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Arab News
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Efforts ongoing to release more Gaza hostages this week: Israeli, Palestinian sources
A Palestinian source said 'a proposal was presented by the mediators in recent days' for Gaza militants 'to deliver the bodies of several Israeli prisoners before Friday''The mediators are continuing their efforts as they aim for this step to create a positive atmosphere'JERUSALEM: Efforts were underway to secure the release this week of all remaining living hostages eligible to be freed from Gaza under the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, an Israeli official source said the 33 hostages set to be freed under phase one of the deal, 19 have already been released and Israel says eight are dead. That leaves just six living hostages slated for release in the current Prime Minister Benjamin 'Netanyahu is making tremendous efforts to release all six remaining living hostages' this week, and to secure the bodies of four others, the Israeli official source told AFP.A Palestinian source close to the negotiations said that 'a proposal was presented by the mediators in recent days' for Gaza militants 'to deliver the bodies of several Israeli prisoners before Friday, and to increase the number' of living captives to be released during the seventh hostage-prisoner swap on Saturday.'The mediators are continuing their efforts as they aim for this step to create a positive atmosphere, insisting on the continuation of the ceasefire and the implementation of the agreement,' the Palestinian source fragile truce took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on the first phase of the ceasefire began, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian Minister Gideon Saar said Tuesday that Israel would begin negotiations 'this week' on the second phase of the truce, which aims to lay out a more permanent end to the war.
Arab News
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday marked 20 years since former prime minister Rafic Hariri's assassination, with seismic political changes underway that have weakened Hezbollah and its backers and could herald a comeback for Hariri's son Hariri, a towering political figure who oversaw Lebanon's reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war, had recently resigned as premier when he was killed on February 14, 2022, a UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for the massive suicide bombing that killed him and 21 others, though the group has refused to hand them son Saad, who served three times as prime minister, is based in the United Arab Emirates but has again returned for the annual time, he is back in a changed commemoration comes days before the deadline for implementing a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, which ended more than a year of hostilities that weakened the have mounted for the fragile truce after Beirut rejected Israel's demand to remain in five southern locations after the February 18 Hezbollah still carries weight, with supporters Thursday blocking the airport road after two Iranian planes were barred from landing.A day earlier, Israel's army had accused Iran of sending funds to arm the group through the Beirut Friday morning, a few thousand Hariri supporters carrying Lebanese flags gathered near his father's burial site in downtown Beirut.'For the first time in 20 years, our joy is double: first because the Syrian regime fell... and second because Sheikh Saad is among us,' homemaker Diana Al-Masri, 52, told AFP.A source close to Hariri said he was due to give a speech addressing developments 'in Lebanon and the region,' though he may not resume political activities right away.'His supporters are calling on him to return to political life,' said the source, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the early 2022, Hariri was the main Sunni Muslim leader in a country where political power is shared along sectarian enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri's relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated because of his conciliatory attitude toward 2017, Hariri resigned as premier in a shock address from Riyadh, citing Iran's 'grip' on Lebanon through Hezbollah and prompting accusations he was being held against his President Emmanuel Macron had to intervene to secure his return to Lebanon, where Hariri rescinded his resigned again as prime minister after nationwide protests in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon's political a tearful 2022 announcement, he said he had suspended his political activities and those of his party, citing 'Iranian influence' among other source told AFP that all these reasons had now 'vanished.'For decades, Hezbollah was Lebanon's dominant political force, but its arsenal and leadership were decimated during its war with Israel, while Syrian ally Bashar Assad's ouster cut the group's vital arms supply lines.'New chance'In January, former army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president after a more than two-year was widely seen as the United States and Saudi Arabia's preferred month, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who had been presiding judge at the International Criminal Court, formed a government. On Friday, Salam visited Rafic Hariri's tomb to pay his respects.'Lebanon has been given a new chance as Iranian influence is declining and the international community has returned,' the source has recently retaken an interest in Lebanese politics after distancing itself for years over Hezbollah's influence.'Saudi Arabia seeks a strong, organized Sunni leadership,' said Imad Salamey, head of the International and Political Studies Department at the Lebanese American University.'If (Saad) Hariri can present himself as that figure, his return would serve both his interests and those of the kingdom.'His father's assassination anniversary 'will serve as an opportunity to assess his ability to mobilize support and reassert his leadership within the Sunni community,' Salamey was thrust into the political limelight following his father's murder, widely attributed to Damascus and Hezbollah at the time, which triggered massive protests that drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years of Hariri was a billionaire and the architect of Lebanon's reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil meanwhile, is desperate to prove it has not lost ground to political the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers stranded in Iran using two Middle East Airlines on Friday a source from the national carrier told AFP that Tehran had denied them permission to land in a tit-for-tat has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon's only airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims the group and Lebanese officials have denied, with the army reinforcing security measures there in past months.
