US President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent an ultimatum to the terrorist organization Hamas to release all hostages or face hell. “'Shalom Hamas' means hello and goodbye. You have a choice,” he stressed, meaning he was done talking. The Republican leader also stressed he was sending Israel “everything it needs to finish the job” in Gaza
Israel and the terrorist group Hamas Tuesday agreed in principle to further exchange Palestinian prison inmates for the bodies of four Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire, mediated by Egypt. The deal follows tensions over delayed releases and Hamas’s public handling of hostage handovers, which Israel dubbed as humiliating, particularly in the case of a body mistakenly passed on as that of dual Argentine national Shiri Bibas, who was murdered alongside her two children Ariel and Kfir.
Israeli authorities reported later Thursday that the body believed to be that of dual Argentine citizen Shiri Bibas (née Silberman) was not hers, while the other three caskets handed over by the pro-Palestine terrorist organization Hamas did contain the cadavers it claimed to hold.
Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas agreed on a 42-day ceasefire to come into effect on Sunday in Gaza, during which some Israeli hostages will be released -dead or alive- in exchange for convicted terrorists serving their sentences in Tel Aviv's correctional system.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Monday kicked off his new Middle East tour in Cairo. He is believed to be seeking a ceasefire in Gaza eight months into the conflict triggered by the terrorist group Hamas' invasion of Israel killing over a thousand people and taking some 250 others hostage, of whom about 50% have been either rescued or handed back over to their land. It is yet to be known how many of them are still alive. Blinken reportedly plans to broker their release.
BBC is reporting that a British bank that escaped prosecution for money laundering carried out billions of dollars of transactions for funders of terrorist groups, according to US court papers allege. The piece by Andy Verity points out that Standard Chartered, one of the UK’s largest banks, avoided prosecution by the US Department of Justice after Lord Cameron’s government intervened on its behalf in 2012.
The Chilean Government of President Gabriel Boric Font announced Saturday that it would be joining South Africa as plaintiffs in the genocide case filed against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, The Netherlands.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) Friday issued a landmark ruling ordering Israel to stop its military deployment in Rafah, a spot in southern Gaza where thousands are said to have been killed since the beginning of hostilities in October last year. The highest court of the United Nations (UN) also warned that the current situation was “causing irreparable harm” nearing the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez Wednesday announced that his country would be recognizing Palestine's statehood as of May 28. In addition to Spain, Norway and the Republic of Ireland will be adopting the same stance. It was the Socialist leader's second bold diplomatic move this week after pulling Madrid's Ambassador María Jesús Alonso Jiménez from Buenos Aires. Of the 193 United Nations member states, 143 have recognized an independent state of Palestine, including China and Russia.
US President Joseph Biden Monday criticized International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan's decision to request arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders alike on the grounds that comparing one with the other was outrageous. In Biden's view, the move suggests that Israel and Hamas share equal blame for the war in Gaza.