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

[Saif]

Trump’s Gaza plan derails Saudi-Israel ties: analysts

US president Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will imperil attempts to forge landmark ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and fuel anti-American sentiment in the oil-rich kingdom, analysts said.

www.newagebd.net

Trump’s Gaza plan derails Saudi-Israel ties: analysts
Agence France-Presse . Riyadh 07 February, 2025, 19:08

Pro-Palestinian protesters attend a rally against US President Donald Trump's recent remarks on Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Sydney on February 7, 2025. | AFP photo

US president Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will imperil attempts to forge landmark ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and fuel anti-American sentiment in the oil-rich kingdom, analysts said.

Trump’s proposal to redevelop Gaza and oust the more than two million Palestinians living in the territory prompted a global backlash and enraged the Arab world, making it difficult for the Saudis to consider normalisation.

‘If this is going to be his policy, he shut the door on Saudi recognition of Israel,’ James Dorsey, researcher at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, said.

Recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is seen as a grand prize of Middle East diplomacy intended to calm chronic tensions in the region.

But Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and the Middle East’s largest economy, now faces the spectre of instability on its borders if neighbouring Jordan and Egypt suddenly house large numbers of Gaza exiles.

At the same time, Riyadh must maintain cordial relations with Washington, its long-time security guarantor and bulwark against key regional player Iran.

‘When it comes to security, Saudi Arabia has nowhere to go but to Washington,’ Dorsey said. ‘There’s nobody else. It’s not China. They’re not willing and they’re not able.

‘And post-Ukraine, do you want to rely on Russia?’

The Saudis were engaged in tentative talks on normalisation via the United States until the outbreak of the Gaza war, when they paused the negotiations and hardened their position.

They reacted with unusual speed to Trump’s proposal, made during an appearance with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

About an hour after his comments, at around 4:00am Saudi time, the foreign ministry posted a statement on X that ‘reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land’.

In the same statement, the Saudis rejected Netanyahu’s comment that normalisation was ‘going to happen’, repeating their insistence there would be no ties without a Palestinian state.

Trump’s plan carries real risks for Riyadh, which is throwing everything at an ambitious post-oil economic makeover that relies on stability to attract business and tourism.

If Gazans are displaced to Egypt and Jordan, it ‘will weaken two countries essential to regional stability and particularly to Saudi security’, said Saudi researcher Aziz Alghashian.

‘Trump’s plan, coupled with Netanyahu’s approach, poses major risks for Saudi Arabia.

‘It highlights that they are not true partners for peace in Riyadh’s eyes — especially Netanyahu, who appears to want all the benefits without making concessions.’

Trump’s declarations ‘will further destabilise the region and fuel anti-American sentiment, particularly in Saudi Arabia’, said Anna Jacobs, of the International Crisis Group think tank.

‘He is making Saudi-Israel normalisation harder, not easier.’

Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said Saudi Arabia would not agree meekly to normalisation if ordered by Washington.

Prior to the Gaza war, the Saudis were negotiating for security guarantees and help building a civilian nuclear programme in return for Israeli ties.

‘They are not a US vassal state and so they’re not just taking a diktat from Trump,’ said Andreas Krieg of King’s College London.

‘And I think it will stand firm on their positions, willing to negotiate here and there. But the principal red lines remain.

‘Nobody in Saudi Arabia has an interest in selling out Palestinian statehood. That is the last and the most important bargaining chip that the Saudis have in terms of authority and legitimacy in the Arab and Muslim world.’

But the question is how Saudi Arabia and its 39-year-old de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will proceed.

‘I don’t think that the Saudis will take any major steps now,’ said Krieg.

‘They obviously have their own levers that they can use for pressure on America, particularly in the energy sector. I don’t think the Saudis will want to use it at this point.’​

 

[Saif]

Hostage families urge Israel to complete Gaza truce deal

An Israeli campaign group urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce ahead of a fifth hostage-prisoner swap, after explosive comments by US president Donald Trump raised questions over the future of the deal.

www.newagebd.net

Hostage families urge Israel to complete Gaza truce deal
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 08 February, 2025, 01:52

An Israeli campaign group urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce ahead of a fifth hostage-prisoner swap, after explosive comments by US president Donald Trump raised questions over the future of the deal.

