After two years of relentless bombardment, a rare calm has settled over Gaza. As the sun rose over Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reflected on the hopes for peace, and said for the first time in years, he felt safe while reporting the news.
Senate Republicans have voted down a bill that would have curtailed President Donald Trump’s use of force against drug cartels after he authorised strikes on boats suspected of engaging in drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela.
The bill from Democratic Senators Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia had called for the United States military to withdraw from “hostilities that had not been authorized by Congress” including those against “any non-state organization engaged in the promotion, trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs and other related activities”.
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The bill also noted that the “designation of an entity as a foreign terrorist organization or specially designated global terrorist provides no legal authority for the President to use force” against them.
While Democrats invoked the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to force a vote in the Senate, the bill was rejected with a vote of 48 to 51 on Wednesday.
Under the US Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war, but Trump has used his authority as president to launch an unofficial war on drug cartels.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the “unchecked strikes in the Caribbean risk destabilising the region, provoking confrontation with neighbouring governments and drawing our forces into yet another open-ended conflict … because of one man’s impulsive decision-making”.
Trump earlier this year designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, El Salvador’s MS-13, and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel as “foreign terrorist organizations”.
According to The New York Times, he escalated the campaign in July with a secret directive ordering the US military to increase its presence around the Caribbean.
Since September, US forces have carried out at least four strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats, killing at least 21 people.
The Trump administration has referred to the strikes as a “non-international armed conflict” and some of those killed as “unlawful combatants,” CBS News reported, citing confidential White House notifications to Congress.
“Unlawful combatant” is the same term once used by President George W. Bush to refer to al-Qaeda and other groups when he launched the “Global War on Terrorism” in 2001. The designation meant they did not qualify for protection under the Geneva Convention.
The Senate separately failed to reach a deal to end the US government shutdown, which will enter its ninth day on Thursday.
Neither a Republican nor a Democratic version of a government spending bill reached the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the Senate on Wednesday, as both parties remain at an impasse over healthcare subsidies.
Relentlessly bombarded and starved Palestinians in Gaza have reacted with relief and jubilation to the announcement of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
As word of the agreement spread through the besieged enclave, residents of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis took to the streets to celebrate what many hoped would mark the first real reprieve from Israeli attacks since a fragile truce was shattered by Israel more than six months ago.
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“Thank God for this ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing … all of Gaza is happy,” Gaza resident Abdul Majeed Abd Rabbo said.
“These are the moments that are considered historic, long-awaited by Palestinian citizens,” added resident Khaled Shaat.” The joy we saw a short time ago in the street is relief from the massacres, killing and genocide.”
Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, said there has been a collective sigh of relief among the enclave’s embattled population. “This is a historic moment – and on a personal note, such a relief,” he said.
After suffering an Israeli-induced famine for months, all eyes are now on when critical aid, food and medical supplies can begin distribution at similar levels to the brief ceasefire earlier this year.
The ceasefire deal, announced on Wednesday night by United States President Donald Trump, concerns the first phase of a broader plan to end the two-year war. It calls for the release of the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, while Israeli forces pull back to “an agreed-upon line,” according to Trump. Mediator Qatar said further details would be announced later.
A second phase, still to be negotiated, is expected to involve a full Israeli withdrawal, Hamas’s disarmament and the establishment of new security and governance arrangements in Gaza.
Overnight on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said Palestinians settled into an unusual night of relative calm, as aerial bombardment that has become routine largely subsided.
However, Gaza’s civil defence announced several strikes continued after the deal’s announcement, including “a series of intense air strikes” in Gaza City.
Over in Israel, where opposition to the war’s continuation has been growing, crowds also turned out onto the streets to celebrate the ceasefire news. Many, including the relatives of captives and supporters, gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.
“We are excited, the tears haven’t stopped flowing, it’s total joy,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli captive Matan Zangauker, told Israel’s Arutz Sheva.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing the relatives of Israeli captives, welcomed news of the ceasefire but stressed “our struggle is not over” until every captive returns.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal built off United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan aimed at ending Israel’s war on Gaza.
“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line”, Trump said on his Truth Social platform, announcing the ceasefire agreement late on Wednesday.
