International
Gaza War: Hamas releases three Israeli hostages and Tel Aviv releases almost 400 Palestinian prisoners
The Islamist group Hamas delivered Israeli hostages Alexander (Sasha) Trufanov, Iair Horn and Sagui Dekel-Chen to the Red Cross on Saturday in a ceremony held in Jan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, most of the 369 Palestinian prisoners released within the sixth exchange for Israeli hostages were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
The Red Cross escolted the hostages, in apparent good health, to the Israeli forces stationed in the enclave, who took them out of the Strip to reunite them with their families. The Israeli Army confirmed that the hostages have already crossed the border into Israeli territory and are on their way to a reception point in southern Israel, where they will meet with their families.
The liberation ceremony organized by Hamas was held on a stage located in a devastated area of Gaza, where there were posters with phrases such as “There will be no migration, except to Jerusalem” or “We crossed quickly” (in reference to the attack of October 7 in Israeli territory).
After a Red Cross worker signed the release documents from the hands of a Hamas militiaman, the hostages went on stage, located a few meters from the house of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attacks of October 7 and who died in a confrontation with Israeli forces in October 2024.
On him, the hostages gave speeches asking the Israeli Government to maintain the truce, after which they were taken to the Red Cross vehicles on their way to Israeli territory.
Hamas announced yesterday the names of the three hostages after threatening earlier this week to pause the release due to the repeated Israeli “violations” of the agreement, among which it cited impediments to the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israel, for its part, threatened to resume the war in Gaza if Hamas did not release the hostages today, without clarifying how many, taking advantage of an ambiguous message from US President Donald Trump, who threatened a “hell” in Gaza if Hamas did not release “all the hostages” before Saturday noon.
Most of the 369 Palestinian prisoners released this Saturday by Israel were transferred to the Gaza Strip, where they arrived in buses to the European Hospital of the enclave, according to images broadcast live by the Al Jazeera network.
Seven buses accompanied by Red Cross vehicles entered from Israeli territory to the city of Rafah, in the south of the strip, and then arrived at the European Hospital in Gaza, where they are scheduled to undergo medical tests and other tests to confirm their identity.
Israel is expected to complete the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners today, of which 333 arrived in Gaza, 11 were released in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 25 will be deported to Egypt, to be transferred from there to other countries. If release occurs after the release by Hamas of three captive hostages in the enclave.
The prisoners released in Gaza are those who were detained in the same enclave after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which led to the war.
Palestinian media reported that one of the prisoners was transferred to Gaza before the arrival of the buses in a Red Cross ambulance due to his state of health.
The prisoners generally appeared in coats and jackets other than the sweatshirts that the Israeli prison service put on them before leaving prison, in which the phrase in Arabic was read “We will not forget or forgive” next to a star of David.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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