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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
❗️White House: Israel approved temporary ceasefire proposal sent to Hamas
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the temporary ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas earlier today had "the full backing of Israel."
“Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,” she told reporters.
Leavitt added that discussions are ongoing and expressed hope for a ceasefire, though she did not clarify that it is only temporary, which would allow for the return of captives. She declined to provide further details and said she was unsure whether Hamas had accepted the proposal. “If and when a ceasefire is confirmed, you’ll hear it from me, the president, or Special Envoy Witkoff,” she said.
BREAKING | Israeli settler militias set fire to Palestinian farmland near the village of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
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Blasts reported near GHF site as Gaza aid seekers targeted by Israeli army
US mercenaries operating the aid distribution site also opened fire at Palestinians with stun grenades
❗️Palestinian civilians trapped near Gaza aid point are at risk amid Israeli military presence
Palestinians who traveled to a newly established aid distribution site at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza are now stranded due to heavy Israeli military activity in the area, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reporting from Gaza City.
Mahmoud said Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have surrounded the site, with gunfire making it too dangerous for people to leave. Many of those stuck had walked over five kilometers to collect a single food parcel and are now calling on the Red Cross to help secure a safe passage. “They’re exhausted, traumatized, and hungry,” he added.
Eritrea breaks west's Red Sea chokehold, pivots to Iran, Russia, China
Tel Aviv loses another Red Sea partner: Eritrea emerges as a critical node in the rising Eurasian multipolar nexus, defying US-Israeli plans for regional control.
By Aidan J. Simardone
Breaking | Khader Faqih, a paramedic with the Al-Risala Scout Association, was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces while inspecting his home in the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, near the Lebanon-Palestine border.
His killing marks a new violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, signed in November 2024.
❗️Netanyahu backs Witkoff’s Gaza proposal, but only for temporary ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the captives families on Thursday that he accepts US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s temporary ceasefire proposal, Axios reported.
Hamas has confirmed it is studying the offer, reiterating its longstanding position that any agreement must lead to a full and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The Witkoff proposal only introduces another temporary truce.
❗️12-year-old Palestinian boy shot by Israeli forces during West Bank raid
A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded after Israeli forces opened fire during a military incursion into the town of Birzeit, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday evening.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the child suffered gunshot injuries to both legs and was treated by emergency medical teams at the scene.
❗️Palestinian farmers warn of growing threat as Israel moves to expand settlements
Palestinian farmers are raising the alarm over Israel’s latest plan to construct nearly two dozen new settlements across the occupied West Bank, warning that it will further threaten their ability to survive on their own land.
Abbas Milhem, head of the Palestinian Farmers’ Union, says the expansion will further restrict access to farmland and intensify settler violence, which has already included harassment and deadly assaults. “This is just the beginning,” Milhem warned, stressing that farming under occupation is not only a livelihood but an act of resistance. He called on the international community to intervene before conditions become even more dire.
Turkish president urges SDF to ‘quit stalling,’ implement integration deal with Damascus
Negotiations are expected to be held soon between Kurdish authorities and the Syrian government
⭕️ Over 300 public figures urge UK prime minister to end support for Gaza atrocities
More than 300 public figures, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Annie Lennox, and Gary Lineker, have signed an open letter urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take action over the crisis in Gaza. The letter, coordinated by refugee charity Choose Love, accuses the UK government of being complicit in war crimes through its inaction.
“You can’t call it ‘intolerable’ and do nothing,” the letter states, challenging Starmer to choose between “complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act.”
❗️Israeli journalist Amit Segal (Channel 12) reveals new details about the Witkoff proposal — with clarification from an Israeli source:
– Ten living captives will be released — not nine as previously stated.
– On the first day, 5 living captives and 9 deceased captives will be released.
– On the seventh day, another 5 living captives and 9 deceased captives will be released.
– US President Donald Trump will announce the ceasefire and guarantee that all parties honor the agreement.
– Israel will immediately halt all offensive military operations in Gaza.
– In exchange for the release of the ten living captives, Israel will release 125 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,111 prisoners from Gaza who were detained after 7 October, 2023.
– In exchange for the release of the 18 deceased captives, Israel will return 180 bodies of Gaza residents, also in two phases.
– On the tenth day, Hamas will provide a full list and detailed medical reports on the condition of the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza.
– The United States, Egypt, and Qatar will act as guarantors of the temporary ceasefire, and US envoy Steve Witkoff will arrive in the region to finalize the details of the agreement.
UPDATE | According to Gaza's Interior Ministry, Israel bombed a number of police officers at the Saraya Junction in central Gaza City while they were carrying out their duty to confront a group of thieves this afternoon. The attack resulted in the deaths of several police officers and passersby.
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Israel greenlights 22 new illegal West Bank settlements to 'block Palestinian state'
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel is seeking to expand its borders and eliminate the indigenous Palestinian population
BREAKING | At least 9 Palestinians were massacred when Israeli warplanes bombed the Saraya area in Gaza.
According to medical sources to Al Jazeera, Israel has killed at least 64 Palestinians in attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn today.
⭕️ 'We will not be uprooted' | Thousands of Palestinians mobilize in Beersheba (Bir al-Saba') as Israel escalates home demolitions in the Negev (Naqab)
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Thousands of Palestinians rallied in the city of Beersheba (occupied Bir al-Saba') today in one of the largest demonstrations witnessed in the Negev (occupied Naqab) in recent years.
