He charged that the community members could not even breathe freely here and were treated just as "voting machines".
As ceasefire takes hold, Hamas returns 3 Israeli hostages, Israel frees 90 Palestinian prisoners
Vartha Bharati | 20-01-2025 | 09:54:00 IST
Ramallah (West Bank) (AP/PTI): After 15 months of collective grief and anxiety, three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold Sunday.
The skies above Gaza and Israel were silent for the first time in over a year, and Palestinians began returning to what was left of the homes they fled across the war-ravaged enclave, started to check on relatives left behind and, in many cases, to bury their dead. After months of tight Israeli restrictions, more than 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid rolled into the devastated territory.
The ceasefire that went into effect Sunday morning stirred modest hopes for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
But in Israel, the joy of seeing freed hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher reunited with their families was tempered by major questions over the fate of the nearly 100 others abducted in Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack, still in captivity in Gaza.
Damari, Gonen and Steinbrecher were the first among 33 Israeli hostages who are meant to be released in the coming six weeks in a deal that includes a pause in fighting, the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and increased fuel and aid deliveries for Gaza.
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Kerala Ezhava leader makes controversial remarks, terms Malappuram 'separate nation'
05-04-2025 ¦
05-04-2025 IST
MALAPPURAM (KERALA), Apr 5 (PTI): Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan has made controversial remarks against Muslim-dominated Malappuram district in the state, describing it as a "separate nation" or an exclusive "state of certain people".
SNDP is an organisation that represents the numerically strong Ezhava community in Kerala.
While addressing a convention of community members at Chungathara here on Friday, Natesan said that people belonging to the backward community are living under constant fear in Malappuram.
"I think, you (community members) cannot live here speaking your independent opinion. Malappuram is a separate nation...or a separate state of certain people." He further said that was the reason for the continuing backwardness of Ezhava people in Malappuram.
He sought to know whether the community members in Malappuram have received any benefits from the country's independence decades ago.
Barring the MGNREGA, in which field does the backward community members have significant representations, he asked during the address.
He also claimed that the Ezhava community members are suffering due to vote bank politics.
