Baghdad ‘actively working’ to locate Elizabeth Tsurkov
(JNS) — Iraqi authorities are actively searching for Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian academic kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023, the Mesopotamian country’s National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji said on Wednesday.
“Iraqi authorities are working under the prime minister’s direction” to solve the issue, he told AFP.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said on Jan. 23 that Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told him that Tsurkov is alive and that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is working to secure her release.
On Jan. 11, Emma Tsurkov, the sister of Elizabeth, told JNS that Donald Trump’s return to the White House as president of the United States gives her family hope for the captive’s release.
Elizabeth Tsurkov has been held captive in Iraq by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (“The Battalions of the Party of God”). Washington has designated the group (a separate and distinct organization from the Lebanese Hezbollah) as a terrorist organization.
Israel rescues foreign workers from Palestinian village
(JNS) — Israeli immigration officials rescued 10 Indian construction workers who were held in az-Za’ayyem, a village near Jerusalem under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
The workers, brought to Israel for construction jobs, were lured into the village with false promises of employment, after which their passports were confiscated, the Population and Immigration Authority reported on Thursday. Stranded for more than a month without work or a way to return to an area under Israeli control, they were unable to leave.
Palestinian residents allegedly used the stolen passports to cross IDF checkpoints. Israeli forces intercepted suspects at a checkpoint, leading to the workers’ rescue.
The Population and Immigration Authority led the rescue operation in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces and the Justice Ministry.
“Following a complex coordination effort, the workers were rescued from the village overnight and were transferred at 2:30 a.m. by representatives of the Enforcement and Foreigners Administration to a safe location, pending the legal arrangement of their employment,” the Population and Immigration Authority said.
US is holding unprecedented direct talks with Hamas over ending Gaza war
(JTA) — The White House has confirmed that U.S. officials are holding talks with Hamas representatives in an effort to negotiate an end to the Gaza war.
Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s hostage envoy, who is Jewish, met with Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, in recent weeks, according to a report in Axios by the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, which cited unnamed sources.
The talks are unprecedented: Previously, the United States and Israel have negotiated only through intermediaries with Hamas, which has been designated as a terror organization by both countries for decades. The United States has also previously generally aligned with Israel, rather than negotiating separately from it.
Hamas officials have reportedly confirmed the talks in Arab media, saying that Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, had also participated. Axios reported that Witkoff, who is Jewish, had planned to fly to Doha, the site of previous indirect talks, but an unnamed official said he called off the trip “after he saw there was no progress from Hamas’ side.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a one-sentence statement that it had made its position known to U.S. officials but did not elaborate: “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.”
Jewish leaders call on EU to sanction MEP for remarks on Bibas family
(JNS) — Twenty European Jewish leaders called on European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to impose sanctions on Rima Hassan, a French member of the assembly, after she publicly denied that the Bibas family has been murdered in Gazan captivity by Hamas and justified the terrorist group’s actions as “legitimate.”
In a radio interview one day after the Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir were buried in Israel, Rima Hassan, a member of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, claimed that they were not murdered by the Palestinian terrorist organization and pointed the finger of responsibility at the “occupation and colonization regime imposed by Israel.”
In a letter to Metsola, the Jewish leaders, who represent Jewish organizations and communities in their respective countries and are members of the European Jewish Association Leadership Council, noted that the parliament’s Code of Conduct, last revised in 2023, states that “Member of the European Parliament act solely in the public interest and conduct their work with disinterest, integrity, openness, diligence, honesty, accountability and respect for the European Parliament’s dignity and reputation.”
“Mrs. Hassan has treated the code of conduct with utter contempt. She insults the Bibas family in the most despicable way, and trumpets Hamas propaganda with impunity,” they wrote.
