Headline

Israel Identifies Body Of Hostage Recovered From Gaza, Days After Father’s Remains Were Found

Published

6 months ago

January 13, 2025

The Israeli military said Friday it had identified the body of a hostage recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza as the son of Yosef Al-Ziyadnah, a hostage whose body was recovered earlier this week.

Hamza Al-Ziyadnah, 23, was found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area, a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and Internal Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, said on Friday.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it had recovered the body of Yousef Al-Ziyadnah, 53, from a tunnel in the Rafah area and had discovered evidence that raised “grave concerns” for his son’s life.

Hamza and his father were kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and had been held in the Gaza Strip.

“Hamza and Yosef were abducted alive on October 7 and were killed while in Hamas captivity,” the statement said.

The Al-Ziyadnah family are part of the Bedouin Muslim-Arab community that lives in southern Israel’s Negev desert.

Yousef and three of his children – Hamza, Bilal, and Aysha – were taken from Kibbutz Holit in southwest Israel, where they used to work. Bilal and Aysha were among the dozens of hostages returned in the short-lived ceasefire deal in November 2023.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum expressed grief at the news of Hamza’s death and again called for a deal to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

“Yosef and Hamza, who survived a period in the hell of Gaza captivity, could have been saved through an earlier agreement,” the statement said.

“The time and conditions are ripe for all the hostages to return – bringing the living home for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” it said. “The negotiations must be expedited to secure an immediate deal for their return. This historic window of opportunity stands before us and must not be lost.”

No breakthrough in hostage talks
Talks over a potential hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza appear deadlocked, with Hamas claiming that Israel has introduced new conditions and Egyptian mediators sounding downbeat about progress.

A Hamas official told CNN on Friday that Israel has demanded holding on to a 1-kilometer strip of territory along the eastern and northern borders of the enclave.

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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was responding to a report by Reuters citing an unnamed Palestinian official about the alleged new condition.

“Israel still insists on keeping a 1 km landscape along the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip, which will restrict the return of residents to their homes and represent a retreat from what it (Israel) had agreed upon in July,” the official told Reuters.

The Hamas official who spoke to CNN said Israel’s conditions included “much more” but did not offer further details.

CNN says it reached out to Israel about the claims.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian official and another diplomat briefed on the matter told CNN on Friday that the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel in Qatar have yet to reach a breakthrough, despite statements from United States officials indicating that they were progressing.

“There is a clear appetite on the part of the Americans to get a deal done for the incoming Trump administration,” the diplomat said. But the diplomat sounded a note of caution: “Things are going well but there is still a lot of work to do.”

The comments come a day after US President Joe Biden said he met with negotiators and added that his assessment was that there was “real progress” being made.

We’re making some real progress. I met with negotiators today,” Biden said. “Hope springs eternal, but I think I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange. Hamas is the one getting in the way of that exchange, right now.”

US President-elect Donald Trump warned in a press conference this week that if the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza are not released by his inauguration on January 20, “all hell will break out in the Middle East.”

Ninety-eight hostages are still being held in Gaza, including 36 who are presumed to be dead, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s pick for special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters Wednesday he will be travelling to Qatar for the talks, saying negotiators are “making a lot of progress,.” and appeared to suggest that a deal before January 20 was realistic.

However, a senior Biden administration official struck a more cautious tone, telling CNN that the negotiations remain “difficult.”

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators are in the Qatari capital Doha in their latest push to close a deal between Hamas and Israel after more than a year of failed negotiations.

Headline

Family Of Five Killed In Iranian Missile Strike After Fleeing Ukraine For Safety In Israel

Published

7 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Editor

A Ukrainian family of five who fled Russia’s war in search of safety were killed in Israel by an Iranian missile — the very conflict they thought they had escaped.

Mariia Pieshkurova had brought her 7-year-old daughter, Anastasiia, to Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, hoping to get lifesaving cancer treatment and refuge from the violence at home.

Along with Anastasiia’s grandmother, Olena Sokolova, and two young cousins, Illia and Kostiantyn, they had started over — believing they were finally safe.

But on June 15, an Iranian missile tore through their apartment building during a retaliatory strike on Israel, killing them all.

“I really thought they’d be safe,” said Artem Buryk, Anastasiia’s father and Mariia’s former partner. “I never thought they’d go to Israel to escape war — and find it there.”

The missile attack, part of Iran’s response to Israeli airstrikes on its territory, collapsed much of the building in Bat Yam.

It took four days to recover Mariia’s body from the rubble.

Their deaths marked a heartbreaking intersection of two wars — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s conflict with Israel — both of which had already tested the family’s will to survive.

Mariia had moved to Israel in late 2022 after Anastasiia was diagnosed with leukemia.

Ukraine’s hospitals were overwhelmed, and its largest children’s hospital was later destroyed in a missile strike.

In Israel, treatment began immediately. It was effective but costly. Mariia turned to Instagram, sharing photos of her daughter in treatment and videos of Artem pleading for help while serving on Ukraine’s front lines.

“Masha did everything for her little girl,” said Anastasiia’s godmother, Khrytsyna Chanysheva. “She dedicated her life to her, moved to Israel to get her full treatment.”

Despite the pain, Anastasiia always smiled at visitors.

“She was in pain, and she would close her eyes for a second,” said charity worker Lada Fichkovsi. “But every time I walked into her room, she would smile.”

Her cousins joined the family in May 2024 as the situation in Odesa deteriorated.

“The shelling made my children cry,” said Hanna Pieshkurova, Mariia’s sister. “I decided to let them go.”

Though Israel was at war with Hamas, Mariia had assured her sister that Bat Yam was calm. Air raid sirens were rare, and the Iron Dome defense system offered hope.

“Ukrainians often say, ‘This is not Ukraine, it’s not as scary,’” said Inna Bakhareva of Chance4Life, a charity helping sick children in Israel. “They felt secure due to the Iron Dome.”

That sense of security evaporated after Israel struck Iranian targets on June 12. Iran retaliated with missile attacks across Israeli cities.

“Dad, at night I saw how the missiles were falling,” Anastasiia told her father in a voice message the night before she died.

She and her mother had been scheduled to visit the hospital the next morning. The missile struck before dawn.

Mr. Buryk, who had just returned from the front lines near Sumy, received the news that same day.

“I still don’t understand what’s happening,” he said. “I still can’t believe it.”

He used to promise Anastasiia they’d go fishing together when peace returned.

“Every time I talked to her, I’d say, ‘Sweetheart, we’ll go fishing. Just us,’” he said. “And now I just don’t understand. I still don’t even grasp that she’s gone.”

“Last night,” he added quietly, “I sent her voice messages.”

(New York Times)

Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

18 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

19 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.