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Somalia, which has been seeking to join the regional trade bloc since 2012, becomes its eight member.

Somalia was admitted into the East African Community (EAC) on Friday as the eighth member of the bloc as it seeks to expand free trade across the region.

The entry of the fragile Horn of Africa nation, which has a population of 17 million, will boost the EAC market to more than 300 million people.

“We have decided to admit the Federal Republic of Somalia under the treaty of accession,” outgoing EAC chair, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, said at a summit of the grouping in Tanzania.

Somalia – whose President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was at the summit – joined Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda in the regional bloc.

“Let us all embrace this new chapter in our history,” Mohamud’s chief economic adviser said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This moment is not just a culmination of our aspirations but a beacon of hope for a future full with possibilities and opportunities.”

The EAC, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha where the summit was taking place, was founded in 2000 and works to encourage trade by removing customs duties between member states.

It established a common market in 2010.

Excluding Somalia, combined EAC countries covered a land area of 4.8 million sq kilometres (1.8 million sq miles) and had a combined gross domestic product of $305bn, according to the bloc’s website. Total EAC trade was $78.75bn in 2022, it said.

The last member the group admitted before Somalia was the DRC, in April 2022.

Challenges

The admission of Somalia could portend more security challenges for the bloc as the country is struggling to stem a deadly rebellion by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.

After making significant progress, Somalia’s offensive against the armed group has stalled for months and raised concerns about the government’s capacity to crush the 16-year rebellion.

EAC members Kenya and Uganda contribute troops to an African Union force which was first deployed to Somalia in 2007 to crush al-Shabab.

In November last year, the EAC also sent troops into the restive east of the DRC, which had joined the bloc last year, after the resurgence of the M23 rebel group.

Mogadishu-based think tank Heritage Institute for Policy Studies said the entry of Somalia – which has been seeking to join the bloc since 2012 – was a “pivotal leap” in the EAC’s expansion across East Africa.

But it said in a report before the summit that Somalia’s “poor track record in governance, human rights and the rule of law” could hinder its smooth integration into the bloc.

The country has also been embroiled in disputes with its neighbours – Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya – sometimes leading to a breakdown in diplomatic relations. However, it has taken steps in recent years to repair regional ties.

Buenos Aires, Argentina – The upscale neighbourhood of Recoleta was pulsing with the sound of drums and chanting last month, as protesters gathered outside the Palestinian embassy in Buenos Aires to call for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza.

But amid the sea of Palestinian flags, Silvia Ferreyra gripped a different symbol of solidarity. Above her head, she held a banner depicting a blue ribbon of water trapped behind a lock and chain. Printed above the picture in large red type was the phrase, “Fuera Mekorot”.

Ferreyra, 52, had a simple message. She wanted Mekorot, Israel’s state-run water company, out of Argentina.

Since September 2022, seven Argentinian provinces have signed wide-ranging agreements granting Mekorot significant influence over how they allocate water resources.

Yet, with Israel drawing outcry for its deadly military campaign in Gaza, Argentinian activists are looking to leverage the public attention to pressure the government into cutting ties with the company.

“We are trying to [spread] the information that this is not only something completely foreign to our country, but that in our country there is a business … causing conflict in Palestine,” said Ferreyra, a longtime organiser who works in the Argentinian Chamber of Deputies’s environmental commission.

Mekorot’s future in Argentina cannot be evaluated “without taking into account the current situation and the context of the conflict there in the Gaza Strip”, she added.

“We have to discuss the origins of this conflict more deeply.”

Controlling Palestinian water resources

Though widely seen as a world leader in water management technology, Mekorot has drawn international condemnation for its policies in Gaza and the West Bank. It has controlled water supplies in the two Palestinian territories since Israel occupied them in 1967.

Though not directly named, the company’s activities were referenced in a 2022 report by United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Michael Lynk, which accused Israel of implementing a system of “apartheid” against Palestinians.

The report identified access to water as a major source of inequality.

“The utilities and services which the [Israeli] settlements enjoy — water, power, housing, access to well-paid jobs, roads and industrial investment — are far superior to those available to the Palestinians,” it explained.

The Israeli nonprofit B’Tselem also blamed “Israel’s deliberately discriminatory” policies for water shortages in the West Bank.

