Region

WASHINGTON — A US envoy voiced hope on Tuesday that Sudan’s warring generals will resume talks after Ramadan and work to prevent a broader regional war, despite the failure of previous negotiations.

Tom Perriello, a former congressman recently named to a new position of US special envoy for Sudan, said after a seven-nation trip that talks co-led with Saudi Arabia could start on or around April 18.

“Anyone who thought that either side had a path to outright victory should at this point be very clear that that’s not the case,” he told reporters after returning to Washington.

“A war of attrition,” he said, “is one that is not just a disaster for civilians, but actually easily becomes a more factionalised and regional war.”

War broke out in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands, forcing millions to flee and pushing the impoverished country to the brink of famine.

Previous rounds of talks in the Saudi port city of Jeddah failed to yield any more than general promises or to halt the conflict in Sudan, which had earlier been transitioning, if uneasily, toward democracy.

Perriello, while upbeat about resuming formal negotiations, added that it was important not to “fetishise the start of talks” and said the United States and other nations were looking at incentives to end the war.

Regional players have played a key role in the war, with Sudan in December expelling diplomats from the United Arab Emirates over accusations the wealthy Gulf country has funneled military support to the RSF.

Perriello said that “they are aware, as others across the region are, that this is a situation that is quickly hurtling out of control and that the RSF is not in a position right now where it’s marching to either military or diplomatic victory”.

The RSF has also allegedly received support from Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, while Egypt and Turkey have backed the army.

The United States has previously voiced alarm over reports that Iran is also working with the army, which could give Tehran’s clerical state, which also backs Yemen’s Houthi rebels, new access to the Red Sea.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — The faithful walked slowly in a procession past the stone facade of Gaza’s only Catholic church on Palm Sunday, gathering to pray for peace as war raged around them.

Holy Family Church’s tranquil courtyard, filled with dozens of children and older people, belied the humanitarian crisis happening beyond its gates in Gaza City.

Inside the church, worshippers in their dress clothes lined the wooden pews decorated with palm fronds for the service marking the start of Easter week.

“Our celebration of Palm Sunday is an opportunity for hope, goodness and peace for us and for the entire world,” said a young man speaking from the pulpit.

“In order to renew our hearts and make them full of love, giving and peace,” he said, dressed in an ankle-length red robe.

Solemn-looking altar boys in the front row listened quietly, while parishioners with drawn faces after months of war filled the other rows.

The church in northern Gaza is a short drive from Al Shifa hospital and its neighbourhood, where heavy combat has raged between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.

A recent UN-backed assessment said Gaza’s northern area would fall into famine by May unless there was urgent action.

Heavy combat has made it particularly difficult to get emergency food aid to the some 300,000 the UN estimates are still in the area.

“This year, we don’t have the heart to celebrate,” Nabila Saleh, a sister at the Holy Family church told AFP.

“It’s true that we decorated, but we don’t feel the joy of other years.”

The health ministry in Hamas-run territory said the total death toll during almost six months of war now stood at 32,226 — most of them women and children.

‘Really heartbreaking’ 

Though Holy Family’s facade, courtyard and worship area inside the church are mostly intact, the site has been deeply affected by the fighting.

Christian families from Gaza have found refuge inside and in December the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem reported two Christian women were killed by Israeli fire at the church.

The Israeli army said it had “no reports of a hit on the church”, stressing it “does not target civilians, no matter their religion”.

Far from Gaza, Palestinian Christians marked Palm Sunday in Jerusalem with the fate of the people trapped by war weighing heavily upon them.

Thousands walked from Bethphage Church into the Old City, recreating Jesus’s arrival during which crowds laid palm fronds at his feet.

“It is very sad,” said worshipper Hanan Nasrallah, 62. “Hopefully God will bring peace to everybody and next year hopefully everybody will celebrate together.”

Palestinian Christians also criticised tightened movement restrictions on those in the occupied West Bank, which they said prevented many from joining on the festivities in Jerusalem.

“Many of my friends from the West Bank, they weren’t able to come,” said 30-year-old Palestinian Hanna Tams, a dancer and choreographer.

“The Israeli authorities are not giving them permission,” he said, calling it “really heartbreaking”.

