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in east Jerusalem that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital. Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination, making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones.

    The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites, is not internationally recognized.

    It’s not the first time the court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on Israeli policies or to declare an occupation illegal.

    In 2004, the court said that a separation barrier Israel built through east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was “contrary to international law.” It also called on Israel to immediately halt construction. Israel has ignored the ruling.

    In a 1971 case the Palestinian legal team is likely to draw from, the court issued an advisory opinion finding that the South African occupation of Namibia was illegal, and said that South Africa had to immediately withdraw from the country.

    Also, late last month, the court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its campaign in Gaza. South Africa filed the case accusing Israel of genocide, a charge that Israel denied.

    South African representatives are scheduled to speak Tuesday. The country’s governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to the apartheid regime of white minority rule in South Africa, which restricted most Black people to “homelands” before ending in 1994.

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    Frankel reported from Jerusalem.

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    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery

    Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery

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    Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.

    Tech executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new voluntary framework for how they will respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk’s X — are also signing on to the accord.

    “Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.

    The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video “that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”

    The companies aren’t committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.

    The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but may disappoint pro-democracy activists and watchdogs looking for stronger assurances.

    “The language isn’t quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we’ll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”

    Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”

    “This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody,” he said. “And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”

    Tech executives were also joined by several European and U.S. political leaders at Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively.

    She stressed the seriousness of the issue, saying the “combination of AI serving the purposes of disinformation and disinformation campaigns might be the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”

    The agreement at the German city’s annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Some have already done so, including Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan, and most recently Indonesia.

    Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.

    Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a liberal candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false, but they were already widely shared as real across social media.

    Politicians and campaign committees also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.

    Friday’s accord said in responding to AI-generated deepfakes, platforms “will pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”

    It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies on deceptive AI election content and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.

    Many of the companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven’t yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure from regulators and others to do more.

    That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving AI companies to largely govern themselves. In the absence of federal legislation, many states are considering ways to put guardrails around the use of AI, in elections and other applications.

    The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn’t cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.

    Misinformation experts warn that while AI deepfakes are especially worrisome for their potential to fly under the radar and influence voters this year, cheaper and simpler forms of misinformation remain a major threat. The accord noted this too, acknowledging that “traditional manipulations (”cheapfakes”) can be used for similar purposes.”

    Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. For example, Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone’s civic participation.

    Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former data scientist at Facebook, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he’d still like to see social media companies taking other basic actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don’t prioritize engagement above all else.

    Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”

    In addition to the major platforms that helped broker Friday’s agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.

    Notably absent from the accord is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn’t immediately return a request for comment Friday.

    The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the biggest surprises of Friday’s agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”

    But in a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections.”

    “X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said.

    __

    The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu and Hamas trade blame

    Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu and Hamas trade blame

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    JERUSALEM — International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.

    Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.

    The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu’s decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.

    The mediation efforts, steered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have been working to bring the warring sides toward an agreement that might secure a truce in the monthslong war, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. The fighting has destroyed vast parts of Gaza, displaced most of the territory’s population and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.

    “In Cairo, Israel did not receive any new proposal from Hamas on the release of our captives,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “A change in Hamas’ positions will allow progress in the negotiations.”

    Hamas meanwhile said Netanyahu was to blame. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press that Israel had put forward a proposal that strayed from agreements reached during earlier cease-fire talks.

    On Tuesday, CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, attended the talks in the Egyptian capital, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. The talks continued Wednesday at a lower level, even as deadly violence persisted both in the Gaza Strip and along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where fighting has simmered since the war broke out.

    Israeli media reported Wednesday that Netanyahu told his delegation not to return to the talks unless Hamas softens its demands.

    The sides have been far apart on their terms for a deal. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of all the remaining hostages.

    Hamas has said it will not release all the captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. Netanyahu has rejected those demands, calling them “delusional.”

    The plight of the hostages has deeply shaken Israelis, who see their lengthy captivity as an enduring symbol of the failure of the state to protect its citizens from Hamas’ attack.

