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US, Israeli Negotiators to Discuss Gaza Ceasefire Deal in Doha

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, October 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool

US and Israeli negotiators will gather in Doha in the coming days to try to restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, Qatar and Washington’s top diplomats said on Thursday.

Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas in months of talks that broke down in August without an agreement to end fighting that began when the Palestinian terrorist group launched attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East this week hoping to revive the talks following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who Washington says was the main obstacle to a deal.

“We talked about options to capitalize on this moment and next steps to move the process forward,” Blinken told reporters after talks with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. “I anticipate that our negotiators will be getting together in the coming days.”

Blinken said it had not yet been determined whether Hamas was prepared to engage in new negotiations, but urged the group to do so.

He declined to say who would be present at the Doha talks but said Washington was talking to both Qatari and Egyptian mediators about “different options” for restarting the talks.

“Going back to the negotiations on ceasefire and the hostages, one of the things we’re doing is looking at whether there are different options that we can pursue to get us to a conclusion, to get us to a result,” Blinken said.

Since killing Sinwar last week, Israel has pressed on with intensive operations in northern Gaza, in what Palestinians and U.N. agencies fear could be an attempt to seal off the north from the rest of the enclave.

Sheikh Mohammed said Israeli officials were set to travel to Doha for the upcoming talks and he expected negotiations to pick up on a proposal discussed in the last round of talks.

Qatari officials have also met with officials in Hamas’ political office in Doha in the last couple of days, he said.

“Until now, there is no clarity (on) what will be the way forward,” he said.

Hamas has not yet named a successor to Sinwar, who was appointed leader after Israel assassinated the former chief Ismail Haniyeh in July.

Egypt is separately engaged in discussions with Hamas, Sheikh Mohammed said, adding that he hoped those talks will yield something positive.

The post US, Israeli Negotiators to Discuss Gaza Ceasefire Deal in Doha first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Troops Capture Around 100 Hamas Terrorists in North Gaza Hospital, Military Says

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, in this handout picture released on Jan. 2, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas terrorists during a raid in Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, the military said on Monday.

Gaza health officials and Hamas have denied any militant presence at the hospital, which Israeli forces stormed on Friday and left on Saturday.

“The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents,” the military said.

Gaza‘s health ministry, which is controlled by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, said the troops had detained dozens of male medical staffers and damaged the hospital.

“A few of the fully identified terrorists disguised themselves as medical staff so we didn’t have any alternative but to check the medical staff as well,” a military official told journalists in an online briefing.

Footage circulated by Gaza‘s health ministry on Saturday — which Reuters could not immediately verify — showed damage to several buildings after the Israeli forces withdrew.

The military official said that troops had caused limited damage to the hospital when entering it and that soldiers also had to destroy what he described as “dual use” equipment, like oxygen tanks, which if detonated could have harmed anyone at the complex.

Medical staffers refused to evacuate the hospital or leave their patients unattended. Hundreds of displaced Palestinians had also been sheltering there.

The military official said that suspected Hamas men arrested were stripped to check them for weapons. “After checking them we supplied them with clothes,” he said.

Gaza medics said at least two children had died inside the intensive care unit after Israeli fire hit the generators and oxygen station in the facility on Friday.

The military said civilians at the hospital were kept safe, despite heavy fighting near the complex. Fuel, medical equipment, and blood units had been provided to the hospital and electricity and oxygen supply had been ensured, it said.

Captured Palestinian militants have confessed that terrorists had taken over all of the hospitals in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks.

The post Israeli Troops Capture Around 100 Hamas Terrorists in North Gaza Hospital, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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X Suspends Iranian Supreme Leader’s New Hebrew-Language Account

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s parliament members in Tehran, Iran, July 21, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

JNS.org — Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday suspended an official account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, one day after it was created.

The suspension of the @Khamenei_Heb account came shortly after it featured the tweet: “The Zionist regime made a mistake. It erred in its calculations on Iran. We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”

The tweet appeared to be a reference to Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliation for the Islamic Republic’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.

X is owned by Elon Musk, who has expressed support of Israel. He visited Israel in November and attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress in July. He is also on record as advocating free speech on X and in general.

X did not immediately say why it suspended Khamenei’s account. The notice about the suspension referred readers to a text on X’s website that explains that suspended accounts were “found to be in violation of our rules,” which prohibit “violent and hateful entities.”

