23/06/2025

MONDAY | JUNE 23, 2025

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Bodies of three hostages recovered TEL AVIV: Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages which had been held in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas’ 2023 attack, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday. The hostages were identified as civilians Ofra Keidar and Yonatan Samerano, and soldier Shay Levinson. All were killed on the day of the attack, on Oct 7, 2023, the military said. With their retrieval, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive. The abduction of Samerano, 21 at the time of his death, by a man later identified by Israeli officials as a worker at the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, was caught on CCTV. Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities. – Reuters Belarus opposition leader freed VILNIUS: Belarus opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 other prisoners have been released from jail and are now free in Lithuania, the neighbouring country’s government said on Saturday. The release was brokered by US special envoy Keith Kellogg, a spokesperson for Lithuania’s prime minister said. Kellogg earlier met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Belta news agency said. Tsikhanouski’s wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya thanked President Donald Trump, Kellogg and others for their efforts to secure her husband’s release. “We’re not done,”Tsikhanouskaya wrote on her X account, calling for the release of a further 1,150 prisoners. Lukashenko issued pardons for all those released in response to a US request, the president’s spokeswoman, Natalya Eismont, said in a statement. Eismont’s statement on the Pul Pervogo Telegram channel close to the president, said the Belarusian nationals among the 14 released detainees had been “convicted of extremist and terrorist activity”. She said the decision to release Tsikhanouski was “taken by the president strictly on humanitarian considerations with the aim of family reunification”. Tsikhanouski was seen emerging from a van with a shaven head, smiling and immediately stepping up to hug his wife in a long embrace, a video released by her office showed. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Kellogg, the highest-ranking US official to visit Belarus in years, saw his mission as one that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. “President Trump encouraged this trip,” Kellogg’s deputy John Coale said in a video posted on his account on X.

Palestinians waiting to receive food at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday. – REUTERSPIC

Tens of thousands join marches across Europe

including “Stop arming Israel” and “No war on Iran” as they marched in the sweltering heat. “It’s important to remember that people are suffering in Gaza. I fear all the focus will be on Iran now,” said 34-year-old Harry Baker. “I don’t have great love for the Iranian regime, but we are now in a dangerous situation,” he said, adding that this was his third pro-Palestinian protest. Saturday’s marches came after Trump announced on social media that the US military had carried out a “very successful attack” on three Iranian nuclear sites. One marcher in London, a 31-year-old Iranian student, who did not want to share her name, said she had family in Iran and was “scared”. “I’m worried about my country. I know the regime is not good but it’s still my country,” she said. Gaza is suffering from famine-like conditions according to UN agencies in the region following an Israeli aid blockade.

That’s where the genocide is happening,” said 60-year-old protester Nicky Marcus. In Berlin, demonstrators gathered mid afternoon close to the parliament, some chanting “Germany finances, Israel bombs”. “You can’t sit on the sofa and be silent. Now is the time when we all need to speak up,” said protester Gundula, who did not want to give her second name. For Marwan Radwan, the point of the protest was to bring attention to the “genocide taking place” and the “dirty work” being done by the German government. In Bern, demonstrators carried banners calling on the federal government to intervene, expressing solidarity with Palestinians. The rally was called by organisations including Amnesty International, the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Swiss Trade Union Federation. Slogans included “Stop the occupation”, “Stop the starvation, stop the violence”, and “Right to self-determination”. Some marchers chanted: “We are all the children of Gaza”. The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached at least 55,637, according to the Health Ministry. – AFP Ukraine’s military said it destroys around 82% of Shahed-type drones launched by Russia but requires more surface-to-air missile systems to defend critical infrastructure and cities. The military said the air force was also working on developing the use of light aircraft and drone interceptors in repelling Russian assaults which can involve hundreds of drones. Ukraine also relies on its long-range capabilities to inflict damage to economic and military targets on Russian territory. – Reuters

o Eyes on Gaza genocide

LONDON: Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in European cities calling for an end to the war in Gaza, hours before President Donald Trump said the US military had attacked three Iranian nuclear sites yesterday. In London, AFP journalists saw protesters, who waved Palestinian flags as they marched through the British capital clad in keffiyeh scarves. In Berlin, more than 10,000 people gathered in the centre of the city in support of Gaza, according to police figures. And in the Swiss capital Bern, march organisers estimated that 20,000 people rallied in front of the national parliament, urging the government to back a ceasefire. Thousands also gathered outside a French trade fair near Paris attended by Israeli defence firms, calling for an end to war profiteering and Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

There have been monthly protests in the British capital since the start of the 20-month long war between Israel and Hamas. This Saturday, protesters there carried signs ‘Ukraine fighting 10,000 Russian troops in Kursk’ Gaza’s civil defence agency has reported that hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to reach the US- and Israeli backed aid distribution sites. “People need to keep their eyes on Gaza. Presidential spokeswoman Eismont, quoted by the Belta agency, said Kellogg’s talks with Lukashenko had begun on Friday evening and lasted over six hours. – Reuters

KYIV: Around 10,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, about 90 sq km of which is controlled by Ukraine, Ukraine’s top military commander said. “We control about 90 sq km of territory in the Hlushkov district of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and these are our preemptive actions in response to a possible enemy attack,” Oleksandr Syrskyi said in remarks released by his office for publication yesterday. The Ukrainian military said the activity in this

comes at a cost of high Russian casualties in small assault-group attacks. While the military says its troops repelled Russian approaches toward Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region borders last week, the pressure continues in the country’s eastern and northern regions. The Russian military also continues its deadly drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian cities further from the front, prompting Ukraine to innovate its approaches to air defence.

area prevented Russia from sending a significant number of its forces to Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place in the more than three-year-old full-scale invasion. Syrskyi’s troops are repelling Russian forces along the frontline, which stretches for about 1,200km, where the situation remains difficult, the Ukrainian military said. Russian gains have accelerated in May and June, though the Ukrainian military says it