Press TV – January 30, 2025
Israel releases 110 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for eight captives
Israel has released 110 Palestinian prisoners after a temporary delay ordered by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu even as Hamas had released eight captives in the third phase of the prisoner swap.
The prisoners released on Thursday evening included 30 minors, 32 Palestinian who had received life sentences, and 48 others who were serving prison terms of different duration.
Most of them reunited with their families in the occupied West Bank, while 23 of them were sent to Egypt. The prisoners released on Thursday were all men, aged 15 to 69.
The released inmates transported by Red Cross buses to both Palestinian territories were greeted with cheers by thousands of joyful Palestinians.
Zakaria Zubeidi, Mohammed Abu Warda and Mohammed Aradeh were among the high-profile Palestinians released on Thursday.
Israeli drones dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip warning Palestinians not to hold flags or banners or celebrate the release of prisoners in any way, Al Jazeera reported.
Israeli soldiers often attack crowds that gather near prisons to celebrate the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Earlier Thursday, 12 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli soldiers in Beitunia, near the prison in the West Bank where Palestinian prisoners were due to be released.
Two Palestinians were wounded by live bullets, two by rubber bullets and eight by tear gas, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Israeli forces also arrested 26 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank early Thursday, according to Wafa news agency.
Earlier in the day, Hamas released three Israeli captives, a female soldier and two settlers, plus five Thai nationals, fulfilling its part of the third phase of the prisoner swap, paving the way for Israel to to release 110 Palestinian prisoners, as scheduled.
However, Netanyahu said in a statement that he had ordered a halt to the release of Palestinians until further notice, claiming that the handover of eight captives had been conducted in a “chaotic” condition.
The Israeli premier said the exchange would be delayed until mediators secured guarantees from Hamas of “the safe exit of our hostages in the next rounds.”
Surrounded by masked Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, the captives made their way through large Palestinian crowds toward the Red Cross vehicles on Thursday without any incident.
Also a day after a second exchange of Israeli captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu ordered Israeli troops to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza.
Israel said then Hamas had failed to free a captive who it claimed should have been released, but Hamas denied such an arrangement had ever been agreed.
The holdup left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians stranded behind an Israeli military barrier for two days before being allowed to head to their homes.
Israeli forces fired on the crowds on three occasions, killing two people and wounding nine, including a child, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza as part of the ceasefire, which came into effect last Sunday.
The ceasefire is aimed at ending the 15-month Israeli war on Gaza and freeing captives still held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Over six weeks, Hamas will release 33 Israeli captives - about one-third of those in captivity - in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group, of the Palestinian prisoners to be released Thursday, 32 had received life sentences, and 48 were serving prison terms of different duration.
In the last two exchanges, Hamas released seven Israeli captives in return for 290 prisoners, nearly all of whom were Palestinians, except for one Jordanian.
A fourth exchange scheduled for Saturday will involve the release of three Israeli men, according to Netanyahu’s office.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/01/30/741876/Palestine-Israel-Netanyahu-prisoner-exchange-Gaza
Hamas announces death of military commander Mohammed Deif
Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, has announced the martyrdom of several of its military council leaders in the battle against the Israeli invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip, including its chief of staff Mohammed Deif.
Chief of al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida on Thursday also confirmed the death of deputy military commander Marwan Issa in combat.
Other commanders killed in the battle included Ghazi Abu Tama’a, the commander of weapons and combat services, Raed Thabet, the commander of manpower and head of supplies unit, and Rafeh Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade.
Ahmed al-Ghandour, the commander of Northern Brigade, and Ayman Nofal, the commander of Central Brigade, were the other high-profile Hamas members killed in combat.
Mohammad 'Abu Khaled' Deif, known for his elusiveness, had survived at least seven attempts on his life by Israel. He had been a key figure in orchestrating military operations against Israel.
Media outlets had reported Deif’s death, but the announcement Thursday is the first official acknowledgment from Hamas of the senior leader’s demise.
