Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
The Palestinian Authority wants a complete cessation of hostilities in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid and is ready to assume its responsibilities in the besieged strip if the conditions are met, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said.
"The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume its responsibilities in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem as a single Palestinian state," Mr Abbas told an Egyptian channel in his first interview since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on October 7.
“We want a comprehensive halt to the fighting, the opening of the borders for humanitarian aid, and the prevention of forced displacement of Palestinians outside their homeland,” he said.
Mr Abbas, leader of the Fatah party, said that a Palestinian state must be established in the aftermath of the war and that it must be made up of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Fatah is the dominant faction in the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israel-occupied West Bank, while its rival Hamas has ruled Gaza since it seized power there in 2007.
Mr Abbas’s latest statements come as Egypt pushed a peace proposal to all parties that addresses the “day-after” scenarios once Israel ends the war in Gaza.
Egyptian sources told Reuters that Hamas and fellow Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, who have been holding separate talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, have so far rejected offering any concessions beyond the possible release of more hostages seized on October 7 as their gunmen killed about 1,200 people in attacks in southern Israel.
Egypt's proposed vision, rather than a concrete plan, also backed by Qatari mediators, would involve a ceasefire in exchange for the release of more hostages, and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent ceasefire and an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, which is currently led by Hamas.
Egypt proposed elections while offering assurances to Hamas that its members would not be pursued or prosecuted, but the Islamist group rejected any concessions other than hostage releases, the sources said. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza.
Addressing the Palestinian Authority’s role in Gaza, Mr Abbas repeatedly insisted that Fatah had never left Gaza.
“We don’t need to return to Gaza, we are already there,” he told Lamis Elhadidy on the Egyptian ON television channel.
“However, we remain here [the West Bank] and we are also in Gaza despite Hamas’s coup in 2007. We didn’t change our position on Gaza,” he said.
"Our institutions, our cadres, our youth are still in Gaza and just so you know, we continue to pay Gaza – its people, its schools, its institutions, its water, its electricity –140 million US dollars each month. We still have the cadres and the infrastructure present to take over rule in Gaza."
With widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure and most of the population forced out of their homes, Mr Abbas said Israel's current war in Gaza was worse than the Nakba – the term used by Palestinians for their desplacement from what is now Israel during its creation in 1948.
"Gaza has been destroyed six times before, but this time has never happened in this way anywhere in the world. This is bigger than a Nakba," he said.
"It is worse and more horrific than 1948 because everything has been destroyed in Gaza. They even destroyed the mosques and churches. Homes, institutions, mosques and schools have been completely annihilated. Streets and alleys have been levelled. Whoever visits Gaza now will not recognise it. It will require tens of billions to bring life back to Gaza."
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Directed by: Todd Phillips
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Rating: Five out of five stars
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Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
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- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
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- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
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- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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