Hamas frees hostages, Israel releases Palestinian prisoners on day one of ceasefire

Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.

The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding.

Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis cheered and wept in a square outside the defense headquarters as a live broadcast from Gaza showed three female hostages getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military said Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari had been reunited with their mothers and released a video showing them in apparent good health. Damari, who lost two fingers when she was shot the day she was abducted, smiled and embraced her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.

"I would like you to tell them: Romi, Doron and Emily – an entire nation embraces you. Welcome home," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a commander by phone.

At Sheba Medical Center, the women were reunited with their families in long embraces that went from tears to laughter. A smiling Damari was draped in an Israeli flag. They were among more than 250 people abducted and 1,200 killed in a Hamas raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has said.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians picked their way through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal that had been bombed into oblivion in the war's most intense fighting.

"I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months," said Aya, who said she had been displaced from her Gaza City home for more than a year.

The first phase of the truce took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.

That last-minute blitz killed 13 people, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free, and said it had struck terrorists. Hamas said the holdup in providing the list was technical.

"Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," U.S. President Joe Biden said on his last full day in office, welcoming a truce that had eluded U.S. diplomacy for more than a year. "We've reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States."

For Hamas, the truce provided an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniforms swiftly deployed in some areas, and armed fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis, where a crowd cheered, "Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades," the group's armed wing.

"All the resistance factions are staying in spite of Netanyahu," one fighter told Reuters.

TRUMP AIDE: 'HAMAS WILL NEVER GOVERN GAZA'

There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas will test the patience of Israel, which has said it will resume fighting unless the militant group is fully dismantled.

Hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the cabinet over the ceasefire, though his party said it would not try to bring down Netanyahu's government. The other most prominent hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, stayed in the government but said he would quit if the war ends without Hamas completely destroyed.

The truce took effect on the eve of Monday's inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Trump's national security adviser-designate, Mike Waltz, said that if Hamas reneges on the agreement, the United States would support Israel "in doing what it has to do."

"Hamas will never govern Gaza. That is completely unacceptable," he said.

The streets in shattered Gaza City were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.

Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, of Gaza City said that while the ceasefire may have spared lives, the losses and destruction made it no time for celebration.

"We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry," he said.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Blinken overruled America’s top general on Ukraine peace talks – NYT

Outgoing US State Secretary Antony Blinken urged Ukraine to continue its military efforts against Russia rather than pursue peace negotiations in 2022, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

In late 2022, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley advised Kiev to capitalize on its battlefield successes by seeking peace talks with Moscow. However, Blinken insisted that Ukraine should press on with its military campaign, the newspaper wrote.

“Less a peacemaker than a war strategist,” the US diplomat frequently argued against more “risk-averse Pentagon officials,” lobbying for advanced American weaponry to be sent to Ukraine, NYT wrote.

Washington has spent “approximately $100 billion” on Ukraine since the conflict escalated in February 2022, while allies and partners have contributed an additional $150 billion, Blinken said during a January appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The outgoing Biden administration has expedited arms deliveries to Kiev ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has indicated that he might reduce military aid to Ukraine in favor of addressing domestic priorities.

The Biden administration had been covertly arming Ukraine months before the conflict intensified, Blinken admitted in a January interview with the NYT. “Starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine to make sure that they had in hand what they needed to defend themselves – things like Stingers, Javelins that they could use,” he said.

Russia and Ukraine initially engaged in peace negotiations in early 2022 in Istanbul. Both sides provisionally agreed to a truce under which Kiev would renounce its NATO membership ambitions, adopt neutrality, and limit its military size in exchange for international security guarantees. However, Ukraine later withdrew from the talks at the urging of then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to David Arakhamia, a Zelensky-allied MP and chief negotiator for Kiev.

Last month, Swiss diplomat Jean-Daniel Ruch similarly accused the US and UK of derailing peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. Speaking to the French-language media outlet Anti-Thèse, Ruch claimed that Johnson acted “on duty for the Americans.”

Moscow has reiterated its willingness to resume peace negotiations, provided they are based on the Istanbul draft agreements and reflect the “new territorial realities,” including the accession of four former Ukrainian regions to Russia and recent battlefield developments.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Three killed in strike on central Kyiv, Ukraine says

Three people have been killed in a Russian air strike on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian officials have said.

