17/10/2025

FRIDAY | OCT 17, 2025

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Israel threatens to resume fighting if truce not honoured o Hamas still intends to make good on pledge: US advisers

WASHINGTON: Two US senior advisers on Wednesday said planning has begun for an international force to go into Gaza to stabilise security in the Palestinian enclave. One of the top requirements of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan was formation of a US-backed stabilisation force. The United States has agreed to provide up to 200 troops to support the force without being deployed in Gaza itself. The two senior advisers, in a briefing for reporters, said tensions remain high between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the enclave. “Right now what we are looking to accomplish is just a basic stabilisation of the situation. The international stabilisation force is starting to be constructed,” one adviser said. The adviser said among the countries the US is speaking to about contributing to the force are Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan. The duo said there were up to two dozen US troops in the region to help set up the operation, serving in a “coordination, oversight” role. “The goal is to use all the different local partners who want to help and be involved.” After Hamas killed seven men in Gaza City it accused of collaborating with Israel, the advisers said there were discussions to establish safe zones to prevent such incidents. The second adviser said that no Gazans would be forced to leave the battered Palestinian enclave. Officials are looking at rebuilding in areas that are free of Hamas militants. Trump has said he would like to see the enclave rebuilt and has pledges of investment from various international partners, but that the effort would take time. – Reuters Plan to deploy stabilising force in Gaza under way France condemns ‘executions’ PARIS: France on Wednesday accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of carrying out “summary executions” in Gaza after a ceasefire with Israel. Hamas has published a video showing the shooting of eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branding them “collaborators and outlaws”. The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were under way between Hamas’s various security units and armed Palestinian clans, some alleged having Israeli backing. “France strongly condemns the summary executions carried out by Hamas in recent days in Gaza,” the French foreign ministry said. “The armed incidents that have occurred in recent days are particularly concerning.” US commander Brad Cooper earlier on Wednesday demanded that Hamas stop shooting “innocent Palestinian civilians”. French President Emmanuel Macron was in Egypt on Monday as US President Donald Trump and regional leaders signed a declaration meant to cement the ceasefire. The European country, like Israel and the United States, insists Hamas could have no role in a future Gaza government. – AFP

“The Resistance has fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access,“ the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on social media. “As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval and extraction. We are exerting effort in order to close this file.” However, senior US advisors said on Wednesday, after Israel’s threat to resume fighting, that Hamas still intends to make good on its pledge. “We continue to hear from them

that they intend to honor the deal. They want to see the deal completed in that regard,“ one advisor told reporters on condition of anonymity. Still, any delay in returning the remaining bodies is likely to pile further domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tie humanitarian aid to the fate of the bodies. Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to cut off desperately needed aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return the remains of soldiers still held in the Palestinian

territory. Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health ministry said Israel transferred another 45 Palestinian bodies that had been in its custody to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, bringing the number returned to 90. Under the Trump plan, Israel is to return 15 Palestinian dead for every deceased Israeli hostage. Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, said Israeli fire killed three Palestinians on Wednesday, including two while trying to reach their homes in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. – AFP

JERUSALEM: Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas does not honour the terms of a US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza. The statement from his office came after Hamas handed over the remains of two more deceased hostages, and said it would be unable to retrieve any more bodies from the ruins of Gaza without specialised equipment. Since Monday, under a ceasefire agreement brokered by United States President Donald Trump, the Palestinian Islamist group has handed back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails. Before the two bodies were handed over on Wednesday, Hamas had already returned the remains of seven of 28 known deceased hostages, along with an eighth body which Israel said was not that of a former hostage. “If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war.” Hamas’s armed wing said the two bodies returned would be the last for now, falling short of the plan’s demand to hand over all of them. JERUSALEM: The Israeli army announced yesterday it had identified the remains of hostages, Inbar Hayman and Mohammad al-Atrash, whose bodies had been returned to Israel the previous evening by Hamas. “Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, (Israeli military) representatives informed the families of Inbar Hayman and Sgt-Maj Mohammad al-Atrash that their bodies had been returned for burial.” Israeli

Palestinians going about their daily business amid the truce in Gaza City. – REUTERSPIC

Identities of deceased hostages confirmed

Inbar, a graffiti artist from Haifa known by the pseudonym “Pink”, was 27 when she was killed at the Nova music festival. Her remains were taken to Gaza. The remains of Mohammad, a 39-year-old soldier of Bedouin origin who was killed in combat on Oct 7, were also taken to the Palestinian territory. Defence Minister Israel Katz extended his condolences to the families “on behalf of the entire defence establishment”.

“Inbar was abducted from the Nova festival and assassinated by Hamas on Oct 7, and Mohammad fell in battle after defending the division’s soldiers with heroism.” The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government “shares in the deep sorrow” of the two families and all the families of the fallen hostages. “The Hamas terrorist organisation is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return (the

hostages) the implementation of the agreement. We will not compromise on this.” Katz threatened on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honour the terms of a US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza. It came after Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach the rest of the bodies promised under the agreement. – AFP as part of

Ukranian nuclear plant to be repaired soon, says UN watchdog VIENNA: UN nuclear since Russia invaded close to the front line.

needed on both sides of the front line, several kilometres from the site. The IAEA also said Nuclear safety was still “maintained” with six reactors that have been shut down continuing to be effectively cooled and radiation levels remaining normal. Located near the city of Enerhodar along the Dnieper River, the plant is

At the beginning of October, Moscow claimed that the situation was “under control” in Zaporizhzhia following concerns raised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a nuclear disaster by attacking the site and have blamed each other for the latest power outage. – AFP

watchdog head Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that he expects repairs to begin “soon” to restore the power supply to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The site, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, lost its connection to the grid on Sept 23 for the 10th time, marking the longest outage of external power supply to the facility

Ukraine.

The agency’s team on site “continues to report military activities at various distances from the site”. Its six reactors, which produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before the war, were shut down after Moscow took control. However, the plant needs electricity to maintain its cooling and safety systems to prevent a disaster.

“I continue to consult with Russia and Ukraine so that these works could begin in the coming days,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a statement. The largest plant in Europe has since been powered by backup diesel generators. Grossi said repairs to power lines are