09/10/2025

THURSDAY | OCT 9, 2025

9

Hamas upbeat on talks o Gazans want an end to the war

GAZA AID FLOTILLA INTERCEPTED

TEL AVIV: A fleet of vessels attempting to deliver aid to Gaza was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters yesterday. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s (FFC) vessels and passengers were safe, had been transferred to an Israeli port and were expected to be deported promptly, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. The incident was the second such event in recent days, after Israel had intercepted about 40 vessels and detained more than 450 activists in an aid convoy, the Global Sumud Flotilla, that was also attempting to deliver supplies. The FFC said humanitarians, doctors and journalists have been taken against their will and are being held in unknown conditions. – Reuters PUTIN-TRUMP MEETING MOMENTUM ‘GONE’ MOSCOW: Russia said yesterday that momentum towards reaching a peace deal in Ukraine following Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s presidential summit in Alaska had largely “gone”. The two leaders met at an air base Anchorage in August, but failed to reach any kind of agreement. Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have since floundered, with both Moscow and Kyiv launching deadly strikes and Russia advancing on the battlefield. “Unfortunately, we must admit that the momentum generated by Anchorage in favour of agreements has largely gone,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. He blamed Europe for the impasse, accusing them of wanting to wage a “war to the last Ukrainian”. – AFP FRENCH COURT REVIEWS SARKOZY APPEAL PARIS: France’s top court yesterday began examining former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s final appeal over illegal campaign financing in 2012, in a case that could cement his second criminal conviction. Sarkozy is seeking to overturn his conviction. If the Court of Cassation upholds Sarkozy’s conviction, he will serve a six-month term with an electronic bracelet as per a lighter sentence handed down on appeal last year. The former head of state was initially sentenced to one year in prison in September 2021 on charges that his right-wing party worked with a public relations firm, Bygmalion, to hide the true cost of his 2012 re-election bid. Sarkozy has accused Bygmalion of having enriched itself behind his back and dismissed the allegations against him as “lies”. – AFP ‘WOMEN HAVE HIGHER RISK OF DEPRESSION’ SYDNEY: Women are genetically at higher risk of clinical depression than men, Australian researchers found in a study. Scientists poured through the DNA of almost 200,000 people with depression to pinpoint shared genetic “flags”. Women had almost twice as many of these genetic markers linked to depression than men, according to the project led by Berghofer Medical Research Institute. “The genetic component to depression is larger in females compared with males,” said researcher Jodi Thomas. Around 13,000 genetic markers were linked with depression in women compared with 7,000 in men. Clinical depression is one of the most common mental disorders. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications . – AFP

BR I E F S

CAIRO: Hamas said yesterday that “optimism” was prevailing in indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the Gaza war, with the group submitting a list of prisoners it wants released in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages. The talks aim to thrash out a plan to implement a 20-point peace proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump, and which both Israel and Hamas have responded positively to. The plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Turkiye’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were all due in Sharm El-Sheikh. “The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all parties,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said from Sharm El Sheikh. The group submitted a list of prisoners it wants to be released in the first phase of the truce “in accordance with the agreed-upon criteria and numbers”, Nunu said. In exchange, Hamas is set to release 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized on Oct 7, 2023. “There’s a real chance that we QUITO: Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa escaped unharmed after his motorcade was targeted by stone hurling protesters and what one minister described as a volley of gunshots on Tuesday. Noboa was inaugurating a water treatment plant in central Ecuador when his motorcade was set on by a group protesting rising fuel prices.

A girl pushes a broken wheelchair loaded with jerrycans at a camp in northern Nuseirat on Tuesday. – AFPPIC

could do something,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East. It’s something even beyond the Gaza situation. We want a release of the hostages immediately.” Trump said the United States would do “everything possible to make sure everyone adheres to the “About 500 people showed up and were throwing stones and there are bullet marks on the president’s car” said Environment Minister Ines Manzano. She said that five people were arrested and would stand trial on terrorism charges: an offence carrying a maximum punishment of 30 years behind bars.

deal” if Hamas and Israel did agree on a ceasefire. Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with much of Gaza flattened, a UN-declared famine unfolding and Israeli hostage families still longing for their loved ones’ return. In Gaza, people were desperate for an end to a war that has upended their lives, interrupted their children’s education, and left “This kind of protests, which are not peaceful, are not what we need,” Manzano said. Video released by the government, reportedly filmed from inside the motorcade, shows protesters standing in the road, draped in flags, scrambling to collect large stones and bricks. As the presidential SUV passed,

projectiles thudded into the panelling and shattered windows. A voice can be heard shouting, “Heads down! Heads down!” as the vehicle sped away. Officials said they were still investigating whether some of the impact marks on Noboa’s armoured Chevrolet Suburban were caused by gunfire. The attack came amid days of increasingly violent demonstrations sparked by a government decision to raise diesel prices. Protesters have gone on strike, blocked roads and abducted 16 soldiers, who were eventually released unharmed. Ecuador’s largest indigenous organisation reported on Sunday that a protester had been killed by armed forces at a rally. Noboa has declared a state of emergency across several provinces. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador said that the president’s convoy had “entered a resistance zone”, leading to “incidents that the government now uses to justify its war policy”. The organisation called to “resolve the crisis with justice and respect”. Noboa’s office said on social media following the attack that “cowardly acts will not deter” the president. – AFP many families scarred by loss and grief. “My dream is for the war to end now, not tomorrow,” said Abeer Abu Said, a 21-year-old in Gaza who has lost seven family members in the war. “I don’t trust anyone – from the Israeli negotiators or even Hamas – they all lie to us. Negotiations for the sake of negotiations, while we die every minute.” – AFP

Ecuador president unharmed in attack

Noboa next to the vehicle he was travelling in when it was attacked. – AFPPIC/ECUADORIAN PRESIDENCY HANDOUT