09/08/2025

SATURDAY | AUG 9, 2025

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Israel approves plan to take control of Gaza o A‘ rmy will distribute humanitarian aid to civilians outside combat zones’

Europe supports US diplomacy in Ukraine war ISTANBUL: European leaders on Thursday voiced support for renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, following a key meeting between US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Anadolu Ajansi reported. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had discussed the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and welcomed Washington’s mediation initiative. “We are grateful to the American president for his mediation efforts and are in close contact with the United States and our European partners,” he posted on X. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that he had also spoken with Zelensky and other European leaders to assess recent developments. He reiterated France’s full support for a ceasefire, describing it as a necessary step towards negotiations that ensure Ukraine’s legitimate rights and the security of all Europeans. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she discussed Ukraine’s European Union (EU) membership prospects and reconstruction plans with Zelensky, emphasising Europe’s commitment to a just and lasting peace. “We discussed the next steps towards a negotiated peace agreement,” she said, reaffirming the EU’s position on backing Ukraine. The diplomatic calls followed Witkoff’s three-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow, during which both sides agreed that US President Donald Trump and Putin would meet “in the coming days” to discuss the war. German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Merz and Zelensky had thoroughly reviewed the latest diplomatic moves during their conversation. – Bernama-Anadolu UN warns of humanitarian funding shortfall GENEVA: Less than 17% of the US$46 billion (RM195 billion) required to meet global humanitarian needs this year has been received, a United Nations (UN) spokesperson said on Thursday, reported Xinhua. “More than halfway through the year, the humanitarian funding landscape remains dire,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, quoting the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). The amount of funding received marks a 40% drop compared with the same time last year, he said. This funding shortfall is a stark reminder that millions of vulnerable people will go hungry without the aid they need, he added. In June, facing the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian system, Ocha launched a hyper-prioritised global appeal to help 114 million people by targeting the most urgent needs within the broader Global Humanitarian Overview 2025, he said. – Bernama-Xinhua

The reported plans to expand the war have sparked growing concern in Israel about what it means for the remaining hostages. As the Cabinet meeting kicked off, hundreds rallied near the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, calling for a deal to free the hostages. “The only way to bring the hostages home is to halt the war and end the suffering of the hostages and all those living through this terrible conflict,” said protester Sharon Kangasa-Cohen. In Gaza, fears grew over what an expansion of Israeli operations would entail. “Ground operations mean more destruction and death,” said Ahmad Salem, 45. Hamas said: “Netanyahu’s plans to escalate the aggression confirm his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda.” Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, rumours have been rife in the Israeli press about disagreements between the Cabinet and Israeli Military Chief Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose plans to fully reoccupy Gaza. Defence Minister Israel Katz weighed in on Wednesday, saying the military must respect policies adopted by the government. In a statement released by the military on Thursday, Zamir underscored his independence, vowing to “continue to express our position without fear”. International concern has been growing over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The World Health Organisation said at least 99 people have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip this year, with the figure likely an underestimate. Gazan Mahmoud Wafi, 38, said the prices of available food remain high and erratic. “We hope that food would be made available again in normal quantities and at reasonable prices because we can no longer afford these unrealistic costs.” In July, Israel partially eased restrictions on aid entering Gaza but the United Nations (UN) says the amount allowed into the territory remains insufficient. The UN estimates that Gaza needs at least 600 trucks of aid per day to meet its residents’ basic needs. – AFP implementing” the ceasefire. Under Lebanon’s sect-based power-sharing system, the absence of the Shiite ministers from this week’s Cabinet meetings could serve the claim that the decisions taken lacked consensual legitimacy. Before last year’s war with Israel, Hezbollah wielded sufficient political power to impose its will or disrupt government business. But the Shiite group has since weakened, reducing its political influence. Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc called on the government on Thursday to “correct the situation it has put itself and Lebanon in by slipping into accepting American demands that inevitably serve the interests of the Zionist enemy”. Israel, which routinely carries out air strikes in Lebanon despite the November ceasefire, has signalled that it would not hesitate to launch military operations if Beirut failed to disarm the group. – AFP

His office yesterday said a majority of the Cabinet had adopted “five principles for concluding the war, namely the disarming of Hamas; the return of all hostages, living and dead; the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip; and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”. “A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,” it added, without giving further details. An expanded Israeli offensive in Gaza could see ground troops operate in densely populated areas where hostages are believed to be held, Israeli media reported.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military to “take control” of Gaza City, his office said yesterday. Under the plan to “defeat” Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones”, it said. Netanyahu faces mounting pressure at home and abroad for a truce to pull the Palestinian territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of

famine and spare hostages held by Palestinian militants. As he convened his Cabinet on Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to take full control of Gaza but does not intend to govern it. Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu told US network Fox News that the government intends to seize complete control but does not want “to keep” the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu said Israel wants a “security perimeter” and to hand the Palestinian territory to “Arab forces that would govern it properly without threatening us and give Gazans a good life”. “That is not possible with Hamas.”

Palestinians running towards parachutes carrying aid packages airdropped over Gaza on Thursday. – REUTERSPIC

Lebanon Cabinet meets again on disarmament

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Cabinet met on Thursday for the second time in days to discuss disarming Hezbollah, a day after the Iran-backed group rejected the government’s decision to take away its weapons. The more than four-hour meeting considered a US proposal that includes a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament, with Washington pressing Beirut to take action. Information Minister Paul Morcos said the Cabinet endorsed the introduction of the US text without discussing provisions relating to specific timelines. The government said on Tuesday disarmament should happen by the end of this year. The introduction endorsed in Thursday’s meeting lists 11 “objectives”, including “ensuring the sustainability” of a November ceasefire with Israel and “the gradual end of the armed presence of all

proposal, whose implementation “is dependent on the approval of each of the concerned countries”, said Morcos. Four Shiite Muslim ministers, including three directly affiliated with Hezbollah or its ally the Amal movement, walked out of Thursday’s meeting in protest of the government’s disarmament push, Hezbollah’s Al Manar television reported. They also refused to discuss the proposal submitted by US envoy Tom Barrack, the report said. Environment Minister Tamara Elzein, who is close to Amal, told Al Manar that the government “first hoped to consolidate the ceasefire and the Israeli withdrawal, before we could complete the remaining points” in Barrack’s proposal, such as taking away Hezbollah’s weapons. Barrack on Thursday hailed Lebanon’s “historic, bold and correct decision this week to begin fully

non-governmental entities, including Hezbollah, in all Lebanese territory”. It also calls for the deployment of Lebanese troops in border areas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from five places in the south they have continued to occupy since last year’s war with Hezbollah. The November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah stipulated that weapons in Lebanon be restricted to six military and security agencies. Following the Cabinet decision on Tuesday, Morcos said the Lebanese government was waiting to review an “executive plan” on Hezbollah’s disarmament. The army was tasked with presenting the plan to restrict the possession of weapons to government forces by the end of August. Only then would the government review the full provisions of the US