Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar are scheduled to resume talks on Tuesday in Cairo to try to find a formula to end the fighting in Gaza that is acceptable to Israel and Hamas, The National has learnt.
CIA director William Burns will lead the US team in the talks in which the intelligence chiefs of Israel and Egypt is to participate. Senior Qatari security officials would also take part, said sources, who spoke to The National on condition of anonymity.
Fresh negotiations follow the outright dismissal last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of proposals tabled by Hamas in response to a plan hammered out by mediators late last month. The nixed plan envisaged a truce of up to three months and a prisoner and hostage swap between Israel and Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in the region last week on his fifth Middle East tour since the war broke out, said Hamas's proposals had some merit but included “non-starters”.
This week's talks also take place against a backdrop of rising tension between Egypt and Israel over the latter's declared intention to take its military operations into the southern Gaza city of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
The town and its environs are packed with more than a million Gazans seeking shelter from the war.
Egypt, like the US and others, fears that an Israeli incursion into Rafah will result in massive civilian casualties and leave hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with no place to go, except across the border and to the Sinai Peninsula.
Those who come to Egypt, Cairo says, would not be allowed to return home by Israel, placing another hurdle in any future negotiations to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The influx of Palestinians into the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula, which borders Gaza and Israel, would also jeopardise Egypt's national security, according to Cairo.
“Military operations in the Rafah area in southern Gaza will bring about more civilian casualties and a disastrous humanitarian situation,” Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday.
Mr Netanyahu on Sunday confirmed in a media interview Israel's intention to move into Rafah – 'We're going to do it”, he told ABC television – but promised to find a “safe passage” for the Palestinians in Rafah.
Egypt, according to the sources, already has warned Mr Netanyahu's government that it would suspend relations if it goes ahead with its Rafah incursion. It has meanwhile reinforced its forces in Sinai and placed them on high alert. It has also stepped up reconnaissance flights over the border region.
The two countries are bound by a 1979 peace treaty, the first between an Arab nation and Israel, but their relations, for decades mostly cool, have become tense since the Gaza war began.
Egypt was angered by repeated bombardment of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing by Israel as well as its claims that Cairo was responsible for delays in dispatching humanitarian aid into Gaza.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has publicly warned that Israeli actions were putting at risk Cairo's decades-long endeavours to maintain peace between the two nations through difficult circumstances.
The Gaza war was triggered by a surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel that left nearly 1,200 killed. Hamas fighters also took 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Israel's response was a devastating military campaign in Gaza that has to date killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, displaced about 85 per cent of the enclave's 2.3 million people and razed large swathes of built-up areas.
A week-long truce in late November saw the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas and the release of about 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. Of the 132 now held by Hamas, nearly 30 are presumed dead.
The sources said the chances of a successful conclusion to this week's talks were uncertain.
Hamas told Egyptian mediators in marathon talks on Thursday that it would not budge on its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, to be accompanied by international guarantees, said the sources, who were briefed on the outcome of the talks.
Hamas also remains adamant that the reconstruction of Gaza should have a three-year timeline, also with international guarantees, said the sources. It also wants the siege of Gaza lifted and Israel to resume the supply of water and power to Gaza.
However, they said, Hamas has agreed to reduce the number of Palestinians it wants freed from Israeli prisons to 3,000 from up to 5,000. Hamas has also shown flexibility on the high-profile Palestinian prisoners it wants to see freed as part of the hostage and prisoner swap.
Mr Netanyahu, who described Hamas's proposals as “delusional” says Israel will continue the war in Gaza until Hamas is eradicated. He has also rejected the creation of a Palestinian state as part of an overall settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
The specs
Engine: 1.4-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 180hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 250Nm at 3,00rpm
Transmission: 5-speed sequential auto
Price: From Dh139,995
On sale: now
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm
Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: L/100km
Price: Dh306,495
On sale: now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 4 (Suarez 27', Vidal 32', Dembele 35', Messi 78')
Sevilla 0
Red cards: Ronald Araujo, Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona)
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
Results:
First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15
Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World by Michael Ignatieff
Harvard University Press
Ukraine%20exports
%3Cp%3EPresident%20Volodymyr%20Zelenskyy%20has%20overseen%20grain%20being%20loaded%20for%20export%20onto%20a%20Turkish%20ship%20following%20a%20deal%20with%20Russia%20brokered%20by%20the%20UN%20and%20Turkey.%3Cbr%3E%22The%20first%20vessel%2C%20the%20first%20ship%20is%20being%20loaded%20since%20the%20beginning%20of%20the%20war.%20This%20is%20a%20Turkish%20vessel%2C%22%20Zelensky%20said%2C%20adding%20exports%20could%20start%20in%20%22the%20coming%20days%22%20under%20the%20plan%20aimed%20at%20getting%20millions%20of%20tonnes%20of%20Ukrainian%20grain%20stranded%20by%20Russia's%20naval%20blockade%20to%20world%20markets.%3Cbr%3E%22Our%20side%20is%20fully%20prepared%2C%22%20he%20said.%20%22We%20sent%20all%20the%20signals%20to%20our%20partners%20--%20the%20UN%20and%20Turkey%2C%20and%20our%20military%20guarantees%20the%20security%20situation.%22%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MEYDAN RESULTS
6.30pm Baniyas (PA) Group 2 Dh125,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner ES Ajeeb, Sam Hitchcock (jockey), Ibrahim Aseel (trainer).
7.05pm Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Galaxy Road, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
7.40pm Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Al Modayar, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh170,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Gundogdu, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.50pm Rated Conditions (TB) Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner George Villiers, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm Handicap (TB) Dh175,000 (D)1,200m
Winner Lady Parma, Connor Beasley, Satish Seemar
10pm Handicap (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Zaajer, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
