Israel recovers body of soldier missing since 1982 war in Lebanon
The soldier Zvi Feldman was among several who died in a battle near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub and had been missing ever since. The Israeli army announced that Feldman's body had been found "in the heart of Syria" and brought to Israel.
The body of a second soldier, who had also been killed at the time, had been handed over six years ago. At the time, Russia had helped Israel in the search for the soldier's remains.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the remains were discovered by Russian special forces during an operation in Syria. Israel later released two Syrian prisoners, apparently in return for handing over the body.
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New York Post
15 minutes ago
- New York Post
What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?
WASHINGTON — President Trump's Friday meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may be the most-watched Washington-Moscow summit in decades — but don't expect any major decisions to be made as the US president seeks a 'more firm understanding' of how to end Moscow's war on Ukraine, sources and experts tell The Post. Trump, 79, plans to treat the meeting as a 'listening exercise' rather than a high-stakes negotiation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. While Putin, 72, has set audacious conditions for agreeing to a cease-fire with Ukraine, the US has made no concrete decision to date on whether to support them, sources familiar with the matter tell The Post. What Russia wants Among the demands reportedly pushed by Putin — almost entirely unchanged from the start of the war nearly three-and-a-half years ago — is the formal recognition by the US and Ukraine of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as Russian territory, despite Moscow being unable to secure them in 11 years of trying. Advertisement 4 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan June 28, 2019. REUTERS This recognition would include the roughly 30% of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russia does not control. The Kremlin also seeks a freezing of the current front lines. Advertisement The desires were communicated to Trump by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin at the Kremlin last week, according to European officials. However, Russia has not made these demands public, which is one reason why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would like a sitdown with Putin — to get the terms direct from the horse's mouth. Russia has also pushed for Ukraine to formally agree to never join NATO, a halt to shipments of Western weapons to Ukraine and a prohibition on NATO-aligned soldiers from setting foot on Ukrainian territory. 4 Putin and Trump last saw each other in 2019. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Despite the White House insisting the war will be the primary topic, Russian officials have indicated they see the Alaska summit as a prime opportunity to discuss potential deals with the US — including opening up Alaskan airspace to Russian flights. 'We hope that the upcoming summit will give impetus to the normalization of bilateral relations,' Russia's deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state media site Izvestia, noting that restoration of air traffic could be a possible topic. The Arctic and economic cooperation are also topics that interest Russia, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting that the Kremlin hopes the meeting will lead to Trump going to Russia in the future. However, Russia observers have expressed concerns over the Alaska location — particularly as Moscow's hardliners have long 'lamented the loss of Russia's larger territorial extent throughout history,' George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War said Tuesday. Advertisement 'Russian nationalists have manufactured a pseudo-historical argument for why America's purchase of Alaska [in 1867] was illegitimate, and that Alaska is therefore actually legally Russian,' he said. 'This is all nonsense, of course.' 'The Russian nationalist doesn't respect the United States, but rather invents territorial disputes with its neighbors and seethes at Russa's diminished geography.' What Ukraine wants Zelensky, 47, has called Moscow's demands untenable for establishing a cease-fire, but has signaled openness to some concessions — so long as they are made as part of a final peace deal. Ending the war after more than three grueling years would be a positive for Zelensky, as his country has been ravaged by missile strikes, mines and Russian infantry. But the Ukrainian leader has been clear he will not accept peace at any price. 4 In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, July 31, 2025, a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Zelensky has been adamant that Ukraine receive security guarantees, like NATO membership or nuclear weapons, to ensure Russia doesn't invade again in the future. 'It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will recognize that. That's why this conversation may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot decide anything on Ukraine without us,' Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv Tuesday. 'I hope the US president understands that and takes into account.' What Trump wants Advertisement Friday will give the president a chance to observe Putin with his own eyes to better assess whether the Russian dictator is 'tapping [him] along' with empty promises of peace, as Trump himself has occasionally suggested might be the case. 'Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go in and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' Leavitt said. 4 Various aircrafts are seen at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, United States on July 2, 2024. Anadolu via Getty Images Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly described the summit as a 'feel-out meeting, to be honest.' Advertisement 'The president talked to Putin on the phone three or four times, OK? And nothing has come of it — or at least we haven't gotten to where we want to be,' he said. 'And so the president feels like, 'Look, I've got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him.'' Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his major 2024 campaign promises, and securing a peace deal would provide a major bulwark for his foreign policy legacy. To that end, Trump is expected to raise the issue of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine to gauge Putin's reaction. The US president will also speak to European leaders ahead of Friday's meeting in addition to after the sitdown, sources familiar with the preparations say. 'The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need, but I want a meeting set up between the two leaders,' Trump said Monday. 'There'll be some land swapping.'
