US president says ‘nobody is expelling Palestinians from Gaza’, reversing earlier comments on emptying the war-torn territory of its population. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem has welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s apparent retreat from his proposed permanent displacement of more than two million Palestinians from Gaza. The statement by the Hamas official came after Trump…
Nearly a week after the first stage of Israel and Hamas’s cease-fire expired, both Palestinians and Israelis are in limbo, uncertain how long the truce will hold. The Trump administration, the Arab world, Israel, Hamas and others are now wrangling over the future of the Gaza Strip in a complex series of negotiations — some…
U.S. and Hamas officials held talks in Qatar about hostages held in the Gaza Strip, breaking with a long-running American policy of refusing to directly engage with the militant group, according to an Israeli official and a diplomat briefed on the matter. Adam Boehler, President Trump’s nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, participated…
When President Trump said last month that he wanted to move all of Gaza’s roughly two million residents out of the strip to Egypt and Jordan and transform the territory into a beachfront “Riviera” for tourism, Arab leaders rejected the idea and hurried to present their own grand plan. At an emergency Arab summit in…
When leaders of every Arab country meet for an emergency summit in Cairo on Tuesday, they will face pressure to come up with something that has proved elusive for decades: a comprehensive Arab vision for Gaza, just as the Israel-Hamas cease-fire is teetering and Israel, buoyed by President Trump’s backing, holds the upper hand. “Arab…
Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad met with representatives from Sinoway, a Chinese company specializing in afforestation, forest restoration, and environmental sustainability, to explore avenues for cooperation in implementing forestry and afforestation projects in Egypt. During the meeting, Sinoway presented its vision for expanding operations in Egypt by undertaking pioneering projects focused on afforestation, wetland restoration,…
As the first phase of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas winds down this weekend, the future of the truce remains murky. What happens in a key strip of land along the border between Egypt and Gaza in the coming week could provide an indication of how things will move forward. Israel is supposed to…
The mother of a jailed British Egyptian activist has been hospitalized and is at risk of sudden death, a doctor has said, as her hunger strike to demand her son’s release reached 151 days. Laila Soueif, the mother of Alaa Abd El Fattah, one of Egypt’s best-known political prisoners, has survived since late September on…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said rebuilding and governance plans for post-war Gaza should be accelerated during talks with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty. In a phone call on Saturday, Wang also reaffirmed Beijing’s continued support for Palestinians to govern Gaza and the two-state solution. “It is high time to speed up the formulation of…
President Trump on Friday appeared to back off his demand that some two million Palestinians be permanently relocated from the Gaza Strip to nearby countries in the Middle East so the United States could take over the territory and develop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Earlier this month, the president said he…