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Gaza hostage families conflicted over those not on release list

The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are trapped in limbo, two days before the second prisoner exchange of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, with many having relatives both on the list to be freed and those who aren’t. Among them is Silvia Cunio, an Argentine-Israeli from the Nir Oz kibbutz community. She has two sons in captivity, one of whom was taken along with his partner Arbel Yehud.She is on the list — but the Cunio brothers, David and Ariel, are not. They are among the 91 hostages taken captive during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and still held in the Gaza Strip. Of that number, 34 are dead according to the Israeli military. The ceasefire’s 42-day first phase began on Sunday with the release of three women hostages. A total of 33 captives are to be exchanged during the initial phase in return for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.Standing in front of the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Cunio demanded that the ceasefire deal continue beyond the first phase to completion so she could see her sons again.  “I came here to say that I continue to fight for my children… to demand that they stop the war and don’t stop fighting for my children”, she said, wearing a T-shirt with their image on it. Cunio presented herself as an untrammelled optimist, saying that her sons “will come back in good health. That is my hope and it is what keeps me going”.Whenever she appears on TV, Cunio addresses her sons directly, just in case they might hear her. – ‘Waiting for you’ -“David, my darling, Ariel… I am here, I am fighting, I am doing everything I can. We love you. Be strong. We are here waiting for you.”Another hostage relative, Sharon Sharabi, has two brothers Eli and Yossi in Gaza. Eli is presumed alive. The Israeli military said early last year that Yossi was dead.As a man over 50, Eli Sharabi is on the list of 33 to be freed, alongside women, children and hostages who are ill or injured. The release of the remaining 61 people taken by Palestinian militants is dependent on further negotiations.”As far as we know, Eli is alive. We have not received any statement from the security forces or the (military) confirming that Eli is no longer alive. So we want to maintain this optimism and pray that we will see him on his feet very soon,” said Sharabi.Moved by the possibility, he allowed himself to imagine a reunion between his nearly octogenarian mother and his brother.Yet, within moments, anxiety intruded. If his brother Eli returns, Sharon Sharabi will have to tell him that his wife and two daughters were killed on October 7, 2023, and that their brother Yossi died in captivity. Yossi and Eli were taken captive from Beeri, a kibbutz community where Eli’s wife and teenage daughters were found dead in their home.- ‘They cut me in half’ -Itzik Horn, 72, also an Argentine-Israeli, has similar contrasting emotions. He hopes for the release of his son Yair, 46, who is on the list of 33 because of his diabetes.But there is also the pain of his other son, Eitan, 38, remaining in Gaza.”They cut me in half. This is an impossible situation. One son might be released, and the other one isn’t,” Horn said. Eitan was visiting his older brother in Nir Oz on October 7, when militants took the two of them hostage. The kibbutz, less than three kilometres (two miles) from the Gaza border, was hit extremely hard during the Hamas attack. More than 30 people were killed in Nir Oz and 70 taken hostage, with 25 still in the Gaza Strip. Horn was angry, insisting that “everyone has to return, including the bodies”.He admitted that dark humour helped him cope with the pain. “Yair inherited his diabetes from me and he was always mad at me (for it). Now, if he’s freed first because of his illness, he’ll be able to thank me,” he joked. Asked what he would do if, after the first phase of the ceasefire the war resumed, Horn said: “I’m going to burn the country down… because that’s like signing their death sentence.”

