Region

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — The leader of Hamas travelled to Egypt on Wednesday as hopes grew that Israel and the Palestinian resistance group may be inching towards another truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza war.

The Qatar-based Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Cairo for discussions on the "aggression in the Gaza Strip and other matters", the group said in a statement.

He was due to meet Egypt's spy chief for talks on "stopping the aggression and the war to prepare an agreement for the release of prisoners", a source close to the group told AFP.

Haniyeh, who earlier met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Qatar, was heading a "high-level delegation" to Egypt, a frequent mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, the source said.

US news site Axios reported on Monday that Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea had met CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al thani in Europe.

Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, helped broker a week-long truce in November in which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

A source close to Hamas told AFP the Egypt talks would focus on proposals including a week-long truce that would see the release of 40 Israeli hostages, including women, children and male non-combatants.

The truce would be open to extension if there is agreement on new conditions for further releases, the source said, adding that the proposals had been discussed between Qatar and Israel with the knowledge of the US administration.

Israel began a campaign of bombardment on Gaza on October 7, and then a ground invasion, that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says have killed 19,667 people, mostly women and children.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also said on Tuesday his country was “ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages”.

Another Palestinian resistance group, Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, released video footage it claimed showed two hostages in its custody in Gaza, ramping up pressure on Israel.

The UN Security Council was set to vote later on Wednesday on a resolution calling for a pause in the conflict, three diplomatic sources told AFP, after two previous votes were delayed as members wrangled over wording.

The latest version of the text calls for the “suspension” of hostilities, the sources said.

The US vetoed a previous ceasefire resolution, sparking condemnation by humanitarian groups, which urged more action to help civilians caught in the conflict.

For now, fighting was raging unabated after Israeli forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday that troops were expanding operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis area.

“We must dismantle Hamas, and it will take as long as needed,” he said, as the army reported 133 soldiers had been killed since ground operations began in late October.

Hamas sources said Wednesday at least 11 people were killed overnight in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip.

In Khan Yunis, residents searched by hand through the rubble of a building completely flattened by a strike.

The house was “full of people, full of human beings, why did they bomb it? What’s the reason?” said one distraught young resident, Amr Sheikh-Deeb.

“We managed to remove some bodies, but where are the rest of them? What did these people do?”

The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced and concerns are growing about the limited ability of aid groups to help.

“Amid displacement at an unimaginable scale and active hostilities, the humanitarian response system is on the brink,” said Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.

Gazans are facing a perilous winter, and the UN children’s agency warned that “child deaths due to disease could surpass those killed in bombardments”.

The United States, while strongly backing Israel, has also urged it to protect civilians in Gaza.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on Israel to take a “much more surgical, clinical and targeted approach” in its battle against Hamas.

Red Sea attacks 

The Gaza war has sparked fears of regional escalation and seen Israel trade deadly cross-border fire with Iran-backed Hizbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, meanwhile, have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at vessels passing through the Red Sea that they say are linked to Israel, in a show of support for Palestinians.

Major shipping firms have diverted their vessels as a result, taking the much lengthier route around Africa.

The United States announced a new multinational naval task force on Monday to protect the waterway leading to the Suez Canal, through which more than 10 percent of global trade transits.

It now includes warships from the United States, which has its USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the area, as well as Britain, Canada, France, Italy and other countries.

A top Houthi official warned the rebels will keep up their attacks and that any country that acts against them “will have its ships targeted in the Red Sea”.

GENEVA — The United Nations warned on Wednesday of widespread rights abuses amid fighting near the former Sudan safe haven of Wad Madani, with dozens of civilians reportedly killed, including in ethnically-motivated attacks.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Sunday set up a base near Wad Madani, where their offensive has sent thousands fleeing Sudan's second city and former aid hub, many of them already displaced.

"I am very alarmed by recurring reports of widespread abuses and violations of human rights in recent days amid fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in Wad Madani," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Turk also voiced concern at the "dire" humanitarian situation in the wider Al-Jezira State, which hosts nearly half a million internally displaced people. while at least 250,000 people had been displaced.

Since Sudan's war erupted on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the city of Wad Madani, 180 kilometres  south of Khartoum, became a haven for thousands of displaced people during the conflict.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that the city's population had reached 700,000, after more than half a million people took shelter there, among them 270,000 who need humanitarian assistance.

“Reports indicate that dozens of civilians including medical personnel were killed and many more injured in Wadi Madani between 15 and 19 December,” Turk said.

“Some of the attacks were allegedly ethnically motivated.”

Turk also pointed to reports of mutilations and looting, and an attack on a hospital.

Dozens of people had also reportedly been detained by both sides, “including some on the basis of their ethnic and tribal affiliations”, he said.

“Once again, I urge... the SAF and the RSF to respect international humanitarian and human rights law,” Turk said.

He insisted that both parties “must protect civilians and civilian objects. Attacks targeting civilians, including specifically protected persons like medical personnel, as well as civilian objects, including hospitals, are prohibited”.

