Category: 2. Middle East

Israeli prison authorities are deliberately transferring sick prisoners between prisons and detention centres, with the aim of spreading diseases and epidemics among prisoners, according to prisoner testimonies, the Palestinian Prisoners Club has said.

The rights group explained in a statement issued yesterday that these practices “contributed to the escalation of the health catastrophe facing thousands of prisoners due to the spread of scabies, which has been…

Jewish groups have slammed Chicago Mayor, Brandon Johnson, for wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh at an event celebrating Arab Heritage Month last week, saying his actions were provocative.

The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) defended the mayor’s position, accusing the groups of spreading hatred rather than combating it.

Rabbi Ari Hart, a representative of the local Jewish community, posted on Facebook: “Chicago Mayor Brandon…

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a “live-streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with “specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide”.

Israel has rejected accusations of “genocide” from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted…

A Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman is to go on trial in France on Tuesday under the principle of universal jurisdiction, accused of complicity in war crimes during Syria’s civil war.

French authorities arrested Majdi Nema, now 36, in the southern city of Marseille in 2020, after he travelled to the country on a student exchange programme.

He was detained and charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless…

The United States has lost seven multi-million-dollar MQ-9 Reaper drones in the Yemen area since March 15, a US official said Monday, as the Navy announced a costly warplane fell off an aircraft carrier into the Red Sea.

Washington launched the latest round of its air campaign against Yemen’s Huthis in mid-March, and MQ-9s can be used for both reconnaissance — a key aspect of US efforts to identify and target weaponry the rebels are using to attack shipping in the region — as well as…

A US warplane went overboard into the Red Sea as a result of a Monday accident on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the country’s Navy said.

“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.

“All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury,” it said, adding that the carrier and its air wing remain mission capable and that the…

A multi-million-dollar US warplane fell off the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier into the Red Sea on Monday in an accident that injured one sailor, the Navy said.

A tractor that was towing the fighter plane — a model that cost $67 million in 2021 — also slipped off the ship into the sea.

“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.

“Sailors towing the…

The UN’s food and refugee agencies have warned of dire cuts to their services as funding plummets, especially from key donor the United States under President Donald Trump.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) will cut staff by 25 to 30 percent as contributions to the global aid agency have dropped, according to an internal email seen Monday by AFP.

The head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned Monday that reduced contributions could force a one-third reduction in its activities, despite…

The twisted metal and blood-stained rubble of a detention centre in mountainous northern Yemen, on Monday, marked the end of an arduous journey for scores of migrants killed in what the Houthi group said was a US air strike, Reuters reports.

They were among the hundreds of thousands of Africans who cross the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait each year on flimsy boats and make their way through the war zone of Yemen, seeking to reach Saudi Arabia in the hope of finding…