Category: 2. Middle East

The US Treasury Department announced Thursday it sanctioned Chinese “teapot” refinery Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group and three port terminal operators in Shandong Province for purchasing Iranian oil amid nuclear talks with Tehran, Anadolu reports.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted entities involved in “purchasing or facilitating the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil,” according to a statement.

OFAC also…

The Israeli army killed one Palestinian, injured and arrested dozens in military raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, local authorities said, Anadolu reports.

The Health Ministry said a 30-year-old man was killed by Israeli army fire in the northern city of Nablus.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said its medics dealt with 41 injuries, including four by live fire, in the city.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army rounded up at least 45 Palestinians in…

Hunger in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Thursday, describing the situation as “hunger never seen before,” Anadolu reports.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation,” the UNRWA said on X, as the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen under the ongoing siege and hostilities.

The agency called for immediate action, urging all parties to lift the blockade, allow the unrestricted flow of…

The Israeli army released 11 more civilians on Thursday from the Gaza Strip, who were detained during Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, a medical source said, Anadolu reports.

According to an Anadolu reporter, the detainees were set free at the Israeli-controlled Kissufim crossing in eastern Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip.

The medical source said the 11 Palestinians were transported to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for medical…

A British member of parliament has announced he has “withdrawn” his long-standing support for Israel over its ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, admitting that “I got it wrong”.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mark Pritchard – the MP for The Wrekin in western England since 2005 – stated that he had served as an MP for over twenty years while supporting Israel “pretty much at all costs”.

“I want to say that I got it wrong and I…

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The Israeli army has destroyed nearly 80% of buildings in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip during its ongoing war on the enclave, satellite images showed, Anadolu reports.

Israeli Channel 12 published images on Thursday showing immense destruction in Rafah, which the Israeli government says it will push the Palestinians into it under an approved military plan to expand its onslaught on the enclave.

On Sunday, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a military…

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East’s most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington.

US President Donald Trump said the rebels had “capitulated” after the intense, seven-week campaign that came in response to Huthi threats to renew attacks on Red Sea shipping over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.

Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi slammed Trump’s remarks on Thursday,…

Paramilitary drone strikes targeting Sudan’s wartime capital have sought to shatter the regular army’s sense of security and open a dangerous new chapter in the war, experts say.

Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has been at war with the army, which has lately recaptured some territory and dislodged the paramilitaries from the capital Khartoum.

The latter appeared to have the upper hand before Sunday, when drone strikes began blasting key infrastructure in Port Sudan, seat…