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Hamas officials say delegation in Cairo for Gaza truce talks

Hamas officials say delegation in Cairo for Gaza truce talks
Above, Palestinians walk amid the rubble of buildings in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on March 4, 2025, amid the ongoing truce between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Updated 07 March 2025

Hamas officials say delegation in Cairo for Gaza truce talks

Hamas officials say delegation in Cairo for Gaza truce talks
  • ‘Delegation will meet with Egyptian officials on Saturday to discuss the latest developments’
  • They will also assess progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement, and address matters related to launching the second phase of the deal

CAIRO: A high-level Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to advance efforts on a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which has largely paused hostilities with Israel, two senior Hamas officials said Friday.
“The delegation will meet with Egyptian officials on Saturday to discuss the latest developments, assess progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement, and address matters related to launching the second phase of the deal,” one official said.


Sudan war losses by the numbers

Sudan war losses by the numbers
Updated 6 sec ago

Sudan war losses by the numbers

Sudan war losses by the numbers
  • The conflict between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group continues largely in the vast Darfur and Kordofan regions
  • Once known as a country with agricultural wealth and the breadbasket of the world, Sudan saw the widescale ruin of farming land
CAIRO: More than two years have passed since Sudan plunged into a civil war that has caused what aid organizations have described as one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises.
The conflict between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group continues largely in the vast Darfur and Kordofan regions. Some of the deadliest clashes have occurred in the capital, Khartoum, and surrounding areas, where the army has said it has regained control.
The war erupted in April 2023 in Khartoum before spreading across the country. Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities like ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence against civilians, including children. Meanwhile, many people across Sudan have been pushed to the brink of famine.
Here’s a look at the war by the numbers sourced from the United Nations, humanitarian organizations, health officials and human rights groups.
A collapsing health care system and damaged infrastructure created a breeding ground for diseases spreading in Sudan, affecting the health and well-being of millions, including already vulnerable communities. The North African country faces outbreaks of diseases including cholera, measles and malaria, and UNICEF warned that thousands of children younger than age 5 are likely to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition.
Aside from the human toll, Sudan’s infrastructure has been badly hit. Once known as a country with agricultural wealth and the breadbasket of the world, Sudan saw the widescale ruin of farming land. Dozens of water and electricity facilities have been damaged, along with the presidential palace and ministry buildings.
More than 10 cultural sites, including the National Museum, have been attacked or destroyed, according to UNESCO. Many schools have been attacked or turned into shelters.
Death and injury figures are often based on hospital records, but tracking those who never reach medical facilities is difficult. However, estimates by humanitarian organizations, health officials, and rights groups suggest that tens of thousands have been wounded in Sudan’s war. Multiple attempts at peace talks have been made, but none seem to be bringing the war to an end as the conflict expands elsewhere in the country.

UK foreign minister calls situation in Gaza ‘indefensible’

UK foreign minister calls situation in Gaza ‘indefensible’
Updated 12 min 43 sec ago

UK foreign minister calls situation in Gaza ‘indefensible’

UK foreign minister calls situation in Gaza ‘indefensible’
  • "The sight of children reaching for aid and losing their lives has caused consternation over much of the world. And that is why I repeat my call today for a ceasefire," Lammy said on Friday.

SYDNEY:  UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Friday the deteriorating situation in Gaza was “indefensible,” repeating calls for a ceasefire.
“The sight of children reaching for aid and losing their lives has caused consternation over much of the world. And that is why I repeat my call today for a ceasefire,” Lammy said in a joint news conference with the Australian defense minister in Sydney.
“The deteriorating situation we’ve seen in Gaza over the last few weeks is indefensible.”


