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US calls for UN Security Council vote on backing Gaza ceasefire plan

In this photo taken on March 25, 2024, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (2nd R) abstains during a resolution vote calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 10 June 2024
AFP
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US calls for UN Security Council vote on backing Gaza ceasefire plan

  • Vote reportedly planned for Monday but not yet confirmed by S. Korea, which holds UNSC presidency
  • Staunch ally of Israel, US has been criticized for blocking UN draft resolutions for Gaza ceasefire
Updated 10 June 2024
AFP

UNITED NATIONS:  The United States announced Sunday it has requested a UN Security Council vote on its draft resolution backing a plan for an “immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages” between Israel and Hamas.
Diplomatic sources said the vote is planned for Monday, but has not yet been confirmed by South Korea, which holds the Security Council presidency for the month of June.
“Today, the United States called for the Security Council to move toward a vote... supporting the proposal on the table,” said Nate Evans, spokesman for the US delegation, without specifying a vote date.
“Council members should not let this opportunity pass by and must speak with one voice in support of this deal,” Evans said.
The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, has been widely criticized for having blocked several UN draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden on May 31 launched a new push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, separate from the United Nations.
Under the proposal, Israel would withdraw from Gaza population centers and Hamas would free hostages. The ceasefire would last an initial six weeks, with it extended as negotiators seek a permanent end to hostilities.
The United States is placing primary responsibility for accepting the proposal on Hamas, specifically calling on the Palestinian militant group to accept the document in the latest version of the draft text.
That version, which was distributed to member states on Sunday and was seen by AFP, “welcomes” the new ceasefire proposal while stating, unlike in previous versions, that Israel has already accepted.
The draft resolution “calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
In response to requests from several member states, the latest text clearly lays out the proposal.
This includes a first phase with an “immediate, full, and complete ceasefire,” release of hostages taken by Hamas, and “exchange of Palestinian prisoners” plus “withdrawal of Israeli forces from the populated areas in Gaza.”
This also includes the “safe and effective distribution of humanitarian assistance at scale throughout the Gaza Strip to all Palestinian civilians who need it.”

According to diplomatic sources, several Security Council members indicated their reservations on two previous versions of the text, in particular Algeria which is the Arab representative on the UN Security Council, and Russia which wields a veto.
Since the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 against Israel and Israel’s subsequent counterattack, the Security Council has struggled to speak with one voice.
Following two resolutions mainly focused on humanitarian aid, the Security Council finally at the end of March successfully demanded an “immediate ceasefire” for the duration of Ramadan, which was achieved with the United States abstaining from the vote.
Following the International Court of Justice’s decision at the end of May ordering Israel to stop its offensive in Rafah, Algeria circulated a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and, more specifically, a halt to the Rafah offensive.
The United States, however, said such a text was not helpful, stating that it instead favored negotiations on the ground to achieve a ceasefire.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,084 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Iraq’s displaced Kurds hope to return home after Turkiye’s Kurdish militants declare a ceasefire

Updated 5 sec ago
AP
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Iraq’s displaced Kurds hope to return home after Turkiye’s Kurdish militants declare a ceasefire