    A group representing the families of the hostages called Netanyahu’s reported decision to keep the delegation away from the talks “scandalous” and said the families would set up a “mass barricade” outside the Israeli Defense Ministry unless Netanyahu agreed to meet them.

    Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in return for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

    The war, which erupted after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 captive, ground on even as the talks appeared to be stalling.

    Palestinians began evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics Wednesday. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it.

    Now in its fifth month, the war has devastated Gaza’s health sector, with less than half of its hospitals only partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover.

    Khan Younis is now the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza’ southernmost city of Rafah. Some 1.4 million people — over half the territory’s population — are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.

    The videos of the evacuation in Khan Younis showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital complex. A doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.

    The Israeli military said it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation,” it said.

    The military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there. Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it.

    The Gaza Health Ministry said last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital. It said 10 people have been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday.

    The ministry says around 300 medical staff were treating some 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes. It says 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility.

    The war in Gaza has become one of the deadliest and most destructive air and ground offensives in recent history. At least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Over 68,000 people have been wounded in the war.

    Around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, large areas in northern Gaza have been completely destroyed and a humanitarian crisis has left a quarter of the population starving.

    In northern Israel, meanwhile, a rocket attack killed a female soldier, the Israeli military said, and wounded eight people when one of the projectiles hit a military base in the town of Safed on Wednesday.

    Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon in response, killing four people, including a Syrian woman and her two Lebanese children, and wounding at least nine, Lebanese security officials and local media said.

    The U.N. children’s agency condemned the killings of “two innocent children” and called “for the protection of children in times of war and at all times.”

    Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which supports Hamas, have traded fire along the border nearly every day since the start of the war in Gaza, raising the risk of a wider conflict. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the rocket attack.

    ___

    Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

    ___

    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Live updates | Hamas responds to a proposed cease-fire as Blinken meets Israeli leaders

    Live updates | Hamas responds to a proposed cease-fire as Blinken meets Israeli leaders

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    Hamas has put forward a detailed plan for a new cease-fire and hostage release deal with Israel, which will be discussed when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Wednesday with Israeli leaders.

    Qatar’s prime minister said Tuesday that Hamas gave a “generally positive” answer to the latest plan for Gaza, which would effectively leave the militant group in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities, a scenario that Israel adamantly rejects.

    More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. The Palestinian death toll after nearly four months of war has reached 27,707 people, the Health Ministry in Gaza said.

    A quarter of Gaza’s residents are starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands surviving in makeshift tent camps.

    Currently:

    — Diapers and baby formula are hard to find in Gaza, leaving parents desperate.

    — Gaza’s main aid agency is on the brink. The European Union, a key donor, is wavering over what to do.

    — France pays homage to victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel with national ceremony led by Macron.

    — Senate Democrats push to require that Biden consult Congress on weapons sales to Israel.

    — Qatar says Hamas gave a “generally positive” response to a cease-fire proposal.

    — Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

    Here’s the latest:

    BEIRUT — An official familiar with the talks over a new has clarified the sequencing of Hamas’ proposal.

    Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to the Hezbollah militant group, a Hamas ally, on Wednesday published a copy of Hamas’ demands for the release of more than 100 hostages held in Gaza.

    A Hamas official and two Egyptian officials confirmed its authenticity. A fourth official familiar with the talks later clarified the sequencing of the releases. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on the negotiations.

    In the first of three 45-day phases, Hamas would release all remaining women and children, as well as older and sick men, in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    Israel would also withdraw from populated areas, cease aerial operations, allow far more aid to enter and permit Palestinians to return to their homes, including in devastated northern Gaza.

    The second phase, to be negotiated during the first, would include the release of all remaining hostages, mostly soldiers, in exchange for all Palestinian detainees over the age of 50, including senior militants.

    Israel would release an additional 1,500 prisoners, 500 of whom would be specified by Hamas, and complete its withdrawal from Gaza.

    In the third phase, the sides would exchange the remains of hostages and prisoners.

    The proposal would effectively leave Hamas in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities, a scenario Israel has vehemently rejected.

