RSF Advisor Says: Progress of Jeddah Negotiations Paves Way to Ceasefire

A fighter waves a rifle as he stands next to a damaged vehicle in the Nile neighborhood in Greater Khartoum (AFP)
A fighter waves a rifle as he stands next to a damaged vehicle in the Nile neighborhood in Greater Khartoum (AFP)
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RSF Advisor Says: Progress of Jeddah Negotiations Paves Way to Ceasefire

A fighter waves a rifle as he stands next to a damaged vehicle in the Nile neighborhood in Greater Khartoum (AFP)
A fighter waves a rifle as he stands next to a damaged vehicle in the Nile neighborhood in Greater Khartoum (AFP)

Negotiations between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the National Army in Jeddah are progressing, paving the way to a ceasefire agreement between the two parties, announced RSF Advisor Haroun Medikher.

Speaking to the Arab World Press, Medikher asserted the RSF's desire to achieve a ceasefire.

Last Thursday, the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces resumed their negotiations in Jeddah, which began in May under Saudi-US auspices and reached several short-term ceasefires.

The Intergovernmental Authority for Development in the Horn of Africa (IGAD) announced that its Executive Secretary is participating in the Jeddah negotiations, along with the delegations of Saudi Arabia, the US, and the African Union (AU).

Medikher said that the negotiations are going well, and the parties are working on a ceasefire.

He explained that the talks would be followed by discussing the humanitarian file and rebuilding trust between the components of the Sudanese people and the warring parties.

The Sudanese people are looking forward to these negotiations because they consider them the ideal solution to the Sudanese issue, said the advisor.

He believes that all political and military leaders support these negotiations. However, he fears the other side, about the Sudanese army, was reluctant to achieve a ceasefire.

He warned that supporters of the former regime rejected the negotiations and a settlement in Sudan, adding that they were the ones who ignited the war.

"We hope that the decision [to stop the war] will be in the hands of the armed forces."

Medikher pins hope on the current negotiations, saying any conflict in the world eventually ends with talks and a settlement.

He is optimistic that progress could be achieved if there is enough will, noting that the Rapid Support Forces has the intention.

On April 15, clashes erupted between the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces after weeks of tension between the two sides.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.