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Israel is in talks to possibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza in South Sudan
Advertisement 'I think that the right thing to do, even according to the laws of war as I know them, is to allow the population to leave, and then you go in with all your might against the enemy who remains there,' Netanyahu said Tuesday in an interview with i24, an Israeli TV station. He did not make reference to South Sudan. Palestinians, rights groups, and much of the international community have rejected the proposals as a blueprint for forcible expulsion in violation of international law. For South Sudan, such a deal could help it build closer ties to Israel, now the almost unchallenged military power in the Middle East. It is also a potential inroad to Trump, who broached the idea of resettling Gaza's population in February but appears to have backed away in recent months. Advertisement Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment, and South Sudan's foreign minister did not respond to questions about the talks. A US State Department spokesperson said it doesn't comment on private diplomatic conversations. Joe Szlavik, the founder of a US lobbying firm working with South Sudan, said he was briefed by South Sudanese officials on the talks. He said an Israeli delegation plans to visit the country to look into the possibility of setting up camps for Palestinians there. No known date has been set for the visit. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the visit. Szlavik said Israel would likely pay for makeshift camps. Edmund Yakani, who heads a South Sudanese civil society group, said he had also spoken to South Sudanese officials about the talks. Four additional officials with knowledge of the discussions confirmed talks were taking place on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Two of the officials, both from Egypt, told AP they've known for months about Israel's efforts to find a country to accept Palestinians, including its contact with South Sudan. They said they've been lobbying South Sudan against taking the Palestinians. Egypt The AP previously reported on similar talks initiated by Israel and the US with Sudan and Somalia, countries that are also grappling with war and hunger, and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland. The status of those discussions is not known. Szlavik, who's been hired by South Sudan to improve its relations with the United States, said the US is aware of the discussions with Israel but is not directly involved. Advertisement South Sudan wants the Trump administration to lift a travel ban on the country and remove sanctions from some South Sudanese elites, said Szlavik. It has already accepted eight individuals swept up in the administration's mass deportations, in what may have been an effort to curry favor. The Trump administration has pressured a number of countries to help facilitate deportations. 'Cash-strapped South Sudan needs any ally, financial gain and diplomatic security it can get,' said Peter Martell, a journalist and author of a book about the country, 'First Raise a Flag.' Israel's Mossad spy agency provided aid to the South Sudanese during their decades-long civil war against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum ahead of independence in 2011, according to the book. The State Department, asked if there was any quid pro quo with South Sudan, said decisions on the issuing of visas are made 'in a way that prioritizes upholding the highest standards for US national security, public safety, and the enforcement of our immigration laws.' Many Palestinians might want to leave Gaza, at least temporarily, to escape the war and a hunger crisis bordering on famine. But they have roundly rejected any permanent resettlement from what they see as an integral part of their national homeland. They fear that Israel will never allow them to return, and that a mass departure would allow it to annex Gaza and reestablish Jewish settlements there, as called for by far-right ministers in the Israeli government. Still, even those Palestinians who want to leave are unlikely to take their chances in South Sudan, among the world's most unstable and conflict-ridden countries. Advertisement South Sudan has struggled to recover from a civil war that broke out after independence, and which killed nearly 400,000 people and plunged pockets of the country into famine. The oil-rich country is plagued by corruption and relies on international aid to help feed its 11 million people — a challenge that has only grown since the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to foreign assistance. A peace deal reached seven years ago has been fragile and incomplete, and the threat of war returned when the main opposition leader was placed under house arrest this year. Palestinians in particular could find themselves unwelcome. The long war for independence from Sudan pitted the mostly Christian and animist south against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north. Yakani, of the civil society group, said South Sudanese would need to know who is coming and how long they plan to stay, or there could be hostilities due to the 'historical issues with Muslims and Arabs.' 'South Sudan should not become a dumping ground for people,' he said. 'And it should not accept to take people as negotiating chips to improve relations.'
Epoch Times
an hour ago
- Epoch Times
Trump to Hold Virtual Meeting With Zelenskyy Ahead of Summit With Putin
Karoline Leavitt said there were many locations considered for the summit with Putin but that Trump was 'honored' to host the Russian president on U.S. soil. WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump will hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, a White House official has confirmed to The Epoch Times. Vice President JD Vance will also join the meeting with Zelenskyy. The virtual meeting will come two days before Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