  • Hopes were raised after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, on Saturday declared a ceasefire in the 40-year insurgency against the Turkish government
Updated 5 sec ago
AP
GUHARZE: Iraqi Kurdish villagers, displaced by fighting between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants that has played out for years in northern Iraq, are finally allowing themselves to hope they will soon be able to go home.
Their hopes were raised after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, on Saturday declared a ceasefire in the 40-year insurgency against the Turkish government, answering a call to disarm from earlier in the week by the group’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned in Turkiye since 1999.
The truce — if implemented — could not only be a turning point in neighboring Turkiye but could also bring much needed stability to the volatile region spanning the border between the two countries.
In northern Iraq, Turkish forces have repeatedly launched blistering offensives over the past years, pummeling PKK fighters who have been hiding out in sanctuaries in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have been completely emptied of their residents.
A home left decades ago
Adil Tahir Qadir fled his village of Barchi, on Mount Matin in 1988, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched a brutal campaign against the area’s Kurdish population.
He now lives in a newly built village — also named Barchi, after the old one that was abandoned — about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, south of the mountain.
He used to go back to the old village every now and then to farm his land. But that stopped in 2015 when Turkish forces moved in and set up camp there in the fight against PKK, hitting the group with wave after wave of airstrikes.
Iraqi Kurdish farmers and their lands became collateral damage. The Turkish airstrikes and ground incursions targeting PKK positions displaced thousands of Iraqi Kurdish civilians, cutting off many from their land.
“Because of Turkish bombing, all of our farmlands and trees were burned,” Qadir said.
If peace comes, he will go back right away, he says. “We wish it will work so we can return.”
Fighting emptied out villages in Iraq
In the border area of Amedi in Iraq’s Dohuk province — once a thriving agricultural community — around 200 villages had been emptied of their residents by the fighting, according to a 2020 study by the regional Iraqi Kurdish government.
Small havens remained safe, like the new Barchi, with only about 150 houses and where villagers rely on sesame, walnuts and rice farming. But as the fighting dragged on, the conflict grew ever closer.
“There are many Turkish bases around this area,” said Salih Shino, who was also displaced to the new Barchi from Mount Matin.
“The bombings start every afternoon and intensify through the night,” he said. ”The bombs fall very close ... we can’t walk around at all.”
Airstrikes have hit Barchi’s water well and bombs have fallen near the village school, he said.
Najib Khalid Rashid, from the nearby village of Belava, says he also lives in fear. There are near-daily salvos of bombings, sometimes 40-50 times, that strike in surrounding areas.
“We can’t even take our sheep to graze or farm our lands in peace,” he said.
Ties to Kurdish brethren in Turkiye
Iraqi Kurdish villagers avoid talking about their views on the Kurdish insurgency in Turkiye and specifically the PKK, which has deep roots in the area. Turkiye and its Western allies, including the United States, consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
Still, Rashid went so far as to call for all Kurdish factions to put aside their differences and come together in the peace process.
“If there’s no unity, we will not achieve any results,” he said.
Ahmad Saadullah, in the village of Guharze, recalled a time when the region was economically self-sufficient.
“We used to live off our farming, livestock, and agriculture,” he said. “Back in the 1970s, all the hills on this mountain were full of vines and fig farms. We grew wheat, sesame, and rice. We ate everything from our farms.”
Over the past years, cut off from their farmland, the locals have been dependent on government aid and “unstable, seasonal jobs,” he said. “Today, we live with warplanes, drones, and bombings.”
Farooq Safar, another Guharze resident, recalled a drone strike that hit in his back yard a few months ago.
“It was late afternoon, we were having dinner, and suddenly all our windows exploded,” he said. “The whole village shook. We were lucky to survive.”
Like others, Safar’s hopes are sprinkled with skepticism — ceasefire attempts have failed in the past, he says, remembering similar peace pushes in 1993 and 2015.
“We hope this time will be different,” he said.

Israel endorses plan to extend Gaza truce as first phase draws to close

Updated 02 March 2025
AFP
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Israel endorses plan to extend Gaza truce as first phase draws to close

  • As per proposal, truce would cover Ramadan, due to end late March, and Passover, lasting through mid-April
  • According to Israel, truce extension would see half hostages still in Gaza released on the day deal comes into effect
Updated 02 March 2025
AFP

Jerusalem: Israel said Sunday it endorsed a proposal to temporarily extend the truce in Gaza as a bridging measure after the first phase of its ceasefire with Hamas drew to a close.
The proposal, put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, would cover Ramadan, due to end late March, and Passover, lasting through mid-April, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office released just after midnight.
The first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas was set to expire over the weekend without any certainty as to the second phase, which is hoped to bring a more permanent end to the Gaza war.
Negotiations have so far been inconclusive, with the fate of hostages still held in Gaza and the lives of more than two million Palestinians hanging in the balance.
According to the Israeli statement, the extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza released on the day the deal comes into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.
There was no immediate response from Hamas, which earlier rejected the idea of an extension.
Israel’s backing of what it described as a US plan comes amid a flurry of warnings not to restart the war, which after 15 months devastated Gaza, displaced almost the entire population of the coastal strip and sparked a hunger crisis.
United Nations head Antonio Guterres warned against a “catastrophic” return to war and said a “permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages are essential to preventing escalation and averting more devastating consequences for civilians.”
Meanwhile Washington announced late Saturday it was boosting its military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance,” noting that a partial arms embargo imposed under former president Joe Biden had been reversed.
Israeli officials engaged in ceasefire negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators in Cairo last week. But by early Saturday there was no sign of consensus as Muslims in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan with colored lights brightening war-damaged neighborhoods.
A senior Hamas official told AFP the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.
“Hamas will not be happy to drag on phase one, but it doesn’t really have the capacity to force Israel to go on to phase two,” Max Rodenbeck, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