Once a leading force, battered Tunisian party awaits elusive comeback

Once a leading force, battered Tunisian party awaits elusive comeback
Updated 25 July 2025

Once a leading force, battered Tunisian party awaits elusive comeback

Once a leading force, battered Tunisian party awaits elusive comeback
  • Ennahdha, the Islamist-inspired movement still considered by some Tunisians as the country’s main opposition party, could still bounce back after a devastating government crackdown

TUNIS: The party that once dominated Tunisian politics has faded away since President Kais Saied staged a dramatic power grab, with its offices shuttered and leaders behind bars or in exile.
But observers say that Ennahdha, the Islamist-inspired movement still considered by some Tunisians as the country’s main opposition party, could still bounce back after a devastating government crackdown.
On July 25, 2021, Saied stunned the country when he suspended parliament and dissolved the government, a move critics denounced as a “coup” a decade after the Arab Spring revolt ushered in a democratic transition in the North African country.
Many of Saied’s critics have been prosecuted and jailed, including Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi, 84, a former parliament speaker who was sentenced earlier this month to 14 years in prison for plotting against the state.
Ghannouchi, who was arrested in 2023, has racked up several prison terms, including a 22-year sentence handed in February on the same charge.
The crackdown over the past four years has seen around 150 Ennahdha figures imprisoned, prosecuted or living in exile, according to a party official.
“Some believe the movement is dead, but that is not the case,” said political scientist Slaheddine Jourchi.
Ennahdha has been “weakened to the point of clinical death” but remained the most prominent party in Tunisia’s “fragmented and fragile” opposition, Jourchi added.

‘Crimes against the country’
Riadh Chaibi, a party official and adviser to Ghannouchi, said that even after “shrinking” its political platform, Ennahdah was still a relevant opposition outlet.
“Despite repression, prosecutions and imprisonment” since 2021, “Ennahdha remains the country’s largest political movement,” Chaibi said.
He said the current government has been “weaponizing state institutions to eliminate political opponents,” but “once we’re free again, like we were in 2011, Ennahdha will regain its strength.”
Since 2011, when Ghannouchi returned from exile to lead the party, Ennahdha for years had a key role in Tunisian politics, holding the premiership and other senior roles.
But by 2019, the year Saied was elected president, the party’s popularity had already begun waning, winning only a third of the 1.5 million votes it had in 2011.
Experts ascribed this trend to the party’s failure to improve living standards and address pressing socio-economic issues.
Ennahdha has also been accused of jihadist links, which it has repeatedly denied.
Saied, who religiously avoids mentioning either Ennahdha or Ghannouchi by name, has often referred to the party’s years in power as “the black decade” and accused it of committing “crimes against the country.”
Crowds of Tunisians, increasingly disillusioned as a political deadlock trumped Ennahdha’s promise of change, poured into the streets in celebration when Saied forced the party out of the halls of power in 2021.
Analyst Jourchi said Ennahdha’s rise to power was a “poorly prepared adventure,” and the party had “made many mistakes along the way.”
Left-wing politician Mongi Rahoui said it was “only natural that Ennahdha leaders and their governing partners be prosecuted for crimes they used their political position to commit.”
Today, the party’s activities have been reduced mostly to issuing statements online, often reacting to prison sentences handed down to critics of Saied.

‘Weathering repression’
But Ennahdha has weathered repression before, harshly suppressed under Tunisia’s autocratic presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Party leaders were jailed or forced into exile, and Ghannouchi was sentenced to life in prison under Bourguiba but then freed — and later exiled — under Ben Ali.
Tunisian historian Abdellatif Hannachi said that the party “seems to be bending with the wind, waiting for changes that would allow it to return.”
It has been in “clear decline,” he added, but “that does not mean it’s disappearing.”
Ennahdha’s downfall was not an isolated case. Other opposition forces have also been crushed, and dozens of political, media and business figures are currently behind bars.
“This regime no longer distinguishes between Islamist and secular, progressive and conservative,” rights advocate Kamel Jendoubi, a former minister, recently said in a Facebook post.
Saied’s government “wants to silence everything that thinks, that criticizes, or resists,” Jendoubi argued.
The opposition, however, remains fractured, failing for example to come together in rallies planned for the anniversary this month of Saied’s power grab.


