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Belfast, Northern Ireland – Juan Manuel Santos, who served as Colombia’s president between 2010 and 2018, was and remains a key figure in the country’s ongoing conflict resolution process.

He was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for, the committee said, his “resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people”.

Santos oversaw the 2016 peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government, concluding the armed conflict.

Al Jazeera interviewed Santos at the One Young World 2023 summit last month in Belfast, to speak about the lessons learned in Colombia from Northern Ireland’s peace process and where transitional justice efforts stand respectively in the two territories.

Al Jazeera: What significance does the Northern Ireland peace process have for the conflict resolution efforts you have spearheaded in Colombia?

Juan Manuel Santos: The peace process here was in a way an inspiration for us. It was a conflict that had lasted for so many years and finally ended.

I copied other aspects of the Northern Ireland peace agreement – for example, the back-channelling and the confidentiality at the beginning. With the help of international advisers who were not engaged in the day-to-day of Colombian politics, I said, “This is what we must do.” And that blueprint was extremely, extremely useful.

But we also learned what not to do. For example, the Northern Ireland peace agreement did not give importance to implementation. And I think we learned that we should – that’s why we included implementation as a specific point in the Colombian peace process.

Another thing that was not done here, which we did do in Colombia, was putting victims at the centre of negotiations. If you do this – their rights to justice, their rights to the truth, their rights to justice and non-repetition – that helps tremendously the process of healing the wounds of war that has been going on for so long.

Today, you see generals of the Colombian military facing victims and admitting that they committed war crimes and crimes against humanity – that they killed their sons, without any reason. And to see that! People thought that would never happen, but it is happening right now.

Part of the tensions that are still present here in Northern Ireland, 25 years after, is because you did not do what we did in Colombia. We’re going through this very difficult process at the moment of trying to heal the wounds created by so many years of war. It’s not an easy task, but it’s a necessary one if you want a sustainable peace in the long run.

Al Jazeera: This has been brought into sharp focus here by the British government’s new Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. How have you viewed developments around it?

Santos: That’s one of the consequences of not having a transitional justice system like the one we have in Colombia. We built that in order precisely to avoid the problems you are having here, 25 years later, with the British government.

It has been trying to pass a law that will give [an effective] amnesty to the people responsible for war crimes – for many people this is, of course, unacceptable. If you had had a transitional justice [structure or framework ], these types of problems would not appear 25 years later.

The Colombian peace process is the only peace process in the world where the two [warring] parties agreed to create a special tribunal and to submit to it. Usually, it is a tribunal that is imposed from the outside – by the United Nations, or whatever [body] – but never had two parties created their own process [transitional justice mechanism] and submitted to it in this way.

The international community is less and less prone to accepting amnesties for war criminals and crimes against humanity – this can appear to make peace deals harder to apply, but it makes sense when you come to try and heal the wounds, a fundamental part of any peace process.

Al Jazeera: Where is the Colombian peace process poised now? 

Santos: Unfortunately, my successor [Ivan Duque Marquez] – who was against the peace process – dragged his feet in the implementation of the peace process. This was very damaging and had there been an earlier implementation with the FARC, the much-needed process of healing our society’s wounds would have got under way much faster.

The president of this new government [Gustavo Petro] has promised that he will implement the peace process, and I hope he does. Because his idea of building what he calls “total peace” has to be done using the peace process that was signed with the FARC as a necessary condition. Without doing that, his efforts will fail.

So what I hope – and what I’m asking for – is to accelerate the implementation of the peace process that was signed several years ago. Because that would give him the legitimacy and the credibility to build on that process.

If he thinks he can build a new peace process without implementing what has already been [agreed and] signed, then he will fail.

The Colombian peace process was probably the most ambitious peace process ever signed, and it’s been described [externally] in those terms. We did not only address the DDR – demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration – but we also addressed the causes of the conflict. We went much further to negotiate, for example, agrarian reform that this government is trying to put in place and that the last government put on hold. We went much further to try to find a solution to the drug-trafficking problem – which the last government also put on hold and we’re still suffering the consequences of that. We even had an ethnic chapter, a gender chapter – which has not been implemented fully yet.

If you do all of that, it is a marvellous programme for any government. So, if the Petro administration simply does [all of] that, he will be considered a good president when they finish. But if he, in a way, concentrates on his [idea of] “total peace” at the expense of what has been [agreed and] signed [already], then he will be in trouble.

This interview was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

At least three killed in a drone strike on the Jenin refugee camp, while dozens of Israeli tanks pushed into the city.

A number of hospitals were surrounded and at least five people were killed as Israeli forces launched a major raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The attacks, launched overnight and lasting into Friday, also left at least 14 others injured, according to Palestinian sources. The raid on the Ibn Sina Hospital has ended after several hours.

The five that died were killed by a drone strike on the Jenin refugee camp. Air strikes have become more regular in the West Bank as the war in Gaza rages.

Emergency services were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the injured, potentially placing lives at risk, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

From about 10.30pm on Thursday, the Israeli army pushed at least 80 military vehicles into the city of Jenin, raiding Palestinian homes and detaining several people. There were reports of violent clashes.

“Dozens of armoured vehicles turned up, with bulldozers as well, damaging cars, damaging the roads,” reported Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat from occupied East Jerusalem. The raid lasted for about eight hours.

