In 2005, the Israeli army began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip as part of the unilateral disengagement plan, and with this anniversary many Israeli circles criticised the plan, due to its major disadvantages. Palestinians and Israelis commemorate each summer the anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,...

Two people were killed and 11 injured early Tuesday in floods triggered by heavy rain in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Rize. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said they have had problems reaching six villages in the province but rescue team units are working hard. People injured in landslides in...

A Tunisian court has sentenced blogger Emna Chargui to six months in prison and a $700 fine for reposting a Facebook joke about the coronavirus written as if it was a Quran verse. “This is unfair and unjust … this proves that there is no freedom here,” Chargui, 27,...

Egypt has started offering reusable cotton face masks at around $50 cents each alongside the food items provided in its state subsidy programme, as it seeks to make protective gear more widely available to curb the coronavirus. Egypt subsidizes items such as bread, rice, and sugar for more than...

A social media campaign started by three Moroccan friends has emboldened hundreds of “revenge porn” victims to share their experiences, raising awareness about online abuse and challenging taboos. The Diha F’Rassek movement – meaning ‘Mind Your Own Business’ – was launched to fight back against dozens of “revenge porn”...

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Competition (GAC) said on Tuesday it had permanently cancelled the licence of Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports, which has been barred from broadcasting in the kingdom since mid-2017 due to a dispute with Qatar. GAC said in a statement it was also fining beIN Sports...

Basra Children’s Hospital which specialises in cancer treatment has cut admissions by half since May due to the novel coronavirus, its director said and is battling to keep children safe from infection with a new isolation ward and testing of staff. Hospital director Ali Abulhussein al-Idani said that since...

Iran has executed a former defence ministry employee who sold information to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary said on Tuesday. Reza Asgari had linked up with the CIA during his last years in the ministry and sold the agency information about Iran’s missile programme, judiciary...

“When I die, I hope that my biography will include just one line: Mohamed Mohamed Mounir Youssef participated in the revolution of January 25 2011 honestly and sincerely.” Mohamed Mounir, Egyptian journalist, died of COVID-19 infection in an Egyptian prison. ” The murder of the great Egyptian journalist, Mohamed...

READ: Qatar’s gas supplies to UK break records...

In a humiliating defeat for Saudi Arabia and its allies, the top UN court has ruled in a 16-1 decision in favour of Qatar over the ongoing dispute between Doha and its Gulf neighbours. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed, today, the appeal lodged by Saudi Arabia,UAE, Egypt...

Veteran journalist Dr Bora Bayraktar greeted his audiences to the Hagia Sophia by saying, “Welcome to the heart of the world.” His views have been recorded for his YouTube channel to inform audiences about Turkey’s recent decision on the iconic 6th century sanctuary. “Why I said ‘the heart of...

Libya’s Aman Bank has announced that it is offering interest-free, Shari’ah compliant loans for customers to buy electricity generators for domestic use, Libya Herald has reported. The move by the bank reflects the acute electricity crisis that has bedevilled Libya since the 2011 revolution that overthrew the Qaddafi regime....

A legal case filed by Amnesty International that requested Israeli spyware firm NSO Group be banned from exporting its cyberweapons internationally was rejected by an Israeli court. Amnesty’s lawyers alleged the software had been used by repressive governments to target activists, including one of the rights group’s own researchers, as well...

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden may try to sustain the fable that he is an alternative to current US President Donald Trump, but for the Palestinians a Biden presidency will most probably normalise the human rights violations that have attracted wider endorsement as a result of US support for...

Qatar continues to lead the way as the safest country in the world, topping the Numbeo crime index for five years in a row. The tiny Gulf state stood at the top of the 2020 mid-year ranking complied by the global database site which tracks crime rates and livings...

German authorities have arrested two Syrians suspected of helping conduct an execution by an Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian opposition group, prosecutors said yesterday. The two men, identified as Khedr A.K. and Sami A.S., are accused of having “jointly killed a person protected under international humanitarian law”, resulting in their arrest and...