Under the first phase of the plan, Hamas and other Palestinian factions are required to release 20 Israeli captives held in Gaza who are believed to be alive, and the bodies of 28 others in the Palestinian territory. Israel is required to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners it holds in its jails, based on a list shared by Hamas. This includes hundreds of people from Gaza whom Israel has arrested since the start of the war in October 2023.
In a separate phone interview with Fox News on its Hannity programme, Trump said Israeli captives held in Gaza could be released on Monday.
Israel and Hamas subsequently confirmed the agreement, though key differences remain over their interpretations of how Trump’s broader plan is to unfold.
The announcement followed three days of indirect talks between Hamas and Israel in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Senior officials from Qatar, Turkiye, Egypt and the US had joined the delegations from Israel and Hamas on Wednesday for those talks.
The ceasefire has not come into force yet, but the announcement of the deal prompted messages of congratulations and hope from regional and world leaders.
Here are some of them:
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” Trump said on Truth Social, soon after he received a note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the middle of a press briefing, telling the president that a deal was close to being struck.
“All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
Speaking to Sean Hannity on the phone on Fox News, Trump claimed that the world will see “people getting along and Gaza will be rebuilt”, adding that it is going to be a “different world” and that there will be “wealth spent in Gaza”.
“I’m very confident there’ll be peace in the Middle East.”
Trump has hinted that he might travel to Egypt as soon as this weekend.
“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday,” he told reporters at the White House earlier on Wednesday.
“A big day for Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement from his Jerusalem office.
“Tomorrow I will convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home,” he said, thanking Israeli soldiers for “their courage and sacrifice”.
He extended his “heartfelt thanks” to Trump and his team “for their dedication to this sacred mission of freeing our hostages”.
“With God’s help, together we will continue to achieve all our goals and expand peace with our neighbors”.
“We highly appreciate the efforts of our brothers and mediators in Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, and we also value the efforts of US President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war completely and achieving a full withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We call on President Trump, the guarantor states of the agreement, and all Arab, Islamic, and international parties to compel the occupation government to fully implement its obligations under the agreement and to prevent it from evading or delaying the implementation of what has been agreed upon.
“We salute our great people in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and throughout our homeland and the diaspora, who have demonstrated unparalleled honor, courage, and heroism — confronting the fascist occupation projects that targeted them and their national rights. These sacrifices and steadfast positions have thwarted the Israeli occupation’s schemes of subjugation and displacement.
“We affirm that the sacrifices of our people will not be in vain, and that we will remain true to our pledge — never abandoning our people’s national rights until freedom, independence, and self-determination are achieved.”
I welcome the announcement of an agreement to secure a ceasefire & hostage release in Gaza, based on the proposal put forward by @POTUS. I commend the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Qatar, Egypt & Türkiye in brokering this desperately needed breakthrough.
I urge all…
“I welcome the announcement of an agreement to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, based on the proposal put forward by President Donald J Trump. I commend the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in brokering this desperately needed breakthrough,” Guterres said in a statement.
“I urge all concerned to abide fully by the terms of the agreement. All hostages must be released in a dignified manner. A permanent ceasefire must be secured. The fighting must stop once and for all.”
The leader of the UN stressed the need for “immediate and unimpeded entry of humanitarian supplies and essential commercial materials into Gaza” so that the suffering could end.
“The United Nations will support the full implementation of the agreement and will scale up the delivery of sustained and principled humanitarian relief, and we will advance recovery and reconstruction efforts in Gaza,” Guterres added.
He mentioned how the peace talks should be the starting point to “achieving a two-state solution that enables Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security”.
“I urge all stakeholders to seize this momentous opportunity to establish a credible political path forward towards ending the occupation, recognizing the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people … The stakes have never been higher.”
Qatar has led mediation efforts to end the war over the past two years. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani headed to Egypt to participate in the ceasefire talks, underscoring the urgency of efforts to end the war.
“The mediators announce that tonight an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said after the announcement of the ceasefire deal.
Talking about the agreement, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said on X that “details will be announced later”.
