New Hamas Politburo to Meet in Egypt

Hamas delegation leaving to Cairo through Rafah Crossing (AFP)
Hamas delegation leaving to Cairo through Rafah Crossing (AFP)
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New Hamas Politburo to Meet in Egypt

Hamas delegation leaving to Cairo through Rafah Crossing (AFP)
Hamas delegation leaving to Cairo through Rafah Crossing (AFP)

Hamas will hold the first meeting of the new political bureau in Cairo on Monday after several leaders arrive from Gaza, Qatar, and Turkey.

A Hamas source told Asharq Al-Awsat that it is the first meeting that includes all the regional heads and members after the recent elections.

Hamas holds its elections in four areas - the West Bank, Gaza, abroad, and prisons - resulting in the election of its politburo every four years based on a long and unique process, not candidacy.

An informed source said that the meeting aims to discuss internal and financial issues and political developments relating to the exchange deal with Israel.

The meeting will also address reconciliation and the relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The source confirmed that a high-ranking delegation headed by Ismail Haniyeh would later meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

He indicated that the talks were set to take place earlier, but Hamas asked to hold its politburo meeting in Cairo and waited for the approval.

The Egyptians officials will discuss with Hamas the truce, the peace process with Israel, reconciliation, the exchange deal, and reconstruction.

According to the source, Egypt is exerting all efforts and wants to push matters forward and ensure that it does not get out of control.

The source confirmed that Cairo, which previously met a delegation from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, will meet in the coming weeks with the rest of the Palestinian factions and Hamas.

He added that a delegation from the Jihad Movement would soon arrive in Cairo.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum announced that the movement received an invitation from Egypt to hold its meeting in Cairo, without giving further details.

Aside from the Hamas delegation, technical and business delegations also arrived in Cairo to discuss the reconstruction and issues relating to trade with Egypt.

The visit has been postponed several times in the past, awaiting arrangements that ensure its success.

The businessmen delegation is headed by the Vice President of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Palestine, Waleed al-Husari.

Representatives of the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza met with a delegation of Palestinian businessmen before their departure to Cairo to discuss several issues relating to boosting the commercial relationship with Egypt.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, Abdel Fattah al-Zeraei, explained that the delegation’s visit is part of previous visits to discuss several trade issues, such as facilitating the movement of businessmen and trade at the crossings and introducing new types of goods.

The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said a government technical delegation left for Egypt to discuss many essential issues with Egyptian officials.

Sources also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the delegations would discuss the entry of banned goods.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".