Israeli military orders evacuation of most of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah

TUNIS: Algeria protested on Saturday against France’s detention of an Algerian consular agent over an alleged kidnapping of an Algerian citizen in France, the latest tension between the two countries.
The Algerian Foreign Ministry said that this unprecedented judicial turn, in the history of two countries’ relations, was aimed at disrupting the process of reviving bilateral relations.
French media reported that three people, including an Algerian consular official, were placed under investigation on Friday on suspicion of kidnapping Amir Boukhors, an opponent of the Algerian regime.
Algeria said that “the new, unacceptable, and unjustified development will severely damage Algerian-French relations and affirms its determination not to leave this case without consequences.”
The North Africa country described Boukhors as “a saboteur linked to terrorist groups.”
Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when French President Emmanuel Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for the autonomy of the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.
Last month, an Algerian court sentenced French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal to five years in jail for undermining national unity, prompting a call for his freedom from Macron.
But French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said last week that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held talks with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune following months of bickering that have hurt Paris’ economic and security interests in its former colony.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing an Israeli-American hostage alive, in which he criticizes the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified him as Edan Alexander, a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
AFP was unable to determine when the video was filmed.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, published the more than three-minute clip showing the hostage seated in a small, enclosed space.
In the video, he says he wants to return home to celebrate the holidays.
Israel is currently marking Passover, the holiday that commemorates the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
Alexander, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.
“As we begin the holiday evening in the USA, our family in Israel is preparing to sit around the Seder table,” Alexander’s family said in a statement released by the forum.
“Our Edan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, is still being held captive by Hamas.
“When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other hostages are not home,” the family added.
The family did not give a green light for the media to broadcast the footage.

Alexander appears to be speaking under duress in the video, making frequent hand gestures as he criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure his release.
The video was released hours after Defense Minister Israel Katz announced military control of what it called the new “Morag axis” corridor of land between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Katz also outlined plans to expand Israel’s ongoing offensive across much of the territory.
In a separate statement earlier Saturday, Hamas said Israel’s Gaza operations endangered not only Palestinian civilians but also the remaining hostages.
The offensive not only “kills defenseless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain,” Hamas said.
During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants took 251 hostages.
Fifty-eight hostages remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
During a recent ceasefire that ended on March 18 when Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza, militants released 33 hostages, among them eight bodies.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.