Starmer urged that the agreement on the first stage of Trump’s plan for Gaza must be implemented in full without delay.
“I welcome the news that a deal has been reached on the first stage of President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. This agreement must now be implemented in full, without delay, and accompanied by the immediate lifting of all restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said in a statement.
We welcome the agreement on the first phase of President Trump’s peace plan. This is also a reflection of the strong leadership of PM Netanyahu.
We hope the release of hostages and enhanced humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza will bring respite to them and pave the way…
Modi welcomed the first phase agreement, calling it a step towards lasting peace in the region.
“We welcome the agreement on the first phase of President Trump’s peace plan. This is also a reflection of the strong leadership of PM Netanyahu,” Modi said in a post on X.
“We hope the release of hostages and enhanced humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza will bring respite to them and pave the way for lasting peace.”
“Hamas needs to release all of the hostages and Israel must withdraw their troops to the agreed-upon line,” Peters said in a statement.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba have announced a multiyear partnership, as the league stages two games in Macau to mark its return to the Chinese market for the first time since 2019.
The announcement by Alibaba Group on Thursday said it would provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services with the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China.
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Alibaba Cloud will be the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China, it said.
The NBA is due to play two preseason games in the Chinese special administrative region on Friday and Sunday, part of a five-year contract with Las Vegas Sands’ Macau unit Sands China.
The games mark the first time the NBA is playing in Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub, and follow a years-long absence amid controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
The Macau games aim to bolster the NBA’s profile in China, where the league estimates say about 300 million people play basketball, at a time of rising political tensions between the United States and China.
The NBA’s absence followed a firestorm of controversy about comments made six years ago by the Houston Rockets’ then general manager Daryl Morey, who posted a message on social media in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests.
In the aftermath, Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games, prompting corporate sponsors to flee and the league to suffer what it described at the time as dramatic financial consequences. Preseason NBA games in China were also scrapped.
The NBA games are being held at the Sands Venetian property, and Shaquille O’Neal is among NBA celebrities attending the event, the league said.
Sands owner, the US billionaire Adelson family, also owns the Texas-based NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks.
The Brooklyn Nets, owned by Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai, will play the Phoenix Suns at sold-out games in the arena.
This NBA season comes with high hopes for a Chinese rookie: Yang Hansen, a 7-foot-1 (216cm) draft pick who is expected to play a role for the Portland Trail Blazers this season.
He’s thrilled that the NBA is headed back there, finally.
“I want to say firstly, playing for the Blazers is a wonderful thing for me, and I wish that I can take all the players and management and coaches to China for sure in the future,” Yang said with the support of an interpreter.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Seated next to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a visit to the United Kingdom in September, United States President Donald Trump made clear he was eyeing a plot of land his country’s military once controlled nearly 8,000km (4,970 miles) away: Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
“We gave it to [the Taliban] for nothing. We want that base back,” he said. Two days later, this time opting to express his views on social media, Trump wrote: “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram air base back to those that built it, the United States of America, bad things are going to happen!”
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The Taliban, predictably, bristled at the demand and stressed that under “no circumstances” will Afghans hand over the base to any third country.
On Tuesday, the Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan since their takeover of Kabul in August 2021, won a remarkable show of support for their opposition to any US military return to the country, from a broad swath of neighbours who otherwise rarely see eye-to-eye geopolitically.
At a meeting in Moscow, officials from Russia, India, Pakistan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan joined their Taliban counterparts in coming down hard on any attempt to set up foreign military bases in Afghanistan. They did not name the US, but the target was clear, say experts.
“They called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighbouring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability,” said the joint statement (PDF) published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 7 at the conclusion of the seventh edition of what are known as the Moscow Format Consultations between Afghanistan’s neighbours.
Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran had opposed “the reestablishment of military bases” in a similar declaration last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. But the Moscow communique brought together a much wider range of nations – some with competing interests – on a single page.
India and Pakistan have long vied for influence over Afghanistan. India also worries about China’s growing investments in that country. Iran has often viewed any Pakistani presence in Afghanistan with suspicion. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have long feared violence in Afghanistan spilling over into their territory. And in recent years, Pakistan has had tense relations with the Taliban – a group that it supported and sheltered for decades previously.
