Category: Middle East

LONDON: The Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip is ready to engage in dialogue with the US and its new administration under Donald Trump, according to one of its senior officials Mousa Abu Marzouk.

Abu Marzouk, who is a member of Hamas’ political office, told The New York Times on Sunday that the group was “prepared for a dialogue with America and to achieve understanding on everything.”

Abu Marzouk, 74, who is currently based in Qatar, is a native of Gaza and a former resident of Virginia.

TEL AVIV: For many Israelis yearning for a future free from war and for the release of hostages still held in Gaza, US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Monday is a source of hope.
On the eve of his inauguration, three women hostages were released after 15 months in captivity by Hamas militants, after mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt clinched a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Trump, whose envoy took part in negotiations even ahead of his return to the presidency, claimed credit for the deal following months of fruitless negotiations.

ISTANBUL: The number of dead after a fire that engulfed a hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Turkiye on Tuesday rose to 66, the interior minister said.
Witnesses said desperate guests had tried to escape using ropes, footage showed bedsheets hanging from the windows, and media reports suggest some had died after trying to jump to safety.
Several ministers have arrived at the scene at the Kartalkaya resort around 170 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of the capital Ankara, and officials said the fire had now been contained.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday he was not confident a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold, despite trumpeting his diplomacy to secure it ahead of his inauguration.

Asked by a reporter as he returned to the White House whether the two sides would maintain the truce and move on in the agreement, Trump said, “I’m not confident.”

“That’s not our war; it’s their war. But I’m not confident,” Trump said.

Trump, however, said that he believed Hamas had been “weakened” in the war that began with its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

DUBAI: The co-founder of an online platform that hires refugees and displaced persons as online tutors, teachers and translators was among 18 recipients of the 2025 Schwab Foundation Award announced on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

Aline Sara, co-founder of NaTakallam (Arabic for “we speak”), has been enabling refugees and other conflict-affected people to earn an income online and connect them with people around the world through language.

CAIRO: Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa congratulated US President Donald Trump on his inauguration in a statement on Monday, saying he is looking forward to improving relations between the two countries.
“We are confident that he is the leader to bring peace to the Middle East and restore stability to the region,” he said.
The US, Britain, the European Union and others imposed tough sanctions on Syria after a crackdown by ousted President Bashar Assad on pro-democracy protests in 2011 that spiralled into civil war.

DUBAI: Donald Trump’s US presidency will likely bring peace in Ukraine even if the future of the Middle East remains unclear, panelists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos said on Tuesday.

The annual meetings, which got into full swing on Tuesday, comes a day after Trump was sworn in for his second term as the 47th US president, marking perhaps the greatest political comeback in American history.

UNITED NATIONS, United States: More than 900 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Monday, the United Nations said, exceeding the daily target outlined in the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“Humanitarian aid continues to move into the Gaza Strip as part of a prepared surge to increase support to survivors,” the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) said.
“Today, 915 trucks crossed into Gaza, according to information received through engagement with Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire agreement.”

GENEVA: The United Nations on Tuesday said that there had been no reports of aid convoys being looted in war-ravaged Gaza since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect.
“These two first days of entry: there have been no records of looting or attacks against aid workers,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.
During the 15-month war, “there has been a sad, tragic history of looting happening,” he said.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed US President Donald Trump’s reversal of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The pro-settler Smotrich, in a message to Trump on Tuesday, called the move an “expression of your deep connection to the Jewish people and our historical right to our land.”