RSS
Israel’s Military Calls Up Reservists as Gaza Ceasefire in Doubt
An Israeli tank maneuvers on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, Feb. 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel‘s military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza if the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to release more Israeli hostages and a nearly month-old ceasefire breaks down.
Concern that the ceasefire will collapse is growing as fury mounts in Arab countries over President Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to take over Gaza, resettle its Palestinian inhabitants, and build an international beach resort.
A Hamas official said Egypt and Qatar, which together with the United States mediated the ceasefire deal that went into force on Jan. 19, had stepped up efforts to break the impasse and the Palestinian terrorist group’s Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo to discuss the ceasefire.
Hamas agreed under the ceasefire deal to free three more hostages on Saturday but said this week that it was suspending the handover over what it said were Israeli violations of the terms.
Trump responded by saying all hostages must be freed by noon on Saturday or he would “let hell break out”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then said on Tuesday that his country would resume “intense fighting” if Hamas did not meet the deadline, but did not say how many hostages should be freed.
Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to gather forces in and around Gaza, and the military announced it was deploying additional forces to Israel‘s south, including mobilzsing reservists.
The standoff threatens to reignite a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip and pushed the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war.
The armed wing of Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which is also holding Israeli hostages, warned that the hostages’ fate was tied to Netanyahu’s actions.
“The only way to retrieve hostages and for stability to come back is through a [hostage-prisoner] swap deal,” its spokesperson said on Telegram.
In a further sign of Arab anger over Trump’s vision of Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would not go to Washington for talks if the agenda included Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians.
The date for such a visit has not been announced, and the Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not comment.
SOME HOSTAGES ALREADY FREED
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken as hostages into Gaza.
In response, Israel waged a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Hamas has freed 16 Israeli hostages from an initial group of 33 children, women, and older men to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first stage of the ceasefire deal. It also returned five Thai hostages.
Negotiators hope a second phase of ceasefire talks will secure agreement on releasing the remaining hostages and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Trump meanwhile wants Saudi Arabia, which wields heavy influence in other Arab and Muslim countries, to normalize ties with Israel. Riyadh has previously said it will not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
Under his first administration in 2017-21, Trump brokered normalization accords between Israel and some Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates.
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that peace efforts in the region should be on the basis of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, state news agency WAM reported.
Trump has said Palestinians in Gaza could settle in countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Both countries reject the proposal and Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “serious” developments for Palestinians.
The post Israel’s Military Calls Up Reservists as Gaza Ceasefire in Doubt first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.