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Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds after escalation in attacks
Both sides claim to hit back if violation occurs
There are contradictory reports of a ceasefire between Gaza based Palestinian resistance groups and Israeli forces. An Arab news network has claimed of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Iranian media has quoted Hamas official saying Palestinian resistance groups have agreed to ceasefire in the blockaded coastal silver as long as Israel abides by a truce.
However, a Hezbollah owned Lebanese network has quoted Israeli Transport and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz saying that there was no proposal regarding a military operation in Gaza and denied reaching a ceasefire with Palestinian resistance in the besieged enclave.
Katz, while speaking in an interview in a Ynet studio on Wednesday, said “Cabinet is currently reviewing no proposal by a certified authority to act in an initiated manner to subdue Hamas in Gaza”.
Katz reacted on Hamas’s announcement of a ceasefire saying, “Israel does not hold ceasefires. Our rules of engagement have changed. I won’t be surprised if Hamas realized that and we may indeed be facing a calm, just as soon as they stop firing. Israel doesn’t have anything to do in Gaza.”
However, Jerusalem Post, a prominent Israeli newspaper reports that “The rocket and mortar fire from Gaza has ceased because of significant strikes that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) carried out overnight in Gaza,” a senior source in the Israeli defense establishment said Wednesday.
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The Israeli Defense official further said, “The IDF launched a significant strike overnight in Gaza and we have acted responsibly, and since the morning the fire has stopped. Israel has delivered a message that if the fire resumes, the attacks on Hamas and the other groups will intensify,” he said.
Earlier Doha based Aljazeera reported that Hamas said on Wednesday that armed groups in the Gaza strip had agreed to deal with Israel following a night of air attacks targeting several Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in the coastal enclave.
Aljazeera and Tehran based Press TV quoted Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas Deputy chief in Gaza saying in a statement, “A number of mediators intervened in the past hours, and an agreement was reached to return to a ceasefire in Gaza”.
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He further said, “After the resistance succeeded in confronting the [Israeli] aggression … there was a lot of mediation in the past hours. An agreement was reached to return to the (2014) ceasefire understandings in the Gaza Strip. The resistance factions will abide by it as long as the Occupation does the same.”
Israel’s Reshet Bet reported that over 180 rockets and mortars were launched towards Israeli civilian areas, and earlier on Wednesday the IDF released an info graphic of 65 airstrikes carried against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the over 24 hours of fire launched from the enclave.
Press TV reports that Israeli tank fire and airstrikes hit Gaza on Tuesday. The Tel Aviv regime said its assault came in response to a barrage of rocket and mortar rounds fired at the occupied territories.
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel’s “fierce aggression” on Gaza “indicates that the occupation does not want peace. However, we want peace and we demand peace.”
The military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed the “responsibility for the striking of military positions and Zionist settlements,” saying their strikes were in response to Israeli attacks targeting their positions in recent days.
They said in a rare joint statement that Israeli “crimes cannot be tolerated,” warning that “all options will be open” to them.
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Late on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawoud Shihab told AFP that after Egyptian mediation a “ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel to return to calm. All factions, including Hamas and Jihad, are committed to understandings for calm.”
Observers believe that Hamas strikes on Israeli targets were serious. Egyptian government is considered to be ally of US and Israel. Mediation from Egyptians indicates Israel’s frustration in recent days.
There were reports that after escalation in the attacks from Syria forces and Hamas in Gaza on occupied territories there have been rise in insurance business. Recently American and Israeli citizens went into bunkers to save themselves in occupied Golan Heights from Syrian missile attacks.
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Suicide bombing near Turkey Parliament building in Ankara, 2 cops injured
Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has slammed the attack in Ankara and stated that terrorism is a crime against humanity.
Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya on Sunday asserted that two terrorists carried out a bomb attack in front of the ministry buildings in Ankara. He added that one of them died in the explosion and the other was “neutralised” by authorities there.
Earlier, Turkish media reported that an explosion was heard near the parliament and ministerial buildings, and broadcasters showed footage of debris scattered on a street near the Interior Ministry. A footage from Reuters showed soldiers, ambulances, fire trucks and an armoured vehicle gathered near the centre of Turkey’s capital, where the police have blocked multiple key roads.
