JUBA — South Sudan on Friday imposed a curfew across the country in the wake of targeted revenge attacks on Sudanese nationals triggered by graphic footage on social media of South Sudanese nationals being killed in Sudan.
The curfew, which will come into force from 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), is aimed at preventing any violations of public and private property, the Inspector General of the South Sudan National Police Service, Abraham Manyuat Peter, announced on state television.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and call on citizens to report any criminal violations,” he said. “The police will not tolerate any violations that harm public security and will deal with them according to the law.”
Peter said four people were injured Thursday night in clashes between security forces and rioters, who attacked, looted, and vandalized businesses owned by Sudanese nationals in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The riots came after video clips circulating on social media platforms of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers executing unarmed civilians, including South Sudanese nationals, in Wad Medani, Al Gezira State, Sudan.
There have since been attacks on Sudanese nationals in Juba, Aweil, and Warrap State, according to reports.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on Wednesday summoned the Sudanese Ambassador to South Sudan, Isam Mohamed Hassan Karar, to protest the killing of its nationals.
John Samuel Bwogo, undersecretary in South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has requested that the Sudan Sovereign Council allow a high-level committee from Juba to visit Wad Madani, where the alleged attacks took place.
He urged both the Sudan Sovereign Council and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to protect South Sudanese nationals caught up in the violence.
The Sudanese ambassador to South Sudan said an investigation committee has been formed to investigate the killings in Wad Madani, which happened after the SAF retook the area from the rebels.
“There are many nationalities engaging in war within Sudan. The investigation committee will work closely with the undersecretary and ambassador of South Sudan based in Port Sudan, and we will update South Sudanese and the public on the situation of citizens in Al Gezira,” he said.
LUSAKA — Zambia has confirmed three new mpox cases, bringing the total number to seven, authorities said on Thursday.
Minister of Health Elijah Muchima said in a press briefing that the new cases were detected between Jan. 10 and 16, with two cases from the capital city Lusaka, and one from the Copperbelt province.
The ministry has intensified investigations and contact tracing in the affected areas to control the spread of the disease, while also launching awareness campaigns in communities, said the minister.
In October 2024, Zambia reported its first mpox case, which involved a Tanzanian national visiting the country.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Friday that the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza is expected to begin on Sunday.
The statement noted that the release could take place according to the planned outline, subject to approval by the security cabinet and the government and the agreement with Hamas coming into effect.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a separate statement that Netanyahu has been updated by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal for the release of the hostages. The prime minister has directed that the cabinet be convened on Friday.
Ahead of the cabinet discussion, a security-operational situation assessment was held for the implementation of the agreement, headed by Netanyahu, along with the Israeli negotiating team.
Netanyahu has also directed the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Gal Hirsch to coordinate the preparations to receive the hostages upon their return to Israel.
WASHINGTON, Jan 16 – Several journalists who are outspoken critics of U.S. support for Israel loudly lambasted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the war in Gaza on Thursday, repeatedly interrupting his final press conference as he sought to defend his handling of the 15-month-old conflict.
Israel’s assault on Gaza is likely to define the foreign policy legacy of the outgoing Biden administration, despite a deal reached with Palestinian militant group Hamas on Wednesday on a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages.
“Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague,” shouted Sam Husseini, an independent journalist and longtime critic of Washington’s approach to the world. The Hague is where the International Criminal Court is located.
The unusually confrontational scene in the State Department briefing room only ended when security personnel forcibly picked up Husseini and carried him out of the room as he continued to heckle Blinken.
Blinken has faced criticism for providing Israel with weapons and diplomatic support since the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also drawing accusations of genocide in a World Court case brought by South Africa and of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the allegations. The assault has displaced nearly Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population and drawn the concern of the world’s main hunger monitor.
“Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone, an outlet that strongly criticizes many aspects of U.S. foreign policy, called out to Blinken, before he was escorted out.
Blinken, who leaves office on Monday when the administration of President-elect Donald Trump takes over, calmly asked for quiet while he delivered his remarks, and later took questions from reporters.