Israel initially announced in August 2024 that Deif had been killed in a July airstrike, but his death had not been confirmed since.
Abu Obeida said the announcement came only after completing necessary procedures, addressing security concerns dictated by battlefield conditions and verifying details.
He noted that the group had previously announced the deaths of Ghandour and Nofal during Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Deif's deputy, Issa, was instrumental in Hamas's military strategies. Tama’a, responsible for overseeing the organization's weapons in Gaza, previously served as the head of the Central Camps Brigade of Hamas.
Thabet was considered among the top ten most senior Hamas military commanders, while Salama was known for his close association with Deif and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar who was killed in combat in Gaza in October.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/01/30/741885/Hamas-announces-death-of-military-commander-Mohammed-Deif
Global Research – January 30, 2025
President Trump Reveals His Agenda for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza
By Peter Koenig
It didn’t take long for President Trump to reveal his plans for the Gaza solution. It can start right after or —even better— during the ceasefire, which he claims having brokered in Doha.
Well, what a ceasefire!
You may as well call it “planned ethnic cleansing.”
Push them out – the Gaza population, those about 1.5 million still alive and left lingering in the ruins of Gaza – into Egypt’s tent cities in the Sinai, built by Egypt with US money and a little coercing by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for some clean IMF-debt to erase Egypt’s gigantic natural debt.
In the jargon of the international financial behemoths, you call that “Structural Adjustment” because you adjust the structure of the debt so it serves the lenders and their elite owners. It is a soft term for a transfer from the bottom to the top. The leaders who agree to it, like in this case Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, of course know what they are doing. But the Egyptian people don’t, but will pay for it.
Trump will also ask or coerce the King of Jordan, Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein, to take in some of the forcefully expulsed Palestinian refugees. See this.
Jordan has been a puppet of the US ever since its formation in 1921, when it was liberated from the Ottoman Empire.
Within less than ten days into his Presidency, Trump reveals his true face as the “self-styled Peace President.”
Better early than late, so the world knows what’s coming.
*
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion ﾖ An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020). Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-agenda-ethnic-cleansing-gaza/5878520
Global Research – January 30, 2025
Israel’s “Fake Ceasefire” is a “Pause” for
Genocide, Exodus of Palestinians from their Homeland
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Introduction
A cease fire invariably constitutes a first step towards a peace agreement. In the case of Gaza, the objective is “a pause” in what constitutes a carefully planned genocide of which the “End Game:” is the Exodus of Palestinians from their Homeland. US-NATO are indelibly behind the genocide project. President Trump has pressured both Jordan and Egypt to facilitate the immigration of Palestinians.
From a propaganda standpoint the cease-fire’s intent is to mislead public opinion.
Gaza is almost fully destroyed. The atrocities and loss of life are beyond description. Estimates which remain to be corroborated suggest that up a quarter of Gaza’s population have died as part of a carefully planned genocide.
“it is estimated that the present 553,350 Gaza dead (24% of the 2.3 million pre-war Gaza population) include 393,000 children, 51,000 women and 113,000 men.”
The Cease fire is not intended to lead to a peace agreement. Quite the opposite.
Already Israel is accusing Hamas of having violated the cease-fire.
The Voice of Tun Mahathir Mohamad
The fraudulent nature of the proposed cease fire (details below) is expounded by Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad who sent me the following statement:
1. I am doubtful of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
2. Perhaps I am pessimistic, but should anyone believe that a nation that violates countless United Nations resolutions, disregarding and disrespecting world opinion, would honour its undertaking.
3. Would anyone believe that Israel, that had violated past ceasefire deals with Hezbollah would choose to observe this time around?
4. Israel is a rogue; a belligerent nation. The belligerence will not allow it to respect any agreements or laws.
5. Days before the ceasefire they are upping the ante, killing as many Palestinians as they can. It is second nature to them to go on a murderous rampage.
