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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
❗️Four more Israeli captives will be released later, and over 600 Palestinians are expected to be released on Saturday as part of the latest exchange.
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❗️Israeli Army Radio reports that the Red Cross confirmed it delivered a body to Israel but cannot identify it.
It is expected to be body of Sheri Bibas.
The longest held Palestinian prisoner, Nael Barghouthi, from the village of Kobar, near Ramallah, is set to be released and deported to Egypt tomorrow as part of the resistance's victorious prisoner exchange.
Nael was born in 1957 and is known among prisoners as “Abu Al-Noor.”
He was first arrested in 1977 and then rearrested in 1978 along with his brother Omar and their cousin Fakhri Barghouthi, accused of killing an “israeli” officer north of Ramallah, burning an oil factory, and bombing a café in Al-Quds. They were all sentenced to life imprisonment plus 18 years.
He is considered the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner and the world’s longest-held prisoner according to the Guinness World Records in 2009. As of November 2024, he entered his 45th year in “israeli” prisons, 34 of which were served consecutively, marking the longest period of imprisonment in the history of the Palestinian national prisoner movement.
Fellow prisoners recognize him for his vast knowledge, love of reading, and passion for history, making him a reference in Palestinian resistance history. While in prison, he learned Hebrew and English. After his release on October 18, 2011, as part of the “Wafa Al-Ahrar” prisoner exchange deal, he began studying history at Al-Quds Open University. However, the occupation rearrested him in 2014, sentencing him to 30 months in prison. After completing his sentence, the occupation refused to release him and reinstated his previous sentence—life imprisonment plus 18 years—on the pretext of a “secret file.”
During his years of imprisonment, he said: “I have seen the prison gate replaced twice during my captivity. The reason was that the iron had worn out, but our spirits never did.”
A mini Arab summit was held in Riyadh today to discuss the future of Gaza, attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Sisi, UAE President Mohammad bin Zayed, and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad.
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Covert Crusade: Washington's $600m digital war on Iran
For over a decade, the US State Department’s NERD fund has covertly funneled hundreds of millions into regime-change efforts in Iran, disguising digital warfare and opposition funding as ‘democracy promotion’ – but a sudden funding freeze has thrown these operations into chaos.
By Kit Klarenberg
❗️US President Donald Trump:
○ "We pay Jordan and Egypt billions of dollars a year. And I was a little surprised they did not accept my plan."
○ "Gaza plan really works, but I'm not forcing it. I'm just going to sit back and recommend it, and then the US would own the site."
○ "No Hamas, and it'd be developed, and then you start all over again with a clean place."
○ "If you gave the people of Gaza a choice between that and living in a nice community, I think I know where they'd go."
Two Israelis detained in connection to Tel Aviv bus blasts
Social media users suggested the explosions were a false flag to justify expanding Israel's military campaign in the occupied West Bank
❗️Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking from Tulkarem Camp:
○ Over the past year we have significantly increased our activity and we are entering terrorist strongholds.
○ I have issued orders to reinforce forces in the West Bank.
○ What we saw yesterday was an attempt to carry out mass serial attacks, which is very dangerous.
❗️Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to be part of the convoy.
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❗️International Red Cross:
○ "Verifying the identity of the bodies of prisoners is the responsibility of our organization."
○ "Our role is to intensify the humanitarian response in Gaza as a priority."
○ "We were not involved in any transfer of Palestinian bodies from Israel to Gaza."
○ "We are prepared to play a role in transferring the bodies with the consent of both parties for a dignified burial."
❗️A large number of Israeli occupation soldiers and press crews arrived to Tulkarem Camp, occupied West Bank.
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❗️Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X:
"Who kidnaps a little boy and a baby and murders them?
Monsters. That's who."
Hamas says that the family was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
❗️Al-Baydar organization:
"[Israeli] settlers stole artifacts from the Abu al-Awf shrine in the Sinjil area north of Ramallah, and the raid and looting continued for more than 16 consecutive hours."
⭕️ During a visit to the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Israeli War Minister Israel Katz threatened to go after Palestinian detainees who were released as part of the Gaza ceasefire exchange deal. “The terrorists who were released to Judea and Samaria, we have our eyes on you. We will hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in terrorism,” he stated.