The scheduled exchange on Saturday comes after Trump declared that the United States would ‘take over Gaza’ and move Palestinians out of the territory, sparking uproar across the Middle East and beyond.

Israel has since ordered its military to prepare for the ‘voluntary’ relocation of Gazans, while Hamas has rejected Trump’s plans as ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

‘An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed — until the very last one,’ the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement on Friday.

Since January 19, Israel and Hamas have completed four swaps as part of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, have so far freed 18 hostages in exchange for around 600 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The fragile ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 33 hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.

The fifth swap is scheduled for Saturday, but as of now, neither side has disclosed how many hostages Hamas will release or how many prisoners Israel will free in return.

Amid the uncertainty triggered by Trump’s remarks, Yaela David, whose brother Evyatar is still being held in Gaza, urged ‘the negotiating team to act today to complete the final details of the deal and ensure the return of all hostages’.

‘This must happen under this deal, and if not, there will remain a huge black stain on the history of our state,’ she said.

Despite regional and international backlash — and initial backtracking by members of his administration — Trump has doubled down on his statement.

‘The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,’ he said on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.

‘No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!’

After Trump first floated the idea, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the military to prepare a plan to allow the ‘voluntary departure’ of Gazans from the territory ‘to any country willing to accept them’.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also voiced support for Trump’s plan, announced at a joint press conference between the two leaders, calling it ‘the first original idea to be raised in years’.

Hamas, however, condemned the remarks as ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

‘Trump’s remarks about Washington taking control of Gaza amount to an open declaration of intent to occupy the territory,’ spokesman Hazem Qassem said.

‘Gaza is for its people and they will not leave.’

Negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.

The second stage aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war, which began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.

During the attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-six remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza belongs to its people

US "taking over" Gaza is an outrageous idea

www.thedailystar.net

Gaza belongs to its people
US "taking over" Gaza is an outrageous idea

VISUAL: STAR

The US may no longer be the beacon of hope it once was, but there are still things expected from the country as a global power. Chief among them is a responsibility to uphold basic human rights and international law. This expectation has been tested time and again, but rarely as starkly as it is now, with Donald Trump's alarming plan for Gaza. On Tuesday evening, at a joint news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president proposed "long-term ownership" of Gaza by the United States. This came after he repeatedly called in recent days for the war-ravaged territory's 1.2 million residents to be resettled. While officials later tried to walk back the takeover proposal amid fierce criticism, saying any displacement of Gazans would be temporary, Trump on Thursday restated his vision, suggesting his determination to go ahead with it.

For decades, US foreign policy—despite its inconsistencies—has at least paid lip service to a two-state solution for the peaceful coexistence of Israel and Palestine. Trump's approach obliterates that pretence. If implemented, it would not only mean "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza—as the UN chief has rightly called it—but also set an extremely dangerous precedent where stronger powers might feel emboldened to resolve territorial disputes through mass expulsions.

This should send shivers down the spine of anyone who values justice and human rights. For decades, US foreign policy—despite its inconsistencies—has at least paid lip service to a two-state solution for the peaceful coexistence of Israel and Palestine. Trump's approach obliterates that pretence. If implemented, it would not only mean "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza—as the UN chief has rightly called it—but also set an extremely dangerous precedent where stronger powers might feel emboldened to resolve territorial disputes through mass expulsions. It is also deeply insulting for the Gazans after the genocide and devastation they endured at the hands of Israel over the last 15 months. Suggesting that those still alive should be uprooted, cast aside, and scattered across unwilling nations is outrageous, to say the least.

Naturally, Palestinians and Arab states where Trump and Netanyahu want Gazans to be resettled have rejected the proposal. Similarly, the world must also stand firm against this effort to make the suffering of Gazans permanent by robbing them of their homeland. Reportedly, emboldened by Trump, Israel has already instructed its military to formulate a plan for their "voluntary" departures. In other words, a permanent displacement may already be in motion even though they have only recently begun to return to the rubble they once called home following a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. All nations must come forward to prevent this modern-day holocaust.​

 

[Saif]

Israel strikes Hamas weapons facility in Syria

The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike on Saturday targeting a weapons depot used by Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Syria.

www.newagebd.net

Israel strikes Hamas weapons facility in Syria
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem, Undefined 08 February, 2025, 22:42

The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike on Saturday targeting a weapons depot used by Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Syria.

