Browsing: Region
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said its air defence systems intercepted two ballistic missiles and three drones launched from Iran on Friday, as regional tensions continued to escalate. In a statement carried by the Emirates News Agency, the UAE Ministry of Defence said the latest attack resulted in three people sustaining moderate injuries. The ministry added that the country’s air defences had intercepted 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles and 2,263 drones since the beginning of the Iranian attacks on the UAE. According to the statement, the total number of injuries linked to the attacks has now risen to 230, including Emirati nationals as well as Arab and foreign residents. The UAE armed forces said they remained on “full alert” and were prepared to respond to any threats targeting the country’s security and stability. The ministry stressed that the military would respond firmly to any attempt to undermine national security, while ensuring the protection of the country’s sovereignty, strategic interests and critical capabilities Related Story Source link
* Israeli strike kills son of Gaza Hamas chief* Hamas says attack aims to win political concession* Israeli fire kills three police officers, medics sayBy Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas An Israeli airstrike has killed the son of Hamas’ chief negotiator in U.S.-mediated talks over Gaza’s future, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday, as leaders of the militant group held talks in Cairo aimed at safeguarding their truce with Israel.Azzam Al-Hayya, son of Khalil Al-Hayya, succumbed to his wounds on Thursday after being struck in an Israeli attack on Wednesday night, senior Hamas official Basim Naim said. He is the fourth son of Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief to have been killed in Israeli attacks.The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.Later on Thursday, health officials and the Hamas-run interior ministry said at least three police officers were killed, and other people, including one policeman, were wounded when an Israeli airstrike targeted a police post in western Gaza City.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.Reuters has reported that Israel has intensified its attacks on Gaza’s Hamas-run police force, which the militant group has used to reinforce its hold in the areas it controls in the strip.PAST ISRAELI STRIKES HAVE KILLED THREE MORE OF HIS SONSHayya, who has seven children, has survived multiple Israeli attempts to kill him. An Israeli strike in Doha last year targeting Hamas leadership killed another son, though Hayya survived. Two other sons were killed in past Israeli attempts on his life, in Gaza strikes in 2008 and 2014.Speaking to Al Jazeera after the attack on Wednesday night, before his son’s death was announced, Hayya accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators’ efforts to push ahead with U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, overseen by his so-called “Board of Peace.”These Zionist attacks and violations clearly indicate that the occupation does not want to abide by a ceasefire or by the first phase,” Hayya said.Chanting “Allahu akbar”, or “God is Greatest”, dozens of Palestinians rallied in Gaza at the funeral of Hayya, the son, and held special prayers before walking him to burial. Women relatives paid respects to the white-shrouded body.”Your martyrdom, my beloved brother, you and my brother Hammam, and Osama and Hamza, will not deter my father, Dr. Khalil Al-Hayya, from this principle, nor from these constants,” the victim’s sister said inside the morgue.The group’s Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, said the killing of the Hamas leader’s son was a failed attempt by Israel to influence the negotiating team and win political concessions.”We say that this repeated policy of targeting the leaders and the sons of leaders will not succeed in extorting a political position from our Palestinian people, nor the Hamas leadership, nor its negotiating delegation,” Qassem told Reuters.HAMAS DISARMAMENT A STICKING POINT IN TALKSThe violence comes as leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions held talks with regional mediators and the Board of Peace’s lead envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, this week in Cairo, to push Trump’s Gaza plan into its second phase, officials said.Trump’s Gaza plan, which Israel and Hamas agreed to in October, involves Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza and reconstruction starting as Hamas lays down its weapons.But Hamas’ disarmament is a sticking point in talks to implement the plan and cement an October ceasefire that halted two years of full-blown war.A Hamas official told Reuters on Wednesday the group told Mladenov it would not engage in serious talks over the implementation of the second phase before Israel concluded obligations stemming from the first phase of the Gaza deal, including a complete halt to attacks.At least 830 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire deal took effect, according to local medics, while Israel says militants have killed four of its soldiers over the same period.Israel says its strikes are aimed at thwarting attempts by Hamas and other Palestinian militants to stage attacks against its forces. