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The Israeli military said Tuesday that the remains of four deceased hostages returned by Hamas have been identified, including those of a Nepalese student.Separately, a Gaza hospital said it has received the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been handed back by Israel, also as part of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war.In a statement, the Israeli military named two of the victims as Guy Iluz, an Israeli national, and Bipin Joshi, an agriculture student from Nepal.The names of the other two hostages have not yet been released at the request of their families, the statement added.Iluz, who was 26 at the time of the attack, had been attending the Nova music festival when assault happened on October 7, 2023.Joshi, who was 22 at the time of the attack, was part of a Nepalese agricultural training group that had arrived in Israel three weeks before the Hamas assault.He was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim.Hamas returned the four bodies on Monday, following the release of all 20 surviving captives as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by Trump.Meanwhile, the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody were handed over to the Nasser Medical Centre in Gaza, the hospital said.Under the Trump deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.Palestinian fighters are still holding the bodies of 24 hostages, which are expected to be returned under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza Monday under a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as US President Donald Trump told Israel's parliament that peace had arrived in the Middle East. The Israeli military said it had received all 20 hostages confirmed to be alive, after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross. The announcement prompted cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv. In Gaza, thousands of relatives, many weeping with joy, gathered at a hospital where buses brought home some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed by Israel as part of the accord. "The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace," Trump told the Knesset, Israel's parliament, saying a "long nightmare" for both Israelis and Palestinians was over. He later left for a summit in Egypt intended to cement the truce. The US, along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye, mediated what has been described as a first phase agreement between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas and prisoners and detainees by Israel. Trump arrived in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about an hour before sundown for the gathering of more than 20 world leaders, which he was to chair alongside President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At the opening of the summit, Trump signed a document on the ceasefire deal with Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye. The ceasefire and partial Israeli withdrawal agreed last week halted one of Israel's biggest offensives of the war, an all-out assault on Gaza City that was killing scores of people per day. Since then, huge numbers of Palestinians have been able to return to the ruins of homes in the Gaza Strip, swathes of which were reduced to a wasteland by Israeli bombardment that killed 68,000 people. Among the immediate issues still to be resolved: recovering the remains of another 26 Israeli hostages believed to have died and two whose fates are unknown. Hamas says recovering the bodies could take time as not all burial sites are known. It handed over four bodies Monday. Aid supplies must be rushed into the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people face famine. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher underlined the need to "get shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively scale up the food and medicine and other supplies going in". Beyond that, crucial issues have yet to be resolved, including how to govern and police Gaza, and the ultimate future of Hamas, which still rejects Israel's demands to disarm. Video footage captured emotional scenes of Israeli families receiving phone messages from their loved ones as they were being released, their faces lighting up with disbelief and hope after months of anguish. Palestinians meanwhile rushed to embrace prisoners freed by Israel. Several thousand gathered inside and around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, some waving Palestinian flags, others holding photos of their relatives. "I am happy for our sons who are being freed, but we are still in pain for all those who have been killed by the occupation, and all the destruction that happened to our Gaza," a Gaza woman, Um Ahmed, told Reuters in a tearful voice message. Freed prisoners arrived in buses, some of them posing from the windows, flashing V-for-Victory signs. Israel was due to release 1,700 detainees it captured in Gaza, as well as 250 prisoners from its jails convicted or suspected of security offences. Samer Halabeya, a doctor freed from jail where he was serving a sentence for planning an attack that wounded an Israeli officer, stood by his weeping mother in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. "We hope that everyone gets freed," he said.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held in Gaza for a third day on Sunday ahead of the expected release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the Gaza peace summit in Cairo. Thousands of Palestinians continued to travel north towards Gaza City, the focus of Israeli attacks over the past two months, hopeful the ceasefire would bring an end to the war. "There is a lot of joy among the people," said Abdou Abu Seada, adding that the joy was tempered by exhaustion after two years of war that has destroyed much of Gaza. Government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said that Israel expected the hostages to start being released early Monday morning with the 20 living hostages to be released together. In the event that hostages were released earlier, Israel was ready to receive them, she said. Their release is to be followed later by the handover of bodies of the remaining 28 deceased hostages. Hamas will release its remaining hostages on Monday and will play no role in Gaza's future government, the group told AFP, as US President Donald Trump and other world leaders prepared to convene in Egypt for a major peace summit. Trump will first pass through Israel, addressing parliament and meeting with hostage families Monday before heading to Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh for the summit, where a "document ending the war in the Gaza