Members of Sudanese ‘Sovereign Council’

  Sudanese civilians wave their national flags during celebrations of the signing of Sudan's power-sharing deal in Khartoum, Sudan, August 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Sudanese civilians wave their national flags during celebrations of the signing of Sudan's power-sharing deal in Khartoum, Sudan, August 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
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Members of Sudanese ‘Sovereign Council’

  Sudanese civilians wave their national flags during celebrations of the signing of Sudan's power-sharing deal in Khartoum, Sudan, August 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Sudanese civilians wave their national flags during celebrations of the signing of Sudan's power-sharing deal in Khartoum, Sudan, August 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

After a 12-hour meeting and under increasing popular pressures, leaders of the Forces of the Freedom and Change (FFC) agreed on the six candidates list at the sovereignty council. The council would run the country during the transitional phase of three years and three months.

Muhammad Hassan Taayashi, residing in the UK and candidate of Sudanese Professionals Association, returned to the candidates’ list at the council after he was dismissed earlier – his dismissal sparked a debate over social media.

He was joined by Prof. Siddique Taur, Legal Expert Hassan Mohammed Sheikh Idris, Journalist Mohamed Elfaki Soliman, Dr. Aisha Musa al-Saeed and Legal Counsel Rajaa Nicolas Issa Abdul Masih.

Muhammad Hassan Taayashi

Born in 1973 in Rihed Al Birdi, Darfur, he received his high-school education at Buram then at the University of Khartoum. He joined students of National Umma Party and appeared as an experienced politician. Taayashi left the party in 2009 and moved to the UK, directing his work to the civil sector especially conflicts and wars resolution.

Rajaa Nicolas Issa Abdul Masih

The Transitional Military Council and the FFC agreed on Rajaa Nicolas Issa Abdul Masih as the 11th figure at the council. She is a Christian born in Omdurman, where she received her primary education.

Rajaa received a bachelor in law from Cairo University in 1980, and was appointed at the Ministry of Justice then promoted to become a legal counsel at the ministry.

Dr. Aisha Musa al-Saeed

Born in El-Obeid, north of Kurdufan, Aisha received Education Certificate from Teacher Training Institute in Omdurman and a Masters from the University of Manchester, a higher diploma from Leeds University and Training Teachers to Teach Languages Certificate from the US.

Journalist Mohamed Elfaki Soliman

He politically belongs to the Unionist Alliance, one of the main factions that participated in the popular movement. Elfaki is the youngest at the council, born in 1979. He studied political sciences at the University of Khartoum.

Legal Expert Hassan Mohammed Sheikh Idris

He is from Kassala, east of Sudan, and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Khartoum in 1972. Then he got involved in state institutions.

Prof. Siddique Taur

He was chosen by the FFC as a member at the sovereign council, and is known for belonging to the Arab Socialist Baath Party.



At Least 40 Dead in Gaza, Medics Say, as Israeli Tanks Pull back from Camp

 Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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At Least 40 Dead in Gaza, Medics Say, as Israeli Tanks Pull back from Camp

 Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians overnight and on Friday in the Gaza Strip, many of them in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the center of the enclave, medics said, after Israeli tanks pulled back from parts of the camp.

Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave's eight long-standing refugee camps.

Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip, medics said.

Others were killed in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, medics added. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military on Friday, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to "strike terror targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip".

Israeli tanks had entered northern and western areas of Nuseirat on Thursday. They withdrew from northern areas on Friday but remained active in western parts of the camp. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped in their homes.

Dozens of Palestinians returned on Friday to areas where the army had retreated to check on damage to their homes.

Medics and relatives covered up dead bodies, including of women, that lay on the road with blankets or white shrouds and carried them away on stretchers.

"Forgive me, my wife, forgive me, my Ibtissam, forgive me, my dear," one grief-stricken man moaned through tears beside her corpse, laid out on a stretcher on the ground.

Medics said an Israeli drone on Friday had killed Ahmed Al-Kahlout, head of the Intensive Care Unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the army has been operating since early October.

Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike occurring in this location or timeframe.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip that barely function now due to shortages of medical, fuel, and food supplies. Most of its medical staff have been detained or expelled by the Israeli army, health officials say.

DISPLACEMENTS

The Israeli army said forces operating in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia since Oct. 5 aimed to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and waging attacks from those areas. Residents said the army was depopulating the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun as well as the Jabalia refugee camp.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities released around 30 Palestinians whom it had detained in the past few months during its Gaza offensive. Those released arrived at a hospital in southern Gaza for medical checkups, medics said.

Freed Palestinians, detained during the war, have complained of ill-treatment and torture in Israeli detention after they were released. Israel denies torture.

Months of efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold

A ceasefire in the parallel conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, took effect before dawn on Wednesday, bringing a halt to hostilities that had escalated sharply in recent months and had overshadowed the Gaza conflict.

Announcing the Lebanon accord on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and he urged Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,300 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the territory are in ruins.

The Hamas-led fighters who attacked southern Israeli communities 13 months ago, triggering the war, killed some 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, Israel has said.