Release of three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners comes as next phase of ceasefire set to begin
Israel and Hamas completed their fifth hostage-prisoner swap under a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal, with the frail, disoriented appearance of the three freed Israelis sparking dismay among their relatives.
Out of the 183 inmates released by Israel in return, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said seven required hospitalisation, decrying “brutality” and mistreatment in jail.
Competing interests and rivalries between regional powers threaten hopes of change after the fall of Bashar al-Assad
Previously undisclosed Pentagon plans for withdrawing 2,000 US troops from eastern Syria received scant attention last week, overshadowed by Donald Trump’s surreal Gaza pantomime. The troops help local Syrian Kurdish forces contain the residual threat posed by Islamic State jihadists, 9,000 of whom are held in prison camps. If the US leaves, the fear is of a mass breakout and, over time, a reviving IS terrorist threat to Europe, Britain and the west.
The mooted American pullout is one piece in a complex Syrian jigsaw puzzle that is challenging friends and foes alike following December’s toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Unlike Trump, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states – competing for influence – want to get more involved in Syria, not less. Europe wants a stable, democratic state to which refugees can safely return. Israel, aggressively paranoid, sees only potential threats, while vanquished Russia and Iran seek to regain a foothold.
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Two months after the fall of Assad’s regime, Whitehall’s decision to pause asylum applications from Syrians has left more than 6,600 cases stuck on hold in the UK
More than 6,000 Syrians in Britain are stuck in limbo because of an ongoing freeze on their asylum claims, two months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The Home Office announced a “pause” on Syrian asylum seekers’ claims on 9 December, the day after rebels swept into Damascus, saying that it needed to “assess the current situation”.
Palestinians find moment of respite in going out to dinner or relaxing in cafes as devastated territory seeks to rebuild
It is a Thursday night in Khan Younis and business is good at the al-Sawafiri restaurant. Not far away, entire blocks have been reduced to rubble, but here, in this small corner of the city in the southern Gaza Strip, the damage is less extensive. Raed al-Sawafiri, the owner and manager, stands in front of chicken rotating on a grill and smiles. Every one of his plastic tables is occupied.
Al-Sawafiri had no experience of the restaurant trade until very recently. Displaced 10 times during the 16-month conflict in Gaza, the 23-year-old opened his first establishment in Rafah, the southernmost city in the territory, early this year, after sourcing old equipment and sending his father to the border with Egypt to buy meat.
Palestinians face a mammoth task to rebuild homes and infrastructure – and Trump is unlikely to help
In the week that Donald Trump called for what has been described as an “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild it as a US “riviera” – an idea as unworkable as it is unhinged – the issues of how, if and when Gaza will be reconstructed have returned to the fore.
The reality is that, for all the promises to rehabilitate the coastal strip after previous conflicts, reconstruction – when it has happened – has at best been very partial and always subordinated to Israel’s demands.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. Guterres warned against 'any form of ethnic cleansing' in Gaza as he addressed the UN committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, a day after Donald Trump announced plans for the US to take control of the strip and for Palestinians to be 'resettled' in neighbouring countries. 'In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse,' the UN chief said. He said that any durable peace will require 'tangible, irreversible and permanent' progress toward the two-state solution as well as the establishment of an 'independent Palestinian state with Gaza as an integral part'
Large explosions could be seen in the northern occupied West Bank as Israel destroyed buildings in the Jenin refugee camp. The IDF, which had reportedly placed explosives in the structures, said it was destroying 'terrorist infrastructure'. This is the latest escalation in an IDF assault on the Jenin camp that was launched on 21 January. The UN has expressed concern that the ceasefire in Gaza could be endangered by Israel’s tactics in the West Bank, which have involved what the UN human rights spokesperson labelled 'unnecessary or disproportionate use of force'
A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before
A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in an attack in south Lebanon on 25 October that legal experts have called a potential war crime. The Guardian's reporter William Christou explains what he uncovered when he visited the site of the strike
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