Hamas says French pledge to recognize State of Palestine ‘positive step’

Hamas says French pledge to recognize State of Palestine ‘positive step’
Updated 25 July 2025

Hamas says French pledge to recognize State of Palestine ‘positive step’

Hamas says French pledge to recognize State of Palestine ‘positive step’

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Islamist militant group Hamas hailed France’s pledge on Thursday to recognize a State of Palestine as a “positive step” and urged all countries to do the same despite Israeli opposition.
“We consider this a positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and supporting their legitimate right to self-determination,” Hamas said in a statement, after French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France would formally state its recognition in September.
“We call on all countries of the world — especially European nations and those that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine — to follow France’s lead,” Hamas added.

More than 30 former UK ambassadors and 20 former senior diplomats at the UN have also urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recognize a Palestinian state.

In a statement, the diplomats called on Starmer to seize the “moment to recognise Palestinian statehood unconditionally," warning that “the risks of inaction have profound, historic and catastrophic implications.”

Starvation has affected the 2 million residents of the Gaza Strip amid Israeli attacks and aid restrictions.

“(Israel) cannot be secure from threats in the future if the question of Palestine is not taken forward to a political settlement,” they said.

The statement added: “In the face of the current horror and impunity, words are not enough … a partial suspension of arms sales, delays on trade talks and limited sanctions are far from the full extent of the pressure the UK can bring to bear on Israel.”

Recognising a Palestinian state would be a “foundational first step toward breaking the deadly status quo,” the letter said. The UK has consistently stated it would recognize Palestine in conjunction with allies “at the point of maximum impact.”


How two families crossed the rubble of Gaza, fleeing war and hunger

How two families crossed the rubble of Gaza, fleeing war and hunger
Updated 24 July 2025

How two families crossed the rubble of Gaza, fleeing war and hunger

How two families crossed the rubble of Gaza, fleeing war and hunger
  • UN reports 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million people are displaced
  • Families face displacement, loss, and hunger amid Gaza conflict

GAZA/CAIRO: The Bakrons and Al-Bareems, two families from opposite ends of Gaza, have criss-crossed the rubble-strewn territory many times during 21 months of war, in search of food and shelter from Israeli attacks.
They’ve sought refuge in the homes of friends and relatives, in school classrooms and in tents, moving frequently as the Israeli military has ordered civilians from one zone to another.
The Bareems, from southern Gaza, have a disabled child who they have pushed in his wheelchair. The Bakrons, from the north, stopped wandering in May after two children of their children were killed in an airstrike.
“Our story is one of displacement, loss of loved ones, hunger, humiliation and loss of hope,” said Nizar Bakron, 38, who lost his daughter Olina, 10, and son Rebhi, eight.
The families’ experiences illustrate the plight of the 1.9 million Gaza residents — 90 percent of the population — that the United Nations says have been displaced during the conflict.
Israel’s war in Gaza has left much of the enclave in ruins and its people desperate from hunger. It was triggered by an attack by Islamist group Hamas — which governs the Strip — on Israeli border communities on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage. Before the war, Nizar and his wife Amal, four years his junior, had a happy life in Shejaia, a teeming district in the east of Gaza City. Their eldest Adam is 12; the youngest, Youssef, a baby.
Photographs, seen by Reuters, show family parties at home and days at the beach.
“When the October 7 attack happened, I knew it wouldn’t be something good for us,” Nizar said. They left home the next day for Amal’s mother’s house further south in Zahra, he said.
Five days later Israel began ordering civilians in northern Gaza to move south and, on October 27, it launched a ground invasion.
Throughout the war Israel has issued evacuation orders in areas where it plans to conduct operations — though it has also struck elsewhere during those periods.
Israel says the orders protect civilians but it strikes wherever it locates Hamas fighters, who hide among the population. Hamas denies using civilians as shields.
Palestinians accuse Israel of using the evacuation orders to uproot the population, which it denies.
The family left for Nuseirat, an old refugee camp in central Gaza, where they crammed into an apartment owned by Amal’s relatives for five months.
Israel’s bombardment was heaviest in the first months of the war. The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, said the death toll reached 32,845 by the end of March 2024. It has now passed 59,000 people, the ministry says.
Food and fuel were becoming very expensive, with little aid arriving. In April, Israel issued an evacuation order and the Bakrons went further south to Rafah on the border with Egypt where there was more to eat.
They loaded the car and a trailer with mattresses, clothes, kitchen equipment and a solar panel and drove 15 miles along roads lined with ruins.
In Rafah, they squeezed into a classroom of a UN school which they shared with Nizar’s two brothers and their families — about 20 people. Their savings were quickly disappearing.
Weeks later, a new Israeli evacuation order moved them to Khan Younis, a few kilometers away, and another crowded classroom.
In January, a ceasefire allowed them to move back north to Nuseirat, where the family had land. They cleared a room in a damaged building to live in.
“We thought things would get better,” Nizar said.
But, after less than two months, the ceasefire collapsed on March 18. Two days later, Bakron’s sister, her husband and two daughters were killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis, he said.
As Israeli operations escalated, the family fled to Gaza City. They pitched a tent — the first time they had to live in one — against a building on Wehda Street, a central district. On May 25, as most of the family slept, Nizar was sitting outside, talking on the phone, when an airstrike hit and the building collapsed.
He pulled away the debris but Olina and Rebhi were dead. His wife Amal and eldest Adam were injured, and the baby Youssef’s leg was broken.
Nizar does not know how they can move again. The family is in mourning and their car was damaged in the strike, he said.
The UN estimates nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s territory is covered by Israeli evacuation orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving the population squeezed into two swathes of land where food is increasingly scarce. Israel says restrictions on aid are needed to prevent it being diverted to Hamas.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday Gaza is
suffering from man-made starvation
.
Amal, who still has bruising on her face and wears a brace upon her arm after the attack, grieves for her two children: “My life changed, from having everything to having nothing, after being displaced.”

