Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayyahttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5270550-israeli-attack-kills-son-hamas%E2%80%99-khalil-al-hayya
Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya
FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' exiled Gaza chief who had been leading indirect talks with Israel over the Palestinian enclave's future, died on Thursday, a day after he was wounded in a strike in Gaza City, medical sources and others from the Hamas movement told Asharq Al-Awsat.
One source at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital said that Azzam Al-Hayya’s injuries were “severe and critical,” while a Hamas source indicated that the Israeli attacks on Wednesday were large-scale and extensive, resulting in the deaths of at least five people across the Gaza Strip, in addition to the son of the senior Hamas leader.
Khalil Al-Hayya had already lost three sons in previous Israeli attempts on his life - two in Gaza in the 2008 and 2014 rounds of fighting, while the third was killed in an Israeli attempt to kill Hamas leadership in Doha last year.
Several of Al-Hayya’s daughters and grandchildren have also been killed in a series of attacks during the war in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Hayya is in Cairo as part of a Hamas delegation and is holding talks with regional mediators and the Board of Peace’s lead envoy, Nickolay Mladenov.
Al-Hayya on Wednesday accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators' efforts to push ahead with US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, overseen by his Board of Peace.
Palestinian Media Says Israel Holding Bodies of Two Teens Killed in West Bankhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5287015-palestinian-media-says-israel-holding-bodies-two-teens-killed-west-bank
A Palestinian woman walks at a market near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the old city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 17, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT
Palestinian Media Says Israel Holding Bodies of Two Teens Killed in West Bank
A Palestinian woman walks at a market near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the old city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of two Palestinian teenagers shot dead near a West Bank settlement, Palestinian media reported Monday, while the military said the pair were killed after throwing Molotov cocktails.
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two as Reda Sami Awad, 15, and Arafat Ismail Awad, 19.
"Israeli forces are holding their bodies," Wafa said.
According to Israel's military, soldiers opened fire late Sunday on a group of people burning tires and hurling petrol bombs towards the settlement.
Two were killed and a third was "neutralized", the military said.
It said the incident occurred during a "counter-terrorism operation" in the area.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.
The United Nations recently warned that settler violence against Palestinians has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian movement Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,082 Palestinians since then, including both gunmen and civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.
Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.
Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hamas Held Secret Meeting with French Lawmakers, Diplomatshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5287008-sources-asharq-al-awsat-hamas-held-secret-meeting-french-lawmakers-diplomats
This photograph shows the Statue de la Reublique with the Palestinian flag in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at Place de la Reublique in Paris on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hamas Held Secret Meeting with French Lawmakers, Diplomats
This photograph shows the Statue de la Reublique with the Palestinian flag in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at Place de la Reublique in Paris on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
Three Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that senior leaders of Hamas’ political bureau recently held a highly confidential meeting with a French delegation that included current and former diplomats, as well as members of parliament from both parties within France’s governing coalition and the opposition.
Two of the sources — one affiliated with a Palestinian civil society organization involved in programs with France and other European countries, and another linked to a Palestinian faction close to Hamas — said the meeting took place “recently” in an unspecified country in the region. Both declined to identify the location but described the gathering as “extremely secret.”
According to the sources, several governments, Palestinian factions, and mediators involved in Gaza ceasefire efforts, including Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye, were informed of the meeting shortly before or soon after it occurred. One source said Hamas informed a number of parties that the meeting was taking place, without disclosing details.
Two Hamas officials confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the meeting had occurred but declined further comment.
The meeting is notable because it appears to be the first known encounter between European officials and Hamas leaders since the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Since then, Hamas representatives have met US officials and presidential envoys as part of ceasefire negotiations that resulted in the release of hostages held by the group. Those contacts were publicly praised at the time by President Donald Trump, despite Washington’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization since 1997.
France does not formally designate Hamas as a terrorist organization under its national legal framework, although French authorities prosecute individuals accused of financing the group. Following the October 7 attack, debate intensified in Paris over calls to formally classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The European Union has listed Hamas and its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, on its terrorist sanctions list since 2001. In May, the EU imposed additional sanctions on Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
The reported meeting also comes amid nearly two years of strained relations between Paris and Tel Aviv, as well as growing tensions between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon and its strikes in Syria.