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Alex Richardson and Andrew Heavens)Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, May 7, 2026 (AFP) -A Gaza hospital and Hamas on Thursday said the son of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s chief negotiator had died from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike a day earlier.Azzam Khalil al-Hayya, 23, the son of top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, “was martyred after succumbing to wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike targeting him yesterday,” Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital said in a statement.The city’s Al-Ahli hospital and a security source said on Wednesday that a strike on the Al-Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City in the evening killed one person and wounded 10 others, including Azzam Khalil al-Hayya.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the incident.Azzam Khalil al-Hayya is the fourth of Khalil al-Hayya’s seven sons to be killed in Israeli attacks, according to a Hamas source. Two of those were killed before the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.The third, Hammam, was killed in an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha in September, which killed six people.Khalil al-Hayya is the head of Hamas in Gaza despite living in exile in Qatar. He is currently vying for the leadership of the movement.He survived the strike on Doha.In a statement, Hamas said that the killing of Azzam Khalil al-Hayya “came within the framework of attempts to exert pressure on the resistance leadership and its negotiating delegation, after the occupation’s failure to impose its conditions or achieve its declared objectives.”The US-brokered ceasefire which came into effect in October has largely halted the Gaza war that began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.But Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue, with both the military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.At least 846 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.Over the same period, the Israeli military said five soldiers have been killed in Gaza.my-acc/ser Related Story Source link
The devastating war waged by the Israeli entity against the Gaza Strip for over two years, and the immense destruction it left behind, were not enough to extinguish the flame of devotion to the Holy Qur’an and its memorisation and learning in the hearts of Gazans.Despite the widespread destruction inflicted on infrastructure, religious and educational institutions, mosques, and Qur’an memorisation centres during the two years of war, the Gaza Strip is witnessing a remarkable official, popular, and community movement to reactivate Qur’an memorisation and teaching centres as an effective tool for spiritual and psychological recovery and for rebuilding the human capital exhausted by the brutal war.Rami al-Shaqra, supervisor of the Al-Nour Centre for Qur’an Memorisation and Sciences in the Gaza Strip, affirmed that the centre’s work represents an attempt to recover and rebuild Palestinian identity in the face of the repercussions of the war and attempts to undermine all aspects of life over the past two years.He said that the Al-Nour Qur’anic School was established on the ruins of what the occupation destroyed.Al-Shaqra indicated that the current focus is on “rebuilding the most important human resource, the individual, and reconstructing the person exhausted by the deadly war through a comprehensive Qur’anic and educational programme”.He noted that the centre currently attracts approximately 800 male and female students of various ages, from young children to senior citizens over 60, for whom specific programmes are tailored to their age group.The official added that this system is managed by an educational and training staff comprising about 60 supervisors and Qur’an teachers.Regarding the nature of the programmes offered to students under the current circumstances, al-Shaqra explained that the centre’s programme is not limited to traditional worship and memorisation, but rather stems from a comprehensive educational, psychological, and rehabilitative vision aimed at integrating the Holy Qur’an into the daily lives of citizens as a means of psychological healing and overcoming trauma.“Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, we prepared comprehensive educational curricula suitable for all age groups,” he said.“This programme includes a key component for the psychological and emotional release of students, supervised by a select group of psychologists and counselors to rebuild the individual’s personality and psyche,” al-Shaqra added. “Alongside this is an educational programme that explores Qur’anic stories, the biographies of the Companions, prominent figures, and influential Islamic and historical personalities to connect the generation to its roots and identity.”Abu Shaaban told to the Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the Qur’anic study circles have become a psychological haven for displaced children, providing them with a daily routine that has restored their sense of stability, in addition to instilling values of patience and mitigating the difficult behavioural effects of prolonged displacement.Huda al-Farra, 56, told the QNA: “The Qur’anic School has been a great motivator for us to memorise the Book of God and learn Islamic jurisprudence and religious sciences.”“After all we have endured – the loss of family and loved ones, injustice, and displacement – we have found in the Book of God a safe haven,” she said. “And to hold on to strength and serenity so that we may begin our lives anew.” Related Story Source link
