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Arab World

Witkoff Says Israel, Hamas Should Benefit from Release of Edan

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
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Witkoff Says Israel, Hamas Should Benefit from Release of Edan

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The US administration is pressuring Tel Aviv to move toward a deal to end the war in Gaza, according to Hamas officials and to Israeli sources not linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Steve Witkoff, US special envoy to the Middle East, expressed a preference for a diplomatic resolution for the return of Israeli hostages, Netanyahu said there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza.

On Monday, Hamas released an Israeli-American soldier, Edan Alexander, who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.

A day later, US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler and Witkoff met families of Israeli hostages for almost two hours in Tel Aviv.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents many families of those held in Gaza, said Witkoff told them that “everyone would prefer to see a diplomatic solution,” noting that most captivity survivors have been released through diplomatic means.

In the past few days, the Israeli government backed the so-called Witkoff plan that was proposed by the US envoy before Edan’s release, and which did not center on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The plan was rejected by Hamas.

On Tuesday, the Israeli Maariv newspaper citing unnamed senior officials, said the US no longer considers Witkoff’s original proposal the key to a Gaza ceasefire agreement, and is now pushing forward with revised solutions.

Following their meeting with the families of Israeli hostages, Boehler and Witkoff headed to Doha, Qatar, where they will join Trump. Qatar has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Yedioth Ahronoth said Boehler and Witkoff’s trip to Qatar aims to enter effective negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages and end the war in Gaza.

Maariv said that during a meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, Witkoff reportedly presented a new initiative aimed at creating a pathway toward ending the war.

Officials said this updated vision is based on the idea that a long-term, comprehensive deal could lead to a permanent ceasefire - one that might compel Hamas to show flexibility and accept terms.

In return, the Israeli PM said there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza.

In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, the prime minister said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”

Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said.

“We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end,” he added.

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Arab World

Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
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Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)

A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan's North Darfur state killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said on Sunday, without saying who was responsible.

The attack comes as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, leading aid workers to be evacuated on Sunday from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.

Since April 2023, Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.

The attack killed 10 people, it said.

The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had also sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage".

There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.

The war's current focal point is now South Kordofan and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-controlled city.

A source from a humanitarian organization operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that humanitarian groups had "evacuated all their workers" from the city because of the security conditions.

The evacuation followed the United Nations' decision to relocate its logistics hub from Kadugli, the source said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where the staff had gone.

- Measles outbreak -

Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war erupted.

Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a key defensive line on the road between Kadugli and Dilling.

After dislodging the army in October from the western city of el-Fasher -- its last stronghold in the Darfur region -- the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.

Like Darfur, Kordofan is home to numerous non-Sudanese Arab ethnic groups. Much of the violence that followed the fall of el-Fasher was reportedly ethnically targeted.

Communications in Kordofan have been cut, and the United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month.

According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 50,000 civilians have fled the region since the end of October.

Residents have been forced to forage for food in nearby forests, according to accounts gathered by AFP.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that measles was spreading in three of the four states in Darfur, a vast region covering much of western Sudan.

"A preventable measles outbreak is spreading across Central, South and West Darfur," the organization said in a statement.

"Since September 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,300 cases. Delays in vaccine transport, approvals and coordination, by authorities and key partners are leaving children unprotected."

Arab World

Foreign Press Group Welcomes Israel Court Deadline on Gaza Access

A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
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Foreign Press Group Welcomes Israel Court Deadline on Gaza Access

A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court's decision to set January 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by Palestinian group Hamas's attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.

Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the supreme court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.

On October 23, the court held a first hearing on the case, and decided to give Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan for granting access.

Since then, the court has given several extensions to the Israeli authorities to come up with their plan, but on Saturday it set January 4 as a final deadline.

"If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file," the court said.

The FPA welcomed the court's latest directive.

"After two years of the state's delay tactics, we are pleased that the court's patience has finally run out," the association said in a statement.

"We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.

"And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the supreme court will recognize and uphold those freedoms," it added.

Arab World

One Dead in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
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One Dead in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Sunday killed one person and wounded another, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel's military said it targeted Hezbollah members.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed group that erupted over the Gaza war.

It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas that it deems strategic.

The health ministry in Beirut said "two Israeli enemy strikes today, on a vehicle and a motorbike in the town of Yater" killed one person and wounded another.

Yater is around five kilometers (three miles) from the border with Israel.

In separate statements, the Israeli military said it "struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the area of Yater", adding shortly afterwards that it "struck an additional Hezbollah terrorist" in the same area.

Also on Sunday, Lebanon's army said in a statement that troops had discovered and dismantled "an Israeli spy device" in Yaroun, elsewhere in south Lebanon near the border.

Under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah and plans to do so south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border with Israel, by year end.

Israel has questioned the Lebanese military's effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

During a visit to Israel on Sunday, US Senator Lindsey Graham also accused Hezbollah of rearming.

"My impression is that Hezbollah is trying to make more weapons... That's not an acceptable outcome," Graham said in a video statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports.

This week at talks in Paris, Lebanon's army chief agreed to document the military's progress in disarming Hezbollah, the French foreign ministry said.

On Friday, Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives took part in a meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee for a second time, after holding their first direct talks in decades earlier this month under the committee's auspices.

Israel said Friday's meeting was part of broader efforts to ensure Hezbollah's disarmament and strengthen security in border areas.