Category: 2. Middle East

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said Friday the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip “must end now”, as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory faces a deepening crisis.

“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation,” they said in a joint statement released by Berlin.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President…

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday claimed there is “no real hunger in Gaza,” contradicting the warnings of dozens of countries and international humanitarian organizations about the deepening famine in the besieged enclave, Anadolu reports.

In a post on X, Ben Gvir said: “There is no real hunger in Gaza. If they were hungry, they would have returned the hostages home,” adding: “I support starving Hamas in Gaza.”

Ben Gvir, leader of the…

Despite the ongoing conflict across Sudan, more than one million internally displaced people have returned home as “pockets of relative safety have emerged,” alongside 320,000 others crossing back into the country from Egypt and South Sudan since last year, the UN agencies said in a joint statement Friday, Anadolu reports.

Returns have mainly taken place in Khartoum, Sennar, and Al Jazirah States — regions devastated by more than two years of war, the UN…

BEIRUT —  France announced on Thursday a €75 million (around $88 million) contribution to a World Bank project aimed at supporting Lebanon’s construction, eight months after the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended last November.

French President Emmanuel Macron made the announcement during Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s official visit to Paris—his first since taking office in January.

“The President of the Republic expressed his support for the reconstruction of areas…

France’s President Emmanuel Macron hopes that his country formally recognising a Palestinian state in September will encourage other countries to follow suit, according to analysts.

International envoys are set to discuss a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict early next week in New York, before a further summit co-hosted by France ahead of the UN General Assembly in September.

– Why now? –

Macron’s announcement on Thursday came as international alarm grew about the plight of…

France’s highest court Friday annulled a French arrest warrant against Syria’s ex-president Bashar al-Assad — issued before his ouster — over 2013 deadly chemical attacks.

The Court of Cassation ruled there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But its presiding judge, Christophe Soulard, added that, as Assad was no longer president after an Islamist-led group toppled him in December, “new arrest warrants can have been, or can…