Doha – The News Desk

Iberia launches daily flights to Doha – Business Traveller

12Dec

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Travel

Iberia launches daily flights to Doha – Business Traveller

Iberia has begun its direct daily service from the Spanish capital to Doha, with the inaugural flight taking off yesterday from Madrid Barajas International airport. The daily flights are operated by A330-200 aircraft configured with 288 seats in business and economy classes. Flight times are as follows: IB 6701 Madrid-Doha, departs 0830 and arrives at 1735 IB 6700 Doha-Madrid, departs 0055 and arrives at 0710 The new flights will complement Qatar Airways’ twice-daily operations, with the combined schedule offering morning, afternoon and evening departures for travellers between the two capital cities – as well as hundreds of onward connections in each hub. We first reported on the route over the summer period, when Iberia joined BA and Qatar Airways joint business partnership. Iberia jo...

Israel Plans to Kill Hamas Leaders Around the World After War

1Dec

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World

Israel Plans to Kill Hamas Leaders Around the World After War

Updated Dec. 1, 2023 12:06 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)TEL AVIV—Israel’s intelligence services are preparing to kill Hamas leaders around the world when the nation’s war in the Gaza Strip winds down, setting the stage for a yearslong campaign to hunt down militants responsible for the Oct. 7 massacres, Israeli officials said.With orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s top spy agencies are working on plans to hunt down Hamas leaders living in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar, the small Gulf nation that has allowed the group to run a political office in Doha for a decade, the officials said.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Hamas Releases 16 Hostages as Negotiators Push to Extend Truce

30Nov

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World

Hamas Releases 16 Hostages as Negotiators Push to Extend Truce

Updated Nov. 29, 2023 7:32 pm ETListen to article(2 minutes)Israel said Hamas released 16 hostages in the final hours of a truce that negotiators are trying to extend in hopes of securing the freedom of the remaining women and children still being held by militants in Gaza.Ten Israelis, including one who is also a U.S. citizen, were released as part of the soon-to expire deal. Four Thai nationals and two Israeli-Russian citizens were also released, but they aren’t considered to be covered by the existing deal. In exchange, 30 Palestinians who had been imprisoned were freed under the truce deal, the Israeli prison service said.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Negotiators Press for Longer Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire

28Nov

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World

Negotiators Press for Longer Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire

Updated Nov. 28, 2023 7:01 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)DOHA, Qatar—The chief brokers of the Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner exchange are pushing the two sides to prolong the cease-fire in Gaza through the end of the week and start talks on a permanent truce that would end the war altogether, said Egyptian and Qatari officials.A long-term cease-fire would likely require Israel and Hamas to make hard-to-swallow concessions, such as trading Israeli soldiers for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the officials said. And it would require Israel to hold back on an offensive in southern Gaza intended to capture the strip and kill Hamas’s top leadership, the officials said. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c...

Gaza Diplomacy Cements Qatar’s Global Mediator Role

25Nov

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World

Gaza Diplomacy Cements Qatar’s Global Mediator Role

Updated Nov. 25, 2023 12:01 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)DOHA, Qatar—Qatar’s diplomacy in the Gaza war, including help in arranging a temporary cease-fire and hostage-release deal that took effect Friday, cements the ultrarich Muslim nation as Washington’s preferred interlocutor with extremist groups and pariah states—in the Middle East and increasingly around the world.It is an improbable role that began to take shape some 30 years ago as the small Persian Gulf monarchy sought to secure itself in the midst of bigger neighbors by resolving regional disputes while winning the trust and gratitude of the U.S. and other Western governments. It has also hosted a major U.S. military base for two decades and purchased billions of dollars in arms from the U.S. and Europe.Copyright ©2023 Dow J...

Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Hammered Out During 11th-Hour Talks Over Hostages

24Nov

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World

Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Hammered Out During 11th-Hour Talks Over Hostages

DOHA, Qatar—Key negotiators in an agreement to free Israeli hostages and pause the fighting in Gaza said the deal would take effect Friday morning, even as the parties raced to overcome sticking points to the arrangement weeks in the making.Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said a temporary cease-fire would begin at 7 a.m. local time Friday. In return, an initial group of 13 hostages, all women and children held by Hamas, would be freed around 4 p.m. the same day, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari. A group of Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, would be released around the same time and humanitarian aid would flow into the enclave, he added.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Inside the Secret Israel-Hamas Negotiations to Release 50 Hostages

23Nov

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World

Inside the Secret Israel-Hamas Negotiations to Release 50 Hostages

Weeks of secret hostage negotiations with Hamas were hanging by a thread when President Biden phoned the emir of Qatar, a key emissary to the militant group, to deliver an urgent message.Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, had gone dark after the Israeli military seized control of Al-Shifa hospital, a facility Israel said Hamas used as a command-and-control center. Now that the fighting at the hospital was over, Sinwar had re-emerged from the shadows, and he was ready to negotiate.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

23Nov

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World

Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Hammered Out During 11th-Hour Talks Over Hostages

DOHA, Qatar—Key negotiators in an agreement to free Israeli hostages and pause the fighting in Gaza said the deal would take effect Friday morning, even as the parties raced to overcome sticking points to the arrangement weeks in the making.Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said a temporary cease-fire would begin at 7 a.m. local time Friday. In return, an initial group of 13 hostages, all women and children held by Hamas, would be freed around 4 p.m. the same day, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari. A group of Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, would be released around the same time, he added.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

21Oct

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World

Hamas’s Gaza Chief, Once a High-Profile Prisoner in Israel, Is Now a ‘Dead Man Walking’

Oct. 20, 2023 11:00 pm ETDuring two decades in Israeli prison, Yahya Sinwar learned Hebrew fluently and devoured local newspapers and television. Now, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza is using that knowledge to fight a war against Israel. Israel has accused Sinwar, alongside the commander of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, of coordinating the brutal Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,400 Israelis, including 1,000 civilians. Hamas has taken about 200 people to Gaza as hostages.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8