“We fear for our lives“
Majed Al-Bareem, 32, was a teacher before the war in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis. He and his wife Samia, 27, have a two-year-old son, Samir. They lived in a pretty two-story house with an external staircase that had plants in pots running up the steps.
During Israel’s initial offensive, which was focused on northern Gaza, the family stayed put. But early in 2024, Israeli forces pushed into Khan Younis and the Bareems fled their home.
They learned afterwards it had been destroyed.
“I had a beautiful house which we built with our sweat and effort,” Majed said. He showed Reuters photos of the ruins.
They went to Rafah with Majed’s mother, Alyah, 62 and his three sisters. The youngest, Rafah, 19, has Down Syndrome.
Days before they left Khan Younis, his eldest sister’s husband was shot dead. Her son, Joud, nine, is in a wheelchair.
At first, the family stayed in a tent provided by UN aid agencies in a district called Nasr in northern Rafah.
Three months later, Israel ordered civilians to evacuate and the family left for Mawasi, a rural area nearby where displacement camps were growing, he said. Although Israel’s military had designated Mawasi a safe zone, it struck it throughout the summer, killing scores of people, according to local health authorities. Israel said it was targeting militants hiding in the area.
Since the two-month ceasefire ended in March the family has moved repeatedly — so often that Majed said he lost count — between Bani Suheila, Khan Younis and Mawasi.
“We fear for our lives so, as soon as they order us to leave, we do so,” he said.
Crossing Gaza’s ruined streets with a wheelchair has added to the difficulty. During one journey in May, he and Joud were separated from the family. It took them four hours to travel the five miles to Mawasi along roads littered with debris.
“It was exhausting and scary because we could hear gunfire and bombing,” he said.
The family is currently in a tent in Mawasi. Their savings are nearly gone and they can only rarely afford extra rations to supplement the little they get from charitable kitchens.
“We are tired of displacement. We are tired of lack of food,” said Majed’s mother, Alyah.
Last week, Majed went to Bani Suheila hoping to buy some flour. A shell landed nearby, wounding him in the torso with a shrapnel fragment, he said. It was removed in hospital but left him weak. With Israel and Hamas conducting ceasefire negotiations, the United States has voiced optimism about a deal. Majed says the renewed talks have given him some hope, but he fears they will fall apart, like previous attempts.
“I don’t think anyone can bear what we are bearing,” he said. “It has been two years of the war, hunger, killing, destruction and displacement.”