Category World News

Palestine has made history in the Arab Cup, reaching the quarterfinals for the first time. For Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the team’s success has offered a rare moment of joy amidst the devastation of Israel’s genocidal war and occupation.

About 200,000 people have fled their homes in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent days, the United Nations says, as Rwanda-backed rebels swarm a strategic town just days after a United States-led peace effort, which now appears under severe threat.

The M23 armed group pushed into the outskirts of the strategic city of Uvira in South Kivu province on Tuesday, local authorities said, as part of a new offensive in which at least 74 people had been killed, according to the UN.

The latest fighting comes despite a US-mediated peace agreement signed last week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington, DC. The accord did not include the rebels, who are negotiating separately with the DRC and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse each other of violating, but it obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups.

Despite the renewed fighting just beginning on Monday, the M23 has managed to capture several strongholds, including Uvira now, “a big gain”, said Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma, the biggest city in the eastern DRC.

Uvira has not just been a military base but also the administrative place for the government since they were chased out from the town of Bukavu in January, he said.

“So it was almost like a stronghold of the government position, from where they reorganised themselves,” Uaykani said, adding that it was also a place the government was hoping to chase out the rebels from.

“There is no DRC army in sight because the majority of them took the boat yesterday to cross into the neighbouring province of Tanganyika, and the majority of them are still making their way forward,” he added.

Gunshots were heard in the morning in the key city, and the army looted the governor’s office while leaving the town, Uaykani said.

Uvira is a strategic site because the city borders Burundi, and the Burundian army has been supporting the DRC for the last two years, he explained.

The M23 group is battling Congolese troops and other local groups, known as Wazalendo, in villages north of Uvira.

Marafiki Masimango, a representative of Uvira civil society, said late on Tuesday that rebels were pushing south into South Kivu. He said residents were panicked.

A senior Congolese army officer also confirmed to The Associated Press news agency that soldiers were fleeing the rebel offensive and heading south and east towards Burundi.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) rebel coalition, urged fleeing soldiers not to abandon the town.

“You are Congolese … and Wazalendo soldiers. Do not flee Uvira. Wait for us to free you,” said Nangaa of the AFC, a broad coalition of which M23 is a part.

Back to the negotiating table?

In Washington, DC, the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes (ICG), an informal monitoring group of several countries, including the US and the European Union, late on Tuesday voiced “profound concern” over the renewed violence, the ICG said in a joint statement.

It said the new M23 rebel offensive “has a destabilising potential for the whole region”.

Despite the group’s intention to advance on Uvira, M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa reiterated the group’s support for Qatari-led peace talks in Doha, where representatives from the two sides signed a framework agreement last month for a peace deal aimed at ending fighting in the eastern DRC.

“Even if we counterattack, we said that there are no other solutions in the current crisis than the negotiating table, and we want to bring Kinshasa to the negotiating table,” Bisimwa said.

Rwanda denies supporting the rebels in the DRC, although Washington and the UN say evidence of Rwandan backing is clear. Before the latest surge in fighting, the conflict had already displaced at least 1.2 million people.

In a speech to lawmakers on Monday, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi accused Rwanda of violating the commitments it made in the US.

Hamas’s political leader outside Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, has offered assurances that the group would take measures to curb any future attacks on Israel from the besieged Palestinian enclave, but added that surrendering its weapons would be like “removing the soul” from the group.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic’s Mawazin, to be aired on Wednesday evening, the Hamas political chief laid out the group’s positions on key issues amid rising concern that momentum on ceasefire talks may fade as the first phase draws to a conclusion.

Hamas said on Tuesday that the ceasefire cannot move forward if Israel continues its violations of the agreement, with authorities saying the truce has been breached at least 738 times since taking effect on October 10.

Meshaal also told Al Jazeera that Hamas would not accept a non-Palestinian governing authority for Gaza, amid speculation over the makeup of United States President Donald Trump’s so-called “board of peace”, which has been floated as a possible alternative to Hamas’s rule since 2006.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s candidacy to the board had been ruled out, following opposition from several Arab and Muslim states.

Blair is heavily tarnished for his key role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation and devastation of the US-led war in Iraq, as well as his failed role as Quartet envoy to the Middle East.

Hamas had already voiced its objection to Blair’s inclusion in September, with its official Husam Badran calling him “an unwelcome figure” and “an ominous sign”. “He has brought no good to the Palestinian cause, nor to Arabs or Muslims, and his criminal and destructive role has been known for years,” Badran said.

The US-brokered ceasefire agreed in October has largely held, despite frequent Israeli violations and fewer by Hamas. At least 377 people have been killed in Israeli attacks. Yet, at the Doha Forum last week, mediators warned that momentum behind the deal is slipping.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said at the forum that the Gaza ceasefire was at a “critical moment”, while the Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers urged the US and other parties to redouble efforts to keep the process on track.

All but one of the captives, living and deceased, taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023 have now been returned, while hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have also been released by Israeli authorities back to Gaza as part of the agreement which ended the fighting.

Many of those Palestinian prisoners’ bodies have shown signs of torture, mutilation and execution, with families unable to identify them.

On Tuesday, a Hamas official said Israel has not fully adhered to the first phase of the agreement, citing the unopened Rafah crossing, aid volumes much below the agreed levels, and near-daily Israeli attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said the first phase was nearly complete and expressed his aim to “achieve the same results in the second stage”, adding that he would meet Trump in Washington, DC, at the end of this month to advance it.

A US official told Al Jazeera that intensive negotiations for the second phase are under way and making progress.

Meshaal told Al Jazeera that increasing aid flow into Gaza is essential for the second phase to begin, which would mark the formal end of the war and include a full Israeli withdrawal — beyond the partial pullback to the so-called yellow line, which still leaves Israel in control of more than half of Gaza — a key goal for Hamas.

“We informed the mediators that Gaza needs those who can help it rise and recover again,” Meshaal said.

Disarmament will be a key issue. Israel has demanded it, while Hamas officials have expressed ambivalence, but which Meshaal said would be akin to “removing the soul” of the group. Hamas officials have previously said they would be prepared to relinquish their arms to a Palestinian state.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who has indicated his country could join an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza responsible for disarming Hamas, urged patience at the Doha Forum, saying disarmament would not occur in the “first stage” and emphasising that “we need to proceed in the correct order and remain realistic”.

Israel opposes the presence of Turkish troops in Gaza and has said disarming Hamas must be the top priority in the second phase once it begins.