By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
Qatari Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman announced Wednesday evening the success of mediators in reaching a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip, noting that its implementation will begin this Sunday. Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed 62 Palestinians, injured 253 in Gaza.
During a press conference held in Doha, bin Abdulrahman stated that the first phase of the agreement will last 42 days and include the release of 33 Israeli detainees in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel and Hamas have agreed a ceasefire starting on Sunday to halt the devastating 15-month war in Gaza, Qatar’s Prime Minister says.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that several clauses in Gaza deal remained “unresolved” but hoped to “finalise [them] tonight”
“Several clauses in the framework remain unresolved, and we hope that the details will be finalised tonight,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a televised statement that the deal announced between Israel and Hamas was the “right move” to bring all the captives home.
“As the president of the state of Israel, I say in the clearest terms: This is the right move. This is an important move. This is a necessary move,” said Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial.
“There is no greater moral, human, Jewish, or Israeli obligation than to bring our sons and daughters back to us – whether to recover at home, or to be laid to rest.”
The Hamas official says despite the horrific attacks against them, Palestinians did not show Israel a “moment of weakness”.
“We say, in the name of the orphans and the children and the widows, in the name of people with destroyed homes, in the name of the families of the martyrs and the wounded, in the name of all the victims, in the name of every drop of blood that was spilled, and in the name of every tear of pain and agony: We won’t forget, and we won’t forgive,” al-Hayya said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire and stressed that the “priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict”.
“The United Nations stands ready to support the implementation of this deal and scale up the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief to the countless Palestinians who continue to suffer,” he told a news conference.
The outgoing US president has said key members of his administration “worked relentlessly” to get the deal.
“I’d also note that this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration,” he told reporters at the White House.
“For the past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” Biden said.
Trump will take office on Monday.
Hamas said its ceasefire deal with Israel to halt the war in Gaza was the result of the “steadfastness” of the Palestinian people and its own “resistance”.
“The ceasefire agreement is a result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip for over 15 months,” the group said, adding that it paved “the way towards the realisation of our people’s aspirations for liberation and return”.
Biden confirming details of ceasefire deal, US president said:
Phase one of the deal will last six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women, the elderly and the wounded”.
“In exchange, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”
During phase one, Palestinians “can also return to their neighbourhoods in all areas of Gaza” and humanitarian assistance will be surged into the enclave.
“During the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get [to] phase two, which is a permanent end to the war.”
“There are a number of issues to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two, but the plan says that if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue as long as the negotiations continue.”
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However, earlier on Wednesday, Israeli forces stepped up attacks on Gaza, bombing a school-turned-shelter and several homes across the Strip, and killing at least 62 people over the latest 24-hour reporting period.
At least 62 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 46,707, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 110,265 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 62 people and injured 253 others in six massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads, with rescuers unable to reach them,” it added.
At least two Palestinians were killed and several others injured this evening following Israeli airstrikes targeting Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
According to local reports, Israeli warplanes launched an attack near Khaled Bin Al-Walid School in the camp. The strikes resulted in the killing of two individuals and injuries to others.
Civil defense teams managed to recover six bodies and rescue four injured individuals from the rubble of “Kitchen of Life,” a food distribution center near the Kuwaiti Hospital.
Meanwhile, medical sources confirmed the killing of recently released prisoner Ali Al-Maghrabi in an airstrike targeting Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has criticized Israel for instructing its soldiers to “cover or blur their faces before posting videos,” calling the directive a tacit acceptance of potential war crimes.
“Instead of advising its soldiers not to commit crimes, what (Israel) is saying is ‘cover your faces or blur your face before posting videos or try to get lawyers,'” Albanese told Anadolu, describing the Israeli army’s approach as “shocking.”
“This is first of all an admission that crimes might be committed by Israeli soldiers,” she added. Albanese highlighted the importance of universal jurisdiction, in response to an Israeli soldier’s recent escape to Argentina while facing imminent arrest in Brazil.
“Instead of advising its soldiers not to commit crimes, what (Israel) is saying is ‘cover your faces or blur your face before posting videos or try to get lawyers,'” Albanese told Anadolu, describing the Israeli army’s approach as “shocking.”
“This is first of all an admission that crimes might be committed by Israeli soldiers,” she added. Albanese highlighted the importance of universal jurisdiction, in response to an Israeli soldier’s recent escape to Argentina while facing imminent arrest in Brazil.
Albanese highlighted the importance of universal jurisdiction, in response to an Israeli soldier’s recent escape to Argentina while facing imminent arrest in Brazil.
“Universal jurisdiction is a powerful tool to bring justice where everywhere, everything else has failed,” she underlined. “And it’s still retributive justice is necessary because it gives a signal to those who exercise power and force that they are not immune from the application of the law.”
WEST BANK
Six Palestinians were killed, and two others were critically injured on Wednesday evening in an airstrike carried out by Israeli occupation forces targeting the Jenin refugee camp.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that six bodies were brought to Jenin Governmental Hospital following the airstrike in the camp.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its teams transported three fatalities and two critically injured individuals from the site of the attack.
