Former Knesset member and NGO Monitor board member Einat Wilf has been questioned by police “over accusations that she assaulted a minor”, reported the Times of Israel. The story had been previously reported in the Israeli media but it was only yesterday that Wilf’s name was permitted for publication...

The British Home Secretary Priti Patel has been ranked the eighth worst MP in the last parliament, according to the campaign website change.org. The new People-Power Index ranks the performance of MPs in the 2017-2019 parliament based on availability to their constituents, participation in parliament and how they bring...

A US Republican running for congress has called for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to be hanged, according to the American newspaper the Tampa Bay Times. In a 26 November fundraising email sent by George Buck he accuses Omar of treason on the grounds that she is secretly working for Qatar:...

Israeli occupation authorities yesterday released 500 calves imported directly by Palestinian traders after blocking them for a month, Ma’an reported. Israel banned the entry of calves to the occupied territories after the Palestinian Authority’s decision to have Palestinian traders import them directly from abroad – without the mediation of...

The UN General Assembly yesterday officially asked Israel to leave the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The request was made after the resolution was adopted after 91 UN member states voted in favour, nine rejected and 65 abstained. The resolution stipulates that Israel leaves all the Syrian Golan Heights occupied...

Turkey’s president on Wednesday condemned those who use the word ‘Islam’ as an adjective to describe terrorism, Anadolu reports. “Islam is a religion of peace,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during an event at a venue in east London organized by the AK Party’s UK branch presidency where he and...

Japan is working on a plan to send about 270 seamen to the Middle East to guard ships supplying Japan under a law that allows military deployments for research and intelligence gathering, the Nikkei business daily said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a January visit to the Middle...

The Moroccan authorities announced on Wednesday the arrest of four people who had allegedly formed a terrorist cell loyal to the Daesh militant group and had incited to revenge for the death of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) said in a...

Ethiopian newspapers revealed that the country’s military will establish a base on the Red Sea’s coasts. Citing naval sources, local media outlets reported that Ethiopian authorities are preparing to start building a naval base on the coasts of Djibouti, by the Strait of Eden. The naval base’s command will...

A senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday there were indications that Iran could potentially carry out aggressive actions in the future, amid simmering tensions between Tehran and Washington, Reuters reports. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers during the summer, including off the coast of...

Sudanese authorities have arrested Issam al-Bashir, the former religious advisor to ousted President, Omar al- Bashir, on charges of money laundering, abuse of power as well as abusing the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments’ properties. Sudan’s Akher Lahza newspaper reported that al-Bashir was stopped by anti-money laundering units...

A Jordanian delegation on Monday visited the Kuwaiti embassy in Amman to apologise for provocative chants by some fans during a football match between the two countries last month, Jordanian media said. The delegation included families of the fans as well as deputies and dignitaries and tribal elders asking...

Unidentified shooters have assassinated a local official at Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, a security source reported yesterday. “Gunmen believed to belong to Daesh have assassinated the mayor of the Al-Jisr village – located in the north-eastern part of Diyala – Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, near his house, and fled...

Iraq’s Independent High Commission for Human Rights said the death toll of anti-establishment protests over the past two months has increased to 460 dead and more than 17,000 wounded. Iraqi media quoted Ali al-Bayati, a member of the Commission, as saying “at least 460 demonstrators were killed during the...

The world has not done enough to ensure justice is done over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a United Nations (UN) investigator said on Tuesday. Agnes Callamard, UN’s rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, called for more action from the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) over...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau “two-faced” when asked by a reporter about Trudeau’s jokes apparently at his expense, Anadolu reports. “He’s two-faced,” said Trump, near the end of a two-day NATO summit in London, when asked about Trudeau’s private remarks a day earlier...

At least six civilians were killed when the airstrikes of Russia and Assad regime targeted Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on Wednesday, a local civil defense agency said, Anadolu reports. Besides fatalities, the airstrikes left 10 civilians injured, said the White Helmets. The warplanes struck the Saraqib district and several...

