Category: 2. Middle East

Providence, the capital of the northeastern US state of Rhode Island, raised the Palestinian flag at its City Hall on Friday with a ceremony organized by the City Council, Anadolu reports.

The flag was hoisted one hour ahead of the scheduled time, according to local NBC10 news reporter Erin Coogan, and officials planned to display it for just a single day.

Providence City Council organized the event amid ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza that have killed more than…

Syria’s eligibility for World Bank funding has been reinstated after Saudi Arabia and Qatar paid off the country’s $15.5 million debt to the institution, the bank announced Friday, Anadolu reports.

The arrears, owed to the International Development Association (IDA) — the World Bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries — were cleared as of May 12, reinstating Syria’s eligibility for new operations, the bank said in a statement.

“As of May 12,…

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday called for increased pressure “to halt the massacre in Gaza”, speaking at an Arab League summit hours after Israel announced an intensified operation in the besieged Palestinian territory.

UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Baghdad meeting that “we need a permanent ceasefire, now”, while Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to “apply all necessary efforts… for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

The summit…

The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” as part of a fresh offensive in Gaza, after rescuers reported 100 people killed in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The army said on Telegram it had begun the “initial stages” of the offensive, known as Operation Gideon’s Chariots.

The operation was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”,…

The Arab League is meeting in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss Gaza and other regional crises, but some key leaders are expected to miss the talks that come straight after US President Donald Trump’s Gulf tour.

Trump sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that America would take over Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, prompting Arab leaders to come up with a plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was the first Arab…

With its golden sand and blue waters, the beach front in central Israel looks much like any other stretch of Mediterranean coast, but a closer look reveals something unusual peeking through the rippling surf: black shark fins.

The sharks are attracted to this patch of water in Hadera during the cold season because of the warmth generated by the turbines of a nearby power station.

This has provoked an adrenaline-filled coexistence between the increasingly bold ocean predators and the curious,…

Arab leaders meeting Saturday at a summit in Baghdad urged the international community to press for a Gaza ceasefire, as Israel launched an expanded military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

In a joint final statement, Arab League members also called for funding to back their Gaza reconstruction plan, after US President Donald Trump reiterated a proposal to take over the strip.

The Arab leaders called “on the international community… to exert pressure to end the bloodshed and ensure…

The Israeli military announced the early stages of an intensified operation in Gaza aimed at defeating Hamas, with rescuers in the besieged Palestinian territory reporting 10 killed Saturday in fresh strikes.

The stepped-up campaign came as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continued to worsen amid an Israeli aid blockade, with one of the territory’s last functioning hospitals warning it was no longer able to treat seriously wounded patients due to shortages of supplies and a nearby attack…

The Arab League is meeting in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss Gaza and other regional crises, but some key leaders are expected to miss the talks that come straight after US President Donald Trump’s Gulf tour.

Trump sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that America would take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, prompting Arab leaders to come up with a plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was the first Arab…

President Donald Trump proclaimed a decisive break with decades of US interventionism during his Middle East tour, promising a new American foreign policy based instead on his beloved art of the deal.

Trump vowed during his swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that there would be no more “lectures on how to live”, saying the region had achieved a “modern miracle the Arabian way.”

In an extraordinary rupture with his predecessors, Trump then lambasted what he called…