Latest news with #Hamas.Hamas
Deccan Herald
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Trump says Hamas will release US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander
US President Donald Trump on Monday said in a post on Truth Social that Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander will be released by Palestinian militant group said earlier that it would release Alexander.
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Edan Alexander: Hamas says it has lost contact with US-Israeli hostage in Gaza
Hamas says it has "lost contact" with the group of fighters holding an Israeli-American hostage captive in Gaza following an Israeli strike on their 21-year-old soldier, Edan Alexander, has appeared in videos released by the group in recent days. Israel had asked for him to be released on day one of a new 45-day ceasefire proposal put forward last week which has been rejected by on Tuesday did not indicate when contact had been lost and has not produced any evidence for their claim. Israel regularly asserts it avoids hitting locations where it believes hostages are being held. "We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement."We are still trying to reach them at this moment," he the 251 hostages taken during Hamas' 2023 attack, 59 remain in the enclave, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Five of the hostages in Gaza are believed to be US citizens and Alexander was thought to be the only one still later on Tuesday also released a video addressed to the families of the remaining hostages, warning that they would return in coffins if Israel continued its military offensive in Saturday, Hamas had released a video of Alexander alive in which he pleads for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump to negotiate his appeared to be speaking under duress as he criticised the Israeli was part of an Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire that would involve "the release of half of the hostages in the first week of the agreement," a Hamas official told AFP. The official said the proposal called for Alexander's release on the first day as a "gesture of goodwill".A two-month ceasefire at the start of the year saw Hamas release 33 hostages in return for the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and aid and goods entering the negotiations for a second phase unravelled, Israel resumed its offensive on 18 in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, Alexander served in an elite infantry unit on the border with Gaza when he was captured by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack. His father, Adi Alexander, had questioned Netanyahu's actions in an interview on Monday with US outlet NewsNation, asking: "How do you plan to get hostages out without ending this war and without committing to the second phase of this deal?"Hamas has said it is ready to return all of those still held captive in exchange for a complete end to hostilities and full Israeli withdrawal from Tuesday, the group rejected Israel's proposal for a renewed ceasefire because it called for their disarmament and it did not commit to Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza or an end to the war.A senior Palestinian official told the BBC: "The Israeli proposal relayed to the movement through Egypt explicitly called for the disarmament of Hamas without any Israeli commitment to end the war or withdraw from Gaza. Hamas therefore rejected the offer in its entirety." Since Israel restarted its offensive in Gaza, at least 1,630 people have been killed - bringing the total killed in 18 months of war to 51,000, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health war was triggered by the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
BBC News
11-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Mahmoud Khalil: US judge to rule on Columbia student's deportation
A Louisiana judge will later determine whether Columbia University campus activist Mahmoud Khalil can be released from custody. The judge is expected to decide at the hearing whether the 30-year-old green card holder can be deported or whether he must be freed from detention. Mr Khalil has been in custody since 8 March, when he was told by US immigration officers he was being deported for taking part in campus protests against the war in Gaza and the New York City university's investment ties to lawyer has accused the US government of trying to silence people over speech it doesn't support, arguing it has not presented evidence to justify his arrest. On Thursday, the Columbia graduate's legal team released a two-page undated memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which he said Mr Khalil's presence in the US could jeopardise "US policy to combat antisemitism" around the world and domestically. The memo was submitted as part of the Trump administration's court filing in the in the week, Judge Jamee Comans had said she would terminate the case unless the government showed its evidence supporting Mr Khalil's removal, with a hearing set for Friday afternoon. In the memo, Rubio said moves to deport him were also to "protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States" even if his activities were "otherwise lawful".But lawyer Marc Van Der Hout said no evidence of antisemitism has been presented."What is it? Is it the criticising of Israel and the USA of the slaughter in Gaza? That's what this case is really about."The rights of people in this country - immigrants and citizens - are to be able to speak out no matter what their views may be," he said. "Popular or not, free speech is what this country is about." Mr Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has strongly denied his pro-Palestinian stance includes antisemitic beliefs or support for has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Khalil was a prominent voice at Columbia University's protests against the war in Gaza last year. Rather than accusing Mr Khalil of breaking US laws, the administration has cited a 1952 law that empowers the government to order someone deported if their presence in the country could pose unfavourable consequences for American foreign policy. Mr Khalil is being held at the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center, four hours from New Orleans. His lawyer says he's in good spirits "and plans to fight this until the bitter end".A judge recently decided that the legal battle over his deportation will play out in a New Jersey courtroom because that's the state where he was held when his lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition demanding his that ruling moves his case to New Jersey, he is still physically in Louisiana and has been for more than a month. He was the first of several students in the US to be targeted this month as part of Trump's deportation agenda.
