Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire
Palestinian Talal Al-Assali and his family are seen in front of their destroyed home in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on February 9, 2025. US President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted on his "scandal(ous)" idea of uprooting Palestinians from Gaza and resettling them elsewhere. (AFP)
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Updated 10 February 2025
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Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire
  • “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it,” Trump said
  • He said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice

MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip: New details and growing shock over emaciated hostages renewed pressure Sunday on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a fragile Gaza ceasefire beyond the first phase, even as US President Donald Trump repeated his pledge that the US would take control of the Palestinian enclave.
Talks on the second phase, meant to see more hostages released and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, were due to start Feb. 3. But Israel and Hamas appear to have made little progress, even as Israeli forces withdrew Sunday from a Gaza corridor in the latest commitment to the truce.
Netanyahu sent a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator, but it included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough. Netanyahu, who returned after a US visit to meet with Trump, is expected to convene security Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.
Trump weighs in on Gaza again
Speaking on Sunday, Trump repeated his pledge to take control of the Gaza Strip.
“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished,” he told reporters onboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Super Bowl.
Trump said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice.
“They don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area — the only reason they’re talking about returning to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza.”
Trump also suggested he was losing patience with the deal after seeing the emaciated hostages released this week.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said.
Israel has expressed openness to the idea of resettling Gaza’s population — ”a revolutionary, creative vision,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday — while Hamas, the Palestinians and much of the world have rejected it.
Egypt said it will host an emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss the “new and dangerous developments.”
Trump’s proposal has moral, legal and practical obstacles. It may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic to pressure Hamas or an opening gambit in discussions aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia condemned Netanyahu’s recent comment that Palestinians could create their state there, saying it aimed to divert attention from crimes committed by “the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”
Qatar called Netanyahu’s comment “provocative” and a blatant violation of international law.
Hostage families say time is running out
Families of remaining hostages said time is running out as some survivors described being barefoot and in chains.
“We cannot let the hostages remain there. There is no other way. I am appealing to the cabinet,” said Ella Ben Ami, daughter of a hostage released Saturday, adding she now understands the toll of captivity is much worse than imagined.
The father of a remaining hostage, Kobi Ohel, told Israel’s Channel 13 the newly released men said his son, Alon, and others “live off half a pita to a full pita a day. These are not human conditions.” Ohel’s mother, Idit, sobbed as she told Channel 12 her son has been chained for over a year.
Michael Levy said his brother, the newly released Or Levy, had been barefoot and hungry for 16 months. “The decision-makers knew exactly what his condition was and what everyone else’s condition was, and they did not do enough to bring him back with the urgency that was needed,” he said.
On Saturday, as Israelis reeled, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said on social media that the deterioration in hostages’ conditions was something “Israel has known about for some time.”
The ceasefire’s extension is not guaranteed
The ceasefire that began on Jan. 19 has held, raising hopes that the 16-month war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.
The latest step was Israel forces’ withdrawal from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, which was used as a military zone. No troops were seen in the vicinity Sunday. As the ceasefire began last month, Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to cross Netzarim and return to the north.
But the deal remains fragile. On Sunday, civil defense first responders in Gaza said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. Israel’s military noted “several hits” after firing warning shots and warned Palestinians against approaching its forces.
Cars piled with belongings headed north. Under the deal, Israel should allow cars to cross Netzarim uninspected. Troops remain along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the troops’ withdrawal showed the militant group had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands” and thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”
Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops.
During the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel has said Hamas confirmed that eight of the 33 are dead.
Families of the hostages gathered in Tel Aviv to urge Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire, but he is also under pressure from far-right political allies to resume the war. Trump’s proposal for the US to take control of the Gaza Strip may also complicate the situation.
“They are dying there, so we need to finish this deal in a hurry,” said Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, who died in captivity.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Much of the territory has been obliterated.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank during the war and intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation against Palestinian militants in the territory’s north.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli gunfire killed two women, one of them, Sundus Shalabi, eight months pregnant. It said Rahaf Al-Ashqar, 21, was also killed. The shooting occurred in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations.
Israel’s military said its police had opened an investigation.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday announced the expansion of the operation that started in Jenin several weeks ago. He said it was meant to prevent Iran — allied with Hamas — from establishing a foothold in the West Bank.
 


Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister

Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister
Updated 9 sec ago
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Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister

Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister
  • Ahmed Al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group that led the offensive that overthrew Bashar Assad, was appointed interim president
DUBAI: Syrian Arab Republic will have a new government next month, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani said on Wednesday, with interim authorities having ruled the country after the overthrown of Bashar Assad.
“The government that will be launched March 1 will represent the Syrian people as much as possible and take its diversity into account,” Shaibani said on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in the United Arab Emirates.
The Islamist-led militants that seized power installed an interim government headed by Mohammad Al-Bashir to steer the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country until March 1.
Last month, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group (HTS) that led the offensive that overthrew Assad, was appointed interim president.
He was tasked with forming a transitional legislature with the Assad-era parliament dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades.
HTS and other factions have themselves been dissolved, with their fighters to be integrated into a future national force.
In an interview earlier this month, Sharaa said that organizing elections could take up to five years.
The new authorities have pledged to hold a national dialogue conference involving all Syrians, but have yet to set a date.

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders
Updated 21 min 23 sec ago
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Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders
  • Unified data vital, says Larry Ellisson at World Governments Summit
  • AstraZeneka’s Pascal Soriot warns of dangers of ‘data fragmentation’

DUBAI: Governments need to feed artificial intelligence models accurate data  —stored in secure, centralized centers — so that better solutions can be found to improve public services, said Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at the World Governments Summit here on Wednesday.

AI, if harnessed correctly, would fundamentally change several industries including medicine, agriculture and robotics, said Ellison during a discussion on governance featuring former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This was a view later echoed by AstraZeneka’s CEO Pascal Soriot, who warned against the inefficiencies of fragmented information which placed hurdles in the way of effective healthcare.

Soriot warned of the problems of what he called data fragmentation, where information is not held in a centralized environment.

“While AI is transformative, data fragmentation remains a hurdle. The healthcare industry needs time to adapt, but the potential is undeniable.”

In Ellison’s session, titled “Reimagining Technology for Government: A conversation with Larry Ellison and Tony Blair,” the Oracle co-founder said the scope to improve governance, especially in areas such as health, has improved significantly.

Oracle is a US-based tech company known for its database management system used by organizations across the globe.

“Countries need to unify their data so it can be consumed and used by the AI model. We must feed the AI model as much data about a country as possible,” Ellison said.

A single unified platform was proposed by Ellison to give AI models all the context and information needed to provide accurate responses and maximize its usage.

Ellison said government data was currently fragmented and once this information was unified, it was vital to store it securely. “These data centers need to be secure in our countries for privacy and security reasons,” he added.

Improving AI models would, for example, lower healthcare costs as diagnosis would be much faster, he explained. AI could also help maximize crop yields to improve food security for the planet.

“The UAE has a treasure of data that can improve quality of life and lifespan by preparing healthcare data and using these AI models to improve quality of life,” he added.

He added that Oracle would no longer require users to access platforms with passwords but would implement biometric scans and AI technology.

“The digital tools we have right now are so primitive. We can easily be locked out of all our data; passwords and data are so easily stolen and ransomed. We need to modernize our systems,” he said.

In the later session on the global health sector, AstraZeneca’s Soriot said there were two factors contributing to the current surge in preventable conditions.

“Self-inflicted diseases are a growing crisis in the health industry,” he said, identifying climate change and obesity as the leading culprits.

“Air pollution, increasing temperatures, and climate change are not just abstract threats; they are silent killers,” Soriot warned.

He elaborated on the impact of microplastics, pollutants, and toxic emissions, which have been linked to rising cases of heart attacks, cancers, and kidney and liver diseases worldwide.

Soriot pointed to obesity as another critical factor.

“This self-inflicted condition triggers chronic low-level inflammation, paving the way for kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, and various forms of cancer,” he said.

He expressed frustration over the minimal investment in preventive healthcare. “Governments allocate only 3 percent of their healthcare budgets to prevention and early diagnosis.”

