Fighting desertification and land degradation for future generations

GAZA CITY: Israel on Wednesday threatened to launch a new war on Hamas that would lead to the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace all Palestinians from the territory if the militants do not release hostages this weekend.
The remarks by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz came shortly after Palestinian group Hamas said it would not bow down to US and Israeli “threats” over the release of hostages under a fragile truce deal.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to salvage the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last month, a Palestinian source and a diplomat familiar with the talks told AFP, while Hamas said its top negotiator was in Cairo.
The truce has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting and seen Israeli captives released in small groups in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.
But the deal, currently in its 42-day first phase, has come under increasing strain.
The warring sides, which have yet to agree on the next phases of the truce, have traded accusations of violations, spurring concern that the violence could resume.
Katz said Israel would resume its war if Hamas fails to free captives on Saturday, when a sixth hostage-prisoner exchange was scheduled under the terms of the agreement.
Hamas has said it would postpone the release citing Israeli violations, and hours later, Trump warned that “hell” would break loose if the Palestinian militant failed to release “all” hostages by then.
If fighting resumes, Katz said, “the new Gaza war will be different in intensity from the one before the ceasefire, and it will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages.”
“It will also allow the realization of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” he added.
Katz on Thursday ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.
The Israeli military said it has already begun reinforcing its troops around Gaza.
Trump had proposed taking over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt — a plan experts say would violate international law but which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “revolutionary.”
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Wednesday that Israel was “evading the implementation of several provisions of the ceasefire agreement,” warning that hostages would not be released without Israeli compliance with the deal.
“Our position is clear, and we will not accept the language of American and Israeli threats,” said Qassem, after Netanyahu threatened to “resume intense fighting” if hostages were not released by Saturday.
Last week’s hostage release sparked anger in Israel and beyond after Hamas paraded three emaciated hostages before a crowd and forced them to speak.
On the Palestinian side, Hamas accused Israel of failing to meet its commitments under the agreement, including on aid, and cited the deaths of three Gazans over the weekend.
Hamas has insisted it remained “committed to the ceasefire,” and said that a delegation headed by chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya was in Cairo for meetings and to monitor “the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
A diplomat and a Palestinian source familiar with the talks both told AFP on condition of anonymity that mediators were engaged with the parties to resolve the dispute.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Hamas to proceed with the planned release and “avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza.”
In Tel Aviv, Israeli student Mali Abramovitch, 28, said that it was “terrible to think” that the next group of hostages would not be released “because Israel allegedly violated the conditions, which is nonsense.”
“We can’t let them (Hamas) play with us like this... It’s simply not acceptable.”
In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, 48-year-old Saleh Awad told AFP he felt “anxiety and fear,” saying that “Israel is seeking any pretext to reignite the war... and displace” the territory’s inhabitants.
Trump reaffirmed his Saturday deadline for the hostage release when hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday.
In a phone call Wednesday, Abdullah and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said they were united in supporting the “full implementation” of the ceasefire, “the continued release of hostages and prisoners, and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid,” according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
The two leaders called for Gaza’s “immediate” reconstruction “without displacing the Palestinian people from their land.”
Egypt, a US ally which borders Gaza, earlier said it planned to “present a comprehensive vision” for the reconstruction of the Palestinian territory.
A UN report has said that more than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the “humanitarian catastrophe” there.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,222 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures which the UN considers reliable from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

BRUSSELS: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.
Hours later, President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the Ukraine war. In a social media post that upended three years of US policy toward Ukraine, the Republican disclosed a call between the two leaders and said they would “work together, very closely.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said Zelensky and Trump also had a phone conversation.
Taken together, the statements by Trump and Hegseth offered the clearest look yet at how the new administration might try to end Europe’s largest land war in generations.
Hegseth’s warning to Ukraine that it should abandon its NATO bid and its push to reclaim all Russian-occupied territory signaled starkly to Kyiv that the administration’s view of a potential settlement is remarkably close to Moscow’s vision. Putin has declared that any peace deal must ensure that Ukraine gives up its NATO ambitions and withdraws its troops from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.
In sweeping remarks to allies eager to hear how much continued support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government, Hegseth indicated that Trump is determined to get Europe to assume most of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine, including a possible peacekeeping force that would not include US troops.
Making the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration, the defense secretary also said the force should not have Article 5 protections, which could require the US or the 31 other nations of the NATO alliance to come to the aid of those forces if they are attacked by Russian forces.
The secretary’s comments were sure to dim Ukraine’s hopes of making itself whole again and to complicate talks later this week between Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance and other senior American officials at a major security security conference in Munich.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said, as Kyiv’s backers gathered at NATO headquarters for a meeting to drum up more arms and ammunition for the war, which will soon enter its fourth year.
All 32 allies must agree for a country to join NATO, meaning that every member has a veto.
“Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” Hegseth said. “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.”
Other Western allies said the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO needs to stay on the table.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said NATO “is still the main guarantee of security for European countries.”
Asked about Trump’s phone call with Putin, Barrot said that abandoning Ukraine would “entrench the law of the strongest. It would be an invitation to all the world’s tyrants and despots to invade their neighbors with complete impunity.”
Hegseth insisted that NATO should play no role in any future military mission to police the peace in Ukraine and that any peacekeeping troops should not be covered by the part of NATO’s founding treaty that obliges all allies to come to the aid of any member under attack.
Article 5 has been activated only once, when European allies and Canada used it to help the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
Hegseth also said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.” Ukraine currently relies equally on Europe and the US for about 30 percent each of its defense needs. The rest is produced by Ukraine itself.
Speaking with the allies of Ukraine known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth also insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must abandon the “illusionary goal” of returning the country to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Members of this contact group must meet the moment,” Hegseth said to the approximately 50 member countries that have provided support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin “talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place” in the war.
Trump said the two leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
Zelensky said he had a “meaningful conversation” with Trump about “opportunities to achieve peace.” He said Trump shared details of his conversation with Putin.
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine,” Zelensky posted on X. “Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s get it done. We agreed to maintain further contact and plan upcoming meetings.”
Talking to reporters after the NATO meeting, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said Hegseth’s words would not go unheeded.
“We heard his call for European nations to step up. We are, and we will,” Healey said.
Healey underlined that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. That is a process that will take some time.”
He also announced that Britain would provide Ukraine with a fresh $187 million “firepower package,” including drones, tanks and air-defense systems.
Over nearly three years, those 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the US, which has served as the chair of the group since its creation.
Hegseth’s trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Most US allies fear that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine’s borders if he wins.
Trump has promised to end the war quickly. He’s complained that it’s costing American taxpayers too much money and suggested that Ukraine should pay for US support with access to its rare earth minerals, energy and other resources.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Kyiv to discuss a potential economic cooperation agreement with Ukraine that Trump is pushing as part of the foundation for a larger peace deal.