Sources in Israel have revealed that Israeli intelligence officers in the reserve army are working in private companies, some of which are linked to the UAE’s intelligence services, and pointed to the immigration of brains abroad. Dr. Ronen Bergman, intelligence editor for Yedioth Ahronoth, cited a former Israeli officer,...

Lebanese prime minister, Saad Al-Hariri, cancelled the cabinet meeting which planned to take place on Friday, amidst calls for him to resign, Lebanese mass media reported. Hariri declared a 72-hour ultimatum for his partners in government, to announce their support for reformations and anti-corruption plans, which were already agreed...

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) called for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to name ministers and other officials who repaid stolen money from the PA’s treasury, Al-Watan Voice reported on Friday. Last month the PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, ordered former ministers and officials to repay the...

Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, issued a poster featuring passport-sized photos of four Israeli soldiers who were imprisoned by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, Shehab News Agency reported on Friday. The poster addressed the Israeli occupation by displaying the phrase “your soldiers are still in Gaza.” Al-Qassam released the...

The Egyptian government denied on Friday reports regarding plans to lay off a large number of public servants, as part of a plan to reduce public spending, a statement revealed. The statement, which was posted on the government’s Facebook page, stated “there are no plans to lay off any...

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced the entry into force of the Turkish-US agreement on northern Syria, which was signed on Thursday in Ankara, after long negotiations between the delegations of both countries. Erdogan revealed during an interview today that the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and the positions...

For the third consecutive day, around 2,473 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Arab48.com reported on Friday. On Thursday, 816 settlers bombarded the holy site through Al-Magharbeh Gate. They besieged the mosque under heavy protection by the Israeli police. The largest...

A nation’s image is usually only as good as its achievements, so it is a sad time when the image that appears in many minds when hearing the name “Palestine” is one of bombs, ruined buildings, stone-throwing children and a corrupt authority which arrests its own people on behalf...

Cycle Palestine for Medical Aid for Palestinians was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done physically, mentally and emotionally. It was a life changing experience – a complete rollercoaster of highs and lows for so many reasons yet before even leaving on the last day I was already making...

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday that no US troops will take part in enforcing the so-called safe zone in northern Syria and the United States “is continuing our deliberate withdrawal from northeastern Syria”, Reuters reports. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Friday said Turkey will set up...

Lebanon is closer to a financial crisis than at any time since at least the war-torn 1980s as allies, investors and this week nationwide protests pile pressure on the government to tackle a corrupt system and enact long-promised reforms, Reuters reports. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s government on Thursday hastily reversed a...

The UN human rights office called on Egypt on Friday to free a prominent blogger, lawyer and journalist allegedly mistreated in custody who are among several thousand people detained since street protests began a month ago, Reuters reports. Officials at Egypt’s interior ministry were not immediately available for comment. The state...

Turkish army chief and his US counterpart spoke over the phone on Friday and discussed security situation and recent developments in Syria, Anadolu Agency reports. Turkish Chief of General Staff General Yasar Guler discussed the security situation and recent developments in Syria with his US counterpart Mark Milley, said a Turkish...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday decried NATO’s inability to react to what he called Turkey’s “crazy” offensive into northern Syria and said it was time Europe stopped acting like a junior ally when it came to the Middle East, Reuters reports. Turkey’s military incursion into Syria to attack Kurdish...

  Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip huddled together at the Israeli security fence to take part in the 79th consecutive Friday of weekly anti-occupation protests known as the Great March of Return, Anadolu Agency reports. Protesters from across the Gaza Strip headed to the eastern areas of the...

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Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip yesterday called on a UN organisation to put pressure on Israel to allow their agricultural products to be marketed in the occupied West Bank. This came during a sit-in organised by farmers in front of the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation...

Egyptian citizen Madian Hasanein is being held at the Interior Ministry’s headquarters in Zagazig city, Sharqia governorate, after Sudanese authorities handed him over to Egypt, according to an investigation carried out by the rights group We Record. Fifty-nine-year-old Hasanein was deported while Sudan undergoes a democratic process, supposedly striving...

Since the attack on a Japanese-owned oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz in June, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been under pressure to send a military force to protect its tankers in the volatile waterway. Having previously been averse to sending warships to join a US-led maritime force...

The Zionist erasure of Palestinians from their landscape is no longer contested in the international arena. The dispossession of Palestinians is treated as a historical fact removed from their legitimate right of return and ongoing human rights violations. Flawed as only the UN could conspire to be, the preservation...

It has been reported that gunmen have raided two trendy seafront cafes in the Libyan capital of Tripoli this month to deter the free mixing of unmarried couples and impose strict religious social codes. According to Reuters, the identity of the assailants is unconfirmed, but the incident illustrates the...

There has been a surge in reports of sexual abuse against African refugee women in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in what some rights groups describe as an “epidemic” of sexual violence which has worsened in recent months. According to a report by Reuters, one 17-year-old South Sudanese refugee managed...

A lawyer filed a lawsuit at a Kuwaiti court demanding the closure of the social networking site Twitter. In her lawsuit, she said that Twitter is contributing to the destruction of values within the community, while government control of fake accounts is weak, according to Kuwait newspaper Al-Qabas. Authorities in...

Turkey is suspected of using white phosphorous and napalm by embattled Kurdish forces locked in combat with Ankara in the north-eastern Syrian town of Ras Al-Ain. Reports of the use of weapons banned for use on civilian targets by the Geneva and Chemical Weapons conventions, began to surface while...

READ: Sudan farmers’ harvest decimated by climate change...

