Category World News

In response to alarming rumors about Mohammed Ibrahim’s status in prison, the Palestinian American boy has been held by Israel since February.

Zeyad Kadur, Mohammed’s uncle, claimed a representative from the US Embassy in Israel visited the 16-year-old at Ofer Prison last week.

Afterward, the official informed the family that Ibrahim had lost weight and had developed dark circles around his eyes, according to Kadur.

Mohammed’s case has also been discussed with numerous US and Israeli agencies, according to the consular officer.

How bad is it because they showed “serious concern for his health” for the first time in nine months? On Wednesday, Kharur asked in an interview.

Mohammed’s family claimed that the administration of President Donald Trump is not doing enough to bring him home despite rights groups and US lawmakers’ pleas for his release.

Ibrahim denies throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to an accusation made by Israeli authorities.

Mohammed’s family claims that the legal proceedings in the case are moving at a snail’s pace in Israel’s military justice system.

Given that the occupied West Bank has a nearly 100% conviction rate for Palestinian defendants, rights advocates claim that the military court system is a component of Israel’s discriminatory apartheid regime.

The teenager’s lack of access while Mohammed is imprisoned in Israel only heightens the family’s fury. His relatives only receive updates from the US embassy when they are unable to visit him or speak with him.

His father, Zaher Ibrahim, reported to Al Jazeera earlier this year that the teenager had been losing a lot of weight while he was in custody. Additionally, he developed scabies, a spreadable skin condition.

He last received a visit from US Embassy staff in September.

Particularly after Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli authorities have committed well-known abuses against Palestinian prisoners, including torture and sexual violence.

We are aware of how people are getting out of prison and what they look like, according to Kadur.

“Mohammed was a 15-year-old American child. He is now 16 years old, hasn’t seen his dad, and hasn’t seen his mother in nine months.

Mohammed’s mental health is another concern, he added.

We request that he be taken to a hospital and evaluated by a third party, not a prison nurse or doctor. Mohammed’s uncle informed Al Jazeera that he needs some serious attention.

When Mohammed, a Florida native, was detained, blindfolded, and tortured during what Kadur called a “kidnapping,” he was on a trip to Palestine.

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Mohammed’s most recent consular visit.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to have misunderstood a question about Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti when he went to Israel last month, believing it to be about Mohammed’s case.

Do you have any experience with the US one? Rubio told reporters, “I don’t have any news for you today.”

We will obviously work that through our diplomatic channels and our embassy in this country, but that is all we have to say.

However, Mohammed’s case requires political will from Washington to secure his freedom, not one that is bureaucratically or legally based.

Kadur emphasized that the US has negotiated with allies to free detained Americans, including Venezuela, Russia, and North Korea, in order to press for Mohammed’s release from its most enmity in the Middle East.

Over the past two years, the US has provided military aid to Israel totaling more than $ 21 billion.

In contrast, Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saw a sharp contrast between the US’s efforts to free Mohammed and the US’s push to release US citizen Edan Alexander, who had been serving in the Israeli army and was imprisoned as a result.

Following repression by the Trump administration against Hamas, Alexander was freed in May.

According to Kadur, “The American government negotiated with what they view as a terrorist organization, and they secured his release.” Alexander was an adult who put on a uniform, grabbed a gun, and carried out his obligations.

According to medical sources, one of the largest breaches of the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last month has resulted in the deaths of at least 28 Palestinians in a wave of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

According to a preliminary death toll, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Wednesday that at least 77 Palestinians had been injured in Israeli bombardment.

According to Hani Mahmoud, a journalist from Gaza City, the Israeli attacks targeted three specific locations, including the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza close to Khan Younis.

Additionally, Israel struck a junction in the Zeitoun neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, which is home to displaced Palestinian families, and a building where at least 10 people, including an entire family, were killed.

According to Mahmoud, “a father, a mother, and their three children were killed inside this building,” adding that the Gaza Strip’s fear is being heightened as more attacks are carried out.

Palestinians in Gaza are already experiencing daily horrors, he said, noting that Israeli bombings have not stopped since the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire was signed on October 10.

Palestinians are still dying as a result of the violence that is ongoing, and the war is still ongoing.