“I wish people in Gaza all the best and I wish they were safe and I wish they were here with us,” he added.

BEIRUT — An Israeli drone strike on eastern Lebanon has targeted a Palestinian Hamas official who “escaped” the attempted killing, a Lebanese security source said on Monday.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the strike on Sunday near the village of Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley killed a Syrian civilian in his vehicle.

The security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the Hamas official was travelling along the same road.

“A Hamas official was targeted by the Israeli drone attack on Sunday but escaped,” said the source, without naming the official.

Since war erupted between Hamas and Israel following the Gaza militants’ October 7 surprise attack, Israeli forces along the country’s northern border with Lebanon have exchanged near-daily fire with Hizbollah, a Hamas ally.

Israel has also targeted Hizbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including in strikes deep into Lebanese territory.

The strike in the Suwairi area, near Lebanon’s border with Syria, was the first Israeli attack there in nearly six months of fighting.

On January 2, a strike widely blamed on Israel killed Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh Al Aruri in a southern Beirut suburb that is a Hizbollah stronghold.

He is the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed during the war.

According to another security source, pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Sunday wounded four people, including a Hizbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hizbollah fighters but also 57 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence in Lebanon’s south and Israel’s north.

ISTANBUL (AFP) — Turks will vote next Sunday in local elections as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, buoyed by a strong showing in last year's general elections, sets his sights on winning back Istanbul.

The secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) seized back control of the city — Turkey's economic powerhouse — for the first time since before Erdogan ruled it as mayor in the 1990s in watershed 2019 polls.

That vote also saw the opposition win back the capital Ankara and keep power in the crucial Aegean port city of Izmir, shattering Erdogan's image of political invincibility.

Erdogan has entrusted his former environment minister Murat Kurum to run for mayor of Istanbul in the March 31 polls as he looks to avenge the worst political defeat of his two-decade rule when CHP arch rival Ekrem Imamoglu took the town hall.

The powerful president bounced back last year to win a tough presidential election that came in the throes of an economic crisis and a massive earthquake that claimed more than 53,000 lives in Turkey.

Now, Erdogan has set his sights on winning back Istanbul — the city where he grew up and where he launched his political career as mayor in 1994.

Imamoglu edged out an Erdogan ally in a 2019 election that gained international headlines for being controversially annulled.

He won a re-run vote by a massive margin that turned him into an instant hero for the opposition and a formidable foe for Erdogan.

'Glimmer of hope'

The 52-year-old is widely seen as the opposition's best bet at winning back the presidency from Erdogan's AKP party in 2028.

"Imamoglu is an effective political operator and at this point in time represents one of the very few glimmers of hope for constituents who oppose Erdogan and the AKP," Anthony Skinner, director of research at geopolitical advisory firm Marlow Global, told AFP.

But last year’s poor general election showing fractured the opposition and prompted the pro-Kurdish DEM Party — the third largest in parliament — to submit its own candidates in the local polls.

This could cost the opposition.

“The underperformance of the political opposition at the May 2023 elections demonstrated its failure to effectively challenge the political status quo, and, by extension the resilience and resourcefulness of Erdogan,” Skinner said.

In 2019, CHP’s Imamoglu received support from a wide range of political parties that included the right-wing IYI, Kurds and Socialists who oppose Erdogan.

But the lack of unity this time will likely cost Imamoglu several percentage points.

‘Biggest prize’

Erdogan is leading the AKP campaign and his rallies are broadcast daily on television, whereas the opposition candidates are given little airtime.

They use social media instead.

The Erdogan government’s failure to get soaring inflation of 67 per cent under control could hurt his Kurum’s chances.

Erdogan is due to hold a major rally in Istanbul on Sunday, hoping to unite supporters behind Kurum.

Berk Esen, an associate professor at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, portrayed Istanbul as “the biggest prize in Turkish politics” and said winning back the city was extremely important for Erdogan, 70, who said the March local elections would be his last.

“Obviously, this is his city,” Esen said. “But it goes beyond that”.

“Istanbul is a city with enormous municipal resources that provides services to 16 million citizens”, he said.

Polls suggest it will be a close-run affair.

But Erman Bakirci from Konda polling company insisted that “Imamoglu is ahead” in Istanbul and suggested there could be “a gap between the polls and the actual election results”.