The health of a Palestinian prisoner held at the Federal Correction Institute in Seagoville, Texas has been deteriorating due to a “lack of appropriate treatment” for Covid-19, Shehab news agency reported on Monday. Mofeed Meshaal is serving 20 years for allegedly channelling charitable funds to Hamas. “My brother and...

Footballing legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane could be re-united by Marseille’s prospective new owner Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi. The French-Tunisian businessman has spoken about his interest in uniting the pair who enjoyed three years of unprecedented success in Real Madrid before Ronaldo’s departure in 2018 to his current club...

Three Russian and a number of Turkish soldiers were injured this morning after Syrian militants struck their joint patrol using a roadside bomb, the Russian Defence Ministry said. According to the ministry, Russia pulled back the patrol following the blast near the town of Ariha in Idlib province that...

The eastern-based Libyan parliament, which supports the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar, has given the Egyptian military permission to intervene in the civil war. “We call for joint efforts between the two brotherly nations – Libya and Egypt – in order to defeat the occupier...

In an unprecedented move, a senior Saudi Arabian professor from King Saud University in Riyadh has published an article in an Israeli journal,” according to Tel Aviv University. In his first article in Hebrew, Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban, head of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and Hebrew Studies, claims...

The Egyptian journalist Mohamed Mounir has died just days after he was released from prison. Mounir, editor-in-chief of Al-Diyar, contracted coronavirus whilst incarcerated and displayed typical symptoms of the virus. He was already suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. Mounir died in an isolation unit at the Cairo...

Israel’s planned annexation of large parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank is not currently on the government’s agenda, Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said on Monday. Speaking to Reshet Bet radio, the minister stressed that the government is currently putting the fight against the coronavirus at the...

Algeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has said that his country opposes Libya’s division under any circumstances, Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday. Sabri Boukadoum stressed that Algeria is keen to resolve the Libyan crisis through dialogue and maintain the integrity of its sovereign territory. “We expect the return of...

Egyptians planning to travel to the UAE are required to test negative for COVID-19 before departure, EgyptAir has revealed. The state-owned airline added that those travelling from Egypt must contact the UAE’s embassy in Cairo to locate approved laboratories which are licenced to carry out the necessary tests. EgyptAir...

A Russian-Syrian business network run by a prominent Syrian businessman was responsible for the transfer of millions of dollars to the Assad regime and the development of its chemical weapons arsenal, an investigative report revealed yesterday. According to the report published by Global Witness, an international campaign group which traces money involved...

The Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Taher El-Sonni, said the conditions set by renegade General Khalifa Haftar to reopen the oil fields and ports, demonstrates his dependence on foreign players. In a statement issued on TV on Saturday, Ahmed Al-Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar, conditioned the reopening on...

The Shura Council of Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement has entrusted its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, to initiate negotiations with the President of the Republic and political and social forces to begin negotiations to form a new government. The decision was taken by a plurality of votes in the Shura Council, as...

An order barring Manchester City from competing in European football for two years was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday, Reuters reports. The CAS verdict ruled the Abu Dhabi-owned English Premier League club had not breached Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and slashed the team’s fine...

Qatar’s gas supplies to the UK have reached their highest rate with 42.7 million cubic metres being provided per day over the last three weeks, the Gulf states’ Al-Sharq newspaper reported yesterday. The paper reported that six of the largest tankers had arrived in the station of South Hook Gas Company in...

Ambiguity, tension and possible escalation surround the future of Egypt-Somalia relations due to the latter’s unclear position on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the conflict between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan that it has engendered. Somalia expressed reservations about two Arab League resolutions on the issue, which sparked a...

There are regional and international efforts to oust the internationally-backed Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the head of Al-Islah’s media department said on Sunday. Taking to Twitter, Ali Al Jaradi, said the plot does not target the president himself, but his legitimacy which was granted to him by...

