الكاتب: kafej

More than 200 people are thought to have been taken to Gaza after Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that only “minor” challenges remain to a deal to release some of the more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza after Hamas’s attack on Israel last month.

Sheikh Mohammed, a former foreign minister, gave few additional details or a timeline.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared to the bigger challenges. They are more logistical; they are more practical,” he told a joint press conference with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Qatar has been acting as an intermediary in negotiations to free those taken captive in Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which at least 1,200 people were killed.

After the attack, Israel launched a relentless air and ground campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip, bombarding the densely-populated territory in an effort to destroy Hamas. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the weeks since.

Borrell, who was due to meet Qatar’s emir before travelling to Jordan, called for the “unconditional release” of all captives and condemned Hamas for the attack.

“There’s no hierarchy between horrors, one horror doesn’t justify another horror,” he said, urging an end to the escalating violence and the creation of “sustainable peace” in the region.

The Reuters news agency reported on November 15 that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 captives in return for a three-day ceasefire that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.

At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed, but that Israel was still negotiating details.

On Saturday, the Washington Post newspaper reported a tentative agreement had been reached to free the women and children among the captives in exchange for a pause in fighting.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said all parties would halt combat operations for at least five days with the captives to be released in small groups.

The US newspaper’s report was denied by the White House, which said discussions on a deal were continuing. On Sunday, United States President Joe Biden told reporters he was not in a position to say when the captives might be freed. “I want to make sure they’re out and then I’ll tell you,” he said at an event in Virginia.

Sheikh Mohammed said on Sunday that such reports were “counterproductive” and that the negotiating process went through ups and downs.

“I think that I’m now more confident that we are close enough to reach a deal that can bring the people safely back to their homes,” he said.

The talks are continuing as Israel prepares to expand its ground offensive against Hamas into Gaza’s southern half.

The US, Israel’s main ally, has urged caution, as Gaza’s 2.3 million people struggle to find anywhere safe to stay out of the line of fire.

The civilian death toll in Gaza was “staggering and unacceptable,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday as he renewed his appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Israel has so far refused all calls for a ceasefire.

French president spoke to Israeli prime minister as Paris prepared more humanitarian aid for Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were “too many civilian losses” in Israel’s war in Gaza, as Paris readied more humanitarian aid for the besieged enclave.

Israel has said it wants to destroy the Palestinian armed group after it killed about 1,200 people and took hundreds more captive in a surprise assault on October 7.

More than 13,000 people in Gaza, some 70 percent of them women and children according to the United Nations, have been killed in the air and land offensive. Hospitals, schools and refugee settlements have also come under sustained attack.

According to a statement from Macron’s office on Sunday, the French president reminded Netanyahu of the “absolute necessity to distinguish terrorists from the population” and “the importance of achieving an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire”.

Macron also condemned violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, the statement said. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed there since Israel began its war in Gaza.

The French leader told Netanyahu about his “great concern over the escalation in violence against Palestinian civilians” in the occupied West Bank and called for calm.

Macron also spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is from the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank.

He told Abbas of “the need for the Palestinian Authority and all countries in the region to unequivocally and with the greatest firmness condemn the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7”.

Earlier on Sunday, Macron announced new humanitarian assistance for Gaza where there are growing fears of starvation.

The president said France would send an aircraft with more than 10 tonnes of medical supplies at the start of the week, and will contribute to European Union medical aid flights on November 23 and 30.

It is also preparing a second hospital ship, the helicopter carrier Dixmude, which will arrive in Egypt in the coming days.

The French helicopter carrier – the Tonnerre, which has about 60 beds and two operating theatres – has already been deployed to the region.

The statement added that “France is mobilising all its available means to contribute to the evacuation of wounded and sick children requiring emergency care from the Gaza Strip to its hospitals”.

Macron said later on X, formerly Twitter, that up to 50 children could be flown for treatment in hospitals in France “if useful and necessary”.

Earlier this month, French planes delivered 54 tonnes of aid for Gaza via Egypt.

Gaza is on the “precipice of major disease outbreaks”, the World Health Organisation has said

With 800,000 people crammed into overcrowded schools and other “collective centres”, skin infections including scabies are being found, along with jaundice and diarrhoea, the WHO said.

There is one toilet for several hundred people and “open defecation”, regional emergency director Richard Brennan told Sky News.

Follow latest: 31 babies evacuated from al Shifa are ‘threatened by serious infections’

While the schools were designed to accept displaced people, their populations are six to eight times what they were intended to cater for. Others are living in tents.

Each person has one to three litres of clean water per day, when the accepted minimum in a humanitarian crisis is seven litres, Mr Brennan said.

There are “chest infections, respiratory infections”, while cases of jaundice “give concern for hepatitis”.

He added: “We could be on the precipice of major disease outbreaks. Putting in disease control efforts in these overcrowded, unsanitary contexts is incredibly difficult.”

Of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 22 are out of action, Mr Brennan said, adding that before the conflict began, 3,500 beds were available. Now, it is down to 1,400.

Many families are subsisting on one meal a day. In addition, colder weather is on the way.

“The next few weeks are going to be very tough indeed,” Mr Brennan added.

Referring to the 31 premature babies evacuated from al Shifa hospital and taken to southern Gaza, Mr Brennan said they were likely to travel on to Egypt in the next day or two, depending on their condition.

While Mr Brennan described it as “one of the few good news stories of the war so far”, he added: “We don’t know where any of the parents are, how many of them are orphans.”

