Author: ALJAZEERA

A delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas is in the Egyptian capital for truce and captive-release negotiations, with sources saying that some progress has been made. However, sticking points remain, including Israel’s insistence on launching a ground invasion into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. The Hamas team arrived in Cairo on Saturday to meet mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States regarding a proposal that would halt Israel’s war on Gaza for 40 days and exchange captives for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by the United Kingdom. Sources told Al Jazeera that negotiations are at a critical point…

‘It’s horror’: World Food Programme head calls for immediate ceasefire and ‘unfettered access’ into besieged territory.Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine”, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said, and warned that it is “moving its way south”. In an interview with NBC News set to air on Sunday, Cindy McCain said that her remarks are based on what the WFP has seen and experienced on the ground. UN officials and aid agencies have for months warned of such a scenario. “It’s horror. It’s so hard to look at and it’s so hard to hear,”…

London, United Kingdom – Gillan Mosely began questioning her upbringing as a teenager. Growing up in a Jewish family that believed in Zionism, she spent much of her adolescence thinking about what she considers a sense of entitlement regarding the “Holy Land”. For her 2022 documentary, The Tinderbox, Mosely travelled to Israel to try to unpack her British family’s teachings. Taking viewers through the history of the creation of the Israeli state, The Tinderbox interrogates an ingrained us vs them dichotomy that Moseley suggests is instilled in Zionism. She speaks with several people on all sides, including settlers, liberal Israelis,…

Hamas says it is studying proposal ‘in positive spirit’ as delegation reportedly set to visit Cairo for further talks.Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has discussed the latest Israeli proposal for a truce in Gaza and an exchange of captives for prisoners with Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Haniyeh held separate phone calls with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Thursday. A statement by the Palestinian group said a delegation is set to visit Egypt soon for further indirect ceasefire talks with the objective of “ending the aggression against” people in…

President Joe Biden says “order must prevail” on university campuses in the United States, just hours after police raided and dismantled another protest encampment in support of Palestinians. In a brief news conference on Thursday, Biden said both the right to free speech and the rule of law “must be upheld” but stressed that “violent protest is not protected”. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said. “Dissent is essential to…

Turkey’s Ministry of Trade cites humanitarian crisis in Gaza for its decision to suspend imports and exports.Turkey has halted exports and imports to and from Israel, the Turkish Ministry of Trade says, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza. “Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli Government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” The announcement came after Israel’s foreign minister said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was breaking agreements…

UN Development Programme official estimates post-war reconstruction will cost between $40-50bn.The level of destruction in Gaza has not been since World War II, according to a United Nations official who estimated that post-war reconstruction could cost up to $50bn. “We have not seen anything like this since 1945,” Abdallah al-Dardari, director of the regional bureau for Arab states at the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said on Thursday during an online news briefing. “That intensity, in such a short time and the massive scale of destruction,” he added. More than 70 percent of all housing has been destroyed, the UN official…

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The trial was a historic attempt at justice, marking the first time victims of the abuse that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified in front of civilian jurors in the United States. But on Thursday, the judge overseeing the civil case in Virginia declared a mistrial, as the jury was unable to overcome a deadlock after eight days of deliberation. The trial focused on the human rights abuses committed at the prison following the US’s invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Reports of abuse started to emerge in 2003 and later hit a fever pitch in…

Police cleared two of the Tunisian capital’s irregular Black migrant camps, busing residents to an unknown location.Tunis, Tunisia – Hundreds of refugees and migrants camped in the centre of Tunis have disappeared, with reports suggesting that the group, including several infants, had been abandoned in the desert near Algeria. According to local media reports, security forces swept into the encampments in the prosperous Berge de Lac business district early on Friday, rounding up men, women and children and destroying the shelters they had built. One encampment was in a walled-off public park and the other was in an alleyway outside…