Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, is supposed to be the protector of international justice, he who spreads peace and security amongst the people, and the person who ends the bloodshed between countries, but the war in Gaza revealed something else. It revealed “dusty faces” covered with masks;...

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing a “massive health disaster” caused by the continuous Israeli war which has been ongoing for four weeks, the UN warned yesterday. The Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN in the Occupied Palestinian Territories James Rowley also said that there is no safe place...

Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau said yesterday that the Israeli occupation army had failed in achieving the aims of the Israeli war on Gaza. Speaking to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, he said: “We lost a strategic battle in front of the Gaza Strip.” Landau added: “The deterrence power...

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is said to have sent a strongly worded letter to the United States categorically refusing the return of Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki for a third term. According a source, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal sent the letter to his US counterpart John...

Israel has so far destroyed 161 mosques in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Awqaf Minister Yousef Dois said yesterday. He said 41 mosques were completely destroyed and 120 were partially destroyed during the war adding that a number of religious institutions have also been attacked. Dois continued by saying Israel...

The Palestine Committee at the Non-Aligned Movement held an emergency meeting today to discuss the deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip, the Anadolu news agency reported. The meeting was attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in addition to the foreign ministers of Palestine, Lebanon, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Sudan, Uganda and...

Palestinian factions attending talks in Cairo have presented a joint document to Egyptian mediators outlining their terms for a cease-fire with Israel. They are: 1. An immediate ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and guarantees to end Israeli incursions, infiltrations, assassinations, the bombing of houses and flights over...

Like living people, the dead in the Gaza Strip are in need of a safe place, but the continuous Israeli bombardment undermines efforts to find them any. Since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the number of deaths has reached 1,815. That number is increasing;...

The US State Department yesterday said it was “appalled” by the “disgraceful” Israeli shelling of a UN school sheltering displaced civilians in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip which led to the killing of 10 Palestinians. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “The United States is...

Egypt and Algeria are considering a joint military operation in Libya to prevent the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in their increasingly unstable neighbour Libya, an Algerian newspaper reported Sunday. According to Sunday’s editorial in the Algerian Al-Watan newspaper, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is “worried” about the threats...

The European Union has called for an immediate end to the “bloodshed” in Gaza, after nearly four weeks of non-stop Israeli raids on the coastal enclave. In a joint statement issued yesterday, the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy urged...

Egypt needs $8 billion over the 10 months from September to import petroleum for domestic usage, an official at the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Egypt would have to spend in the event that Arab States, who had pledged...

As the crisis in Gaza escalates to truly critical levels, with a death toll breaching 1,830 Palestinians and rising and an 79.9% civilian mortality rate, we are overdue a serious reflection on the nature of the positions being taken by international bodies. It is with grave concern that we...

Israeli intelligence services reportedly tapped US Secretary of State John Kerry’s telephone during his efforts to broker a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis earlier this year, German magazine Der Spiegel revealed yesterday. The publication pointed out that the Israeli intelligence and at least one other intelligence service were...

The Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas called on Sunday for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to apologise to the Palestinians after the appalling Israeli massacre against civilians in Gaza. Pls48.net news website quoted Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum as saying: “After the lies of the Israeli occupation about the kidnapping of...

Israel has used three internationally banned weapons in its recent attacks on the Gaza Strip, a military expert said. Safwat Al-Zayat, a retired Brigadier General in the Egyptian Army and an expert in military affairs, told the Anadolu news agency that “Israel’s use of such internationally banned weapons is...

Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Iyad Amin Madani, called upon all member states to reconsider their relations with Israel in light of its continued mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, Anadolu news agency reported. The OIC, an association of 57 Muslim-majority countries, issued a statement on...

The Palestinian resistance groups have succeeded in establishing new rules for their game with the Israeli enemy. What has become clearer are not only the Israeli casualties, which are significantly greater than the previous wars in 2008 and 2012, but also the noticeable political and diplomatic performance throughout this...

It is said that historical facts can be distorted but geographical facts can’t. The latter help to shape external policies in the world of geopolitics, which connect Egypt and Palestine, especially the Gaza Strip. The former provides strategic depth for Palestine which, in turn, is a gateway to national...

Nearly 300 people protested in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Sunday against the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, which has now entered its 28th day. Anadolu news agency reported that the protest was organised by the Activists for Austria and Palestine group via social networking sites in...

Iraqi Member of Parliament Khaled Al-Mafraji, leader of the Coalition of National Forces MP a delegation that groups mainly Sunni leaders, reportedly said in a statement: “The attempt by some political parties to negotiate with outgoing Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and give him guarantees that he will not be...

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned on Sunday the killing of Palestinian civilians in an Israeli attack on an UNRWA school in the city of Rafah in the south of Gaza, describing the attack as a “criminal act”. Ten Palestinians were killed and dozens of others were injured on...

The spokesperson of the Israeli army Avichay Adraee said that the Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip is “not over,” and that the coming 48 hours will be decisive. In statements to Anadolu Agency, Adraee said that no decision has been reached yet by the Israeli cabinet regarding...

The Saudi ministry of interior has recently decided that new preachers have to pass “security clearance” prior to their appointment at mosques, the Saudi daily Al-Hayat reported Sunday. The clearance procedures will be carried out by government agencies, including the local councils. According to a source who spoke with...

Sixteen Palestinian paramedics were killed and 102 others injured in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of an ongoing Israeli offensive against the Palestinian enclave, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday. Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency that the medical rescue workers were targeted by Israeli warplanes...

The British daily The Independent revealed on Saturday the critical role played by the United Kingdom in providing the Israeli army with a wide range of military equipment used in bombing Gaza civilians. According to The Independent‘s correspondent Cahal Milmo, the newspaper obtained documents that prove that British-made arms...