He has been frequently heckled at appearances in Washington since the Gaza conflict began. Demonstrators camped outside his Virginia home for months and repeatedly threw red paint – resembling blood – on cars carrying Blinken and his family.
Asked during the press conference if he would change anything about his dealings with Israel, Blinken said the Israeli government had carried out policies that “were basically supported by an overwhelming majority of Israelis after the trauma of October 7” and said that had to be factored in to the U.S. response.
The Biden administration had been unable to reach final determinations on individual incidents that could constitute violations of international law because Hamas embedded itself within the civilian population, he said.
“I’d also point out that in Israel itself, there are hundreds of cases that are being investigated,” Blinken said. “They have a process, they have procedures, they have rule of law… That’s the hallmark of any democracy.”
BEIJING — The number of internet users in China hit 1.1 billion by December 2024, up 16.08 million from the previous year, according to an industrial report on the country’s internet development released on Friday.
The report by the China Internet Network Information Center revealed that internet penetration in China reached 78.6 percent in 2024, 30 years after the country was fully connected to the global internet.
China now boasts the world’s largest internet infrastructure, equipped with advanced technologies, driving the rapid growth of its digital economy, according to the report.
BEIJING — China’s population on the mainland stood at 1.40828 billion by the end of 2024, a decrease of 1.39 million over that at the end of 2023, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday.
DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM — The Israeli cabinet will meet to give final approval to a deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes, and Palestinian authorities said late on Thursday that at least 86 people were killed in the day after the truce was unveiled.
With longstanding divisions apparent among ministers, Israel delayed meetings expected on Thursday when the cabinet was expected to vote on the pact, blaming Hamas for the hold-up.
But in the early hours of Friday, Netanyahu’s office said approval was imminent.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal to release the hostages,” his office said in a statement.
The security cabinet would meet on Friday before a full meeting of the cabinet later to approve the deal, it said.
It was not immediately clear whether the full cabinet would meet on Friday or Saturday or whether there would be any delay to the start of the ceasefire on Sunday.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said Washington believed the agreement was on track and a ceasefire in the 15-month-old conflict was expected to proceed “as soon as late this weekend.”
“We are seeing nothing that would tell us that this is going to get derailed at this point,” he said on CNN on Thursday.
A group representing families of Israeli hostages in Gaza, 33 of whom are due to be freed in the first six-week phase of the accord, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward quickly.
“For the 98 hostages, each night is another night of terrible nightmare. Do not delay their return even for one more night,” the group said in a statement late on Thursday carried by Israeli media.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier on Thursday a “loose end” in the negotiations needed to be resolved.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this was a dispute over the identities of some prisoners Hamas wanted released. Envoys of President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump were in Doha with Egyptian and Qatari mediators working to resolve it, the official said.
Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said the group remained committed to the ceasefire deal.
Biden said on Thursday that Netanyahu had to “find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel.
“And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question … It’s not going to happen,” Biden, a Democrat who hands over to Republican President-elect Trump on Monday, said in an interview on MSNBC.
Inside Gaza, joy over the truce gave way to sorrow and anger at the intensified bombardment that followed the ceasefire announcement on Wednesday.
Tamer Abu Shaaban’s voice cracked as he stood over the tiny body of his young niece wrapped in a white shroud at a Gaza City morgue. She had been hit in the back with missile shrapnel as she played in the yard of a school where the family was sheltering, he said.
“Is this the truce they are talking about? What did this young girl, this child, do to deserve this?” he asked.
VOTE EXPECTED
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the security cabinet and government. The prime minister’s office has not commented on the timing.
Some political analysts speculated that the start of the ceasefire, scheduled for Sunday, could be delayed if Israel does not finalise approval until Saturday.
Hardliners in Netanyahu’s government, who say the war has not achieved its objective of wiping out Hamas and should not end until it does so, had hoped to stop the deal.
Nevertheless, a majority of ministers were expected to back the agreement.
In Jerusalem, some Israelis marched through the streets carrying mock coffins in protest at the ceasefire, blocking roads and scuffling with police. Other protesters blocked traffic until security forces dispersed them.
The ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Dozens of hostages taken by Hamas including women, children, elderly and sick people would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
It paves the way for a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, where the majority of the population has been displaced, facing hunger, sickness and cold.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to Gaza authorities.
STILFONTEIN, South Africa — The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday.
Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out” by cutting off their food supplies.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were retrieved in a court-ordered rescue operation, with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.
Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”
The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
Police and the mine owners were also accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.
A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.
Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.
“If the police had acted earlier, we would not be in this situation, with bodies piling up,” said Johannes Qankase, a local community leader. “It is a disgrace for a constitutional democracy like ours. Somebody needs to account for what has happened here.”
South Africa’s second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry to find out “why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand.”
“The scale of the disaster underground at Buffelsfontein is rapidly proving to be as bad as feared,” the Democratic Alliance party said.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August last year. Most of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested, even as some emerged this week badly emaciated and barely able to walk to waiting ambulances.
A convoy of mortuary vans arrived at the mine to carry away the bodies.
Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation.
Police announced Wednesday that they were ending the operation after three days and believed no one else was underground. To be sure, a camera was sent down Thursday in a cage that was used to pull out survivors and bodies.
Two volunteer rescuers from the community had gone down in the small cage during the rescue operation to help miners as authorities refused to allow any official rescue personnel to go into the shaft because it was too dangerous.
“It has been a tough few days, there were many people who (we) saved but I still feel bad for those whose family members came out in body bags,” said Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers. “We did all we could.” The two volunteers were being offered trauma counselling, police said.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and is a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it.
The miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in different groups.
Police have maintained that the miners were able to come out through several shafts but refused out of fear of being arrested. That’s been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say hundreds were trapped and left starving in dark and damp conditions with decomposing bodies around them.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied in an interview with a national TV station that the police were responsible for any starvation and said they had allowed food to go down.
The initial police operation last year to force the miners to come out and give themselves up for arrest was part of a larger nationwide clampdown on illegal mining called Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole. Illegal mining is often in the news in South Africa and a major problem for authorities as large groups go into mines that have been shut down to extract leftover deposits.
Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.
The illicit miners, known as “zama zamas” — “hustlers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates, the government says, and they rob South Africa of more than $1 billion a year in gold deposits.
They are often undocumented foreign nationals and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally.
Police said they seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hard-line approach.
“By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners, it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive,” Mathe said Wednesday.
But the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government’s humanity and how it could “allow anyone — be they citizens or undocumented immigrants — to starve to death in the depths of the earth.”
While the police operation has been condemned by civic groups, the disaster hasn’t provoked a strong outpouring of anger across South Africa, where the mostly foreign zama zamas have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already struggles with high rates of violent crime.
LOS ANGELES — The fierce wildfires across the Los Angeles area in Southern California of the United States have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 12,300 structures in more than a week, local authorities confirmed Thursday.
Firefighters continued to make progress on Thursday against two major wildfires in Los Angeles as winds died down in the area.
The Palisades Fire, one of the largest active wildfires in the Los Angeles region, has scorched 23,713 acres (95.96 sq km) so far. The fire, which broke out on Jan. 7, is 22 percent contained, up from 17 percent a day earlier.
“Weather conditions return to seasonally normal, and fire is expected to remain within the current perimeter with no additional growth anticipated,” said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) in an update Thursday.
“Crews continue to establish and improve the fire line, seek out and extinguish hot spots and construct containment lines to limit further structural damage within the areas still at risk,” said Cal Fire.
Another major active fire, the Eaton Fire, has scorched 14,117 acres (57.1 sq km) near Altadena and Pasadena. The fire’s containment jumped to 55 percent, up from 45 percent a day earlier.
Calmer overnight and early morning winds reduced the fire’s activity, allowing firefighters to make good progress in securing containment lines, according to Cal Fire.
But the agency pointed out that with the returning Santa Ana winds Monday, widespread critical fire weather conditions remain present in parts of Southern California.
YAOUNDE — At least one person was killed and six others injured on Thursday afternoon in a clash between government forces and separatists in Cameroon’s war-torn English-speaking region of Northwest, a military official told Xinhua.