Osman Nuri Kabaktepe, AKP’s Istanbul head, told AFP that Istanbul was crucial because it is “our gateway to the world”, comparing it to the importance of New York and Berlin.

In the capital Ankara, CHP Mayor Mansur Yavas appears to be ahead but “a very tight race” could play out, political communications expert Eren Aksoyoglu said, adding that AKP’s nationalist allies are “putting all their weight into the battle”.

Observers say the DEM Party — accused by authorities of links with outlawed Kurdish militants — will sweep large towns in the Kurdish majority southeast including Diyarbakir.

But Aksoyoglu said that some voters may be disillusioned with the political system after 52 mayors in the southeast elected in 2019 on the HDP (now DEM) ticket were replaced by state-appointed administrators.

BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon — An Israeli strike on a car near the Syrian border killed a man Sunday, a security source said, after overnight fire wounded four people in Lebanon's east, a second security official said.

Israel and Hizbollah, a Lebanese militant group allied to Hamas, have been exchanging cross-border fire almost daily since the Gaza war between Hamas and Israel began last October.

But fears have surged of an all-out conflict in recent weeks with Israel launching air strikes deeper into eastern Lebanon, targeting Hizbollah strongholds in the Bekaa Valley area several times.

"Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle in... Suwairi, killing its Syrian driver," a security source told AFP, requesting anonymity because of security concerns.

Earlier on Sunday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency had said a strike on a vehicle in Suwairi, in Lebanon's east, injured the driver, before reporting that he had been killed.

The NNA said he had been delivering food in a car that belonged to a supermarket owner.

Images from the scene showed a burnt-out blue vehicle and a streak of blood on the ground nearby.

Overnight Saturday, Israeli jets struck a Hizbollah centre that had been deserted for some time, the second security source told AFP. Four residents in nearby buildings had been wounded by the strikes, the source added.

The strike at Al Osseira, about 100 kilometres from the Israel-Lebanon border, ended a period of relative calm that had lasted around 10 days.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets “struck a HIzbollah manufacturing site containing weapons in the area of Baalbek”, referring to the main city in the Bekaa Valley.

The NNA had earlier reported three people injured in the Israeli strikes.

Later, HIzbollah said it fired “more than 60 Katyusha-type rockets” at two Israeli military positions in the occupied Golan Heights in response to the Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military also said “approximately 50 launches were identified from Lebanon toward northern Israel”.

“A number of launches were intercepted while the rest fell in open areas,” the military added.

Hizbollah began launching near-daily attacks against Israel on October 8 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, whose attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

Hizbollah said on Saturday it had carried out several more strikes and announced later, without giving details, that one of its fighters had died.

It says it will only end its attacks on Israel if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

At least 325 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hizbollah fighters but including more than 50 civilians, according to an AFP count.

At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the military.

The exchanges of fire, initially confined to areas close to the border, have displaced tens of thousands in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory's far south despite US objections and truce talks.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said "horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza" and urged an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held since October 7.

The health ministry in Gaza Strip said another 84 people had been killed over the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll in the nearly six-month-old war to 32,226.

Hamas said Israel had launched more than 60 airstrikes as well as artillery bombardment on Gaza City, the southern urban centre of Khan Yunis and other areas.

Israel's military said fighter jets had struck about 65 targets "including a terror tunnel used to carry out attacks, military compounds where armed terrorists operated and additional military infrastructure".

In Gaza's far-southern Rafah city, local resident Hassan Zanoun looked sadly at the remains of his building, reduced to a jumble of broken concrete and rubble by an airstrike.

“My children and I were sleeping here,” he told AFP. “I was surprised, we didn’t hear the sound of a rocket and suddenly everything was unleashed over our heads... strikes, screams.

“I got out from under the rubble, and my daughters got out from under the rubble too. What more can I say? Our neighbours are injured, we too are injured, the houses have collapsed over our heads.”

Israel has faced ever greater global scrutiny and opposition to its military campaign as Palestinian civilian deaths have soared and its siege has brought widespread malnutrition and hunger.

Guterres urged an end to the “non-stop nightmare” endured by Gaza’s 2.4 million people in a visit on Saturday to the Egyptian border with the coastal territory.

