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Trump warns ‘all hell’ will break loose if Gaza hostages not returned

US President Donald Trump warned Monday that “all hell” would break loose if every Israeli hostage is not released from Gaza within days, after Hamas threatened to postpone further exchanges under a fragile ceasefire deal it said Israel was violating. The truce that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.But tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than two million inhabitants.Trump said Monday he would call for the end of the ceasefire if every Israeli hostage was not released by noon on Saturday.”But as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters at the White House.The ceasefire agreement says staggered releases should take place over the ongoing 42-day first phase of the deal.A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement earlier Monday that the next hostage release, “which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice”.The spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said the resumption of hostage-prisoner exchanges was “pending the (Israeli) occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks’ obligations”.The group accuses Israel of failing to carry out its commitments under the truce in time and of violating the ceasefire, including on humanitarian aid deliveries and after the Sunday deaths of three Gazans.In a later statement, Hamas said it had “intentionally” made the announcement five days before the next exchange to allow mediators ample time to pressure Israel “towards fulfilling its obligations. The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies.”Israel said its military was readying for “any possible scenario”.- ‘Complete violation’ -Negotiators were due to meet in the coming days in Qatar to discuss the implementation of the truce’s first phase, as well as potentially the next phases which have yet to be finalised.Talks on a second phase were meant to begin on the truce’s 16th day, but Israel had refused to send its negotiators to Doha for that.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group said on Monday it had “requested assistance from the mediating countries to help restore and implement the existing deal effectively”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Hamas announcement was a “complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement, signalling that fighting could resume.”I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.The military later said that it had raised “the level of readiness” around Gaza, and “decided to significantly reinforce the area”.- Trump on Jordan, Egypt -On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s proposal to displace Gazans as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return from Washington.The proposal, which the United Nations and experts have said would violate international law, has already drawn widespread criticism.Trump said Monday he could “conceivably” halt aid to US allies Jordan and Egypt if they refuse to take in Palestinians under his controversial Gaza plan. Trump is due to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington this week.The threat to withhold aid came after Cairo’s foreign ministry said it rejected “any compromise” of Palestinian rights, including “remaining on the land”.Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier earlier Monday that Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza.”I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable,” said Trump of the devastated Gaza Strip.Asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing.”For Palestinians, any attempt to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.Despite Trump’s words, displaced Gazans continued to stream back to their homes after Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor that cut the territory in two.US and Egyptian security personnel were on the ground inspecting vehicles crossing the corridor, with one Gazan telling AFP the staff were “respectful” but the searches were “slow and trying”.Ahmed al-Rai said “it takes 20 minutes to inspect each vehicle” and that he had to wait five hours for his turn.- ‘Ill-treatment’ -The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,208 people in the territory.Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.UN Human Rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said that the “images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released” were “deeply distressing”.The Israelis freed “show signs of ill-treatment and severe malnourishment, reflecting very dire conditions they were subjected to in Gaza”, he said.”Israel and Hamas must ensure humane treatment, including freedom from any form of torture or abuse, for all those held under their power.”Netanyahu’s office said “all the families of the hostages were informed” of Hamas’s announcement on Monday and “made aware that the State of Israel is committed to respecting the agreement”.

Trump warns of ‘all hell’ if Gaza captives not freed by Saturday

US President Donald Trump set a Saturday deadline for all hostages to be released from Gaza, saying that otherwise “all hell” would break out and he would call for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to be canceled.Trump’s latest extraordinary intervention in the Middle East came after Hamas threatened to postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges, placing the fragile six-week truce that took effect on January 19 at risk.Describing Hamas’s move as “terrible”, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would “let that be Israel’s decision” on what should ultimately happen to the ceasefire.”But as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump said.Trump said that “all” the remaining hostages should be freed, “not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two.””We want them all back. I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but for myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock — and if they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”Trump said he would probably speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the timeline he had just proposed.He did not elaborate on what the threat entailed, saying only that “Hamas will find out what I mean.” Asked if he was ruling out the potential involvement of US forces, Trump replied: “We’ll see what happens.”The US president also threatened to halt aid to allies Jordan and Egypt if they refuse to take in Palestinians under his controversial plan for the United States to “take over” Gaza.”Maybe,” Trump told reporters when asked if he would suspend billions of dollars in US assistance.”If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold it.” Trump is due to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington this week.The threat came after Egypt rejected earlier Monday “any compromise” that would infringe on Palestinians’ rights, in a statement issued after Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met with his US counterpart in Washington.Trump earlier said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his US takeover plan, which he unveiled in a joint press conference with Netanyahu last week.”No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing,” Trump said when Baier asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return to the enclave, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel’s military since October 2023.”In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable.”