The exchange of fire occurred in the neighborhood of Bamenda, chief town of the region as government forces repelled a separatist infiltration attempt, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“They attacked a military outpost at Ntabessi. Our brave forces fought back and opened fire. It was then that stray bullets killed a civilian and injured six others. Our forces are pursuing them to their hideouts,” the official said.
A separatist insurgency has been going on in Cameroon’s two anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017. Armed separatists attempt to secede from the largely French-speaking Cameroon and create an independent nation in the regions.
TOKYO — A residential fire in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward early Friday has left one man dead.
The fire was reported at around 4:15 a.m. local time in a two-story house in Adachi. Firefighters dispatched 20 fire engines to the scene and managed to extinguish the flames approximately 90 minutes later.
The man was rescued from the burning home but was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Authorities are still working to confirm his identity.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating the cause of the fire.
Spain’s national flag is raised above the Spanish embassy in Damascus during the first visit by the foreign minister since the toppling of president Bashar Assad in the Syrian capital Damascus, on Jan. 16, 2025. (AFP)
DAMASCUS — Spain raised its flag at Madrid’s Damascus embassy Thursday, in the presence of its top diplomat more than a decade after suspending activity and as Western countries resume ties following Syrian president Bashar Assad’s ouster.
Spain closed the mission in March 2012, a year after Assad began brutal repression of anti-government protests, triggering more than 13 years of war. “It is an honor for me to be here in person,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said at the embassy, where the Spanish national anthem was played, an AFP correspondent reported.
“Raising the Spanish flag again is a sign of the hope we have for Syria’s future, of the commitment we convey to the Syrian people for a better future.”
A statement from the foreign ministry ahead of the visit said Albares would meet representatives of Syria’s new administration and of civil society.
The trip comes more than a month after rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad. Top European officials, including foreign ministers from France and Germany, have made a series of visits to meet with the country’s new rulers.
A transitional administration has been appointed until March and HTS, which has roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, has sought to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed and the rule of law will be respected.
Albares told public broadcaster TVE ahead of the visit that “the message that I want to send is a message of support to Syria.”
“But we also have red lines. Syria must be peaceful. Syria must be inclusive, and the rights of all must be respected, including those of women, and ethnic and religious minorities,” he added.
“This will be my first official trip this year,” Albares told TVE, adding he “wanted to start with one of the regions where Spanish foreign policy is most influential and where we work hardest to achieve peace.”
Albares’s trip to Syria followed a visit to neighboring Lebanon on Wednesday, where he announced a 10 million euro ($10.3 million) aid package for the country’s army, nearly two months into a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM — Israel airstrikes killed at least 77 people in Gaza overnight on Thursday, residents and authorities in the enclave said, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced to bring an end to 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East.
The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed.
Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls the enclave, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
BRATISLAVA — Two individuals were killed, and one remains in critical condition following a high school attack by an 18-year-old student in eastern Slovakia, local media reported on Thursday.
The student carried out the knife attack at a high school in the town of Spisska Stara Ves on Thursday afternoon. The suspect was detained shortly after the incident, according to Presov law enforcement officers.
ISTANBUL — The death toll from bootleg alcohol in Istanbul has reached 30, local media reported on Thursday, sparking a crackdown on illicit production and sales.
The NTV reported that 30 people, including foreign nationals, died in the past 72 hours after consuming counterfeit alcohol, while 49 others remain hospitalized, 31 in critical condition.
The Istanbul Governor’s Office announced raids at multiple sites, detaining six suspects linked to large-scale counterfeit alcohol distribution. Two were charged with intentional homicide and imprisoned, while legal proceedings continue for the others.
Authorities compared those involved in the counterfeit trade to “terrorists who kill people” and confirmed the seizure of 29 tonnes of illicit alcohol and the closure of 64 illegal businesses this year.
In a related move, the Turkish government tightened regulations on alcohol storage on Thursday, requiring official approval for storage facilities and banning shared or improperly located warehouses.
The governorate reported 110 hospitalizations and 48 deaths in 2024 from tainted alcohol.