6. And they will blame everyone else for it.
7. Excuse my pessimism. But the jubilation shown by the Gazans is premature. I hope I’m wrong.
The Alleged Ceasefire: Three Stages
It consists of three phases of so-called negotiations, which largely consist in release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The third stage involves the reconstruction of Gaza.
Not included in the three “official stages” there are unspoken objectives namely Exodus of Palestinians from their homeland as well as the outright appropriation of Palestinian lands in both Gaza and the West Bank.
It’s the Appropriation of an Entire Country
Stage one is “a complete cease fire” which lasts 42 days. During this period Hamas will release 33 hostage. In turn, Israel will release 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, Israeli forces will leave populated areas, “Displaced Palestinian civilians will be allowed to return to their neighbourhoods, Hundreds of aid lorries will be allowed into Gaza each day, Israeli troops will remain in Gaza’s border areas, including the southern Philadelphi Corridor, but will leave the Netzarim Corridor, a military zone cutting off the north of Gaza”
Stage two will be initiated 16 days “after the start of stage one”. negotiations at the outset of the second stage, during which: “A permanent ceasefire will be established, remaining living hostages in Gaza will be exchanged for more Palestinian prisoners, Israeli forces will make a complete withdrawal
Stage three, envisages “The return of all remaining bodies of dead hostages, the reconstruction of Gaza, which is expected to take years”.ﾠSee BBC
The reconstruction is not on behalf of Palestine. Palestinians are slated to be excluded from Gaza.
The first stage —which was negotiated in Doha– pertained to the exchange of prisoners (six weeks). Ironically, the second stage which is led by Israeli Intelligence, has already commenced. There are fraudulent and criminal objectives which must be addressed. The cease-fire does not mean that the genocide has been terminated.
Gaza Then and Now
Fake Ceasefire Talks
Ironically, the Netanyahu government is represented by top intelligence officials rather than civilian members of his cabinet: the heads of Mossad and Shin-bet who are the architects of a carefully planned Genocide, predicated and supported by A False Flag. have been entrusted with the cease-fire mandate.
There is nothing to negotiate. Palestine is NOT represented in the Cease-Fire Talks. The Palestine Authority was not invited to attend. There is only one token representative of Hamas,ﾠKhalil al-Hayya who succeeds Saleh al-Arouri who was assassinated in early January of last year by Israel.
Khali al Hayya is controlled by Israeli Intelligence. He’s an intelligent asset, based in Qatar “who does not meet with Israeli officials”.
Trump’s Appointee
Steve Witkoff,ﾠis a close friend of Donald Trump, a lawyer and billionaire real estate investor. He will largely be representing the Trump White House. His role is also related to the so-called Gaza reconstruction project which consists in a multibillion real estate development project of luxury houses and hotels.
Steve Witkoff asserts his commitment to reaching the second phase of the Gaza hostage deal, in light of concerns that Israel will resume fighting after the first stage is over.
“We have to make sure that the implementation goes well, because if it goes well, we’ll get into phase two, and we’re going to get a lot more live bodies out,” Witkoff says, in an interview with Fox News.
Brett McGurk who was until recently Biden’s Middle East adviser will most likely play a secondary role.
The Prime Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is also part of the Ceasefire Initiative, acting as mediator.
Is The Ceasefire An Intelligence Op.?
Invariably, cease fire negotiations are undertaken by politicians representing the various parties, e.g. the government of Israel, representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
In this case it’s the Israeli intelligence apparatus in consultation with the CIA which is calling the shots. In fact there are no meaningful negotiations.
The negotiation team is dominated by three intelligence agencies, namely Mossad, Shin Bet and Egypt’s General Intelligence Agency (GIA), which have been actively collaborating with their US-NATO intelligence counterparts including the (former) Director of the CIA William Burns (replaced by Trump’s CIA appointee John Ratcliffe)
Ronen Bar, head of Shin-bet (internal intelligence) (image above) was in Cairo for discussions with his GIA counterpart Hassan Rachad last July. More recently (January 22, 2025) “Mossad Director David Barnea together with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar travelled to Cairo to discuss arrangements for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement” (Anadolu citing Israeli TV)
While media reports focus on negotiations pertaining to the release of prisoners and hostages, the unspoken objective of these negotiations by Israeli, Egyptian and US intelligence officials is to implement, coordinate and finance the EXODUS of Palestinians.