Hamas says stops Gaza hostage release ‘until further notice’

Hamas threatened on Monday to postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges, saying Israel needed to fulfil “its obligations” under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, while Israel said its military was readying for “any possible scenario”.The Palestinian militant group later said the “door remains open” for the exchange to “proceed as planned”, calling on mediators to act.The ceasefire that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that the next hostage release, “which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice”.The spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said the resumption of hostage-prisoner exchanges was “pending the (Israeli) occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks’ obligations”.The group accuses Israel of failing to carry out its commitments under the truce in time and of violating the ceasefire, after the Sunday deaths of three Gazans.In a later statement, Hamas said it had “intentionally” made the announcement five days before the next exchange to allow “mediators ample time to pressure Israel “towards fulfilling its obligations. The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies.”- ‘Complete violation’ -The statements were issued as negotiators were due to meet in the coming days in Qatar to discuss the implementation of the truce’s first 42-day phase, as well as potentially the next phases which have yet to be finalised.Talks on a second phase were meant to begin the truce’s 16th day, but Israel had refused to send its negotiators to Doha for that.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group said on Monday it had “requested assistance from the mediating countries to help restore and implement the existing deal effectively”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Hamas announcement was a “complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement, signalling that fighting could resume.”I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.The military later said that it had raised “the level of readiness” around Gaza, and “decided to significantly reinforce the area”.Tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by US President Donald Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than two million inhabitants.- Trump says ‘would own’ Gaza -On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the displacement proposal as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return from Washington.The proposal, which the United Nations and experts have said would violate international law, has already drawn widespread criticism.And on Monday the US president told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza.”I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable,” said Trump of the devastated Gaza Strip.Asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing.”For Palestinians, any attempt to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.Despite Trump’s words, displaced Gazans continued to stream back to their homes after Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor that cut the territory in two.US and Egyptian security personnel were on the ground inspecting vehicles crossing the corridor, with one Gazan telling AFP the staff were “respectful” but the searches were “slow and trying”.Ahmed al-Rai said “it takes 20 minutes to inspect each vehicle” and that he had to wait five hours for his turn.- ‘Ill-treatment’ -The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,208 people in the territory.Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.UN Human Rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said that the “images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released” were “deeply distressing”.The Israelis freed “show signs of ill-treatment and severe malnourishment, reflecting very dire conditions they were subjected to in Gaza”, he said.”Israel and Hamas must ensure humane treatment, including freedom from any form of torture or abuse, for all those held under their power.”Netanyahu’s office said “all the families of the hostages were informed” of Hamas’s announcement on Monday and “made aware that the State of Israel is committed to respecting the agreement”.The foreign minister of Egypt, which has been involved in mediation efforts alongside Qatar and the United States, met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Monday.Late on Monday, Cairo’s foreign ministry said in a statement it rejected “any compromise” of Palestinian rights, including “remaining on the land”.Jordan’s King Abdullah II was set to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday.