Palestinians walk past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, ahead of a ceasefire set to take effect on Sunday, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip January 16, 2025. REUTERS
DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM — Israel airstrikes killed at least 70 people in Gaza overnight on Thursday, residents and authorities in the enclave said, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced to bring an end to 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East.
The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed.
Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls the enclave, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country’s security cabinet and government, and a vote was slated for Thursday, an Israeli official said.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of making last-minute demands and going back on agreements.
“The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
It was unclear what impact the latest delay will have on the deal.
Hamas is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by mediators on Wednesday, senior group official Izzat el-Reshiq said on Thursday.
Hardliners in Netanyahu’s government were still hoping to stop the deal, though a majority of ministers were still expected to back it.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his party would only stay in the government if Israel resumes the war full force until Hamas is defeated. Far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also threatened to quit the government if the ceasefire is approved.
CALLS FOR FASTER IMPLEMENTATION
Some Palestinians called for the deal to be implemented more quickly.
“We lose homes every hour. We demand for this joy not to go away, the joy that was drawn on our faces – don’t waste it by delaying the implementation of the truce until Sunday,” Gazan man Mahmoud Abu Wardeh said.
While people celebrated the pact in Gaza and Israel, Israel’s military conducted more attacks, the civil emergency service and residents said.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service, said in a statement that 71 Palestinians had been killed and at least 200 others wounded.
The Israeli military is looking into the reports, a military spokesperson said.
At a news conference in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps to implement the agreement.
“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in Washington.
His successor, Donald Trump, takes office on Monday and claimed credit for the breakthrough in Gaza.
Israelis will find it hard to see Palestinian militants who were serving life sentences for their involvement in deadly attacks in their country, set free.
But successive surveys have shown broad support among the public for a deal that would see the hostages released, even at what is seen as a heavy price.
“This has to be the only choice that we take in order to continue surviving as a state and as a nation, knowing that we will do anything to save each other,” said Jerusalem resident Chava Treitel.
Israel secured major gains over Iran and its proxies, mainly Hezbollah, as the Gaza conflict spread. In Gaza, Hamas may have been crippled, but without an alternative administration in place, it has been left standing.
If successful, the ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to Gaza authorities.
That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.
With 98 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, phase one of the deal entails the release of 33 of them, including all women, children and men over 50.
FOOD LINED UP AT GAZA’S BORDERS
The agreement calls for a surge in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were preparing to scale up their aid operations.
Global reaction to the ceasefire was enthusiastic.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Negotiations on implementing the second phase of the deal will begin by the 16th day of phase one, and this stage was expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The third stage is to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
KIEV — Several powerful explosions sounded in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday during the air raid alert, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the air defense was active in the city.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that a combat drone was heading towards Kiev.
JAKARTA — Seven people reportedly went missing after a fire broke out on Wednesday evening in a shopping mall in the Indonesian city of Jakarta, police said on Thursday.
The incident occurred in Glodok Plaza at around 9:20 p.m. local time in the densely populated area of Tamansari sub-district. Many visitors were reportedly in the mall at the time of the fire.
The city’s fire department has deployed over 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters to combat the fire at the shopping mall. As of Thursday afternoon, embers remain in one of the buildings, despite the extinguishing efforts having entered the cooling stage.
The city’s police spokesperson, Ade Ary Syam Indradi, told local reporters that firefighters and police personnel are still at the location to investigate the main cause of the blaze.
NEW DELHI — India’s popular film actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed at least six times with a knife by an intruder who had barged into his house with the motive of committing a burglary during the wee hours of Thursday, local police confirmed.
The incident happened inside Khan’s house at around 02:45 a.m. in the country’s financial capital Mumbai. The local police were yet to apprehend the attacker who fled from the spot after the assault.
One female staff of the film actor’s team was also injured during the scuffle, said the police.
Later, Khan was admitted to a local hospital where he received surgeries. His condition was said to be stable and out of danger. According to a statement issued by the hospital, Khan received two deep wounds with one near the spine.
Son of famous film actress Sharmila Tagore and India’s former cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Saif Ali Khan made his career debut in the early 1990s and is married to film actress Kareena Kapoor.