The military arm of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has filed a formal complaint against the US Ambassador Dorothy Shea following comments she made in a recent interview. Secretary-General of the Iranian-backed Shia militia Hasan Nasrallah had warned the group’s parliamentary bloc would make the move during a recent speech. According to local media reports, the...

The UAE has postponed the launch of its Mars probe due to “weather conditions” at the launch site in Japan, with the mission now scheduled for Friday. A rocket carrying the unmanned spacecraft, called Amal (Hope in Arabic) was due to launch at 05:51am local time tomorrow (20:51 GMT...

A prominent Egyptian writer has been arrested after a poet filed a complaint with authorities accusing him of sexual assault. Mohamed Hashem manages the Dar Merit publishing house in Cairo and was well-known for his resistance to state censorship. The poet Alaa Hasanin wrote a Facebook post describing how...

Four parliamentary blocs in the Tunisian Assembly of the Representatives of the People have announced the start of procedures to withdraw confidence from Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, due to what they considered to be abuses committed in the administration of Parliament. Democratic Current spokesman Muhammad Ammar said in a...

Many countries are engaged in what is a complex conflict in Libya, and so some obvious proxy wars are shaping up. For several reasons, Egypt and Turkey are the most involved due to the profound impact of what is happening in Libya on their national security and vital interests....

Protesters in the Tunisian city of Tataouine yesterday threatened to shut down Al-Kamour oilfield, placing their tents outside it. After spending a week in an area three kilometers away, about 150 Tataouine youths fixed their tents near the pumping station in Al-Kamour. The protesters are calling on the government...

The former in the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, Bifani said Monday that Lebanese bankers have smuggled nearly $6 billion out of the country since October despite financial regulations imposed to save the country from the worst financial crisis in 30 years, a former Ministry of Finance official revealed yesterday....

The Houthis have arrested 157 Yemeni mothers over the past two years on a number of charges including demonstrating to demand better living conditions and as a result of their political affiliation, the Abductees Mothers Association in Yemen said yesterday. The group said in a statement that 18 of...

Renowned Lebanese singer and actress, Haifa Wehbe, has filed a lawsuit against her former business manager, Mohamed Waziri, accusing him of stealing 62 million Egyptian pounds ($4 million) from her bank account using a power of attorney that she had granted him to collect her fees from producers and...

On February 8 2017, Areej and Ashwaq Hamoud packed their belongings and left the house where they grew up in Saudi Arabia to board a plane to what they hoped would be a better life. That night they left behind their family home and at the same time overrode...

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Vershinin, has defended Turkey’s decision to convert the status of the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul into a mosque saying the decision is a Turkish internal affair. “We proceed from the fact that this is a Turkish internal affair in which neither us...

Saudi social media users rejected state-owned oil company Aramco’s decision to increase petrol and other fuel prices by 34 per cent this month. On Friday, Aramco updated the list of prices of petrol and other fuels on its website for the month of July. According to the updated list,...

Houthi drones have been used to bomb Saudi military installations in Jizan, Najran, Asir, Khamis Mushayt and Abha, the group’s spokesperson said yesterday. Yahya Sarea said the bombs came in response to the crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen; the latest of which has been the massacre...

The Israeli army yesterday said that more than 12,000 soldiers have been quarantined, fearing “possible infection of the novel coronavirus”. In an official statement, the military pointed out that “568 soldiers have contracted the virus since February.” Infection rates among Israeli soldiers were reported to have increased significantly since...

While the US administration of President Donald Trump remains adamant in its support for Israel, the traditional democratic leadership continues to employ underhanded language, the kind of ‘strategic ambiguity’ that offers full support to Israel and nothing but lip service to Palestine and peace. Trump’s policies on Israel and...

Apparently Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, is “very distressed” by the decision to revert the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia into a mosque; it has been a museum since 1934. He made his views known in the latest edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Quite why...

Morocco announced it is isolating the northern city of Tangier as of Monday to curb the spread of coronavirus outbreak in the city, reports Anadolu Agency. The Moroccan Interior Ministry said measures include the suspension of public transport – both road and rail – to and from Tangier. Citizens...