India-Pakistan ceasefire celebrations despite lingering tensions
NewsFeed India-Pakistan ceasefire celebrations despite lingering tensions
People in Pakistan and India have been celebrating a ceasefire after the most serious fighting between the nuclear-armed nations for decades. Life is slowly returning to normal in border regions as tensions linger.
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Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Why Hamas is seeking to change the US-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal
Palestinian group Hamas claims a recent ceasefire proposal passed to them by United States special envoy Steve Witkoff is different from one they had agreed to a week earlier. Basem Naim, a leading Hamas official, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the group 'responded positively' to the latest proposal relayed by Witkoff, even though it offered 'no guarantees to end the war', according to Naim. Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, and its total aid blockade since March has caused starvation and a famine-like situation in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, most of whom were displaced by 19 months of relentless bombardment. Amid international pressure, Israel has allowed a trickle of aid into Gaza, which has been described as a 'drop in an ocean' by humanitarian groups. Here's what you need to know about the ceasefire proposal. According to the group, no. It says it responded positively but added a few key provisions. There are a few. Hamas has responded to the latest US-proposed ceasefire with demands for a pathway to a permanent ceasefire, instead of a temporary one where the Israeli government could unilaterally restart hostilities as they did in March. They have also called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the resumption of aid and assistance to the besieged area. Witkoff proposed a 60-day pause in hostilities. After that, the parties (Israel and Hamas) would work to agree to extend the pause. The issue with this is that the last time it happened, Israel unilaterally decided to cut aid to Gaza and started bombing it. To avoid a similar scenario, Hamas has tried to negotiate on the timeline for releasing the captives, 10 of them alive and 18 bodies of those killed during the war. Witkoff's proposal called for the release to take place within a week of the 60-day pause. However, Hamas fears Israel will resume its bombing campaign upon the release of the captives, so it has called for staggering their release throughout the pause. It has called for a set list of negotiation topics to avoid what has happened in past negotiations with Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added provisions in what critics say was an attempt to derail talks and prolong the war. According to the website Drop Site News, Hamas also reinserted a provision from the May 25 agreement that Israel had withdrawn. That provision would be for Hamas to hand over the governing of Gaza to 'an independent technocratic committee'. Witkoff called Hamas's response 'totally unacceptable' and said it 'only takes us backward'. 'Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,' he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 'That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.' I received the Hamas response to the United States' proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week. That is the only… — Office of the Special Envoy to the Middle East (@SE_MiddleEast) May 31, 2025US President Donald Trump previously said the two sides were nearing a deal. The US and Israel seem to be in agreement on the terms. Israel claims its officials agreed with the US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Israel 'backed and supported' the new proposal. Netanyahu criticised the Hamas response, parroting Witkoff and laying the blame on the Palestinian group for failing to accept the proposal. 'As Witkoff said, Hamas's response is unacceptable and sets the situation back. Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas,' Netanyahu said. Hamas is wary of past instances where Israel chose to unilaterally break the ceasefire. That happened in March, when Netanyahu decided to block all aid from entering Gaza and restart the war. Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, described the negotiations between Hamas and Israel as taking place with 'no good faith whatsoever'. 'They [Israel] are fixated on one key goal, which is Hamas's capitulation and surrender, and disappearing from the scene,' Qarmout told Al Jazeera. 'Hamas is engaged in these negotiations just to try to reduce the horrors of the war, to allow some humanitarian aid to enter and to also look for a dignified exit. No one in Hamas wants to see themselves surrendering this way.' In the interim, Israel is continuing to attack Gaza. On Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who had gathered at aid distribution sites run by a US-backed group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in southern and central Gaza. At least 31 people were killed in Rafah and another near the Netzarim Corridor. Meanwhile, residential homes across Gaza are still being bombed relentlessly.
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli attack near Rafah aid site amid ceasefire tensions
NewsFeed Israeli attack near Rafah aid site amid ceasefire tensions At least 30 Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid near a distribution hub in Rafah, run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The attack comes amid disputes over the text of a US-backed ceasefire proposal.
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Bangladesh top court lifts ban on country's largest Muslim party
Bangladesh has restored the registration of the country's largest Muslim party, more than a decade after it was banned by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government. Sunday's Supreme Court decision means the Jamaat-e-Islami party can now be formally listed with the Election Commission, paving the way for its participation in the next general election, which the interim government has promised to hold by June next year. Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer Shishir Monir said the ruling would allow a 'democratic, inclusive and multiparty system' in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people. 'We hope that Bangladeshis, regardless of their ethnicity or religious identity, will vote for Jamaat and that the parliament will be vibrant with constructive debates,' Monir told journalists. The party had appealed for a review of a 2013 high court order cancelling its registration after Hasina's government was ousted in August by a student-led nationwide uprising. Hasina, 77, fled to India and is now being tried in absentia over her crackdown last year, described by prosecutors as a 'systematic attack' on protesters, which according to the United Nations, killed up to 1,400 people. The Supreme Court decision on Jamaat-e-Islami came after it overturned a conviction against ATM Azharul Islam, one of the party's key leaders, on Tuesday. Islam was sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami supported Pakistan during the war, a role that still sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today. 'We, as individuals or as a party, are not beyond making mistakes,' Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafiqur Rahman said after Islam's conviction was overturned without specifying what he was referring to. 'We seek your pardon if we have done anything wrong,' he said. The party's members were rivals of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League, who would become Bangladesh's founding president. Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders. In May, Bangladesh's interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of legal proceedings over its crackdown on last year's mass protests.