Taking to social media X, formerly Twitter, Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, said that two police officers were slightly injured in the incident at 9:30 a.m. He added that two terrorists came with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of their Ministry of Internal Affairs and carried out a bomb attack.
The interior minister further mentioned that one of the terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralised, which usually means was killed. He noted that their struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised.
Reports said that Ankara’s chief prosecutor initiated an investigation into what it also called a terrorist attack. Authorities did not identify any specific militant group, as yet.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has slammed the attack in Ankara and stated that terrorism is a crime against humanity. The leader of the Republican People’s Party mentioned that no matter from whom and where it came from, they will fight it together as a country and will never give treacherous ambitions a chance.
The concerned authorities in Ankara have cautioned the citizens over suspicious packages and bags that are being detonated in a controlled manner. Ankara Security Directorate asked citizens not to panic.
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Balochistan blast: Pakistan alleges India’s involvement in suicide attack, toll rises to 60
Sarfaraz Bugti told media that civil, military and all other institution will jointly strike against the elements involved in the Mastung suicide bombing.
Pakistan interior minister Sarfaraz Bugti in a shocking claim alleged India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency for the suicide blast in Balochistan. The blast that took place on Friday claimed the lives of nearly 60 people, leaving 60 others injured. The Indian government, on the other hand, is yet to make an official statement on Sarfaraz Bugti’s allegations.
The suicide bomb attack targeted a procession which gathered to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday near the Madina Masjid at a place called Mastung. The blast tore through the mosque in the southern province of Balochistan after the bomber denoted his explosive near a police vehicle where the people gathered for the procession.
Sarfaraz Bugti told media at Quetta that civil, military and all other institution will jointly strike against the elements involved in the Mastung suicide bombing. Without providing much details or evidence, the Pakistan minister claimed that RAW is involved in the suicide attack.
Wasim Baig, the spokesman for Balochistan’s health department, asserted that seven more people had died in hospital since Friday, which had caused the rise in the death toll. He added that more patients remained in critical condition.
In addition, a second attack on Friday at a mosque in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had killed nearly five people. Police on Saturday lodged a report to initiate an investigation, mentioning that they had sent DNA from the suicide bomb attacker to be analysed.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for either attack. A surge in terror attacks in Pakistan’s western provinces has cast a shadow on preparations and public campaigning in the run-up to January’s general elections, but until now the attacks had mostly targeted security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan since the group’s formation in 2007, denied responsibility for Friday’s blasts. On Saturday, a statement from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said that an FIR with murder charges and terrorism offences has been registered against an unidentified attacker.
The caretaker government of Balochistan announced three days of mourning in the wake of the attack.
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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Mahmood Qureshi held guilty in cipher case
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were found guilty on Saturday by Pakistan’s top investigating agency in the cypher case, a case involving the alleged exposure of state secrets.
The charge sheet against Khan, the Tehreek-e-Insaf party chairman, and Qureshi, who are both presently being held in custody on judicial remand, was submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to a special court set up under the Official Secrets Act, according to the Pakistan Observer website.
Imran Khan, 70, was detained last month following the filing of a complaint against him for allegedly breaking the Official Secrets Act by revealing a covert diplomatic cable (cypher) issued by the nation’s embassy in Washington last year in March.
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
The vice chairman of PTI is 75-year-old Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Asad Umar, the former general secretary of the PTI, is not on the FIA’s list of suspects, but former principal secretary Azam Khan has been portrayed as a key witness in the FIA’s case against Imran Khan, according to GeoTV, a well-known news outlet. The challan also contains Azam Khan’s statement recorded under sections 161 and 164.
The speeches by Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Imran Khan from March 27 are also included in the FIA’s attachment.
The Pakistan Observer further noted that the FIA had provided the court with a list of 28 witnesses in addition to the charge sheet. According to the report, the list of witnesses includes names such as current foreign secretary Asad Majid, previous foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood, and additional foreign secretary Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.
Imran Khan had been imprisoned on remand three times earlier on September 26. Along with Qureshi, his judicial remand was initially extended until September 13 and then again until September 26.
The former PM was transferred from Attock prison to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on the same day, one day after the Islamabad High Court instructed authorities to do so.
