Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, left, and Belgian PM Alexander De Croo meet with Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in March of 2024. (Reuters)

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Updated 18 September 2024

AFP

September 18, 2024 09:49

Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support

Abbas’ visit comes after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, on May 28 formally recognized a Palestinian state
First Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI

Updated 18 September 2024

AFP

September 18, 2024 09:49

MADRID: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet Thursday in Madrid with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in his first visit to the country since it formally recognized a Palestinian state in May.
Abbas is stopping in Madrid at Spain’s invitation before heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, according to an official in his office.
Sanchez will meet with Abbas on Thursday, the Spanish premier’s office said Wednesday, but the details of the program for the rest of the Palestinian president’s visit is not yet known.
Abbas is also due to be received by Spain’s King Felipe VI according to the official in his office, but the royal palace, contacted by AFP, has not confirmed this meeting.
His visit comes after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, on May 28 formally recognized a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Israel condemned their decision, saying it bolsters Hamas, the militant Islamist group that led the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Spain’s leftist government then announced that a first bilateral summit between Spain and Palestine would be held before the end of the year, and the first Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said the recognition of a Palestinian state is “not against anyone, least of all Israel,” but the move led to a further deterioration in ties between the two countries.
He has been one of the most outspoken critics in Europe of Israel’s Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.
The October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Sanchez vowed this month to continue to “pressure” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the global stage over the war in Gaza, especially at the International Criminal Court, which in May requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his defense minister.
Spain, along with other nations, has joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice in which Pretoria has accused Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
“We are going to strengthen our ties with the Palestinian state,” Sanchez said, adding that Madrid hoped “to sign several collaboration agreements” with the Palestinian state at the bilateral summit later this year.
Last week, Madrid hosted a gathering of representatives from European and Arab nations to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The international community must take a decisive step toward a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Sanchez said at the time.

Topics: Spain Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas pedro sanchez

Syrian foreign minister in Doha to meet senior Qatari officials

Updated 7 sec ago

Reuters

January 05, 2025 09:03

Syrian foreign minister in Doha to meet senior Qatari officials

The Syrian minister’s visit to Qatar is his second foreign trip less than a month since former President Bashar Assad was ousted

Updated 7 sec ago

Reuters

January 05, 2025 09:03

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, appointed by the country’s new rulers, arrived in Qatar on Sunday to meet senior Qatari officials, a Qatari official said.
The officials include Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Al-Khulaifi.
Syrian official news agency SANA confirmed the arrival of the Syrian delegation, which includes the country’s Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and head of intelligence Anas Khattab.
The Syrian minister’s visit to Qatar is his second foreign trip less than a month since former President Bashar Assad was ousted by militants on Dec. 8.
Al-Shibani is expected to also visit the United Arab Emirates and Jordan this week to “support stability, security, economic recovery and build distinguished partnerships,” according to his account on X.
He embarked on his first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, where Saudi officials discussed how best to support Syria’s political transition.

Israel-Hamas talks resume in Qatar as violence shows no let-up

Updated 05 January 2025

AFP

January 05, 2025 06:49

Israel-Hamas talks resume in Qatar as violence shows no let-up

Israel’s defense chief says indirect negotiations with Hamas seek release of hostages
Ninety-six Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 Israeli military says are dead

Updated 05 January 2025

AFP

January 05, 2025 06:49

GAZA STRIP: Israel confirmed on Saturday that negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had resumed in Qatar, as rescuers said more than 30 people had been killed in fresh bombardment of the territory.

The civil defense agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the Al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.

AFP images from the neighborhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets.

As the violence raged, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that indirect negotiations with Hamas had resumed in Qatar for the release of hostages seized in the October 2023 attacks.

The minister told relatives of one of the hostages, woman soldier Liri Albag, that “efforts are under way to free the hostages, notably the Israeli delegation which left yesterday (Friday) for negotiations in Qatar,” his office said.

Katz said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given “detailed instructions for the continued negotiations.”

He was speaking after Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video of Albag in captivity in Gaza.

In the undated, three-and-half-minute recording that AFP has not been able to verify, the 19-year-old conscript called in Hebrew for the Israeli government to secure her release.

In response, her family issued an appeal to Netanyahu, saying: “It’s time to take decisions as if it were your own children there.”

A total of 96 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the latest video was “firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home.”

Hamas had said late on Friday that the negotiations were poised to resume.

The militant group, whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said they would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces.”

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of effort that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.

In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following the US election of Donald Trump, who takes office in 16 days.

But Hamas and Israel then accused each other of setting new conditions and obstacles.

As the clock ticks down to the handover of power in Washington, the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden notified Congress of an $8 billion arms sale to Israel, a source familiar with the plan said on Saturday.

“The department has informally notified Congress of an $8 billion proposed sale of munitions to support Israel’s long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” the official said.

The United States is Israel’s largest military supplier.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Ghoula home in Gaza City “was completely destroyed” by the dawn strike.

“It was a two-story building and several people are still under the rubble,” he said, adding Israeli drones had “also fired on ambulance staff.”

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.

“A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking,” said neighbor Ahmed Mussa.

“It was home to children, women. There wasn’t anyone wanted or who posed a threat.”

Elsewhere, the civil defense agency said an Israeli strike killed five security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli army said the five had been “implicated in terrorist activities” and were not escorting aid trucks at the time of the strike.

Rescuers said strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed 10 other people.

AFP images showed Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in Gaza City moving the body of one of their colleagues, his green jacket laid over the blanket that covered his corpse.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said a total of 136 people had been killed over the previous 48 hours.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen in the latest of a series of attacks.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been firing missiles and drones at Israel — as well as at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — in what they say is a solidarity campaign with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,717 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Israel-Hamas talks resume in Qatar as violence shows no let-up

Updated 56 min ago

AFP

January 05, 2025 04:07

Israel-Hamas talks resume in Qatar as violence shows no let-up

Israel's defense chief says direct negotiations with Hamas seeks release of hostages
A total of 96 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead

Updated 56 min ago

AFP AP