Saudi FM says confident of reform under new Lebanon leaders

Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat, on his country’s first high-level visit to Beirut after years of strained ties, said Thursday that he believed crisis-hit Lebanon’s new leaders could spearhead long-sought reforms.Reeling from years of economic collapse and a destructive Israel-Hezbollah war, Lebanese leaders have pinned hopes on wealthy Gulf states for desperately needed reconstruction funds.The international community has long demanded Lebanon enact reforms to unlock billions of dollars to boost the economy after a financial crisis took hold in 2019 — widely blamed on rampant corruption and mismanagement.”We are greatly confident in the ability of… the president and the prime minister to initiate reforms necessary to bolster Lebanon’s security, stability and unity,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said after meeting President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.Lebanon’s parliament elected Aoun earlier this month, ending a more than two-year vacancy in the post caused by political deadlock. The former military chief is widely believed to have been the preferred choice of Riyadh and the United States.During the meeting, Aoun thanked Saudi Arabia “for the efforts deployed to help Lebanon, especially by bringing an end to the presidential vacuum”, an official statement said.Aoun also said the visit had “brought hope”.Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest economy, was a major investor in Lebanon, but ties between the two countries soured for roughly a decade over the growing influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.- ‘Real action’ -With Hezbollah weakened after its war with Israel and the toppling of its ally, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Prince Faisal’s visit comes with Lebanon seeking a fresh start.Aoun has named former International Court of Justice presiding judge Nawaf Salam as prime minister-designate. Salam has been tasked with forming a government capable of boosting Lebanon’s faltering economy and rebuilding areas devastated by war.Aoun has said his first official overseas trip would be to Saudi Arabia, after de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman invited him to visit.In his first speech as president, Aoun said the state would have “a monopoly” on bearing weapons, in a country where Hezbollah was the only group to keep its arsenal following the 1975-1990 civil war.Prior to his visit, Prince Faisal called Aoun’s election “extremely positive”, but said the kingdom was waiting for concrete change before engaging further with Beirut.”We will need to see real action. We will need to see real reform. We will need to see a commitment to a Lebanon that is looking to the future, not to the past, in order for us to raise our engagement,” he said.His visit aims to “inform the kingdom’s approach”, he said.In 2021, many Gulf states including Saudi Arabia had recalled diplomats from Beirut over a Lebanese minister’s criticism of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.Riyadh had also suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon in April that year, saying shipments were being used for drug smuggling and accusing Beirut of inaction.In 2017, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced in a televised address from Riyadh that he was stepping down, citing Iran’s “grip” on his country through Hezbollah, amid suspicions he had been placed under house arrest.He later withdrew his resignation.Adding to the tensions, in 2016 Riyadh said it had halted a $3 billion programme for military supplies to Lebanon in protest against Hezbollah.Prince Faisal’s visit comes ahead of a January 26 deadline to fully implement the fragile truce that ended the recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Saudi crown prince promises Trump $600 bn trade, investment boost

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised on Thursday to pile $600 billion into US trade and investments as he congratulated Donald Trump on his return to the White House.Prince Mohammed, de facto leader of the world’s biggest oil exporter, made the pledge in a phone call following Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Saudi state media said.Trump forged close relations with Riyadh in his first term and is now expected to push Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s holiest sites, towards normalising ties with Israel as a major foreign policy objective.”The crown prince affirmed the kingdom’s intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.It did not give details of the source of the funds, which represent more than half of Saudi GDP, or how they are expected to be used.Prince Mohammed, 39, also passed on congratulations from his father, King Salman, during the call.The White House said it was Trump’s first phone call with a foreign leader since his return to office.”The two leaders discussed efforts to bring stability to the Middle East, bolster regional security, and combat terrorism,” a statement said. “Additionally, they discussed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s international economic ambitions over the next four years as well as trade and other opportunities to increase the (two countries’) mutual prosperity.” Trump’s first visit as president in 2017 was to Saudi Arabia, and this week he joked that a major financial commitment could persuade him to do the same again.”I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product,” he said.Trump quipped he would repeat the visit “if Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500 (billion dollars) — we’ll up it for all the inflation”.During Trump’s first term, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco broke with longstanding Arab policy to recognise Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords.The new Trump administration is expected to try to repeat the process with Saudi Arabia, following similar efforts under president Joe Biden.- Iran threats -Saudi Arabia broke off talks with US officials about ties with Israel early in the Gaza war, and has repeatedly insisted it will not recognise Israel without the existence of a Palestinian state.However, a long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza and a possible easing in regional tensions could pave the way for a resumption of dialogue.In exchange for recognising Israel, the Arab world’s richest country hopes to secure a US defence pact and Washington’s help with a civil nuclear programme.In his own call with the crown prince on Thursday, new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and “the threats posed by Iran and its proxies”, according to a statement.”They also discussed the benefits of the US-Saudi economic partnership and the opportunities to grow their economies in a variety of fields including AI,” a spokesperson for Rubio said. Trump actively courted Saudi Arabia, long an important energy and security partner for Washington, during his first term.When he arrived in Riyadh in 2017, he was treated to an elaborate welcome involving a sword dance and a fly-past of air force jets.Relations later cooled with Prince Mohammed faulting Trump for failing to respond more aggressively after a 2019 attack widely blamed on Iran halved the Gulf kingdom’s crude output.Riyadh and Trump’s team nevertheless sought to boost ties after his departure from the White House, in particular through investments and construction deals for his privately owned conglomerate the Trump Organization. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has defended receiving a Saudi investment in his private equity firm that reports put at $2 billion.