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday French, British and German leaders will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again early next year to discuss Syria, Libya and other issues, Anadolu reports. “I’m very happy that we had a very useful meeting yesterday with British Prime Minister, Chancellor Merkel...

Greece said on Wednesday it opposed an accord reached by Turkey and Libya to define their maritime boundaries, but said it and Ankara – both members of NATO – were committed to talks on confidence-building measures, Reuters reports. Libya and Turkey signed an agreement on boundaries in the Mediterranean...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Lisbon on Wednesday where they spoke about the threat of Iran, Reuters reports. “Iran’s aggression is growing but its empire is tottering. And I say, let’s make it totter even further,” Netanyahu said. A senior...

Saudi Aramco is looking to buy insurance against war and terror attacks after a damaging drone and missile attack on some of its oil facilities in September, two sources told Reuters. Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has been looking for cover from insurers including those based at Lloyd’s...

Unknown gunmen have reportedly killed a second security official in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden yesterday according to local sources. “Two masked gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Salem Lahtal, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department in the Al-Arish police force, as he passed near the...

Five rockets landed on US air base in Iraq, which hosts American troops in Anbar province in the west of the country, Reuters reported. No details were released of any casualties. The rockets struck the Ain Al-Asad airbase yesterday, where hundreds of US troops are stationed, the media office...

Members of the European parliament have expressed solidarity with the Egyptian-Palestinian politician Ramy Shaath and other human rights activists detained in Egypt and are calling for their release. In a series of photos published on a Twitter account in solidarity with Shaath, politicians hold up pictures of Ramy and...

A “Hezbollah operative” who had taken refuge in the US following the destruction of his family home by Israel during the 2006 conflict with the militant group in Lebanon, has been handed a 40-year sentence by an American judge for carrying out “covert terrorist activities” on behalf of the...

Scientists have identified a previously unknown species of dinosaur that lived in what is today Lebanon an estimated 95 million years ago. The remains of the creature, which are said to be very well preserved, were uncovered in a limestone quarry over fifteen years ago, according to the study...

Israeli occupation police arrested Muntaha Amara on Tuesday, the niece of Sheikh Raed Salah, who heads the Islamic Movement in Israel, Anadolu has reported. A video on social media showed that Amara was arrested while praying in front of the mosque of Al-Rahma Gate within the Noble Sanctuary of...

Palestinians held a silent protest in the besieged Gaza Strip today to highlight the international community’s inaction in the face of the Israeli atrocities committed against prisoners. Mahjat AlQuds Foundation for martyrs, prisoners and the wounded organised the “Our silence is pain, your silence is failure” protest after Palestinian...

The US House of Representatives has passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act 2019 by 407 to one sparking outrage from China. China’s policies in Xinjiang have been in the spotlight in the last few weeks after leaked government documents revealed how staff promoted repentance and confession in the...

Campaigners from a British Jewish anti-occupation group are urging the patrons of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to resign over a highly controversial event with a “far-right”, pro-settler Israeli group. On Sunday, UKLFI hosted a speaker from Regavim, an Israeli organisation notorious for its work in both promoting illegal...

The details of a purported draft deal between Likud and Blue and White for a unity government have been revealed by Israel’s Channel 13, reported the Times of Israel. The development comes with only a week left until Israel will be forced to head to a third election in...

An Israeli settler organisation is renting out part of a plot of expropriated Palestinian land to the Jerusalem Municipality who gave them the land in the first place. According to Haaretz, Israeli authorities pay “nearly 1 million shekels ($224,000) a year to the Amana settlement organisation in exchange for...

As many as 40 per cent of Israeli settlers in settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, known colloquially as the Gaza envelope, do not feel safe and are considering leaving, a new poll has found. Conducted by the Israeli parliament (Knesset) Research and Information Centre, the poll revealed that...

Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday signed an executive military order targeting the economic activities of those Tel Aviv considers “terrorists” abroad, local media reported. In the first such measure of its kind, Bennett plans to carry out “targeted economic eradication”. According to Jewish Press, Bennett’s spokesman said: “The...

Israel has banned Malay officials from crossing its border and access the occupied Palestinian territories in apparent retaliation for anti-occupation remarks made by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. Maan reported the Israeli Foreign Minister saying that the Malaysian diplomats would not be allowed to enter Israel or the occupied...

Israeli officials have said that Brazil is to open a trade mission, without diplomatic representation, in Jerusalem later this month, the Times of Israel reported on Monday. The Israeli newspaper said that this trade mission would not have a diplomatic statue and its employees would not be diplomats. Eduardo,...

Two years ago, 24-year-old Muhammad Al-Shanbari began balancing objects on top of each other to make amazing models that appeared to deny gravity. Muhammad, who lives in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, sometimes stacks gas canisters on top of each other onto a water key at an angle which leaves...

The Head of the Popular International Committee to Support Gaza has told participants at the 2nd conference for medical professionals and NGOs working to support the health sector in the Gaza Strip that he looks forward to a “lasting partnership”. Dr Essam Yousef wrote to participating organisations and individuals...

The Palestinians have had some cause for optimism lately about holding democratic elections in the occupied Palestinian territories. This followed marathon meetings between the head of the Central Elections Committee (CEC), Hanna Nasir, and representatives of the Palestinian factions. After getting positive responses from both of the main factions...

What: Religious extremists in Saudi Arabia under the charismatic leadership of man disgruntled with Western access to the Kingdom, took over the Grand Mosque of Makkah for two weeks. When: 20 November – 4 December 1979 Where: Makkah, Saudi Arabia Some years are quiet, and others are filled with...

Protesters in Iraq set fire to the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Najaf for the third time, local media reported Tuesday, reports Anadolu Agency. The consulate was previously torched on November 28 and December 1. Iraq has been rocked by mass protests since early October over poor...

Iraqi police arrested a key deputy of deceased Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Tuesday in Kirkuk province, reports Anadolu Agency. Abu Khaldoun was the terrorist group’s military commander for Salah al-Din province, according to Iraq’s Security Media Cell communications body. He was arrested in the town of Hawija and...

A memorandum on maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean Sea is important to secure Libya’s natural resources, the country’s High Council of State said Tuesday. Libya’s UN-recognized government has a right to sign memoranda with any country to ensure the country’s security and the protection of its resources, the council said in...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday called for leniency for people arrested during the protests over the recent fuel price hike for minor offenses. “There are some who… have committed an offense, not a crime. Someone has set fire to a tire; we must not keep them for what they’ve...

The number of persons with disabilities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip has reached 93,000 people or 2.1 per cent of the total population, a new report revealed. The report published by the Central Bureau of Statistics to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on...

Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli Ashkelon Prison announced on Tuesday their intention to go on an open-ended hunger strike in protest against escalating repressive measures by the prison administration. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said 33 prisoners will go on an open-ended hunger strike from Wednesday. According to the Club,...

The administration of US President Donald Trump has finally released $105 million in security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, after a month of unwarranted suspension. The Associated Press quoted on Tuesday two congressional staff members and a US administration official as saying that the decision to release the...

Some Mauritanian lawmakers would form a parliamentary committee to investigate into the former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’s tenure, local media reported yesterday. “On Monday, several MPs, including opponents and a ruling majority, were deliberating the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the Abdel Azizi’s tenure,” local media...

For the second year in a row, Qatar has participated in the maritime operation that was recently launched by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), under the slogan of “30 Days at Sea.” The operation – which witnessed the participation of 60 countries – aims at combating violations of...

Algeria’s National Independent Authority for Elections (ANIE) announced on Monday that the five presidential candidates would participate in a television debate on Friday ahead of the elections scheduled for December 12. ANIE spokesman, Ali Draa said in a statement that the date of the televised debate between the five...