In an April report, B’Tselem found that only 36 percent of Palestinians in the area had running water throughout the year. There were also wide discrepancies in water usage.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank consumed an average of 247 litres (65 gallons) of water per capita each day, while Palestinians used just 82.4 (21 gallons) — limiting their ability to meet their basic needs for hydration, hygiene, sanitation and everyday chores.

“To make up for the shortage, the Palestinian Authority is forced to purchase water from Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, at a much higher cost,” the report explained.

When Israel began its military campaign last month, it used Mekorot to cut the water supply to Gaza completely, forcing residents to drink polluted water. Hospitals, meanwhile, were left without proper sanitation.

“Israel is using its strategic control over water resources on the one hand, and water distribution on the other, as a geopolitical tool and does so in highly unequal ways,” said Erik Swyngedouw, a geographer at the University of Manchester who researches the intersection of water and politics.

Mekorot did not respond to a request for comment about its humanitarian record in Gaza and the West Bank, nor about concerns over its expansion in Argentina.

International backlash

The accusations that Mekorot has contributed to the oppression of Palestinians have prompted some groups to sever ties with the Israeli water company over the past decade.

In the Netherlands, the water company Vitens announced in 2013 that it would end relations with Mekorot after consulting with the Dutch foreign ministry. The next year, in Portugal, EPAL — the company that provides water to the city of Lisbon — likewise ended a technology exchange deal over Mekorot’s actions in the Palestinian territories.

And in 2014, the Argentinian province of Buenos Aires scrapped a deal with the company to build a desalination plant after public protests.

However, Mekorot continues to enjoy partnerships around the world. Its projects range from a water system in Mexico to a desalination plant in Morocco.

Further support comes from Argentinian governmental institutions, including the Ministry of the Interior. In February, Interior Minister Eduardo de Pedro led the country’s national water authority and a public-private investment body in signing agreements to transfer control over water administration in multiple provinces to Mekorot.

With the world’s sixth-largest Jewish population, Argentina has traditionally been an ally of Israel, and the countries maintain strong bilateral relations through institutions like the Argentine-Israeli Chamber of Commerce.

As Argentina faces a historic drought, government officials have praised Mekorot for its efficiency and technological prowess, with Interior Minister de Pedro saying that Israel offers an “example” for “managing a resource as scarce as water”.

Water as a commodity

Yet organisers of “Fuera Mekorot” — the movement to expel Mekorot from Argentina — are concerned about the impact the company might have on the country.

Marta Maffei, a former deputy in the National Congress, is among those who oppose Mekorot’s expansion in Argentina. She has advocated for a law to protect water access as a basic human right.

“Why should a state enterprise that manages water as a form of social control come to Argentina?” Maffei said. “In our territories, there are also Indigenous peoples, there are poor peasant communities, who demand their water.”

Maffei’s home province of Rio Negro signed an agreement with Mekorot in February to transfer a number of responsibilities to the company, including calculating the “economic value” of water and drafting a proposal for an authority to regulate drinking water and sanitation services.

The area is already a hotspot for fracking, an industry that uses large amounts of water to extract oil and natural gas, and clashes have erupted between local groups and police over water access.

Mekorot’s representatives have indicated they would approach water as a commodity to finance future growth, a prospect that has alarmed some advocates.

“The water bill has to cover all costs plus the costs of future investment,” Diego Berger, Mekorot’s international coordinator for special projects, said in a March interview with the YouTube channel Alterrados.

The commodification of water resources, however, comes with risks, according to Swyngedouw, the Manchester University geographer.

It could have “profound negative social [and] ecological consequences for small peasants, Indigenous people and others who depend on water access for their livelihoods”, he said.

A business-based approach to water access also threatens to conflict with traditional Indigenous views.

“From the Western perspective, [water] is called a ‘resource’,” said Miriam Liempe, the Indigenous relations secretary for the Argentine Workers’ Central Union and a member of the Fuera Mekorot coalition.

“However, [Indigenous] peoples call it a brother, like something that has life — like the trees, like the birds.”

A member of the Mapuche people, Liempe said what worries her most about Mekorot is what she calls the company’s failure to consult Indigenous groups when planning water management projects.

If projects like diverting rivers lead to the displacement of Indigenous groups, Liempe said they could violate international law.

According to the International Labor Organization’s 1989 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, Indigenous peoples “shall not be removed from the lands which they occupy”, and any attempt at relocation requires “free and informed consent” from the groups involved.