He said “nothing justifies” either the October 7 attack or the “collective punishment” of Palestinians, and demanded Israel allow vastly more aid into Gaza.

Writing on social media platform X, he said “horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza. Any further onslaught will make everything worse. Worse for Palestinian civilians, for the hostages, for all people of the region.

“It’s more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire & the immediate release of all hostages.”

US-Israel tensions

The bloodiest ever Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel has vowed to destroy the militants, who also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.

Relatives and supporters of the hostages, demanding greater efforts to bring them home, rallied on Saturday outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv in a protest that saw scuffles between demonstrators and police.

Tensions have grown between Israel and its traditional top ally the United States, which has called for greater efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

The main flashpoint is Israel’s plan to push its ground invasion into Rafah city on the Egyptian border, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are living, mostly in overcrowded shelters.

Washington has made clear it would not support an Israeli attack on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians there.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that “a major ground operation there would mean more civilian deaths, it would worsen the humanitarian crisis”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that “we have no way to defeat Hamas without getting into Rafah and eliminating the battalions that are left there”.

Netanyahu added he had told Blinken that “I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone”.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant was to head to Washington on Sunday to discuss the war with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and other senior US defence officials.

US intelligence chief Bill Burns and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea departed Doha late Saturday following talks on a temporary truce in Gaza and a hostage exchange, a source briefed on the talks told AFP.

The latest negotiations “focused on details and a ratio for the exchange of hostages and prisoners”, the source said, adding that technical teams remained in Qatar.

A major sticking point has been Hamas’s position that a temporary truce must lead to a permanent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a demand Israel has rejected.

A Hamas official with knowledge of the talks said on Saturday that “there is a deep divergence in positions in the negotiations” in Doha.

The official said Israel “refuses to agree on a comprehensive ceasefire and refuses the complete withdrawal of its forces from Gaza”.

Deadly fighting meanwhile rocked Gaza, where Hamas reported 21 deaths on Saturday at an aid distribution point on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Hamas said they were killed by Israeli “tank fire and shells”, while the Israeli army denied it had fired on the crowd.

Hospital attacks

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that Israeli forces were besieging two hospitals in southern Gaza, days after the army began targeting Hamas in and around the territory’s biggest medical centre.

Israel has mounted several raids at and near hospitals in Gaza since the war began last October, claiming that fighters are operating in medical complexes — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Military vehicles approached Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis as heavy bombardment and gunfire echoed in the area, the Red Crescent said.

The medical organisation said a volunteer worker at the hospital was killed by Israeli gunfire early Sunday. AFP has asked the military for comment.

The Red Crescent said messages broadcast from drones demanded that everyone in Al Amal leave naked, while forces blocked the gates of the hospital with dirt barriers.

“All of our crews are currently under extreme danger and cannot move at all,” the group added.

Israel’s military said it began an operation in the Al Amal neighbourhood “in order to continue dismantling terrorist infrastructure and eliminating terrorist operatives in the area”.

The military said the operation began with air force strikes on approximately 40 targets, including military compounds, tunnels and other “terror infrastructure”.

Israeli forces started a major operation early Monday that is still going on, saying they were targeting Hamas fighters in and around Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa.

The raid, which Israel vowed will continue until the last fighter is in its hands, has killed some 170 militants, according to the military.

The military previously raided the facility last November, sparking international criticism.

Israel has also previously carried out operations around Al Amal, with the Red Crescent in February saying the military had engaged in a multi-day siege of the facility.

RAFAH, Egypt  — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on a visit to the doorstep of war-ravaged Gaza, on Saturday said the world has seen enough of its horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.

He spoke at the crossing on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge but Israel vows to send in ground troops against Hamas militants, despite the fears of Guterres and other global leaders.

"Palestinians in Gaza — children, women, men — remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare," Guterres said. "I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough."

Despite warnings that a Rafah operation would cause mass civilian casualties and worsen the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nearly six months of war between Hamas and Israel, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will press ahead with the attack.

But his government is under growing international pressure to ease its bombardment and ground offensive, which the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says has killed at least 32,142 people.

The war began on October 7 when an unprecedented attack from Gaza by Hamas militants resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel.