Trump’s appointee to the CIA John Radcliffe (image left) was confirmed by the Senate. on January 23, 2025. Undoubtedly, he will become actively involved in partnership with David Barnea, Ronen Bar and Hassan Rashad (GIA Egyptian intelligence)
Exodus from Their Homeland
President Donald Trump has stated in no uncertain terms that Palestinians should leave their homeland: Exodus to the Sinai Desert in Egypt and to Jordan from the West Bank. Exodus and the destruction of the Palestinian Nation State is an act of genocide
Trump Says Gaza i s A “Demolition Site”
Egypt-Israel “Secret Bilateral Talks”: The Offshore Natural Gas Reserves
The ultimate objective is not only to exclude Palestinians from their homeland, it consists in confiscating the multi-billion dollar Gaza offshore Natural Gas reserves, namely those pertaining to the BG (BG Group) in 1999, as well the Levant discoveries of 2013. (see Felicity Arbuthnot, Michel Chossudovsky)
In 2021-22, Egypt and Israel were involved in ﾓsecret bilateral talksﾔ regarding “the extraction of natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
“Egypt succeeded in persuading Israel to start extracting natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip, after several months of secret bilateral talks.
This development … comes after years of Israeli objections to extract natural gas off the coast of Gaza on [alleged] security grounds, …
Was It a False Flag. The Evidence is Overwhelming
There is ample evidence that the genocide from the very outset was part of a carefully planned False Flag.
Moreover, the intelligence officials involved in formulating and implementing the False Flag, are now planning the so-called “ceasefire”, which constitutes a “pause” in the genocide. Media reports largely focus on the exchange of prisoners and hostages. The nature of the next phase of an intelligence operation is barely mentioned.
In the words ofﾠPhilip Giraldi:ﾠ
“As a former intelligence officer, I find it impossible to believe that Israel did not have multiple informants inside Gaza as well as electronic listening devices all along the border wall which would have picked up movements of groups and vehicles.
Netanyahu: “Yes it Was a False Flag”:
Netanyahu has tacitly acknowledged that it was “A False Flag” intent upon justifying a carefully planned genocidal attack against the people of Palestine . This attack in the course of the “cease fire” has now been extended to the West Bank.
Hamas is considered by Israeli intelligence as an intelligence asset.
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)
The False Flag agenda has resulted in the deliberate deaths perpetrated by the Netanyahu government of both Israeli civilians and military (IDF). The conduct of a False Flag deaths is a crime against humanity under both Israeli and International law.
The Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya) (Islamic Resistance Movement), was founded in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It was supported at the outset by Israeli intelligence as a means to weaken the Palestinian Authority:
“Thanks to Mossad, (Israel’s “Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks”), Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat’s Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation.
Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)”. (LﾒHumanit￩, translated from French)
The Ceasefire and “Post War Reconstruction”
Post war reconstruction is outlined in phase 3 of the Cease-fire.
The False Flag implemented by Israeli Intelligence plays an important role. The reconstruction of Gaza is not on behalf of the Palestinians, who are accused of having waged war on Israel, when in fact Israel has committed genocide.
The funding of post-war reconstruction is intended for Israel. It will be used to finance a giant real estate project of luxury houses, hotels and apartment buildings.
What is at stake is a plan to WIPE OUT PALESTINE OFF THE MAP AS A NATION STATE
Parts of the funds will be channelled towards Egypt to finance the refugee camps in the Sinai desert.
Insidious Role of Wall Street and the IMF
Post-war reconstruction is invariably on the behalf of the victims of a war. In the case of Palestine, an entire Nation State is slated to by eliminated, taken over by the State of Israel, which is upheld by the West as the alleged “victim of Palestinian aggression”.
