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10 Israelis, including teen with her dog, and 2 Thais freed from Gaza as ceasefire goes into overtime
(JTA) — Hamas released another 10 Israeli hostages, nine women and a 17-year-old girl, on the first day of a two-day extension of a ceasefire, one the Biden Administration hopes to further extend as it seeks to expand humanitarian relief for Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
The hostages released Tuesday bring the total of Israeli hostages released to 61. Also released were two Thais, bringing the total number of foreigners released to 20. They are among an estimated 240 hostages taken when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7.
Virtually all of the released hostages and Palestinian prisoners are women and children. Released on Tuesday were:
Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and her daughter Mia, 17. Mia, the only minor released Tuesday, was kidnapped with her Shih Tzu dog, Bella, and was photographed crossing over to the care of Red Cross officials carrying the dog. The Leimbergs are Jerusalem residents who were visiting friends in Nir Yitzhak, a kibbutz, when they were abducted.
Rimon Kirsht, 36, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim. Her husband, Yagev, remains a hostage.
Clara Merman, 63, a resident of Nir Yitzhak. Her partner and her brother remain hostages.
Ofelia Roitman, 77, from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Like Gabriela Leimberg, Roitman is an immigrant from Argentina.
Ditza Heiman, 84, one of the founders of Nir Oz. She was seen being transferred to Red Cross custody in a wheelchair.
Tamar Metzger, 78, from Nir Oz. Her husband, Yoram, 80, remains a hostage.
Noralin Babadilla, who was visiting friends in Kibbutz Nirim with her partner, Gideon Babani, who was murdered on Oct. 7.
Ada Sagi, 75, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Meirav Tal, 53, who was visiting Nir Oz with her partner, Yair Yaakov. Yaakov’s sons, Yagil and Or, were released Monday. Yair remains a hostage.
Tuesday was the first day of a two-day extension of the four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, one of a handful of nations that maintains ties with Hamas, Egypt and the United States. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel releases three times as many Palestinians imprisoned on terrorism-related charges.
With just one day of the extension remaining, there are talks open about lengthening the ceasefire. Hamas has reportedly offered to release soldiers and men in a next phase, but its terms are not clear. Any exchange of soldiers is seen as likely requiring the release of more and higher-profile Palestinian security prisoners, as well as a longer or permanent ceasefire.
Those terms are unlikely to be accepted by Israel, which does not want to lose the momentum it has gained in six weeks of striking back against Hamas. It has mostly dismantled the terrorist group in the north of the strip, according to reports, in massive air and ground attacks that have also driven half of Gaza’s 2 million population to the southern portion of the strip.
Israel’s stated war aim is the return of all the hostages and the removal of Hamas from power. U.S. President Joe Biden, under increasing pressure from the international community and from within his own Democratic Party, has stood by those war aims and rejected a long-term ceasefire.
But Biden is unhappy with the extent of Israel’s counterstrikes. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says more than 13,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed. It is not known what portion of that number are combatants and what portion were killed by misfired rockets aimed at Israel.
Two top Biden Administration officials told reporters on Monday evening that Biden hoped to extend the humanitarian pauses in order to expand assistance reaching the Palestinians. Israel has opened up corridors for such assistance, under pressure from Biden.
“We would like to see the deal — the current humanitarian pause deal extended as long as possible,” said one of the senior administration officials, who conducted the briefing on condition of remain ing anonymous. “So, we would like to see that going as long as there are additional hostages to get out.”
The officials, in unusually stern language — even for a briefing in which they did not have to be named — said Israel could not resume the war with the ferocity with which it had conducted itself until now.
“You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north replicated in the south. It will be beyond disruptive,” one of the officials said. “It will be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support network, however reinforced, however robust to be able to cope with. It can’t happen, which means that the manner of the campaign has to be extremely carefully thought through to minimize this consequence of further, significant displacement.”
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Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an F-35 stealth fighter at the IAF’s Nevatim base, July 9, 2019. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces said that a Houthi missile was intercepted outside of Israeli territory, although sirens blared in the eastern Negev and Dead Sea area. The Yemen-based, Iran-backed terrorist group said that they had targeted the Nevatim airbase.
The post Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
The post Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
The post Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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