Freed Palestinian activist recounts difficult times in Israeli jail

What struck those who knew Khalida Jarrar when she exited the bus with 77 other Palestinians released from Israeli jails was the whiteness of her hair and her broken voice.Jarrar, an activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said she lost her voice from six months in solitary confinement, and accused Israeli jails of “bad treatment”, which the Israeli Prison Service denies.She was released on Sunday in a first batch of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for hostages held in Gaza under a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel.The ceasefire, which began on Sunday, came after more than 15 months of devastating war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.The PFLP, which she represents in the Palestinian parliament that hasn’t convened since 2018, is a leftist movement blacklisted as a “terrorist organisation” by the European Union and the United States.On her arrival in Ramallah, relatives were shocked to find her pale-faced and wearing a dazed expression.”It was the first time I was speaking to a human being after six months of isolation in my cell,” she told AFP the next day, her hair dyed black.- Worsening conditions -Jarrar also heads Addameer, a human rights group that advocates for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. She has been repeatedly placed under administrative detention by Israel, a controversial measure that allows indefinite detention without charge.Her last stint in detention was in December 2023, following another 20 months in jail between 2018 and 2019, each time on grounds of “threatening the security of the state”.She also served two years in prison between 2019 and 2021, forcing her to miss the funeral of her daughter Suha, who died suddenly at the age of 31.In 2015, a military court charged her with 15 counts, including giving interviews, speeches and lectures, participating in marches and calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners.”Conditions (in jail) have never been as harsh as they are today,” she said, citing “frequent attacks”, “regular tear gas spraying” and “insufficient and poor-quality food rations”.She also condemned the “policy of isolation practised by the occupation authorities”.Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons are “treated as though they are not human beings”, she alleged, adding that the prisoner issue is “a Palestinian national cause”.- ‘Cemeteries’ -The Israel Prison Service denied the allegations.”We are unaware of these claims. According to our information, no such incidents have occurred in prisons under our responsibility,” it said.”Detainees have the right to file a complaint, which will be thoroughly investigated.”The day after her liberation, dozens of sympathisers visited Jarrar to congratulate her.Standing next to her was Abla Saadat, wife of PFLP general secretary Ahmad Saadat. She too was released in the exchange, after being interned without charge since September 2023.Her husband has been in jail since 2002 on charges of ordering the previous year’s assassination of far-right Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. He has been held by Israel since 2006.Abla Saadat fears she too will swiftly return to prison. She said that on the day of her release, she received a decision to renew her administrative detention for another six months.”The accusation against me is disrupting state security, without me knowing how,” she said.Prisons “have become cemeteries where prisoners feel suffocated,” said Saadat, a leader in the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, which Israel has designated a “terrorist organisation”.Since the October 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war, human rights groups including Israel’s B’Tselem have reported worsening detention conditions for Palestinians, including “systematic mistreatment” and “torture”.Like Jarrar, Abla Saadat has been imprisoned more than once. But her latest detention “was the hardest,” she said. “I am detained every time simply because I am Ahmed Saadat’s wife.”

