Category: 2. Middle East

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas yesterday condemned Israel’s killing of five journalists and several members of their family in intensive air strikes on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reported.

In a statement, Hamas said Israel’s ongoing targeting of journalists –  who are protected under international law – is “a message of contempt sent by the [Israeli] fascist occupation government to the world.”

Palestinian medical sources said the Israeli…

A Libyan party has accused the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) of “fuelling crises” and complicating the political path in the country.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Voice of the People’s Party called for a popular sit-in in front of the mission’s headquarters in the capital, Tripoli, to protest “the UN’s failure to end the division and achieve stability.”

The statement said since the beginning of its work more than ten years ago, the UN mission has…

A Saudi Airline has resumed flights for Iranian pilgrims for the first time since 2015, a Saudi official told AFP yesterday.

“Flynas resumed Iranian pilgrims flights from Imam Khomeini [International Airport] in Tehran on Saturday” the unnamed Saudi Civil Aviation Authority official told AFP.

He explained that the airline will operate similar flights to and from Mashhad Airport in the northeastern city.

This year’s Hajj season begins in the first week of…

Takeoff and landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport were briefly suspended yesterday after a missile was launched towards it from Yemen, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said air raid sirens sounded across the central region yesterday, including in Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Lod, Bat Yam, Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Herzliya, Netanya, Ramat Hasharon and Raanana.

Earlier yesterday, the Israeli…

Israeli bulldozers demolished the northern wall of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza today, according to RT Arabic’s correspondent in the besieged enclave.

The director-general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza stated that “the occupation targeted the health system by bombing hospitals and patients.” He added that Israeli occupation forces “opened fire on the intensive care unit of the Indonesian Hospital.”

“Occupation aircraft targeted a…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the immediate entry of a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged Gaza Strip to avoid a “starvation crisis”.

“The move came amid mounting pressure from the United States to prevent a worsening humanitarian crisis in the territory,” the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported yesterday.

The decision was made during a meeting of the Israeli War Cabinet, where Netanyahu stated: “Israel will…

Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people in Gaza on Monday, rescuers said, after Israel pledged to let a “basic amount” of food into the territory to avert a hunger crisis.

The announcement came hours after the military said it had begun “extensive ground operations” in a newly intensified campaign in Gaza, and as Israel and Hamas engaged in indirect talks.

Israel has come under mounting international pressure, including from key backer the United States, to lift a total blockade on the Gaza…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel will “take control” of the whole of Gaza, as the military pressed a newly intensified campaign in the war-ravaged territory.

After Israel announced it would let a “basic amount” of food into the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said it was necessary to prevent a famine for “diplomatic reasons”.

In Gaza, rescuers said air strikes killed at least 22 people, after the military announced it had begun “extensive ground operations” against Hamas.

“The…

Plans to drill for oil in the protected Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq have galvanised villagers and activists determined to save the mythical wetlands already battered by years of drought.

“We will never accept it,” marshes activist Murtada al-Janubi told a meeting, seeking to reassure anxious residents gathered in a traditional hall made of woven reeds from the wetlands, to discuss the government’s plans for the UNESCO-listed area that is their home.

Everyone nodded in approval.

If…