Over 35 percent of the wounded as a result of the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip suffer from visual, hearing, or mobility impairments, the spokesman of the Palestinian health ministry said Sunday. He added that 55 percent of the wounded are women and children who were home at...

Within a day following the commencement of Operation Protective Edge, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement replete with rhetoric embraced by Israeli allies. The statement’s title, “Indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks”, is followed by a brief speculation in the form of an inconspicuous subtitle, about the possibility of considering...

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani voiced his surprise at a statement issued on Friday by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in which he held Hamas responsible for violating the humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The Qarari Emir told Ban Ki-moon that the UN should have verified the incident...

Large demonstrations against Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza were staged across the US on Saturday. The public outpouring of support for Palestinians in US streets suggests that Washington’s pro-Israel policies are becoming increasingly unpopular, a trend supported by a recent poll on Israel’s latest aggression, which finds that...

The United Nations on Sunday warned of a “rapidly unfolding health disaster of widespread proportions” in the Gaza Strip, saying that the latter’s medical facilities are on the verge of collapse amid Israel’s non-stop attacks against the strip. “We are now looking at a health and humanitarian disaster,” warned...

The harrowing newspaper and TV images of death and destruction in Gaza have gone from bad to worse these past few days as the Israeli war machine, fuelled and funded by the West, continues without mercy. While the number of innocents killed heads towards 2,000 there’s been another spike,...

After almost one month of unspeakable Israeli savagery, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has finally decided to break his silence on Gaza. While some may say it is better late than never, others insist that it’s too little too late. Whichever way it is viewed, the grudging official Arab response...

Egypt on Sunday said it formally protested against recent remarks by US Department of State spokeswoman Marie Harf saying that Egypt used American military aid against its own people. “Egypt’s embassy in Washington has delivered an official note of protest to the US Department of State to reject Harf’s...

An ongoing Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip has completely destroyed 5510 homes in the embattled coastal enclave, a Palestinian cabinet minister said Saturday “Some 5510 housing units have been destroyed and nearly 30920 others partially damaged by Israel’s military operation in Gaza,” Minister of Public Works and Housing...

Close your eyes and visualize a child that you know and love dearly. The child can be your son, daughter, sibling, nephew or niece, grandson or granddaughter or even the child of a friend. Next, imagine that child playing innocently. Now imagine a bomb falling fatally near that child...

President of the Tunisian Nahda Movement Rashid Al-Ghannouchi said in a Friday sermon yesterday that the Israeli assault on Gaza exposed countries, parties, and organisations which were complicit in the aggression because of their silence. He accused Arab countries, which he did not name, of funding the Israeli onslaught....

The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, renewed his demands to exercise the right to self-determination, affirming that Kurdistan is “no longer able to do anything for Iraq and will not wait for an unknown fate.” In a statement issued by the presidency of Kurdistan, on the side-lines...

A senior PLO official has blamed the Israeli occupation for the collapse of the 72-hour truce which started on Friday morning and lasted only for two hours. Dr Nabil Sha’ath said that the Israeli occupation had killed the Palestinians and destroyed their homes in the city of Rafah in...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has appealed to Qatar and Turkey to use their influence with Hamas to secure the release of an Israeli soldier who went missing in Gaza on Friday morning. Reuters reported that Kerry called the Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid al-Atiyyah and Turkish Foreign Minister...

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, has rejected the accusations of the UN and the US that it bears responsibility for the collapse of the humanitarian truce which started on Friday morning. Hamas spokesman Dr Sami Abu-Zuhri said in a statement that blaming Hamas for the breakdown of the...

The Colombian Senate issued a statement on Friday condemning the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip and called for the lifting of the siege on the territory and establishment of an independent Palestinian state. “In light of the serious developments in Gaza, the Colombian Senate condemns the Israeli operations...

The Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, said early on Saturday that it has no knowledge about the missing Israeli soldier, his whereabouts, or even the way he was captured. Al Qassam said in a statement that the Israeli army had used the hype...

Thousands of Americans rallied in New York city on Friday in protest against Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the pro-Israel coverage of CNN and Fox News. The rally started in front of CNN headquarters in Time Warner building in Manhattan, while American citizens from all races...

Israel’s occupation army has carried out 72 attacks on journalists in the Gaza Strip during its latest war on the territory which started on 7 July, Palestinian information ministry in Gaza said on Friday. The number of violations rose after the death of journalists Sameh al-Arian and Mohamed Daher...

Spokesman of the Palestinian Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra has accused the Israeli occupation forces of “deliberately” targeting Gaza’s health sector. Counting the number of Israeli attacks on Palestinian hospitals and paramedics during the war on his Twitter page, Al-Qidra described the Israeli acts as “war crimes” and “violations...

Former France and Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona has expressed strong anger over the policy of the French President Francois Hollande, for its support of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Speaking to Mediapart news website, Cantona, who rose to prominence in the 1990s, appealed for the president...

It is being said by some, even in Arab and Muslim circles, that Hamas is responsible for what is happening in Gaza, that there will be no Israeli attack if Hamas stopped firing its toy rockets into Israel. There was no problem when the rockets and bullets came only...

Amid the cries of outrage and the flurry of condemnations the world has thrown at Israel, the Zionist State remains adamant it owns absolute moral ground on Gaza, arguing high and low that no state should ever be made to suffer the ravage of bombs. And indeed, no people...

Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz says the international community has been ‘unjustifiably silent’ towards Israeli assaults on Gaza. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz condemned Israel’s “massacres and war crimes” in the Gaza Strip, during a recorded voice speech on Friday. “The blood of our brothers in Gaza is being...