Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said on Thursday that American troops would not be needed in Gaza, which was mentioned as a potential part of the US leader's much-criticised plan to redevelop the Palestinian enclave.
Mr Trump said Israel would hand over the Gaza Strip to the US after the fighting ends. By then, Palestinian residents would have already been resettled elsewhere in “far safer and more beautiful communities with new and modern homes in the region”.
“No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. On Tuesday, he had said he would send US troops if it was necessary.
Mr Netanyahu, who is in Washington this week, visited the US Capitol on Thursday, where he, too, said US troops are not needed in Gaza.
Gathering with bipartisan members of the US Senate ahead of a meeting with Republican majority leader John Thune, Mr Netanyahu simply answered, “no”, when asked if he supported a US posting to the strip.
Mr Trump proposed at a Tuesday press conference with Mr Netanyahu that the US should take “long-term ownership” of Gaza. He also said he wanted to see the Gaza Strip redeveloped into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. The comments have drawn widespread condemnation in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Despite the apparent walk-back of comments regarding US troops being posted to Gaza, a US military contractor, UG Solutions, last week told Reuters that it is hiring nearly 100 special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in the enclave during the initial phases of the Israel-Gaza ceasefire.
Mr Netanyahu was on Capitol Hill meeting with a new Republican majority that has promised to ramp-up Washington's support of Israel. Mr Thune delivered a message to Israelis after clinching party leadership in the Senate chamber: “Reinforcements are on the way.”
Among the senators posing for a photo-op with Mr Netanyahu was Republican Tom Cotton, who is leading legislation aimed at eliminating all official US references to the “West Bank” and refer to the occupied Palestinian territory as “Judea and Samaria” instead.
The Israeli Prime Minister was also due to meet Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Senate foreign relations committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen said she had a “frank and productive” conversation with Mr Netanyahu.
“I also stressed to Prime Minister Netanyahu the importance to Israel’s long-term security of maintaining stability in the West Bank and the need to work with our partners in the region towards a negotiated two-state outcome with a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in equal measures of peace, security and mutual recognition,” Ms Shaheen said.
Mr Trump's Gaza comments prompted an immediate response from some members of his own Republican Party, who expressed confusion at the off-the-cuff reversal of US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said she does not “even want to speculate to that question, because I think that is quite frightening”, she said.
Democratic senator Chris van Hollen, among the few senators to vocally condemn Israel's Gaza war and who has pledged to oppose all of Mr Trump's State Department nominations over the recent shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), called the plan “ethnic cleansing by any other name”.
One-off T20 International: UAE v Australia
When: Monday, October 22, 2pm start
Where: Abu Dhabi Cricket, Oval 1
Tickets: Admission is free
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Darcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Peter Siddle
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
THE BIO
Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.
Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.
She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.
Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring the natural world.
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
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The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Nancy 9 (Hassa Beek)
Nancy Ajram
(In2Musica)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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Brief scores:
Everton 2
Walcott 21', Sigurdsson 51'
Tottenham 6
Son 27', 61', Alli 35', Kane 42', 74', Eriksen 48'
Man of the Match: Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
Suggested picnic spots
Abu Dhabi
Umm Al Emarat Park
Yas Gateway Park
Delma Park
Al Bateen beach
Saadiyaat beach
The Corniche
Zayed Sports City
Dubai
Kite Beach
Zabeel Park
Al Nahda Pond Park
Mushrif Park
Safa Park
Al Mamzar Beach Park
Al Qudrah Lakes
Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures: Monday, first 50-over match; Wednesday, second 50-over match; Thursday, third 50-over match
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million