The confluence of these countries, despite these differences, into a unanimous position to keep the US out of the region reflects a shared regional view that Afghan affairs are a “regional responsibility”, not a matter to be externally managed, said Taimur Khan, a researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).
“Despite their differences, regional countries share a common position that Afghanistan should not once again host a foreign military presence,” Khan told Al Jazeera.
That shared position, articulated in Moscow, also strengthens the Taliban’s hands as it seeks to push back against pressure from Trump over Bagram, while giving Afghanistan’s rulers regional legitimacy. Most of their neighbours are deepening engagements with them, even though Russia is the only country that has formally recognised them diplomatically as the Afghan government.
The groundwork for the Afghan Taliban’s return to power was laid in Doha in January 2020, under Trump’s first administration; they ultimately took over the country in August 2021, during the tenure of the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Yet in February this year, a month after taking the oath for his second term, Trump insisted: “We were going to keep Bagram. We were going to keep a small force on Bagram.”
Bagram, 44km (27 miles) north of Kabul, was originally built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. The base has two concrete runways – one 3.6km long (2.2 miles), the other 3km (1.9 miles) – and is one of the few places in Afghanistan suitable for landing large military planes and weapons carriers.
It became a strategic base for the many powers that have occupied, controlled and fought over Afghanistan over the past half-century. Taken over by US-led NATO forces after the invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, Bagram was a central facility in Washington’s so-called “war on terror”.
Afghanistan’s rugged, mountainous terrain means there are limited sites capable of serving as large military logistics hubs. That scarcity is why Bagram retains its strategic significance, four years after the US withdrew from the country.
Kamran Bokhari, senior director at the Washington, DC-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said he was sceptical about the US seriously planning any redeployment of forces to Afghanistan, despite Trump’s comments.
“The new US geostrategy is about military retrenchment. There is no appetite in Washington for any such military commitment, which would be a major logistical undertaking,” Bokhari told Al Jazeera. “Even if the Taliban were to agree to allow the Americans to regain Bagram, the cost of maintaining such a facility far outstrips its utility.”
At the same time, Bokhari said that the Moscow meet worked as an opportunity for Russia to show that it retains influence in Central Asia, a region in which its footprint has been eroded by the war in Ukraine and by China’s rising geoeconomic presence.
But the concerns about any renewed US footprint in Afghanistan aren’t limited to Russia, or even China, America’s biggest long-term rival. Amid heightened tensions with the US and Israel, Iran will not want an American military presence in Afghanistan.
But the concerns about any renewed US footprint in Afghanistan aren’t limited to Russia, or even China, America’s biggest long-term rival. Amid heightened tensions with the US and Israel, Iran will not want an American military presence in Afghanistan.
Other regional nations – India and Pakistan among them – are also eager to show that the neighbourhood can manage the vacuum created in Afghanistan by the withdrawal of US security forces, Bokhari said. Though a close partner of the US, India’s ties with Washington have frayed during Trump’s second term, with the American president imposing 50 percent tariffs on imports from India, in part because of New Delhi’s continued purchase of oil from Russia.
And then there are the Central Asian countries that share long, porous borders with Afghanistan – and fear their soil might be used by violent groups energised by any return of the US, militarily, to Bagram.
The four Central Asian countries that were part of the Moscow Format – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – together with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, form a bloc of six landlocked nations whose geography gives them a unique vantage point in regional politics, while also compelling them to seek access to warmer waters for trade.
Analysts argue an American presence in the region would be “undesirable” for many of these nations.
“This is not knee-jerk anti-Americanism,” Kuat Akizhanov, a Kazakh analyst and deputy director of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute (CAREC) said.
“A US base would put host states on the front line of US-Russia-China rivalry. Moscow and Beijing have both signalled opposition to any renewed US presence, and aligning with that consensus reduces coercive pressure and economic or security retaliation on our much smaller economies,” Akizhanov told Al Jazeera.
He added that regional actors now prefer regional groupings such as the Moscow Format, or even the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) led by Moscow and Beijing, for cooperation on security and the neighbourhood’s stability, to any US presence.