“We are at war with extreme Islamic terror, and we will prevail—here, in Gaza, and everywhere,” Katz added.
Hamas rejects Netanyahu’s threats over body of Sheri Bibas
The resistance movement said it was ‘surprised’ and will investigate the accusation that the remains handed over were not those of Sheri Bibas
WATCH | Scenes from the handover of Israeli soldier captives Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham to the Red Cross by the Palestinian resistance in Rafah, as part of the seventh batch of the exchange deal with Israel. They have since been received by the Israeli army.
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❗️Israeli occupation forces storm Birzeit, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and raid the homes of a number of Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released tomorrow as part of the exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.
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❗️Statement issued by Hamas:
"The claims made by the spokesperson of the Zionist occupation army, accusing the resistance of killing the Bibas family, are nothing but outright lies—part of a long series of fabrications spread over the past fifteen months amid the ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people. This is a desperate attempt to evade responsibility for the murder of the family, which was caused by the scale of the occupation’s mass extermination, brutal bombardment, and widespread destruction of buildings and neighborhoods. Furthermore, Netanyahu’s obstruction of a ceasefire agreement contributed to their deaths, alongside other crimes committed against [Israeli] captives in Gaza.
The occupation army, its media spokespersons, and its extremist fascist government have engaged in the most deceitful propaganda, repeatedly attempting to divert global public opinion away from their horrific crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and massacres against defenseless civilians and all aspects of life in Gaza. However, the world continues to uncover the falsity of their narratives and the extent of their crimes against humanity."
Western-backed Syrian govt imposes strict fasting rules on non-Muslims for Ramadan
Syria's new government has publicly claimed it will respect minorties, despite pushing for fundamentalist rule over non-Muslims and carrying out sectarian killings against Alawites
Lebanese PM tells US delegation ‘no justification’ for Israeli occupation
The US delegation stressed support for the Lebanese army, which was recently attacked by Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon
❗️Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking from Tulkarem Camp:
"In the past year, we have greatly increased our activity: We entered the terrorist strongholds, leveled entire streets used by terrorists, destroyed their homes, and we eliminated terrorists and their commanders.
We are doing very, very important work against the desire of Hamas and other terrorist elements to harm us. This desire has not yet been stopped.
What we saw yesterday—the attempt to carry out mass chain attacks—is an extremely serious thing.
We have increased the forces in Judea and Samaria, according to my instructions and the instructions of the Minister of Defense, and I have also ordered additional operational activity against terrorist centers."
⭕️ On this day in 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York.
In 1964, Malcolm X was profoundly affected by his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza. Seeing the displacement and hardship resulting from the 1948 Nakba evoked deep empathy in him. He said, "Our problem in America is a problem that is worldwide," highlighting the connection between the Palestinian struggle and the fight for equality among African Americans. To him, both were struggles against oppression.
UN warns Syrian economy needs over five decades to recover to ‘pre-war level’
Fourteen years of war and western sanctions on Syria have brought the country’s GDP down to less than half of what it was before 2011
UPDATE | Palestinian Ministry of Health:
“The child, Riyas Omar Amouri (13 years old), was martyred by the occupation forces’ bullets in Jenin Camp.”
❗️A child was injured by Israeli bullets in Jenin Camp, occupied West Bank.
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Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian-owned vehicle and spray-painted racist slogans during a raid on the city of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied West Bank.
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Under the protection of Israeli forces, settler mobs storm the Awarta checkpoint, located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
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❗️Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, speaking to a US Congressional delegation, called for pressure on Israel to fully withdraw from the positions it still occupies in southern Lebanon. He emphasized that Israel's continued presence violates the ceasefire arrangements, Resolution 1701, international law, and Lebanon's sovereignty.
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Shelters set up for families in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, after Israeli forces destroyed their homes.
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❗️Palestinian Prisoners’ media:
"After the Palestinian resistance handed over the names of the Israeli [captives] for tomorrow, Saturday, and within the framework of the first phase of the exchange deal, the following [Palestinians] will be released (602 prisoners in total):
○ 50 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.
○ 60 prisoners with long sentences.
○ 47 prisoners liberated in the Wafaa al-Ahrar exchange deal [in 2011] who were re-arrested.
○ 445 prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after 7 October."