Hamas | Pakistan

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday rubbished and strongly condemned the contentious remarks made by government spokesperson Danyal Chaudhry regarding the role of Pakistani troops in the Gaza peace force, which also included the disarming of Hamas. Addressing the remarks by the federal parliamentary secretary for information and broadcasting in an interview on Geo News show ‘Naya Pakistan’, the defence minister said: “I will say God forbid on all these three remarks; what kind of statement has he given. Nothing from this is our target or suits us.” In an interview on Tuesday on Ary News show ‘11th Hour’, Chaudhry had said regarding the mandate of the Gaza peace force: “Pakistan and the other countries that will be chosen will make sure there is no extremism or violence … or that there is no cross-border attack. Pakistan will enforce that.” Chaudhry also said that the security of any Pakistani soldier deputed for duty in the force would be the utmost priority. “We will fulfil our duty and protect Muslim br...

Hamas handed over the remains of two Israeli hostages to the Red Cross on Thursday evening under a ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army confirmed.

Hamas and Israel signed an agreement on Thursday to cease fire and free Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of United States President Donald Trump’s initiative to end the conflict in Gaza. Officials on both sides confirmed they had signed the deal following indirect talks in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The deal’s announcement had been greeted with celebrations among Palestinians and Israelis alike. The deal includes the release of captives and prisoners as well as a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of genocide after Tel Aviv started bombing the Palestinian enclave following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire would take effect once the agreement is ratified by his government, which would convene after a security cabinet meeting today. An Israeli government spokeswoman, confirming the deal had been signed, said the ceasefire would go into force within 24 hours of th...

The eight Muslim countries that worked with US President Donald Trump’s administration on a plan to end Israel’s genocide and invasion in Gaza have welcomed the “steps taken by Hamas” in this connection, the Foreign Office said on Sunday. On Friday, Hamas said it would agree to some of the terms in Trump’s plan — which was announced on Monday after a meeting between the US president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and seek further negotiations. While the Trump administration worked with eight Muslim countries last month to bring the Israeli invasion of Gaza to an end, reservations have been expressed from that latter’s side that the plan unveiled by the White House was not the one originally agreed upon. Nevertheless, they see Hamas’s partial agreement to the plan as an opportunity for a ceasefire in Gaza after an onslaught of around two years. “The Foreign Ministers of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the R...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that Palestinian group Hamas’s response to US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan “creates a window for a ceasefire and ensuring peace that we must not allow to close again”. Late Friday night, Trump told Israel to immediately stop bombing Gaza after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, but vexing issues like disarmament appeared unresolved. Subsequently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was preparing for an “immediate implementation” of the first stage of Trump’s Gaza plan for the release of Israeli hostages following Hamas’s response. Meanwhile, the world welcomed Hamas’s positive response, with Pakistan also doing the same. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the premier said: “Alhamdolillah, we are closer to a ceasefire than we have been since this genocide was launched on the Palestinian people. Pakistan has always stood by the Palestinian people and shall always do so.” H...

US President Donald Trump said early Saturday Israel must stop bombing Gaza immediately and that he believes Hamas is ready for peace after an earlier statement by the Palestinian resistance group. Hamas said it would agree to some of the terms in Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, including releasing hostages, but avoided addressing more vexing issues like disarmament and said it would seek further negotiations. Soon after, Trump posted Hamas’ response to his Truth Social account. Trump had earlier not specified whether the terms would be subject to negotiation, as Hamas is seeking. Notably, the resistance group did not say if it would agree to disarm and demilitarise Gaza — something Israel and the US want but Hamas has rejected before. It also did not agree to an Israeli withdrawal in stages, as opposed to the immediate, full withdrawal the group demands. A senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera that the group would not disarm before Israel’s occupation of the besieged enclave ends, comments that underscored...

Hamas accused the United States on Thursday of complicity in Israel’s deadly attack on its negotiators in Qatar, lambasting Israel for seeking to kill off Gaza truce talks as Doha buried the dead. Tuesday’s unprecedented Israeli strikes on a Gulf state sent shockwaves through a region long shielded from conflicts and halted already floundering Gaza talks. “This crime was … an assassination of the entire negotiation process and a deliberate targeting of the role of our mediating brothers in Qatar and Egypt,” Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said in a televised statement. In Doha, tight security surrounded the mosque where prayers were held as the Gulf state’s ruler joined mourners. One coffin bearing a Qatari flag and five others bearing Palestinian flags were brought into the mosque, live footage from Qatar television showed. Facing the coffins, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, prayed alongside dozens of mourners, some wearing traditional white robes, others wearing military uniforms. The interior m...

Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official targeted by Israel in Qatar on Tuesday, has become an increasingly central figure in the leadership of the Palestinian group since both Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar were killed last year. Israeli officials told Reuters the attack was aimed at top Hamas leaders, including Hayya, its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator. Two Hamas sources told Reuters the group’s ceasefire negotiation delegation in Doha survived the attack. At the heart of ceasefire negotiations during the fighting that erupted two years ago, Hayya has been widely seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Sinwar was killed by Israel last October in Gaza. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, Hayya has lost several close relatives, including his eldest son, to Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, and is a veteran member of the group. Regarded as having good ties with Iran, he has ...

Israel launched an airstrike against Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, expanding military actions that have ranged across the Middle East to include the Gulf Arab state where the Palestinian group has long had its political base. Qatar, which has acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks on a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old conflict in Gaza, condemned the attack as “cowardly” and called it a flagrant violation of international law. Two Hamas sources told Reuters that Hamas officials in the ceasefire negotiating team survived the attack, which followed an evacuation order in Gaza City, where Israel is waging an offensive to try to destroy the group and its military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. A senior Hamas source told Al Jazeera that leaders of the group were targeted while discussing United States President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. “The IDF (Israeli military) and ISA (security agency) conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organi...

Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member of the group said on Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of fighting. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks. “The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators’ new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Facebook. A general view shows the destroyed Rashad al-Shawa cultural centre in Gaza City on August 18. — AFP Earlier, a Ham...

Britain on Wednesday rejected criticism that it was rewarding fighter group Hamas by setting out plans to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel took steps to improve the situation in Gaza and bring about peace. The sight of emaciated Gaza children has shocked the world in recent days, and on Tuesday, a hunger monitor warned that a worst-case scenario of famine was unfolding there and immediate action was needed to avoid widespread death. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ultimatum, setting a September deadline for Israel, prompted an immediate rebuke from his counterpart in Jerusalem, who said it rewarded Hamas and punished the victims of their 2023 cross-border attack. US President Donald Trump said he did not think Hamas “should be rewarded” with recognition of Palestinian independence. Asked about that criticism, British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander — designated by the government to respond to questions in a series of media interviews on Wednesday — said it was not the right way to characterise Bri...

UNITED NATIONS: Arab countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt joined calls on Tuesday for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory. Seventeen countries plus the European Union and Arab League threw their weight behind a seven-page text agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. “In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international enga­gement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Pales­tinian State,” said the declaration. It followed a call on Monday by the Palestinian delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the Palestinian Authority to administer the coastal territory. The text also condemned the Hamas raid against Israel of Oct 7, 2023. France, which co-chaired the conference with Saudi Arabia, called t...

Hamas spokesperson said on Friday that while the group favours reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict. Hamas has repeatedly offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and […]