Author: AFP
Freed Israeli hostage Liri Albag on Saturday expressed her gratitude to Israelis for their support for the families of captives seized by Hamas in October 2023, in released military footage. “I love you, all the citizens of the State of Israel, who supported our families and embraced them, and all the IDF (Israeli military) soldiers who did everything for us. Thank you very much, I love you all,” Albag is seen saying in the video after being freed along with three other captives earlier on Saturday.
The Lebanese army said on Saturday it was ready to deploy its forces in the country’s south, accusing Israel of “procrastination” in its withdrawal under a ceasefire, a day before the pullout deadline. Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period that ends Sunday. Hezbollah is to pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border — and dismantle any remaining military…
Kyiv on Friday warned against negotiations on the war in Ukraine between the US and Russia without including it and Europe, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he was ready for talks with Donald Trump. “He (Putin) wants to negotiate the fate of Europe — without Europe. And he wants to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said on Telegram. “This is not going to happen. Putin needs to come back to reality, or he will be brought back. This is not how it works in the modern world.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he was ready for talks with US counterpart Donald Trump on the Ukraine conflict, fuelling expectations of contact between the two world leaders. “As for the issue of negotiations… we have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” Putin told a reporter from Russian state TV.
The UN’s high commissioner for refugees called during a visit to Lebanon on Thursday for the “sustainable” return of Syrian refugees to their home country following the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad. According to Lebanese authorities, the country hosts nearly two million Syrians — around 800,000 of whom are registered with the UN — making it home to the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. “My visit to Lebanon is part of a regional visit to explore how best to support returning Syrian refugees,” High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement after a meeting with…
Kyiv accused Russian forces on Thursday of killing six captured Ukrainian servicemen and said it was notifying international rights groups of the latest alleged Russian war crime. Officials both in Moscow and Kyiv have accused the other’s army of carrying out killings of captured soldiers in violation of international law. The Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets made the allegations referring to footage circulating on social media that appears to show Russian troops shooting unarmed Ukrainian troops to death. “In the video, the occupiers recorded their own crime — shooting six Ukrainian soldiers who were captured in the back,” he…
Residents of Russia’s Kursk region have made co-ordinated social media posts appealing for help to find relatives trapped by a Ukrainian border offensive launched last August, Russian media reported Wednesday. Kyiv seized dozens of small towns and villages in the incursion, more than two years into Russia’s full-scale military assault on Ukraine. Residents in the Russian region have for months accused authorities of not doing enough to secure their loved ones, and of keeping them in the dark about the scale of fighting. “There are about 3,000 civilians still under occupation in the Sudzhadistrict of the Kursk region,” relatives said…
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to resign on Tuesday after the country’s military chief quit over the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Lapid said he saluted military chief Herzi Halevi for stepping down and added: “Now, it is time for them to take responsibility and resign — the prime minister and his entire catastrophic government.”
The head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, resigned on Tuesday over his responsibility for its “failure” during the Palestinian resistance group Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023. In his resignation letter, released by the army, Halevi said he was leaving “due to my acknowledgement of responsibility for the (military’s) failure on October 7”. He said he was leaving at a time of “significant successes” for the military, though he also said that “not all” of Israel’s war goals had been met. “The objectives of the war have not all been achieved. The army will continue to fight to…
Bitcoin hit a record high above $109,000 on Monday as Donald Trump, who plans to deregulate the cryptocurrency sector and has launched his own “meme coin”, prepares to be sworn in as US president. Bitcoin surged to an all-time peak of $109,241 ahead of Trump’s inauguration ceremony, before falling back to around $107,000. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has soared nearly 60 percent in value since Trump won the presidential election in early November, which saw it surpass $100,000 for the first time at the start of December. It came after he nominated cryptocurrency backer Paul Atkins to head the US…