Hotel guest returns to room and finds seal taking a nap inside
Facebook / Stichting Dierenwelzijn Zeeland
(LONDON) — A hotel guest in the Netherlands got the surprise of their life when they returned to their hotel room and discovered a seal taking a nap in their room, according to authorities.
The unnamed guest was staying at Pier 7, a hotel in the beach town of Vlissingen approximately 70 miles southwest of Rotterdam, when staff at the hotel received a call from their restaurant downstairs informing that that a guest had reported a seal in their bedroom, according to a statement from the Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation.
“We often get strange messages,” the statement said. “But when we received a message tonight we couldn’t believe it at first.”
The guest at the hotel, which has rooms directly leading onto the beach, is thought to have accidentally left their door open, allowing the seal to barge into their room while they were out, officials said.
“Fortunately, our valued colleagues from Reddingsteam Zeedieren Nederland RTZ (Marine Animals Rescue Team Netherlands RTZ) were quickly there to assist our ambulance workers,” said the Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation.
“The RTZ employees have enough experience and put the seal, who had become quite grumpy due to his disturbed beauty sleep, in a seal basket and he was relocated to a safe, quieter place,” the statement continued.
The grey seal was “completely relaxed” and was able to be moved along without incident, officials said while also taking the time to warn people that they may look adorable, but they can bite and should not be approached or touched.
“A grey seal [can find] you in the craziest places” animal welfare experts said. “They look for a resting place and sometimes lie in the middle of a terrace or on the road.”
“These guests’ holiday became an adventure to never forget,” officials said following the incident. “You only experience this in our beautiful Vlissingen, right?”
(WASHINGTON) — The ceasefire and hostage release deal announced Wednesday between Israel and Hamas marks a major political and personal victory for President Joe Biden in his final days in office.
“It’s a very good afternoon,” Biden said as he approached the podium in the Cross Hall of the White House to talk about the agreement, which comes after a devastating 15-month conflict that has subsumed the Middle East.
Biden was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he laid out the work he and his administration’s done to get to this point.
“The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the UN Security Council,” Biden said.
Biden, whose career in politics spans five decades, said the negotiations he was personally involved in for more than a year were the “toughest” he’d ever experienced.
But President-elect Donald Trump is also seeking credit and was first to release a statement on the deal.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote on his social media platform as news broke earlier Wednesday.
Trump had previously threatened “all hell will break out” if a deal wasn’t struck by the time he was sworn into office. “It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” Trump warned.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, was in the region with Biden’s team to get the deal done, according to a senior administration official.
Witkoff told Israeli news outlet N12 on Wednesday that the Israel-Hamas deal was achieved because of the help of many and demonstrates the success of what he called Trump’s policy of peace through strength.
Biden noted in his remarks that the terms of the ceasefire agreement will largely be carried out under the incoming Trump administration, and that it is his hope they take the “real opportunity for the Middle East.”
“I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we’re all speaking with the same voice, because that’s what American presidents do,” Biden said.
But as he walked away, Biden appeared to brush off the role Trump played when asked by a reporter who should get credit for the deal five days before he would leave office and Trump takes over.
“Is that a joke?” Biden responded.
Biden administration officials walked through the long timeline of negotiations, starting with Biden’s framework last May that prompted a summer of “intensive negotiations.” Those talks, however, came to a halt on Aug. 31 when Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages were found dead in Rafah.
One of the key issues had been how many hostages Hamas had, which the official said they did not want to share for much of the past few months.
Since Jan. 5, the official said, negotiators have been in the region nailing down specifics including the complex details like “redeployment of Israeli forces, what Hamas must do, humanitarian provisions and the sequence of releasing hostages and releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners.”
The official added this phase of talks has been “very intense” and came together over the past 96 or so hours.
President Biden held a series of calls over the last few days with key brokers in the region, the official stressed, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“You know, there was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal, and I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony,” Biden said.
“And for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war,” he continued. “The Palestinian people have gone through hell. Too many innocent people have died. Too many communities have been destroyed. And this deal, the people of Gaza can finally recover and rebuild. They can look to a future without Hamas in power.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
(LONDON)– Rebel forces in Syria are building a transitional government after toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad in a lightning-quick advance across the country.
Meanwhile, the ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group. The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.
Hamas reports Israeli attack on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp
Hamas on Monday said the Israel Defense Forces killed or wounded at least 50 people in an air and ground assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
An IDF airstrike was followed by an incursion into the camp supported by 17 heavy vehicles, among them tanks and bulldozers, Hamas said.
Israeli forces also attacked Nuseirat camp two weeks ago, killing at least 33 people according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The IDF is yet to comment on Monday’s operation.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Tomek Rolski
Netanyahu says Israel will act against Houthis after missile strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his nation would “act forcefully” against the Houthis in Yemen after a weekend missile attack on Tel Aviv injured 16 people, according to Israeli emergency authorities.
“Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran’s evil axis, so we will act against the Houthis — the result will be the same,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted to X.
Since October 2023, the Houthis have been launching attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, as well as long-range drone and missile attacks towards Israel.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted a Houthi missile but that debris destroyed a school building in Tel Aviv.
The Houthis — which have close ties with Iran and are part of the Tehran-led “Axis of Resistance” — are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, infiltration attack into southern Israel.
The U.S. and U.K. — supported by other allies — have launched a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since January. Israel has also launched significant strikes in Yemen in recent months, most recently on Thursday.
At least 7 dead after IDF strikes humanitarian area in Gaza
At least seven people were killed after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip.
The strike hit a collection of tents within what had been designated a humanitarian area, where displaced people were sheltering.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the strike on Sunday, saying in a statement it was “an intelligence-based strike on a Hamas terrorist.”
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
– ABC News’ William Gretsky
21 killed in Gaza, IDF northern offensive continues
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Saturday that 21 people were killed and 61 injured in three separate Israeli attacks over the last 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory.
A total of 45,227 people have been killed since the start of the war, health officials said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces continued intense operations in northern Gaza, particularly around the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
The director of the hospital said there is shooting “around the clock” nearby, adding that on Friday the third floor and the hospital entrance were shelled.
The director said the IDF is blocking the entry of all requested medical supplies. Nine people need urgent evacuation for surgery in Gaza City and the hospital is currently treating over 70 people, he said.
(LONDON) — Ukraine stopped the flow of Russian natural gas through its territory to Europe at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, as a long-held deal expired, Kyiv officials said.
“We stopped the transit of Russian gas, this is a historic event,” Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said in a statement. “Russia is losing markets, it will suffer financial losses.”
The move had been expected, as Galushchenko and other officials signaled they were preparing to stop the transnational pipelines and discussing the move with neighboring nations.
“We have undergone a series of stress tests of our gas system in order to be sure that after the transit is closed, we will be able to function stably, ensuring gas supply to consumers,” Galushchenko said on Ukrainian TV last week, according to his office.
Natural gas exported by Russia through Ukraine has long been used by European countries, including Slovakia, which had pushed for Ukraine and Russia to reach a deal to continue the transit.
Russia’s gas giant Gazprom confirmed the stoppage, telling state-affiliated TASS news agency that Kyiv had refused to extend the transit deal.
“The supply of Russian gas for its transportation through Ukraine stopped at 8:00 a.m. Moscow time,” Gazprom said in a statement, according to TASS.
The deal had provided for about 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to transit through Ukrainian territory each year, according to TASS.
