Abu Dhabi: Palestinian author Basim Khandaqji, who has been imprisoned by Israel since 2004, has been named the winner of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) for his novel “A Mask, the Colour of the Sky”.

Khandaqji’s publisher Rana Idriss, of the Lebanon-based Dar al-Adab publishing house, accepted the award on his behalf at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

The book tells the story of Nur, an archaeologist living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah, who adopts a “mask” when he finds a blue identity card belonging to an Israeli in the pocket of an old coat.

Born in Nablus, Khandaqji has been imprisoned by Israel since he was 21 years old. He studied political science at Al-Quds University from prison with a thesis on Israeli studies and has published several poetry collections and novels.

In an interview in January, Khandaqji’s brother said his family had not been able to speak with him for four months, a problem many Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have faced since October 2023.

Khandaqji wrote the award-winning book in prison in 2021, when he would manage to write about two pages each day between 5am and 7am, although “very often, the papers are taken from him and destroyed by the guard”, his brother said.

Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, known for documenting the impact of Israel’s war on Gaza, has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024 in the ‘Icons’ category.

Time magazine described Motaz as, “The world’s eyes and ears in his native Gaza for 108 days. Armed with a camera and a flak jacket marked ‘PRESS.’”

“The 25-year-old Palestinian photographer spent nearly four months documenting life under Israeli bombardment: families displaced from homes, women mourning loved ones, a man trapped beneath the rubble.”

His images offered a glimpse into Gaza that few in the international press, which has been all but barred from accessing the Strip, could rival. He did so at great risk; at least 95 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.

Since his evacuation, Azaiza has been raising awareness of the crisis and calling for international intervention.

“What is happening in Gaza is not content for you,” he was quoted as saying by the magazine. “We are not telling you what is happening … for your likes or views or shares. No, we are waiting for you to act. We need to stop this war.”

“I am really blessed to share my country name with me wherever I go or whatever I achieve,” Motaz wrote on X.

“For those who don’t recognize Palestine as a state, or for those who claim that it is their land. Palestine gonna be free one day from Zionists and occupation. Everyone does his part, and my part is not done yet,” he added

New York: Employees of the tech giant Google staged sit-in protests at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, California offices, lasting for over nine hours and resulting in their subsequent arrest.

The demonstrators asserted that they would not disperse until Google terminates its involvement in a $1.2 billion artificial intelligence and surveillance contract with Israel, along with Amazon.

Taking over the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in California, the protesters occupied the space for more than eight hours.

In a ‘notech4apartheid’ video, an individual informed the employees of their placement on administrative leave, urging them to vacate voluntarily. However, the protesters declined, leading to their arrest by law enforcement.

Google staff members have consistently voiced opposition to project “Nimbus,” with Palestinian employees highlighting what they perceive as “institutionalized bias” within the company.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes targeted the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, resulting in the deaths of eleven individuals, including children, as part of the ongoing bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Reports indicate that since October 7, Israeli attacks on Gaza have resulted in the deaths of at least 33,843 Palestinians, with 76,575 others sustaining injuries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Deir Al-Balah: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will shut down satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera immediately.

Netanyahu vowed to close the “terror channel” after parliament passed a law Monday clearing the way for the country to halt Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel.

Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera of harming Israeli security, participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and inciting violence against Israel.

“The terror channel Al Jazeera will not broadcast any longer from Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on X. “It is my intention to act immediately under the new law to stop the channel’s activities.”

A Coast Guard cutter passes a cargo ship that is stuck under the part of the structure of the Bridge after the ship hit the bridge

New York: The crew of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan of the crippled container vessel that collided with a key Baltimore bridge last week is “busy with their normal duties” and will remain on board until the investigation into the accident is completed, the company that owns the vessel has said.

The container vessel Dali collided with the 2.6-km-long four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore in the early hours of March 26. The 984-foot cargo ship was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Just minutes before colliding with the bridge, there was a total blackout on the ship, indicating that the vessel lost engine power and electrical power, according to US media reports.

“It is confirmed there are 21 crew members on board. The crew members are busy with their normal duties on the ship as well as assisting the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard investigators on board,” a spokesperson of Grace Ocean Pte and Synergy Marine told PTI.

On how long the crew would have to stay on board the ship, the spokesperson said: “At this time, we do not know how long the investigation process will take and until that process is complete, the crew will remain on board.”

The Singapore-flagged Dali is owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd and managed by the Synergy Marine Group. Earlier, the non-profit organisation Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center had said that the Indian crew on board the container vessel was “healthy”.

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi earlier said that there were 20 Indians on board Dali and the Indian embassy in Washington was in close touch with them and local authorities.

Last week, US authorities began interviewing personnel on board Dali. The Synergy Group had said in a statement that the NTSB boarded the vessel on Wednesday and collected documents, voyage data recorder extracts, and other evidence as part of their investigation.

Grace Ocean and Synergy confirmed the safety of all crew members and two pilots aboard the vessel. They, however, reported one minor injury and said the injured crew member had been treated and discharged from a hospital.

Six people, who were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge when the collision occurred, are presumed dead. Divers recovered the bodies of two of the construction workers from a red pickup truck found submerged in the river and a search was on for the remaining four victims.

US President Joe Biden said that the crew on board Dali had alerted transportation personnel about losing control of the vessel, enabling authorities to close the Baltimore bridge to traffic before the devastating collision, “undoubtedly” saving lives.

Meanwhile, a temporary alternative route for ships is to be opened in the US city of Baltimore following the collapse of, officials announced.

Efforts are underway to remove debris from the water. A 200-tonne piece of the bridge was removed on Saturday.

Those involved in the clean-up have been cutting debris from the bridge into smaller pieces that can be removed and taken to a disposal site.

The collapse of the bridge has effectively shut down operations at Baltimore’s port, affecting about 8,000 jobs and about USD 2 million in daily wages for those workers, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week.

Between USD 100 million and USD 200 million worth of trade went through the port daily before the bridge’s collapse, and the port was America’s largest for handling vehicle imports, Buttigieg said.

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said early Monday that he supported an idea to release late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prisoner exchange just days before the man who was his biggest foe died.

In his first comments to address Navalny’s death, Putin said of the dissident’s demise: “It happens. There is nothing you can do about it. It’s life.”

The remarks were unusual in that he repeatedly referenced Navalny by his name for the first time in years and that they came at a late-night news conference as results poured in from a presidential election that is certain to extend his rule.

Early returns showed him leading with over 87 per cent of the votes in a race with no competition, after years of ruthlessly suppressing the opposition and crippling independent media.

Navalny’s allies last month also said that talks with Russian and Western officials about a prisoner swap involving Navalny were underway. The politician’s longtime associate Maria Pevchikh said the talks were in their final stages just days before the Kremlin critic’s sudden and unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

She accused Putin of “getting rid of” Navalny in order not to exchange him, but offered no evidence to back her claims, and they could not be independently confirmed.

Putin said Monday, also without offering any evidence, that several days before Navalny’s death, “certain colleagues, not from the (presidential) administration” told him about “an idea to exchange Navalny for certain people held in penitentiary facilities in western countries”. He said he supported the idea.

“Believe it or not, but the person talking to me didn’t even finish their sentence when I said: I agree,'” Putin said in response to a question from a journalist about Navalny’s death. He added that his one condition was that Navalny wouldn’t return to Russia.

“But unfortunately, whatever happened, happened,” Putin said.

Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician, died last month while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated. His allies, family members and Western officials blamed the death on the Kremlin, accusations it has rejected.

The politician’s associates said officials listed “natural causes” on paperwork Navalny’s mother was shown when she was trying to retrieve his body.

Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow of his own accord after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was immediately arrested. The Kremlin has vehemently denied it was behind the poisoning.

Pevchikh claimed that there was a plan to swap Navalny and two US citizens held in Russia for Vadim Krasikov. He was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent. German judges said Krasikov acted on the orders of Russian authorities.

She didn’t identify the US citizens that were supposedly part of the deal. There are several in custody in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, convicted of espionage and serving a long prison sentence. They and the US government dispute the charges against them.

German officials have refused to comment when asked if there had been any effort by Russia to swap Krasikov.

Putin had earlier said that the Kremlin was open to negotiations on Gershkovich. He pointed to a man imprisoned in a “US-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya. Putin didn’t mention names but appeared to refer to Krasikov.

The Palestinian Al-Naji family eats an iftar meal, the breaking of fast, amidst the ruins of their family house

Rafah: With no end to the war sight, Palestinians in Gaza began fasting Monday for the holy month of Ramzan as hunger worsens across the strip and pressure is raised on Israel over the growing humanitarian crisis.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt had hoped to broker a cease-fire ahead of the normally joyous month of dawn-to-dusk fasting that would include the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of much more humanitarian aid. But the cease-fire talks stalled last week.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the bodies of 67 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours, bringing the Palestinian death toll to more than 31,112 since the war began. The ministry says that women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

The war began when Hamas-led group stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Hamas is still believed to still be holding around 100 captives and the remains of others.