Residents in the city first heard two loud explosions and only then the wail of the air raid siren, around 06:00 (04:00 GMT). The missiles had already hit by the time the ballistic threat warning was issued, urging residents to head for shelter.

The main destruction occurred in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, where there is now a deep crater in the road outside a business centre.

A military factory in the neighbourhood has been targeted repeatedly by Russia, but the damage we saw was to civilian buildings. An official said a couple had been killed on the street inside their vehicle.

Officials earlier reported four people had died in the attack.

The metro station, nearby restaurants and businesses are also very badly damaged, and emergency workers are removing the burned wreckage of cars from the scene.

Already damaged in previous attacks on this area, the business centre's tall glass tower and main building are now a shell after being hit by either a second missile or very large fragment. It was empty when the missile struck.

Beside the main crater, a Ukrainian forensics expert examined fragments of missile collected into a heap of twisted grey metal on the pavement.

Andriy Kulchytskyy, the head of the Military Research Laboratory of the Kyiv Institute of Scientific Expertise, told the BBC the crater was from a direct hit with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, based on markings on the missile fragments.

"This specific site shows one impact," he explained. "There are additional strikes, and we have collected debris. Here, the missile directly hit the road."

Mr Kulchytskyy said the projectile landed before the warning sirens sounded because ballistic missiles travel so quickly that the sirens cannot react in time.

Beside the road, a cake shop has had its front blown off, covering pastries and pies in shattered glass.

A dental clinic next door has been destroyed in the blast. Inside, staff are trying to recover what's still intact among the wreckage.

One woman was removing baubles from a plastic Christmas tree that was still standing.

"It's happened before," she told the BBC, "but never as badly as this''.

Asked how she felt, she shrugged: "We got used to it. It's the third year of war."

"There were three explosions in a row, then a big fire glow in the sky - and the building shook. It was very loud," a young man called Oleksandr said while exiting a nearby block of flats.

"I woke up immediately - I even felt the wall shaking. When the third strike came, it was pretty scary."

On Saturday morning, the main road has been cordoned off - but a few hours after the strike the neighbouring streets nearby are already busy with traffic. Old ladies are selling chickens and gherkins outside the market, and there are joggers and people walking their dogs.

But a pensioner passing by told us she was terrified.

"I didn't know where to run, because you normally go to the metro for shelter - but it was on fire."

It is the second fatal attack on Kyiv this month,following a strike on the city on New Year's Day that left two people dead.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local authorities say 10 people were wounded in a Russian strike on Saturday. One woman is said to be in a serious condition.

These strikes are the latest in the war that began following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

They follow several Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory earlier in the week.

The latest strikes take place just days before the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump in the US, with many Ukrainians concerned by Trump's pledge to reduce US military and financial aid to the embattled country.

The president-elect had claimed during the campaign that he would end the conflict on the first day of his presidency, though he has since said that he may need six months.

In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reiterated the country's dependence on US support as Russian air strikes and fighting on the front line continue.

RT/BBC

Colonial occupation and domination prospered by abducting and liquidating the most vocal Africans. Those whom it drove into exile were lucky. Evelyn Baring invented the manual on this form of predation as governor of colonial Kenya for seven years until 1959. Six decades after independence, the man who rode to power in Nairobi two years ago by promising to make Kenya great again is unapologetically reprising Evelyn’s manual, minus the internment camps.

In June 2021, Abubakar Malami, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Nigeria’s attorney-general, announced with some relish that Nnamdi Kanu – self-proclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – had been returned to Nigeria after being “intercepted” in an un-named location. Malami had initiated the prosecution of Kanu in 2015 for treason. In April 2017, the courts granted bail to Kanu. Five months later, he disappeared from public view after soldiers reportedly raided his country home in Abia State in South-East Nigeria, leading to scores of fatalities. The following month, he was reportedly sighted in Jerusalem.

The circumstances of Kanu’s return to Nigeria in 2021 degenerated quickly from mystery to controversy. The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), whom Nigeria initially credited with assistance in the “interception”, firmly denied any involvement in the operation.

When he announced the “interception” of Kanu, Attorney-General Malami claimed that it was accomplished by the “collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and security services.” In October 2022, however, Nigeria’s Court of Appeal found as a fact that Kanu “was in Kenya, was abducted therefrom and there were no extradition proceedings undertaken prior to his forcible abduction.”