Israeli ‘fighter jets conducted an intelligence-based strike on a weapons storage facility belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the area of Deir Ali in southern Syria’, the military said in a statement.

The army said it would ‘continue to dismantle Hamas’ capabilities on all of its fronts and will operate against all attempts by terrorist organisations to entrench themselves and build up their forces.’

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since its civil war broke out in 2011, mainly on Iranian-linked targets.

Israeli troops also entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.​

 

[Saif]

Gazans tell Trump they will rebuild their own restaurants and hotels

Palestinians in Gaza say they are determined to rebuild their own seafront restaurants and hotels, dismissing US President Donald Trump's vision of creating a "Riviera of the Middle East" emptied of its population and under US control. Before Israel's 15-month offensive left buildings across Gaza

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Gazans tell Trump they will rebuild their own restaurants and hotels
REUTERS
Published :
Feb 08, 2025 18:14
Updated :
Feb 08, 2025 18:14

Palestinians in Gaza say they are determined to rebuild their own seafront restaurants and hotels, dismissing US President Donald Trump's vision of creating a "Riviera of the Middle East" emptied of its population and under US control.

Before Israel's 15-month offensive left buildings across Gaza in ruins, the densely inhabited Palestinian territory had developed a local tourism scene on its Mediterranean shore despite a long blockade.

"There is nothing that cannot be repaired," said Gaza resident Assad Abu Haseira, pledging to start serving food from the restaurant he owns even before it is rebuilt.

"Trump says he wants to change the restaurants, and he wants to change Gaza and wants to create a new history for Gaza. We remain Arab and the history of Arabs will not be replaced with the history of foreigners."

Other Palestinians share his defiance. Mohammed Abu Haseira, another restaurant owner, said his eatery would become operational again "and much better than before".

"Trump has come up with a decision that he wants to establish restaurants, but the restaurants are here and the hotels are here. Why did you destroy them to establish other ones?" he said.

Gaza was once a popular destination for Israeli tourists and even after the takeover of the territory by the Islamist movement Hamas in 2007, beachside restaurants and cafes lined its seafront.

Trump's vision of a Gaza Strip cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants and redeveloped into an international resort revived an idea previously floated by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It triggered condemnation from around the world, with critics saying it would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing and illegal under international law. Gazans were also quick to denounce the scheme, vowing never to leave the ruins of their homes.

For Palestinians, such talk recalls the "Nakba" or catastrophe after the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, when 700,000 fled or were forced from their homes.​

 

[Saif]

Palestinian state in Saudi territory?

Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries yesterday condemned remarks by Israel’s PM who appeared to suggest in an interview that a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi territory.

www.thedailystar.net

Palestinian state in Saudi territory?
Arab nations slam Netanyahu’s ‘racist’ remark

Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries yesterday condemned remarks by Israel's PM who appeared to suggest in an interview that a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi territory.

Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks, which some Israeli media characterised as a joke, came with the region already on edge after US President Donald Trump proposed taking over the territory and displacing Gazans abroad.

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Sunday that the thinking behind Netanyahu's remarks "is unacceptable and reflects a complete detachment from reality", adding that such ideas "are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions".

The Saudi foreign ministry stressed its "categorical rejection to such statements that aim to divert attention from the continuous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian brothers in Gaza".

A ministry statement welcomed "the condemnation, disapproval and total rejection announced by the brotherly countries towards what Benjamin Netanyahu stated regarding the displacement of the Palestinian people".

In a television interview on Thursday, right-wing Israeli journalist Yaakov Bardugo was discussing with Netanyahu the prospect of diplomatic normalisation with Saudi Arabia when he appeared to misspeak, attributing to Riyadh the stance that there would be "no progress without a Saudi state".

"Palestinian state?" Netanyahu corrected him.

