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”.
more from Janine di Giovanni
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
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'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Cry Macho
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam
Rating:**
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TO ALL THE BOYS: ALWAYS AND FOREVER
Directed by: Michael Fimognari
Starring: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo
Two stars
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
On sale: now
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
FA CUP FINAL
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