Strip" is expected to be signed, according to Cairo's foreign ministry. As anxious but relieved Israeli families counted down the hours until their loved ones' return, desperate Palestinians picked through the ruins of their homes in Gaza City and aid trucks queued to deliver badly needed supplies. The third day of the ceasefire saw some aid trucks cross into Gaza, but residents in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip, said some shipments were being ransacked by starving residents in chaotic scenes. "We don't want to live in a jungle. We demand aid be secured and respectfully distributed," said Mohammed Zarab. "Look at how the food is lying on the ground. Look! People and cars are trampling it." For Mahmud al-Muzain, another bystander, the seizure of the aid parcels showed that Gaza did not trust that the US-led negotiations would lead to a long-term peace. "Everyone fears the war will return. People steal the aid and store it in their homes," he told AFP. "We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back." Any optimism that 38-year-old Fatima Salem might have felt when Israeli forces withdrew from her neighbourhood in Gaza City was shattered when she returned home to find it gone. "I returned to Sheikh Radwan with my heart trembling," she told AFP. "My eyes kept searching for landmarks I had lost -- nothing looked the same, even the neighbours' houses were gone. "Despite the exhaustion and fear, I felt like I was coming back to my safe place. I missed the smell of my home, even if it's now just rubble. We will pitch a tent next to it and wait for reconstruction." The Israel Prison Service said it had transferred some Palestinian prisoners to other facilities ahead of their expected release. The Israeli Ministry of Justice has released the names of 250 Palestinians, convicted of murder and other serious crimes, who are to be freed under the deal. The list does not include senior Hamas commanders that the Islamist militant group had sought to free, or prominent figures from other factions such as Marwan Al Barghouti or Ahmed Saadat. Although that was not expected to derail the agreement, Hamas' prisoners information office said that talks with Israeli mediators over the list of prisoners to be freed were ongoing. Israel is also to release 1,700 Palestinians who have been detained in Gaza since October 7, 2023 and 22 Palestinian minors, along with the bodies of 360 militants. Israeli government spokesperson Bedrosian said the prisoners would be released once the living hostages reach Israeli territory. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that once the hostages were returned, the military would destroy underground tunnels in Gaza built by Hamas. Palestinians returning to northern Gaza have described widespread devastation. Rescue workers warned there could be unexploded ordnance and bombs in the area. Amjad Al Shawa, who heads a Palestinian organisation coordinating with aid groups, estimated 300,000 tents were needed to temporarily house 1.5 million displaced Gazans. "We couldn't believe the destruction we have seen," Rami Mohammad-Ali, 37, said by phone after walking 15 km with his son from Deir Al Balah to Gaza City. Israelis were looking forward keenly to Monday, when Hamas is expected to release its remaining 48 hostages, living and dead. Late Saturday, massive crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to support hostage families and cheer Trump's peace envoy, Steve Witkoff. Thousands packed "Hostage Square" -- the scene of many protests and vigils during the two years since Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attacks triggered the latest war -- chanting "Thank you Trump!". "My emotions are immense, there are no words to describe them -- for me, for us, for all of Israel, which wants the hostages home and waits to see them all return," said Einav Zangauker, mother of 25-year-old hostage Matan Zangauker. Hamas will free the captives, 20 of whom Israel believes are still alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 prisoners held in Israeli jails. "According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview. After Trump's visit to Israel on Monday, he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a summit of leaders from more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian presidency announced. The meeting will aim "to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security", it said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he will attend, as has Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Hamas and Israel are not expected to take part. Despite the apparent breakthrough, mediators still have the tricky task of securing a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand over its weapons and step aside from running Gaza. A Hamas source close to the group's negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday that it would not participate in post-war Gaza governance. "Hamas will not participate at all in the transitional phase, which means it has relinquished control of the Strip, but it remains a fundamental part of the Palestinian fabric," the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. But the official pushed back on calls for Hamas to lay down its weapons. "Hamas agrees to a long-term truce, and for its weapons not to be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza," the source said. Under the Trump plan, as Israel conducts a phased withdrawal from Gaza's cities, it will be replaced by a multi-national force from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a US-led command centre in Israel. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas began indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday that the US hopes will bring a halt to the war in Gaza, facing contentious issues such as demands that Israel pull out of the enclave and Hamas to disarm.Israel and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind President Donald Trump's plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza, the closest they have come to an end to fighting.The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states. Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the fighting.Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a transitional authority headed by Trump himself."I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST," Trump said in a social media post.But both sides are seeking clarifications of crucial details, including over issues that have wrecked all previous attempts to end the war and could defy any quick resolution.Trump has told Israel to suspend its bombing of Gaza for the talks. Gaza residents said Israel had scaled back its offensive substantially, although it had not halted it altogether.Egyptian state TV reported that the talks had begun at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.Egyptian sources said Hamas was seeking clarification of several details, including guarantees that Israel would follow through with promises to withdraw its troops from Gaza once the militants give up their leverage by freeing their hostages.Inside Israel there is clamour for an end to the war to bring home hostages, although right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet oppose any halt to fighting.Though Trump says he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks would require at least a few days.An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump's deadline to send all hostages back within 72 hours could be impossible to meet in the case of bodies of dead hostages, some of which would need to be located and recovered from burial sites scattered across the battlefield.A Palestinian official close to the talks was sceptical about prospects of a breakthrough given deep mutual mistrust, saying Hamas and other Palestinian factions were worried that Israel might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch. Israel's chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials.Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are also expected in Egypt.The Hamas delegation is led by the group's exiled Gaza leader, Khalil al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli airstrike that killed his son in Doha, the Qatari capital, a month ago.Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt's state intelligence, said "Egyptian and Qatari mediators are working with both sides to establish a mechanism" for the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.Behind closed doors and under tight security, negotiators will speak through mediators shuttling back and forth.According to the Palestinian source, the initial hostage-prisoner exchange will "require several days, depending on field conditions related to Israeli withdrawals, the cessation of bombardment and the suspension of all types of air operations".Negotiations will look to "determine the date of a temporary truce", a Hamas official said, as well as create conditions for a first phase of the plan, in which 47 hostages held in Gaza are to be released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has coordinated previous exchanges, said its teams were standing at the ready "to help bring hostages and detainees back to their families".On Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised Trump's plan saying it offered "the right path to lasting peace and stability".

Hamas on Sunday called for a swift start to a hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel, as negotiators from the two warring sides were set to meet in Egypt for crucial talks aimed at ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza.Foreign ministers of several countries, including Egypt, said the talks were a "real opportunity" to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire."Hamas is very keen to reach an agreement to end the war and immediately begin the prisoner exchange process in accordance with the field conditions," a senior Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The diplomatic push follows the Palestinian group's positive response to US President Donald Trump's roadmap for an end to the fighting and the release of captives in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Negotiators are due to hold talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing hope that hostages held in Gaza could be released within days.Netanyahu said Saturday he had instructed negotiators to go to Egypt "to finalise the technical details", while Cairo confirmed it would also be hosting a delegation from Hamas for talks on "the ground conditions and details of the exchange of all Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners".An Israeli government spokesperson said the country's delegation would be leaving Sunday evening, with talks slated to start Monday -- the eve of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.The White House said Trump had also sent two envoys to Egypt -- his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff."During communications with mediators, Hamas insisted that it is essential for Israel to halt military operations across all areas of the Gaza Strip, cease all air, reconnaissance, and drone activity, and withdraw from inside Gaza City," a Palestinian source close to Hamas said, adding the group would "also halt their military operations" in parallel.According to Trump's plan, in return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and more than 1,700 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after the war began.But Trump has warned he will "not tolerate delay" from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly towards a deal "or else all bets will be off".Trump said on Truth Social that Israel had agreed to an initial line of withdrawal in Gaza and that this had been shared with Hamas."When Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective, the Hostages and Prisoner Exchange will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal," he posted, alongside a map of the proposed line.Despite Trump calling on Israel to halt its bombings, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Gaza.AFPTV footage showed thick smoke billowing over the skyline over the coastal territory on Sunday.Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Gaza City in the morning, after several attacks through the night. Nearly 60 people were killed across the territory the day before, it said.The United Nations had estimated that around one million people were living in the area before the start of the assault."There has been a noticeable decrease in the number of air strikes (since last night). The tanks and military vehicles have slightly pulled back, but I believe this is a tactical move, not a withdrawal," said Muin Abu Rajab, 40, a resident of Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City.Hamas has insisted it should have a say in the territory's future, though Trump's roadmap stipulates that it and other factions "not have any role in the governance of Gaza".The plan also calls for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas's disarmament -- something the group has frequently described as a red line in the past.Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself."We hope Trump will pressure Netanyahu and force him to stop the war," said Ahmad Barbakh, a resident of Al-Mawasi area."We want the prisoner exchange deal to be completed quickly so that Israel has no excuse to continue the war."