Many are very low in weight, they all have serious infections and 11 are classed as in a critical condition.

The WHO is working with authorities to try to trace their parents.

Hamas could release a significant number of Israeli hostages “in coming days”, Israel’s ambassador to the US has said.

Around 240 hostages were taken during Hamas’s deadly cross-border assault into Israel on 7 October, which prompted Israel to invade Gaza in an attempt to wipe out the militant group.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas “in coming days”.

Israel-Hamas latest: Israel claims Hamas ‘hid and murdered hostages’ at al Shifa hospital

His comments came after Qatar’s prime minister said only “very minor” details remained in a deal between Israel and Hamas.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al Thani said mainly “practical and logistical” issues remained, while a White House official said the “very complicated, very sensitive” negotiations were making progress.

Last week Reuters reported Qatari moderators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in exchange for a three-day ceasefire which would help boost emergency aid shipments to civilians in Gaza.

Hamas has released four hostages, Israel has rescued one and the bodies of two have been found near al Shifa hospital, where there had been heavy fighting.

On Saturday a senior White House official suggested a hostage release would need to be completed before large amounts of desperately needed aid could enter Gaza.

“A release of a large number of hostages would result in a significant pause in fighting … and a massive surge of humanitarian relief,” Brett McGurk, the White House’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East, said.

Read more:
Gaza on verge of major disease outbreak, WHO warns
What IDF footage from al Shifa tells us about Hamas’s alleged presence
Families of Israeli hostages plead for help from Netanyahu

More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, struggling to provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in and around schools and other facilities.

Their plight has worsened in recent days with the arrival of winter.

Over the weekend Israel allowed UNRWA to import enough fuel to continue humanitarian operations for another couple of days and to keep internet and telephone systems running.

The talks come as Israel prepares to expand its offensive against Hamas to Gaza’s southern half, with increasing airstrikes hitting targets Israel sees as lairs of armed militants.

However, the US has cautioned Israel not to embark on combat operations in the south until military planners have taken into account the safety of Palestinian civilians.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government said at least 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments, with another 2,700 reported missing and believed to have been buried under the rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants – Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.

Around 1,200 Israelis have been killed, mainly civilians murdered during Hamas’s 7 October attack. The military says 52 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

The civilian death toll in Gaza was “staggering and unacceptable”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, appealing again on Sunday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy is making Labour’s first visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the war erupted and stressed “diplomacy is how we can secure the release of hostages” while protecting Palestinians.

“Hard diplomacy is required with all governments in the region to deliver a longer pause immediately to respond to the shocking humanitarian emergency in Gaza, secure the release of hostages so cruelly taken by Hamas and as a necessary step to an enduring cessation of violence,” he said.

نشرت في: 20/11/2023 – 01:58

2 دقائق

توفيت روزالين كارتر، زوجة الرئيس الأسبق جيمي كارتر، الأحد عن عمر ناهز 96 عاما في منزلها في ولاية جورجيا الجنوبية، وفق ما أعلن مركز كارتر الذي أسسته مع زوجها.

واشتهرت روزالين كارتر بعد خروجها من البيت الأبيض بنشاطها في الدفاع عن حقوق الإنسان والديمقراطية وقضايا الصحة، خاصة الصحة العقلية في جميع أنحاء العالم، مع الحفاظ على صورتها العامة بوصفها امرأة متواضعة.

وكانت قد انضمت إلى زوجها الجمعة لتلقي رعاية تلطيفية في المنزل الذي عاشا فيه منذ الستينات، وذلك بعد تشخيص إصابتها بداء الخرف في أيار/مايو.

وقال مركز كارتر في بيان: “توفيت السيدة الأولى السابقة روزالين كارتر، المناصرة بحماسة للصحة العقلية وتقديم الرعاية وحقوق المرأة، الأحد (…) في منزلها في بلاينز، جورجيا، عن عمر ناهز 96 عاما”.

وأضاف البيان: “لقد ماتت بسلام، وكانت عائلتها بجانبها”.

وقال جيمي كارتر في البيان: “كانت روزالين شريكتي في كل ما أنجزته على الإطلاق”.

وكانت روزالين في قلب الحياة السياسية الطويلة لجيمي كارتر، خاصة خلال حملاته الانتخابية. وبمجرد وصولها إلى البيت الأبيض عام 1977 وحتى عام 1981، برزت كسيدة أولى للعب دور سياسي.

وذكر موقع البيت الأبيض الإلكتروني أنها “كانت تحضر اجتماعات مجلس الوزراء والإحاطات الإعلامية الرئيسية، وكثيرا ما مثلت الرئيس في المناسبات الاحتفالية، وعملت مبعوثة شخصية للرئيس إلى دول أمريكا اللاتينية”.

ولدت روزالين كارتر في بلدة بلاينز الصغيرة في 18 آب/أغسطس 1927، وكانت البكر بين أربعة أبناء. توفي والدها عندما كانت في الثالثة عشرة من عمرها، وعملت مع والدتها في مهنة الخياطة لتحصيل معيشتها.

التقت جيمي كارتر عام 1945 عندما كانت في الجامعة، وكان هو في إجازة من الأكاديمية البحرية الأميركية في أنابوليس وتزوجا عام 1946.

ووفقا لمركز كارتر، فإن السيدة الأولى السابقة لديها أربعة أبناء و11 حفيدا و14 من أبناء الأحفاد، وفقدت حفيدا عام 2015.

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