Hormuz: Spin in the Strait

 

A fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran holds – but the information war intensifies. At the centre: the Strait of Hormuz, where competing US and Iranian narratives have collided.

The Strait of Hormuz is once again closed after the American Navy seized an Iranian cargo ship. 

The livestream from Gaza’s killing fields resumes

The ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in January barely lived up to its name. Despite the deal, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza, killing more than 150 Palestinians in just eight weeks.

The last remnants of hope were shattered as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched one of the deadliest bombing campaigns since the genocide began – followed by a ground invasion.

European leaders pressure Russia and the UK: Putin’s response to the ceasefire is insufficient

A ceasefire agreement at last – but will it hold?

Understanding the details of the ceasefire deal and why so much remains in the balance.

The long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas brings to a halt more than 15 months of genocidal war on the occupied Gaza Strip. Its timing – on the eve of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration – also raises uncomfortable questions about the Biden administration’s role in earlier peace talks.

US, Egypt, Qatar hopeful latest Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal will work

Egypt, Qatar, and the US have released a joint statement after two days of talks in Doha on the Gaza war. They are backing what they call a "bridging proposal." They hope the new draft will bring Hamas and Israel closer to a cease-fire deal. Hamas — considered a terrorist organization by several countries, and not a participant in the negotiations — is accusing Israel of negotiating in bad faith. The talks are aimed at ending the 10-month-long war, securing the release of Israeli hostages, and averting a wider regional conflagration.

Hamas says it has accepted proposal regarding cease-fire agreement

No ceasefire deal reached in Gaza, Israeli official says

Mohammed Salem, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch

An Israeli official said on Monday no ceasefire had been agreed in Gaza, after Hamas said it had accepted a proposal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

The Israeli official said the proposal that Hamas had accepted was a "softened" version of an Egyptian proposal, which included "far-reaching" conclusions that Israel could not accept.

"This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal," said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

From ABC News

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, said in a statement the group has called the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian minister of intelligence "and informed them of the Hamas movement's approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement."

There were no further details about conditions of the cease-fire agreement.

Washington Post

Hamas informed Arab mediators that it would approve a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire proposal, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement Monday. There has been no response yet from Israel, which earlier in the day ordered about 100,000 civilians in parts of Rafah to evacuate “immediately” to a humanitarian zone. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Monday, President Biden reiterated his opposition to a ground invasion of Rafah and provided an update on negotiations in Doha, according to a White House readout of the conversation.

Cracks in the US-Israel relationship are beginning to show

Cracks in the special US-Israel relationship cannot be hidden any longer – rifts are showing.

Six months into Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, the United Nations Security Council has finally passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire. The United States’s abstention marks a pivotal moment in Israel’s increasing international isolation.

In the Israeli media, the opposition to the UN vote is near-unanimous and unsurprising. More striking is the lack of interest from American news outlets. The implications this story raises are perhaps a little uncomfortable for them – they hit too close to home.

Hamas, Qatari, US envoys in Cairo for cease-fire, hostage release talks

Hopes for cease-fire in the Gaza war are growing with the arrival of a Hamas delegation for talks in Cairo. US officials say Israel has broadly approved a deal being presented to Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by most Western countries. Pressure is mounting for the meeting to result in a truce as starvation looms in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run health ministry, over 30,000 people have been killed in the territory since the war started. On Sunday, the Israeli army intensified operations in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. It says it had destroyed dozens of Hamas targets.

Why does the US refuse to call for a ceasefire in Gaza?

US political scientist Stephen Walt says Israel has changed over the years, but Biden’s policy is stuck in the past.

The United States’ support for Israel’s war on Gaza makes the country look ineffectual and hypocritical to the rest of the world, according to Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

Walt tells host Steve Clemons that Israel and the US-Israel relationship have changed over the decades, but US President Joe Biden is holding on to a view of Israel formed in the West in the 1970s.

Sudan: Millions trapped or fleeing as ceasefire unravels

 

Ukraine calls for cease-fire to evacuate civilians from Sievierodonetsk chemical plant

 

A Russian air strike killed four people in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Lysychansk, local residents said. The strike on a cultural center killed a mother and daughter, as well as a young man and a bedridden woman who had moved there to shelter from her home in Severodonetsk.

How children in both Israel and Gaza experienced the conflict - BBC News

 

A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip has ended 11 days of conflict.

Will the latest ceasefire bring peace to Nagorno-Karabakh?

 

Armenia and Azerbaijan sign Russian-mediated deal to end fighting in the disputed region.

One of the world’s longest-running conflicts appears to be over, at least for now.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to a Russian-mediated ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.