Kenya unconvincingly denied involvement in the abduction. Very importantly, however, the Government of Kenya (GOK) offered no protest against what was clearly a spectacular violation of its sovereignty. The conclusion had to be that the GOK authorised Kanu’s abduction from its territory. Prior and subsequent conduct by the GOK provided ample evidence to support this.

On 2 February 2018, operatives of Kenya’s security services used explosives to gain entrance into the premises of former student leader and lawyer, Miguna Miguna, from where they abducted him into detention incommunicado. After several days of keeping him out of circulation, they drove Miguna to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, where they declared him a “prohibited immigrant” and deported him to Canada.

As a prominent student leader during the regime of President Daniel Arap Moi in the 1980s, Miguna was exiled to Canada. From there, he sought several times without success to renew his Kenyan nationality documents. Canada eventually granted him refugee status and he traveled initially under documentation provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, before eventually being forced to acquire Canadian nationality.

Upon returning to Kenya in 2007, Miguna enrolled as a lawyer, served as senior adviser to the prime minister and subsequently ran for high public office. It was not in dispute that both of his parents were Kenyans or that he was Kenyan by birth and by descent. In a decision on 14 December 2018, the High Court of Kenya found that the government of Kenya abducted and deported Miguna “despite court orders directing that he be produced in court” and lamented the fact that “it is inconceivable that the state can deport its own citizen to a second country without due regard to the constitution and the law.”

William Ruto was Kenya’s vice president when Kanu and Miguna were abducted. In 2022, he became president.

On 16 November 2024, leading Ugandan opposition politician, Kiiza Besigye, who was in Nairobi to attend the launch of a book by former Kenyan Justice minister and senior lawyer, Martha Karua, disappeared. Five days later, he surfaced before a military tribunal in the custody of the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) on the fanciful charges of illegal possession of firearms. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressed shock at “the abduction of Ugandan opposition politician Besigye on 16 November 2024 in Kenya and his forcible return to Uganda.”

Besigye’s experience was not the first abduction of a member of the Ugandan opposition in Kenya. In July 2024, Kenya’s security services similarly snatched 36 members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who were in the country for a meeting and expelled them to Uganda into the arms of the UPDF, which promptly charged them with “terrorism” before a military tribunal. The United Nations later expressed concern that President Museveni’s practice in Uganda of charging civilians before military tribunals was “in contravention of the country’s obligations under international human rights law.”

In October 2024, Kenyan authorities similarly abducted seven Turkish refugees and refouled them back to Turkey into the arms of the government that had exiled them.

In the period since the anti-Finance Bill protests in the country between June to December 2024, Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission has reported the abduction and disappearance of at least 82 persons. Some of the abducted have turned up dead. When young people in Nigeria protested two months after their colleagues in Kenya, the Nigerian government decided to borrow a leaf from Ruto’s playbook.

Back in Nairobi, one of the victims of these abductions by the GOK was Leslie Muturi. His father, Justin Bedan Muturi, happens to be the Cabinet Secretary (Minister) for Public Service in the government of Ruto. Around 22 June, 2024, Leslie Muturi was disappeared. At the time, his father, Justin, was the attorney-general of Kenya and sat in the National Security Council with the Director of National Intelligence Service, Noordin Haji.

In the past week, Muturi has narrated how his effort to locate his son took him through the entrails of the high command of Kenya’s deep state to the presence of his boss, President Ruto, who ordered Noordin Haji to release Leslie. Less than an hour thereafter, Leslie returned to his family.

Muturi’s clinical account of what transpired in the disappearance of his son clearly establishes the culpability of Kenya’s president and security high command under him in resuscitating a culture of state-sponsored abductions redolent of the worst excesses of Baring’s colonial era abuses.

After denying culpability last November, Ruto promised on 28 December 2024 to end the abductions, in effect admitting state complicity. Two days later, the continental human rights body of the African Union expressed“profound alarm over reports of abductions and enforced disappearances in Kenya.”

Less than a fortnight into the New Year, Tanzania’s leading independent journalist, Maria Sarungi Tsehai, survived an abduction from a shopping mall in Nairobi. Ms Tsehai and her family have been exiled in Kenya for over four years. Maria was lucky. Two years earlier, Kenyan police officers murdered exiled Pakistani journalist, Arshad Sharif, in Nairobi. Despite a court order and appeals by the United Nations, his killers continue to escape accountability.

