Belgium says will take part in Gaza aid-drop plan
A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth some 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly 'soon' to Jordan, and will remain on stand-by to conduct air drops in coordination with Amman, the defense and foreign ministries said in a statement.
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Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Jordan says two armed people killed after ‘infiltration attempt' via Syrian border
Jordan's armed forces said on Saturday that its forces killed two armed people after a 'foiled infiltration attempt' through its border with Syria the previous day. The Jordanian Armed Forces did not provide further details in its statement but said that the rest of the armed group were pushed back to the Syrian territory. Jordan's armed forces often report foiling border infiltration attempts, sometimes for drug smuggling. In January, Jordan and Syria agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border, combat arms and drug smuggling and work to prevent the resurgence of Daesh militants.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
US envoy meets Israeli hostage families in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV: US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met the anguished families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack. Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was underway and videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving as families chanted 'Bring them home!' and 'We need your help.' The visit came one day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza, to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory. Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP in the square: 'The war needs to end. The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so. 'The Israeli government must be stopped. For our sakes, for our soldiers' sakes, for our hostages' sakes, for our sons and for the future generations of everybody in the Middle East.' After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages. The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more freely. But talks broke down last month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under increasing domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive and dead. He is also facing international calls to open Gaza's borders to more food aid, after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation. But Israel's top general warned that there would be no respite in fighting in Gaza if the hostages were not released. 'I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages,' said army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, according to a military statement. 'If not, the combat will continue without rest,' he said, during remarks to officers inside Gaza on Friday. Of the 251 people who were kidnapped from Israel during Hamas's attack in October 2023, 49 remain in Gaza, 27 of them dead, according to the military. Palestinian armed groups this week released two videos of hostages looking emaciated and weak. Zamir denied that there was widespread starvation in Gaza. 'The current campaign of false accusations of intentional starvation is a deliberate, timed, and deceitful attempt to accuse the IDF (Israeli military), a moral army, of war crimes,' he said. 'The ones responsible for the killing and suffering of the residents in the Gaza Strip is Hamas.' Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. A total of 898 Israeli soldiers have also been killed, according to the military. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 21 people in the territory on Saturday. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two people were killed and another 26 injured after an Israeli strike on a central Gaza area where Palestinians had gathered before a food distribution point run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). He added that Saturday's bombings mostly targeted the areas near the southern city of Khan Yunis and Gaza City in the north. Witkoff visited another GHF site for five hours on Friday, promising that Trump would come up with a plan to better feed civilians. Adnan Abu Hasna, of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told AFP that the agency had 'approximately 6,000 trucks ready for the Gaza Strip, but the crossings are closed by political decision. There are five land crossings into the Strip through which 1,000 trucks can enter daily.' The UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories on Friday said at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza had been killed since May 27, most of them by the Israeli military. Israel's military insist that soldiers never deliberately target civilians and accuses Hamas fighters of looting UN and humanitarian aid trucks.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
American family has not spoken to 15-year-old son in Israeli prison since February, Arab News told
CHICAGO: The parents of 15-year-old American Muhammad Ibrahim, who was abducted by 20 masked Israeli soldiers carrying automatic weapons who kicked down the front door of their home in Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya on Feb. 16, said they have been prevented from seeing their son since the abduction. The father, Zaher Ibrahim, said masked Israeli soldiers arrived at their home at 3 a.m., grabbed his son without any explanation, and incarcerated him at the notorious Megiddo Prison, denying visits from family and legal representatives. 'My son Muhammad is 15 years old. He looks like he is 12. The Israeli soldiers interrogated and beat him for hours until he was forced to confess to throwing a rock. He has been in prison now since Feb. 16 and we have not been allowed to speak with him, see him or get him any representation,' Zaher Ibrahim told Arab News. 'But when the Israeli settlers beat and killed his cousin Sayfollah (Musallet) last February, no one was arrested or charged, and they know who the Israeli settlers were who killed him. We're Americans and yet it means nothing to the Israelis. They must release my son.' Zaher Ibrahim said the Israeli soldiers 'blindfolded my son, placed handcuffs on him, and put him in their military Jeep without any explanation. His mother and I haven't seen him since.' The tragedy of the Ibrahim family is directly connected to the case of Musallet, the 20-year-old American who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on July 11. Zaher Ibrahim is the brother-in-law of Kamel Musallet, the father of Sayfollah. Their wives are sisters, he said. The two American families live in Florida and have homes in the West Bank village near Ramallah where the killing of Sayfollah Musallet and the abduction of Muhammad Ibrahim took place. Zaher Ibrahim says he holds out hope for his son, but remains concerned. Kamel Musallet told Arab News that US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited his home about 10 days after his son was killed and promised to look into the attack and other attacks against other Americans, but that nothing had happened. Musallet said: 'He promised to do something about the murder of my son, but I haven't heard anything more. 'Huckabee said he was concerned about the safety of American citizens but, so far, we haven't heard anything about my nephew Muhammad or anything about the settlers who killed my son.' Musallet said that three weeks before Muhammad Ibrahim was taken from his home, the two cousins had been working together in the family's ice cream shop in Tampa, Florida. Zaher Ibrahim said: 'These are just boys. They have been attacked and falsely accused and, worse, they get no justice. No representation. They are Americans.' He added that it took four days following the arrest for the Israeli military to tell him his son had been held for 'throwing a rock,' but that no one had been arrested for the killing of his nephew Sayfollah. 'How is that possible?' Zaher Ibrahim asked. He had been told by a boy released from the prison that his son was alive, and added that the US Embassy had contacted him twice to say it would look into his son's health. Zaher Ibrahim added: 'The Israelis don't give you any clothes. You wear the same clothes that you have when they arrested you the entire time in the prison, and they are not washed. It causes skin disease and unhealthy situations. 'We haven't been able to see him or speak to him, or get him clothes or check on his health. It's wrong.' He said he had learned that the son of another American Palestinian family living nearby had also been abducted eight days earlier by Israeli soldiers, and that his family had also not been able to learn anything about his status or the reasons for his abduction. He said: 'This is happening and someone needs to do something about this. It's wrong.' Kemel Musallet said he was disappointed by the response of the US government to the abduction and killing of Americans by Israeli settlers and soldiers.
