World
Netanyahu says Israel will end Gaza ceasefire if hostages not returned on Saturday
U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, has said that Hamas should release all of the hostages by Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas until it was defeated if the Palestinian militant group did not release hostages by midday Saturday, Reuters reported.
Following Netanyahu’s ultimatum, Hamas issued a statement renewing its commitment to the ceasefire and accusing Israel of jeopardizing the ceasefire.
The Israeli announcement came after Netanyahu met with several key ministers, including defence, foreign affairs and national security, who he said gave the ultimatum their full support.
After nearly 16 months of war, Hamas has gradually been releasing hostages since the first phase of a ceasefire began on January 19, but on Monday said it would not free any more until further notice over accusations Israel was violating the deal.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end and the IDF (military) will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Netanyahu said.
It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu meant Hamas should release all hostages held in Gaza or just the three who had been expected to be released on Saturday under the ceasefire.
His office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment on the prime minister’s remarks.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, has said that Hamas should release all of the hostages by Saturday, read the report.
The prime minister also said he had ordered the military to gather forces inside and around Gaza, with the military announcing shortly after it was deploying additional forces to Israel’s south including the mobilization of reservists.
A Hamas official earlier said that Israeli hostages could only be brought home if the ceasefire was respected, dismissing the “language of threats” after Trump said he would “let hell break out” if they were not freed.
“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Hamas has said Israel has violated the ceasefire with several deadly shootings as well as by holding up some aid deliveries and impeding the return of Gazans to the strip’s north.
Israel denies holding back aid and says it has fired on people who disregarded warnings not to approach Israeli troops.
So far, 16 of 33 hostages have been freed as part of the ceasefire deal’s first phase due to last 42 days. Five Thai hostages were also let go in an unscheduled release.
In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks and others detained during the war and held without charge, Reuters reported.
An Israeli group representing families of hostages urged Netanyahu to stick to the ceasefire agreement.
“We must not go backwards. We cannot allow the hostages to waste away in captivity,” the hostages forum said.
There are 76 hostages still held in Gaza, more than 35 of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli media.
Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, has been devastated by Israel’s military offensive. The enclave is short of food, water and shelter, and in need of billions of dollars in foreign aid.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, the Gaza health ministry says, and nearly all of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million has been internally displaced by the conflict, read the report.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities and about 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Trump said last week the U.S. should take over Gaza and move out more than 2 million Palestinian residents so the enclave can be developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Netanyahu praised the plan and said on Tuesday the security cabinet endorsed it.
Trump’s plan has enraged Palestinians and Arab leaders and upended decades of U.S. policy that endorsed a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state would coexist.
The forcible displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime banned by the 1949 Geneva conventions.
Trump restated his position as he met Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday at the White House amid widespread opposition to his plan among Washington’s Arab allies, including Jordan.
Trump said on Tuesday that he believed there would be a parcel of land in Jordan, Egypt and someplace else where Palestinians can be resettled.
Egypt rejected any proposal to allocate land to Gaza residents, the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV reported on Tuesday, citing Egyptian sources.
North Korean state media on Wednesday denounced Trump’s Gaza proposal and accused Washington of extortion.
“The world is now boiling like a porridge pot over the U.S.’ bombshell declaration,” KCNA said.
Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation. Israel denies they were forced out, Reuters reported.
For Jordan, Trump’s talk of resettlement comes dangerously close to its nightmare of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, echoing an idea long promoted by ultra-nationalist Israelis of Jordan becoming an alternative Palestinian home.
Gazans interviewed by Reuters criticised Trump for saying he would be prepared for “hell” to break out if all the Israeli hostages were not released by noon on Saturday.
“Hell worse than what we have already? Hell worse than killing? The destruction, all the practices and human crimes that have occurred in the Gaza Strip have not happened anywhere else in the world,” said Jomaa Abu Kosh, a Palestinian from Rafah in southern Gaza, standing beside demolished homes.
World
Trump took secret flight out of Turkey due to Iran threat, the Washington Post reports
The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.
U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.
The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.
Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.
After Trump boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.
The deception operation was triggered by a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.
On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some White House staff also believed that the president was on board.
When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said it was because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”
The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.
Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. UK local time.
He gave press a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.
When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.
“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new plane, with red, white, dark blue and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.
World
More than 100 killed after strongest quake this century hits western Colombia
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.
More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century.
The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June, Reuters reported.
“The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”
De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.
Though he had been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while 700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.
As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to find people still trapped under rubble.
Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. De La Espriella promised 1,000 additional security personnel for the city.
Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.
Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.
Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.
BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS CLOSED
In the hard-hit city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.
A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.
Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and loading rubble into trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.
Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.
“They are alive,” he said. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”
Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.
“A moment ago there was scratching but now we can’t hear anything, we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out,” she said. “The more people lending a hand the better.”
Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.
“I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left,” he said. “There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won’t have anything.”
Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.
RING OF FIRE
Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.
Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.
“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did actually cause a lot of shaking,” she said, adding Colombia is particularly difficult for seismologists to analyze due to the interaction of several major tectonic plates.
The Colombian Geological Service said it had recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.
Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.
World
Fire at Saudi factory kills 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers
A major fire at a sofa manufacturing factory in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killed 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, officials in Dhaka said on Monday.
The fire broke out on Sunday in the Musa Sanaiya industrial area, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is monitoring the situation, while officials from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh are working with Saudi authorities to complete the repatriation formalities.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury has instructed officials to bring back the bodies as soon as possible and ensure necessary government assistance and compensation for the bereaved families.
With around 3.5 million Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia, the country remains the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, who sent home more than $2.7 billion in remittances last year.
-
Sport3 days agoAfghanistan secure direct qualification for 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup
-
Regional4 days agoGoods transporters to go on strike from Saturday after talks with Pakistan govt fail
-
Latest News3 days agoPakistan-backed armed groups in Balochistan using former Afghan government forces: report
-
Sport4 days agoRashid Khan takes six as Afghanistan thrash Ireland by 92 runs
-
World4 days agoUS Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next
-
Business5 days agoUzbekistan, Kazakhstan target Afghanistan in push to expand regional trade
-
Sport2 days agoAbasin Defenders stun Kabul Zalmi in Kabul Premier League
-
Health5 days agoWHO warns aid cuts disrupting healthcare services across Afghanistan