Five months of war have forced around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.

Rio De Janeiro : Brazilian police said Tuesday they released 17 hostages from a gunman that took over a crowded bus in Rio de Janeiro and wounded at least two people.

Rio police said in its social media channels that all hostages aboard a bus parked at one of the city’s main terminals had been freed “after a successful work of negotiation” led by its elite squad.

The man’s motive remains unclear, Police Col. Marco Andrade said in an interview on TV news channel Globo News. “We have children and older people inside the bus,” Andrade said, adding that very little was known at this stage.

The bus was parked at the Sao Cristovao terminal in the city center and was scheduled to head to the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.

Police cars and ambulances could be seen waiting near the bus, while thousands of passengers were stranded waiting for information on scheduled travel.

People interviewed on TV said they heard several gunshots, causing panic inside the crowded terminal.

Washington: Incumbent US President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump won their respective parties’ Michigan’s presidential primaries on Tuesday, and the two candidates continue marching toward a likely rematch in the November 2024 race for the White House.

Trump easily defeated his main rival, Indian-American Nikki Haley, winning yet another early contest and additional delegates bringing him one step closer to being able to formally secure the Republican Party’s nomination.

When last reports came in, Haley had received 28.9 per cent of the votes as against Trump’s 66.4 per cent. The New York Times projected that 77-year-old Trump would sweep the Michigan primary with more than 40 per cent of the votes against 52-year-old Haley.

Biden thanked every Michigander who made their voice heard.

“I want to thank every Michigander who made their voice heard today. Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great,” Biden said in a statement.

“Four years ago, it was Michigan’s diverse coalition that came together to reject Donald Trump’s MAGA extremism and sent me and Kamala to the White House. Because of Michiganders, we’ve been able to work hand in hand with Governor Whitmer and the incredible Democratic leaders in Michigan’s congressional delegation to deliver enormous progress…,” he said.

However, a key feature of the Democratic primary in Michigan, which has a significant Muslim population, as over 14 per cent of Biden’s Democratic voters cast ballots for the “uncommitted” as part of their protest against the 81-year-old president for his handling of the Israel-Palestine war.

“Joe Biden is losing about 20 per cent of the Democratic vote today, and many say it’s a sign of his weakness in November. Donald Trump is losing about 35 per cent of the vote. That’s a flashing warning sign for Trump in November. Since Trump became president in 2016, he lost Michigan Republicans the state House, state Senate, and Governor’s mansion. What was once a beacon for the conservative cause, the Michigan Republican Party is now fractured and divided,” Nikki Haley for President campaign’s national spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said in a statement after the results came out.

“Let this serve as another warning sign that what has happened in Michigan will continue to play out across the country. So as long as Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, Republicans will keep losing to the socialist left. Our children deserve better,” Perez-Cubas said.

In New Hampshire and South Carolina, Haley got about 40 per cent of the votes. Next Tuesday primaries will be held in 21 States. Given the current trend, Trump is expected to emerge as the presumptive nominee of the Republican party by March 2.
This will result in a rematch of the 2020 elections: Biden vs Trump.

However, according to The Washington Post, both Trump and Biden are facing internal challenges within the party.

“Trump continues to face a faction of Republicans who refuse to back his candidacy despite his chokehold on the nomination. Biden was confronted with a protest movement urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the primary over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Early returns showed that “uncommitted” was poised to easily garner more than 10 per cent of the vote statewide,” the Politico reported.

While for Biden, the main political threat has come from progressives and like-minded voters, for Trump, the threats have been both political and legal.

“His unbroken swing of early state victories has given him a commanding position in Republican politics. But he remains embroiled in court cases stemming from his business practices and his time in office,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Haley campaign said that it was going ahead with the Super Tuesday fight.

“She’s in Michigan today and heading to Super Tuesday states across the country over the next week. We must get it right this election!” said the campaign.

In an interview with CNN, Haley said that she has concerns about both Biden and Trump.

“I have serious concerns about Donald Trump. I have even more concerns about Joe Biden. But I don’t think either one should be president, and that’s why I’m running. And so I’m going to continue to run as long as Americans say they want a choice, as long as Americans say they want someone to vote for. I’m going to continue to do that,” she said.

“And what a blessing it is in America that we can. This is not Russia where you’ve got a dictator that goes and kills his political opponents. This is America where people can have their voices heard. This is America where you can go and be anything you want to be without anyone getting in the way. This is America that was built on faith, family, and country,” Haley told CNN.

