Tag: US

  • China says US has ‘no right’ to interfere in South China Sea

    China says US has ‘no right’ to interfere in South China Sea

    China said Tuesday the United States had “no right” to interfere in the South China Sea, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington stood by its commitments to defend the Philippines against armed attack in the disputed waterway.

    “The United States is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in maritime issues that are between China and the Philippines,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press conference in Beijing.

    Blinken is in the Philippine capital Manila — his second visit since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 — as part of a brief Asia tour to reinforce US support for regional allies against China.

    “Military cooperation between the US and the Philippines must not harm China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and still less be used to provide a platform for the Philippines’ illegal claims,” Lin said in a response to a question on Blinken’s earlier comments.

    “China will continue to take necessary measures to resolutely defend its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea,” he added.

    Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea — a crucial route for global trade — brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that has declared its stance baseless.

  • TikTok and its ‘secret sauce’ caught in US-China tussle

    TikTok and its ‘secret sauce’ caught in US-China tussle

    Seoul (AFP) – As a US campaign to sever TikTok from its Chinese parent heads to the Senate, analysts say Beijing’s response to a forced sale of the app – and its ‘secret sauce’ algorithm – will be clear: Hands off.

    Under new legislation that passed the House of Representatives last week, TikTok could be banned in the United States if it does not cut all ties with Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

    But in the battle over TikTok’s future in the United States, what strikes many as a contradiction has emerged: while the company tries to convince Congress of its independence from Beijing, China has come out swinging in its defence.

    Beijing does not want a precedent to be set where a Chinese company is strong-armed into selling one of its most valuable assets, including an algorithm that is the envy of competitors, analysts say.

    “This kind of threat is like daylight robbery,” Mei Xinyu, a Beijing-based economist, told AFP. “All things considered, the Chinese government’s actions so far have been very mild.”

    “What the US government is proposing is way over the line.”

    US lawmakers and security agencies say TikTok presents a threat because China can access and use the vast troves of data the app collects for influence and espionage.

    TikTok has denied the allegations, saying it has spent around $1.5 billion on “Project Texas”, under which US user data would be stored in the United States.

    However, many lawmakers and bodies including the FBI remain unconvinced.

    Some critics have said the data itself is only part of the issue, and that the algorithm that produces personalised recommendations for TikTok users must also be disconnected from ByteDance.

    ‘The secret sauce’

    That ByteDance algorithm has helped drive TikTok’s stratospheric success since the app was launched for the international market in 2017.

    It crunches huge amounts of user data, such as their interactions on the app and their location, to provide more content tailored for them.

    Its precise details are a closely guarded secret, but it helped propel TikTok to one billion users in just four years. Facebook, by comparison, took more than eight years to reach that milestone.

    Other social media platforms also deploy tailored recommendations based on algorithms that analyse user data, but analysts say TikTok’s has been so successful that it is considered by some to be the company’s most precious asset.

    The algorithm is “valuable because TikTok is sticky. People spend more time on TikTok than they do on other social media”, James Andrew Lewis, a technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told AFP.

    “This is the secret sauce that makes TikTok a success.”

    The algorithm has been at the centre of discussions about any potential sale of TikTok since the administration of then US president Donald Trump sought to ban TikTok in 2020.

    That year, the Chinese government designated algorithms that provide recommendations based on user data analysis as a protected technology, meaning their export would require Beijing’s approval.

    While no specific app or firm was cited, the economist Mei said the move was “to a very large extent” because of US pressure against TikTok.

    TikTok has said that under Project Texas, its recommendation algorithm for US users is stored along with their data on Oracle servers in the United States.

    However, The Wall Street Journal reported in January that ByteDance employees in China updated the TikTok algorithm so frequently that Project Texas workers could not track all changes.

    TikTok did not respond to AFP’s questions about the Wall Street Journal report or about where its algorithm is updated.

    CEO Shou Zi Chew has said previously that TikTok will not be “manipulated by any government” and that it has never been asked by the Chinese government for US user data.