What reconstruction entails is multi-billion operation. It’s planning requires a “pause”.
Already in February 2024, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was allegedly “helping Israel transfer 1.4 million Palestinians from Rafah to tent cities in the Sinai Desert”.
Egypt’s foreign debt is in the billions. Its creditors are willing to provide funds to finance the Exodus of Palestinians. The IMF has already promised to provide financing.
There’s a clear money-trail connecting the dodgy Egyptian president to a policy-change that will more than accommodate Netanyahu’s ambitious ethnic cleansing plan.
So the IMF now provides financial support for ethnic cleansing?
It certainly looks that way. The IMF wants to make sure that El-Sisi has sufficient money to cover the costs of feeding and housing one and a half million refugees. (Mike Whitney).
Western Governments are Complicit
There is a “Cease Fire”. The Genocide is slated to continue.
In solidarity with Palestine, it should be understood that heads of State and heads of government who are supporting the genocide are “complicit”under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Article III (e) Complicity in genocide.
Article IV. Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished [Article III(e)], whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.” *emphasis added)
It is important that the peace movement take cognizance of the fact that their own heads of State and heads of government, namely Biden, Starmer, Macron, Scholz, et. al. (see them smiling) are from a legal standpoint “complicit” inasmuch as they are supportive of Israel’s atrocities committed against the People of Palestine.
It’s the “Criminalization of Politics”.
“Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished [article III e], whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals”.
Western Politicians would be categorized under Article III(e) as Complicit in genocide
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
QUESTION THEIR LEGITIMACY
This is a powerful instrument for the anti-war movement.
Confront your “responsible rulers” and “public officials”, not to mention the Big Money and financial institutions who are behind the genocide.
About the author:
Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research. He has undertaken field research in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific and has written extensively on the economies of developing countries with a focus on poverty and social inequality. He has also undertaken research in Health Economics (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), UNFPA, CIDA, WHO, Government of Venezuela, John Hopkins International Journal of Health Services (1979, 1983) He is the author of 13 books including The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003), America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005), The Globalization of War, America’s Long War against Humanity (2015). He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia. He can be reached at crgeditor@yahoo.com
Desecrator of Qur’an shot dead at home in Sweden
An Iraqi immigrant whose repeated desecration of the copies of the Holy Qur'an in Sweden outraged Muslims and non-Muslims across the world has been killed in his home near the Nordic country’s capital of Stockholm.
Swedish public television SVT reported on Thursday that 38-year-old Salwan Momika had been found dead in his apartment in the city of Sodertalje after being shot.
Local police said they received a report of an overnight shooting, where a man was found with gunshot wounds. He later died in the hospital, and a preliminary murder investigation was launched.
Police confirmed that the dead man was Momika and a murder investigation got underway.
Prosecutor Rasmus Öman told Swedish news agency TT that several people had been arrested in the case, without elaborating.
The Stockholm District Court said a verdict scheduled Thursday in a trial in which Momika was a defendant was postponed because one of the defendants had died.
Göran Lundahl, a judge at the court, confirmed that the deceased was Momika.
Momika and a co-defendant were charged in the Stockholm court with incitement to racial hatred because of statements they made in connection with the Qur'an burnings.
The 38-year-old staged several blasphemous burnings and desecrations of Islam’s holy book in Sweden in 2023. Videos of the Qur'an burnings got worldwide publicity and raised anger and criticism in Muslim nations, leading to riots and unrest in many places.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry called on Sweden in 2023 to extradite the Iraqi man so that he could be tried according to the country’s laws.
The Ministry emphasized that Momika's heinous act, which is an insult to religious sanctities, had hurt the feelings of Muslims all over the world.
Sweden has repeatedly permitted Qur'an burnings in recent years.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/01/30/741869/Salwan-Momika-Sweden-killed-Sodertalje-
