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Israel halts Palestinian prisoner release after Gaza celebrations

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the euphoria in Gaza over the release of Israeli hostages. Shortly after Netanyahu’s statement, it was claimed that the release process of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for Israeli hostages was halted. According to news from Channel 12, Palestinian prisoners who were put on buses to be released were taken off the buses following this decision.

According to a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said he watched the footage of the release of 2 Israeli prisoners in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip with ‘great seriousness’. ‘I ask the mediators to ensure that such unbearable scenes will not be repeated and to guarantee the safety of our hostages,’ Netanyahu said.

In the third round of the prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, International Red Cross teams received 3 Israeli prisoners – including female soldier Agam Berger, Arbel Yehud, and Gadi Moses – along with 5 Thai citizens in Gaza.

Especially the dense crowd in the area where the house of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, was located in Khan Yunis attracted attention. There was great enthusiasm during the release of the prisoners, and they had difficulty walking through the crowd as they were handed over.

Citing these images as an excuse, it was claimed that Israel stopped the release process of 110 Palestinian prisoners who were to be released in return for 3 Israeli hostages.

It was known that Israel was uncomfortable with Hamas’ demonstrations during the prisoner swap process.

In the first two rounds of the prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, 7 Israeli prisoners in Gaza and 290 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were released.

MIDDLE EAST

Arab states oppose Trump’s Gaza plan, seek alternative

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However, according to Reuters, citing sources, the Arab states have not yet developed an alternative plan for Gaza. In particular, critical issues such as how the estimated cost of rebuilding Gaza, estimated at more than $50 billion, will be covered, or who will administer the territory, remain unclear.

Today, the Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan will meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Saudi Arabian officials said the meeting was “an informal discussion in the framework of close fraternal relations.” However, sources told Reuters that the main agenda of the meeting was joint measures to counter Trump’s plan to “cleanse” Gaza of Palestinians and relocate most of them to Jordan and Egypt.

The Egyptian proposal calls for a $20 billion fund to rebuild Gaza over three years. No clear commitment has yet been made to this fund, which is expected to be largely contributed by wealthy Gulf and Arab states.

“The details are not clear and there is confusion among stakeholders about what the plan entails,” an official involved in the Gaza negotiations told Reuters. A source close to Saudi Arabia’s royal palace also told Reuters that no proposals had been finalized ahead of the talks.

It remains unclear whether Arab leaders will be able to agree on an alternative to Trump’s plan ahead of an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on March 4.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday called on the international community to develop a plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinians.

Palestinians and many countries in the region are concerned that Trump’s proposal will destabilize the region and lead to a repeat of the Nakba (Great Catastrophe) that occurred during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

In 1948, some 800,000 Palestinians were forced to flee or displaced from their homes and villages. Many settled in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Today, millions of Palestinians are still living as refugees.

Palestinians often complain of discrimination in some Arab countries and of being abandoned by Arab states. However, the Arab states claim that they are doing their best to advance the Palestinian cause.

This poses a particular risk for Egypt and Jordan. Sisi is concerned that if large numbers of Palestinians come to his country, they will include members of Hamas, which he sees as a security threat.

Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population, fears that the plan will destabilize the Middle East by fueling radicalism, jeopardizing the peace treaty with Israel, and even putting the country’s very existence at risk.

The plan is also reminiscent of the idea of “Jordan as an alternative Palestinian state” with mass immigration from both the West Bank and Gaza, which has long been voiced by Israel’s right-wing.

On the other hand, countries such as Egypt and Jordan are dependent on US financial and military support, and the Gulf states are also dependent on Washington for security. It is therefore not easy for them to take a hard line against Trump.

According to an official involved in the Palestinian negotiations, key actors such as Jordan or the United Nations were not included in the formulation of the proposal that Sisi is expected to present, and there is still no clarity on how Gaza will be governed.

Sensitive issues such as the future role of Hamas are not expected to be discussed in public statements. A more comprehensive political and economic framework is planned to be presented at the Arab League summit in Cairo in March.

The Egyptian proposal envisages the creation of a national committee to govern Gaza and to carry out the reconstruction process with funding from Gulf states, other foreign governments, the United States, and financial institutions. According to two Egyptian officials familiar with the matter, these proposals are only ideas at this stage and require coordination and funding commitments from Arab countries for implementation.

