3 hours ago The inside story of how an unlikely alliance of Trump and Biden led to historic Gaza ceasefire deal

The two presidential camps worked together to bring about the talks that led to the pause in the conflictIt was a subtle, but significant flex of power by Donald Trump’s new envoy to the Middle East. Ten days before tomorrow’s presidential inauguration, he called Israel to announce he was coming to Tel Aviv to meet Benjamin Netanyahu.Trump had demanded a deal to release Israel’s hostages before he took his oath of office, and the man charged with making that happen was Steve Witkoff – a New York property developer confident that a long relationship with Trump could offset a lack of diplomatic experience. Continue reading...

Politics

29 hours ago The relief I’ll feel if the Gaza ceasefire deal holds is tempered by rage. Because it could have happened so much sooner | Jonathan Freedland

The agreement reached this week is basically the plan Joe Biden unveiled in May. So much pain, terror and death could have been avoidedWhen news of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas first broke on Wednesday, a friend offered the kind hope that now, at last, there could be a sense of joy. I wanted very much to feel that way but, at that moment, I could not – and here’s why.For one thing, a mere announcement did not seem enough. When it comes to the Middle East, “believe it when you see it” tends to be a good operating principle. Sure enough, there followed 48 hours of hitches and last-minute delays and even now, as I write this and after the Israeli security cabinet approved the deal, it seems like tempting fate to assume everything will run smoothly. Continue reading...

Economics

2 hours ago Faces of the 33 Hamas hostages set to be freed in first phase of Gaza ceasefire

Hundreds of Israeli hostages were captured during the October 7 attack with Hamas militants kidnapping them and taking them into Gaza where they have remained for 15 months

Events

39 hours ago Protesters block main Tel Aviv road urging Israeli government to secure hostage deal

Protesters blocked one of Tel Aviv's main roads on Thursday night (16 January) as they called for all remaining hostages in Gaza to be released.

Politics

29 hours ago Relief at this Gaza deal should be tempered by rage at Hamas and Netanyahu. How dare they take so long? | Jonathan Freedland

The agreement reached this week is basically the plan Joe Biden unveiled in May. So much pain and death could have been avoidedWhen news of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas first broke on Wednesday, a friend offered the kind hope that now, at last, there could be a sense of joy. I wanted very much to feel that way but, at that moment, I could not – and here’s why.For one thing, a mere announcement did not seem enough. When it comes to the Middle East, “believe it when you see it” tends to be a good operating principle. Sure enough, there followed 48 hours of hitches and last-minute delays and even now, as I write this and after the Israeli security cabinet approved the deal, it seems like tempting fate to assume everything will run smoothly. Continue reading...

Economics

5 hours ago The Observer view on the Gaza ceasefire: it’s time for both sides to think again

This brief, fragile pause is a chance for all involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict to accept that violence does not work The ceasefire in Gaza, due to begin tomorrow, will bring welcome relief from daily violence but amounts, at present, to little more than a fragile, temporary pause in a conflict that is far from over. Israel has not achieved its principal war aim, as defined by its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu: the total elimination of Hamas. Nor has Hamas achieved its objective: the destruction of Israel. The leaders responsible for the 7 October 2023 terrorist atrocities are dead. The organisation’s capabilities are severely reduced. But it has survived – which its supporters claim is a victory for Palestinian sumud (steadfastness).Most of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, alive and dead, will not be freed in this first phase of the ceasefire, which is to last for six weeks. There is no agreed “day after” strategy for devastated Gaza, where nearly 47,000 Palestinians...

Events

39 hours ago Gaza hostages set to be freed after a year in hell: Ceasefire deal is agreed and due to be approved by Israeli cabinet today with Trump claiming credit for it

The deal, setting out terms for an initial exchange of hostages for prisoners, is expected to pass despite backlash from hard-right members of the coalition.

Politics

36 hours ago Brit Emily Damari is confirmed to be among 33 Hamas hostages to be released as part of Gaza ceasefire deal

The 28-year-old was shot in the hand and leg when she was snatched from her home in southern Israel during the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Economics

40 hours ago Gaza ceasefire latest: Israeli cabinet will meet to approve agreement today, says Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told agreements have been reached on a deal to release the hostages

Politics

11 hours ago Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will begin tomorrow with Brit Emily Damari one of the 33 hostages to be released

Until now, the exact time of the ceasefire's start had been unclear, though Israel had said that no Palestinian prisoners would be freed before 2pm GMT.

Events

42 hours ago The Middle East, inflation and Trump’s return – what will Biden’s legacy be? – podcast

After 15 months of war, a ceasefire deal in Gaza has been reached. In his farewell address to the nation, Joe Biden tried to convince the US public that it was just one of many successes he’d had in the White House. But is that how his time in office will be remembered? Jonathan Freedland speaks to the author Franklin Foer about Biden’s legacyArchive: CBS, PBS Newshour, CBS Chicago, CNC, WPLG Local 10, BBC Continue reading...