“They must also protect humanitarian workers and human rights defenders, whose work is especially important in critical circumstances such as these, and ensure civilians have necessary access to much-needed humanitarian assistance,” he said.

DUBAI — The United States on Monday said it was setting up an international maritime coalition to counter escalating attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on vital Red Sea shipping lanes.

"These attacks are reckless, dangerous, and they violate international law," US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference during a visit to Israel.

"We're taking action to build an international coalition to address this threat," Austin said. "This is not just a US issue. This is an international problem, and it deserves an international response."

 He said a virtual meeting on Tuesday would bring together ministers from Middle Eastern countries to address the issue, and warned Iran to stop supporting the Houthi attacks.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said earlier they had attacked two "Israeli-linked" vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza, as more companies halt transit through the troubled but vital waterway.

The attacks on the Norwegian-owned Swan Atlantic and another ship identified by the Houthis as the MSC Clara are the latest in a flurry of maritime incidents that are disrupting global trade in an attempt to pressure Israel over its war against Hamas fighters.

In a statement, the Yemeni rebels said they had carried out a "military operation against two ships linked to the Zionist entity" using naval drones.

They vowed to “continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports... from navigating in the Arab and Red Seas” until more food and medicine is allowed into Gaza.

But the Swan Atlantic’s owner, Norway’s Inventor Chemical Tankers, said in a statement the ship was carrying biofuel feedstock from France to Reunion Island.

It said the vessel has “no Israeli link” and was managed by a Singaporean firm, adding that the Indian crew were unharmed and the vessel sustained limited damage.

Shipping crisis

British oil giant BP became the latest to suspend transit through the Red Sea on Monday, while Taiwan shipping firm Evergreen said it was suspending its Israeli cargo shipments with immediate effect.

Frontline, one of the world’s largest tanker companies, also said it was rerouting ships and would “only allow new business” that could be routed via South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

That route is far longer and uses more fuel.

The Red Sea attacks have forced insurance companies to significantly increase premiums on ships, making it uneconomical for some to transit through the Suez Canal.

Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, France’s CMA CGM, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, Belgium’s Euronav and Denmark’s A.P Moller-Maersk, the latter accounting for 15 per cent of global container freight, have all stopped using the Red Sea until further notice.

The attacks have become “a maritime security crisis” with “commercial and economic implications in the region and beyond”, Torbjorn Soltvedt of analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft told AFP.

US efforts

Monday’s attack took place as the Pentagon chief visited Israel after a stop in Bahrain, home base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“In the Red Sea, we’re leading a multinational maritime taskforce to uphold the bedrock principle of freedom of navigation. Iran’s support for Houthi attacks on commercial vessels must stop,” Austin said.

 On Saturday, a US destroyer shot down 14 drones in the Red Sea launched from rebel-controlled areas of Yemen, the US military said.

Britain said one of its destroyers had also brought down a suspected attack drone in the area.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said neutral Oman had launched mediation efforts to safeguard shipping using the waterway.

“Under the sponsorship of our brothers in the Sultanate of Oman, communication and discussion continue with a number of international parties regarding operations in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

BAGHDAD — Iraqis voted on Monday in the first provincial council elections held in a decade, which were expected to strengthen the dominance of Shiite groups.

The vote comes at a time of widespread political apathy and disillusionment in the oil-rich country of 43 million that is still recovering from years of war.

Polls closed as planned at 6:00 pm (15:00 GMT), state media reported, with the election commission saying preliminary results were expected 24 hours later.

Turnout at noon had reached just 17 percent, said election commission official Omar Ahmed, who urged voters to come out and “contribute to the success of the electoral process”.

Until polls closed, AFP journalists observed low attendance at three polling stations in Baghdad and in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where voters arrived one by one.

The vote is seen as a key test for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani — who rose to power just over a year ago, backed by pro-Tehran parties — ahead of a general election due in 2025.

The provincial councils, set up after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, choose regional governors and manage budgets for health, transport and education.

Influential Shiite cleric and political kingmaker Moqtada Sadr, a one-time militia leader who has launched anti-government protests in the past, has boycotted the vote.

‘Economic populism’

Sudani, after casting his ballot in Baghdad, hailed the councils as “a pillar of the executive” which help the government implement policies.

The premier has pledged to boost public services and rebuild infrastructure ravaged by decades of conflict and turmoil.

He urged Iraqis to elect “honest” representatives. Some 17 million people are eligible to vote, with 6,000 candidates vying for just 285 council seats.

But many voters in the young democracy voiced little interest.

“What use are these elections to us?” said a Baghdad taxi driver who gave his name only as Abu Ali, 45.

“The years pass, elections come around again, the candidates change, and our situation stays the same.”

Civil servant Amin Saleh, 63, voiced greater enthusiasm as he cast his ballot in the capital.

“If I don’t come and vote, and nobody else does either, there’ll be chaos,” he told AFP. “We need someone to represent us. How do you achieve that except by voting?”

