Palestine Financial News

The hostage deal that Israel and Hamas reached Tuesday will spare the lives of some 50 Israelis, and that is a great relief to the innocents and their families. The cost is a short-term cease-fire that Hamas will exploit, and three-quarters of the 236 hostages will remain in terrorist hands. Israeli leaders believe the trade is worth it, and it’s not our place to second-guess their judgment.

Israel’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a temporary cease-fire with the Hamas militant group that is expected to bring the first halt in fighting in a devastating six-week conflict and win freedom for dozens of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip.The deal calls for a four-day cease-fire, during which Israel will halt its military offensive in Gaza while Hamas frees “at least” 50 of the roughly 240 hostages it and other militants are holding, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. The first hostages to be released are women and children.“The government of Israel is committed to bringing all of the hostages home.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Changpeng Zhao has stepped down from his role after pleading guilty to breaking US anti-money laundering laws. As part of the deal, Zhao is not allowed to take on a management position in the company for the next three years, as per reports. Thus, in his announcement on social media site X, formerly Twitter, Zhao announced that Richard Teng, Binance's global head of regional markets, will take over as CEO.

support a plan that calls for the release of 50 women and children taken captive by Palestinian Hamas militants in exchange for a five-day ceasefire in hostilities, according to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated unequivocally that when the truce ends, the onslaught on Hamas will restart. Both parties evaluate the possible advantages of a respite in hostilities, and this delicate balance is in jeopardy.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday urged all nations to cease weapon exports to Israel, according to Al Arabiya Post. Saudi Arabia's Crown Price made this request during an extraordinary BRICS Joint Meeting, which was being held virtually to address the Israel-Hamas conflict. South Africa is hosting the BRICS groups of nations to convene the virtual BRICS Extraordinary Joint Meeting. Saudi Arabia further demanded the start of a serious and comprehensive peace process to establish a Palestinian state along the borders of 1967, reported Al Arabiya Post. «The Kingdom's position is constant and firm; there is no way to achieve security and stability in Palestine except through the implementation of international decisions related to the two-state solution,» he stressed. The Saudi Crown Prince restated the country's rejection of Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip and demanded an immediate halt to them. Additionally, he said that the «brutal crimes» unfolding in Gaza demand a collective effort to bring them to an end, Al Arabiya Post reported. At the meeting, the Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia's rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and called for collective efforts to stop the deterioration of the humanitarian conditions in the enclave. Since the beginning of the war, Saudi Arabia has made tireless efforts to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip, he added. The BRICS extraordinary meeting was hosted by the BRICS chair South Africa who accused Israel of war crimes and «genocide» in the Palestinian territory.

That work, begun in the days after the hostages were taken, finally bore fruit with the announcement of a prisoner swap deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt and agreed by Israel, Hamas and the United States. The secretive effort included tense personal diplomatic engagement by U.S. President Joe Biden, who held a number of urgent conversations with emir of Qatar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the weeks leading up to the deal. It also involved hours of painstaking negotiations including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director Bill Burns, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy Jon Finer, and U.S.

Israel government concurred on November 22 to back a deal for Palestinian Hamas militants to release 50 women and children held as hostages in Gaza in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as reported by Reuters. Approximately 20 more hostages will be released by Hamas if the first phase goes according to plan, according to a report by CBS News. Hamas was to prioritise releasing captive children, of whom around 40 are believed to be in Gaza.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, as he is fondly known by crypto enthusiasts, has stepped down from his role after pleading guilty to breaking US anti-money laundering laws, as per a Reuters report. Also Read: What is Binance’s connection with terrorist groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad? Explained Zhao agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement deal in a Seattle court on November 21, including a personal payout of $50 million, to resolve the matter, the news agency said quoting prosecutors in the case. They added this is among the largest corporate penalties in the United States' history.