Politics

12 hours ago Gaza ceasefire to begin on Sunday as Israel approves deal to free hostages in exchange for prisoners

Ceasefire set to start on Sunday when first hostages are expected to be released

Events

45 hours ago MARK ALMOND: Why Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas may not answer anyone's prayers

Europe and America might imagine that peace will be welcomed by all sides, bringing a halt to 15 months of unremitting bloodshed.

Politics

17 hours ago ‘It raised our spirits’: Palestinian refugees in Syria on the ceasefire in Gaza

Yarmouk camp residents lived through fighting and starvation in the Syrian civil war and feel intimately connected to the suffering in the Gaza StripAfter 15 months of watching their relatives suffering in Gaza, residents of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus finally breathed a sigh of relief. The war in the besieged Palestinian territory was soon to be over.“Hearing that the fighting will finally stop, it raised our spirits. We don’t have any work or money, but now we have something at least to make us happy, now you hear people laughing in the streets,” said Rbeia Abu Hmeida, 45, a Palestinian refugee who lives in the Yarmouk camp. Continue reading...

Events

31 hours ago Who are the 33 Israeli hostages set to be released under first phase of Gaza ceasefire?

Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, starting on Sunday

Events

32 hours ago Watch live: Israelis gather in Hostage Square as security cabinet approves ceasefire deal

Watch live as Israelis gather in Hostage Square, Tel Aviv, on Friday, 17 January, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war-time security cabinet approves a long-awaited ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Events

33 hours ago Israel's security cabinet backs Gaza ceasefire deal which could see first hostages handed over and ceasefire begin on Sunday

Israel's security Cabinet has today recommended approval of a ceasefire deal that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza

Events

33 hours ago After the ceasefire, Gazans face a different kind of war. But we’re still clinging to hope | Al

Thousands of Palestinians are homeless, their houses reduced to rubble. It could take decades to rebuild their livesAl-Meqdad Jamil Meqdad is a writer and researcher from Gaza working in humanitarian and community workThe ceasefire news came suddenly, with an agreement we had heard before, surrounded by bureaucracy, hope and death. People all around me in Gaza – on buses, on donkey carts, in cars, on the street and in the markets – are describing it as a “war after the war”.The ceasefire is not the end of suffering. It is the beginning of everything else. It is an opportunity for people in northern Gaza, Rafah and elsewhere to mourn their loved ones who were killed and their destroyed homes. It is an opportunity to cry for those who have held back their tears for more than 15 months. We were told we could return to our homes, but those homes now lie in rubble. Most of them were levelled to the ground; some were left standing but are uninhabitable.Al-Meqdad Jamil Meqdad is a writer a...

Events

33 hours ago Gaza ceasefire latest: Israeli security cabinet recommends approval of deal

Ceasefire set to start on Sunday when first hostages are expected to be released

Events

33 hours ago ‘A ceasefire is just the start’ say British Palestinians with family in Gaza

The ceasefire deal would release dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza and pause the 15-month-war.

Events

35 hours ago Israel's security Cabinet meets to vote on a ceasefire to pause the war in Gaza and release hostages

Israel’s security Cabinet has convened to vote on a ceasefire deal after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed an agreement had been reached that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas in Gaza and release dozens of hostages held by militants there

Events

36 hours ago 'Everybody is tense': Family of released hostage hopeful of ceasefire confirmation

Hostages' families are hopeful for the return of their loved ones but remain "tense" waiting for a deal between Israel and Hamas.

Events

36 hours ago ‘The next nightmare is just beginning’: Ceasefire raises new fears for Gazans

In Gaza, Palestinians fear the last hours before the fighting is expected to stop on Sunday will be ‘bloody and dangerous’

Events

37 hours ago A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments as ceasefire deal agreed

Fifteen months after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ following the 7 October attack, a ceasefire has been reached

Events

39 hours ago Gaza ceasefire live: Israel security cabinet to meet later after hostage deal reached, Netanyahu says

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says that security cabinet will meet on Friday following earlier delays in talks to release hostages in return for ceasefireAnalysis: Islamist groups will emerge from Gaza war weakenedDuring his final press conference earlier on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was heckled by two journalists who criticised him for his support for the war in Gaza.That includes providing Israel with diplomatic support at the UN – blocking multiple calls for a ceasefire – and continuing to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel despite concerns within his own department it is committing human rights violations. Reuters reports:“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 forcibl...

Events

42 hours ago Gaza ceasefire: Israel security cabinet to meet on Friday after hostage deal reached, Netanyahu says – live

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says in statement that security cabinet will meet on Friday following earlier delays in talks to release hostages in return for ceasefireAnalysis: Islamist groups in Middle East will emerge from Gaza war weakenedIn what has been advertised as his final interview as president, Joe Biden has said that Israel “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. He told broadcaster MSNBC: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 ....And I kept reminding my friend, and he is a friend, although we don’t agree a whole lot lately, Bibi Netanyahu, that he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of a large group of people called Palestinians, who have no place to live independently. Continue reading...

Events