What’s next now that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a deal?
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(DOHA) — Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement to end over 15 months of fighting — with a brief pause in November 2023 — and release some of the hostages still in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
However, despite an agreement between negotiators on both sides, the deal still needs to go through a four-step ratification process in the Israeli government before it can go into effect.
Step 1
The agreement has to be officially voted on favorably by the security cabinet, then approved by the full cabinet. The vote is expected to be 28-6 in favor of the deal, with some hard-liners holding out.
Once that vote happens, the agreement would be ratified.
Step 2
Once ratified, the names of the 33 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza are expected to be announced.
Step 3
From the time the cabinet ratifies the agreement, there will be a 48-hour window allowing for appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court against the agreement.
Any appeal is expected to be rejected by the court.
Step 4
Once the 48-hour legal window closes, the implementation of the agreement begins.
The first release of an Israeli hostage can be expected from that time on.
(LONDON) — NATO confirmed on Monday that North Korean troops have been deployed to fight alongside their Russian counterparts in the Kursk region, the area within Russia where Ukraine has been waging an assault.
“The deployment of North Korean troops represents: one, a significant escalation in the DPRK ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, using the acronym of the country’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Two, yet another breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions. And three, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” he added.
He called on Russia and North Korea to “cease these actions immediately.”
North Korea has denied the reports of its forces being active in Russia or Ukraine.
“My delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors,” a North Korean representative to the United Nations said during a General Assembly session last week, as quoted by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly dismissed concerns of growing bilateral ties. “This cooperation is not directed against third countries,” he said last week.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, meanwhile, appeared to blame South Korea for the development, saying last week during a briefing that Seoul “should not have played along with the Kyiv regime.”
South Korea has provided direct humanitarian aid to Kyiv but not weapons. Earlier this month, Seoul said North Korean involvement in Ukraine represents a “grave security threat,” adding it would “respond by mobilizing all available means in cooperation with the international community.”
Rutte’s confirmation on behalf of NATO followed U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s announcement last week that the U.S. had evidence that Pyongyang’s forces were already inside Russia.
“That is a very, very serious issue and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” Austin warned while visiting Rome, Italy.
“What exactly they’re doing” remains to be seen, Austin told journalists. But the defense secretary said there was “certainly” a “strengthened relationship, for lack of a better term, between Russia and DPRK.”
Austin noted that Pyongyang was already providing “arms and munitions to Russia and this is a next step.”
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told journalists last week that U.S. intelligence assessed that North Korea moved at least 3,000 soldiers into eastern Russia during the first half of October.
The troops were believed to be undergoing a “basic kind of combat training” at multiple military training sites in the region, he said.
Kirby said it was unclear what Russia would provide to North Korea in return for its troops.
“We know Mr. Putin has been able to purchase North Korean artillery,” Kirby said. “He’s been able to get North Korean ballistic missiles, which he has used against Ukraine. And in return, we have seen, at the very least, some technology sharing with North Korea.”
Both Austin and Kirby suggested the use of Pyongyang’s soldiers on the battlefield would be a sign of the military strain on Moscow.
“You’ve heard me talk about the significant casualties that he has experienced over the last two-and-a-half years,” Austin said. “This is an indication that he may be even in more trouble than most people realize.”
South Korea and Ukraine both raised concerns about North Korean troops heading to Russia before the U.S. and NATO confirmed their presence there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned earlier this month that Kyiv had “clear data” showing that North Korean personnel were joining the war.
“A new threat has emerged — the malign alliance between Russia and North Korea,” Zelenskyy said in a video statement posted to social media. “These are not just workers for production, but also military personnel,” the president said. “We expect a proper and fair response from our partners on this matter.”
“If the world remains silent now, and if we face North Korean soldiers on the front lines as regularly as we are defending against drones, it will benefit no one in this world and will only prolong this war,” Zelenskyy said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers last week that around 3,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to have so far been deployed to Russia so far, with a total of 10,000 expected to be sent by December.
Discussing the briefing, opposition politician Park Sun-won told reporters that NIS assessed that Russian instructors expected casualties among the new arrivals, though consider them in good physical and mental shape. The North Korean troops, the Russians believed, lack understanding of certain elements of modern warfare including drone attacks, Park said.
