05/12/2025

FRIDAY | DEC 5, 2025

9

‘Putin wants to end war’

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defence agency on Wednesday said an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory has killed five people, including two children. The Israeli military said it had struck a “Hamas terrorist” in southern Gaza in response to a clash with Palestinian militants in the area that wounded five soldiers. “Five citizens killed and others injured, some seriously, as a result of an Israeli missile strike” in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, said civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal. The agency said the strike hit near the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Younis and “targeted” a shelter camp. A fragile US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on Oct 10 has largely halted the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, but both sides have accused each other of violating its terms. The Israeli military said on Wednesday during an operation in the area of eastern Rafah, soldiers encountered several militants“who emerged from an underground terrorist infrastructure”. “During the encounter, an (Israeli) combat soldier was severely injured, two additional combat soldiers and a non-commissioned officer were WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine war despite inconclusive talks in Moscow, as US officials prepared for a follow-up meeting with Kyiv’s top negotiator. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner huddled into the early hours with Putin in the Kremlin but reached no breakthrough on halting Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. The Kremlin said afterward it found parts of the US plan to end the war unacceptable, even though the proposal includes Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region it still holds. “I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with Putin,” said Trump. He said it is too soon to tell what would happen “because it does take US

pressure on Moscow. The fresh talks come as Nato pledges to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US arms for Kyiv. Nato chief Mark Rutte said it is positive that peace talks are ongoing, but the alliance should ensure “Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going”. Russian troops have been grinding forward across the front line against outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces. European countries have expressed fears that Washington and Moscow would reach agreements without them and have spent the last weeks trying to amend the US plan so that it does not force Kyiv to capitulate. – AFP

“The progress and nature of the negotiations were influenced by the successes of the Russian army on the battlefield in recent weeks,” said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the US-Russia talks. Moscow insisted that it is incorrect to say Putin rejected the plan in its entirety. It said Russia is committed to diplomacy, despite Putin’s earlier warning that Moscow is prepared to fight Europe if it wants war. “We are ready to meet as many times as is needed to reach a peace settlement,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. In Kyiv, Zelensky said although a window of opportunity for peace has opened, it must be accompanied by

Witkoff and Kushner were due to meet top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov in Florida yesterday to follow up on the Kremlin talks, two US officials told AFP. But while the White House voiced optimism ahead of the Kremlin talks, Moscow said the two sides have failed to reach a compromise and more work is needed. The Kremlin said its army’s recent battlefield successes in Ukraine has bolstered its position and Kyiv’s ties to Nato remain a key question. Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine gathered pace last month and Putin has said in recent days Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims if Kyiv does not surrender it.

o Too soon to tell what will happen: Trump two to tango”. Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt the nearly four-year-old war, Trump said: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.” He added that Ukraine “pretty well” backed the US proposal, although Kyiv should have done so earlier when he had a notoriously heated meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval office in February.

Israeli strike in Gaza kills five, military claims terrorist targeted

moderately injured.“ It added that the soldiers were evacuated to hospital for treatment and their families have been notified. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “wishes for a speedy recovery to our heroic soldiers”, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement. A security source in Gaza said at 4pm local time (1400 GMT), “very heavy artillery shelling took place from occupation vehicles east of Rafah city, along with heavy gunfire from warplanes”. The military on Sunday said it has killed more than 40 militants over the past week in operations targeting tunnels near Rafah, where dozens of Hamas fighters are holed up beneath areas controlled by the Israeli military. Multiple sources last week said negotiations are underway regarding the fate of the fighters in south Gaza’s tunnel network. A prominent Hamas member in Gaza yesterday said the group estimates their number to be between 60 and 80. Gaza’s Health Ministry said since the ceasefire came into effect, 360 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel’s military has reported three soldiers killed in the same period. – AFP the Palestinian group Hamas. “They are telling me it just happened. But it is going on very well. We have peace in the Middle East. People do not realise it.“ The strikes come shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to “respond accordingly” to the injury of soldiers in clashes with Palestinian fighters in Rafah. Phase one of the ceasefire deal includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas. – Bernama-Anadolu

Russia told to return Ukrainian children Ukraine Regional Centre for Human Rights legal expert Kateryna Rashevska holding up a picture she says shows abducted Ukrainian children as she testifies before a US Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington DC on Wednesday. – REUTERSPIC

GENEVA: The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Wednesday called for the immediate and unconditional return of Ukrainian children “forcibly transferred” to Russia, a delicate issue as Kyiv and Moscow try to negotiate an end to the fighting. The assembly adopted the non-binding resolution by a vote of 91-12, with 57 abstentions. Russia was among the states rejecting the measure. The resolution “demands that the Russian Federation ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported”. It also calls on Moscow to “cease, without delay, any further practice of forcible transfer, deportation, separation from families and legal guardians, change of personal status, including through citizenship, adoption or placement in foster families, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children”. Ukraine has accused Russia of abducting at least 20,000 Ukrainian

would have included the ceding of Ukrainian territory to Moscow, a non-starter for Kyiv. Late last month, after talks in Geneva, Zelensky hailed the progress made with US negotiators, notably the inclusion of “extremely sensitive points”, such as the return of Ukrainian children he said were abducted by Russia. For the European Union’s UN Envoy Stavros Lambrinidis, “the abducted children of Ukraine cannot wait for the final outcome, for the Russian decision to stop the war or not”. Since 2023, the Russian army has been on a UN blacklist that names countries responsible for violating the rights of children in conflict areas, notably because of the apparent abduction of Ukrainian children. That same year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying there are “reasonable grounds to believe” he “bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia. – AFP

children since the start of the conflict in February 2022. Ukrainian Foreign Deputy Minister Mariana Betsa said Russia is responsible for “the largest state abduction operation in history”. More than 1,850 children have been found and returned home. “There will be no just peace in Ukraine without the immediate unconditional return of our children back home,” said Betsa. While Russia admits that some children were taken from combat zones for their protection, Moscow’s UN Deputy Envoy Maria Zabolotskaya slammed the resolution as “full of mendacious accusations”. “Each vote for the resolution is a support for lies, war and confrontation. Every voice against is a vote for peace.” The vote comes as the United States, which voted for the resolution, tries to get Russia and Ukraine to agree to its plan to end the war. US President Donald Trump initially gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until Nov 27 to respond to his latest plan, which

Phase two of peace plan to happen ‘soon’ WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday phase two of his Gaza plan is “going to happen pretty soon”, Anadolu Ajansi reported.

Asked by reporters when the second phase would begin, he sidestepped the question, saying only that things are “going along well”. “They had a problem today with a bomb that went off, hurt some people pretty badly, probably killed some people,” he said at the White House, referring to Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip that killed at least five Palestinians on Wednesday in a new violation of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and