The mass mobilization, dubbed the national “Dignity Demonstration,” was organized in protest of Israel’s intensifying campaign of home demolitions and forced displacement targeting Arab Bedouin communities.
Protesters converged near the so-called “Bedouin Resettlement Authority,” denouncing what they view as state-led efforts to uproot and erase indigenous presence under the guise of 'unlicensed construction.'
The demonstration, which drew an estimated 15,000 people from across the Negev and other Arab towns, was marked by black flags, powerful chants, and signs rejecting demolitions, displacement, and erasure.
Slogans like “Stop the demolitions and displacement” and “We will not be uprooted” highlighted the community’s unwavering demand for recognition, dignity, and the right to remain on their ancestral lands. The protest coincided with a region-wide general strike that shut down schools, municipal offices, and public services in a sweeping act of civil disobedience.
Organized by the High Steering Committee for Arabs and other local bodies, the protest was hailed by political groups like the National Democratic Assembly as a turning point.
The party emphasized that the demonstration shattered fear and reasserted Palestinian political presence in the street. It called for a unified grassroots strategy to resist Israeli colonial policies in the Naqab and beyond, linking the struggle for housing and recognition to the broader fight against displacement, apartheid, and systematic violence across all of Palestine.
(Arab 48)
WATCH | Former UNRWA spokesperson says the US-Israeli "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)" is “a fig leaf for genocide.”
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⭕️ UK minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, said on Thursday that the Israeli government’s approval of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank is a "deliberate obstacle" to Palestinian statehood.
"The UK condemns these actions. Settlements are illegal under international law and do not protect Israel," he added.
❗️Israeli forces killed municipal employee in southern Lebanon, not Hezbollah member, Lebanese official confirms
The mayor of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Zein Ali Ghandour, has rejected Israeli claims that a recent airstrike killed a Hezbollah member, stating instead that the victim was a municipal worker carrying out his duties. The strike, which targeted the outskirts of the village, killed Mahmoud Hasan Atwi while he was operating a water well to supply the town.
In a statement, Ghandour condemned the attack as a direct assault on civilians, public infrastructure, and state institutions. He urged the international community to take action against what he described as ongoing Israeli violations.
WATCH | Qassam Brigades publishes, as part of the "David's Stones" series of operations, footage from a complex ambush that targeted Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the area of Al-Aqsa School in the town of al-Qarara, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
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UK prosecutors collaborate with Israel to persecute anti-genocide activists as 'terrorists': Report
Activists disrupting the production of Elbit drones used by Israel to kill civilians in Gaza are being prosecuted under UK counterterror laws
US envoy meets Syrian president in Damascus, promotes 'dialogue' with Israel
Thomas Barrack said the US must 'give this young government a chance' amid its continued abduction and killing of members of the Alawite religious minority
❗️Israeli forces climbed onto the roof of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque in Tulkarem's Nour Shams refugee camp, located in the northern occupied West Bank, and raised the Israeli flag atop the mosque.
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❗️Multiple explosions have been heard near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) food distribution point
Multiple explosions have been reported near a food distribution point operated by the US-Israeli 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' in the center of the Strip.
This comes after Israeli forces fired shots near one of the foundation’s aid points in the south on Wednesday.
❗️Israel orders al-Awda hospital evacuation
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says the Israeli army has ordered the forced evacuation of al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia.
The ministry called on the international community to protect Gaza’s health system and uphold international humanitarian law.
❗️Yesterday, two Merkava tanks and an Israeli military bulldozer, accompanied by an infantry unit, crossed the border near Bir Shuaib, east of the town of Blida, entering Lebanese territory with the aim of leveling the land.
In response, the Lebanese army dispatched reinforcements to its position near the area of the Israeli breach, as the enemy carried out a bulldozing operation in an olive grove directly across the border.
Following the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the site of the breach at dawn, it was revealed that Israeli bulldozers had destroyed and uprooted the Lebanese road adjacent to the border, along with the paved area surrounding the Bi’r Shuaib site, which is hundreds of years old, penetrating 50 meters into Lebanese territory.
(Al-Manar correspondent in south Lebanon Ali Shoeib)
⭕️ Syria agrees with Qatar’s UCC Holding to advance large-scale power generation projects, with foreign investment estimated at around $7 billion, UCC announced in a statement today.
The deal includes the construction of four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total output of 4,000 megawatts, along with a 1,000 MW solar power facility in southern Syria.
WATCH | US 'aid' mercenaries operating under the GHF fire stun grenades at Palestinians seeking aid, according to a circulating video and local reports from Gaza.
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⭕️ Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are considering allowing more cross-border financial products
An exchange-traded fund tracking bonds issued by the Saudi government started trading in Hong Kong on Thursday, the first fixed-income fund listed in the territory to offer such exposure.
Apart from the fund, more products are "in the pipeline" for approval to trade between Hong Kong and Riyadh, said Julia Leung, CEO of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission.
"We're very comfortable in the cross listing of whatever products," Leung told those attending the Capital Markets Forum organised by Saudi exchange operator Tadawul Group.
(Reuters)
⭕️ Ireland officially approved the drafting of a legislation to cut off trade with Israeli settlements on Tuesday
Although Ireland's trade with the settlements is minimal, Prime Minister Micheal Martin described the initiative as a "symbolic move," building on the country’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state last year, alongside a few other European nations.
According to Foreign Minister Simon Harris, the proposed law will be reviewed by a parliamentary committee in the coming weeks. The finalized version will then undergo full parliamentary review before being put to a vote in both chambers, likely before the end of the year.
(Reuters)