Dozens of Palestinian families flee Israeli operation in West Bank

Dozens of Palestinian families fled on Monday from the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel pushed on with a sweeping military operation.”We hear explosions and bombings as well as bulldozers. It’s a tragedy. They are doing here what they did in Gaza,” said Ahmed Ezza, a resident.Ahmed Abu Zahra, another resident of the camp which is on the outskirts of Tulkarem, said he was forced to leave his home.”The (Israeli) army came and we were forced to leave after they started destroying our homes”.Three Palestinians, including two women and a young man, were killed on Sunday in Nur Shams, the health ministry in the territory said.Israel said its military police had opened an investigation into the death of one of them, a woman who was eight months pregnant.It said on Saturday it had launched an operation in Nur Shams, part of a much larger campaign that began in January in Tulkarem and Jenin, which it said had “targeted several terrorists”.In the streets of Nur Shams camp, under a light rain, residents were fleeing.An AFP photographer saw dozens of families hastily leaving the camp, while bulldozers carried out large-scale demolitions amid gunfire and explosions.According to Murad Alyan, from the camp’s popular committee, “more than half of the 13,000 inhabitants have fled out of fear for their lives”.Since January 21, the Israeli military has been conducting a major operation in the “triangle” of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem, where half a million Palestinians live.Israel says it is targeting “terrorist infrastructure”. Jenin in particular is a bastion of armed Palestinian militant groups.- ‘Without precedent’ -“What we are living through is without precedent,” Ahmad al-Assaad, the governor of Tubas, told AFP. The Israeli operations “today did not target fighters, but civilians, women and children, and they blew houses to pressure residents into leaving”.According to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel was pursuing an “all-our war on the Palestinian people”. “Since the ceasefire began in Gaza, the West Bank has been on fire”, it said in a post on X, referring to the truce agreement that halted the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on January 19.”The objective of these operations is not security-related, but political,” said Abdallah Kamil, the governor of Tulkarem. “They destroy everything”, he said of the Israeli military. “They are trying to change the demographics of the region.”Israel insists that its operations are targeted at Palestinians suspected of preparing attacks against Israeli citizens.The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israel of applying “the same policy of destruction” in the West Bank as in Gaza.Violence has exploded in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. At least 887 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed by the Israeli military or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry. At least 32 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures. 

US, Egyptian security peronnel inspect traffic on key Gaza route

At the key intersection of Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor and the Salaheddin Road, US and Egyptian security personnel, armed and wearing military fatigues, inspected vehicles carrying Palestinians, many of them displaced by the war.On Monday morning, traffic moved slowly to the checkpoint at the crossing, which Palestinians call Martyrs Intersection, and from which Israeli forces withdrew a day earlier.Ahmed al-Rai said the US and Egyptian officers were “respectful” even if their checks on vehicles were “slow and trying”.Calling the reopening of the roads a “positive step forward”, Rai said he hoped the intersection would eventually be “fully open without searches by the Americans”.At the current pace, he explained, “it takes 20 minutes to inspect each vehicle”.  The 50-year-old had to wait five hours before his own turn came, he told AFP.A source in the Hamas-run interior ministry confirmed that “under the truce agreement between Hamas and Israel, there are American and Egyptian security personnel” at the junction linking northern Gaza and its south.A Hamas official had told AFP in recent weeks that private US and Egyptian security companies would be involved in the implementation of the truce agreement, which came into force on January 19.US news website Axios reported on January 23 that private “US security contractors” would begin “to operate a key Gaza checkpoint and deploy armed guards… to inspect Palestinian vehicles that move from southern Gaza to northern Gaza and make sure no rockets or other heavy weapons are being transferred”.- Gridlock -Axios said the companies would operate within the framework of an international coalition provided for by the truce agreement, with the backing of mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt.”There are no Palestinian police on either side of the Netzarim intersection,” said the source in the Hamas interior ministry.”Israeli forces are not present either”, the source added, but “there are armoured vehicles” just east of the intersection.Hundreds of cars, tuk-tuks, small lorries and carts crawled up to the checkpoint.The vehicles, most of them old and sometimes in a sorry state, were loaded with luggage, mattresses and other objects as they negotiated the dilapidated dirt road.In the middle of the gridlock, made even more difficult by the rain, were Red Crescent vehicles and fuel trucks.The fragile ceasefire agreement in Gaza halted more than 15 months of war in the territory and set out set out arrangements for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.This agreement also provides for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza over six weeks and the delivery of humanitarian aid.Moein Abbas, a 46-year-old resident of Gaza City, said he hopes traffic will be able to move on the Salaheddin Road without inspections.- ‘Freedom of movement’ -His priorities for the moment are “freedom of movement, continued calm, the delivery of food, the rehabilitation of hospitals, the reopening of schools and the installation of tents or caravans for accommodation, in order to allow a gradual return to normal life,” said Abbas.The Israeli army withdrew from a part of the Netzarim Corridor weeks ago, allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return on foot from the south of the territory to their towns, camps and villages in the north of Gaza.The passage of vehicles was only allowed on Sunday.Rafat al-Hassanat, 27, had returned with his wife and daughter to his home southwest of the intersection, but given the scale of destruction, they initially spent the night in a tent next to their destroyed home.The conditions eventually forced them to shelter in an orphanage, west of Gaza City.”It’s extremely cold, the children have fallen ill,” he said.”We want the crossing points to be open as normal,” Hassanat said.He also criticised a plan by Donald Trump’s to relocate Palestinians outside of Gaza, which the US president said was for their good.”If he really wants to help us, he must demand that Israel withdraw its forces, open the crossing points and rebuild Gaza,” said Hassanat.”We want an end to the occupation of Gaza.” 

