Trump says Kazakhstan is joining Abraham Accords – DW – 11/07/2025

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Kazakhstan was joining the ABRAHAM
agreements.

“Kazakhstan is the first country to rejoin the Abraham Accords in my second term, the first of many,” Trump posted on his Truth social platform.

In 2020, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords – a series of agreements to normalize relations between Israel and Muslim-majority countries.

Kazakhstan’s move is largely symbolic as the country already has full diplomatic ties and economic ties with Israel.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is currently in Washington To talk to Trump.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa sat down with DW to discuss their proposal for a peaceful two-state solution.

The two men initially came together last year to propose a peace plan that would address Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, as well as the broader conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We are proposing this because we think this is the time when we need to shake both sides to understand that without a political solution, we are doomed to repeat what we have suffered, wars, conflicts, bloodshed, destruction, loss of lives and hopes,” Olmert told DW.

The fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which has been in place for almost a month, is still ongoing.

On the future of Hamas, al-Kidwa said that “Hamas understands that this is a new era, a new situation and it needs to change and it needs to be committed to ending its control over Gaza and all its forms: political, administrative, as well as security.”

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

It said it targeted military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, including “weapons storage facilities… built in the center of civilian populated areas”.

These attacks represent an increase in the almost daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The airstrikes came hours after Hezbollah urged the Lebanese government not to cooperate with Israel.

Israel Defense Forces Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee warned residents of Tayyaba near the border, Tir Debba, just east of the coastal city of Tyre, and Aita al-Jabal in southern Lebanon to run 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) away from residential buildings that would be targeted.

Israel also issued warnings for the cities of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Kafr Dunin.

Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was injured in the attacks.

Following the attacks, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said, “Every time Lebanon expresses its openness to peaceful negotiations…Israel intensifies its aggression.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli government said the attacks were against Hezbollah.

“We will not allow Hezbollah to regroup itself, to increase its strength to threaten the State of Israel,” Israeli government spokesman Shosh Bedrosian said at a briefing discussing the attacks.

An appeals court in The Hague rejected a case brought by 10 NGOs seeking to end all military equipment sales from the Netherlands to Israel. The groups said the Dutch government is doing too little to stop what they call “genocide” in Gaza and is engaging in “blatantly unlawful” foreign policy.

“While it is appreciable that there is a threat of genocide and serious human rights violations, in principle, it is not up to the Court to tell the State what measures should be taken to prevent it,” the judges wrote in a statement.

Israel has repeatedly denied allegations that it is carrying out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Dutch court also pointed to a number of measures already taken by the Dutch government to reduce support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including a ban on the sale of equipment it believes could be used in the Palestinian territory.

The latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, which the UN considers credible, show that more than 68,000 Palestinians, most civilians and including at least 20,000 children, have died due to Israeli strikes and other policies since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 were killed.

Pope Leo XIV met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in person for the first time on Thursday, although the pair spoke by phone over the summer.

“During the cordial talks, it was recognized that there is an urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza and to end the conflict by adopting a two-state solution,” the Holy See said in a statement.

Abbas made the visit to mark the 10th anniversary of the “Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine”, which led to the Vatican’s recognition of the Palestinian state in June 2015.

Before meeting Leo, Abbas paid respects at the tomb of Pope Francis’ predecessor. Abbas and Francis met several times and remained in regular contact by phone during the two years of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israeli officials have said that the most recent body of a hostage to be returned, on October 7, 2023, was that of Tanzanian student Joshua Loitu Molele.

Mollel, 21, had arrived at Kibbutz Nahal Oz only 19 days before the Hamas attack. Having recently completed an agriculture degree, he was hoping to gain some practical knowledge that he could bring back to his country.

“Joshua’s return brings some comfort to the family that has endured more than two years of unbearable uncertainty,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters said in a statement.

The bodies of six hostages remain in Gaza. Their withdrawal is part of a US-backed ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

A fragile ceasefire continues between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which also includes the return of hostage bodies to Israel.

The new Pope is meeting with the Palestinian delegation in the Vatican.

Follow here for all the latest developments in the conflict in the Middle East.