Senior Hamas official says group is willing to lay down arms in exchange for Palestinian independence
Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, Al-Hayya said Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank. He said Hamas would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with the international resolutions,” along Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Israeli military intelligence chief resigns over his role in failing to prevent October 7 attack
Haliva, as well as other military and security leaders, were widely expected to resign in response to the glaring failures that led up to October 7 and the scale of its ferocity. But the timing of the resignations has been unclear because Israel is still fighting Hamas in Gaza and battling the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the north. Tensions with Iran are also at a high following attacks between the two enemies.
Prime Minister Netanyahu faces resistance at home as thousands of Israelis join anti-government protests
Surveys indicate that most Israelis blame Netanyahu for the security failures that led to the devastating attack by Hamas fighters on communities in southern Israel on October 7. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas.
Iran-Israel hostility spirals rapidly from sub-threshold level to overt war that sucks in Middle East
Israel’s targeting of the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1 has been widely regarded as a step up in its openness to hit at Iran directly, though Tehran is accused of targeting an Israeli embassy in the past. The recent behaviour is a departure from the past when either party often tried to shroud their actions in the cloak of plausible (or sometimes implausible) deniability.
Israeli drone strikes on Tehran stoke fears of a surge in Middle East crisis as Iran says it won’t hit back
Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for Saturday’s strikes, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies which has escalated throughout the Middle East through six months of battle in Gaza.
Leaked New York Times memo on Gaza bans use of terms such as genocide, ethnic cleansing and occupied territory
The leak gave rise to a highly unusual internal probe. The company faced harsh criticism for allegedly targeting Times workers of Middle East and North African descent, which Times brass denied. On Monday, executive editor Joe Kahn told staff that the leak investigation had been concluded unsuccessfully.
5,000 lives in a shell: Gaza’s IVF embryos destroyed by Israeli in an explosion that blasted lids off liquid nitrogen tanks
Large families are common in the enclave, where nearly half the population is under 18 and the fertility rate is high at 3.38 births per woman, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. Britain’s fertility rate is 1.63 births per woman.
Iranians’ fear of imminent Israeli retaliation after weekend attack touches off rial tumbles to 705,000 to US dollar
Iran launched the attack in retaliation for what it says was an April 1 Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus and signalled that it does not seek further escalation. While the attack caused no deaths and limited damage, it has increased fears of open warfare between the long-time foes and fuelled concerns that violence rooted in the Gaza war is spreading.
Biden faces Herculean hurdle in retaining Muslim vote in US poll and ending Gaza bloodbath
The highest-profile example of the stonewalling came last week when a Palestinian American doctor walked out of a meeting with Biden. But interviews with Muslim and Arab American leaders reveal how that face-to-face protest was only the most conspicuous case of a fracture that has damaged crucial relationships and closed avenues needed to repair them.
Iran’s response to Israeli attack on embassy in Syria guided by ‘saving face without losing its head’
A source familiar with US intelligence was not aware of the message conveyed via Oman but said Iran has “been very clear” that its response to the attack on its Damascus embassy compound would be “controlled” and “non-escalatory” and planned “to use regional proxies to launch a number of attacks on Israel.”