Organising against Mekorot

As Mekorot continues to make advances in Argentina, Ferreyra said her organisation’s biggest obstacle has been a general lack of awareness among Argentinian people. After the war in Gaza broke out, she and other activists held a series of events about Mekorot’s activities in Argentina.

“We have been in a process of trying to establish an awareness of what Mekorot is,” Ferreyra said. “It’s not a very well-known company.”

Hasan Najjar, an Argentinian who was born in Gaza, said he only found out about Mekorot’s presence in Argentina when he attended a protest where Fuera Mekorot organisers were present. But the company’s actions did not surprise him.

“They have experience against Indigenous people, in killing us slowly, like with food and water or with bombs,” Najjar said.

Silvia Muñoz, who works at a food kitchen in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, said she heard about Mekorot for the first time at a panel discussion in the city’s historic San Telmo neighbourhood.

“It’s a business for them, but a mafia business,” Muñoz said. “It makes me concerned.”

Ferreyra believes she has made progress in raising awareness of Mekorot’s presence in Argentina. But she has no illusions that blocking the company’s business ambitions will be easy.

“We know that this is not something simple, because we understand the involvement and weight that Israel has in a lot of aspects that make up the economic life of our country,” Ferreyra said. “We still have a lot to do.”

Israel releases 39 Palestinian prisoners in exchange as part of deal that includes a four-day truce in Gaza.

The Palestinian armed group Hamas has released 24 hostages held captive in Gaza for almost seven weeks and Israel has released 39 Palestinian prisoners, hours after an Israel-Hamas truce mediated by Qatar came into effect.

Among the captives released were 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals, and one Filipino citizen, Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry in Qatar, said on Friday.

The ICRC in Israel and the occupied territories said that it transported the group of captives from Gaza to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

“We are relieved to confirm the safe release of 24 hostages,” the ICRC wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The release of the 24 captives — out of the roughly 240 taken hostage by Hamas during an assault on southern Israel on October 7 — comes after a deal between Israel and Hamas, which includes a four-day truce and exchange of captives for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, took effect.

The Israeli captaives were back in Israeli territory where they would undergo medical checks before being reunited with their families, the army said.

They included four children and six elderly women, a list issued by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed.

“Our citizens underwent an initial medical examination and their families were informed by the appointed officials that they were back,” it said in a statement.

In a video recording, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his government is committed to the return of all remaining captives.

Qatar said 39 Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli jails were released as part of the deal. Israel confirmed 39 prisoners had been released.

Qadura Fares, who heads the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club NGO, said 33 prisoners freed in the West Bank were handed to a team from the ICRC. He said the remaining six were being released from a Jerusalem prison.

Israeli forces fired tear gas at a crowd of Palestinians who had gathered for the release of the prisoners outside Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

According to the deal mediated by Qatar, Hamas will release 50 women and children, from about 240 people taken captive by the group during its assault on southern Israel on October 7.

In exchange, Israel will release a total of 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, whom Palestinians have long characterised as victims of an Israeli occupation that sweeps them into prisons with little pretence of due process.

The captives taken by Hamas on October 7 include Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as people from dozens of foreign countries. In both Israel and abroad, the families of those held captive have pleaded for their release.

Qatar’s al-Ansari said that the 10 Thai nationals and Filipino citizen were freed outside the framework of the truce deal.

Earlier on Friday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said 12 Thai nationals help in Gaza had been released.

“It has been confirmed by the security side and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 12 Thai hostages are already released,” he posted on X.

According to Thailand’s foreign ministry, about 30,000 Thais were employed in Israel, primarily in the country’s agricultural sector, at the time of the attack, in which at least 32 Thai workers were killed. Thais seeking work overseas often come to Israel under an arrangement in which they are paid minimum wage of about $2,000 a month.

After seven weeks of war, the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas began on Friday morning. Under this truce, 39 Palestinian women and children were released on Friday.

Here is what’s known about those released and those who might be released in the coming days.

Who were the prisoners released on Friday?

Of the 39 Palestinians released by Israel, 17 are minors.