Many of Afghanistan’s bigger neighbours have their own concerns.
“They fear that a revived US military presence could potentially reintroduce intelligence operations, fuel instability, and once again turn Afghanistan into a proxy battleground,” Khan from the Islamabad-based ISSI said.
“This is the lens from which regional countries now view Afghanistan: a space that must be stabilised through regional cooperation and economic integration, and not through renewed Western intervention or strategic containment efforts,” he added.
For the Taliban, meanwhile, Trump’s Bagram demands pose a dilemma, say experts.
Ibraheem Bahiss, a Kabul-based senior analyst for Crisis Group, said he believed that Trump’s Bagram demand was primarily driven by the US president’s “personal inclination” rather than any consensus within the US strategic establishment. “There might be a sense that Afghanistan remains an unfinished business for him,” the analyst told Al Jazeera.
For the Taliban, surrendering Bagram is unthinkable. “Kabul cannot offer Bagram as it would antagonise their own support base and might lead to resistance against their own government if [the] US comes here,” Bahiss said.
At the same time, Bokhari, of the New Lines Institute, said that the Taliban know international sanctions are a major obstacle to governance and economic recovery, and for that, they will need to engage the West, and especially the US.
“The Taliban are asking for sanctions relief, but the question is, what do they offer? Washington is more interested in Central Asia, to which it does not have easy access to. The region is otherwise blocked by Russia, China and Iran,” he said.
Trump has cited Bagram’s proximity to China and its missile factories as a reason for wanting to take back control of the base. Bagram is about 800km (about 500 miles) from the Chinese border, and about 2,400km (about 1,500 miles) from a missile facility in Xinjiang.
“It is not in the US interest in allowing China to monopolise the region,” Bokhari said.
Against that backdrop, the Bagram demand might be a signal from the US that it is eager to explore new ways to do business with the Taliban, Bokhari and Bahiss agreed.
Washington isn’t the only one reaching out to the group, which until a few years ago was largely a global pariah. In fact, the US is late – the Taliban have already been making major headways, diplomatically, in its neighbourhood.
Since taking control of a country of more than 40 million people in August 2021, the Taliban have faced international scepticism over their style of governance.
Afghanistan’s rulers have imposed a hardline interpretation of Islam and have placed several restrictions on women, including limits on working and education.
International sanctions have further weakened an already fragile economy, while the presence of multiple armed groups – including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) – continues to alarm neighbouring states. The Taliban insist that they do not support the use of Afghan soil to attack neighbours.
Pakistan, once seen as the primary benefactor of the Taliban, says it has grown increasingly frustrated over the past four years at what it sees as the Afghan government’s inability to clamp down on militants.
The year 2024 was one of the deadliest for Pakistan in nearly a decade, with more than 2,500 casualties from violence, many of which Islamabad attributes to groups that it says operate from Afghan soil, allegations rejected by Kabul.
On Wednesday, several soldiers were killed in an ambush by the TTP near the Afghan border in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Still, Pakistan upgraded diplomatic ties with the Taliban in May. That month, Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi hosted his counterpart from Pakistan, spoke on the phone with India’s foreign minister, and flew to Iran and China for summits.
Muttaqi was in Moscow for the recent regional consultations that produced the criticism of Trump’s Bagram plans, and on Thursday is due to arrive in New Delhi for a historic, weeklong visit to India, a country that viewed the Taliban as a Pakistan proxy – and an enemy – until a few years ago.
Bahiss said the compulsion for regional nations to deal with the Taliban is driven by shared, pragmatic goals, which include keeping borders calm, guaranteeing counterterrorism assurances, and securing trade routes.
Akizhanov, the CAREC analyst, meanwhile, said that the wider regional interaction with Afghan officials “normalise working channels [with the Taliban] and reinforces their narrative that regional futures will be decided locally, not by outside militaries”.
However, “legitimacy remains conditional in capitals of each country, hinging on counterterrorism guarantees, cross-border security, economic connectivity, and basic rights, especially for women and girls,” said the analyst, who is based in Urumqi, China.
ISSI’s Khan agreed.