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Hamas, Israel set for fourth Gaza ceasefire swap

Hamas and Israel will conduct their fourth swap of the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday, with militants releasing three Israelis including the father of the two youngest hostages, in exchange for 183 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Since the truce took effect on January 19, Gaza militants have released 15 hostages after holding them in captivity since their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.The Israeli hostages to be freed on Saturday are Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, who also holds US citizenship, and Ofer Kalderon, who also has French nationality, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.In return, Israel will release 183 prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said, more than double the initially reported figure of 90.Since the ceasefire began, Israel has freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors.During their attack on Israel, which ignited the Gaza war, Hamas militants took 251 hostages. Of those, 79 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Among those taken were the wife and two children of Yarden Bibas. Hamas has declared the three dead, but Israeli officials have not confirmed this.The two Bibas boys — Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday fell in January, and his older brother Ariel, who turned five in August — have become symbols of the ordeal endured by hostages in Gaza.The children were taken along with their mother, Shiri Bibas.- ‘Where are they?’-Hamas claims the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023.”Hamas, where are the Bibas babies?” the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X on Friday.”483 days have passed. Where are they?”The Bibas family meanwhile wrote on Instagram: “Our Yarden is supposed to return tomorrow, and we are so excited, but Shiri and the children still haven’t come home.”Saturday’s swap is the second exchange this week and the fourth since the ceasefire began.The hostage handovers have sometimes been chaotic, particularly during the most recent exchange in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Thursday, where scenes of disorder prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the situation as “shocking”.One hostage, Arbel Yehud, was visibly distressed as masked gunmen struggled to clear a path for her through crowds of spectators eager to witness her release, as seen in television footage.She was one of eight hostages freed on Thursday.In protest, Israel briefly delayed its own prisoner release that day, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged all parties to ensure safer conditions for future exchanges.”The security of these operations must be assured, and we urge improvements in the future,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said.Later on Thursday, Israeli authorities released 110 inmates from Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, including high-profile former militant commander Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, who received a hero’s welcome in Ramallah.”The situation of the prisoners is very difficult, and we hope for their urgent release,” Zubeidi said at a gathering in Ramallah on Friday.- Rafah to reopen-Upon seeing her brother among those freed on Thursday, Maha al-Barai, a Palestinian woman from the West Bank, said: “It is an indescribable joy that words cannot capture, and my body trembles with it.”Following Saturday’s exchange, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen to allow the evacuation of injured Palestinians, sources familiar with the discussions told AFP.European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday that the 27-member bloc had deployed a monitoring mission at the Rafah crossing.”It will support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” she wrote on X.The fragile ceasefire, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, hinges on the release during the first 42-day phase of a total of 33 hostages, in exchange for approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to begin on Monday, according to a timeline provided by an Israeli official.This next phase would address the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.

White House says Trump to impose Canada, Mexico, China tariffs at weekend

President Donald Trump will implement tariffs Saturday on the three largest US trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — the White House said, sparking alarm for global trade.Trump has reiterated his plans for 25 percent tariffs on neighbors Canada and Mexico, saying they have failed to crack down on illegal migrants crossing the US …

White House says Trump to impose Canada, Mexico, China tariffs at weekend Read More »