“Judge, jury, and executioner”

In response to a situation in Khan Younis, in the south of the country, where its troops were shot at, the Israeli military said it responded on Wednesday by striking “Hamas targets” across Gaza.

The army will continue to use force, according to the statement. “The]army will continue to act decisively to eradicate any threat to the State of Israel.”

Hamas, however, refuted the claim that Gaza’s forces were shot at, calling it “a flimsy and transparent attempt to justify its crimes and violations.”

In response to the most recent Israeli attacks, the Palestinian group stated in a statement that “we believe that the Israeli prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] is seeking to resume the genocide against our people.

Nour Odeh of Al Jazeera also noted that Israel has “the right to be judge, jury, and executioner” in the course of the truce.

Israel launches a number of air strikes against specific targets, according to Odeh, who spoke from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. “It decides for itself whether Hamas is complying with this ceasefire] in Gaza,” Odeh said.

After an Israeli bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, which left more than a dozen people dead, the Israeli assault on Gaza came to coincide with a string of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) approved US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which included the deployment of a ‘international stabilization force’, just days prior.

In response to the US and Israel’s demand that Hamas give up control of Gaza, the resolution also endorsed the establishment of a “board of peace” to regulate governance in the coastal territory.

The plan, which Hamas and other Palestinian groups claim it establishes a framework that conflicts with “the national will,” has been rejected by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza.

The resolution was condemned by the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, who called on UNSC members to vote against it because it “could undermine and reject Palestinian self-determination.”

Numerous violations

Israel’s attacks on Gaza “challenge” the international community and the UNSC resolution, according to Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the US-based think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Elgindy told Al Jazeera, “This is a real test for the United States, the Security Council, and the international community.” Are they going to uphold the ceasefire that they have been celebrating for a while?

The US-backed UN resolution, which supporters claimed would put an end to Israel’s nearly 70, 000 Palestinians’ conflict in Gaza, which has been ongoing since October 2023, was supported by the UN resolution.

“But that’s not even there.” According to Elgindy, Israel doesn’t fully or even partially adhere to the terms of the ceasefire.

“The reality is that if the United States is not going to act, then the war will continue under the pretext of a ceasefire and peacemaking, when in reality the opposite is the case.”

In response to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alleged request, US President Donald Trump has stated that he will take action to resolve the conflict in Sudan.

Trump made the announcement on Wednesday that he would intervene twice, once at the Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, DC, and once more on Truth Social, his website.

Trump wrote that “Arab leaders from all over the world, particularly the renowned Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who has just left the United States,” have asked me to use the power and influence of the presidency to put an end to what is happening in Sudan.

It is regarded as a “Great Civilization and Culture,” which, regrettably, can be improved through international cooperation and coordination.

Trump recalled how the crown prince personally contacted him for assistance during the investment forum.

He mentioned Sudan and Sudan yesterday and said, “Sir, you’re talking about a lot of wars, but there’s a place on Earth called Sudan, and it’s horrible what’s happening,” Trump said.

Within a half-hour of the crown prince’s request, the US president added that his administration had “already begun working” on the matter.

Prince Mohammed, who is better known as his initials MBS, made his first official appearance since 2018, this week in Washington, DC. The two leaders’ mutual praise and the promise of more US-Saudi investments helped to fuel the trip.

Following the business forum, Prince Mohammed wrapped up his two-day trip on Wednesday.

Trump, who has long supported the Nobel Peace Prize, stated that he would work with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to resolve Sudan’s conflict.

Trump stated in his post that “we will work with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern partners to end these atrocities while stabilizing Sudan.”

In April 2023, Sudan’s government-controlled Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed to take control of areas including Khartoum, prompting the government’s government-controlled civil war.

As a result, there has been widespread famine, displacement, and bloodshed. The country is on pace to surpass the civilian death toll for all of 2024, which reached 4, 238, with the United Nations documenting at least 3, 384 civilian deaths between January and June of this year.

El-Fasher and Kadugli, two cities hit by the war, are experiencing famine this month, according to a UN-backed analysis. As a result of the conflict, about 45 percent of the population is suffering from acute food insecurity.

