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‘Hamas Asks Gaza Terror Groups for Info on Hostages Ahead of Possible Deal’
Noa Argamani, a rescued hostage, embraces her father, Yakov Argamani, after the military said that Israeli forces have rescued four hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip, in Ramat Gan, Israel, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on June 8, 2024. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org – Sources within terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip told AFP on Sunday that Hamas has ordered them to provide information on the captives they hold for a potential ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Israel.
Hamas told fellow terrorist organizations—including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees—to prepare information, including whether their hostages are alive or dead, AFP cited the sources as saying.
A Hamas source told the agency there had been “intensified contacts” between Hamas and Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators in recent days, and that the terrorist organization expected another round of negotiations with Jerusalem to kick off in Cairo “in the coming days.”
The same source called on the Jewish state to halt the war, saying the presence of Israel Defense Forces troops in the Gaza Strip made it “difficult to reach all the captive groups to know the details of the living and dead prisoners.”
According to official IDF figures, 96 of the 251 hostages who were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault remain in Gaza after 425 days.
The Palestinian terrorist group is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the coastal enclave in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.
Jerusalem has pressured Hamas to the extent that a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with the Iranian-backed terrorist organization may be possible, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
“There is a chance that this time we will really be able to advance a hostage deal,” Katz said during a visit to soldiers at an Air Force base in central Israel.
On-and-off indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to renew last year’s hostage release agreement have dragged on for months, with the United States, Egypt, Qatar and others acting as intermediaries.
Early last week, a senior Hamas official told AFP that the terrorist group was sitting tight until global pressure forces Jerusalem to end the war.
“Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are making great efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange,” said the Hamas official, who was part of a meeting on the topic in Cairo on Sunday, referring to a possible exchange of hostages for Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel.
“Our Palestinian people are waiting for American and international pressure on [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to stop the war and reach an agreement, as happened in Lebanon,” the official explained.
Reuters cited an internal Hamas document on Dec. 4 as saying that the terrorist group had indications that Israeli security forces were planning the rescue of hostages, similar to the raid that freed Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir Jan and Shlomi Ziv in June.
The confidential Hamas document, dated Nov. 22, tells terrorist operatives to execute hostages if such an operation takes place, and “not to consider any repercussions of following the instructions.”
The post ‘Hamas Asks Gaza Terror Groups for Info on Hostages Ahead of Possible Deal’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.