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Qatar Presents Gaza Hostage Draft Agreement Following ‘Breakthrough’
Israeli forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip on Nov. 3, 2023, in an area from which many attempts to attack the Israeli forces through tunnel shafts and military compounds were detected. Photo: EYEPRESS via Reuters Connect
Mediators gave Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The official said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister.
Steve Witkoff, who will become US envoy when Trump returns to the US presidency next week, attended the talks, the official said. A US source said the outgoing Biden administration’s envoy Brett McGurk was also there.
“The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal,” the official said, characterizing the draft as the outcome of a breakthrough reached in the early hours of Monday.
Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, received a Hamas delegation headed by senior official Khalil al-Hayya to discuss the ceasefire talks, the emir’s office said.
Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had both received a draft, and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas, and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official told Reuters on Monday, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the negotiations were being coordinated between Biden’s and Trump’s teams.
“There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal,” Saar told reporters.
The United States, Qatar, and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza, so far fruitlessly.
In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters the draft sent to the two warring sides did not comprise the final agreement but “aims to resolve outstanding issues that had hindered previous negotiations.”
HELL TO PAY
Israel’s channel 12 said Israeli government institutions had been told to prepare for the intake of weak and sick hostages. A spokesperson from the Israeli health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The warring sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official who first disclosed the draft said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in the Qatari capital Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalize an agreement.
The head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in Doha as part of the talks. Rashad left Doha on Monday but a source familiar with the talks said an intelligence delegation stayed behind to play an active role.
Trump envoy Witkoff has traveled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke on Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing “the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the White House said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel from the neighboring enclave on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionism party, a hardline nationalist party which has opposed previous attempts at a deal, said all its members would oppose a deal that didn’t achieve Hamas’ “destruction” and the latest proposal endangered Israel’s national security.
For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge of Gaza, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to depopulate a buffer zone.
Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said the group’s fighters attacked Israeli forces in the area killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring dozens of others in the past 72 hours.
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Belgian Police Raid Mohels’ Homes in Antwerp, Sparking Outrage in Jewish Community
Police pictured at an Anderlecht supporters village at the Atomium, before the final of the ‘Croky Cup’ Belgian soccer cup, between Club Brugge and RSC Anderlecht, May 4, 2025. Photo: BELGA/HATIM KAGHAT via Reuters Connect
Belgian police raided the homes of several mohels in Antwerp, a northern Belgian city, seizing their circumcision tools after a local Jewish rabbi filed a complaint — an incident that has sparked outrage within the local Jewish community.
A mohel is a trained practitioner who performs the ritual circumcision in Jewish tradition known as a bris.
On Wednesday, Belgian authorities raided three locations in the Jewish Quarter, searching for knives and other equipment allegedly used in unauthorized or illegal circumcisions. However, local police confirmed that no arrests were made during the operation.
Among the homes raided by the Belgian police was that of Rabbi Aharon Eckstein, a highly experienced mohel and a prominent leader within the Antwerp Jewish community.
In an interview with the publication JNS, Eckstein said the raid took place around 5 am.
“They didn’t say much. They just looked through the place and took my kit,” the Jewish leader said.
He also expressed his intention to continue performing circumcisions, as he had not received any instruction to stop such practice.
According to a police report, the searches were ordered by a judge following a complaint filed in 2023 by Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman against Eckstein and other mohels within the Jewish community.
Prosecutors have been investigating illegal circumcisions in the country since last fall, amid concerns from local authorities that Jewish circumcisions are being carried out by individuals without proper medical training.
In his complaint, Friedman accused six mohels, whom he identified to the police, of endangering infants by performing the metzitzah b’peh ritual, in which the mohel uses his mouth to suction blood from the circumcision area.
However, Eckstein and other rabbis, along with parents of children circumcised by them, have denied such accusations, insisting that they do not perform this practice.
In Antwerp, Friedman is known for publicly criticizing several customs that are important to ultra-Orthodox Jews, who represent the majority of the city’s 18,000 Jewish residents.
The European Jewish Association (EJA) condemned the government’s handling of the issue, claiming it threatens freedom of religion.
“This constitutes yet another red line crossed in the intimidation of Jewish religious figures in Belgium,” Rabbi Mencahem Margolin, chairman of the EJA, said in a post on the social media platform X.
“Following the ban on shechita [kosher ritual slaughter], the harassment of mohels represents a further red line and a clear warning sign to Belgian Jews and the Belgian government. Freedom of religion must be upheld!” he continued.
The European Jewish Association (EJA) strongly condemns the police raid on the Mohels’ premises in Antwerp this morning.
EJA Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, say that this constitutes yet another red line crossed in the intimidation of Jewish religious figures in Belgium.…— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) May 14, 2025
Despite several attempts to ban it across Europe, ritual circumcision remains legal in all European countries, though many, including Belgium, limit the practice to licensed surgeons and often perform it in a synagogue.
Last year, the Irish government arrested a London-based rabbi for allegedly performing a circumcision without the required medical credentials, marking the first arrest of a rabbi in Europe in years related to a bris.
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Putin Has Invitation to Visit Iran, but Dates Have Yet to Be Set, Kremlin Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a ceremony to sign an agreement of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo: Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has an invitation to visit Iran, but the dates have not yet been agreed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Iran‘s government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani was quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday as saying that Putin‘s visit to Iran “is currently being worked out.”
Moscow and Tehran signed a 20-year strategic partnership agreement in January, the two countries have supplied each other with weapons, and Russia has defended what it says is Tehran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy.
“Indeed, President Putin has an invitation to pay an official or working visit to Iran. The dates have not yet been agreed. As soon as they are agreed, we will inform you,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about a possible visit.
“We highly value our partnership with this country and we highly value the depth of our relationship in a wide variety of areas.”
The last time Putin visited Iran was in 2022, months after he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
The post Putin Has Invitation to Visit Iran, but Dates Have Yet to Be Set, Kremlin Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Intercepts Missile From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility
People take cover, while sirens sound in Jerusalem, May 13, 2025. Israel’s military reported that a missile was launched from Yemen towards Israel and was intercepted. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards its territory.
The launch coincides with US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf. Trump has announced that he reached a ceasefire with Yemen‘s Houthis, an internationally designated terrorist group, that will halt attacks on US vessels.
The Iran-aligned group fired a missile towards Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree.
Trump announced early in May that the US would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen as the group had agreed to stop attacking US ships.
The Houthis said they will continue to fire missiles and drones towards Israel.
The Houthis have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza since a deadly raid by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023.
The post Israel Intercepts Missile From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility first appeared on Algemeiner.com.