The six slain Palestinians were identified as Mohammad Younis Ararawi, 33, Ahmad Yaseen Ararawi, 37, Mahmoud Ahmad Fayyad, 22, Osama Abdul-Kareem Abu Droubi, 26, Mustafa Mohammad Fayyad, 26, and Awad Subhi Abu Zaid, 27, as stated by the Ministry.
According to WAFA’s correspondent, the airstrike targeted two homes near Al-Ansar Mosque in the Damaj neighborhood in the center of the camp. The attack caused extensive damage and casualties.
With the killing of these four individuals, the total number of fatalities in Jenin refugee camp over the past 24 hours has risen to 12. On Tuesday, six Palestinians were killed, including three siblings, when Israeli forces bombed a house inside the camp.
Thousands attended on Wednesday the funeral procession for six Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike in the occupied West Bank.
Mourners waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans condemning Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories as they marched to bury the six men in the northern city of Jenin, witnesses said.
The Israeli army rounded up at least 12 more Palestinians in fresh military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Wednesday.
Former prisoners were among the detainees in the raids that targeted Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, and Ramallah, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
“The arrest campaigns came amid a massive aggression launched by the (Israeli) occupation against our people in retaliation that falls under the crime of collective punishment,” the statement said.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 14,300, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Three Israeli soldiers were injured in a roadside bomb explosion on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, the military said.
A military statement said that two soldiers were in serious condition after an explosive device exploded at an army vehicle during “an operational activity” in Qabatiya, near Jenin in the northern West Bank. A third soldier sustained light injuries in the blast.
Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to the lands of Madama village, located south of Nablus, on Wednesday evening.
Local sources reported that a group of settlers attacked the lands of Palestinians in the area south of Madama and ignited fires.
This attack is part of a recent escalation in settler violence in the Nablus governorate, which has seen a rise in incidents of land arson and attacks on property by Israeli settlers.
Israeli occupation forces demolished several commercial stores on Wednesday afternoon, located near the village of Anza along the Nablus-Jenin road, north of the occupied West Bank.
According to local sources, an Israeli bulldozer destroyed three commercial stores in the village of Wadi Daouk, close to the Jenin-Nablus route.
During the demolition, the Israeli occupation forces closed off the Jenin-Nablus road in both directions, halting traffic movement and preventing access to the area.
Israeli occupation forces also demolished an agricultural room in the town of Shawawra, east of Bethlehem, on Wednesday.
A security source told WAFA that an occupation army force stormed the town and began demolishing an agricultural room belonging to Saleh Rayan Shawawra.
In Addition, Israeli occupation forces stormed the towns of Jabal al-Mukaber and Mikhmas in the Jerusalem Governorate on Wednesday.
Local sources reported that the occupation forces stormed Jabal al-Mukaber accompanied by a bulldozer.
LEBANON
Lebanese media reported home demolitions by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in violation of a cease-fire agreement between the two countries.
The state news agency NNA said that the Israeli army blew up several homes and destroyed roads after midnight in the towns of Aita al-Shaab, Hanine, and Maroun al-Ras.
Israeli army forces also carried out an explosion in Markaba town, the broadcaster said, without giving details about the nature of the explosion.
Lebanon and Israel reached a cease-fire deal on Nov. 27 to end over 14 months of fighting between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah group since the start of the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities have reported, however, more than 520 Israeli violations of the cease-fire, including the death of 37 people and injury of 45 others.
Under the cease-fire terms, Israel is required to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line – a de facto border – in phases, while the Lebanese army is to deploy in southern Lebanon within 60 days.
Data from the Lebanese Health Ministry indicates that since Israel’s onslaught against Lebanon began on Oct. 8, 2023, at least 4,068 people have been killed, including women, children, and health workers, while 16,670 others have been injured.
SYRIA
Al Jazeera Arabic reports that at least one person was killed and several others were injured when Israel targeted a military convoy of the new Syrian authorities on the outskirts of Quneitra near the occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli military had confirmed in a statement that it fired at vehicles carrying “weapons and ammunition” in the area.
Israel has been relentlessly bombing Syrian military and civilian infrastructure and further advancing into the country’s territory since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government last month.
YEMEN
The Yemeni Houthi [Ansar Allah] group said Wednesday it launched an attack targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and accompanying warships in the northern Red Sea.
In a televised statement, military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attack involved several cruise missiles and drones, saying the attack successfully hit its targets.
Saree said the attack was in response to what he called the US Navy’s attempts to target Yemen.
This marked the sixth reported attack by the Houthis on the US carrier within a month.
“This is the sixth strike on the carrier since it entered the Red Sea nearly a month ago,” Saree said, without providing further details.
There was no immediate US comment on the Houthi claim.
The Houthis, in solidarity with Gaza, which has been facing a genocidal Israeli war since October 2023, have targeted Israeli cargo ships or ones linked with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, vowing to continue until the attacks on the enclave end.
Since the beginning of 2024, a US-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes that it said target Houthi locations in Yemen in response to the group’s Red Sea attacks. They have been occasionally met with retaliation from the Houthis.
[Photo: Relatives of the Palestinians killed by Israeli attack on makeshift tents of displaced people, mourn as the bodies are brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for burial process in Gaza City, Gaza on January 15, 2025. Photojournalist: Ashraf Amra/AA]
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