At least four hospitals were surrounded by Israeli soldiers.

“Israeli forces turned up at Ibn Sina Hospital, one of the biggest in the occupied West Bank. They turned up in a raid where they asked medical staff to put their hands up and evacuate the hospital,” Khairat said.

A number of doctors from the hospital refused to comply and evacuate; two paramedics were arrested, she added.

“It is important to note that this happened in Jenin refugee camp where clashes have been intense almost daily … But the nature of this particular raid is quite incredible, really. Not just it being a hospital but the way the Israeli forces are coming in,” Khairat continued.

The Israeli military said that it had exchanged fire with Palestinian fighters, who then used ambulances to flee towards Ibn Sina Hospital “in order to hide there”. One Palestinian fighter was arrested at the entrance of the medical facility, the army said.

Tensions have been high across the West Bank since Israel launched its war on Hamas on October 7, which has killed at least 11,500 people in the Gaza Strip.

Wafa also reported that Israeli forces raided several homes in the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, and arrested at least 28 people on Friday.

On Thursday, three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers after opening fire at a checkpoint in the West Bank. One Israeli soldier was killed in the attack, according to Israeli officials.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Ramallah in the West Bank, said such attacks using small arms and explosives have increased in recent weeks amid mounting anger over civilian deaths in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

“As Israel continues to turn up the heat, turn up the pressure on Palestinian communities, people are beginning to push back,” he said.

Since October 7, 203 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids in the West Bank.

An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude has struck the Philippines.

The tremor occurred at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles) in the Mindanao region, according to scientists.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no tsunami was expected from the offshore quake, but there was the threat of damage and aftershocks.

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Drop by disappearing drop, water is an ever more precious resource on Mayotte, the poorest place in the European Union.

Taps flow just one day out of three in this French territory off Africa’s eastern coast, thanks to a drawn-out drought compounded by years of underinvestment and mismanagement.

Diseases like cholera and typhoid are on the rebound, and the French army recently intervened to distribute water and quell tensions over supplies.

The crisis is a wake-up call to the French government about the challenges and cost of managing human-caused climate change across France’s far-flung territories.

Racha Mousdikoudine, a 38-year-old mother of two living in Labattoir, washes dishes with bottled water, when she can get it. When the water taps run, she says, “I have to choose between taking a shower or preserving my water supply.

“This shortage will be global in a few years. This is an opportunity for all French people to stand in solidarity with us. To be with us, to find solutions and make visible the situation happening in Mayotte,” Mousdikoudine said. “Because this can happen in all French departments.”

She is helping coordinate a protest movement called “Mayotte is Thirsty,” which is demanding accountability for alleged embezzlement, leaks and lack of investment in sustainable water supplies.

At one recent protest, residents sang, shouted and banged empty plastic bottles as they marched into the Mayotte water management company.

“It is important to keep talking with the authorities, but we are not going to sit idly by,” said Mousdikoudine. “If we stay at home, politicians will still say that the population is resilient, that we can manage this situation. But we cannot do it. Lives are at stake, our physical and mental health, as well as our children’s lives.”

The Israeli military is doing all it can to get civilians out of harm’s way amid its war in Gaza, but its attempts to minimise casualties are “not successful,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader’s comments came after he was asked by US television channel CBS News on Thursday whether the killing of thousands of Palestinians in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas would fuel hatred in a new generation.

“Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way,” Netanyahu said.

“So, we send leaflets, [we] call them on their cell phones, and we say: ‘leave’. And many have left,” Netanyahu said.

The same day, Israel’s air force dropped leaflets in parts of south Gaza telling people to evacuate for their own safety.

It was not clear where they were supposed to evacuate to as Israel continues to wage war across the besieged territory.

Weeks earlier, Israel also used leaflet drops in northern Gaza to warn civilians to move to the south.

Hundreds of thousands have done so, in a mass displacement that many Palestinians fear could become permanent.

Israel has said the goal of its military campaign is to destroy Hamas.

“The other thing that I can say is that we’ll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties. That’s what we’re trying to do: minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we’re not successful,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Netanyahu then said he wanted to draw a parallel with something related to Germany, but he was interrupted by the CBS interviewer, who asked him a question about Gaza’s post-war security.

Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of Israel’s weeks-long military campaign, which has come in response to the attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas also took about 240 people of different nationalities as captives, according to Israel.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it had retrieved the body of one of the captives, a female soldier, from a building near Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital which has become the main focus of the Israeli assault this week.

The soldier’s death was confirmed on Tuesday after Hamas issued a video of her alive, followed by images of what the group said was her body after she was killed in an Israeli air strike.

The Israeli military claimed to have found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas at al-Shifa Hospital. A video, which could not immediately be verified, showed a deep hole in the ground, surrounded by rubble, wood, and sand.

It appeared the area had been excavated; a bulldozer appeared in the background.

The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons.

Hamas said in a statement on Thursday evening that claims by the Pentagon and US State Department that the group uses al-Shifa for military purposes “is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman”.

The United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in al-Shifa Hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

Protected by law

Human Rights Watch said hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law.

“Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises,” the watchdog’s UN Director Louis Charbonneau said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on his first visit to Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack, called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.

“I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage,” Borrell said.

Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say at least 11,500 people have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment and ground invasion – more than 4,700 of them children.

Two-thirds of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million has been made homeless by the war.