Category: 2. Middle East

LONDON: A Financial Times investigation, published on July 4, found that a consulting firm connected to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secured a multimillion-dollar contract to help shape the initiative and a proposal for the possible “relocation” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

The Boston Consulting Group was found to have played a central role in designing and managing the US- and Israeli-backed project, which aimed to replace the UN as the primary…

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed start of a disarmament process by militant Kurdish separatists as the end of a “painful chapter” in Turkey’s troubled history.

Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AKP party in Ankara that the more than 40-year-old “scourge of terrorism” for which the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – or PKK – was responsible is on its way to ending.

Erdogan’s remarks came a day after male and female…

Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the UN, with Israel’s army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities.

Friday’s reported violence came as negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict.

Israel’s Prime…

LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.

“The bombing was very intense; the house would…

The Israeli army said Friday it reinforced its forces in the occupied West Bank with two additional military battalions, Anadolu reports.

“According to the situation assessment, a decision was made to reinforce two battalions in the Central Command sector,” the army said in a statement, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

The “Central Command sector” refers to the West Bank, said the newspaper.

The Israeli army did not clarify the actual…

Kurdish militants want to return to Turkey and enter mainstream politics, one of the PKK’s joint leaders told AFP on Friday after the group’s fighters began destroying their arms at a ceremony in Iraq.

Speaking to AFP after handing in her own weapon alongside 29 of her comrades, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s top female commander Bese Hozat said if Turkey were willing, the disarmament process could be completed very quickly.

But the 47-year-old militant also warned the fragile peace process…

Doctors Without Borders warned Friday that its teams on the ground in Gaza were witnessing surging levels of acute malnutrition in the besieged and war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, said levels of acute malnutrition had reached an “all-time high” at two of its facilities in the Gaza Strip.

“MSF teams are witnessing a sharp and unprecedented rise in acute malnutrition among people in Gaza,” the organisation said in a statement.

“In Al-Mawasi…

The Israeli army warned Palestinians Friday to evacuate two areas west of Gaza City, inhabited by thousands of civilians, including displaced people, ahead of an attack.

In a statement, the Israeli army said: “To the residents of the Gaza City area in Blocks 783 and 784, evacuate the area immediately, as we will attack it with great force.”

The Israeli army attached a map showing the targeted areas, indicating the presence of vital civilian and service…

A group of 27 former EU ambassadors has urged the bloc to suspend its association agreement with Israel, citing serious violations of international law in Gaza.

In a letter published Friday by Brussels-based EUobserver, the former diplomats who previously served in the Middle East and North Africa or maintain a strong interest in the region — expressed deep concern over the EU’s lack of concrete action in response to Israel’s military attacks following Oct. 7, 2023.

The ambassadors…