Yemen’s Huthis say support for Palestinians led to US terrorist designation

Yemen’s Huthi rebels accused Washington on Thursday of designating them a terrorist group for supporting the Palestinian people, their stated motive for months of attacks on Israel and in the Red Sea.On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to once again blacklist the Iran-backed rebels as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, moving to reimpose the more restrictive categorisation after it was dropped by his predecessor.”The American designation targets all the Yemeni people and their honourable position in support of the oppressed Palestinian people,” said a Huthi statement quoted by the rebel-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel. “This reflects the degree of bias on the part of the current American administration in favour of the usurper Zionist entity (Israel).”The Huthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance”, a collection of militant groups in the region arrayed against Israel. For more than a year they have waged a campaign of attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that has disrupted global shipping.They have also repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.The Huthis have said their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians. – ‘Pretext’ for sanctions -Iran too condemned the group’s terror designation on Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei saying the blacklisting was “a pretext for imposing inhumane sanctions against the Yemeni people”, describing it as “unjustified and baseless”.Iran insists that its allied groups act independently. Israel, meanwhile, welcomed the move, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar calling it “an important step in fighting terror and combating the destabilising elements in our region”.The Huthis were blacklisted during Trump’s first term, but were removed in 2021 after his successor Joe Biden took office.The Biden administration last year put the Huthis back on the list of “specially designated global terrorist” groups, a slightly less severe classification that still allowed for humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn country.Trump’s redesignation order may take several weeks to come into effect. Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Huthis forced the internationally recognised government out of the capital Sanaa and much of the north and the Red Sea coast.The conflict has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with a senior UN official saying more than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, including around 17 million who cannot meet their basic food needs.The Huthis urged the “international community and human rights organisations on Thursday to condemn” the terrorist designation, saying it would “have negative repercussions on the humanitarian situation in Yemen”.burs/smw/kir

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.Khan said that Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” added Khan.ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants — a process that could take weeks or even months.The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.In theory this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional applications for other Taliban officials. – ‘A victory’ -Akhundzada inherited the Taliban leadership in May 2016 after a US drone strike in Pakistan killed his predecessor. Believed to be in his 60s or 70s, the reclusive supreme leader rules by decree from the Taliban movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar.Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator during discussions with US representatives in 2020.ICC prosecutor Khan argued the Taliban was “brutally” repressing resistance through crimes “including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts”.Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement the prosecutor’s actions should put the Taliban’s exclusion of women and girls from public life back on the international agenda. “This is an important moment for Afghan women and girls who have been waiting much too long for justice,” HRW’s women’s rights deputy director, Heather Barr, told AFP, calling for “other efforts to hold the Taliban fully accountable”.The move was praised by Afghan women activists, including Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan former lawmaker and the ousted government’s ex-ambassador to Norway. “It’s a victory,” she told AFP from London. “This also could be counted as (an) important achievement for feminism globally… and particularly for women in Afghanistan.” The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called the move “a crucial step… for accountability in Afghanistan” on X. – ‘Gender apartheid’ -After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first rein from 1996-2001. But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law have squeezed women and girls from public life.They have barred girls from secondary school and women from university, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans. Taliban authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs — or being paid to stay at home. Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.A “vice and virtue” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home. The few remaining women TV presenters wear tight headscarves and face masks in line with a 2022 diktat by Akhundzada that women cover everything but their eyes and hands in public.The international community has condemned the restrictions, which remain a key sticking point in the Taliban authorities’ pursuit of official recognition, which it has not received from any state. The Taliban authorities have dismissed international criticism of their policies, saying all citizens’ rights are provided for under Islamic law.burs-ric/sw/sbk

Iran Nobel winner addresses French parliament while on prison leave

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Thursday called for an “end” to the Islamic republic and urged human rights to be a precondition of any negotiation with Tehran as she addressed French lawmakers, in a rare encounter with an Iran-based activist.Mohammadi, 52, had been in prison for over three years but was released in December for a limited period on medical leave. Her legal team have warned she could be re-arrested and sent back to jail at any time.She won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her two-decade fight for human rights in the Islamic republic and strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the custody death of the Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.”Any negotiations with the Islamic republic that do not take into account the fundamental rights of the Iranian people will only strengthen religious tyranny,” she told the women’s right committees of the French upper house Senate and lower house National Assembly in a joint session, via video link from Tehran.”I believe in the need to end the Islamic Republic,” she added.Mohammadi appeared healthy and as usual in her public appearances defiantly not wearing the headscarf that is obligatory for all women under the Islamic republic’s dress code.She was flanked by pictures of Amini and her two Paris-based twin children, who picked up the Nobel prize in Oslo on her behalf but whom she has not seen for the last decade.Asked about the risks of her participating in this video conference, Mohammadi replied that it was “no difference being on one side or the other of the prison wall”. Her release in December from Evin prison marked the first time Mohammadi, who has spent much of the past decade behind bars, has been free since she was arrested in November 2021.