30/10/2025

THURSDAY | OCT 30, 2025

9

Israel attacks Gaza over alleged breach of truce

Two gunned down in Syria

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country is ready for peace talks but would not withdraw its troops from additional territory first as Moscow has demanded. He said he was happy for talks to be held anywhere, except in Russia itself or on the territory of Moscow’s close ally Belarus. Plans for a summit in Budapest this month between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were put on hold after Moscow stuck to demands, including that Ukraine cede more territory as a condition for a ceasefire. Trump has backed Ukraine’s call for an immediate ceasefire on current lines. Zelensky said Ukrainian and European officials would meet on Friday or Saturday to discuss the details of a ceasefire plan, “It is not a plan to end the war. First of all, a ceasefire is needed. “This is a plan to begin diplomacy. Our advisers will meet in the coming days, we agreed on Friday or Saturday. They will discuss the details of this plan.” He also urged US lawmakers to pass tougher restrictions on Russia after Trump imposed sanctions on Moscow’s two biggest oil companies. – Reuters Kyiv ready for peace, says Zelensky Syrian security forces have been deployed in and around Sweida province since a ceasefire ended the clashes. – AFP DAMASCUS: State media has reported gunmen killed at least two people when they opened fire on a coach along the road between Damascus and Druze-majority Sweida in southern Syria on Tuesday, months after deadly sectarian clashes in the area. State news agency Sana reported that “a passenger coach on the Damascus-Sweida road was fired upon by unidentified gunmen, killing two people and wounding others”. Local outlet Sweida 24 identified the victims as a woman and a young man. The outlet said the coach was on its way back from Damascus, “within the area where General Security checkpoints are deployed”. Sweida province witnessed a week of bloodshed that began on July 13 with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin but rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces, armed groups from other parts of Syria and Israeli intervention. Syrian authorities said their forces acted to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze, including summary executions.

“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire.“ US Vice-President J.D. Vance said despite the latest flare-up, “the ceasefire is holding”. “That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there. “We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an (Israeli) soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.” Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the reports. Hamas denied responsibility for an attack on Israeli forces in Rafah.

time to locate the remains buried in Gaza’s war-ravaged ruins. Hamas later said on social media it found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday, but did not specify when it would hand them over. The group came under mounting pressure on Monday after it returned the partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce. Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back about two years ago. – Reuters Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive. Hamas has also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said it would take time to locate and retrieve the bodies amid Gaza’s ruins. Israel says the militant group could access the remains of most of the hostages. – Reuters including on “decision-making centres” in Kyiv, if attacks continued. Putin has said the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and has destructive power comparable to a nuclear weapon, although experts have questioned these assertions. – Reuters The group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal in Gaza. Tuesday’s strikes on Gaza City followed what Israel called a “targeted strike” on Saturday on an individual in central Gaza who it said was planning to attack Israeli troops. Netanyahu said on Tuesday Hamas had violated the ceasefire by turning over some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel. He added that the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed on Oct 7, 2023. Tzarfati’s remains had already been partially retrieved by Israeli troops during the war. Hamas initially said in response to this that it would hand over to Israel on Tuesday the body of a missing hostage found in a tunnel in Gaza. However, Hamas’ armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said later it would postpone the planned handover, citing what it said were Israel’s violations of the ceasefire. Later on Tuesday, Al-Qassam issued a statement saying it had recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations in Gaza. Hamas said Netanyahu was looking for excuses to back away from Israel’s obligations. Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for about 2,000

o Local health authorities say at least 38 residents killed in airstrikes at three locations

TEL AVIV: Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza on Tuesday after Israel accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, the latest test of a fragile deal brokered earlier this month by United States President Donald Trump. Local health authorities said the strikes killed at least 38 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood and five in a car in Khan Younis. According to witnesses, the attacks by Israeli planes continued into

yesterday across the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, the latest violence in a three-week-old ceasefire following a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying he had ordered immediate “powerful attacks”. The statement did not give a specific reason for the attacks but an Israeli military official said Hamas violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave that is under Israeli control.

‘Nothing will jeopardise ceasefire’ A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City. – REUTERSPIC

GAZA CITY: United States President Donald Trump said yesterday “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel carried out air strikes on the Palestinian territory while accusing Hamas of violating the truce, which the militant group denied. Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 38 people were killed in the strikes, which took place on Tuesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, after Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza. MOSCOW: The Russian state-run TASS news agency reported on Tuesday Belarus will deploy Russia’s new Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile system in December, citing Natalya Eismont, the spokesperson for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

the “skirmishes”. Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, while the territory’s main Al-Shifa hospital said one hit its backyard. Al-Awda Hospital said it received several bodies, including those of four children, killed in the bombing of Gaza’s central Nuseirat refugee camp. A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages has threatened to derail the ceasefire agreement. Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian group said it would take exercises last month. Russia first used the missile against Ukraine in November 2024. Its President Vladimir Putin said he authorised the strike in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British long-range missiles. He later threatened further strikes,

While Katz did not say where the troops were attacked, Hamas said its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah” and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-brokered ceasefire. Trump defended Israel’s actions on Wednesday, saying it“should hit back” if Israeli soldiers were killed, but added that “nothing’s going to jeopardise” the truce. “They killed an Israeli soldier. So, the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back.“ US Vice-President J.D. Vance said the ceasefire was holding despite Eismont said preparations for the deployment were nearing completion. Lukashenko said the deployment was a response to what he called Western escalation. The Oreshnik missiles were featured in joint Russian-Belarusian military

Belarus to deploy Russian missile system