The NIS also told the briefing it had indications that North Korean authorities were seeking to control and manage the families of those soldiers sent to Russia. Measures included isolating the soldiers’ families and even relocating them, the NIS said.
(LONDON) — Israel’s cabinet has approved the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah after prolonged negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had submitted the proposal to the cabinet for approval Tuesday evening local time. The deal was approved 10-1, with only far-right minister Ben Gvir voting against the plan.
Israel announced the deal, followed shortly after by an announcement at the White House by President Joe Biden. The deal will go into effect at 4 a.m. local time, Biden said.
“Israel appreciates the US contribution to the process, and reserves its right to act against any threat to its security,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said, translated from Hebrew.
Netanyahu said earlier, when submitting the deal for approval, that the deal still relies on the actions of Hezbollah.
“The duration of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. We will continue together until victory.”
The prime minister hailed “great achievements” on all fronts of the war, including killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and destroying their weapons across the country.
“With full understanding with the United States, we maintain complete military freedom of action,” Netanyahu said in the address, translated from Hebrew. “If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself — we will attack. If it tries to renew terrorist infrastructure near the border — we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck with missiles — we will attack.”
Netanyahu attended a meeting with security officials on Sunday night regarding a ceasefire with Israel’s Hezbollah adversaries in Lebanon, an Israeli official told ABC News.
This was part of ongoing talks, including Netanyahu’s meeting last week in Israel with U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein. Hochstein also traveled to Beirut to discuss a potential way forward.
Netanyahu then held a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the deal and hold a cabinet vote, Israeli officials said.
In October, Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an escalation of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
Tensions heightened last weekend as the countries’ leaders worked to negotiate a ceasefire deal. On Sunday, Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel in one of the group’s heaviest retaliations in months.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(PORTLAND, Or.) — A teenager who was seriously injured in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war has arrived in the United States for treatment.
Diaa Al-Haqq, 15, was injured when an alleged Israeli missile attack hit a café in Gaza, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) — the nongovernmental organization that arranged his evacuation — told Portland, Oregon, ABC affiliate KATU. Diaa’s arms were severely injured and he had amputations on both arms below his elbows.
Diaa and his sister, Aya, arrived at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, the local PCRF chapter in Portland said in a post on Instagram. After a brief layover, Diaa arrived in Portland, where he will be receiving medical care, on Sunday, according to the chapter.
Videos shared to social media showed Diaa, sitting in a wheelchair, arrive to a cheering crowd waving Palestinian flags.
“We’re really excited that he’s able to come here for treatment and be safely hosted within the Portland community in the coming months,” Niyyah Ruschaer-Haqq, a nurse practitioner in Portland, told KATU.
The PCRF said it worked with several organizations — including the World Health Organization and the nonprofits Human Concern International and FAJR Scientific — to evacuate eight critically injured children, including Diaa, and their companions from Gaza to Jordan. The children were then taken to the U.S. for medical care.
Diaa is one of two children whose medical care will be supported by the PCRF, while the remaining six children will have their medical care supported by other organizations, the PCRF said.
The organization said Diaa dreamed of becoming a professional photographer and loved documenting nature, according to KATU. It’s unclear how long Diaa will remain in the U.S. receiving care.
The PCRF did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 12,000 children have been injured, equating to almost 70 every day, according to UNICEF. They are “disproportionately wearing the scars of the war in Gaza,” according to the humanitarian aid organization.
Last month, UNICEF said that between Jan. 1 and May 7 of this year, an average of 296 children were being medically evacuated from Gaza each month. However, since the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was closed on May 7 after Israeli forces launched a ground operation, just 22 children have been medically evacuated every month.
“As a result, children in Gaza are dying — not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them — but because, even when ‘miracles happen,’ even when the bombs go off and the homes collapse and the casualties mount, but the children survive, they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives,” UNICEF said in an October press release.
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel, and Israel responded by declaring war, at least 43,800 people have been killed in Gaza and at least 103,700 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. About 1,700 Israelis have been killed and about 8,700 have been injured, according to Israeli officials.