India and Australia have affirmed their commitment to strengthening both economic and security ties, stressing on a joint dedication to a “free, open, inclusive, and rules-based” Indo-Pacific region. At the end of the India-Australia Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted preparations for a forthcoming meeting of the Quad grouping, consisting of Australia, India, Japan, and the US. Both sides during discussions underscored the importance of advancing the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) negotiations. The ministers also explored pathways for increased mobility among students and professionals, reflecting a shared commitment to fostering trusted and resilient supply chains in the Indo-Pacific.

Write to Chun Han Wong at [email protected] Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world

₹6,470 per bbl, having swung between ₹6,420 and ₹6,500 per bbl during the session so far, against a previous close of ₹6,543 per barrel. Also Read: Crude below $80/barrel to support OMCs in near-term; ONGC, Oil India key beneficiaries of high prices -Between now and the weekend meeting, traders will get fresh insights into US fundamentals with the release of official figures on crude and product stockpiles. Nationwide crude inventories have expanded for the past four weeks to the highest since August.

What is the Hamas-Israel deal about? Here's are key conditions that the truce might include: 1. Freeing hostages: Negotiations to free hostages seized in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel are at their “closest point" to a deal and have reached the “final stage," mediator Qatar was quoted by AFP as saying. Between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel, sources were quoted by the report as saying.

Hamas said on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel. Hamas officials were «close to reaching a truce agreement» with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide. A source briefed on the negotiations told Reuters the agreement was in its «final stages» and «closer than it has ever been». The deal envisages the release of around 50 civilian hostages by Hamas and of female and minor-aged Palestinian detainees from Israeli custody, as well as a multi-day pause in fighting, according to the source. A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives. Both sides would free women and children and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq. Israel has generally avoided giving commentary on the status of the Qatar-led talks, but Israel's Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations both quoted unidentified officials as saying terms of a deal could be reached «within hours», giving no details. Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct.

US President Joe Biden Monday said he believes that a deal to free some of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire is close, reported Reuters. "I believe so," the US President said when he was asked whether a deal was near during a Thanksgiving ceremony at the White House.

BRICS leaders on Tuesday to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict. The heads of state of six countries invited to join the group earlier this year — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates — will attend the talks, the presidency said in a statement on Monday. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will also participate in the virtual meeting, it said.

By Steven Scheer

Bloomberg report. In the wake of Hamas’s long-planned and brutal October 7 assault on Israel, the Israeli security establishment is looking back on his words in a new light: as part of an effort to create the illusion that Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the US and European Union, was limiting its embrace of violence to focus on governance. Israeli officials now acknowledge that a sense of complacency had set in around Hamas.

Al Shifa hospital in Gaza. The Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza has been a focal point in worldly debate since the Israeli army and Netanyahu paid no heed to international agencies and their warnings and took a ballistic stance intensifying their ground offensive into the largest hospital in Gaza.

Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its seventh week. But the coffee-break chatter that followed was scathing. More than once Mr McGurk said that Gaza would receive a “massive surge of humanitarian relief" only once Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, released the roughly 240 Israeli and foreign hostages it abducted on October 7th.

Iran denied Israeli claims that it was involved in the seizure of a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea by Yemen's Houthis, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday at a press conference. On Sunday, Israel said the incident was an «Iranian act of terrorism» with consequences for international maritime security. The Houthis, an ally of Tehran, have been launching long-range missile and drone salvoes at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas militants fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli troops found an operational command centre and assets belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza’s biggest hospital, Israel’s military said on Wednesday, during a campaign that has stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians inside.Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City has become the main target of the incursion into the territory by Israeli forces, who say the “beating heart” of the Hamas fighters’ operations is headquartered in tunnels beneath it, something Hamas denies.Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the troops, who entered the hospital earlier on Wednesday after encircling it for days, had found weapons, combat gear and technological equipment there and were continuing their search.The military also released a video they said showed some of the materials recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital compound, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.Israel has consistently maintained that the hospital sits above a Hamas headquarters, an assertion the United States said on Tuesday was supported by its own intelligence.Hailing the entry of his forces into the hospital, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach. There are no hideouts.