[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

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Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements
Agence France-Presse . Ramallah 23 March, 2025, 22:05

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of ‘disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions’, said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 5,00,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet’s decision, hailed it as an ‘important step’ for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank — as it did in 1967 after capturing east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

‘The recognition of each neighbourhood as a separate community is an important step that would help their development,’ Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a ‘revolution’.

‘Instead of hiding and apologising, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,’ he said.

‘This is another important step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,’ added Smotrich, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.

In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an on-going major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by ‘an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands’.

The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some of them are effectively part of the bigger settlements they belong to while others are practically separate.

Their recognition as separate communities under Israeli law is not yet final.

Hailing the ‘normalisation’ of settlement expansion, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision.

According to EU figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record in settlement building permits issued by Israel.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas accuses US of distorting truth

Hamas on Saturday accused the United States of distorting the truth by saying the Palestinian militant group had chosen war with Israel by refusing to release hostages.

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Hamas accuses US of distorting truth
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City, Palestinian Territories 22 March, 2025, 23:59

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a structure hit by an Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Saturday. | AFP photo.

Hamas on Saturday accused the United States of distorting the truth by saying the Palestinian militant group had chosen war with Israel by refusing to release hostages.

‘The claim that ‘Hamas chose war instead of releasing the hostages’ is a distortion of the facts,’ Hamas said in a statement in response to the accusation from US national security council spokesperson Brian Hughes on Tuesday.

He had said: ‘Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.’

The Palestinian militant group added that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘rejected these initiatives and deliberately sabotaged them to serve his political interests,’ referring to criticism he has faced in Israel, including from families of hostages held in Gaza.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday before sending troops back into areas evacuated during the pause in fighting.

Israel says its military campaign is necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and secure the freedom of about 60 captives, dead or alive.

Many hostage families have instead called for a renewed ceasefire, noting most captives who returned alive did so during truce periods.

In its statement, Hamas accused the United States of equating ‘the aggressor with the victim’.

The mayor of Israel’s northern border town of Metula criticised the government on the same day after the area was targeted with rocket fire from Lebanon, and called for a return to war.

‘We will not return to the reality of October 6th ... and this is what the IDF, the Northern Command, and the Israeli government are trying to normalise,’ Metula mayor David Azoulay told AFP.

Metula, a town of 2,400 residents, was evacuated during more than a year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah.

Azoulay said that since the November truce, just eight per cent of Metula’s population had returned, and that some residents left again on Saturday after the rocket fire.

The mayor called on the Israeli authorities to ‘act offensively and make it so that not one bullet is fired ever again at northern communities’.

‘As far as I’m concerned, we should return to war, even if one bullet is fired towards Israel,’ he said.

Israel’s military said on Saturday it had struck ‘dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers’ in southern Lebanon.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz ordered strikes against ‘dozens of terrorist targets’ in Lebanon in response to the fire, which has not yet been claimed by any group.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement called on its Islamist rivals Hamas on Saturday to relinquish power in order to safeguard the ‘existence’ of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

‘Hamas must show compassion for Gaza, its children, women and men,’ Fatah spokesman Monther al-Hayek said in a message sent to AFP from Gaza.

He called on Hamas to ‘step aside from governing and fully recognise that the battle ahead will lead to the end of Palestinians’ existence’ if it remains in power in Gaza.

The territory has been devastated by an Israeli offensive in retaliation for the assault by Hamas and other Palestinian militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Nearly 50,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu says Israel could seize territory in Gaza if hostages not freed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in the Gaza strip if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds. "The more Hamas continues in its refusal to release our hostages, the more powerful the repression we exert will be," Netan

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Netanyahu says Israel could seize territory in Gaza if hostages not freed
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 26, 2025 18:40
Updated :
Mar 26, 2025 18:40

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 March 2025. Photo : Yair Sagi/Pool via REUTERS/Files

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in the Gaza strip if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds.

"The more Hamas continues in its refusal to release our hostages, the more powerful the repression we exert will be," Netanyahu told a hearing in parliament, which was occasionally interrupted by shouting from opposition members.

"This includes seizing territory and it includes other things," he said.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills Hamas spokesman in Gaza

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed one of its official spokesmen in Gaza on Thursday, the latest high-ranking operative targeted since Israel resumed its bombardment...

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Israeli strike kills Hamas spokesman in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 27 March, 2025, 23:12

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed one of its official spokesmen in Gaza on Thursday, the latest high-ranking operative targeted since Israel resumed its bombardment.

The group said in a statement it mourned the loss of Abdul Latif al-Qanou who was killed in what it called a ‘direct’ strike on a tent he was in, in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.

A fragile ceasefire that brought weeks of relative calm to Gaza ended on March 18 with Israel resuming its bombing campaign across the territory.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 855 people have been killed since.

Qanou is the latest Hamas official to be killed in recent Israeli strikes.

Israel’s military said last week it had killed the head of Hamas’s internal security agency, Rashid Jahjouh, in an air strike.

Days earlier, Hamas had named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, and interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa, among a list of officials it said were killed in strikes.

The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Dalis, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who became the head of its administration in Gaza in June 2021.

Hamas has also confirmed the deaths of Salah al-Bardawil and Yasser Harb, both members of its political bureau.

‘The occupation’s targeting of the movement’s leaders and spokespersons will not break our will,’ Hamas said Thursday.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza truce talks with mediators stepping up: Hamas

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim told AFP Friday that talks over a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement and mediators are gaining momentum as Israel continues intensive operations in Gaza.

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Gaza truce talks with mediators stepping up: Hamas
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City, Palestinian Territories 29 March, 2025, 00:44

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim told AFP Friday that talks over a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement and mediators are gaining momentum as Israel continues intensive operations in Gaza.

‘We hope that the coming days will bring a real breakthrough in the war situation, following intensified communications with and between mediators in recent days’, Naim told AFP.

Palestinian sources close to Hamas had told AFP that talks began Thursday evening between the militant group and mediators from Egypt and Qatar to revive a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza.

Naim said Friday the proposal ‘aims to achieve a ceasefire, open border crossings, [and] allow humanitarian aid in’.

Most importantly, he said, the proposal aims to bring about a resumption in ‘negotiations on the second phase, which must lead to a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of occupation forces’.

A fragile ceasefire that had brought weeks of relative calm to the Gaza Strip ended on March 18 when Israel resumed its bombing campaign across the territory.

Negotiations on a second phase of the truce had stalled—Israel wanted the ceasefire’s initial phase extended, while Hamas demanded talks on a second stage that was meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 896 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes.

Days later, Palestinian militants resumed rocket launches towards Israel from Gaza.

During the first phase of the truce which took hold on January 19, 1,800 Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for 33 hostages held in Gaza, most of them since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas’s attack which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The talks in Doha started a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to seize parts of Gaza if Hamas did not release hostages, and Hamas warned they would return ‘in coffins’ if Israel did not stop bombing the Palestinian territory.

Naim said Hamas was approaching talks ‘with full responsibility, positivity, and flexibility’, focusing on ending the war.​