Syrians back to famed Palmyra ruins scarred by IS

Syrians are once again picnicking and smoking shisha amid the ruins of ancient Palmyra, once desecrated by jihadists but still awe-inspiring, and open to the public following the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad.The city’s renowned ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were twice overrun by the Islamic State group, which proceeded to destroy many of the most famed structures. Although they were driven out, the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia and Iran, then set up military bases nearby, effectively barring public access.Open to the public once more, Yasser al-Mahmoud, 54, was among dozens of formerly displaced Syrians rediscovering the beloved landmarks that still bear scars of war.”We used to come here every Friday, before” the war, Mahmoud said, pouring hot tea into glass cups placed atop a massive column’s stone base.”Now we’re back and we can reconnect with our memories,” he said, standing near his wife and children.”People are so happy,” he said.Spread out across the ruins, families were carrying bags of food and making tea, while young people smoked shisha.”We really missed the ruins. We haven’t been here since 2015,” when IS first invaded the area before being forced out for good in 2017.Mahmoud said he wanted to reopen his stall selling trinkets and jewellery once visitors returned to Palmyra — which attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in 2011.Nearby, two huge columns forming a squared arch stood amid a sea of rubble — all that remained of the Temple of Bel after IS jihadists detonated explosives inside it.- Illegal excavations -Known to Syrians as the “Pearl of the Desert”, Palmyra was home to some of the best-preserved classical monuments in the Middle East before Syria’s 13-year war.But IS launched a campaign of destruction after capturing Palmyra, using its ancient theatre as a venue for public executions and murdering its 82-year-old former antiquities chief.The jihadists blew up the shrine of Baal Shamin, destroyed the Temple of Bel, dynamited the Arch of Triumph, looted the museum and defaced statues and sarcophagi.While the jihadists are gone, danger still looms over Palmyra.The director general of antiquities and museums in Syria, Nazir Awad, told AFP he was concerned about illegal excavation.There are guards, he said, “but I don’t think they can do their work to the fullest extent, because of random and barbaric excavations across very wide areas”.People looking for ancient artefacts to loot are using heavy machinery and metal detectors that are “destructive”, adding that the digging was “destroying layers of archaeological sites, leaving nothing behind”.- ‘A military zone’ -The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Assad’s allies established “military sites and positions” in Palmyra and its archaeological sites, even taking up residence in its hotels.In a sign of their presence, Israeli air strikes in November on the modern city killed 106 Tehran-backed fighters, according to the British-based monitor with a network of sources in Syria.Former rebel fighter Khaldun al-Rubaa, 32, said Palmyra had been turned “from an archaeological site into a military zone” that was off-limits to visitors.He worked at Palmyra’s ancient sites from childhood, giving tourists camel rides and, like many Palmyra residents, tourism was his main source of income, he said.Now that Assad-allied armed groups and foreign armies have left, Rubaa has returned home, hoping to trade his arms for a camel.He held a picture on his phone of him as a young boy riding his camel, killed in the fighting, with the Arch of Triumph in the background.”Palmyra and the ruins have been through horrors. The site has seen IS, Iran, the Russians, all of the militias you could think of,” he said.Yet he is among the lucky ones able to settle back home.After 12 years of displacement Khaled al-Sheleel, 57, said he has yet to return to his house, destroyed in an Israeli strike.He now works as a taxi driver, mostly carrying residents wishing to visit or return home. “We have no homes, we cannot return,” he said. But “despite the destruction, I was overjoyed, I knelt on the ground and cried tears of joy when I returned” for the first time.