When they re-established the East African Community in 1999, the original partner states in East Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – desired to advance transactional life and spaces in the region. Under the current leadership, however, these states are now using regional integration to advance the expendability of African civic and transactional life. They are collaborating across inter-state borders to liquidate critics and perceived enemies and make their lives precarious.

It seems clear that these abductions in Kenya are taking place under the direct command of government or, even more frightening, have been outsourced to non-state actors acting under the authority and protection of the State. The latter may explain the intractable nature of the abductions and the inability of Ruto’s GOK to bring it under control, despite the assurances of the president and the escalating diplomatic costs and investment runs.

This was hardly what Kenyans or the rest of Africa hoped for when the people chose President Ruto’s vision of a “hustler” nation over the other options on offer in Kenya’s 2022 presidential election. The only hustle presently taking place under his watch is the hustling of innocent citizens and visitors into enforced disappearance and exile. From the comfort of his grave, Evelyn must feel exceedingly proud of William Ruto.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Art Markman

It’s easy to be in a leadership role during good times. You’re the equivalent of Oprah telling everyone in the audience that they just got a new car. But, when times are tough, that’s when you have to look in the mirror and say “that’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

To be prepared for these times, you should make sure that you have a plan for how to address a crisis, when one inevitably arises. Obviously, the details of that plan will have to be developed on the fly, because the specifics of most crises are hard to predict in advance. But, you should have the outlines of a crisis plan well in advance so that you’re not scrambling for how to get started. Here are the basic things you must have in order before a crisis hits:

COMMUNICATE EARLY AND OFTEN

It’s easy to get mired in the details of dealing with a crisis situation and to ignore the needs of employees and external stakeholders, including customers and clients. So it’s important to have a communication plan and a designated lead for communication.

Your communication plan must include the key audiences who will want information. Employees will want to know that key issues are being addressed, whether there is risk to their jobs, and any affect a crisis is likely to have on their daily work life. External stakeholders will want communications about any service disruptions or other influences a crisis may have on their experience.

In a crisis, it’s important to communicate quickly to assure key stakeholders that you are addressing the problem and then to communicate often enough to maintain people’s confidence in your leadership. Do not give an overly rosy summary of the situation or your prospects of addressing the crisis successfully. You will undermine trust in your leadership if you minimize significant problems or express overconfidence in your ability to fix a problem that you cannot ultimately address.

KNOW YOUR VULNERABILITIES

In crisis situations, it’s important to be aware of your most significant weaknesses, because those are the ones most likely to fail when there is a problem. It’s no fun to catalog weaknesses, but that awareness enables you to check immediately on the elements of your business that are most likely to suffer.

One of the most significant vulnerabilities you may identify involves single points of failure. In our drive to make organizations more efficient, we often eliminate redundancies. That strategy is often favored as a cost-cutting move. However, the fewer redundancies in an organization, the less resilient the team. In a crisis, the thinnest parts of the organization are most likely to suffer.

It’s valuable to develop plans to ensure that you minimize the cases in which a single individual or single channel of communication is responsible for an important function within the organization. When you cannot eliminate these vulnerabilities, you at least need to be aware of them to ensure that they do not cause problems in a crisis.

HAVE YOUR DECISION TEAM READY

When a crisis hits, decisions need to be made quickly. The best way to handle a crisis is to have a plan in place already to address the basics of the situation. Many organizations will engage in tabletop exercises in which they simulate likely problems that can occur to practice addressing the situation so that the actual crisis is not the first time that the team is trying to manage a problem.

A central part of these exercises is determining how decisions will be made. It’s important to know which people have responsibility for particular categories of decisions in a crisis. It is also crucial to ensure that several people aren’t making contradictory decisions. Otherwise, different parts of an organization may work at cross purposes wasting valuable time and resources.

Ultimately, the best way to handle a crisis is to prepare for likely emergencies before they happen rather than scrambling to address a significant problem without any forethought.

Fast Company

A new sect, “ACHAD Life Mission International”, has begun operation in North West, Nigeria.

The newly established sect is reportedly linked to human trafficking and child separation.

According to the  Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the sect has its headquarters in Kaduna, while its leader simply identified as “Mr. Yokana”, lives in Jos, Plateau State.

