Liverpool star Mohamed Salah scored twice to help Egypt beat Djibouti 3-0 in Casablanca on Wednesday and qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
The 33-year-old has now netted nine times in a marathon qualifying campaign that began two years ago, and victory for Egypt gave them an unassailable five-point lead over Burkina Faso in Group A.
Twice African Footballer of the Year, Salah helped Liverpool win the Premier League a record-equalling 20th time last season, and captured the Golden Boot award with 29 goals.
But the Egypt captain has lost his spark with Liverpool this season, scoring just three goals in nine matches in all competitions.
After Ibrahim Adel put Egypt ahead on eight minutes against opponents 158 places lower in the world rankings, Salah netted six minutes later and again on 84 minutes.
While Egypt have won the Africa Cup of Nations a record seven times, they have been less successful in the World Cup, qualifying just four times in 15 attempts — in 1934, 1990, 2018 and now 2026.
Former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey was among the goals as Ghana trounced the Central African Republic 5-0 in Meknes, and need one point from their final Group I match at home to Comoros to qualify.
Mohammed Salisu, Alexander Djiku, captain Jordan Ayew and Kamaldeen Sulemana were the other scorers for the Black Stars, who led 1-0 at half-time.
Ghana have 22 points and a vastly superior goal difference than Madagascar, who are three points behind. Mali, seeded to win the group, are out of contention with 15 points.
Cape Verde came from two goals behind in Tripoli to draw 3-3 with Libya and edge closer to a first World Cup appearance.
The island nation of about 550,000 inhabitants off the coast of Senegal will clinch first place in Group D if they defeat Eswatini in Praia on Monday.
Known as the Blue Sharks, the Cape Verdeans are two points ahead of Cameroon, who beat Mauritius 2-0 in Saint-Pierre with Manchester United striker Bryan Mbeumo scoring.
Cape Verde have 20 points after nine rounds, two more than Cameroon, the eight World Cup appearances in an African team. (Punch)
The United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, has called on all parties to adhere to the reached agreement between Israel and Hamas on the first phase of a U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan.
“All hostages must be released in a dignified manner. A permanent ceasefire must be secured,” Guterres said in a statement on X on Thursday, urging an end to fighting and immediate, unhindered access for humanitarian aid into Gaza. “The suffering must end,” he added.
Guterres praised diplomatic efforts by the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, which helped broker the deal at talks in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The United Nations would support full implementation of the agreement, expand humanitarian aid and assist reconstruction efforts in Gaza, Guterres said.
The UN chief also encouraged both sides to seize this momentous opportunity to advance a two-state solution that would allow Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. “The stakes have never been higher,” he said.
The two-state solution envisages an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully alongside Israel.
Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas currently reject such an outcome. (Punch)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will give final approval for the seizure of Gaza City while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining captives and ending the nearly two-year-old war, but on “terms acceptable to Israel”.
Speaking to soldiers near Gaza on Thursday, Netanyahu said he was still set on approving plans for seizing Gaza City, the densely populated centre at the heart of the Palestinian enclave, forcibly displacing close to 1 million people and carrying out the systematic demolitions of Palestinian homes.
“At the same time I have issued instructions to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel,” Netanyahu said, adding: “We are in the decision-making phase.”
The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days after Netanyahu grants final approval at a meeting with senior security officials later on Thursday.
Israeli forces have already stepped up attacks there, and thousands of Palestinians have left their homes as Israeli tanks edged closer to Gaza City over the last 10 days.
Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from mediators Qatar and Egypt, which, if accepted by Israel, could forestall the assault.
Israel’s army plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.
The proposal on the table calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living captives held in Gaza by Hamas and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Once the temporary ceasefire begins, the proposal is for Hamas and Israel to begin negotiations on a permanent ceasefire that would include the return of the remaining captives.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, has likened Netanyahu’s announcement about relaunching purported truce talks while the military escalates its assault on Gaza City to “negotiation under fire”.
“There will be no stoppage of the fighting. There will be no breaks in the genocide. Hamas is going to have to make up its mind as Israel kills dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Palestinians moving forward [and] as it transfers a million Palestinians southward in Gaza,” Bishara said.
“Israel is now dictating all the terms, and it’s not listening to anyone, and it has a green light from Washington.”
At least 48 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, including 16 aid seekers who were the latest victims of shootings at GHF aid distribution points.
Meanwhile, two more people have starved to death in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. The new deaths raised the number of Palestinians who have died from Israeli-induced hunger to 271, including 112 children, since the war began.
