World
Gaza ceasefire hopes rise as Israel says it will resume stalled negotiations
Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, Reuters reported.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving agreement after Hamas made its revised proposal on the terms of a deal, received by Israel on Wednesday.
“The proposal put forward by Hamas includes a very significant breakthrough,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and giving no details.
The Israeli response to the Hamas proposal, submitted via mediators, was in marked contrast to past instances during the nearly nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by the militant Islamist group were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters the new Hamas proposal could lead to a framework agreement if it is embraced by Israel.
He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to permanently cease fire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
“Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Hamas has previously said any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and sought the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Israel has previously said it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which governs the small, densely populated Gaza Strip, is eradicated.
Egyptian sources acknowledged there had been a shift but suggested that the core issue of commitment to a permanent ceasefire was still outstanding.
In the latest fighting in Gaza, residents said Israeli tanks had pushed shortly before dawn into the Al-Nasser neighbourhood in the northern part of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
Israel said its operations in Rafah were aimed at dismantling the last battalions of Hamas’ armed wing.
An Israeli air strike on a house killed five Palestinians, including three children, in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Gaza medics said.
Five Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israel established a covert military installation in the Iraqi desert to support its air operations against Iran, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing individuals familiar with the matter, including U.S. officials.
The report said the facility was used as a logistical hub for the Israeli Air Force and also housed special forces, as well as search-and-rescue units prepared to assist any downed pilots during operations.
According to the newspaper, the base was built with the knowledge of the United States shortly before the onset of what it described as a joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
The report added that Israeli forces conducted airstrikes against Iraqi troops on at least one occasion after they allegedly came close to discovering the site, in order to prevent exposure of the facility.
The existence of the installation reportedly came under threat in early March, when Iraqi state media said a shepherd had alerted authorities to unusual military activity in the area, including helicopter movements. Iraqi forces were subsequently dispatched to investigate.
The Wall Street Journal further reported that Iraqi troops were struck by Israeli air operations while approaching the area, based on accounts from sources familiar with the incident.
Later in March, Iraq submitted a complaint to the United Nations alleging that foreign forces were involved in attacks in the area and initially attributed responsibility to the United States. However, the report cited a source familiar with the matter as saying the U.S. was not involved.
At the order of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Defense Department on Friday released dozens of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings to provide what it called “unprecedented transparency” to the American people, though analysts said many of the documents had already been made public.
The disclosure of documents, photos and videos of “unidentified anomalous phenomena” will be followed by future releases as more materials are declassified, the Defense Department said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Trump was the latest president to release U.S. government reports on UFOs, a disclosure process that began in the late 1970s. Experts said the batch of around 160 files released on Friday contained new videos of known sightings but gave no conclusive evidence of alien technology or extraterrestrial life.
The files include a 1947 report of “flying discs” as well as grainy photos of “unidentified phenomena” taken from the moon’s surface by the 1969 Apollo 12 lunar mission and a transcript of the Apollo 17 crew describing unidentified objects seen from the moon in 1972.
‘BRIGHT PARTICLES’ DURING APOLLO 17
Apollo 17 mission pilot Ronald Evans reported “a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,” based on the transcript.
“Roger. Understand,” mission control replied.
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Hegseth said in a statement.
The records release is likely to fuel fresh debate over government secrecy and the possible existence of life in the cosmos.
“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Trump said in a statement. “Have fun and enjoy!”
The move was welcomed by U.S. Representatives Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna, both proponents of declassifying UFO files. Luna said an additional tranche of material was expected in about 30 days.
“The files show that UAP are not simply a matter of speculation or public curiosity,” Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb said in an email to Reuters. “The government has collected records.”
The images from Apollo 12 and 17 were fascinating but could be the result of asteroid impacts on the lunar surface, Loeb said.
DISTRACTION FROM POLITICAL PROBLEMS?
Some critics cast the UFO disclosures as a distraction from Trump’s political woes, including the unpopular U.S. military campaign against Iran and public pressure to release further files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I really don’t care about the UFO files. I just don’t. I’m so sick of the ‘look at the shiny object’ propaganda,” former Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X.
UAP investigator Mick West said the administration of former President Joe Biden disclosed much of the same information as Friday’s release.
“They’re evidence of us not being able to identify a small white dot that’s a long distance away,” the Sacramento, California-based analyst said of the new UAP videos and images.
Independent journalist Leslie Kean said the release showed there was still a lot of government information on UAP that should be disclosed. Kean co-authored a 2017 New York Times story on a secret Pentagon UAP program, which prompted Congress to push for declassification of UFO documents.
“I think we’ve already proven the existence of UAP, but that doesn’t mean we’ve proven they’re alien or extraterrestrial or that we know what they are,” said Kean.
World
Trump says United States will get uranium from Iran
One of Trump’s central objectives in launching military strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a nuclear weapon.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would get enriched uranium from Iran, as the two countries struggle to reach an agreement on ending the Gulf war, Reuters reported.
“We’re going to get it,” Trump told a reporter as he left a White House event.
One of Trump’s central objectives in launching military strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has yet to hand over more than 900 pounds (408 kg) of highly enriched uranium.
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