Funding commitments are critical for any alternative to be acceptable to Trump. However, the oil-producing Gulf states are cautious about financing the reconstruction of Gaza.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority’s proposal for the administration of Gaza is expected to be presented on Friday. According to this proposal, a new deputy prime minister would be appointed as governor of Gaza, reporting directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

However, Cairo proposes a different plan. According to this plan, a committee of neutral technocrats would manage Gaza’s border crossings, public services, and the reconstruction process.

However, Hamas reacted to the Arab League Deputy Secretary-General’s remarks that Hamas should completely withdraw from the administration for the benefit of the Palestinian people. Hamas said it had shown flexibility in several meetings regarding the political and administrative management of Gaza.

Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst specializing in Palestinian-Gulf relations, said: “It is time for Arab countries to come up with a concrete plan, and this issue has become even more important after Trump’s proposal.”

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Israel increases West Bank attacks following bus explosions

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Israel blamed Palestinian groups for the successive explosions on three buses in Bat-Yam city near Tel Aviv. The Defence Minister announced that he ordered the army to increase attacks on all refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, especially Tulkarem Refugee Camp.

In Bat-Yam, south of Tel Aviv, three buses exploded in succession yesterday evening. Subway services were suspended after the explosions, but no injuries or casualties were reported. Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot stated that the incident was a “miracle” and said, “It is a great luck that no one was injured.”

In the statement made by the police spokesperson’s office regarding the explosions in question, “The suspicion that this is an attack is growing, there are no casualties.”

In a separate statement made by the Israeli police spokesperson’s office, it was stated that the explosives were timed. In the statement, it was noted that explosives were detected in two more buses and teams were working to destroy them.

While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the Tulkarem Battalion, affiliated with the military wing of Hamas, shared the following statements on its Telegram account: “We will never stop avenging our martyrs. As long as the occupation continues, the resistance will continue.”

In the statement made by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, it was announced that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will hold a security meeting regarding the explosions. Netanyahu’s spokesperson said, “Prime Minister Netanyahu takes the incident of placing bombs on buses extremely seriously and will give instructions for a harsh response.”

According to The Times of Israel, Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz claimed that the explosions in Bat-Yam were an attempted attack. Katz announced that for this reason, he instructed the army to increase attacks on all refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, especially Tulkarem Refugee Camp. Katz also threatened the residents of the region, who he claimed were helping the Palestinian resistance groups, saying, “The residents will pay a heavy price.”

Shortly after Katz’s statement, the Israeli army announced that it had blocked access to some parts of the West Bank.

Bus bombings have been a common method of attack in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. The attacks, which were particularly frequent during the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005, were associated with suicide bombings organized by Hamas and resistance groups.

Israeli media, citing an unnamed security official, claimed that the bombs were originally intended to target the Friday morning rush hour but were mistakenly set for 9:00 PM on Thursday evening.

Following the incident, public transport services were halted across the country and all vehicles were searched. Israeli police announced that the defused bomb weighed five kilograms.

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Hamas returns bodies of four Israeli hostages to Red Cross

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Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli prisoners, allegedly killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, to International Red Cross teams as part of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

The bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas, and Kfir Bibas were delivered to the International Red Cross in coffins in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip and are being transported to Israel.

Abu Ubaidah, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stated, “All of them were alive before the Zionist occupation planes deliberately bombed their places of detention.”

According to the agreement, Israel will release a group of Palestinian prisoners on February 22 in exchange for the funerals of four Israelis.

Hamas had announced that it would hand over the bodies of four Israeli prisoners to the Red Cross on February 20 as part of the negotiations and that six Israeli prisoners would be released on February 22, instead of three as previously planned.

The ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement reached between Hamas and Israel entered into force on Sunday, January 19 at 12:15 PM.

Within the scope of the agreement, on Monday, January 27, the Netzarim Corridor was opened to allow the passage of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from south to north, and the Israeli army withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor on February 9.

The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened on February 1 for the evacuation of the sick and wounded after eight months of occupation by the Israeli army.

In the first six rounds of the prisoner exchange, 1,135 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, 19 Israelis, and 5 Thai prisoners in Gaza were released.

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