    ___

    By Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Abby Sewell and Samy Magdy

    JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has revealed footage of an extensive tunnel network in southern Gaza that it says housed senior Hamas leaders and was used to hold at least 12 hostages at different times.

    According to a map released Wednesday by the army, the multi-branched tunnel beneath the city of Khan Younis was over a kilometer (about 0.6 miles) long and had at least 16 rooms, some of which were used as cells to hold hostages with metal bars across the entrance.

    Soldiers also uncovered a rudimentary kitchen, bathroom, and weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

    The tunnel was outfitted with electricity sockets, sinks, beds, and arched ceilings. Many of the rooms had decorative tiles on the walls.

    Israel has said destroying the tunnels is a major objective of the ground offensive in Gaza, which has focused on Khan Younis in recent weeks. The military says its forces battled militants inside the tunnel, killing several, without providing evidence.

    Several hostages freed in a cease-fire deal in November described being held inside tunnels. The military said three returned captives had been held in the tunnel beneath Khan Younis.

    Hamas is believed to have built hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which it uses to shield its fighters. Israel has uncovered several tunnels in residential areas, running beneath or near schools, hospitals and mosques.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia says it won’t normalize ties with Israel without recognition of an independent Palestinian state and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.

    The Foreign Ministry outlined its “firm position” in a statement released Wednesday, two days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    The Biden administration has spent much of the past year pushing for a potentially historic agreement in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel in return for U.S. defense guarantees, assistance in setting up a civilian nuclear program and major progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    In the latest statement, Saudi Arabia appeared to sharpen its demands.

    “The Kingdom has communicated its firm position to the U.S. administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and all Israeli occupation forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

    Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – territories the Palestinians want for their future state – in the 1967 Mideast war.

    Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community and views the entire city as its capital. It has built Jewish settlements across the occupied West Bank that are now home to over 500,000 Israelis. It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but along with Egypt imposed a blockade on the territory when Hamas seized power there two years later.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a government staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood and has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza even after the war against Hamas.

    BEIRUT — Hamas’ response to a proposed cease-fire and hostage release deal has been published in a Lebanese newspaper.

    The document, whose authenticity was confirmed by officials, offers the clearest look yet at the group’s demands for the release of over 100 hostages it is holding in Gaza.

    The response to a plan drawn up by the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt envisions a three-phase agreement unfolding over 4 ½ months leading to the end of the war and the release of all hostages.

    Hamas’ proposal would effectively leave the militant group in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities, a scenario that Israel adamantly rejects.

    In the first 45-day phase, Hamas would release all remaining women and children, as well as older men and those who are ill, in exchange for the release of all the women, children, sick and older prisoners held by Israel. Israel would release an additional 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, including 500 specified by Hamas – likely high-profile militants serving life sentences.

    Israel would withdraw its forces from population centers, halt aerial operations and allow in far more humanitarian aid and the start of reconstruction. It would also allow displaced people to return to their homes, including in northern Gaza, and open all crossings.

    In the second phase, which would be negotiated during the first, Hamas would release the remaining hostages, mainly soldiers and civilian men, in exchange for more prisoners, and Israel would complete its withdrawal from Gaza. The two sides would exchange the remains of deceased hostages and prisoners in a third stage, which would give way to a long-term truce.

    A Hamas official and two Egyptian officials confirmed the authenticity of the document published by Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the sensitive negotiations. The newspaper is close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas.

    ___

    By Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Samy Magdy

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  • Debt-stricken Sri Lanka signs a free trade pact with Thailand

    Debt-stricken Sri Lanka signs a free trade pact with Thailand

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    COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Debt-stricken Sri Lanka signed a trade pact with Thailand on Saturday in a bid to boost trade and investment as the Indian ocean island nation is struggling to recover from its worst economic crisis that hit two year ago.

    The Sri Lanka Thailand Free Trade Agreement covering trade in goods, investment, custom procedures and intellectual property rights was signed in the capital Colombo in the presence of Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

    Sri Lanka began talks with Thailand on a free trade agreement in 2016.