"Unless you want the Palestinian state to be in Saudi Arabia," the Israeli premier quipped. "They (the Saudis) have plenty of territory."

Netanyahu went on to describe the talks leading up to the so-called Abraham Accords, in which several Arab countries normalised ties with Israel, concluding: "I think we should allow this process to take its course."

In another interview with Fox News aired late Saturday as the premier was wrapping up a visit to Washington, Netanyahu defended Trump's proposal, which has sparked concern and condemnation across the Middle East and the world.

"I think that President Trump's proposal is the first fresh idea in years, and it has the potential to change everything in Gaza," Netanyahu said, adding that it represents a "correct approach" to the future of the Palestinian territory.

"All Trump is saying, 'I want to open the gate and give them an option to relocate temporarily while we rebuild the place physically'," Netanyahu said.

Trump "never said he wants American troops to do the job. Guess what? We'll do the job," Netanyahu declared.

Israel seized the Gaza Strip in 1967 and maintained a military presence in the territory until 2005, when it pulled out settlers and its troops.

But the suggestion of a state for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank prompted an outpouring of regional condemnation, including from Qatar, Egypt and the Palestinian foreign ministry, which described the remarks as "racist".

Jordan's foreign ministry condemned them as "inflammatory and a clear violation of international law", stressing that the Palestinians have the "right to establish an independent, sovereign state" alongside Israel.

The foreign ministry of the UAE denounced Netanyahu's comments as "reprehensible and provocative" in a statement, calling them "a blatant violation of international law and the United Nations charter".

For Palestinians, any attempt to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948.

In its statement, Saudi said "this extremist, occupying mentality does not understand what the Palestinian land means" to Palestinians. Such a mindset, it added, "does not think that the Palestinian people deserve to live in the first place, as it has completely destroyed the Gaza Strip" and killed tens of thousands "without the slightest human feeling or moral responsibility".​

 

[Saif]

Palestinians back on key Gaza road

A long line of cars, tuk-tuks, small lorries and carts stretched along Gaza’s Salaheddin Road on Sunday after Israel withdrew its forces from a strategic area bisecting the territory...

www.newagebd.net

Palestinians back on key Gaza road
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 10 February, 2025, 00:46

Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage to their home in Gaza City’s southern al Zeitoun neighbourhood on Sunday. | AFP photo

A long line of cars, tuk-tuks, small lorries and carts stretched along Gaza’s Salaheddin Road on Sunday after Israel withdrew its forces from a strategic area bisecting the territory.

The traffic crawled slowly along the road, where mounds of earth had been piled high by now-departed Israeli bulldozers, into the eastern part of the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the northern Gaza Strip from its south.

After more than 15 months of war, a fragile truce with Hamas that went into effect last month saw Israeli forces limiting their presence in the Gaza Strip.

The Netzarim Corridor and Salaheddin Road reopened fully on Sunday, enabled by the Israeli withdrawal following the completion of a fifth hostage-prisoner exchange the day before as part of the truce deal.

Among the vehicles wending their way along the dusty dirt road were lorries piled high with household belongings, blankets, carpets and furniture.

Finally able to move around the area, many Palestinians returned to their homes to find them destroyed in the fighting.

‘What we saw was a catastrophe, horrific destruction. The (Israeli) occupation destroyed all the homes, shops, farms, mosques, universities and the courthouse,’ said Osama Abu Kamil, a resident of Al-Maghraqa just north of Netzarim.

The 57-year-old said he had been displaced by the war for more than a year, living in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Now back to the north, Abu Kamil said he ‘will set up a tent for me and my family next to the rubble of our house. We have no choice.’

He said that as displaced Gazans in makeshift shelters, they had ‘lived through severe suffering’.

‘Life in Gaza is worse than hell.’

The war, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023, saw the Israeli military relentlessly bombarding Gaza, leaving much of the already impoverished territory in ruins.

More than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, and over 90 per cent of Palestinians there have been displaced at least once, according to the United Nations.

The violence has largely halted, but the population has been left drained and traumatised by the violence.

Mahmoud al-Sarhi, a resident of Zeitun neighbourhood near the Netzarim Corridor, said that Sunday was ‘the first time I saw our destroyed house’.