Hamas to free three Israeli hostages in next ceasefire swap

Hamas and Israel will conduct their next swap of the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday, with three Israelis, including the father of the youngest hostages, to be freed in return for 183 people held in Israeli jails.After holding them hostage for over 15 months, militants in Gaza began releasing captives on January 19, when the first phase of a ceasefire with Israel took effect.Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have so far handed over 15 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum named the captives to be released on Saturday as Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, who also has US citizenship, and Ofer Kalderon, who also holds French nationality.The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed it had received the names of the three hostages to be released.In exchange, Israel will free 183 prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said.”The updated number of prisoners to be released tomorrow is 183,” said the Club’s spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh on Friday, after previously announcing that 90 prisoners would be released from Israeli jails.During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which started the Gaza war, militants abducted Siegel from the Kfar Aza kibbutz community, and Kalderon and Bibas from kibbutz Nir Oz.Militants took a total of 251 people hostage that day. Of those, 79 still remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead.Those seized include the wife and two children of Bibas, whom Hamas has declared dead, although Israeli officials have not confirmed that.The two Bibas boys — Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday fell earlier this month, and his older brother Ariel whose fifth birthday was in August last year — have become symbols of the ordeal of the hostages held in Gaza.The children were taken along with their mother, Shiri. Hamas says an Israeli air strike in November 2023 killed the boys and their mother.”Our Yarden is supposed to return tomorrow and we are so excited but Shiri and the children still haven’t returned,” the Bibas family said on Instagram.”We have such mixed emotions and we are facing extremely complex days.”- Chaotic scenes -“Hamas, where are the Bibas babies?” the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X.”483 days have passed. Where are they?”After the swap takes place on Saturday, Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt is set to reopen, a Hamas official and a source with knowledge of discussions told AFP.”The mediators informed Hamas of Israel’s approval to open Rafah crossing tomorrow, Saturday, after the completion of the fourth batch of prisoner exchange,” the Hamas official said.The source explained that injured Palestinians would be evacuated from the territory at the crossing, “as per the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement”.The Rafah crossing was a vital entry point for aid deliveries into Gaza before the Israeli military seized the Palestinian side in May.The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Friday the bloc has deployed a monitoring mission at the crossing “to support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”.The arrangements for hostage handovers in Gaza have sometimes been chaotic, with scenes during Thursday’s handover in the southern city of Khan Yunis condemned by the Israeli prime minister as “shocking”.Hostage Arbel Yehud was visibly distressed as masked gunmen struggled to clear a path for her through crowds rushing to witness her handover, television images showed.Israel briefly delayed Thursday’s prisoner release in protest and the ICRC urged all parties to improve security.”The security of these operations must be assured, and we urge for improvements in the future,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said.Later on Thursday, Israeli authorities released 110 inmates from Ofer prison, including high-profile former militant commander Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, who received a hero’s welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah.On Friday, he called for “all our Palestinian people” to be freed from Israeli jails.”The situation of the prisoners is very difficult and we hope for their urgent release,” Zubeidi told AFP on the sidelines of a reception celebrating his release.- ‘Where’s Dad?’ -Also freed was Hussein Nasser, who received little attention from the crowd but was at the centre of his daughters’ world.”Where’s Dad?” Raghda Nasser asked tearfully as she moved through the crowd, an AFP correspondent reported.Raghda, 21, hugged her father Thursday night for the first time in her life. Her mother was pregnant with her when he was jailed 22 years ago.”I just visited him behind the glass in Israeli prisons. I cannot express my feelings,” Raghda said.The fragile ceasefire’s 42-day first phase hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 people, mostly Palestinians, in Israeli jails.Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to start on Monday, according to a timeline provided by an Israeli official. This phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.

UN war crimes investigators say Syria ‘rich in evidence’

Despite concerns about the destruction of documents and other indications of serious crimes committed in Syria under Bashar al-Assad’s rule, UN investigators said Friday that plenty of evidence remained unspoiled.”The country is rich in evidence, and we won’t have huge difficulty in pursuing accountability, criminal justice,” said Hanny Megally of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.The sudden ousting last month of Assad after decades of dictatorship has seen the commission suddenly gain access to Syria, after striving since the early days of the civil war in 2011 to probe from abroad the vast array of alleged abuses.”It was amazing to be in Damascus after the whole life of the commission not having access to the country at all,” Megally told the Geneva UN correspondents’ association ACANU after a recent visit to Syria.With families rushing to former prisons, detention centres and suspected mass graves to find any trace of disappeared relatives, many have expressed concern about safeguarding documents and other evidence.Describing his visits to prisons in Damascus, Megally acknowledged that “a lot of the evidence seems to have been tampered with, and either it was on the ground and you could see people… had been walking all over it, or had been damaged or destroyed.”And we’ve all seen the reports of people having taken away documents with them.”- Evidence destroyed -The notorious Saydnaya prison complex — the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances that epitomises the atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents — “is pretty much emptied of any documents”, Magally added.He also said there were clear signs “of deliberate destruction of evidence”, presumably by the Assad authorities before they left.During his visit, Megally said he had seen “one or two places (with) rooms that looked to me like they were used to deliberately burn documents”.But he voiced optimism that the Syrian state under Assad was “a system that probably kept duplicates if not triplicates of everything, (so) even if evidence was destroyed, that may exist somewhere else”.And even in places where documents had clearly been intentionally destroyed, other parts of the building were “intact” and filled with evidence, he said.”It seemed that there’s still quite a lot of evidence that’s protected now, and we hope can be used in future accountability.”Megally also said the careless handling of documents seen at the beginning had swiftly been brought to a halt once the calls to protect and preserve evidence went out.”It was impressive just how quickly it seems people have picked up the fact that even by going and looking and moving things around, you’re potentially risking tampering with evidence that could be used in future accountability processes,” he said.His colleague Lynn Welchman also said Syria’s new authorities appeared to be “seeking to ensure the preservation of evidence for the future”.That is essential, she told reporters.”One of the most important things for the future will be to ensure that what has happened in Syria never happens in Syria again,” she said.”There’s a lot of work to be done in trying to find out what happened in order for all parts of Syrian society to move forward.”