Category: 2. Middle East

A recent poll has shown that the majority of Israelis back early elections and reject ultra-Orthodox parties joining the government, while a new party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett would come first if elections were held today.

According to the poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 yesterday, 57 per cent of Israelis support dissolving the Knesset and holding early elections, while 33 per cent oppose the move.

As for the leadership of the Likud…

Some 73 per cent of Germans want tighter controls on arms exports to Israel, including 30 per cent who favour a total ban, a poll showed yesterday, reflecting growing public unease over the government’s Israel policy, Reuters reported.

Germany has remained one of Israel’s staunchest allies and its second largest arms supplier, despite Israel’s increasing international isolation and rising criticism over its genocide in Gaza.

Between October 2023 and…

A Swedish appeals court today found one man guilty of being a member of a terrorism organisation for swearing loyalty to the Islamic State, upholding the verdict of a lower court, while the conviction of three others were overturned, Reuters reports.

Sweden’s security services arrested the men last year and prosecutors later charged them with being members of a terrorism organisation between September 2023 and March 2024.

But the Svea Appeals Court said in a…

Red Sea marine traffic has increased by 60 per cent to 36-37 ships a day since August 2024, but is still short of volumes seen before Yemen’s Houthis began attacking Israel and US-linked ships in the region, according to the commander of the EU’s Aspides naval mission, Reuters reports.

The number of merchant ships using the narrow Bab Al-Mandab strait increased after missile and drone attacks by the Houthis slowed and the US and the Yemeni group signed a…

Greece and Egypt have agreed to safeguard the status of one of the world’s oldest sites of Christian worship, foreign ministers of both countries said late yesterday, after an Egyptian court ruling last week cast uncertainty over its future, Reuters reports.

The St Catherine’s Monastery, at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai, was founded in the 6th century and is the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its original function, says UNESCO, which has…

The Israeli occupation army has promoted a lieutenant colonel who allegedly ordered troops to open fire on Palestinian civilians waving white flags in Gaza, according to a report published by Haaretz yesterday.

The newspaper said that testimonies from soldiers under the officer’s command revealed he had issued lethal fire orders against unarmed Palestinian civilians during recent military operations, despite them posing no threat and clearly displaying white…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, yesterday rejected the United States’ proposal for a new nuclear agreement.

Khamenei said the US offer was “completely” against the Islamic Republic’s principles of self-reliance. Addressing President Donald Trump, he said: “Who are you to tell Tehran whether it can enrich uranium or not?” He added that the US proposal “goes against our national independence.”

His remarks were in response to a report…

A member of Israel’s right-wing coalition threatened to quit the cabinet yesterday and support an opposition motion to dissolve parliament tabled for next week, piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported.

The latest opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu’s coalition would lose power if an election was held today, with many voters unhappy with the continued war in Gaza.

United Torah Judaism, one of two ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, said it would…

The Sudanese army yesterday denied “claims” contained in a Human Rights Watch’s report regarding the “targeting of civilians in Nyala”, capital of South Darfur State, in early February, describing the report as “incorrect and unrealistic”, Anadolu reported.

Sudanese army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah described the “allegations” contained in the report as “an international conspiracy targeting Sudan and its people,” criticising the watchdog…

The lives of 50,000 pregnant and nursing women in the Gaza Strip are at serious risk due to the lack of proper nutrition and essential medicines, warned the spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

In an interview with Voice of Palestine, Khalil Al-Daqran explained that miscarriage rates have increased to six times higher than before the war, alongside a sharp rise in premature births, while neonatal units are…