Disappearances of Alawite women, and a 'terrorist cell' in Beirut
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Gulf Today
18 minutes ago
- Gulf Today
Trump says Israel agrees to 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, urges Hamas to accept
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Israel has agreed to terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the US and other parties would work toward an end to the war. Trump pushed Hamas to accept the deal. "I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better – IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,' Trump said. The news comes as Trump prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House on Monday. The US president has shown increased interest in a ceasefire and hostage agreement in the region after the US brokered a peace agreement between Israel and Iran. Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza. Israel rejects that, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something that the group refuses. Israeli Apache helicopters fly, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel. Reuters Hamas is still capable of landing fatal blows to Israeli forces. But US officials believe that the group's been significantly diminished as its centralised command and control capabilities have deteriorated over the course of the nearly 21-month conflict. The president's promise that it was his best and final offer may find a skeptical audience with Hamas. Trump has repeatedly issued dramatic ultimatums to pressure Hamas to agree to longer pauses in the fighting that would see the release of more hostages and a return of more aid to Gaza's civilian populace. Associated Press
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
'Unprecedented': Israeli directive bans dozens of Americans, Europeans for advocacy
A new directive from the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has banned dozens of political and legal advocates from the US, UK, Canada, and Europe from entering Israel due to their "intentional delegitimisation of the State of Israel and its defence forces", the document said. Entry visas will no longer be granted to those who "knowingly" and "publicly" called for a boycott of Israel; disseminated Holocaust denial content; denied the impact of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023; or "supported or publicised" initiatives to hold Israeli citizens or soldiers accountable in a non-Israeli court of law, according to the text. Among the targeted organisations is the Hind Rajab Foundation, named after the five-year-old girl in Gaza who was killed by a spray of Israeli gunfire as she waited for first responders. She had spent hours inside a besieged vehicle as the only survivor among the dead bodies of her relatives. The group has been instrumental in tracking down members of the Israeli military, using their social media accounts and alerting international governments as to their whereabouts so they may be apprehended. According to the document, the Hind Rajab Foundation "has submitted complaints against soldiers in at least eight countries, and filed information with the International Criminal Court accusing over 1,000 soldiers and officers of war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The directive also listed Al-Haq Europe, the Brussels-based arm of the Palestinian legal organisation, which has pushed for ICC accountability for Israel on the charge of "apartheid" long before the current events stemming from the 7 October 2023 attacks. 'What is Israel afraid of?' Two UK-based groups, Law for Palestine and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), are also named in the document. Canadian law professor Michael Lynk, the former United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, currently serves on the board of LPHR and was specifically named in the text. 'One has to ask: What is Israel afraid of?" Lynk said in a written statement provided to Middle East Eye. Genocide happens when Israelis believe they're above the law, Holocaust scholar says Read More » "We created modern international law after the Second World War to ensure that basic human rights would be respected and enforced, and conflicts would be resolved through established rules, councils and courts, rather than by wars. Banning myself and the others who work for these peaceful organizations shows contempt for the rule of law," he said. In Washington, DC, eight senior staff members at Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), founded by former Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, have also been banned from entering Israel. Key among them is John Paul, the first senior official to resign from the US State Department in October 2023 over the Biden administration's handling of Israel's response to 7 October 2023. Paul is now an adviser at Dawn. The former director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, is also listed, and now serves as the executive director at Dawn. "The pursuit of justice and accountability is not a crime, and the United States should not tolerate as a partner a country that treats it as one," Paul said in a statement shared on his LinkedIn account on Wednesday. 'Oppressive authoritarian regimes' Raed Jarrar, the only Palestinian American on staff at Dawn who is also named in the ban, told MEE that the organisation's push for international legal mechanisms against Israel "definitely threatens Israel's apartheid [and] definitely threatens Israel's genocide. It threatens Israel's racism. And that is what we are hoping for, and that's why they're scared." "Attempts to stifle free speech in the US and harass international activists gives a thumbs up and the green light to many abusive regimes around the world, including Israel, to embolden their similar moves," Jarrar said, referring to the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestine activists and the revocation of their student or work visas. Dawn is looking into how it can challenge the directive, given that a blanket ban on several American citizens may potentially conflict with the 2023 US-Israel visa waiver programme. 'Israel has landed in a place that has put her among the most oppressive authoritarian regimes in the region and the world' - Raed Jarrar, Dawn Jarrar called it "unprecedented". The programme permits overseas visitors to remain in the US for up to 90 days without a visa, reciprocating the same privilege to US citizens in participating countries. For decades prior, Israelis were not able to come to the US without visas, as Americans of Palestinian descent were routinely interrogated and disallowed entry into Israel and the occupied West Bank. That changed just days before 7 October 2023. 'The designation of Israel into the Visa Waiver Program is an important recognition of our shared security interests and the close cooperation between our two countries,' Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in late September 2023. 'This designation, which represents over a decade of work and coordination between the United States and Israel, will enhance our two nations' collaboration on counterterrorism, law enforcement and our other common priorities... [it] will make both of our nations more secure," he added. However, the programme is "not supposed to be denying US citizens based on our political views and political activity", Jarrar told MEE. "Israel has landed in a place that has put her among the most oppressive authoritarian regimes in the region and the world."
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Who is militia leader Abu Shahab, the man wanted by a court in Gaza?
The Revolutionary Court of the Military Judiciary in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday gave militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab 10 days to surrender himself for trial. In a statement, the court said: "In accordance with the provisions of Palestinian Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 and the Revolutionary Procedures Law of 1979, the accused, Yasser Jihad Mansour Abu Shabab, born on February 27, 1990 a resident of Rafah, has been given ten days from today, Wednesday, to surrender himself to the competent authorities for trial before judicial authorities." Who is Abu Shahab? Abu Shahab, 35, was convicted of drug trafficking and was in a Hamas-run prison on 7 October 2023. He was able to get out of prison, even though the circumstances of his release remain unclear, The Guardian reported in June. Israeli defence officials said they had begun arming Abu Shahab - nicknamed 'the Israeli agent' - and about 100 armed men who operate under him in eastern Rafah. Members of his group have been accused of looting trucks containing humanitarian aid. In June, Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in occupied Palestinian territories, said the looting was happening under Israeli control: 'Theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza.' Whittall told The Guardian that he was referring to militias such as Abu Shahab's. The Guardian also said the officials said the goal of arming Abu Shahab's militia is to reduce Israeli military casualties and undermine Hamas, leading to concerns that the backing of the militia might push Gaza into a civil war.