Lamia Mahmud, a 59-year-old civil servant, voted to “build the country. We want to develop the country, we do not want to stay behind,” she said.

Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at think tank Chatham House, told AFP that in the end, turnout is “the ultimate gauge of satisfaction”.

It shows “whether the Sudani government’s economic populism — the policy of giving out [public sector] jobs — can be successful and can capture the young population”.

Elections were held in 15 provinces, but not in the three which make up an autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

One quarter of candidates are women under a system that also reserves quotas for the Christian, Yazidi and Sabian minorities.

The election is expected to boost the ruling Iran-aligned bloc called the Coordination Framework coalition.

It brings together Shiite Islamist parties with factions of the Hashed Al Shaabi, a network of former paramilitary units that have been integrated into the regular security forces.

Mansour said some alliance heavyweights hope the elections will “prove they have a social base and that they are popular” following disappointing results in 2021 national elections.

Tensions around the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza were not seen as a major factor in the elections, despite recent drone attacks against US-led coalition troops based in Iraq.

Voting was held amid tight security, but Interior Minister Abdel Amir Al Shammari told reporters no breaches had been reported during the day.

Observers kept a close eye on the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk where historic rivalries could resurface between parties representing its Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities.

DUBAI — Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Monday they had attacked two "Israeli-linked" vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza, as more companies halt transit through the troubled but vital waterway.

The attacks on the Norwegian-owned Swan Atlantic and another ship identified by the Houthis as the MSC Clara are the latest in a flurry of maritime incidents that are disrupting global trade in an attempt to force a stop to Israel's campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In a statement, the rebels said they had carried out a "military operation against two ships linked to the Zionist entity" using naval drones after they refused to respond to calls.

They vowed to "continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports... from navigating in the Arab and Red Seas" until more food and medicine is allowed into Gaza.

The Swan Atlantic's owner, Norway's Inventor Chemical Tankers, said in a statement that the ship was carrying biofuel feedstock from France to Reunion Island.

It said the vessel has "no Israeli link" and was managed by a Singaporean firm.

It added there were no injuries among the Indian crew and the vessel sustained only limited damage.

"The crew and the ship are now being assisted by the US Navy and will be brought to safety under protection by naval forces," it said.

The incident came as British oil giant BP became the latest to suspend transit.

Frontline, one of the world’s largest tanker companies, also said on Monday it was rerouting ships away from the Red Sea.

“We only allow new business to be concluded if routing via” South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope an option, it said.

German transport company Hapag-Lloyd, which had said it was halting Red Sea container ship traffic until Monday, announced that it was rerouting ships via the Cape of Good Hope.

“This will be done until the passage through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea will be safe again for vessels and their crews,” it said in a statement.

The Belgian-headquartered Euronav shipping company said it too was avoiding the Red Sea “until further notice”.

The latest announcements followed similar moves by Danish shipping giant A.P Moller-Maersk, which accounts for 15 per cent of the global container freight market.

Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company and France’s CMA CGM have also taken similar measures. 

The Red Sea attacks have forced insurance companies to significantly increase premiums on ships transitting the area, making it uneconomical for some to transit through the Suez Canal.

The rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope, however, makes for a longer voyage distance, adding to fuel costs.

“The frequency of serious attacks over the last week means that what has now become a maritime security crisis threatens much wider commercial and economic implications in the region and beyond,” Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft told AFP.

US efforts 

Monday’s attack took place as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin visited Bahrain, home base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, as part of a Middle East tour that will also take him to Israel and Qatar.

In Manama, he was to discuss “US efforts to convene multilateral coalitions to respond to aggression at sea that threatens shipping and the global economy”, a Pentagon statement said at the weekend.

On Saturday, a US destroyer shot down 14 drones in the Red Sea launched from rebel-controlled areas of Yemen, the US military said.

And the British government said one of its destroyers had also brought down a suspected attack drone in the area.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said that neutral Oman had launched mediation efforts to safeguard shipping using the waterway. 

“Under the sponsorship of our brothers in the Sultanate of Oman, communication and discussion continue with a number of international parties regarding operations in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

CAIRO — Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has won a third term with 89.6 per cent of the vote in the Arab world's most populous nation, the national election authority said on Monday. 

The outcome of the December 10-12 poll secured 69-year-old Sisi his third and, according to the Egyptian constitution, final term in office, starting in April and set to run for six years.

It was the third time in a decade Sisi wins a landslide victory. In both 2014 and 2018, Sisi won over 96 per cent of the vote.

The runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People's Party, received 4.5 per cent of the vote. 

Next came Farid Zahran, leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party.

The election authority said turnout was "unprecedented" at 66.8 per cent of 67 million registered voters. This was up from 41 per cent in 2018 and 47 per cent in 2014.

Sisi, a retired army field marshall, was first voted in as president after the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013.

He is credited with engineering a return to public order after a period of Islamist political violence and chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.

From 2016 onward, he undertook a host of economic reforms that have required severe austerity measures and multiple currency devaluations.