In a circular dated January 14, 2025, the Principal Staff Officer to the Comptroller General of NIS, CIS A.A. Aridegbe, alerted Immigration officers of the development.

The circular titled: “Emergence of a new sect known as ACHAD Life Mission International”, was distributed to all directorates, zones, training institutions and commands.

An immigration source confirmed its authenticity to our correspondent.

“Yes, we were given the intelligence,” the source said.

According to NIS, there is credible intelligence that ACHAD members are linked to human trafficking and child separation activities.

The circular read, “I am directed to inform that the intelligence gathered by the Service reveals the emergence of a new Sect called ACHAD life Mission International. The intelligence reports that the Sect has its Headquarters in Kaduna, while its leader, one Mr. Yokana, lives in Jos, Plateau State. It further notes that the Sect neither believes in Islam nor Christianity, but preaches the restoration of the African tradition and support to humanity.

“The intelligence further reveals that the Sect has been canvassing for members both within and outside Nigeria, and is possibly involved in human trafficking and child separation.

“In light of the above, you are requested to stay vigilant, and report immediately any sign of the Sect, and where possible arrest and revert accordingly.

“This is for your information and strict compliance, please.”

When contacted, the spokesman for the NIS, Kenneth Udo, also confirmed the circular, saying: “It was issued by the service to alert officers.”

Daily Trust

A devastating petrol tanker explosion in Dikko, Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State, has left at least 70 people dead and dozens injured. The incident occurred on Saturday when a fuel-laden tanker, carrying 60,000 liters of petrol, overturned and exploded, engulfing bystanders who had gathered to scoop the spilled fuel.

Kumar Tsukwam, the Niger State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), confirmed that the tanker, owned by HMY Oil and Gas, detached from its head while en route from Lagos to Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory. Despite warnings from authorities, impoverished residents ignored the risks and attempted to collect the leaking fuel, leading to widespread casualties.

According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), 70 bodies have been recovered, 56 individuals sustained injuries, and more than 15 shops were destroyed in the inferno. The injured have been rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment, while mass burials for the victims are underway in accordance with Islamic rites.

Eyewitnesses reported that the fire from the explosion spread to another tanker, compounding the damage. Firefighters eventually extinguished the blaze, but the aftermath underscores the dangers of fuel-related accidents in Nigeria, where such tragedies have become increasingly common.

The disaster highlights the dire economic conditions facing many Nigerians. With petrol prices soaring by over 400% since the removal of fuel subsidies in May 2023, incidents of fuel scooping have risen, driven by desperation amid the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

Bologi Ibrahim, spokesperson for the Niger State Governor, urged residents to prioritize safety in the aftermath of such accidents, emphasizing the tragic consequences of fuel scooping. This latest incident follows similar fuel tanker explosions in recent years, including a catastrophic blast in Jigawa State last October that claimed 147 lives.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion and exploring measures to prevent future occurrences. However, this tragedy serves as a grim reminder of the urgent need for improved safety measures and economic relief for vulnerable communities in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation.

The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”

Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.

“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.

“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.

“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.

“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.

“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”

Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.

She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.

She said, “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.

“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”

Gaza ceasefire and hostage release set to begin

A ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is set to come into effect on Sunday morning with a hostage release to follow hours later, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.

Israeli forces started withdrawing from areas in Gaza's Rafah to the Philadelphi corridor along the border between Egypt and Gaza, pro-Hamas media reported early on Sunday.

The ceasefire agreement followed months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The three-stage ceasefire will come into effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday.

Its first stage will last six weeks, during which 33 of the remaining 98 hostages - women, children, men over 50, the ill and wounded - will be released in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza in detention since the start of the war.

Three female hostages are expected to be released on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross, in return for 30 prisoners each.

After Sunday's hostage release, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said, the accord calls for four more female hostages to be freed after seven days, followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days thereafter.

During the first phase the Israeli army will pull back from some of its positions in Gaza and Palestinians displaced from areas in northern Gaza will be allowed to return.

U.S. President Joe Biden's team worked closely with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to push the deal over the line.

As his inauguration approached, Trump had repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages were not released.

POST-WAR GAZA?

But what will come next in Gaza remains unclear in the absence of a comprehensive agreement on the postwar future of the enclave, which will require billions of dollars and years of work to rebuild.

