Hamas Armed Wing Says Captured Israeli Soldiers in Gaza Fighting

Israeli soldiers gather near the border fence with the Gaza Strip (EPA)
Israeli soldiers gather near the border fence with the Gaza Strip (EPA)
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Hamas Armed Wing Says Captured Israeli Soldiers in Gaza Fighting

Israeli soldiers gather near the border fence with the Gaza Strip (EPA)
Israeli soldiers gather near the border fence with the Gaza Strip (EPA)

A spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said on Sunday its fighters had captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Saturday, though the Israeli military denied the claim.

The Hamas armed wing spokesman did not say how many soldiers had been abducted, and showed no proof of the claim.

"Our fighters lured a Zionist force into an ambush inside a tunnel ... The fighters withdrew after they left all members of the force dead, wounded, and captured," Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for Al Qassam Brigades, said in a recorded message broadcast by Al Jazeera early on Sunday.

The Israeli military on Sunday denied the claim by Hamas' armed wing, Reuters reported.

The army "clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted," the military said in a statement.

The comments by Abu Ubaida came hours after prospects for a resumption of mediated Gaza ceasefire talks grew on Saturday.

An official with knowledge of the matter said a decision had been taken to resume the talks next week after the chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency met the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar.

Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Israel began the operation in response to Hamas-led militants attacking southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.



France's Top Court to Examine Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters
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France's Top Court to Examine Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters

Prosecutors said Tuesday they had asked France's highest court to review the legality of a French arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks on Syrian soil in 2013.

Syrian opposition say one of those attacks in August 2013 on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus killed around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, in one of the many horrors of the 13-year civil war.

Prosecutors said they had made the request to the Court of Cassation on Friday on judicial grounds, two days after an appeals court upheld the arrest order.

"This decision is by no means political. It is about having a legal question resolved," the prosecutors told AFP.

France is believed to have been the first country to issue an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state in November.

Investigative magistrates specialized in so-called crimes against humanity, issued the warrant after several rights groups filed a complaint against Assad for his role in the chain of command for the alleged chemical attacks in the capital's suburbs on August 4, 5 and 21, 2013.

But prosecutors from a unit specialized in investigating "terrorist" attacks have sought to annul it, although they do not question the grounds for such an arrest.

They argue that immunity for foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international prosecutions, such as at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), lawyers' association Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and the Syrian Archive, an organization documenting human rights violations in Syria, filed the initial complaint.