The post X Suspends Iranian Supreme Leader’s New Hebrew-Language Account first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Michelle Obama Backs Harris in Michigan, Where Trump Courts Muslim Vote

Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, Kalamazoo, Michigan, October 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Republican Donald Trump appealed to Muslim voters in Michigan on Saturday as Michelle Obama made an impassioned plea on behalf of Kamala Harris at the Democrat’s own rally in the battleground state.

In Michigan, Harris and Trump are battling for voters that include an Arab American and Muslim population concerned about Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and union workers worried about how electric vehicles could reshape the US auto industry, which is headquartered in Detroit, the state’s largest city.

Election Day is Nov. 5 but early voting was under way in Michigan, as it is many states.

Speaking at a rally outside Detroit, Trump said he had just met with a group of local imams, arguing that he deserved the support of Muslim voters because he would end conflicts and bring peace to the Middle East.

“That’s all they want,” Trump said in the Detroit suburb of Novi, also pledging to auto workers at the rally that he would reverse economic decline in the Detroit area and nationwide.

Trump fully backs Israel but has not said how he would end the conflict there.

Even so, Trump appears to be gaining support from some Muslim Americans upset with President Joe Biden’s and Harris’ support of Israel, and despite Trump banning immigration from some Muslim majority countries in his first term as president.

Imam Belal Alzuhairi of the Islamic Center of Detroit joined Trump on stage, saying, “we ask Muslims to stand with President Trump because he promises peace.”

With some 8.4 million registered voters and 15 electoral college votes of the 270 needed to win, Michigan is one of seven competitive US states that will decide the election. It is part of the “Blue Wall” that is considered Democrats’ best chance of electing Harris, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

OBAMA TAKES THE STAGE

In the southern Michigan city of Kalamazoo, about 130 miles (210 km) away, Harris drew contrasts between her and Trump on issues such as abortion rights, taxes and healthcare.

But first Obama, the popular wife of former President Barack Obama, fired up the crowd by drawing distinctions between the two candidates on personal character and qualifications, saying there was a double standard in how Trump and Harris were being treated.

“I hope you’ll forgive me that I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” the former first lady said, urging any undecided voters to “snap out of whatever fog they’re in.”

Obama also addressed women’s health at length, saying Trump has failed to demonstrate understanding of its complexity and that his vows to rescind the Affordable Care Act passed during her husband’s presidency would affect the “entirety of women’s health, all of it.”

“We as women will become collateral damage to your rage,” she said, later introducing Harris to an animated crowd.

Harris was several minutes into an upbeat address when she was interrupted by a demonstrator who repeatedly yelled, “No more Gaza war.”

After Harris supporters shouted down the interruption, Harris responded, “On the topic of Gaza, we must end that war,” then picked up where she left off, asking voters to “turn the page on the fear and the divisiveness.”

“Over the last eight years, Donald Trump has become more confused, more unstable and more angry, and it is clear he has become increasingly unhinged. But the last time, at least there were people who could control him, but notice they’re not with him this time,” Harris said.

Ahead of the rally, Harris met with women medical providers in Portage, Michigan, where she said the country was in a healthcare crisis following the 2022 ruling by the US Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a women’s right to abortion nationwide.

Harris heard from six women medical providers who described being inundated by patients from other regions due to a lack of reproductive healthcare in their areas since Roe was overturned.

After leaving Michigan, Trump traveled to Pennsylvania, where he tried to reel in young voters with a rally on the campus of Penn State University, at one point bringing the school’s wrestling team on stage with him.

“We have to finish it off with a big victory on Nov. 5,” he said.

POLLS SHOW TIGHT RACE

Harris is leading Trump nationally by a marginal 46% to 43%, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. In Michigan, Harris leads by even less – 47.6% to 47.1%, according to opinion poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.

Since the 2020 election, Michigan has instituted early in-person voting for the first time and begun permitting jurisdictions with more than 5,000 people to begin processing and tabulating mail ballots eight days before the Nov. 5 Election Day.

So far, 19.5% of registered voters in Michigan, or nearly 1.42 million people, have voted, Michigan’s State Department said on Friday. Only 10,900 were in-person early votes, while the rest were returned absentee ballots.

The post Michelle Obama Backs Harris in Michigan, Where Trump Courts Muslim Vote first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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