Category: 2. Middle East

ANKARA — Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said Wednesday it faced heavy fines for refusing to comply with the Turkish government’s restriction requests amid protests over the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu, a key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and presidential contender of his main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested on March 19 on corruption charges. Government critics believe the arrest was politically…

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza’s civil defence agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants “inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity”, and separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in…

Israel has been gripped by allegations linking aides of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to financing from Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders and helped broker the release of hostages from Gaza.

Dubbed “Qatargate” by Israeli media, the reports that sparked the investigation claimed that some of the people closest to Netanyahu were recruited to promote the image of Qatar, an enemy state, in Israel.

– What do we know? –

At least two of Netanyahu’s aides are suspected of receiving payments from the…

At an industrial bakery in war-ravaged Gaza City, a conveyor belt that once churned out thousands of pitta breads every day has come to a standstill.

The Families Bakery is one of about two dozen supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) that have halted production in recent days due to flour and fuel shortages resulting from an Israeli blockade.

“All 25 WFP-supported bakeries in Gaza have shut down due to lack of fuel and flour,” the UN agency said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it…

Israel said Wednesday it would expand its military operations and seize “large areas” of the Gaza Strip where rescuers said 34 people were killed in Israeli strikes, including on a UN building.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would bolster its military presence in the Palestinian territory to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”.

The operation would “seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones”, he said in a statement,…

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of a military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, saying the army would seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory.

The defence chief said in a statement that Israel would expand its presence in Gaza to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”.

The expanded operation would “seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones”, he said, without saying how much…

Wearing a helmet and strapped securely into his four-wheel-drive, Abdelilah al-Rabea tore off across the Saudi desert, kicking up clouds of sand as a crowd of hundreds cheered him on.

Every year through the end of April, droves of people flock to Zulfi, more than 200 kilometres northwest of Riyadh, where adrenaline-seeking motorists drive superpowered cars across steep dunes.

Dune bashing, or tatees in Arabic, is an adventure sport that involves driving off-road across challenging desert…

The United States is increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping one that is already there and sending another from the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The announcement comes as US forces hammer Yemen’s Huthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.

The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting…