Category: 2. Middle East

(Reuters) -Syria will sign 44 agreements with Saudi Arabia estimated to be worth at nearly $6 billion, Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Moustafa said on Wednesday.

He spoke at a press conference as Damascus hosts a Saudi-Syrian investment conference attended by a top Saudi business delegation.

(Reporting by Yomna Ehab; Writing by Menna Alaa El-Din, Editing by William Maclean)

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Canadian government said on Wednesday that Israeli military operations against civilians and aid workers in Gaza were unacceptable, and called for the immediate resumption of U.N.-led aid distribution in the war-torn enclave.

“Israeli military operations against WHO staff and facilities, World Food Programme aid convoys, & the ongoing killing of Palestinians seeking urgently needed food and water are unacceptable,” the Canadian foreign ministry said on X.

“Hunger in Gaza…

Amnesty International said on Thursday that Iran fired widely-banned cluster munitions at Israel during a war between the two countries in June, in attacks that endangered civilians.

“Last month, the Iranian forces fired ballistic missiles whose warheads contained submunitions into populated residential areas of Israel,” the human rights group said, citing new research.

The organisation said it analysed photos and videos showing cluster munitions that, according to media reports, struck inside…

By Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil is finalizing its submission to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

South Africa filed a case in 2023 asking the ICJ to declare that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. The case argues that in its war against Hamas militants Israel’s military actions go beyond targeting Hamas alone…

(Reuters) -Ukraine brought home a new group of prisoners of war from Russia on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, saying it brought to more than 1,000 the number of returning soldiers as agreed at talks in Turkey.

Zelenskiy, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said those returning were ill or seriously wounded.

“The servicemen who are returning today defended Ukraine in different sectors of the front,” Zelenskiy wrote. “A significant number spent more than three years as…

NICOSIA (Reuters) -Firefighters in Cyprus were battling on Wednesday to contain a huge wildfire forcing the evacuation of at least four villages on the first day of a heatwave which sent temperatures soaring.

Authorities said the fire was raging in terrain north of the southern city of Limassol, stoked by strong winds and high temperatures. A fire brigade spokesperson said there had been ‘considerable damage’ to homes in the region, known for its vineyards.

Cyprus said it had requested…

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Wednesday that an Israeli soldier was killed and seven others were injured in an attack in the southern Gaza, Anadolu reports.

The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said that its fighters targeted an Israeli force with an anti-personnel mine in eastern Rafah, killing and injuring eight soldiers.

An Israeli helicopter was seen evacuating injured soldiers from the site after the attack, Hamas said.

There was no…