After France recognized the State of Palestine, Netanyahu accused Macron in August of “fueling antisemitism,” prompting a sharp response from the Elysee Palace, which described the remarks as “base” and founded on falsehoods.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators carry a huge Palestinian flag as they gather outside the Sorbonne University, where they tried to set up a protest camp before being evacuated by police in Paris, France, 29 April 2024. (EPA)
Issues discussed
A source from Palestinian civil society said the talks focused broadly on the Palestinian situation, including efforts to reorganize Palestinian internal affairs, improve national reconciliation, and advance a political process aimed at ending the conflict with Israel.
According to the source, discussions also touched on supporting Palestinians’ right to establish an independent state based on the June 4, 1967, borders.
France has been a leading advocate of the two-state solution and, alongside Saudi Arabia, has spearheaded international efforts that helped generate a wave of diplomatic recognition for a Palestinian state and broader support within the United Nations.
The disclosure of the meeting comes as Hamas is engaged in difficult negotiations over the future of its weapons arsenal.
The group has linked any discussion of disarmament to a clearly defined political process that guarantees Palestinian self-determination and the establishment of a sovereign state.
A history of contacts
The reported meeting is not unprecedented. In 2008, Hamas disclosed that it had held discussions with several European officials, including French representatives.
Then-French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner acknowledged such contacts but emphasized that France would not establish formal relations with Hamas unless it recognized Israel and renounced violence.
At the time, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said European interlocutors were seeking to understand the movement’s positions on political developments and the prospects for a Palestinian state.
Those contacts coincided with Hamas’ gradual adoption of a position accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as an interim solution, while stopping short of recognizing Israel and insisting on the right of return for Palestinian refugees and East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
In 2009, then-Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal met two French lawmakers in Damascus.
A further shift came in 2017, when Hamas elected a new leadership headed by Ismail Haniyeh and revised its political document to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
The movement also expanded outreach to Russia, Iran, Arab and Islamic countries, and European states, while expressing openness to dialogue with a broad range of international actors, including the United States.
More recently, Hamas has sought through international law firms and legal initiatives to challenge its designation as a terrorist organization in several European countries, particularly Britain.
Supporting those efforts was a document signed by Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau and head of its international relations office, arguing that Hamas is a national liberation movement, not an antisemitic organization, and does not pose a threat to Western countries.
Lebanon's Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Are in Constant Contact with Aoun, Salam Despite Difference in Ideashttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5286987-lebanons-berri-asharq-al-awsat-we-are-constant-contact-aoun-salam-despite
Lebanon's Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Are in Constant Contact with Aoun, Salam Despite Difference in Ideas
01 October 2020, Lebanon, Beirut: Speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri speaks during a press conference in Beirut. (Lebanese Parliament/dpa)
Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Sunday that he was in “constant” contact with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam “despite differences in ideas.”
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said: “I don't think we have a problem as long as we are united in demanding that Israel first withdraw from the South and then that the army be deployed there and that the people are allowed to return to their homes.”
The demands also include the release of detainees held by Israel and coming up with a plan, with Arab and international backing, to rebuild what Israel destroyed during the war, he added.
Berri made his remarks on the eve of the launch of the fifth round of US-sponsored Lebanese-Israeli military and political negotiations.
The speaker expressed his “satisfaction” with the efforts that have led to a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Berri is a close ally to the Iran-backed group.
He hoped the ceasefire will last, saying that that hinges on Israel respecting it, which will in turn lead Hezbollah to respect it as well “because it is unjust to negotiate under fire.”
Berri revealed that Israel had requested the ceasefire through the “mechanism” committee that is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the 2024 truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
He noted that Israel came under American pressure to agree to a ceasefire following “two bloody days in the South that claimed dozens of civilian lives.”
He stressed that Hezbollah is “committed to the ceasefire,” accusing Israel of violating it.
“We hope that the ceasefire, with US pressure, will stand. We welcome any effort to pressure Israel to cease its hostile war against Lebanon,” he continued.
Moreover, the speaker expressed his rejection of “pilot zones” in the South, saying that reaching an agreement over their geographic borders could take years.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to move quickly towards establishing “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese Armed Forces would exercise exclusive control “to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.
Berri said that Lebanon “has not interest in wasting time that would allow Israel to continue its hostile activities. The solution lies in adopting a timetable for its withdrawal from the entire South in exchange for the deployment of the Lebanese army.”
“This remains the shortest path towards the South’s liberation from occupation instead of remaining bogged down by talks over the ‘pilot zones’,” he added.
لم تشترك بعد
انشئ حساباً خاصاً بك لتحصل على أخبار مخصصة لك ولتتمتع بخاصية حفظ المقالات وتتلقى نشراتنا البريدية المتنوعة