Hamas hostage video
Under the six-week ceasefire that took effect on January 19, Gaza militants freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The deal, reached following months of gruelling negotiations, largely halted the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
While Hamas on several occasions reiterated its “readiness to engage in negotiations for its second phase,” Israel preferred to secure more hostage releases under an extension of the first phase.
A Palestinian source close to the talks told AFP that Israel had proposed to extend the first phase in successive one-week intervals with a view to conducting hostage-prisoner swaps each week, adding that Hamas had rejected the plan.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack, 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas’s armed wing released footage showing what appeared to be a group of Israeli hostages in Gaza, accompanied with the message: “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive.”
AFP was unable to immediately verify the video, the latest that militants have released of Gaza captives.
Netanyahu’s office called it “cruel propaganda” but Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the Horn family, two of whose members appear in the video, had given permission for the footage of them to be published.
Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn was released on February 15 but his brother Eitan remains in captivity in Gaza.
“We demand from the decision-makers: Look Eitan in the eyes. Don’t stop the agreement that has already brought dozens of hostages back to us,” the family said.

Netanyahu's coalition worries
Domestic political considerations are a factor in Netanyahu’s reluctance to begin the planned second stage.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the far-right faction in the governing coalition, has threatened to quit if the war is not resumed.
“The Israeli government could fall if we enter phase two,” said Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence for risk management consultancy Le Beck International.
Israel has said it needs to retain troops in a strip of Gaza along the Egyptian border to stop arms smuggling by Hamas.
The Hamas attack that began the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, while the Israeli retaliation has killed 48,388 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, figures from both sides show.

Topics: Gaza Ceasefire Hamas Israel Gaza truce

In war-torn Sudan, a school offers a second chance at education

Updated 02 March 2025
AFP
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In war-torn Sudan, a school offers a second chance at education

Updated 02 March 2025
AFP

Port Sudan: In a worn-down classroom in eastern Sudan, men and women watch attentively from a wood bench as a teacher scribbles Arabic letters on a faded blackboard.
Nodding approvingly in the corner is the school’s 63-year-old founder Amna Mohamed Ahmed, known to most as “Amna Oor,” which partly means lion in the Beja language of eastern Sudan.
She has spent the last three decades helping hundreds return to their education in Port Sudan, now the country’s de facto capital.
The educator, who wears an orange headscarf wrapped neatly around her head, said she started the project in 1995 because of widespread illiteracy in her community.
“That’s what pushed me to act. People wanted to learn — if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have kept coming,” she told AFP.
Ahmed’s classes offer a second chance to those who missed out on formal education, particularly women who were denied schooling due to cultural or financial barriers.
A fresh start
For 39-year-old Nisreen Babiker, going back to school has been a long-held dream.
She left school in 2001 after marrying and taking on the responsibility of raising her younger siblings following her father’s death.
“My siblings grew up and studied, and my children too,” she said.
“I felt the urge to return to school. Even after all these years, it feels like I’m starting fresh,” she told AFP.
Ahmed’s school has also become a haven for those displaced by Sudan’s ongoing conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million, and driven swathes of the country into hunger and famine.
Maria Adam is among those who fled their homes after war broke out. She arrived in Port Sudan seeking safety and a better future.
“When I arrived in Port Sudan, I heard about this place and joined,” said the 28-year-old, noting that she dropped out of school when she was 11.
Changing lives
“I want to finish my education so I can help my children,” Adam told AFP.
Sudan’s education system has been shattered by the conflict, with the United Nations estimating that over 90 percent of the country’s 19 million school-age children now have no access to formal learning.
Across the nation, most classrooms have been converted into shelters for displaced families.
Even before the war, a 2022 Save the Children analysis ranked Sudan among the countries most at risk of educational collapse.
But the determination to learn remains strong at the Port Sudan school, where many students have gone on to enter high school and some have even graduated from university.
In one corner of the classroom, a mother joins her young son in a lesson, hoping to reshape both their futures.
“To watch someone go from not knowing how to read or write to graduating from university, getting a job, supporting their family — that is what keeps me going,” Ahmed said.
“They go from being seen as a burden to becoming productive, educated members of society,” she added.

Topics: Sudan Unrest

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US defense chief signs declaration to expedite delivery of $4 billion in military aid to Israel

Updated 02 March 2025
Reuters
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US defense chief signs declaration to expedite delivery of $4 billion in military aid to Israel

  • Since January 20, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel
  • On Friday, the US approved the potential sale of nearly $3 billion worth of bombs, demolition kits and other weaponry to Israel
Updated 02 March 2025
Reuters

 

