Category: 2. Middle East

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in the town of Mezzouna, in Tunisia’s Sidi Bouzid Governorate, following public anger over the recent death of three students after a school wall collapsed, sources informed Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

A local activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that several demonstrators were taken to hospital yesterday evening after sustaining serious injuries and suffering from tear gas inhalation, allegedly due to…

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Lebanese ambassador to Baghdad on Wednesday to express “discomfort” with remarks made by Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun regarding the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF).

“We will not replicate the Popular Mobilisation Forces’ experience in integrating Hezbollah into the army, nor will it be allowed to form an independent unit within the military,” Aoun told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed earlier on Wednesday.

“The PMF is…

Hamas  is ready to negotiate a comprehensive deal once and for all, leading to a permanent ceasefire, a member of the movement’s political bureau said yesterday.

Basem Naim said: “The movement is ready to negotiate a comprehensive deal once and for all, leading to a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the opening of the crossings, and reconstruction, in exchange for a serious and honourable prisoner exchange.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin met a Russian-Israeli man freed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas after more than a year in captivity and promised to help free other hostages.

The Kremlin leader thanked Hamas for releasing the man and said it was the result of Russia’s strong relations with the Palestinian people.

“Thank God you are alive and well and you are here,” Putin told Alexander Trufanov, 29, late Wednesday. Trufanov said he had been held prisoner for 498 days.

Trufanov,…

Another Palestinian detainee from the occupied West Bank city of Nablus died in Israeli detention amid accusations of Israeli ill-treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, prisoners’ affairs groups said today.

Twenty-year-old Mosab Audaily was serving a 13-month sentence in Israeli jails when he was pronounced dead last night at the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheva in southern Israel, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner…

Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, said on Wednesday that the Gaza agreement signed on 19 January is the only way to achieve a sustainable truce and permanent ceasefire, and to secure the release of all captives. Abdelatty made his comment during a joint press conference in Cairo with his Polish counterpart, Radosław Sikorski.

“Egyptian efforts are ongoing to reach an agreement quickly stipulating the release of additional groups of captives, which…

Two senior Hamas officials yesterday firmly rejected any proposal for the disarmament of the movement or other Palestinian factions, stating that Hamas will soon submit an official response to the latest Israeli proposal following internal consultations with other factions in Gaza, Al-Aqsa TV reported.

Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas figure, told the channel: “The resistance’s weapons represent the life of the Palestinian people and cannot be relinquished…

A former head of the Mossad Hostages and Missing in Action unit, Rami Igra, has described the Israeli proposal for a prisoner exchange with Hamas as “the most difficult proposal ever presented” to the resistance movement, “which will not accept it.” Igra made his comment to Radio 103 FM on Wednesday.

“The biggest question, and perhaps from it we will understand where we stand, is why the State of Israel presented this proposal, which clearly no one will…

Turkiye has paused its bid to pursue a deal for F-16 fighter jets in order to prioritise its attempts to acquire F-35 fighter jets from the United States, amid Ankara’s potential reaccession into the advanced programme.

In recent weeks, Turkiye has increasingly made moves to persuade the US and its administration under President Donald Trump to allow it access back into the F-35 fighter jet programme, after Ankara was kicked out of the joint production venture…

The Israeli army is taking punitive measures against reserve doctors who signed a petition demanding the return of Israeli captives even if it requires ending the war on Gaza, according to the petition’s organisers in a statement issued on Wednesday. They explained that officers from the army’s main medical unit headquarters contacted doctors who signed the petition while serving in the reserves and asked them to “withdraw their signatures”. They noted…