    ‘Commercial plunder’

    In Beijing, however, officials have not minced words in their opposition to the TikTok bill, saying China will take all necessary measures to protect its interests.

    “You’ve got the desire to protect the option for a relationship with the intelligence services, and you’ve got a little bit of nationalist pride because it’s so successful,” said Lewis at CSIS.

    “Some of it is just (being) annoyed with the Americans for trying to force them to sell. All of that puts Beijing right behind ByteDance.”

    Beijing wants to avoid a forced sale to protect Chinese firms, Zhang Yi, founder of the Guangzhou-based tech research firm iiMedia, told AFP.

    “Once the precedent is set, there may be countless other Chinese companies that will face a similar fate in the future.”

    Hu Xijin, a former editor of the nationalist Chinese newspaper Global Times, urged ByteDance not to give in to US pressure.

    “The essence of this matter is commercial plunder,” he wrote this month.

    “As long as ByteDance remains firm, willing to shut down TikTok rather than give up ownership, it will create reverse pressure on the passage of the bill.”

  • All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza: NGO

    All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza: NGO

    A US charity said Saturday its team in Gaza Strip had finished unloading the first maritime aid shipment to reach the besieged territory.

    “All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza,” World Central Kitchen said in a statement, noting that the aid was “almost 200 tonnes of food”.

    The group is preparing a second boat of 240 tonnes of food to set sail from Cyprus, the starting point of a new maritime aid route across the eastern Mediterranean.

    The humanitarian effort is intended to mitigate food shortages that have prompted UN famine warnings in Gaza from the United Nations and aid workers.

    “That shipment includes pallets of canned goods and bulk product including beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil and salt,” World Central Kitchen said.

    The second shipment would also include a forklift and a crane to assist with deliveries, it added.

    The humanitarian group said it had “no information to release on when our second boat and the crew ship will be able to embark.”

    The Israeli military on Friday confirmed the first vessel, operated by the Spanish charity Open Arms, had arrived and said soldiers had been deployed to secure the area and conduct a security inspection.

    The military also said the delivery of humanitarian aid by sea did not constitute a breach of its years-long maritime blockade of Gaza, which has been ruled since 2007 by Hamas.

    World Central Kitchen had to build a jetty southwest of Gaza City to deliver the aid.

    Israel has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

    As cumbersome Israeli security checks and logistical hurdles slow overland aid delivery to Gaza, countries have pursued alternatives including airdrops and the new maritime corridor.

    Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, said on social media platform X on Friday that the first shipment was “a test” and that “we could bring thousands of tonnes each week.”

  • Palestinian leader names adviser Mohammed Mustafa as PM

    Palestinian leader names adviser Mohammed Mustafa as PM

    Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister, the official Wafa news agency said on Thursday.

    Mustafa’s appointment comes less than three weeks after his predecessor, Mohammed Shtayyeh, resigned, citing the need for change after the October 7 attacks leading to Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    The 69-year-old now faces the task of forming a new government for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Since 2007, control of the Palestinian territories has been divided between Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    Mustafa, who studied at George Washington University in the United States, is an independent executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation — dominated by the ruling Fatah movement.

    He has served as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, held a board seat at the Palestine Investment Fund and worked in a number of senior positions at the World Bank.

    He has also advised the Kuwaiti government and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund.

    Mustafa was also involved in reconstruction efforts in Gaza after Israel’s 2014 invasion.

    ‘Right-hand man’

    Mustafa’s appointment represents an attempt to bolster Palestinian institutions and “close some loopholes in the Palestinian Authority” at a time when Abbas is “under siege and under pressure” from Israel and the United States, Palestinian analyst Abdul Majeed Sweilem told AFP.

    Mustafa would likely be seen as “acceptable to the Americans as he follows a liberal approach,” Sweilem added.

    The White House on Thursday welcomed Mustafa’s appointment, calling on him to deliver “credible and far-reaching reforms” as he prepares his cabinet.

    “A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

    Yet Khalil Shaheen, political analyst and writer, said Mustafa’s closeness to Abbas limits prospects for major change.