President Donald Trump unveiled a wide-ranging Gaza peace plan Monday and won backing from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The 20-point plan, which Trump has also circulated to Arab leaders, calls for a ceasefire, release of hostages by Hamas, disarmament of Hamas and gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.Other key points include deployment of a "temporary international stabilisation force" and creation of a transitional authority headed by Trump himself and featuring other foreign leaders.The deal would demand resistance movement Hamas fighters fully disarm and be excluded from future roles in the government. However, those who agreed to "peaceful co-existence" would be given amnesty.Following Israeli withdrawal, the borders would be opened to aid and investment.In a crucial change from Trump's earlier apparent goals, Palestinians will not be forced to leave Gaza and instead, the document said, "we will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza."Netanyahu made clear he was in favour, saying it "achieves our war aims," while Trump said he was hopeful that Hamas would also give its backing.Approval from all sides was "beyond very close," Trump said. Proposal calls for release of hostages within 48 hours of ceasefire.However, many important details remained to be clarified.The US president had met key Arab leaders at the United Nations last week and said Sunday on social media that " all are on board for something special, first time ever".Normally a staunch ally of Netanyahu, the US president has shown increasing signs of frustration ahead of the Israeli premier's fourth White House visit since Trump's return to power.Trump was infuriated by Israel's recent strike on Hamas members in key US ally Qatar.And he warned Netanyahu last week against annexing the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as some of Netanyahu's cabinet members have urged, a move that would seriously complicate the route to Palestinian statehood.Netanyahu's coalition government is propped up by the far-right ministers who oppose a peace deal.Hamas' apparent absence from the negotiations has raised questions about the prospects for the latest initiative.Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued across the Gaza Strip, killing at least four people in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run territory's civil defense agency.Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza urged Trump to uphold his Gaza proposal.And in Gaza, people expressed a mix of hope, exhaustion and distrust ahead of the White House meeting.Israel's offensive has killed 66,055 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory.

Israel-Premier Tech have been excluded from the Giro dell'Emilia cycling race on October 4 in Italy for 'safety reasons', the organisers told AFP on Saturday.The Giro dell'Emilia, whose 2024 edition was won by cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar, will cover 199 kilometres from Mirandola to Bologna in northern Italy.The race concludes with a climb to the Madonna di San Luca sanctuary, not far from the historic centre of Bologna which has a large student population and a long history of left-wing politics.This week Bologna's local government, controlled by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) called for Israel-Premier Tech's exclusion, citing "the Israeli government as guilty of serious crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."Roberta Li Calzi, the city's sports councillor, welcomed the decision to exclude the team."Given what is happening in Gaza it would have been hypocritical to consider the presence of a team linked to this (Israeli) government as insignificant," she said in a statement.Adriano Amici, president of GS Emilia which organises the one-day race, said the team "will unfortunately not be present at our race. We had to make this decision for reasons of public security.""There's too much danger for both the Israel Tech riders and others. The race's final circuit is run five times so the possibility of the race being disrupted is very high."It's a decision I regret having to make from a sporting perspective, but I had no other choice for public safety."The race is a ProSeries event, road cycling's second tier after the World Tour, and is a dress rehearsal for Il Lombardia, the final Monument of the year which takes place the following weekend.Four stages of this year's Vuelta, including the finale in Madrid, had to be cut short due to mass protests against Israel's continued offensive in Gaza and the participation in the event of the team, owned by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams.The Premier Tech group which co-sponsors the team and is the manufacturer that supplies the riders with their bikes, wants the team to remove the world "Israel" from the name.

Lebanese President Gen. Joseph Aoun, in a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, called on Washington to press Israel to commit to a cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon. During the meeting, held on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Lebanese President also stressed the need to ensure Israel's withdrawal from occupied positions, the release of detained Lebanese prisoners, and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. President Aoun further urged US assistance in equipping and resourcing the Lebanese Army to enable it to carry out its nationwide security mandate. He also called for US support for efforts to convene an international conference dedicated to Lebanon's reconstruction. Secretary Rubio reaffirmed Washington's continued support for Lebanon and commended the efforts of President Aoun and the Lebanese government to restore stability and resilience.

From the music, film to publishing industries, growing numbers of Western artists are calling for a cultural boycott of Israel over the Gaza war, hoping to emulate the success of the apartheid-era blockade of South Africa.With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions, musicians, celebrities and writers are hoping to build public pressure for more action."There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that, globally, we're at a tipping point," British actor Khalid Abdalla ("The Kite Runner", "The Crown") told AFP after signing a petition calling for a boycott of some Israeli cinema bodies.The open letter from Film Workers for Palestine has gathered thousands of signatories, including Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, who have pledged to cut ties with any Israeli institutions "implicated in genocide"."The avalanche is happening now, and it's across spheres. It's not just in the film worker sphere," Abdalla added during an interview on Friday.At this week's Emmy Awards, winner after winner, from Javier Bardem to "Hacks" actor Hannah Einbinder, spoke about Gaza, echoing similar statements at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.On Thursday, British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack announced they were joining a music collective called "No Music for Genocide" that will see artists try to block the streaming of their songs in Israel.Elsewhere, Israel faces being boycotted at the Eurovision song contest, authors have signed open letters, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is leading a push to exclude the country from sports events.Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov announced last week at a concert in Britain that he would no longer perform in his home country."I think we are seeing a situation which is comparable to the boycott movement against apartheid South Africa," Hakan Thorn, a Swedish academic at the University of Gothenburg who wrote a book on the South Africa boycott movement."There was definitely a shift in the spring of this year when the world saw the images of the famine in Gaza," added the sociologist.The international boycott of South Africa's white supremacist government began in earnest in the early 1960s after a massacre of black protesters by police in the Sharpeville township.It culminated with artists and sports teams refusing to play there, with boycott busters such as Queen or Frank Sinatra facing widespread public criticism."The history of the Holocaust and criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement for being antisemitic has been a serious obstacle to a broader mobilisation against what Israel is doing right now," explained Thorn.A campaign to boycott Israel, known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, began 20 years ago over the country's occupation of Palestinian territory.Although the anti-apartheid movement is referenced by today's campaigners against the Gaza war, history provides some sobering lessons for them.After the start of the South Africa boycott movement, it took 30 years before the regime fell, exposing the limits of international pressure campaigns."By the early 1970s, it's true to say that boycott was the defining principle of a self-identified global anti-apartheid movement, but the movement on its own was not enough," Feldman, who wrote a book about boycotts, added.The real pain was caused by the gradual asphyxiation of the South African economy as companies and banks withdrew under pressure, while the end of the Cold War sharply increased the country's isolation.Inside Israel, many artists worry about the consequences of the boycott movement.Acclaimed Israeli screenwriter Hagai Levi ("Scenes from a Marriage", "The Affair") told AFP earlier this month that "90 percent of people in the artistic community" were against the war."They're struggling, and boycotting them is actually weakening them."

