Category: 2. Middle East

More than three weeks after an Israeli military ambush killed 15 of her husband’s fellow medics, Nafiza al-Nsasrah says she still has no idea where he is being held.

“We have no information, no idea which prison he’s in or where he is being held, or what his health condition is,” Nsasrah told AFP, showing a photograph of her husband Asaad in his medic’s uniform at the wheel of an ambulance.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday that Nsasrah was in Israeli custody after being “forcibly…

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid Bin Salman arrived in Tehran on an official visit today for talks with Iranian officials, Saudi media said.

Bin Salman will discuss bilateral relations and a host of issues of mutual concern, the state news agency SPA reported.

According to the Iranian state news agency IRNA, the Saudi minister will explore ways of strengthening regional cooperation and bolstering defence relations and counter-terrorism coordination.

The…

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been engaged in fierce fighting against the national army, have announced the formation of a rival government to rule over the territories under their control, including the Darfur region in western Sudan, where the United Nations has reported that RSF-led attacks have killed 400 people.

RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, announced the move in a speech on Tuesday, marking the beginning of the…

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, said on Wednesday that freeing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails is a top priority. The movement called for global action in support of the prisoners’ cause.

“The occupation state’s prison administration continues to practice the most heinous crimes against prisoners inside prisons and detention centres, including medical negligence, torture and killing,” said Hamas on its Telegram channel as it…

Extremist Jewish settlers stormed the occupied West Bank and bulldozed private Palestinian land in Ramallah yesterday, the Palestinian Information Centre reported, adding that they acted while under the cover of the Israeli occupation forces.

According to local sources, a group of settlers destroyed dozens of dunums of agricultural land in Umm Safa village, northwest of Ramallah.

Village Chief, Marwan Al-Sabah, said that settlers were escorted by soldiers as they…

Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday that the Israeli army has now occupied more than half of the besieged Gaza Strip and will remain in those areas “indefinitely” as well as areas it has occupied in Lebanon and Syria.

“Unlike in the past, the [Israeli military] is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized,” said Katz. He added that Israel’s policy in Gaza, led by the military leadership with the support of the political…

The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday called on Hungary to provide clarification regarding its failure to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by international justice for committing crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the ICC called on Hungary to submit a clarification memorandum by 23 May regarding its failure to comply with an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for Netanyahu in…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday that a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its unrelenting military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, but said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal…

ANKARA — The Central Bank of Turkey on Thursday hiked interest rates to 46% from 42.5%, marking a return to monetary tightening after a year-long pause. The move comes amid economic turmoil triggered by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Thursday’s meeting was the first since Imamoglu, a presidential contender from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on March 19 and subsequently jailed on March 23 on corruption charges, which he denies. Government…