Category: 2. Middle East

The military spokesperson for Yemen’s Ansarallah group (the Houthis), Yahya Saree, announced yesterday that the group has begun enforcing a naval blockade on the port of Haifa in Israel, in line with directives issued by its leadership.

In an official statement, Saree warned: “We alert companies whose vessels are currently docked at this port or heading towards it that Haifa has, from the moment of this statement’s release, become one of our targets. These…

Qatar yesterday condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army’s bombing of the Sheikh Hamad Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Limbs Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The [Israeli] occupation’s ongoing brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, including its repeated targeting of civilians, hospitals, shelters for the displaced, and vital facilities, is part of the war of genocide against the brotherly Palestinian people,” the Qatari Foreign…

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi makes his first appearance at an international film festival in 15 years at Cannes on Tuesday with a story about political prisoners trying to get their own back on their jailers.

Panahi was banned from making films and has been repeatedly detained since 2009 over his gritty, social dramas, considered subversive by the Islamic republic’s regime.

His new film, “It Was Just An Accident” — which is in the running for Cannes’s top prize — uses humour to…

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi made his first appearance at an international film festival in 15 years in Cannes on Tuesday, with a story about political prisoners trying to get back at their jailers.

Panahi was banned from making films for 20 years and has been repeatedly detained since 2009 over his gritty, social dramas, considered subversive by the Islamic republic’s regime.

His new feature, “It Was Just An Accident” — which is in the running for the top prize — risks causing…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people on Tuesday across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas.

Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following intense international condemnation over Israel’s total blockade that has sparked shortages of food and medicine.

The Israeli army stepped up its military offensive in Gaza on Saturday, saying it…

At first glance, the Instagram profile of Ms Rachel fits the image an influencer who has won millions of devoted subscribers for her sing-songy educational content for toddlers and parenting tips.

In a pink hairband and denim dungarees, the 42-year-old mother-of-two doles out advice on potty training kids and moral support for struggling parents — always with a reassuring smile.

So it was an abrupt shift last year when she began speaking out about the plight of children in Gaza, peppering her…

The leaders of Britain, France and Canada on Monday condemned Israel’s “egregious actions” in Gaza and warned of joint action if it did not halt a heightened military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, saying their joint statement was a “huge prize” for Hamas in the Gaza war.

Starmer, Macron and Carney slammed Israel’s…

More than 97,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the Gaza Strip over the past four days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday, warning that displacement is a “constant” in Gaza, Anadolu reports.

“Humanitarian aid must never be used to influence the movement of people”, the IOM wrote on X.

Expressing readiness with partners to assist displaced communities inside Gaza, the UN agency reiterated its call for an immediate…

The UN said Monday that nine trucks carrying humanitarian aid “were cleared” to enter the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing after Israel temporarily eased a nearly three-month blockade, Anadolu reports.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said the Israeli authorities had allowed the limited resumption of aid delivery after intensifying its military offensive.

“This is a welcome development that should remain in…