    The countries’ two-way trade was worth about $352 million in 2022, with Thailand’s exports at $292 million and Sri Lanka’s exports at $58 million, according to Sri Lankan government’s data.

    Sri Lanka exports include mainly precious stones, apparel, tea and spices while exports from Thailand include smoked rubber sheets, natural rubber, plastic and cement. Sri Lanka’s government expects the trade pact would boost two-way trade up to $1.5 billion.

    Thavisin said that the countries agreed to promote investment in areas such as fisheries, food processing, tourism and green energy. Thailand has made over $92 million in direct investment in Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2022.

    Giving further boost to tourism, Thavisin said that Thailand’s flag carrier Thai Airways would resume daily flights from Bangkok to Sri Lanka next month.

    Sri Lanka has been struggling with an economic crisis since declaring bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half of it to foreign creditors. The crisis led to protests that ousted then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

    Severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine have largely abated over the past year under Wickremesinghe. But public dissatisfaction has grown over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses. The International Monetary Fund approved a four-year bailout program last March to help the South Asian country.

    Sri Lanka is hoping to restructure $17 billion of its outstanding debt and has already reached agreements with some of its external creditors.

    Calling the agreement “a milestone in the economic partnership” between the two countries, Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka has made “significant progress in economic stabilization” since the crisis erupted.

    “As Sri Lanka begins to stabilise its economy and regain international confidence towards recovery and growth, we are looking at Thailand’s support as Sri Lanka undertakes this very important journey of economic transformation and integration with Asia,” Wickremesinghe said.

    He also said the free trade agreement was Sri Lanka’s second with an ASEAN country, after Singapore. Sri Lanka is also in talks with neighbouring India and China on trade agreements.

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  • Papua separatist rebels appeal to New Zealand pilot’s captor to let him go after a year

    Papua separatist rebels appeal to New Zealand pilot’s captor to let him go after a year

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — Separatist rebels asked for the immediate release Saturday of the New Zealand pilot who’s been held hostage for almost a year in Indonesia’s restive Papua region.

    Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, took Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, on Feb. 7 2023.

    In a statement, Sebby Sambom, spokesperson of the West Papua Liberation Army — the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement — said they have asked Kogoya to release Mehrtens on a humanitarian basis.

    “Using the pilot as a guarantee for an independent Papua at a fixed price is absolutely impossible to happen,” Sambom said.

    Kogoya and his troops stormed a single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro, a mountainous village of Nduga regency. Planning to use the pilot to negotiate, Kogoya has previously said they won’t release Mehrtens unless Indonesia frees Papua as sovereign country.

    Sambom said there was no precedent for such an exchange, urging Kogoya to retract his previous statements and let the pilot go.

    “There is no history in this world that any country has ever been independence in exchange with a hostage,” he said.

    Sambom did not say when Mehrtens’ release would take place, but said they would work with a neutral and independent international party as a facilitator and mediator.

    In a statement Friday, Sambom said the West Papua Liberation Army headquarters agreed to release Mehrtens despite what they called a lack of effort by New Zealand and Indonesia. He said the initial high-level meeting in April with a delegation from New Zealand in Papua New Guinea ended without follow up.

    That same month, armed separatists attacked Indonesian army troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens.

    In May, the group sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Sambom said they received a response that Widodo would negotiate with the rebels, but there has been no further communication.

    “We plan to proceed with the release based on humanity,” Sambom said.

    “We believed that most Australians and New Zealanders support Papua’s independence,” he added. “We don’t want to be blamed by international community if the pilot dies while he is being held hostage by our fighters.”

    Faizal Ramadhani, who heads the joint security peace force in Papua, said authorities will continue to prioritize a peaceful approach for Mehrtens’ release.

    “We hope they can realize it soon, so that the innocent pilot can return to his country and to his family in good health,” Ramadhani said.

    In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two Indonesians in that group were killed by their abductors, but the remaining hostages were freed within five months.

    Conflict in Papua — Indonesia’s easternmost region and a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia — has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.

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