    “In the end, the man (Mustafa) remains the right-hand man of President Abbas… Abbas wants to say that he supports reforms, but they remain under his control,” Shaheen said.

    The Israeli military offensive after October 7 in Gaza has killed at least 31,341 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    During the war, violence in the West Bank has flared to levels unseen in nearly two decades.

    Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 430 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

    The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the end of the war.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected postwar plans for Palestinian sovereignty.

    Shortly after Shtayyeh’s resignation in late February, Palestinian factions including Hamas and Fatah participated in talks hosted by Russia that addressed the war in Gaza and post-war plans.

    Afterwards the factions said in a statement they would pursue “unity of action” in confronting Israel.

  • China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    Beijing (AFP) – Beijing warned on Wednesday that a proposed ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.

    The US House of Representatives is set to vote later Wednesday on a bill that would force the app to cut ties with its Chinese owner or get banned in the United States.

    The legislation is the biggest threat yet to the video-sharing app, which has surged to huge popularity across the world while raising fears among governments and security officials over its Chinese ownership and potential subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing.

    Ahead of the vote, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the proposed ban.

    “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” he said.

    “This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he added.

    “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang said.

    The vote is likely to occur at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) and is expected to pass overwhelmingly in a rare moment of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington.

    The fate of the bill is uncertain in the Senate, where key figures are against making such a drastic move against an hugely popular app that has 170 million US users.

    President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” into law if it comes to his desk, the White House has said.

    TikTok staunchly denies any ties to the Chinese government and has restructured the company so the data of US users stays in the country, the company says.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, trying to shore up support to stop the bill.

    “This latest legislation being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious Constitutional concerns,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president for public policy, in a letter to the bill’s co-sponsors seen by AFP.

  • Trump backs Israel’s military operations in Gaza

    Trump backs Israel’s military operations in Gaza

    Washington (AFP) – Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza Tuesday, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting, as international pressure grows on the United States to rein in its ally.

    “Yes,” Trump responded, when asked during an interview on Fox News if he was “in Israel’s camp.”

    The interviewer then asked if the former president was “on board” with the way Israel was executing its offensive in Gaza.

    “You’ve got to finish the problem,” Trump responded.

    President Joe Biden, whom Trump is set to challenge for the White House in November, has come under increasing fire both internationally and from his own Democratic base over his backing for Israel as the death toll in Gaza soars and the specter of famine looms.

    Israel’s disproportionate retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

    US protest movements have urged voters to punish Biden at the polls over his support for Israel. More than 100,000 people in Michigan voted “uncommitted” rather than cast their ballot for him in the US swing state’s Democratic primary last week.

    As conditions deteriorate, Israel is facing an increasingly sharp rebuke from its top ally the United States.

    Vice President Kamala Harris expressed “deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza” during talks in Washington on Monday with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz.

  • Israel broadly agrees Gaza truce, US official says, ahead of talks

    Palestinian Territories – Israel has “more or less accepted” a proposal for a ceasefire in its attacks in the Gaza Strip, a US official said Saturday as Palestinian negotiators were expected in Cairo.

    Mediators have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which begins on March 10 or 11, eyeing an end to the almost five-month conflict that has ravaged Gaza.

    In a sign of the dire humanitarian conditions as violence rages on, the besieged territory’s health ministry reported more than a dozen child malnutrition deaths in recent days.

    The US official told reporters on condition of anonymity that “there’s a framework deal” for a ceasefire which “the Israelis have more or less accepted”.

    “Right now, the ball is in the camp of Hamas,” the official said.

    A source close to Hamas told AFP a delegation from the group was headed from Qatar to Egypt on Saturday.

    Israel has yet to confirm that it has accepted the truce plan.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Hamas would deliver its “official answer” to the plan, which resulted from talks with Israeli negotiators in Paris late last month.

    The mediators “will resume negotiations for a Gaza truce in Cairo on Sunday,” Egypt’s AlQahera News reported.

    Earlier the United States, which provides ally Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, said it began airdropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

    The start of the US relief operation came a day after President Joe Biden announced the move and spoke of the “need to do more” to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.