And although the stated aim of the ceasefire is to end the war entirely, it could easily unravel.

Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for almost two decades, has survived despite losing its top leadership and thousands of fighters.

Israel has vowed it will not allow Hamas to return to power and has cleared large stretches of ground inside Gaza, in a step widely seen as a move towards creating a buffer zone that will allow its troops to act freely against threats in the enclave.

In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country's history.

But hardliners in his government have already threatened to quit if war on Hamas is not resumed, leaving him pressed between Washington's desire to see the war end, and his far-right political allies at home.

And if war resumes, dozens of hostages could be left behind in Gaza.

MIDEAST SHOCKWAVES

Outside Gaza, the war sent shockwaves across the region, triggering a war with the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement and bringing Israel into direct conflict with its arch-foe Iran for the first time.

More than a year later, the Middle East has been transformed. Iran, which spent billions building up a network of militant groups around Israel, has seen its "Axis of Resistance" wrecked and was unable to inflict more than minimal damage on Israel in two major missile attacks.

Hezbollah, whose huge missile arsenal was once seen as the biggest threat to Israel, has been humbled, with its top leadership killed and most of its missiles and military infrastructure destroyed.

In the aftermath, the decades-long Assad regime in Syria was overturned, removing another major Iranian ally and leaving Israel's military effectively unchallenged in the region.

But on the diplomatic front, Israel has faced outrage and isolation over the death and devastation in Gaza.

Netanyahu faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on war crimes allegations and separate accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Israel has reacted with fury to both cases, rejecting the charges as politically motivated and accusing South Africa, which brought the original ICJ case as well as the countries that have joined it, of antisemitism.

The war was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. More than 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat in Gaza since.

Israel's 15-month campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, and left the narrow coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble.

Health officials say most of the dead are civilians. Israel says more than a third are fighters.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Trump the saviour? Anxious Ukrainians question president's power to end war

Reuters) - "Why is everyone putting their hopes in Trump?"

Liudmyla Parybus isn't holding her breath for the incoming U.S. president to end the war in Ukraine.

"I don't put any hope in him," the 20-year-old student told Reuters in Kyiv city centre. "In the end it depends on us."

Her sense of scepticism is shared by many Ukrainians who have scant faith in Donald Trump's promises to swiftly strike a peace deal after he enters the White House on Monday.

"Our fate is in our own hands," said Marharyta Deputat, a 29-year-old sales manager. "We can't rely on anyone else."

Hanna Horbachova, 55, isn't pinning her family's future on a negotiated end to the conflict, which has ground on for almost three years since Russia's full-scale invasion.

The owner of a thriving bakery business was forced to flee her home in the Donetsk region a decade ago after fighting erupted between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine and two internationally brokered peace deals subsequently collapsed.

She doesn't rule out abandoning her new home of Dnipro if Vladimir Putin's large Russian army continues to creep towards the southeastern city.

"He will not stop in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia or Dniptopetrovsk region," she told Reuters amid the crackling of fried dough in her bakery. "He will go further."

While sceptical about the chances of a deal, she nonetheless believes the new American president has an outside chance to become a global peace icon if he delivers on his pledges.

"Trump has the opportunity to go down in history as a saviour of a huge nation," Horbachova said.

Indeed, not everyone dismisses the prospect of Trump helping speed a ceasefire; following his election, more than a third of Ukrainians believe the war will end by the close of 2025, according to a poll of around 1,100 people by research company Gradus Research in December, up from about a quarter six months earlier.

That poll found that 31% of respondents expected the war to go on "for years" and another 31% said it was difficult to say.

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, also said Trump could cement his legacy by bringing peace and security to Ukraine.

"Ukraine needs to become a success story for Trump," Merezhko told Reuters. "He can enter history as a winner."

The negotiating positions of the two warring sides remain far apart, though. Advisers to Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise to strike a peace deal on his first day in office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pushed hard for an invitation to NATO as the best way of deterring future Russian aggression; he and other officials fear any agreement falling short of an iron-clad alliance from Washington would allow the Kremlin to bide its time and eventually strike back.

"They will build up their military capabilities to come back," Oleksii Reznikov, a former defence minister and peace negotiator with Russia, told Reuters. "They will want to continue what they started in 2014 and continued in 2022."

While Putin has said he is open to discussing a ceasefire deal with Trump, he rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO, five sources told Reuters in November.