British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have joined other bands and musicians in seeking to block their tracks being streamed in Israel as part of a cultural boycott campaign over the war in Gaza.The Bristol natives said they had joined "No Music for Genocide", a new collective of musicians modelled on the "Film Workers for Palestine" group.Massive Attack, who have nearly eight million monthly listeners on Spotify, wrote on Instagram on Thursday that they had asked their label, Universal, that "our music be removed from all... streaming services in the territory of Israel".A website for "No Music for Genocide" says it brings together more than 400 artists and labels that "have geo-blocked and removed their music" from Israel in protest at the country's Gaza campaign.On its website, it offers advice to artists on how to geo-block their songs to make them unavailable on streaming platforms in Israel.Massive Attack also announced that they had asked Universal to remove all of their songs from Spotify over investments in a European defence start-up by the CEO of the Swedish streaming platform.Daniel Ek, Spotify's co-founder and CEO, also runs a private equity company that led a consortium of investors which injected 600 million euros ($705 million) in European military artificial intelligence and drone maker Helsing in June.Ek is also chairman of Helsing, which says on its website that its mission is "to protect our democratic values and open societies".Massive Attack, who are long-time anti-war campaigners, criticised the links between Spotify and Helsing, saying that "the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians funds lethal, dystopian technologies".Spotify declined to comment when contacted by AFP, but a spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper that Spotify and Helsing were "totally separate companies" and Helsing was "not involved in Gaza"."Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defence against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only," said a statement from Helsing on its website.Like many other campaigners, Massive Attack cited the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa as inspiration for their actions against Israel."Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable," the group said.After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many music industry companies withdrew or announced measures against Russia.Spotify closed its Moscow office and removed some sanctioned pro-war artists from the platform.Major record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner all suspended their operations there and called for an end to the violence.Massive Attack took part in a major concert in London on Wednesday evening called "Together for Palestine" featuring top British artists including indie band Bastille, Brian Eno and DJ Jamie xx.With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions on Israel over the Gaza war, increasing numbers of musicians, actors and writers are speaking out in the hope of building public pressure for more action.

Israel rigged pagers, walkie-talkies to explodeBlasts killed dozens, wounded thousands including childrenVictims still undergoing surgeryUN called attack 'unacceptable'Zainab Mustarah once spent her days running an events planning firm in Beirut. But for the last year, she has been in and out of surgery to save the remnants of her right hand and both eyes, maimed when Israel detonated booby-trapped pagers in Lebanon.On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers carried by members of Lebanese group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously, followed the next day by booby-trapped walkie-talkies.Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 3,400 wounded, including children and other civilians who were near the devices when they blew up but were not members of the group. Mustarah, now 27, was one of the wounded. She told Reuters she was working from home when the pager, which belonged to a relative, beeped as if receiving a message. It exploded without her touching it, leaving her conscious but with severe wounds to her face and hand.Her last year has been a flurry of 14 operations, including in Iran, with seven cosmetic reconstruction surgeries left to go. She lost the fingers on her right hand and 90% of her sight.“I can no longer continue with interior design because my vision is 10%. God willing, next year we will see which university majors will suit my wounds, so I can continue,” she said. The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies were the opening salvo of a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light for the attacks, his spokesperson said two months later.A Reuters investigation found that Israel had concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a detonator into thousands of pagers procured by the group.They were carried by fighters, but also by members of Hezbollah’s social services branches and medical services.The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said at the time that the explosions were “shocking, and their impact on civilians unacceptable.” He said simultaneously targeting thousands of people without knowing precisely who was in possession of the targeted devices, or where they were, “violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.”Mohammed Nasser al-Din, 34, was the director of the medical equipment and engineering department at Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital, a Hezbollah-affiliated facility, at the time of the pager blasts. He said he had a pager to be easily reached for any maintenance needs there.At the hospital on September 17 last year, he spoke by phone with his wife to check in on their son’s first day back at school.Moments later, his pager exploded.The blast cost him his left eye and left fingers and lodged shrapnel in his skull. He lay in a coma for two weeks and is still undergoing surgeries to his face.He woke to learn of the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a barrage of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a turning point for the group and its supporters.But Nasser al-Din did not shed a tear — until his son saw the state he was in. “The distress I felt was over how my son could accept that my condition was like this,” he said.Elias Jrade, a Lebanese member of parliament and eye surgeon who conducted dozens of operations on those affected, said that some of the cases would have to receive lifelong treatment.“There were children and women who would ask, what happened to us? And you can’t answer them,” he told Reuters.

A billboard in Times Square displays the message "Soccer Federations: Boycott Israel" as part of the campaign by Game Over Israel calling for a boycott of Israel by national soccer federations over the war in Gaza, in New York City, U.S.A group of sympathisers for Gaza is demanding that national soccer federations boycott Israel over its killing of hundreds of Palestinian athletes in Gaza.