Saturday 26,July 2025 {HMC} French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a joint declaration on Friday urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian aid.

“The time has come to end the war in Gaza,” the leaders said in a statement following a tripartite phone call. They emphasized that a negotiated truce is “the best chance to bring the hostages home, end the anguish of their families, and finally bring relief to the civilian population in Gaza.”

The statement described the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as unacceptable and called for urgent action to meet the population’s most basic needs, including access to food and water. “Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” the leaders said, calling on Israel to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to allow the United Nations and humanitarian NGOs to operate without obstruction.

“Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law,” the statement underlined.

The three leaders also voiced strong opposition to any efforts to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They warned that threats of annexation, settlement expansion, and acts of settler violence against Palestinians severely undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution.

Looking ahead, the statement stressed that Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from any future governance of Gaza. The leaders said the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the removal of Hamas leadership are essential steps toward achieving a sustainable political resolution.

France, Britain and Germany pledged to work with international partners on a specific and credible plan for the next phase in Gaza. This plan, they said, would focus on enabling the large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid, restoring stability, and laying the groundwork for renewed political dialogue.

The call came a day after President Macron announced France’s intention to formally recognize the State of Palestine. German Chancellor Merz, while also describing the situation in Gaza as “unacceptable,” said Germany had no immediate plans to do the same.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Saturday 26,July 2025 {HMC} France will recognise Palestine as a state, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Macron said in a post on X on Thursday that he will formalise the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

“In keeping with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote.

“I will solemnly announce this at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year,” he added.

The move makes France the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to move to recognise a Palestinian state, after European Union members Norway, Ireland and Spain indicated they would also begin the same process.

At least 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, but several powerful Western countries have refused to do so. They include the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The announcement comes as European anger over Israel’s war on Gaza, in which Israel has killed 59,587 Palestinians and imposed severe restrictions on aid deliveries that have led to a hunger crisis, has grown.

Earlier this week, France joined the UK, Australia, Canada and 21 other allies of Israel in condemning restrictions on aid shipments into Gaza, as well as the killings of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food.

The joint statement, the most significant yet from Western countries, said the war “must end now”.

Macron had previously indicated his “determination to recognise the state of Palestine”, and France’s foreign minister is set to co-host a conference at the UN next week on a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.

The UK government has also said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to coordinate with allies France and Germany in an urgent phone call regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip on Friday.

Starmer said that a ceasefire in Gaza will “put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution, which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis”.

‘Commitment to international law’
In his post on Thursday, Macron shared a letter to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in which he outlined his intent.

In response, Abbas’s deputy, Hussein al-Sheikh, praised the French leader.

“This position reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state,” Sheikh said.

Hamas also hailed Macron’s announcement as a “positive step” and urged all countries to do the same.

“We consider this a positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and supporting their legitimate right to self-determination,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We call on all countries of the world – especially European nations and those that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine – to follow France’s lead,” Hamas added.

Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally declared an independent Palestinian state during the First Intifada in 1988, with Algeria swiftly becoming the first country to officially recognise the state.

Dozens of countries, predominantly in the Middle East and Africa, followed within a week, in a list that has grown steadily since Israel launched its war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

But major barriers remain to the creation of a future Palestinian state.

Israel currently occupies the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, long considered the capital of the future Palestinian state.

The Israeli government has overseen a major expansion of Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, across the occupied West Bank, in what rights observers have described as effective annexation.

Earlier this week, Israel’s parliament approved a symbolic measure explicitly calling for the annexation of the territory, which it initially seized in the 1967 war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Macron’s announcement.

“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

“A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launchpad to annihilate Israel,” the statement read.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called the move “a disgrace and a surrender to terrorism”.

“We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence, and undermine our historical right to the Land of Israel,” he said.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Saturday 26,July 2025 {HMC} Somali government has welcomed the French government’s plan to officially recognise the State of Palestine.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday via a post on X that he will formalise the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

In a statement released on Friday, July 25, 2025, the Somali government lauded the move as a crucial step toward affirming the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
The government underscored that France’s declaration represents a reaffirmation of the Palestinian people’s inherent right to self-determination and sovereign statehood—an act fully aligned with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions concerning the Palestinian question.

Somalia described France’s decision as a “timely and courageous contribution” to the growing international consensus advocating for justice, lasting peace, and the implementation of a two-state solution.

“In keeping with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote.

“I will solemnly announce this at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year,” he added.

The move positions France as the largest and most influential European nation to declare its intent to recognize a Palestinian state—following similar declarations from Norway, Ireland, and Spain.

Currently, at least 142 of the 193 United Nations member states either recognise or plan to recognise Palestinian statehood. However, key Western powers—including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany—have yet to do so.

France’s announcement comes amid growing European outrage over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed 59,587 Palestinians and triggered a worsening humanitarian crisis due to severe restrictions on aid deliveries

Source Hiiraan online

Saturday 26,July 2025 {HMC} Puntland regional security forces, in collaboration with their U.S. counterparts, have captured a senior ISIS-Somalia leader during a coordinated counterterrorism operation in the mountainous areas of the Bari region, according to a brief statement published on the official website of Operation Hilaac.

The detained individual was identified as Abdiweli Mohamed Aw Yusuf, also known as Abdiweli Walalac, who served as the head of finance and foreign relations for ISIS-Somalia. He was captured along with two others during the operation.

Abdiweli Walalac was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in July 2023, placing him on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
According to a statement from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Abdiweli played a significant role in supplying ISIS-Somalia with foreign fighters, military equipment, and ammunition. The OFAC noted that ISIS-Somalia served as a central hub for financial coordination and strategic direction for ISIS’s broader operations across Africa.

ISIS-Somalia has been widely documented as engaging in extortion targeting financial institutions, local businesses, and mobile money service providers. Exploiting weaknesses in Somalia’s financial and governance systems, the group has used mobile money platforms and hawala networks to finance its activities. Reports indicate that the group extorted nearly $2 million in 2022, a slight decrease from $2.5 million in 2021.

Since 2019, Abdiweli has served as ISIS-Somalia’s chief financial officer and maintained strong links with other senior figures in the group, including Abdirahman Fahiye Isse and Abdiqadir Mumin, both previously designated as global terrorists.

The arrest of Abdiweli Walalac marks a significant blow to the financial and operational structure of ISIS-Somalia and is expected to disrupt the group’s ability to coordinate attacks and secure funding across the region.

Source Hiiraan online

Saturday 26,July 2025 {HMC} Somali National Army (SNA) and the Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF), who part of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), repelled an al-Shabaab attack on an army base in the Lower Shabelle region on Friday, killing 18 militants.

The coordinated assault by al-Shabaab militants targeted positions in the Sabiib and Anole areas, but was met with strong resistance from national forces. According to a statement from the Ministry of Defense, four government soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in the exchange.

“The national forces, who were on high alert and fully prepared, responded swiftly and effectively to the assault, successfully thwarting the terrorists’ attempt to penetrate the area,” the statement said.
The ministry added that pursuit operations are ongoing to track down the remaining militants. It also acknowledged support from international security partners, who conducted aerial strikes that “inflicted heavy damage on al-Shabaab militants.”

This latest confrontation follows nearly two months of intense fighting, during which Somali and AUSSOM forces recaptured the strategic villages of Anole and Sabid from al-Shabaab in late June.

Anole and Sabid, located in the southwest province of Lower Shabelle, are strategic military assets that act as a vital link.

Al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency against the Somali government for more than 16 years, regularly targets security forces, government officials, and civilians.