‘Arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death — until this morning,’ said the 44-year-old.

While the Israeli forces have left, Sarhi said he still did not feel safe.

‘The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here. Israeli tanks can invade at any time. The area is unfit for normal living. It is very dangerous.’

The scale of the destruction was visible on Al-Shuhada Street, which also crosses the Netzarim Corridor, with dozens of houses and some university buildings reduced to rubble.

In some places, the road itself had been damaged in the fighting, with large craters visible.

Workers had begun repairing some of the road.

Mohamed Ali, 20, travelling from Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said conditions on the roads were ‘difficult because of the amount of destruction and bombing’.

‘God willing, the road will be better again,’ he said.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas, Israel complete 5th hostage, prisoner swap

Israel and Hamas completed their fifth hostage-prisoner swap under a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal on Saturday, with the frail, disoriented appearance of the three freed Israelis sparking dismay among their relatives.

www.newagebd.net

Hamas, Israel complete 5th hostage, prisoner swap
Agence France-Presse . Deir el-Balah, Palestinian Territories 09 February, 2025, 01:06

| AFP photo

Israel and Hamas completed their fifth hostage-prisoner swap under a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal on Saturday, with the frail, disoriented appearance of the three freed Israelis sparking dismay among their relatives.

Out of the 183 inmates released by Israel in return, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said seven required hospitalisation, decrying ‘brutality’ and mistreatment in jail.

The fifth exchange since the truce took effect last month comes as negotiations are set to begin on the next phase of the ceasefire, which should pave the way for a permanent end to the war.

Saturday’s swap also follows remarks by president Donald Trump suggesting the United States should take over the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants, sparking global outrage.

Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were all seized by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, ‘crossed the border into Israeli territory’ on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

With their return, 73 out of 251 hostages taken during the attack now remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Jubilant crowds in Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv cheered as they watched live footage of the three hostages, flanked by masked gunmen, brought on stage in Deir el-Balah before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But the joy at their release was quickly overtaken by concern for their condition, with all three appearing thin and pale.

Sharabi’s cousin Yochi Sardinayof said ‘he doesn’t look well’.

‘I’m sure he will now receive the right treatment and he will get stronger... He has an amazing family, and we will all be there for him.’

The choreographed handover included forced statements from the three on stage, in which they stated support for finalising the next phases of the Israel-Hamas truce.

The ‘disturbing images’ from Gaza show that ‘we must get them all out’, said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose dejected-looking portrait appeared on a banner at the Deir el-Balah handover site, said the images out of Gaza were ‘shocking’.

Israel’s president Isaac Herzog denounced the treatment of the hostages, who were paraded on stage ‘after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained” and “exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle’.

Sharabi, 52, and Ben Ami, a 56-year-old dual German citizen, were both abducted from their homes in kibbutz Beeri when militants stormed the small community near the Gaza border.

Sharabi lost his wife and two daughters in the attack.

Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife.

In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian authority, relatives and supporters gathered to welcome inmates released by Israel, embracing them and cheering as they stepped off the bus that brought them from nearby Ofer prison.

Israel’s prison service said that ‘183 terrorists... were released’ to the West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group and the Palestinian Red Crescent said that seven of them had been admitted to hospital in the West Bank.

‘All the prisoners who were released today [Saturday] are in need of medical care... as a result of the brutality they were subjected’ to in jail, said the advocacy group, which has long decried abuses of Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Hamas in a statement accused Israel of ‘systematic assaults and mistreatment of our prisoners’, calling it ‘part of the policy of... the slow killing of prisoners’.

Gaza militants have so far freed 21 hostages in exchange for hundreds of mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

Five Thai hostages freed last week from Gaza were discharged on Saturday from a hospital in central Israel, where they had been treated since their release, and were headed back to their home country.

The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 12 more hostages during its first 42-day phase.

Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government on Friday to stick with the truce, even as Trump’s comments raised questions about the future of the deal.

‘An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home,’ the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.

‘Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed—until the very last one,’ it added.

Netanyahu’s office said that after Saturday’s swap, an Israeli delegation would head to Doha for further talks.

Hama’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 48,181 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.​