2 hours ago
Opening summary: Trump claims Gaza deal reached – but hurdles remain
Donald Trump claims a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles and conditions remained in the Palestinian territory.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” the US president said on social media. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”
Senior Hamas officials have reportedly agreed to the plan, but the question of whether the group disarms before or after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza has already emerged as a point of contention. “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera.
Earlier an Israeli official told the Reuters news agency that the proposed terms were not satisfactory.
“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the official said, adding that the plan under discussion did not “provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections”.
You can read more about that news here.
The announcement comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
In the US-Israeli war on Iran, which is showing signs of escalating across the region, Iran’s army on Friday launched drone strikes at US military facilities at the Ahmad Al Jaber airbase in Kuwait. The strikes were in response to recent US attacks on Iran including a strike on a home in Qeshm, Iran’s state media reported.
And Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.
In other developments:
Twenty-five commodities vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Thursday, while traffic through the strait of Hormuz remained low with only two tankers transiting, according to Kpler shipping data.
Analysts are expecting major oil companies to report large profits while fighting between Iran and the US impeded petroleum shipments. Six of Europe’s largest oil companies have posted first-quarter profits of $22bn altogether, a total 43% higher than the same time last year, according to Global Witness.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday said it had set up a maritime defence alliance of 14 regional countries to secure navigation around the Bab al-Mandab strait.
An Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm’s building in Kuwait on Thursday, severely damaging the structure and killing a worker, Kuwait’s military said, hours after Jordan’s air defences shot down five missiles launched from Iran.
Egypt’s government said on Thursday authorities were analysing drone fragments from an unprecedented strike on one of its ports, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of regional escalation. His government had earlier confirmed that a fire on two gas vessels in the Damietta port – one of which was US-owned – was a result of a drone strike, the first to target the country since the outbreak of the Middle East war.
Key events
More now on Iran’s military saying it launched drone strikes targeting US military facilities in Kuwait on Friday, as fighting between Washington and Tehran resumed after a nearly week-long lull.
The army said it targeted “fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities at Ahmad al-Jaber air base in Kuwait”.
There was no immediate comment from the US military’s Central Command.
The Iranian army said in a statement the strikes came in response to US military’s recent aggression and “brutal attack” on a residential home on Qeshm Island, Agence France-Presse reports.
Local media reported on Thursday that three members of a family were killed in US strikes on the island in the strait of Hormuz.
The US military earlier said it had carried out a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iran.
Qeshm Island is a storage site for Iranian attack craft, drones, sea mines and other materials used to disrupt shipping through the Hormuz strait and has come under frequent American attack.
Opening summary: Trump claims Gaza deal reached – but hurdles remain
Donald Trump claims a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles and conditions remained in the Palestinian territory.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” the US president said on social media. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”
Senior Hamas officials have reportedly agreed to the plan, but the question of whether the group disarms before or after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza has already emerged as a point of contention. “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera.
Earlier an Israeli official told the Reuters news agency that the proposed terms were not satisfactory.
“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the official said, adding that the plan under discussion did not “provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections”.
You can read more about that news here.
The announcement comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
In the US-Israeli war on Iran, which is showing signs of escalating across the region, Iran’s army on Friday launched drone strikes at US military facilities at the Ahmad Al Jaber airbase in Kuwait. The strikes were in response to recent US attacks on Iran including a strike on a home in Qeshm, Iran’s state media reported.
And Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.
In other developments:
Twenty-five commodities vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Thursday, while traffic through the strait of Hormuz remained low with only two tankers transiting, according to Kpler shipping data.
Analysts are expecting major oil companies to report large profits while fighting between Iran and the US impeded petroleum shipments. Six of Europe’s largest oil companies have posted first-quarter profits of $22bn altogether, a total 43% higher than the same time last year, according to Global Witness.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday said it had set up a maritime defence alliance of 14 regional countries to secure navigation around the Bab al-Mandab strait.
An Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm’s building in Kuwait on Thursday, severely damaging the structure and killing a worker, Kuwait’s military said, hours after Jordan’s air defences shot down five missiles launched from Iran.
Egypt’s government said on Thursday authorities were analysing drone fragments from an unprecedented strike on one of its ports, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of regional escalation. His government had earlier confirmed that a fire on two gas vessels in the Damietta port – one of which was US-owned – was a result of a drone strike, the first to target the country since the outbreak of the Middle East war.
