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CAIRO: Hamas will not hold talks with Israel through mediators on any further steps in the fragile, phased ceasefire agreement unless Palestinian prisoners are released as agreed, group official Basem Naim told Reuters on Sunday.
Israel said on Sunday it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it had planned to free the day before until militant group Hamas met its conditions.
CAIRO: The Arab League on Sunday reaffirmed its position that the Palestinian cause is a matter of both land and people and described all attempts to displace Palestinians as violations of international law.
The organization described attempts at annexation, settlement expansion and forced displacement as forms of ethnic cleansing — attempts that had repeatedly failed in the past, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The comments were made by Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Haifa Abu Ghazaleh during the opening session of the Palestine and the Role of Civil Society conference, which opened in Cairo on Sunday.
Abu Ghazaleh, who is also head of the social affairs sector at the Arab League, highlighted the critical role of civil society in Gaza’s postwar reconstruction and called for international cooperation to ensure aid delivery, accelerate rebuilding efforts and reject all forms of displacement.
She also emphasized the urgent need for relief measures and clear mechanisms to oversee humanitarian initiatives.
Also on Sunday, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit met Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi to prepare for next month’s emergency Arab summit and discuss the latest developments in Gaza.
The talks focused on consolidating ceasefire efforts and ensuring sustainable humanitarian aid delivery, the Jordan News Agency reported.
Aboul Gheit and Safadi reiterated their rejection of any forced displacement of Palestinians and expressed support for Egypt’s reconstruction plan for Gaza, which would allow residents to remain in their homes.
They warned against escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and called for an end to illegal Israeli actions. They also reaffirmed their belief that the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, remained the only viable path to lasting regional peace.
Safadi and Aboul Gheit also discussed the situation in Syria and stressed the need to ensure stability and the safety of its citizens.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that southern Syria must be demilitarized entirely, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of the forces of the Damascus government near its territory.
“We will not allow forces from the HTS organization or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus,” Netanyahu said, referring to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Bashar Assad in December.
“We demand the complete demilitarization of southern Syria, including the Quneitra, Daraa, and Suwayda provinces,” Netanyahu declared at a military ceremony.
The same day Assad was ousted, Israel announced that its troops were entering a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from the Syrian Arab Republic in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
Netanyahu said that Israeli forces would remain in the buffer zone “for an indefinite period to protect our communities and thwart any threat.”
Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria during its civil war, which broke out in 2011.
After the lightning offensive that ousted Syria’s longtime President, Assad, Israel carried out hundreds more airstrikes on Syrian military assets in what it said was a bid to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he was headed to the Middle East this week to discuss an extension to phase one of the Israel-Hamas peace deal.
“We have to get an extension of phase one, and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that,” Witkoff told CNN.
“And we’re hopeful that we have the proper time ... to begin phase two, finish it off, and get more hostages released.”
Hamas on Sunday said Israel had gravely endangered the five-week-old Gaza truce by delaying the release of Palestinian prisoners under the deal because of how Israeli hostages had been freed.
The first phase of the truce ends early in March, and details of a planned subsequent phase have not been agreed.
With tensions again hanging over the deal, which halted more than 15 months of war, Israel on Sunday announced an expansion of military operations in the occupied West Bank.
Asked if he believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to extend the ceasefire or resume fighting, Witkoff said he believed the former.
“I believe the prime minister is well motivated. He wants to see hostages released, that’s for sure. He also wants to protect the state of Israel, and so he’s got a red line,” he said.
The “red line,” he said, was Hamas having a future role in the governance of Gaza.
“I would say at this point, for sure, they can’t be any part of governance in Gaza,” said Witkoff.
“And, you know, as to existing, I’d leave that detail to the prime minister.”
Netanyahu on Sunday said that Israel was prepared to resume fighting in the Gaza Strip “at any moment” while vowing to complete the war’s objectives “whether through negotiation or by other means.”
“We are prepared to resume intense fighting at any moment; our operational plans are ready,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony for combat officers, a day after Israel halted the release of Palestinian prisoners.
“In Gaza, we have eliminated most of Hamas’s organized forces, but let there be no doubt — we will complete the war’s objectives entirely — whether through negotiation or by other means,” he added.
Netanyahu said the prisoner release would be delayed until Hamas ends its “humiliating ceremonies” while freeing Israeli hostages.
PORT SUDAN: The Sudanese army said Sunday it had broken the siege imposed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a key southern Sudanese state capital since the war began in April 2023.
Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement that forces in North Kordofan state had “managed to reopen the road to El-Obeid and merge” with soldiers east of the city.
El-Obeid — the heart of Sudan’s Kordofan region — sits at a crucial crossroads connecting Khartoum to the country’s western region of Darfur, which the RSF has all but conquered.
“El-Obeid’s strategic importance, especially its airport and its position linking western Sudan with the center and south, makes today’s operation one of the most critical militarily,” a military source said.
Sudan’s finance minister in the government described breaking the siege as a turning point in the conflict.
“This strategic victory represents a qualitative shift in the path of a larger triumph,” Gibril Ibrahim said in a post on Facebook.
He added that it is also “a significant step toward lifting the siege” on North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since May.
Reopening the routes would allow the delivery of essential food and medicine to the Kordofan region, he added.
Witnesses said that thousands of residents had taken to the streets of El-Obeid to celebrate.
The war, which has pitted army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF for nearly two years, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million, and created the world’s largest hunger crisis.
Famine has been declared in three displacement camps in the western region of Darfur and parts of the Nuba Mountains in the south.
According to a UN-backed assessment, it is expected to spread to five more areas by May.
Sudan “will not accept” any recognition of a parallel government, Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Sunday at a press conference in Cairo.
“We will not accept any other country recognizing a so-called parallel government,” Youssef said, a day after the RSF and a coalition of political and armed groups signed a charter to form a rival administration in rebel-held areas.
Among those who agreed to the charter was a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, which controls parts of the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in the country’s south.
Abdel Rahim Dagalo, deputy and brother of RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo — who was notably absent — also signed.
The charter calls for “a secular, democratic, decentralized state based on freedom, equality, and justice, without bias toward any cultural, ethnic, religious, or regional identity.”
It also outlines plans for a “new, unified, professional, national army” with a military doctrine that “reflects the diversity and plurality characterizing the Sudanese state.”
The proposed government aims to end the war, ensure unhindered humanitarian aid, and integrate armed groups into a single, national force.
