Trump says there will the release of alive Israel hostages?
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At least 32 people were killed by Israeli fire while they were on their way to an aid distribution site in Gaza at dawn on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometre away from an aid distribution site that was not active at the time.
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US president Donald Trump said on Friday that another 10 hostages will be released from Gaza shortly, without providing additional details. Trump made the comment during a dinner with lawmakers at the White House, lauding the efforts of his special envoy Steve Witkoff. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.
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The death toll from violence in Sweida province, heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, has risen to 940 since last weekend, a war monitor said, despite the announcement of a ceasefire, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 182 of whom were “summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel”.
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Syria’s Islamist-led government said its internal security forces began deploying in Sweida on Saturday as the presidency called on all parties to respect a ceasefire following bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area that has left hundreds dead. In a statement, the Syrian presidency announced an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and urged all parties to commit to it and end hostilities in all areas immediately.
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Dr Omar Obeid, who heads the Sweida division at Syria’s Order of Physicians, said Sweida’s only government hospital has received “more than 400 bodies since Monday morning”, including women, children and elderly people. He said: “It’s not a hospital any more, it’s a mass grave,”
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Iraq has detained six local officials and suspended other public employees following a fire that killed 61 people at a shopping mall earlier this week, authorities said on Saturday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The blaze, which broke out late on Wednesday in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut, is the latest fatal disaster in a country where safety regulations are often ignored.
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The number of people killed when a coach overturned in southern Iran on Saturday has risen to 21, with 34 having been injured, state media reported. The accident, the cause of which remains unclear, occurred near Kavar, a town about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the capital, Tehran….
Talking about moving people OUT of Gaza to other countries comes back up….
The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week seeking U.S. help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, two sources with knowledge of issue tell Axios.
- The spy chief, David Barnea, told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been speaking in particular with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.
Why it matters: The Israeli government’s goal of removing much of Gaza’s population is hugely controversial. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claims such a “relocation” would be “voluntary,” U.S. and Israeli legal experts have labeled it a war crime.
Behind the scenes: In their meeting earlier this week, Barnea told Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya had expressed openness to receiving large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza, the two source say.
- Barnea suggested that the U.S. offer incentives to those countries and help Israel convince them.
- Witkoff was non-committal, and it’s not clear if the U.S. will actively weigh in on this issue, one source said.
- The White House, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and the foreign ministries of Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.
Flashback: In February, President Trump proposed the removal of all two million Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild the enclave.
But the White House cooled on the idea after getting significant pushback from Arab countries, U.S. officials say, and it hasn’t gone anywhere…
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- Netanyahu said Israel is working with the U.S. “very closely” to find countries that will agree to take Palestinians from Gaza and stressed that “we are getting close to finding several countries.”
- “I think President Trump had a brilliant vision. It’s called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn’t be a prison,” Netanyahu said.
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