But he said this could be tackled with the use of technology. “Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare, enabling early diagnosis where traditional methods fall short.”

AI’s capabilities in detecting early signs of lung cancer and kidney issues could extend lives significantly, he added.

In his closing remarks Soriot said: “The future of healthcare hinges on our ability to prevent rather than just treat.

“We must prioritize early intervention, leverage technology, and rethink our approach to health. Only then can we hope to reverse this silent crisis.”

 


Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza

Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza
Updated 12 February 2025
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Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza

Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza
  • The Israeli military has previously said it thwarted similar attempts to smuggle weapons using drones
  • Hamas, while reaffirming its commitment to the truce, has accused Israel of violations

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it conducted an air strike on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, targeting two people attempting to retrieve a drone that had crossed into the Palestinian territory.
The military said the drone had flown from Israeli territory and was subsequently targeted by an Israeli warplane in southern Gaza.
“Recently, several attempts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip using drones have been detected,” the military said in a statement.
“The IDF (military) struck the drone in southern Gaza, along with two additional suspects who were collecting it,” it said, without specifying their fate.
The Israeli military has previously said it thwarted similar attempts to smuggle weapons using drones.
On Sunday, it identified a drone crossing from Egypt into Israeli territory.
“Following pursuit in the area the weapons smuggling was thwarted by the forces,” it said at the time.
It was unclear whether Wednesday’s strike was the first the military conducted in Gaza since the ongoing 42-day phase of a ceasefire took effect on January 19.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce following negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Since the truce began, both sides have carried out five hostage-prisoner exchanges, with Hamas releasing 16 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
However, the ceasefire is under increasing strain after Israel threatened to resume fighting if Hamas does not hand over more hostages by this weekend.
Hamas, while reaffirming its commitment to the truce, has accused Israel of violations.


Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East

Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East
Updated 12 February 2025
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Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East

Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East
  • Trump plan would lead the Middle East into a new cycle of crises with a ‘damaging effect on peace and stability’
  • Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the US would take over Gaza

DUBAI: US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians, which has drawn global condemnation, will threaten a fragile ceasefire in the enclave and fuel regional instability, senior Arab officials said on Wednesday.

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned the World Government Summit in Dubai that if Trump pressed ahead with his plan, he would lead the Middle East into a new cycle of crises with a “damaging effect on peace and stability.”

Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

After 16 months of Israeli air strikes in the Gaza war following Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October 2023, Palestinians fear a repeat of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 people fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel. Trump has said they would have no right to return.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas until it was defeated if the Palestinian militant group did not release hostages by midday on Saturday.

Hamas later issued a statement renewing its commitment to the ceasefire and accusing Israel of jeopardizing it.

Hamas has gradually been releasing hostages since the first phase of a ceasefire began on January 19, but on Monday said it would not free any more over accusations Israel was violating the deal.

“If the situation explodes militarily once more, all this (ceasefire) effort will be wasted,” Aboul Gheit said.

Jasem Al-Budaiwi, who heads the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council political and economic alliance, called on Trump to remember the strong ties between the region and Washington.

“But there has to be give and take, he says his opinion and Arab world should say theirs; what he is saying won’t be accepted by the Arab world.”

Trump has said the Palestinians in Gaza, an impoverished tiny strip of land, could settle in countries like Jordan, which already has a huge Palestinian population, and Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous state. Both have rejected the proposal.

For Jordan, Trump’s talk of resettlement comes close to its nightmare of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, with the idea of Jordan becoming an alternative Palestinian home long promoted by ultra-nationalist Israelis.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi partly views it as a security issue. He believes Islamists like Hamas are an existential threat to Egypt and beyond and would not welcome any members of the group crossing the border and settling in Egypt.

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “serious” developments for Palestinians.

Aboul Gheit said the idea of the Arab Peace Initiative floated in 2002, in which Arab nations offered Israel normalized ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in 1967, would be reintroduced.

Trump’s plan has upended decades of US policy that endorsed a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state would coexist.