“That’s what I’m trying to do is get us to remember our purpose, get us to remember who we are as Americans in the first place. Not a divided country, not a divided party, not a country sitting in anger, but one sitting in hope and energy and saying that we’re going to do this for our kids. That’s what I’m going to keep fighting for. I’m not going to think about what’s going to happen 10 days, two months, three months from now,” she said in response to a question.

TEL AVIV: An Israeli military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah could be “delayed somewhat” if a deal is reached for a weekslong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, and claimed that total victory in the territory would come within weeks once the offensive begins.

Netanyahu confirmed to CBS that a deal is in the works, with no details. Talks resumed Sunday in Qatar at the specialist level, Egypt’s state-run Al Qahera TV reported, citing an Egyptian official as saying discussions would follow in Cairo with the aim of achieving the cease-fire and release of dozens of hostages held in Gaza as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel

Meanwhile, Israel is nearing the approval of plans to expand its offensive against the Hamas militant group to Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, where more than half the besieged territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge. Humanitarian groups warn of a catastrophe. Rafah is Gaza’s main entry point for aid. The U.S. and other allies say Israel must avoid harming civilians.

Netanyahu has said he will convene the Cabinet this week to approve operational plans that include the evacuation of civilians to elsewhere in Gaza.

“Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion. Not months,” Netanyahu told CBS. ““If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway.” He said four of the six remaining Hamas battalions are concentrated in Rafah.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC that President Joe Biden hadn’t been briefed on the Rafah plan. “We believe that this operation should not go forward until or unless we see (a plan to protect civilians),” Sullivan said.

Early Monday, Netanyahu’s office said the army had presented to the War Cabinet its “operational plan” for Rafah as well as plans to evacuate civilians from the battle zones. It gave no further details.

United Nations agencies and aid groups say the hostilities, the Israeli military’s refusal to facilitate deliveries and the breakdown of order inside Gaza make it increasingly difficult to get vital aid to much of the coastal enclave. In some chaotic scenes, crowds of desperate Palestinians have surrounded delivery trucks and stolen the supplies off them.

Heavy fighting continued in parts of northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, where the destruction is staggering.

“We’re trapped, unable to move because of the heavy bombardment,” said Gaza City resident Ayman Abu Awad.

Palestinians wait for humanitarian aid on a beachfront in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.(Photo | AP)

He said that starving residents have been forced to eat animal fodder and search for food in demolished buildings. In nearby Jabaliya, market vendor Um Ayad showed off a leafy weed that people pick from the harsh, dry soil and eat.

“We have to feed the children. They keep screaming they want food. We cannot find food. We don’t know what to do,” she said.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, said it has not been able to deliver food to northern Gaza since Jan. 23, adding on X, formerly Twitter, that “our calls to send food aid have been denied

Israel said that 245 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday — less than half the amount that entered daily before the war.

A senior official from Egypt, which along with Qatar is a mediator between Israel and Hamas, has said the draft cease-fire deal includes the release of up to 40 women and older hostages in return for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women, minors and older people.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the proposed six-week pause in fighting would include allowing hundreds of trucks to bring desperately needed aid into Gaza every day, including the north. He said both sides agreed to continue negotiations during the pause for further releases and a permanent cease-fire.

Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Hamas says it has not been involved in the latest proposal developed by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but the reported outline largely matches its earlier proposal for the first phase of a truce.

Hamas has said it won’t release all of the remaining hostages until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws its forces from the territory, and is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants. Netanyahu has rejected those conditions.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday made clear that a cease-fire deal for Gaza wouldn’t affect the military’s daily low-level clashes with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

“We will continue the fire, and we will do so independently from the south,” he said while visiting the Northern Command.

Israel declared war after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. More than 100 hostages were released in a cease-fire deal in November. More than 130 remain in captivity, a fourth of them believed to be dead.

Families have followed the negotiations with hope and anguish.

“It feels like Schindler’s list. Will he be on the list or not?” Shelly Shem Tov, the mother of Omer, 21, told Israeli Army Radio of his chances of being freed.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population from their homes, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation and the spread of disease. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says 29,692 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and children.

The ministry’s death toll doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says its troops have killed more than 10,000 militants, without providing evidence

The war has devastated Gaza’s health sector. Less than half of hospitals even partially function.

At the Emirates Hospital in Rafah, three to four newborns are placed in each of its 20 incubators, which are designed for just one.

Dr. Amal Ismail said two to three newborns die in a single shift, in part because many families live in tents in rainy, cold weather. Before the war, one or two newborns in incubators there died per month.

“No matter how much we work with them, it is all wasted,” she said. “Health conditions in tents are very bad.”