    But parachuting aid cannot replace “the fundamental need to move assistance through as many land crossings as possible”, the US official said.

    ‘Unjustifiable’ shooting

    Gaza has faced dwindling deliveries of relief supplies across its land borders, which aid groups blame at least in part on Israeli restrictions.

    US Central Command, in a post on social media platform X, said the air operation was conducted jointly with Jordan and saw planes drop “over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid”.

    Several Arab and European governments have carried out air drops over Gaza since November but Tuesday’s operation was the first involving the United States.

    At least 13 children have died from “malnutrition and dehydration”, the Gaza health ministry said Saturday, two days after a desperate rush for aid from a convoy of trucks in Gaza City ended in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians.

    The health ministry said Israeli forces shot civilians but the Israeli army insisted most died in a stampede or crush.

    A United Nations team that visited Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital reported seeing “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Palestinians in the aftermath of the aid truck storming.

    Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the city’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, said all the casualties it admitted were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from occupation forces”.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell joined calls for an “impartial international investigation” into the “tragic event” early Thursday.

    The shooting “against civilians trying to access foodstuff is unjustifiable”, he said.

    The health ministry said 116 people were killed and more than 750 wounded in the chaotic scenes, which drew widespread international condemnation.

    The aid convoy deaths helped push the number of Palestinian war dead in Gaza to 30,320, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    ‘Destruction is everywhere’

    Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, said on Friday that “a famine is almost inevitable”.

    Laerke cited the near-total closure of commercial food imports, the “trickle of trucks” coming in with food aid, and the “massive access constraints” to moving around inside Gaza.

    The International Rescue Committee said the very fact airdrops were “being considered is testament to the serious access challenges”.

    The group said parachuting aid mostly distracts “time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale”.

    AFPTV images showed people running and pedalling fast on bicycles past bomb-damaged buildings on a rutted dirt road to reach aid floating down to Gaza City.

    Hisham Abu Eid, 28, of Gaza City’s Zeitun area, said he got two bags of flour from an aid distribution and gave one to his neighbours.

    “Aid that is getting into Gaza is rare and not enough for even a small number of people. Famine is killing people,” Abu Eid said.

    As mediators seek a deal that may include more aid into Gaza and the release of hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under increasing domestic pressure over the fate of the remaining captives.

    Israelis protesters reached Jerusalem on Saturday, capping a four-day march from the Gaza border to pressure the government to secure the hostages’ release.

    The US official said a six-week ceasefire was on the table, “starting today if Hamas agrees to release the defined category of vulnerable hostages… the sick, the wounded, elderly and women”.

    In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the war have sought refuge, Israeli bombardment that hit a makeshift camp killed at least 11 people, the Gaza health ministry said.

    The strike near a hospital also left “about 50 injured, including children”, it added.

    The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

    An AFP journalist saw wounded people being rushed on stretchers to another Rafah hospital.

    “Destruction is everywhere and there are many martyrs,” said resident Belal Abu Jekhleh.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    The United States on Monday praised reforms by the Palestinian Authority as a step toward reuniting the West Bank with war-ravaged Gaza after the prime minister stepped down.

    “We do welcome steps for the PA to reform and revitalize itself,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, using the Palestinian Authority’s initials.

    Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had encouraged the Palestinian Authority “to take those steps” during talks with president Mahmud Abbas.

    “We think those steps are positive. We think they’re an important step to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority,” Miller said.

    He declined to comment directly on the resignation of prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, saying it was an internal matter for Palestinians.

    Shtayyeh submitted his resignation to 88-year-old Abbas, pointing to the need for change due to the “new reality” in the Gaza Strip, ruled by rivals Hamas.

    Israel launched a relentless military campaign into Gaza after Hamas on October 7 carried out the deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil.

    The Palestinian leadership has been divided since 2007, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited power in the West Bank.

    Blinken has called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to exert control over the Gaza Strip after the war, an idea that has not been met with enthusiasm from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, which has voiced opposition to creating a Palestinian state.