More than four million people have fled Sudan as a result of the fighting, which has increased regional instability. The UN has found evidence of widespread slayings, ethnic cleansing, and sexual violence being used as a means of conflict in Sudan.

The top UN official for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Tom Fletcher, recently described El-Fasher as a “crime scene” after it fell to RSF forces last month in a post about his trip.

Sudan has experienced three internal conflicts in just 40 years, with the most recent ones spanning 1955 to 1972 and 1983 to 2005.

Despite a growing bombing campaign in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, Trump has aimed to brand himself as the “peace leader.”

In his second inaugural address in January, he declared, “My proudest legacy will be that of peacemaker and unifier.”

Trump and his supporters claim that the US president has “eight wars in eight months,” but some question whether the agreements he has reached will last.

Attacks have continued in some instances, as has the UN’s “genocide” in Gaza case. Critics claim that there was no end to the conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia, despite the two nations’ long-standing hostility.

Yet, leaders of several of the participating nations, including those from Israel, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, have pledged to nominate Trump for his highly sought-after Nobel Prize.

Trump made a point about the humanitarian needs of the civilians who were engulfed in the conflict in Sudan.

According to several news reports, the US has a new proposal to put an end to Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, which requires that Kyiv give up some weapons and territory, and has told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he must accept it.

Numerous publications reported on Wednesday that the framework was created in consultation with Russian officials, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the draft.

Russia, on the other hand, denied that there was a new peace plan.

As Ukraine continues to lose territory in its east and has urgently called on allies for more military support, the news of the proposal, which comes ahead of Zelenskyy’s scheduled meeting with US military officials in Kyiv on Thursday, would be a blow.

Unidentified official, who was quoted by The Financial Times as saying the proposal was “very comfortable for Russian President Vladimir Putin” and “heavily tilted toward Russia”

According to Ukrainian officials who were provided with information on the plan, the requirements closely matched those of Russia in terms of ending the conflict and would be “non-starter” for Kyiv without significant modifications.

Zelenskyy argued that US President Donald Trump’s administration must “main effective” in order to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.

Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that the key to stopping the bloodshed and achieving lasting peace is that we work together with all of our partners and that the American leadership is still strong and effective.

Military downsizes after granting territory, military downsizes

According to two people with knowledge of the discussions, US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council secretary Rustem Umerov this week in Miami, Florida, in the US.

According to the proposal, Ukraine would have to renounce its military presence in the eastern region of Donbas, including territory under Kyiv’s control, and reduce its overall military presence by half, according to the proposal.

According to Reuters news agency, the proposal would reduce the size of Ukraine’s military, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.

According to the Times, the proposed reforms would require Kyiv to abandon particular gun categories and result in a reduction in US military assistance.

According to the report, the Ukrainian division of the Russian Orthodox Church would receive official status as well as Russian as an official state language in Ukraine, according to the report.

Russia stated that despite ongoing US contacts, there are no new developments regarding a potential peace agreement to end Ukraine.

Russian state news agency TASS spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that while Moscow has followed numerous publications “decrivant various processes,” such reports should be evaluated based on official communication rather than media narratives.

“These issues are discussed, resolved, and subject to negotiation processes in the United States.” Zakharova remarked that these channels must be used. The American side has not provided any information in this regard, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prisoner exchanges are being conducted.

Since a meeting in Istanbul, Turkiye in July that failed to lead to a breakthrough, which did lead to prisoner-of-war (POW) exchanges between the two nations, no direct discussions have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow.

After Umerov claimed consultations mediated by Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates were taking place on the resumption of the POW swaps on Sunday, Zelenskyy declared on the matter that he was “counting on the resumption” of such exchanges.

Zelenskyy and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkiye on Wednesday and demanded that the two countries go back to Istanbul to resume their negotiations.

Erdogan and Zelenskyy spoke at a press conference in Ankara, “We … stressed the need for the Istanbul process to continue with a pragmatic and results-oriented approach.”

We also anticipate that all of our partners who want to end the region’s bloodshed will take a constructive stand in the direction of the Istanbul process.

Russian missile and drone attacks targeting energy and civilian infrastructure across western Ukraine on Wednesday left at least 25 people dead and dozens injured.