'A NEW MILITARY ADVENTURE'

The ultimate failure of the two ceasefire deals that spurred Horbachova's flight from her original home a decade ago - which Ukraine blames partly on the absence of robust Western military support - point to the perils and pitfalls of any peace pact.

Those agreements, known as the Minsk accords after the Belarusian capital where they were signed in 2014-15, quickly collapsed amid accusations from both sides of breaches. While large-scale fighting subsided after 2015, creating the contours of a frozen conflict, clashes flared up sporadically before Russia's invasion three years ago.

Horbachova's family left Horlivka 10 years ago due to the fighting and re-settled in Toretsk where they started their food business. After full-scale war broke out in 2022 they moved again, leaving Toretsk shortly before Russian shelling damaged their bakery. The town is now on the verge of capture by Russian forces.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who signed the Minsk accords while in power and is now a political opponent of Zelenskiy's, agreed with the current leader's view that NATO membership for Ukraine was pivotal.

"We've been there before and thus know that nothing would work as efficiently and surely this time around and in the future as Ukraine being invited and joining NATO," he told Reuters. "This alone would avert a new military adventure by Russia and make peace, not force, reign."

On the battlefield, both sides are pushing to improve their positions ahead of any peace talks, with Ukraine's outmanned military struggling to hold back Russian advances in the east while fighting to maintain a toehold in Russia's Kursk region.

Even if a deal to end hostilities is agreed, making it stick could be a major challenge, according to Samir Puri, research director at the Centre for Global Governance and Security at London think-tank Chatham House. He said it remained an open question who would monitor and enforce a ceasefire.

Roman Kostenko, a lawmaker who commanded special forces units on the front lines until his election to parliament in 2019, said that in his experience little could be done if one side opened fire on the battlefield and the other responded.

"I am someone who has lived through dozens of ceasefires, perhaps 20," he added. "Every one of these ceasefires with Russia didn't last more than five minutes."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO F-16 pilot killed in Russian strike

Danish instructor Jepp Hansen, who was training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, has allegedly been killed in a Russian missile strike in Ukraine, TASS reported on Saturday.

Sources within Russian law enforcement have reportedly told the agency that Hansen died during an attack on a training center in the city of Krivoy Rog in Dnepropetrovsk Region in central Ukraine.

Previously, the Russian newspaper Gazeta had said that Russian forces used an Iskander missile to destroy a closed university building in the city which the Ukrainian military had converted into barracks. The upper part of the four-story building was almost completely destroyed, according to reports, while the facade of the building sustained heavy damage.

According to Russian media reports, citing a post by Hansen’s friend on social media, the Dane had significant experience in flying F-16 jets and had trained “hundreds of Ukrainians” to operate the planes. 

Neither Denmark nor the Russian Defense Ministry has officially commented on the reports.

Last year, the Netherlands and Denmark delivered 20 F-16s to Ukraine and have vowed to send more throughout 2025. Norway, Belgium and Greece have also pledged to send a number of the fighter jets to Kiev.

Moscow has denounced the Western arms shipments, warning that they will only prolong the conflict without changing the outcome. It has also said that F-16 deliveries represent an escalation of hostilities.

Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her ~ Luke 1:57-58.

Introduction:

There is an appointed time for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11). Time is set for every event, occasion or accomplishment on earth, and events are forced to be, not as man wishes but as God disposes at His appointed time. When His set-time comes, the music starts.

Every enviable destiny is secured by divine timing (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Yes, we all cry, and rightly so, for supernatural satisfaction in all areas of our lives (Psalms 90:14). Yet, to labour slavishly for gains outside of divine time is to labour like a mule that has no understanding.

Fulfillment of destinies is all about divine timing; it is therefore very crucial that we discern time as it unfolds: “…a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment” (Ecclesiastes 8:5). In fact, God is often grieved to see His little children sweating profusely outside of or in contrast to their appointed times.

Jesus Christ alerted us that devastating destructions await those who fail to discern their days of visitation (Luke 19:41-44). In His earthly walk, the Lord Himself was constantly sensitive to divine timing (John 7:8; Matthew 26:18). He waited for and keyed to it in every detail of His life and ministry. The Bible even says “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

The appointed time is God’s prerogative, and it is futile to attempt to alter it (Ecclesiastes 8:6). Divine time cannot be changed; we can only embrace and maximize it when it comes. This was why Job resolved to wait for it, even as he looked unto God for change in the untoward situations in which he found himself (Job 14:13-14).

