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Saudis Sleeping Prince, Al-Waleed, Marks 36th Birthday Amid Long-Term Coma

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Worldnews

Insulting: Hamas Condemns Abbass Remarks On Gaza Captives

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says keeping the captives provides Israel with justification for its attacks on Gaza. Hamas has condemned remarks made by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who urged the Palestinian group ruling Gaza to release Israeli captives and lay down arms. Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Thursday that Abbas’s remarks made a day earlier were “insulting”. “Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people,” he said. Abbas on Wednesday urged Hamas to free all captives, saying keeping them provided Israel with “excuses” to attack Gaza. “Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” Abbas said at a meeting in Ramallah, the PA’s seat in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “I’m the one paying the price, our people are paying the price, not Israel. My brother, just hand them over.” “Every day there are deaths,” Abbas said. “You sons of dogs, hand over what you have and get us out of this” ordeal, he added, levelling a harsh Arabic epithet at Hamas. There have been deep political and ideological divisions between Abbas’s Fatah party and Hamas for nearly 20 years. Abbas and the PA have often accused Hamas of undermining Palestinian unity, while Hamas has criticised the former for collaborating with Israel and cracking down on West Bank dissent. The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, which split from Abbas’s Fatah in the 2000s, issued a statement on Telegram on Wednesday condemning Abbas’s remarks. “We strongly condemn the offensive statements made by President Abbas during the Central Council meeting regarding the resistance and our people’s resistance fighters, disregarding the sacrifices and struggle of our people and ignoring the suffering and ongoing sacrifices of the prisoners,” read the statement. “We condemn the PA leadership’s continued pursuit of this discourse, which criminalizes the resistance and absolves the occupation of its ongoing crimes against our people for decades, especially the genocidal war against Gaza, the annexation and Judaization of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the severe suffering endured by our valiant prisoners.” The movement also called on Abbas to issue an apology for his remarks. “We call on the President of the Palestinian Authority to apologize for this offensive speech and reverse all steps that reinforce division and align with Zionist will. We call on him to return to the embrace of the people and their choices and to cease pursuing the absurd path of surrender and compromise.” Since Israel’s campaign in Gaza resumed on March 18, at least 1,928 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,305, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. Talks on a new ceasefire have so far been fruitless, and a Hamas delegation is in Cairo for renewed negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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NDLEA Uncovers Drg Distribution Hub Disguised As Hotel In Lagos

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DR Congo, M23 Rebels Announce Ceasefire After Peace Talks In Qatar

Tough negotiations are expected to resume in Qatar in the coming weeks for a broader peace deal. The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have agreed to pause fighting as they work towards a broader peace deal, according to their joint statement. The truce, declared late on Wednesday after a round of negotiations in Qatar’s capital Doha, has raised hopes that the latest wave of violence, spurred by M23’s bloody January assault and capture of the DRC’s two largest cities, may begin to subside. “Both parties reaffirm their commitment to an immediate cessation of hostilities, a categorical rejection of any hate speech, intimidation, and call on local communities to uphold these commitments,” said the joint statement. The “cessation of hostilities” would apply “throughout the duration of the talks and until their conclusion”, it added. Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from the eastern DRC city of Goma, said the two sides’ mutual agreement to pursue peace, after numerous failed negotiation attempts, was an encouraging shift. However, he added that reports of continued clashes, including in South Kivu province, show how “fragile” any truce agreement is. The peace push mediated by Qatar comes after the Gulf state successfully brokered a surprise meeting last month between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The session apparently paved the way for direct talks between DRC and M23, which Kinshasa had previously refused to meet with. The decades-long conflict has roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with M23 made up primarily of ethnic Tutsi fighters. Many were former rebels integrated into the DRC army who later defected, citing discrimination and broken peace deals. Since 2021, the two sides have agreed to at least six truces that later collapsed. The latest bout of violence since January has killed thousands and raised fears of a wider regional war. The DRC, United Nations and Western governments have accused Rwanda of supporting M23 with troops and arms, but Kigali has long denied sending military help. Despite the truce statement, some DRC government and M23 sources cited by the Reuters news agency expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations. The sources said disagreements over potential confidence-building measures, such as the release of DRC-held prisoners accused of links to Rwanda and M23, had almost derailed the outcome. Ultimately, however, Qatar managed to pressure the two sides into releasing a joint statement agreeing to continue to work on a truce, according to informed diplomats cited by Reuters. “This is a crucial step towards ending the violence,” Maxime Prevot, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister, said on Wednesday in a post on X. Another informed source quoted by the AFP news agency said a “deeper round of discussions” was expected in Doha “in the coming weeks”. Follow Al Jazeera English:...