International
Hamas rejects the Israeli proposal for a truce and demands a “comprehensivel” ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has once again imposed as conditions for sealing a new truce agreement a “comprehensive” ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
“The Hamas movement informed the mediating brothers that we adhere to our position and vision already presented on March 14, because the occupation did not respond to any of the basic demands of our people and our resistance,” the group reported in a statement.
Hamas cited “a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced and a real exchange of prisoners,” as its fundamental requirements.
Delegations of Israel and Hamas held indirect negotiations over the weekend in Doha – with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the United States – to achieve a new truce agreement, in which the Israeli delegation, headed by the head of the Mosad, David Barnea, proposed a new proposal, to which the Islamist group had to respond in the coming days.
In today’s statement, Hamas reiterates that “Netanyahu and his extremist government have all the responsibility to thwart negotiation efforts and hinder the achievement of an agreement so far.”
Israel called the demands of the Islamist group Hamas “delusional” on Tuesday and warned that “it will not submit to its demands.”
“The position of Hamas clearly shows that it is not interested in continuing negotiations to reach an agreement, and it is an unfortunate testimony of the damage of the Security Council’s decision,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Faced with this situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on his negotiating team in Doha to return to Israel.
The proposal rejected by Hamas would contemplate the release of about 700 or 800 Palestinian prisoners, including a hundred convicted of murder, in exchange for the release of about 40 hostages, primarily women, children, the sick and the elderly in a first phase, according to leaks to the Hebrew press.
The new draft doubled the number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel would be willing to release, since weeks ago it was negotiated on a basis of 400 prisoners for 40 hostages, during a six-week truce.
A critical point in the negotiations is the profile of Palestinian prisoners to be released: Hamas demands about 30 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism, for every female soldier he delivers. Israel’s counter-offer is five of these prisoners for each female soldier.
On the ground, the situation is becoming more dramatic every day. At least 18 Palestinians have died in the north of the Strip in the last few hours, when dozens of “hungry” people entered the sea to collect the humanitarian aid packages launched from the air.
Twelve of them have drowned and six suffocated from the stampede, according to the Ministry of Health of the enclave controlled by Hamas.
It is not the first time that the launch of air packages has claimed the lives of civilians from Gaza.
Faced with this situation, the Palestinian authorities have called for an end to this type of “useless, offensive and inappropriate” operations and asked Israel to open “immediately” the rest of the land border crossings – there are five unopened – to alleviate the “serious” food shortages suffered by civilians in northern Gaza for the sixth consecutive month.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army assured on Tuesday that in the last few hours they have attacked more than 60 “terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip.
“Combat planes attacked more than 60 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including terrorist tunnels and military infrastructures in which armed terrorists were identified,” they explain in a military statement.
Israeli troops also attacked the area from which on Monday several projectiles were fired towards the Israeli city of Sderot, the closest to the enclave, and also on the city of Ashdod, where for the first time in two months rockets from Hamas arrived, most of them intercepted by the Israeli anti-aircraft defense.
In addition, the Al Shifa hospital is still besieged, more than a week after Israeli troops occupied it for the fourth time since the beginning of the offensive in the Strip, on October 7.
On Monday, the spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, assured that the operation inside the largest hospital in the Strip is “being one of the most successful” of this war because in just one week they have managed to kill more than 170 alleged militiamen from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, avoiding “damage to patients, civilians and medical equipment.”
However, the Ministry of Health of Gaza, controlled by Hamas, denounced that at least 18 patients in this hospital have died in recent days after the incursion of Israeli troops.
For its part, the Palestinian Red Crescent (MLRP) denounced tonight that Jan Yunis’ Al Amal hospital is already out of service as a result of the siege carried out last Sunday by the Israeli Army, when it forced the evacuation of health personnel and the injured.
According to the organization, they also evacuated the bodies of two people who died during the siege, a civilian who was taking refuge in the hospital and a volunteer of the MLRP, a member of the emergency team.
The Hebrew troops justified their assault on this medical center under the same thesis that they maintain in the Shifa: the presence of alleged “terrorists” in these hospital centers.
International
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.
The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.
In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.
The number of displaced people reaches 700,000
In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.
This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”
Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.
What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?
The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.
However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.
International
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.
Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.
The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.
Prison for two cases of rape in Norway
The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.
According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.
In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.
“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.
HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.
Three arrests since August
Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.
His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.
According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.
It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.
Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.
The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case
The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.
“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.
The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”
Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.
International
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
The Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives did not make public this Wednesday due to lack of agreement the report of its investigation into Matt Gaetz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, to be the next attorney general and investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior and drug use.
The president of that commission, Republican Michael Guest, told the press at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting at the Capitol that there was no consensus among the members when making that document public.
That body was going to put its decision to a vote last Friday, but Gaetz’s resignation from his seat two days earlier, after being appointed by Trump, delayed that scrutiny and effectively ended the investigations into him.
Although with the departure of the Florida representative of Congress, the commission was left without jurisdiction to investigate him, the publication of the conclusions of his investigation opened in 2021 for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, irregular use of campaign funds, acceptance of bribes and drug use was still in the air.
Committee interviews
The committee interviewed two women who testified that Gaetz, nominated for attorney general, paid them for having sex at a party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal.
According to the women’s lawyer to the NBC News channel, Joel Leppard, one of them also testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor, although he said that he did not think he knew that he was 17 years old at the time.
Gaetz has denied those accusations and Trump’s transition team considers them unfounded and recalls that the Department of Justice closed a parallel investigation without charges.
Review of the report
Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, had said that they wanted to review that report before the Judicial Committee of the Upper House examines Gaetz’s nomination next year and then the plenary of that hemicycle validates or stops it.
The authorization of the positions of the future cabinet depends on the Senate, but until then Gaetz has the support of Trump, who has stated that he does not question his own decision, and also of the future vice president, JD Vance, who accompanied him to Congress this Wednesday.
Report on Gaetz next attorney general has had leaks
However, although the House Committee on the House of Representatives stopped the dissemination of the report, there have already been leaks in the national press.
The lawyer of the two women indicated that they provided that committee with numerous photos related to the time they spent with the Republican, who according to that lawyer paid 6,000 dollars to one and 4,000 to another to sleep with them.
The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, had wanted to stay out of the committee’s decision, but at the same time he did not consider it appropriate for it to disseminate his investigation: “That would open Pandora’s box and I don’t think it’s something healthy for the institution,” he said.
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
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