The UN has condemned the arrest of prominent activists in Egypt and demanded the Egyptian government look into allegations that they were tortured in custody. At the end of September Alaa Abdul Fattah was arrested at 6am from the police station where he slept as part of his probation...

A US Senator yesterday introduced legislation into the Senate to provide US visas to Syrian Kurds who have served in the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) and alongside US forces throughout the Syrian conflict. Senator Mark Warner, serving from Virginia, wrote on Twitter yesterday regarding President Donald Trump’s alleged abandoning...

Not a day goes by without another Israeli attack on various aspects of Palestinian life, be it through home demolitions, land confiscations, the abduction of youngsters in the night or attacks on their holy places. A good source of factual information about Israel’s attacks is the UN Office for...

In a move to attract international investment in Sudan, four US diplomats have opened accounts at a bank in the country for the first time in decades. Deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Khartoum, Ellen Thorburn, and three other diplomats have opened accounts at a branch of the...

Only hours after announcing its decision to tax calls made over the internet, Lebanon has reversed the ruling to calm street protests which rocked the country. At a session of the Lebanese cabinet, a bill was passed yesterday which would have imposed fees for using voice over internet protocol...

A report in the Guardian has revealed how “rightwing activists are attempting to spread new laws across Republican-controlled states that would ban criticism on public university campuses of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory”. According to the paper, “first amendment advocates see the potential spread of such laws...

Palestinian officials are taking “legal and procedural steps” to demarcate the State of Palestine’s maritime borders, reported Al-Monitor. On 8 October, Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki gave Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit “a legal file on the demarcation prepared by the Palestinian government”, a move described as part of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a plan for establishing a national unity government yesterday, which was quickly rejected by Blue and White chair Benny Gantz. According to Haaretz, the outline is “based on the guidelines set forward by President Reuven Rivlin for establishing a unity government” but it...

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Alhakim said yesterday that his country is ready to receive members of Daesh and their families to be prosecuted in Iraq. Alhakim indicated during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Baghdad: “We discussed with the French side the...

This week, the West Bank witnessed a wave of settler attacks and agricultural terrorism as Palestinian farmers began the year’s olive harvest. Attacks were mainly in northern villages near Nablus and Salfit, governorates with the largest concentration of illegal Israeli settlements. Wafa news reported a settler attack on olive...

So, another one bites the dust. Louise Ellman MP quit the Labour Party this week. The chairperson of Labour Friends of Israel is the latest in a line of right-wing Labour MPs to quit the party in protest against its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn. Ellman is the second LFI...

The overwhelming election victory of Tunisia’s new President, Kais Saied, and the statements he made in its aftermath send a very clear message: the counter-revolution in Tunisia has failed; it has been defeated; it has ended. Tunisians have always embraced the saying, “If people fight for life, destiny will...

The commander of Kurdish forces in Syria has declared that US President Donald Trump has not opposed an agreement reached by the Kurds, Russia and the Syrian regime to counter the Turkish attack in north-eastern Syria. Mazloum Abdi told Kurdish Ronahi TV on Wednesday evening that Trump gave the...

The Ministry of Social Development in the Gaza Strip said yesterday that the rates of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip reached nearly 75 per cent in 2019. In a press release it added that 70 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip is food insecure. This, it continued, was a result of “the aggressive...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday, hours after Turkey agreed with the United States to pause its offensive on Kurdish forces in Syria, Reuters reports. Turkey launched its assault against the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria...

UNESCO’s Executive Board approved at its 207th session a resolution calling on Israel to stop its violations and unilateral actions against historic sites in Jerusalem. The decision was made by the international organisation during its meeting in Paris. The resolution called on Israel to stop its unilateral and illegal violations against...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the pause in Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring, the international body said hours after the announcement Thursday, Anadolu reports. “The Secretary-General welcomes any effort to de-escalate the situation and protect civilians, in line with the UN Charter and international humanitarian law,” the UN said in...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a US delegation to Israel at the end of the month to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz, a senior administration official said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Kushner has been leading President Donald Trump’s effort to...

US President Donald Trump defended his Syria pullout at a campaign rally on Thursday and lashed out at “crazy Nancy” Pelosi and other Democrats who are trying to remove him from office through impeachment, Reuters reports. “The more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become....

African refugees in Libya are so desperate that some are bribing their way into detention centres in the hope of eventually being resettled out of the war-torn, lawless country, the United Nations said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April to try...

Turkey has agreed to a five-day ceasefire in northeast Syria to allow for withdrawal of Kurdish forces, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday after talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reports. “Today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria,” Pence told a news...

A Turkish offensive into northeast Syria has led to the death of 224 from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and 183 Turkish-backed rebels after the first eight days of fighting, the Syrian Observatory reported on Thursday, Reuters reports. The fighting has also led to 72 civilian deaths, the Observatory...

Hungary would have to “use force” at its southern border with Serbia to protect the European Union’s frontier if Turkey delivers on a threat to open the gates for refugees through the Balkans towards Europe, Hungary’s prime minister said, Reuters reports. Prime Minister Viktor Orban built a steel fence on Hungary’s...

Germany’s chancellor on Thursday voiced concern over the US decision to withdraw troops from Syria, arguing that it would further increase the influence of Russia and Iran in the region, reported by Anadolu Agency.  Addressing lawmakers at the Bundestag before heading to Brussels for a summit of EU leaders,...

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar denied on Thursday the allegations of social media accounts about Turkey’s ongoing anti-terror operation in northern Syria, Anadolu Agency reports. Photos appeared on social media about Turkey’s ongoing military operation in northern Syria by posting photographs, videos and information to blame Turkey for using chemical...