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday he had signed a declaration to expedite delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance to Israel.
The Trump administration, which took office on January 20, has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, Rubio said in a statement, adding that it “will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.”
Rubio said he had used emergency authority to expedite the delivery of military assistance to Israel to its Middle East ally, now in a fragile ceasefire with Hamas militants in their war in Gaza.
The Pentagon said on Friday that the State Department had approved the potential sale of nearly $3 billion worth of bombs, demolition kits and other weaponry to Israel.
The administration notified Congress of those prospective weapons sales on an emergency basis, sidestepping a long-standing practice of giving the chairs and ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees the opportunity to review the sale and ask for more information before making a formal notification to Congress.
Friday’s announcements marked the second time in recent weeks that President Donald Trump’s administration has declared an emergency to quickly approve weapons sales to Israel. The Biden administration also used emergency authority to approve the sale of arms to Israel without congressional review.
On Monday, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era order requiring it to report potential violations of international law involving US-supplied weapons by allies, including Israel. It has also eliminated most US humanitarian foreign aid.
The January 19 Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement halted 15 months of fighting and paved the way for talks on ending the war, while leading to the release of 44 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.
Hours after the first phase of the agreed ceasefire was set to expire, Israel said early on Sunday it would adopt a proposal by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza for the Ramadan and Passover periods.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, casting doubt over the second phase of the deal meant to include releases of additional hostages and prisoners as well as steps toward a permanent end of the war.

Topics: War on Gaza Marco Rubio

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Syrians begin fasting during first Ramadan without Assad family rule in decades

Updated 02 March 2025
AP
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Syrians begin fasting during first Ramadan without Assad family rule in decades

  • Most countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Kuwait began observing Ramadan on Saturday, while a few other countries such as Malyasia and Japan, as well as some Shiite Muslims, will begin the fast on Sunday
  • Insurgents led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, or HTS, overthrew President Bashar Assad’s secular government in early December ending the 54-year Assad family dynasty
Updated 02 March 2025
AP

DAMASCUS, Syria: Some restaurants and coffee shops in Syria were closed during the day Saturday while others opened as usual as observant Muslims began fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, the first since the fall of Assad family rule in the war-torn country.
Syria’s interim Ministry of Religious Endowments reportedly called for all restaurants, coffee shops and street food stands be closed during the day and that people must not eat or drink in public or face punishment. Those who violate the rule could get up to three months in jail. However, it did not appear that any official order had been issued by the government to that effect.

People pray at Umayyad Mosque, on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Damascus, Syria, March 1, 2025. (REUTERS)

Associated Press journalists who toured Damascus on Saturday said some coffee shops were opened but had their windows closed to that people can’t see who is inside.
Insurgents led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, or HTS, overthrew President Bashar Assad’s secular government in early December ending the 54-year Assad family dynasty. Since then, Syria’s new Islamist government under former insurgent leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has been in control and many fear that the country could turn into an Daesh, although Al-Sharaa has so far promised to respect religious minorities.
Under Assad’s rule during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, people were allowed to eat in public. This year, many people are abstaining from eating in public fearing reprisals.

A table is prepared for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, organized by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), on the first day of Ramadan in the Jobar neighborhood, which was devastated by the Syrian war, in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday, March 1, 2025. (AP)

“Ramadan this year comes with a new flavor. This is the Ramadan of victory and liberation,” said interim Minister of Religious Affairs Hussam Hajj-Hussein in a televised statement.
Most countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Kuwait began observing Ramadan on Saturday, while a few other countries such as Malyasia and Japan, as well as some Shiite Muslims, will begin the fast on Sunday.
In many parts of the region, the holy month this year is bittersweet. Lebanese this year mark Ramadan after the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire that went into effect in late November.

Residents walk in the market on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in the old city of Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025. (AP)

In the Gaza Strip, a fragile ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, nears the end of its first phase, and many Palestinians ate their first iftar in the middle of the rubble where their houses used to be.
“This year, after the fall of the regime, there are many confirmations regarding the prohibition of publicly breaking the fast, with violators facing imprisonment,” said Damascus resident Munir Abdallah. “This is something new, good and respectable, meaning that the rituals of Ramadan should be fully observed in all their aspects.”
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons. The start of the month traditionally depends on the sighting of the crescent moon.
The actual start date may vary among Muslim communities due to declarations by multiple Islamic authorities around the globe on whether the crescent has been sighted or different methodologies used to determine the start of the month.
The fast breaking meal is known as iftar and usually family members and friends gather at sunset to have the main meal. Muslims eat a pre-dawn meal, called “suhoor,” to hydrate and nurture their bodies ahead of the daily fast.
The holy month is also a time when Islamic and charitable organizations frequently provide meals for those unable to afford their own.
In the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Bashar al Mashhadani, imam of the Sheikh Abdulqadir al Gailani Mosque in Baghdad said the mosque was preparing to serve 1,000 free meals per day to people coming to break their fast.
Ramadan is followed by the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, one of Islam’s most important feasts.

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Ramadan

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