Elsewhere, China reiterated its opposition to what it called “forced displacement” of Palestinians when asked about Trump’s plan.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is an integral part of the Palestinian territory... We oppose the forced displacement of the people of Gaza,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing on Wednesday.

So far, 16 of 33 hostages taken by Hamas militants from Israel have been freed as part of the ceasefire deal’s first phase due to last 42 days. Five Thai hostages were also let go in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including some serving life sentences for deadly attacks and others detained during the war and held without charge.


Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return
Updated 12 February 2025
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Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

GAZIANTEP: As excitement swept through the Syrian community after Bashar Assad’s overthrow, businesses in Turkiye that rely on them for labor began quickly crunching the numbers.
“The Syrians have made a big contribution to the textile sector here. If they leave, there will be a serious labor problem,” said Ali Gozcu, reflecting the widespread anxiety gripping Turkiye’s textile industry.
Gozcu runs ALG Teksil, a clothing firm in Gaziantep, a southeastern Turkish city that is home to half a million Syrians.
“We don’t expect a sudden departure, but if it happens, we will suffer a serious loss of labor,” he told AFP, adding that 70 percent of his workers were Syrian.
And he is not alone.
“All of the workers here are Syrian,” agreed Yusuf Samil Kandil, a quality controller at Beni Giy clothing, referring to the Unal district where textile firms line the run-down streets and old-fashioned mannequins stand in dusty shopfronts alongside racks of garments.
“If the Syrians leave, our labor costs will increase significantly, as well as our production costs,” he told AFP.
Turkiye is the world’s sixth-largest textile manufacturer and its industry is based in the southern regions that host most of its around 2.9 million Syrian migrants.
Government figures show that around 100,000 Syrians have work permits, but experts believe about a million Syrians are active in the Turkish economy, mostly in informal, labor-intensive jobs in construction, manufacturing and textiles.
Their departure could put a serious dent in the workforce of an industry that is struggling with inflationary pressures and rising costs.
So far, just over 81,000 people have returned, interior ministry figures show, although observers expect a surge in June over the Eid Al-Adha holiday.
On ALG’s factory floor, dozens of young men and women sit hunched over industrial sewing machines or overlockers, churning out thousands of t-shirts.
A new Syrian flag hangs on the wall and there is an Arabic notice on the toilet door.
Zekeriya Bozo, a 55-year-old worker who wants to return to Syria and “create a new business there” said: “If Syrians leave, there won’t be anyone left to work” at ALG.
But experts say it is a complicated picture for Syrians, suggesting fears of a mass departure are unfounded due to the uncertainty hanging over a country ravaged by 13 years of war.
“Although they’re very happy that Assad is gone, that was only one barrier to them going back,” said Professor Murat Erdogan, whose Syrians Barometer survey has consistently flagged their concerns about safety, the potential for conflict and Syria’s ruined infrastructure.
Most have established a life in Turkiye, with more than 970,000 babies born over the past 12 years.
Despite tough working conditions, they know they are unlikely to find something better back home, he told AFP.
“They told us they have a lot of problems in Turkiye and work very hard for very little money. But if they go back, even if they did find jobs, they said they’ll only get $14 a month,” he said.
They earn far more than that in Turkiye.
“Going back is a huge decision. Because of that, I think a maximum of 20 percent of them will return and that will take a lot of time.”
Despite the uncertainty, Gozcu is looking into new ways of working that could accommodate the return of some Syrians, nearly half of whom hail from the Aleppo region just across the border from Gaziantep.
“We’ve become very close with our Syrian workers,” he told AFP.
If need be, “we will open workshops in Syria for them and will continue our production there,” he said.
Although much of Syria was in ruins, Kemal Kirisci, a migration expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said there was potential for developing business links in the future.
“Syria is a very promising place in the long run. Ideally, we could have a very porous economic border so people could move back-and-forth,” he told AFP.
“It would be a win for Turkish industry, for the economy, a win for Syria and for the new regime.”
There could eventually be a revival of the so-called ‘ShamGen’ area of free trade and visa-free movement between Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye that was inspired by the EU’s Schengen zone but collapsed at the start of the war in 2011.
“These things could be revived very easily — but the key lies with this new regime,” he said.