They are:

• Yousef Mohammad Mustafa Ata from Ramallah
• Qusai Hani Ali Ahmad from Bethlehem
• Jibreel Ghassan Ismail Jibreel from Qalqilya
• Mohammad Ahmad Suleiman Abu Rajab from al-Khalil
• Ahmad Nu’man Ahmad Abu Na’im from Ramallah
• Baraa Bilal Mahmoud Rabee from al-Khalil
• Aban Iyad Mohammad Said Hammad from Qalqilya
• Moataz Hatem Moussa Abu Aram from al-Khalil
• Iyad Abdul Qader Mohammad Khateeb from Jerusalem
• Hazma Laith Khalil Othman Othman from Ramallah
• Mohammad Mahmoud Ayoub Dar Darwish from Ramallah
• Jamal Khalil Jamal Barahmeh from Areeha
• Jamal Yousef Jamal Abu Hamdan from Nablus
• Mohammad Anis Saleem Tarabi from Nablus
• Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahman Suleiman Rizq from Jerusalem
• Zeina Raed Abdou from Jerusalem
• Noor Mohammad Hafez al-Tahir from Nablus

Zeina and Noor are girls, the others are boys.

The remaining 22 of the Palestinians released on Friday are women. They are:

• Rawan Nafez Mohammad Abu Matar from Ramallah
• Marah Joudat Moussa Bakeer from Jerusalem
• Malak Mohammad Yousef Suleiman from Jerusalem
• Amani Khaled Nu’man Hasheem from Jerusalem
• Nihaya Khader Hussein Sawan from Jerusalem
• Fayrouz Fayez Mahmoud al-Baw from Jerusalem
• Tahreer Adnan Mohammad Abu Suriya from Nablus
• Falasteen Fareed Abdul Latif Najm from Nablus
• Walaa Khaled Fawzi Tanja from Tulkarem
• Maryam Khaled Abdul Majid Arafat from Nablus
• Asil Muneer Ibrahim al-Tayti from Nablus
• Azhar Thaer Bakr Assaf from Jerusalem
• Raghd Nashat Salah al-Fanni from Tulkarem
• Fatima Nu’man Ali Badr from Jerusalem
• Rawda Moussa Abdul Qader Abu Ujaima from Bethlehem
• Sara Ayman Abdul Aziz Abdullah al-Suweisa from Nablus
• Fatima Ismail Abdul Rahman Shahin from Bethlehem
• Samira Abdul Harbawi from Jerusalem
• Samah Bilal Abdul Rahman Souf from Qalqilya
• Fatima Bakr Moussa Abu Shalal from Nablus
• Hanan Saleh Abdullah al-Barghouthi from Ramallah
• Fatima Nasr Mohammad Amarnah from Jenin

When and how were they released?

They were transferred from Israeli prisons to the Israel-controlled Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank in the early evening.

At 8pm local time (18:00 GMT), they were released from Ofer in International Committee of the Red Cross buses.

Who might be released next?

Israel has agreed to release 150 Palestinian women and children prisoners from its jails in exchange for Hamas releasing 50 of the women and children taken captive during the October 7 attack.

But the Israeli Ministry of Justice presented a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners who it is considering for release. It is unclear whether this might be an offer for a potential second phase of exchanges since the deal allows for the extension of a pause in fighting by one day for every 10 additional captives Hamas releases.

The list of 300 comprises 33 women. The majority of the rest of the names are of boys aged 16-18. However, there are also boys as young as 14 on the list.

Most of the prisoners on the list were arrested between 2021 and 2023. The prisoners arrested in 2023 were taken before October 7.

However, it also includes individuals like Shorouq Dwayyat, who was arrested in 2015 and is serving the ninth year of her 16-year sentence. Dwayyat is currently serving the longest sentence among Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli jails.

She was 18 when she was arrested and held in the Damon prison in Haifa, accused of stabbing an Israeli settler with a knife. Her family, anxiously anticipating her release, denies these accusations. “Shorouq is delicate and cannot harm an animal,” her father, Salah Dwayyat, told Al Jazeera at the time.

Why are they in prison?

Like Dwayyat, many other prisoners have been convicted of crimes including carrying and manufacturing knives and daggers. Other common offences detailed in Israel’s list include:

• threatening security
• illegally entering Israel without a permit
• throwing stones
• supporting terrorism
• associating with hostile/unknown organisations.

“The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone-throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children,” said a report published in July by children’s rights organisation, Save the Children.

Israeli publication Haaretz reported that Israel has refused to release people convicted of murder but those convicted of attempted murder could be released.

Where will the Palestinian prisoners go after their release?

