International
Negotiations for the truce in Gaza will resume in Doha
Negotiations for the truce in Gaza are scheduled to resume tomorrow, Sunday, in Doha and there will be an Israeli delegation to respond to Hamas’ updated proposal, Egyptian intelligence sources told EFE today.
The source, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of this issue, assured that the new round of talks will take place in Doha and not in Cairo, home of the last consultations, and in them there will be Egyptian, Qatari leaders and a delegation of the Israeli Mossad, without the participation of the Islamist group Hamas.
So far, the Qatari government has not officially confirmed that talks will resume tomorrow in its country.
The Egyptian source close to the negotiations assured that the meeting in Doha will discuss the points of disagreement between the Palestinian and Israeli parties, but it will not be to discuss all the points included in the agreement, since some have been agreed in principle.
He stressed, always according to this source, that the Israeli objections are mainly based on his desire for Hamas to reveal the names of the hostages and the figures of the dead captives.
On the other hand, a Palestinian source in Cairo also aware of the talks pointed out to EFE that the updated draft of Hamas contemplates three phases, instead of two as pointed out the day before.
The first phase provides for an exchange in different stages and a temporary ceasefire that lasts 42 days that later, in the second phase, will become a permanent ceasefire.
In the first phase, the movement conditioned the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Al Rashid Street and from Salah al Din to allow the return of the displaced and the passage of aid to the north of the Gaza Strip, as well as guarantee freedom of movement.
Hamas also offered, according to this source since the Palestinian group has not officially confirmed this information, to release 50 Palestinian prisoners for each living Israeli female soldier, although the informant did not offer more details of the rest of the hostages.
With the start of the second phase, Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire before any exchange of soldiers.
Finally, in the third phase, the proposal includes the implementation of a comprehensive reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the end of the siege.
The mediators will try to press for both parties to reach a ceasefire, which was expected to be achieved before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on March 11.
At least 80 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last hours in Gaza, medical and local sources told the Palestinian agency Wafa, while the Israeli Army claimed to have killed about thirty Hamas militiamen in the strip.
Waiting for the Gaza Ministry of Health to confirm the total number of fatalities this morning, about 36 people died last night in attacks on two houses in the Nuseirat camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, sources on the ground told the Palestinian agency.
For its part, the army said it had killed 15 alleged militiamen in Nuseirat “hidden in a sie in Hamas” during an air attack, explains a military statement, which says that the attack was led by the 215º artillery regiment “based on intelligence information.”
The same regiment, the army says, conducted a second airstrike “killing a commander of a squadron of snipers from Hamas” and another militiaman.
The rest of the civilian deaths, mostly women and children, perished in the bombing of a seven-storey residential building “that housed displaced people,” according to Wafa, near the Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, and in another air attack on a house on Al Jalaa Street in the same city.
In addition, five other civilians died and dozens more were injured in an airstrike against a house in the Al Tuffah neighborhood, and a similar bombing caused an undetermined number of deaths and injuries in the Al Nasr neighborhood, both in Gaza City.
In turn, Wafa reported “intense air strikes” on the city of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Strip, with bombings that also took place against an inhabited house in Rafah, south of the enclave and where more than 1.4 million displaced people take refuge.
In the center of Gaza, Israeli soldiers of the Nahal Brigade, according to the statement, killed “about 10 armed men” on the last day; and in Jan Yunis fighter planes destroyed “a weapons depot” and attacked alleged militiamen.
After more than five months of war, 85% of the Gaza population has been displaced, and 60% of the infrastructure of the Strip, according to UN estimates, is damaged or destroyed, with malnourished babies and little medical assistance due to Israeli attacks.
A Palestinian armed with a rifle was killed this Saturday by Israeli soldiers shot in a cemetery near a Jewish settlement, within the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron, according to a military statement and a video of the event.
An attacker “opened fire on a Jewish community (colony) in the city of Hebron. The terrorist has been neutralized,” said the army, which reported that soldiers comb the area in search of other possible suspects.
The total number of fatalities increased in recent hours to 31,553 and 73,546 injured since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, reported the Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas, after a day of intense attacks in the central area of the enclave.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry insisted on Saturday that Israel must open all the remaining steps that are not yet operational to introduce aid to the Gaza Strip and prevent the humanitarian situation from worsening.
“Egypt continues to do everything possible to improve the access of urgent aid to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing and through aerial launches,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement.
And he asked Israel to “remove the obstacles and restrictions it imposes on the entry of aid through land border crossings, and to put the remaining steps into operation so that more aid is entered and thus prevent the humanitarian situation in Gaza from worsening.”
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
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