Understanding Kairos Set-Time

Basically, time is a non-spatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible successions from the past through the present to the future. It is also a period designated for a given activity or an event to occur — an appointed or fated moment.

The ancient Greeks had two words for time, “chronos” and “kairos”. Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time, while kairos signifies a moment of indeterminate time in which something special is bound to happen. Kairos means the right or opportune moment for an event, the supreme moment for an accomplishment.

In the New Testament kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God"(Mark 1:15). Kairos time is the set-time for the Lord to act. It is "the crucial time" or“the appointed time” when God arises in His characteristic mercy to favour His covenant people (Psalms 102:13).

Before creation there was no time, all we had was eternity. Time is a sort of an intersection with eternity. Benny Hinn said, “time is a crack in eternity”. Indeed, time is a robust processor of events and occurrences: "it came to pass in process of time …" (Exodus 2:23).

Characteristic Yields And Events At The Divine Set-Time

When the full time came for Elizabeth, she gave birth to a long-awaited son and she was clad with manifold joy (Luke 1:57-58). There are various covenant provisions for God’s people, which can only manifest at their appointed times.

At the appointed time, covenant promises are actualized with speedy performance, as it was with the birth of Isaac (Genesis 17:21). Pleasant surprises and incredible miracles spring forth (2 Kings 7:1). And, covenant helpers sprout in their multitudes to build into you the frame of “the host of God” (1Chronicles 12:22).

Again, at the appointed time, the day of salvation dawns with answers to your ancient prayers and heart’s desires, undoing your enemies and showering upon you the rains of divine blessings (Isaiah 49:8; Zephaniah 3:19; Zechariah 10:1). Hence, even angels rejoice together with sons of men, and sing freely of the doings of God (Songs 2:12).

Yes indeed, when the set-time comes, all that is left of the Oppressors — Pharaohs — is mere noise (Jeremiah 46:17). Even the devil becomes helplessly hopeless at your appointed time because of the deluge of your harvest of supernatural favour (Psalms 102:13; Zephaniah 3:20). Alleluia!

Maximizing Your Appointed Time

Reflecting on this all-important subject of divine set-time, kairos is presented in rhetoric as "a passing instant when an opening appears, which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved". This clearly suggests that we must forcefully latch on to divine timing like David did at Ziglag if we hope to make the most of it (1 Samuel 30:8).

David’s unforgettable encounter with Goliath, which shot him into the hall of fame, is another example showing that he was a master at maximizing divine timing. Never doubt it, enjoying the verdant abundance of God’s kingdom requires some deliberate insistence of faith (Matthew 11:12; 1 Timothy 6:12).

When it’s your kairos time, you must be steadfast, forceful, diligent and obedient to divine commandments in order to maximize it and to fulfill destiny (Deuteronomy 11:13-14). Whenever God's readiness and man's willingness are married together, miracles happen with plenty of the rain of blessing.

Please keep in mind, friends and brethren, that everyone in this world lives and works based on their time zone. As a practical inference, in the same American Federation, New York is three hours ahead of California, but that does not mean that California is slow or lagging. Most emphatic, no!

People around you might seem to have gone ahead of you, and some might seem to be behind you. But, all things being equal, absolutely everyone is running their own race, in their own time. Don’t envy them or mock them. They are in their time zone, and you are in yours! And, even if your races look similar, they are certainly not identical!

Only time can tell what happens tomorrow. Indeed, time is a great humorous innovator! Mr. A may finish up the same year Mr. B matriculated in the same university; but Mr. B may, later in life, occupy a position to employ Mr. A into a very lush international job. Yes, someone may have factually come late, but could still enjoy the gleeful thrill of the latest model very soon!

Life is about waiting for and keying to the right moment to act. Relax, if you are a child of God. No matter the circumstances in which you find yourself, just do very well to maintain your ways before the Lord, and you can always enjoy a guaranteed supernatural timing (Job 13:15).

If you can firmly hold onto Christ, you are never actually late. Your total freedom is there, your appointed harvest is on the way and, sooner than later, you will be divinely satisfied (Hosea 6:11). May you not miss your timing again, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Archbishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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