A renewed Israeli offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the famine-struck territory. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimated that 90 percent of Gaza’s residents have been displaced, warning that shelters are deteriorating and any further displacement will worsen the catastrophic situation.
The Palestinian Ministry of Interior denounced Israel’s push to seize Gaza City as a “death sentence” for the more than one million people living there.
The Palestinian Health Ministry also released a statement responding to what it says is an Israeli push to transfer health system resources to the south of the enclave.
“The Ministry of Health expresses its rejection of any step that would undermine what remains of the health system following the systematic destruction carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities,” it said.
“This step would deprive more than one million people of their right to treatment and put the lives of residents, patients and the wounded at imminent risk.”
Some Palestinian families in Gaza City have left for shelters along the coast, while others have moved to central and southern parts of the enclave, according to residents there.
“We are facing a bitter, bitter situation, to die at home or leave and die somewhere else. As long as this war continues, survival is uncertain,” Rabah Abu Elias, 67, a father of seven, told the Reuters news agency.
“In the news, they speak about a possible truce, on the ground, we only hear explosions and see deaths. To leave Gaza City or not isn’t an easy decision to make,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli air attacks also destroyed a tent camp in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, where many people have sought refuge. Residents said the Israeli military warned them to flee shortly before the attacks set the camp ablaze.
Families, many with children, could later be seen sifting through the ashes for the belongings they had managed to take with them during earlier evacuations.
Mohammad Kahlout, who had been displaced from northern Gaza, told The Associated Press they were given just five minutes to gather what they could and flee.
“We are civilians, not terrorists. What did we do, and what did our children do, to be displaced again?” (AlJazeera)
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that Gaza ceasefire efforts are now focused on a comprehensive deal to release all the remaining hostages at once.
The plan previously being pushed was for an initial 60-day truce and partial release of living hostages.
Hamas says a delegation of its leaders is in Cairo for “preliminary talks” with Egyptian officials.
Reports say that mediators see a window of opportunity in the coming weeks to try to push a deal through.
After indirect talks between Israel and Hamas broke down last month, Israel announced a controversial plan to widen its military offensive and conquer all the Gaza Strip – including the areas where most of its two million Palestinian residents have sought refuge.
However, Israeli media do not expect the new operation to begin until October – allowing time for military preparations, including a mass call-up of reservists.
Meanwhile, intense Israeli strikes have continued in Gaza, and the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 123 Palestinians have been killed in the past day.
Witnesses say that Israel has stepped up its attacks on Gaza City in particular with air strikes destroying homes.
Footage shows large explosions caused by the strikes and demolitions in the Zaytoun area, to the east of Gaza City.
Early on Wednesday, al-Shifa Hospital said seven members of one family, five of them children, were killed when tents were targeted in Tel al-Hawa, in the south of the city. Al-Ahli Hospital said 10 people were killed in a strike on a house in the Zaytoun area, to the city’s east.
The Israeli army said it had begun new operations in Zaytoun.
Israeli military chief Lt Gen Eyal Zamir also “approved the main framework for the IDF’s operational plan in the Gaza Strip”, a statement released by the army said.
In an interview with the i24News Israeli TV Channel shown on Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked if a partial ceasefire was still possible.
“I think it’s behind us,” he replied. “We tried, we made all kinds of attempts, we went through a lot, but it turned out that they were just misleading us.”
“I want all of them,” he said of the hostages.”The release of all the hostages, both alive and dead – that’s the stage we’re at.”
Palestinian armed groups still hold 50 hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. Israel believes that around 20 of them are still alive.
Netanyahu is under mounting domestic pressure to secure their release as well as over his plans to expand the war.
Last week, unnamed Arab officials were quoted as saying that regional mediators, Egypt and Qatar, were preparing a new framework for a deal that would involve releasing all remaining hostages at the same time in return for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
However, this will be difficult to do in a short time frame as Israel is demanding that Hamas give up control of Gaza as well as its weapons.
This is likely to be why, at a news conference on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told journalists that Cairo was still “making great efforts” with Qatar and the US – the other mediators – to revive the earlier phased plan.
“The main goal is to return to the original proposal – a 60-day ceasefire – along with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian prisoners, and the flow of humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza without obstacles or conditions,” Abdelatty said.
The Israeli prime minister says Israel’s goals have not changed. He says that the war will end only when all hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders.
Netanyahu has said that, ultimately, Israel must keep open-ended security control over Gaza. (BBC)
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