02/08/2025

SATURDAY | AUG 2, 2025

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ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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US, Israel meet ahead of Gaza aid inspection

Last Handala aid ship activists deported ISTANBUL: The final two foreign activists from the Gaza bound Handala aid ship have been deported, concluding five days of unlawful detention under harsh conditions, Anadolu Ajansi reported. Christian Smalls of the United States and Hatem Aouini of Tunisia were expelled via Jordan after being held in Givon Prison, where they staged a hunger strike to protest their detention. Aouini was received at the border by the Tunisian Embassy. With their departure, all activists aboard the Handala have been deported and none remain in Israeli custody. Braedon Peluso (United States), Frank Romano (United States-France), Santiago González Vallejo (Spain), Sergio Toribio Sanchez (Spain) and Vigdis Bjorvand (Norway) were earlier transferred to the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv for deportation. Smalls and Aouini were still in Givon Prison at the time. The other 14 activists had been deported on Tuesday. Adalah, which had provided legal support for the detainees, accused Israeli authorities of violating the rights of the activists by detaining them without a legal basis and subjecting them to poor conditions. The Handala , carrying baby formula, food and medicine, was seized by Israeli forces near the Gaza coast on July 26, with 21 unarmed civilians on board. – Bernama-Anadolu Jerusalem evacuates diplomatic staff in UAE JERUSALEM: Israel is evacuating most of its diplomatic mission staff in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israeli media reported on Thursday, after Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) sharpened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country. “We are emphasising this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organisations (Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” NSC said in a statement. It warned of possible attempts to target Israeli and Jewish individuals in the UAE, especially around Jewish holidays and Shabbat. The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There was no immediate comment from the UAE Foreign Ministry. Israel is concerned about retaliatory attacks following its military operation against Iran and as it faces international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. – Reuters TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have amputated the hands of three convicted thieves, the judiciary said on Thursday, a relatively rare sentence reserved for repeat offenders. “The sentence of hand amputation for three professional thieves with a history of multiple thefts was carried out in West Azerbaijan province“ in Iran’s northwest, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. The report gave few details but said the convicts were arrested several years ago and “had more than 40 private plaintiffs across four provinces”. Mizan said the amputations were carried out after Iran’s top court upheld the sentences against the trio, and after they had not cooperated with “many” attempts to negotiate the return of stolen items, mostly gold jewelry, which would have allowed them“to benefit from legal leniency and repentance”. – AFP Iran amputates hands of thieves

JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump’s envoy met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ahead of a visit to inspect aid distribution in Gaza as a deadly food crisis drives mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader’s office said. Witkoff was set to visit Gaza yesterday, the White House announced. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Witkoff, who visited Gaza in January, would inspect “distribution sites, secure a plan to deliver more food and meet o Distribution sites to be checked with aim to secure plan to deliver more food: Press secretary

Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas. However, talks in Doha broke down last week and Israel and the United States recalled their delegations. Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. Trump criticised Canada’s decision and placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas. “The fastest way to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages!” Earlier this week, however, he contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza are exaggerated, warning that the territory faces “real starvation”. The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. – AFP

Gazans to hear firsthand about the situation on the ground”. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also met Netanyahu in Jerusalem and afterwards said: “The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination. “Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality. I have the impression that this has been understood today.” In an example of the deadly problems facing aid efforts in Gaza, the territory’s civil defence agency said at least 58 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy. The Israeli military said troops had fired “warning shots” as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks. Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP that Israeli troops opened fire after “people saw thieves stealing and dropping food”, and the hungry crowd rushed forward in hopes of getting some.

Zelensky pushes for ‘regime change’ in Russia KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged his allies to bring about “regime change” in Russia, hours after a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed at least 26 people, including a six-year-old boy. The overnight strikes reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv’s western suburbs to rubble and wounded at least 150 people in the capital, authorities said. neighbouring countries.“ From Wednesday to Thursday, Russia fired over 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said. One missile tore through a nine-storey residential building in the west of the capital, ripping off its facade, authorities said. Ukrainian lawmakers protesting with placards reading ‘Ukraine is not Russia 12414’ (the number of a Bill to be replaced) and ‘Hands off Nabu and SAP’ as they voted on the Bill. – AFPPIC

Thursday’s attacks came just hours before Ukrainian lawmakers overturned a highly criticised law, signed by Zelensky last week, that would have curbed the powers of two anti-graft bodies. Zelensky reversed course after the legislation sparked the biggest public unrest in Ukraine since 2022. The original law had put the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s (SAP) Office under the direct authority of the prosecutor-general, who is appointed by the president. Critics took to the streets in protest, saying the move would facilitate presidential interference in corruption probes. The European Union said the Bill could derail anti-corruption reforms that are key for joining the bloc. – AFP

The Russian army said it had hit a military airfield, ammunition warehouse and drone production facilities with a combined overnight strike using weaponry and drones. The attack came just days after US President Donald Trump issued a 10-day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its attacks or face sanctions. Trump on Thursday blasted Russia’s actions in Ukraine, suggesting that new sanctions against Moscow are coming. “We are going to put in sanctions. I do not know that sanctions bother him,“ he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian army claimed to have captured Chasiv Yar, a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months. Speaking virtually to a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords, Zelensky said he believes Russia could be “pushed” to stop the war. “But if the world does not aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow would still try to destabilise