Israel vowed to destroy the militants, who also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.

Large parts of the territory have been reduced to rubble and the World Food Programme on Monday said Gazans are already "starving to death", with famine projected by May in northern Gaza without urgent intervention.

Writing on social media platform X on Friday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said the aid “Israeli authorities are allowing in is still by far not enough”.

Currently, an average of 150 trucks a day enter Gaza, he said, compared with at least 500 before the war.

In the face of limited ground access, several nations have begun aid airdrops, and a sea corridor from Cyprus delivered its first cargo of food.

Israel has blamed shortages on the Palestinian side, namely a lack of capacity to distribute aid once it gets in.

Israel’s most staunch ally the United States, which provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, has repeatedly blocked Gaza ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.

But Washington has also become increasingly vocal about the war’s impact on civilians. On Friday it tried to pass a text mentioning an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal”, but China and Russia vetoed the US text.

The Gaza health ministry, in its latest toll on Saturday, reported at least 72 people killed overnight.

Precise

Israeli forces continued operations in and around Gaza’s biggest hospital complex, Al Shifa, for a sixth day on Saturday.

The army said a total of more than 170 militants had been killed, more than 800 suspects questioned, and weapons found.

The “precise” operation is being conducted without harm to civilians or medical personnel, the army said.

The UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said “health workers have been among those reported arrested and detained”.

Mohammed, 59, who lives a short walk from the Al Shifa complex in Gaza City, told AFP he had seen “many bodies” in the streets, buildings on fire and tanks blocking the roads.

“I feel that Gaza has become worse than the fires of hell,” he said, giving only his first name.

‘Up in flames’ 

Netanyahu on Friday reiterated his plan to send ground troops into the southern city of Rafah.

“I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone,” Netanyahu told visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly that a ground invasion of Rafah is the only way to root out Hamas, but global leaders have warned that an incursion would worsen an already catastrophic situation.

In Rafah on Saturday, Guterres said: “Any further onslaught will make things even worse.”

Blinken said he would continue discussions with Israeli officials to find an alternative to a ground incursion of Rafah.

Even without ground troops, Rafah is suffering regular bombardments.

Members of the Kawari family, who had taken refuge in Rafah after fleeing from Gaza City, told AFP a “huge explosion” killed four children and their grandmother during an air strike early Saturday.

“The entire house is destroyed. It went up in flames,” said Fawzy Kawari, a relative of those who died.

Blinken toured the region to bolster truce talks in Qatar, where mediators are aiming to secure a deal likely to involve militants freeing hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of more relief supplies.

The top US diplomat accused China and Russia of “cynically” blocking Washington’s Security Council resolution, which linked a truce to the release of hostages.

Russia and China, along with Arab nations, said the US text was too soft on Israel and diplomatic sources said a tougher resolution was expected to be put to a vote in New York on Monday.

DUBAI — A vessel was struck Saturday by "an unidentified projectile" off Yemen, where Huthi rebels have intensified attacks on Red Sea shipping, the British navy's United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations said.

The hit caused a fire that was "successfully extinguished" and both the vessel and the crew were "reported safe", UKMTO said.

It added the ship was on its way to its next port of call.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the reported attack, which UKMTO said struck 23 nautical miles west of the Yemeni port of Mokha.

Maritime security agency Ambrey said the targeted vessel was a Panama-flagged oil tanker en route to New Mangalore Port in India.

According to Ambrey, "the tanker's registration details, including name and operator, had been changed as recently as February 2024".

The tanker was registered in 2019 by British firm Union Maritime Ltd, the security agency said, noting that another vessel affiliated with the same company has previously been targeted by the Houthis.

The Iran-backed rebels, who control much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, have launched dozens of missile and drone strikes on shipping over the past four months, actions they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthis have vowed to target Israeli, British and US ships, as well as vessels heading to Israeli ports, disrupting traffic along the vital trade route.

The United States, which leads an international coalition meant to protect Red Sea shipping, has since mid-January struck Houthi targets in Yemen.

On Friday, the US military said it had “conducted self-defence strikes against three Houthi underground storage facilities”.

US Central Command said its forces had also destroyed four drones and registered four anti-ship ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis towards the Red Sea the same day.