Under the deal, Palestinian prisoners will be taken from two Israeli prisons southeast of Haifa, namely Damon and Megiddo. They will then be taken to Israel’s military Ofer prison.

There, they will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross and after they are received, “the ones from Jerusalem will go to Jerusalem, and the ones from the West Bank will gather in Betunia municipal council where their families will be waiting”, added Fares.

Israel has barred celebrations in Palestinian communities over the return of prisoners.

How many Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli jails?

There are 19 prisons within Israel and one inside the occupied West Bank holding Palestinian prisoners.

Before October 7, there were about 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli custody. However, following the Hamas attack of October 7, the number of Palestinians arrested skyrocketed and 3,000 more were arrested.

Of those arrested after October 7, 37 are journalists. Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association Addameer reported that most of these journalists were subjected to administrative detention, which means they are held indefinitely behind bars without facing trial or charges.

Addameer also reported that the detainees are subjected to physical violence and medical negligence in prisons. The report cited an example of a prisoner who suffers from blood disease and asthma. The prisoner was assaulted, resulting in wounds and bruises on his head and eyes. The association reported that this prisoner has lost 10kg since his arrest.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been in Israeli jails for more than 30 years, since before the Oslo Accords were signed. The term “deans of prisoners” is sometimes locally used to refer to them, reported Samidoun, an international Palestinian prisoner solidarity network.

At least 700 Palestinian children under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army.

Children in Israeli detention often suffer physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and some are deprived of food, water and sleep, according to Save the Children.

Hamas has released a group of 10 Thai nationals and one citizen from the Philippines who were being held in Gaza, as part of a separate agreement to the one between Israel and the Palestinian group that saw Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being freed.

Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson of the foreign ministry in Qatar – which has played a key mediating role – said on Friday that the Thai nationals and Filipino were among a total of 24 captives who were released.

The Thai nationals, he said, were “currently on their way out of the strip” with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

They were not covered by the truce deal between Hamas and Israel, and Qatar and Egypt mediated a separate deal with Hamas, Thai officials said.

That negotiation track was opened when Thailand’s foreign minister visited Qatar on October 31, which led to a specific agreement with Hamas to release the Thais, the officials added. Thai nationals were the single biggest group of foreigners taken captive.

But Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin posted earlier on X that he had received confirmation of the release of 12 nationals and that Thai embassy officials were to pick them up.

The group was brought to Rafah and then to the Karem Abu Salem crossing, called Kerem Shalom by Israel, east of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. They were transported to a processing point at the Hatzerim Air Force base and were to be taken to the Shamir Medical Centre, southeast of Tel Aviv.

“At this time, the gender and names of these Thais are not known,” the ministry statement said.

Apart from Qatar and Egypt, the ministry also thanked Israel, Iran, Malaysia and the ICRC.

Iran and Thailand maintain friendly relations and prominent members of Thailand’s Muslim minority made unofficial trips to Tehran to seek the captives’ freedom, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara had said that his Iranian counterpart, who was serving as Thailand’s intermediary with Hamas, had told him there would be “good news soon”, the report said.

At least 23 Thai workers are believed to be among the estimated 240 people who were taken captive by Hamas during the October 7 attack.

An additional 32 Thai workers were killed in the attack in southern Israel.

According to the Thai ministry, some 30,000 Thais were employed mainly in Israel’s agricultural sector at the time of the attack. More than 8,600 Thai workers have been voluntarily repatriated since then.

Under an agreement with Israel, Thai workers are paid a minimum wage of 5,300 shekels a month ($2,000), six or seven times more than they earn at home.

Qatar has led weeks of intense negotiations, coordinating with the United States and Egypt, to reach an agreement for the freeing of 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a brief truce and access to humanitarian aid.

Thirteen Israelis, including dual nationals, were released by Hamas on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that the captive release deal would not spell the end of the war, saying Israel would continue its push to “eliminate” Hamas.

Benny Gantz, a part of Israel’s war cabinet, reiterated at a solidarity rally for the families of captives in Tel Aviv that the army will resume fighting after the humanitarian pause.

“I want to assure the families of all the hostages: We will not stop. We will resume the efforts and the military action in Gaza to retrieve the hostages and restore deterrence,” Gantz said.

In his first statement since the Israeli captives were released, Netanyahu said that their return was “one of the aims of the war and we are committed to achieving all the aims of the war”.