  • Yemen Announces First Civilian Death In US-UK Strikes

    Yemen Announces First Civilian Death In US-UK Strikes

    Yemen’s Houthis have reported the first civilian death in US and British air strikes after the latest round of joint raids over the weekend.

    One person was killed and eight wounded, the Houthi’ official news agency said late on Sunday, a day after US and British forces said they fired on 18 targets across the country.

    The US-British strikes were in response to dozens of Houthi drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping since November, which the group says are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

    “The American-British aggression on the district of Maqbana in the governorate of Taiz has left one civilian dead and eight wounded,” the Houthi’ Saba agency said, citing a statement from the health ministry.

    The Houthi have previously reported the death of 17 of their fighters in the Western strikes targeting military facilities.

    The Houthi attacks have had a significant effect on traffic through the busy Red Sea route, forcing some companies into a two-week detour around southern Africa. Last week, Egypt said Suez Canal revenues were down by up to 50 percent this year.

    Washington, Israel’s vital ally, gathered an international coalition in December to protect Red Sea traffic. It has launched several rounds of strikes as well as four joint raids with Britain, which began last month.

    The Houthi initially said they were targeting Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea and adjoining Gulf of Aden, but then declared that US and British interests were also “legitimate” targets.

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Pressure mounts on Israel for Gaza ceasefire

    Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel faced growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire, as it planned an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

    CIA Director William Burns was due in Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-mediated ceasefire that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Gaza freeing hostages.

    His planned visit comes after Washington and the United Nations warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

    “Wherever we go there’s bombing, martyrs and wounded,” said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.

    On a visit to the White House Monday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II pushed for a full ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.

    “We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe,” said the monarch whose country hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.

    “We cannot stand by and let this continue. We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end.”

    After rejecting Gazas’s terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a predawn raid in Rafah on Monday that freed two hostages and killed around 100 people.

    Netanyahu hailed the overnight operation freeing Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, as “perfect”, while the Palestinian foreign ministry said the deaths of dozens of Gazans amounted to a “massacre”.

    The rare rescue mission under heavy air strikes came hours after Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden, who reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

    But Netanyahu has defied pressure from key ally and military backer Washington, insisting that “complete victory” cannot be achieved until the elimination of the militants’ last battalions in Rafah.

    While meeting with the units that freed the two hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said there would be “more operations” soon and pledged to see “Gaza destroyed”.

    “In my opinion, the day is not far.”

    No safe place

    Rafah has become a last refuge for over half of Gaza’s population, who are pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift encampments where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea, and a scarcity of food and water.

    Netanyahu has said Israel would provide “safe passage” to civilians trying to leave, but foreign governments and aid groups — as well as Gazans — wondered where they could go.

    “As it is, there is no place that is currently safe in Gaza,” said United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

    When asked about an evacuation mission, he said the UN would “not be party to forced displacement of people”.

    The UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk warned that “an extremely high number of civilians” would likely be killed or injured in a full Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the “meager” humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

    “It’s almost famine here, we’re almost out of flour in the north region,” said a man in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia. “We can’t even find food and drinks for the children.”

    ‘Time is running out’

    Israel’s operation to free the two hostages left Rafah with bomb craters and piles of rubble.

    The United States said it was deeply concerned by the reports that around 100 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the early Monday raid.

    The State Department also called for Israel to investigate the “heartbreaking” killing of six-year-old Gazan Hind Rajab.

    Her body was recovered on Saturday along with two relatives and two Red Crescent workers who went to find her after her family’s car came under fire while trying to flee an Israeli advance on Gaza City.

    “I will question before God on Judgment Day those who heard my daughter’s cries for help and did not save her,” Hind’s mother Wissam Hamada told AFP.

    At least 28,340 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

    Militants also seized about 250 foreign and Israeli captives from southern Israel, around 130 of whom Israel says are still held in Gaza including 29 who are presumed dead.

    The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group warned that “time is running out for the remaining hostages”, urging the Israeli government to “exhaust every option on the table to release them”.