16/01/2026

FRIDAY | JAN 16, 2026

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Second phase of peace plan launched

“Qatar continues to implement all necessary measures to safeguard security and safety, including actions related to the protection of critical infrastructure and military facilities.” In Saudi Arabia, the US embassy told staff and American citizens “to exercise increased caution and limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region”. Meanwhile, two sources close to the government in Riyadh said Saudi Arabia told Iran it would not let its airspace or territory be used to launch attacks. The French embassy in Bahrain asked citizens to be especially vigilant due to the “security situation in Iran and its potential local repercussions” in a statement on social media. – AFP ‘Ukraine will not restrict gas supplies’ State energy company Naftogaz head Sergii Koretskyi on Wednesday said Ukraine will not restrict gas supplies to its population and businesses despite ongoing Russian attacks that have damaged Ukrainian gas infrastructure and curtailed production. Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy sector on an almost daily basis since last year, targeting electricity producers and transmission systems as well as gas production and transport facilities. “All consumers are fully supplied with gas despite systematic attacks by the enemy on gas infrastructure.” Last year, former energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said her team had already worked out scenarios and prepared restrictions on gas supplies to the population and industry for the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion sparked the war. Koretskyi was responding to information circulating on the Telegram messaging app suggesting that such restrictions had now been implemented. “There are no restrictions. This is completely untrue.” Ukraine, which has lost about half of its power-generating capacity during the war, is restricting electricity supplies to both the population and businesses, and many regions spend almost half of the day without power. Before Russian attacks on the gas sector, Ukraine covered almost all of its gas needs with its own production. Following the attacks, however, it sharply increased gas imports, mainly from the EU but also with LNG from the United States. Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday appointed former prime minister Denys Shmyhal as the country’s new energy minister. He said his main task is to resume domestic gas production. “We need to rebuild damaged gas distribution stations and gas pipelines, restore backup gas supply schemes for critical consumers and improve the reliability of gas storage facilities.” – Reuters KYIV:

CAIRO: The United States on Wednesday said it is launching the second phase of its plan to end the Gaza war, even as key elements of the first phase, including a complete ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, remain unfulfilled. The first phase has been shaken by issues, including Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds in Gaza, the failure to retrieve the remains of one last Israeli hostage and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt. By pressing on with phase two, the US and its mediator partners would need to tackle the even more vexing challenges of disarming Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has refused to give up arms, and deploying an international peacekeeping force. Announcing the second phase in a social media post, special envoy to US President Donald Trump Steve Witkoff said it “establishes a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza”, and would begin the process of disarmament and reconstruction. The Palestinian body will have 15 members and will be led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority who had been in charge of developing industrial zones, according to a joint statement by mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye. Israel and Hamas signed off in October on Trump’s plan, which says that the Palestinian technocratic body would be overseen by the international “Board of Peace” that is meant to govern Gaza for a transitional period. Other members tapped by former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who is expected to represent the Board of Peace on the ground, include individuals from the private sector and NGOs, according to a list of names obtained by Reuters. Witkoff did not say how many members the body would include or name them. Ali said in a radio interview that the committee would focus first on providing urgent relief for Gaza, including the provision of housing for displaced Palestinians, many of whom are living in makeshift tent shelters amid the rubble. “If I bring bulldozers and push the rubble into the sea, and make new land, I could win new land for TEL AVIV: Gaza native and former Palestinian Authority (PA) deputy minister Ali Shaath will head the new technocratic committee set to administer the devastated Gaza Strip, mediating countries announced on Wednesday. A seasoned civil servant largely unknown to the wider public, Ali was born in the southern city of Khan Yunis in 1958, later leaving to study in Cairo, a family member told AFP. He became a civil engineer, and previously served as the Ramallah based Palestinian Authority’s planning and international cooperation deputy minister, as well as undersecretary for the Transport and Communications Ministry, among other portfolios. In a technical and detail-oriented interview on Palestinian Basma Radio on Wednesday, Ali spoke at length on rebuilding the Gaza Strip, ravaged by more than two years of war and intensive bombing.

peace and figure out how to empower them,” the official said, referring to the new committee of Palestinian technocrats as a new “government” for Gaza. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority welcomed Trump’s effort to move ahead with the Gaza phased plan, in a statement posted on X by Palestinian vice-president Hussein Al-Sheikh. Hussein said institutions in Gaza should be linked to those run by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, “upholding the principle of one system, one law and one legitimate weapon”. The group added that Hamas leaders and other Palestinian factions are in Cairo for talks on the second phase. – Reuters

o Move involves establishing transitional Palestinian administration: Special envoy

October to hand over governance to the technocratic committee. It remains unclear how Hamas, which has regrouped since a fragile ceasefire began in October, would be disarmed as required by the plan. US official briefing reporters said Washington would work to bridge the differences between the two sides, adding that the Israelis “remain sceptical that Hamas will disarm and that the Palestinian people want peace”. “The goal here is to create the alternative to Hamas that wants that

Gaza and at the same time clear the rubble. “This won’t take more than three years.” Rebuilding Gaza’s shattered homes would take at least until 2040, but could drag on for many decades, according to a 2024 UN report. Witkoff said phase two of Trump’s plan also would begin “the full demilitarisation and reconstruction of Gaza, primarily the disarmament of all unauthorised personnel”. Hamas, which refuses to lay down its weapons, agreed in

A Palestinian man mixes mud for use in rebuilding homes destroyed by Israeli strikes, as residents resort to alternative building materials amid shortages and soaring prices in Khan Younis. – REUTERSPIC

Ex-deputy minister to administer Gaza

Personnel told to leave Qatar base DOHA: Doha said on Wednesday some personnel have been told to leave the Middle East’s largest US base in Qatar over “regional tensions”. At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s US mission urged caution as Washington and Iran traded threats of military action. The base was targeted by Iranian strikes in June after the US briefly joined Israel’s war against the Islamic republic.

“We are not talking about ‘reconstruction’ but construction anew,“ he said, highlighting the immediate need for shelter for Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, almost all of whom have been displaced at least once during the war. “We will set plans for water, well rehabilitation, water purification and treated water. “Water is the secret to health, education and hospitals, all of which were destroyed.” On the question of the vast amounts of rubble left from Gaza’s destroyed buildings, Ali floated the idea of pushing it into the adjacent Mediterranean to reclaim land. He told the broadcaster he had been contacted about the post by Bulgarian diplomat and politician Nickolay Mladenov. Under US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, Ali’s committee would operate under the supervision of a so-called “Board of

Peace”, expected to be led on the ground by Mladenov and chaired by Trump himself. Regarding his jurisdiction, Ali said under the terms of the US-brokered agreement, his committee would gradually take over 50% of Gazan territory currently under Israeli control, before expanding to cover the entirety of its area. He added that security and coordination with armed groups were not part of the committee’s mandate. “The commission is not an army. It is 15 Palestinian experts in reconstruction, assisted by staff.“ Palestinian factions, including PA president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party and its rival Hamas expressed their support for the committee’s composition. Hamas has said it does not seek a role in any future governing authority in Gaza and would limit its role to a monitoring capacity. – AFP

The US has repeatedly warned it could intervene against a deadly Iranian government crackdown on protests, while Tehran has said it would retaliate with strikes on US military and shipping targets. The warnings in oil-rich Gulf countries, many of which are major US allies housing American bases and assets, revived fears the region could be embroiled in yet another round of US-Iran confrontation. The precautions at Al Udeid, the region’s biggest US base, are “in response to the current regional tensions”, Qatar’s International Media Office said.