International
Hamas will not allow Trump’s plans to take them out of the area to be fulfilled
Hamas will not allow the plans announced by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who intends to leave the Gaza Strip, to be fulfilled.
“The (Palestinian) people who have stood firm for 15 months (of war) against the most powerful military machine and the most criminal Army, and who thwarted the attempt to displace it, will remain attached to their land and will not accept that plan no matter the cost,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al Qanou said in a statement.
“The American racist position is consistent with the position of the Israeli extreme right to displace our people and liquidate their cause,” continued Qanou, who called on the international community to reject Trump’s statements and support the Palestinians’ right to self-determination in the face of Israeli occupation.
The Islamist group called Trump’s proposal for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza a “crime against humanity”.
“What President Trump has declared about his intention to displace the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip out of it and the control of the United States over the Strip by force is a crime against humanity and consolidates the law of the jungle at the international level,” the member of the Hamas political bureau, Basem Naim, denounced in a statement.
According to International Humanitarian Law, the displacement of civilians is only permitted, exceptionally, for “comprehensive military reasons or for the safety of the population”.
Finally, it also urges that the mediators, and especially the United States, “force” Israel to complete the three phases of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and agrees on the need to rebuild the enclave, although he says the difficulties for this “do not lie in the presence of the Palestinian people in its territory, but in the continuation of the Zionist occupation and the suffocating siege of the Gaza Strip for more than 17 years, with the support of the United States.”
US President Donald Trump said yesterday, Tuesday, that the Palestinians have no choice but to leave the Gaza Strip because the place is uninhabitable, and insisted that he wants Jordan and Egypt to take in those citizens.
“They are there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It’s a big pile of rubble right now,” he said from the Oval Office of the White House.
Trump assured that in the Palestinian enclave “everything is demolished” and that the people of Gaza “would be delighted” to leave if they were given the opportunity to do so in a “beautiful place with beautiful borders.”
For his part, Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas leader, called Trump’s statements “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region” and reiterated that the Palestinians will not allow this to happen.
“(What we ask) is to end the (Israeli) occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land,” Zuhri said, about the Palestinian demand for a state.
Since 1967, Israel has built about 160 illegal settlements where more than 700,000 Jews live throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. In addition, it claims sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, whose eastern side it captured in the war of that year, occupied militarily and annexed unilaterally in 1980.
International
U.S. Senate Rejects Budget, Bringing Government Closer to Shutdown Amid DHS Dispute
The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday against a budget proposal in a move aimed at pressuring changes at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), following the killing of two civilians during a deployment of immigration agents in Minneapolis.
All Senate Democrats and seven Republican lawmakers voted against the bill, which requires 60 votes to advance, pushing the country closer to a partial government shutdown that would cut funding for several agencies, including the Pentagon and the Department of Health.
The rejection came as Senate leaders and the White House continue negotiations on a separate funding package for DHS that would allow reforms to the agency. Proposed measures include banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing face coverings and requiring them to use body-worn cameras during operations.
The vote took place just hours after President Donald Trump said he was “close” to reaching an agreement with Democrats and did not believe the federal government would face another shutdown, following last year’s record stoppage.
“I don’t think the Democrats want a shutdown either, so we’ll work in a bipartisan way to avoid it. Hopefully, there will be no government shutdown. We’re working on that right now,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
International
Trump Says Putin Agreed to One-Week Halt in Attacks on Ukraine Amid Extreme Cold
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he secured a commitment from Russian President Vladimir Putinto halt attacks against Ukraine for one week, citing extreme weather conditions affecting the region.
“Because of the extreme cold (…) I personally asked Putin not to attack Kyiv or other cities and towns for a week. And he agreed. He was very pleasant,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting broadcast by the White House.
Trump acknowledged that several advisers had questioned the decision to make the call.
“A lot of people told me not to waste the call because they wouldn’t agree. And he accepted. And we’re very happy they did, because they don’t need missiles hitting their towns and cities,” the president said.
According to Trump, Ukrainian authorities reacted with surprise to the announcement but welcomed the possibility of a temporary ceasefire.
“It’s extraordinarily cold, record cold (…) They say they’ve never experienced cold like this,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later commented on the announcement, expressing hope that the agreement would be honored.
International
Storm Kristin Kills Five in Portugal, Leaves Nearly 500,000 Without Power
Storm Kristin, which battered Portugal with heavy rain and strong winds early Wednesday, has left at least five people dead, while nearly half a million residents remained without electricity as of Thursday, according to updated figures from authorities.
The revised death toll was confirmed to AFP by a spokesperson for the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANPEC). On Wednesday, the agency had reported four fatalities.
Meanwhile, E-Redes, the country’s electricity distribution network operator, said that around 450,000 customers were still without power, particularly in central Portugal.
Emergency services responded to approximately 1,500 incidents between midnight and 8:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, as the storm caused widespread disruptions.
The Portuguese government described Kristin as an “extreme weather event” that inflicted significant damage across several regions of the country. At the height of the storm, as many as 850,000 households and institutions lost electricity during the early hours of Wednesday.
Several municipalities ordered the closure of schools, many of which remained shut on Thursday due to ongoing adverse conditions.
Ricardo Costa, regional deputy commander of the Leiria Fire Brigade, said residents continue to seek assistance as rainfall persists.
“Even though the rain is not extremely intense, it is causing extensive damage to homes,” he noted.
In Figueira da Foz, a coastal city in central Portugal, strong winds toppled a giant Ferris wheel, underscoring the severity of the storm.
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