‘I don’t have time’: Mother of jailed UK-Egyptian makes Starmer plea

Having lost a third of her body weight during a 134-day hunger strike, a “weak” Laila Soueif on Monday urged UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to secure her son’s release from an Egyptian jail, warning “I don’t have time”.Soueif, 68, has lived on coffee, tea and rehydration sachets since September 29, 2024, the date that marked five years of imprisonment, when pre-trial detention is taken into account, for her UK-Egyptian son Alaa Abdel Fattah.Fattah, a pro-democracy and rights campaigner, was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and handed a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” in a Facebook post on torture in Egypt’s prisons.His mother has braved the biting UK winter to demonstrate outside Starmer’s Downing Street office each working day since her son’s supposed release date.She met in November with foreign minister David Lammy, who travelled to Cairo last month to press for her son’s release.But Soueif has been demanding a meeting with Starmer, who she says could be doing more to help.”I wrote to him asking for a meeting,” Soueif told AFP in her south London home.”I got a response that didn’t mention a meeting and he repeated that this was his top priority, but he also said that this would take time,” she said.”I don’t have time.”- ‘Very worried’ -Soueif has lost 28 kilogrammes (61 pounds) since starting the hunger strike, leaving her “weak and slow”.She was admitted to a London hospital last week, where doctors said she had low blood pressure as well as low levels of blood sugar and potassium.Soueif last saw her 43-year-old son, a key figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak, on January 7 at the Cairo jail where he is being held. “He wants to go on hunger strike too, he’s finding it very hard that I’m doing this and… he’s just sitting in his jail cell marking time,” she said.”He was glad to see me still on my feet. Of course he’s very worried.”But Soueif, herself an activist, is not for turning.”He knows me better than that, all my children are very worried,” she said.”They know me well enough to know that the best thing to do is just support me.”Her declining health means that Soueif is unlikely to currently make the five-hour flight to Cairo.”I’m staying here until this is resolved one way or another,” she said.”I’m going on with my hunger strike until either Alaa is released or I collapse completely, and maybe even die.””Every time I visit him I’m thinking this could be the last one. I guess he’s thinking that too.”- ‘Fighting spirit’ -Soueif believes that Starmer is the only person who can intervene by putting pressure on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.”I do not understand why Mr Starmer is failing to phone or talk directly to Mr Sisi,” she told reporters Monday at a Downing Street protest.”In Egypt things go from top to bottom. Unless Mr Sisi gives the green light, nothing is going to happen.”Since taking office in 2014, Sisi’s government has faced criticism over a sweeping crackdown on dissent that has targeted activists, journalists and opposition figuresIf Soueif were to die, “I’m sure it would look badly on every member of the British government and every member of the Egyptian government,” she told AFP.She hopes that US President Donald Trump’s recent provocative comments on Middle East security may draw the UK and Egypt closer together, and help her son’s cause.If he were to be released, Soueif — who still serves as a mathematics professor at a Cairo university — says her son would live a quiet life in the UK, looking after his autistic son Khaled, 13.When asked if her son had inherited his rebellious streak from her, London-born Soueif replied “Oh yes!””My whole family has enough fighting spirit for anything in the long run,” she said.