BBC News
11-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
DR Congo conflict: Rebels attack army ending lull in fighting
The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have attacked Congolese government forces in the South Kivu province, breaking a two-day lull in shelling began on Tuesday morning, three days after a summit of East and Southern African leaders called for an immediate and unconditional rebels have seized vast swathes of land in the eastern DR Congo, including the major city of Goma. They are now pushing towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu - another key city in the region. Around 2,900 people have been killed since early January as a result of the hostilities, the latest UN figures 700,000 others are estimated to have been forced from their homes and thousands more DR Congo rebel leader whose fighters have created turmoilWhat's the fighting in DR Congo all about?Tuesday's fighting erupted near Ihusi, a locality around 70km (43 miles) from Bukavu and 40km from the South Kivu's airport, security sources told news agency AFP.A spokesperson for the Congo River Alliance (known by its French acronym AFC), an alliance of rebel groups including the M23, suggested its fighters could take their battle to Kanyuka responded to the arrests by the Congolese authorities of 84 army personnel for crimes such as killing civilians near Bukavu, saying: "If these crimes persist, we will take full responsibility to eradicate the threat at its source and protect our people".Meanwhile, reports say that hundreds and thousands of refugees, who have fled the ongoing fighting, were being forced to return home by the M23 has denied this allegation, but French broadcaster RFI reported that several large camps for displaced people have been dismantled and their inhabitants made to trek back to their villages in conflict the UN's humanitarian agency, said the M23 had given displaced people in Goma 72 hours to return to Kanyuka said such reports were "propaganda" and that displaced people were returning voluntarily. The M23 "does not compel anyone to return without firm security guarantees", he M23, which is made up of ethnic Tutsis, say they are fighting for minority rights, while DR Congo's government says the rebels are seeking control of the eastern region's vast mineral Congo and the UN accused Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated government of backing the M23 - an allegation which Kigali has persistently denied. But recently, the official response has shifted, with government spokespeople stating that fighting near its border is a security threat. You may also be interested in: Who's pulling the strings in the DR Congo crisis?The evidence that shows Rwanda is backing rebels in DR CongoDR Congo's failed gamble on Romanian mercenaries Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Arab News
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
DR Congo conflict advances as UN warns of regional escalation
M23 and Rwandan troops seized the city of Goma last week and are now pushing into the neighboring South Kivu provinceA Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this weekBUKAVU, DR Congo: The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group was threatening another key town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday as the United Nations warned that the risk of violence spreading regionally had 'never been higher.'M23 and Rwandan troops seized the city of Goma last week and are now pushing into the neighboring South Kivu have died and huge numbers displaced as they have overtaken swathes of the mineral-rich region, routing DRC troops and their allies in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in eastern forces were bracing for an assault on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying its troops, according to security, humanitarian and local is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where residents were also on edge.'We see some people starting to flee,' resident Aganze Byamungu told AFP.A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes.'The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It's total chaos,' they President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to attend a summit in Tanzania on Saturday as regional powers try to defuse the UN Human Rights Council met in Geneva on Friday to decide on investigating abuses committed in the rights chief Volker Turk warned 'the risk of violence escalating throughout the sub-region has never been higher.'If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country's borders,' he said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that final tolls would likely be much also said his team is 'currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.'Also on Friday, a Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this Goma, where the M23 has already installed its own mayor and authorities, the group convened tens of thousands of people on Thursday for a public meeting of the River Congo Alliance, a political-military coalition that includes the head of the alliance, Corneille Nangaa, told the crowd that the group wants to 'liberate all of the Congo.'Young people at the meeting in the city's packed stadium chanted 'Go to Kinshasa!,' the DRC's capital on the other side of the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western DRC issued an international arrest warrant for Nangaa on the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, the DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have latest peace summit in Tanzania brings together the eight-country East African Community and 16-member South African Development was set to start with a ministerial meeting on Friday, before the arrival of Kagame, Tshisekedi and other regional leaders on Saturday.A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda has 'de facto' control over the M23, alongside some 4,000 of its own troops in the conflict report also accused Kigali of profiting from smuggling minerals from the DRC — particularly coltan used in phones and laptops, as well as denies direct involvement and accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