Turkiye’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan discussed regional developments and ways to preserve security and stability in the Middle East today with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.During their meeting in Ankara, the two sides also discussed bilateral relations and signed an agreement on mutual visa exemption requirements for holders of diplomatic and special passports between the two governments.Later, the two ministers chaired the third meeting of the Saudi-Turkish Coordination Council, held in Ankara, where they discussed areas of bilateral cooperation and emphasized the importance of organizing current and future cooperation within the framework of the council as an institutional mechanism to ensure sustainable progress in relations between the two countries.Both sides stressed the need to make use of the capabilities and resources available to the two countries and employ them in a way that serves their shared interests and mutual benefits. Source link
In Iraq’s holy city of Najaf, the majestic shrine of Imam Ali stands quiet, its vast courtyards no longer echoing with the multilingual whispers of pilgrims from before the Middle East war.The absence of tourists leaves nearby shopkeepers and hotel owners with little to do, their days dragging on as they hope for the crowds to return and revive their businesses.”Iranians used to keep us busy, whether the jeweller, the fabric merchant or the taxi driver. Now there are none,” said jewellery shop owner Abdel Rahim Harmoush.”It used to be hard even to step into the market because of foreigners… Even street vendors drew huge crowds of visitors,” the 71-year-old added.Millions of Shia Muslims from around the world typically flock to Najaf and fellow holy city Karbala every year.But the regional war ignited in late February by US-Israeli strikes on Iran has stemmed the usual influx of pilgrims from the Islamic republic, Lebanon, the Gulf states, India, Afghanistan and elsewhere.Iraq was drawn into the conflict from the onset, with strikes targeting US interests and Tehran-backed armed groups in the country.People in the holy cities “live on religious tourism”, said Harmoush, who for 38 years has worked in the old market near Najaf’s golden-domed mausoleum.The shrine is the ornate burial place of Ali — the Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law, the fourth Islamic caliph and the first Shia Imam.Harmoush warned of economic ruin were the crisis to persist: shop owners unable to pay rent and taxes, cab drivers left without passengers and labourers struggling to find work.Hotels closedHotel owner Abu Ali, 52, was forced to lay off five employees, leaving just one to tend to nearly 70 empty rooms.”How can I pay salaries if there is no work?” he said.Saeb Abu Ghneim, head of the hotel association in Najaf, told AFP that 80 percent of the city’s 250 hotels had closed, with more than 2,000 employees laid off or on unpaid leave.He added that most of Najaf’s religious tourism relies on Iranians, followed by Lebanese visitors — also trapped at home by war — and other nationalities.The sector, which already weathered the closure of mosques and shrines in the pandemic, is a rare type of tourism in a country reeling from decades of conflicts.Religious tourism also constitutes a significant source of revenue for Iraq’s non-oil economy.Before the war, 28-year-old Moustafa al-Haboubi could barely manage the crowds queuing to exchange foreign currency for Iraqi dinars.He now spends the long hours idly scrolling through his phone or chatting with neighbours.”We barely receive one or two customers,” he said. “There are no pilgrims now, Iranian or otherwise.”Even after a fragile ceasefire took effect on April 8 and Iraq’s airspace reopened, little has changed.Some pilgrims trickle through during the week, while on weekends the area grows somewhat livelier as Iraqis visit the sacred sites.’Catastrophe’ The situation is no different in Karbala, which is around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Najaf and home to the shrines of the revered grandsons of Prophet Mohammed, Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas.The main corridor linking the two golden shrines and the surrounding alleyways were once alive with the murmurs of tourists walking to prayers.Today, the visitors are almost exclusively Iraqi.”The situation is dangerous… a catastrophe,” said Israa al-Nasrawi, head of Karbala’s tourism committee.She warned that the war had devastated the city’s economy, slashing tourist numbers by around 95 percent and forcing hundreds of hotels to close.The city’s many pilgrim tour companies sit idle.Akram Radi, who has worked in the sector for 16 years, said his company once helped up to 1,000 visitors a month but is now operating at only 10 percent of capacity.”I might have to close and look for another job,” he said. Related Story Source link
Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians, including a child, and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.Medics said a Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded by an Israeli airstrike near the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City, while another was killed and several others were wounded by Israeli tank shelling near the central area of the enclave.Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike targeted a police station in northern Gaza, killing a 15-year-old child, medics said. The Hamas-run interior ministry said some policemen were also wounded in the attack.Reuters has previously reported that Israel has intensified its attacks on Gaza’s Hamas-run police force, which the militant group has used to reinforce its hold in the areas it controls in the strip.There was no immediate Israeli comment on any of the incidents.Violence in Gaza has persisted despite an October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting almost daily attacks on Palestinians. Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for ceasefire violations.At Al Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility still partially functional in the enclave, relatives and friends arrived to bid farewell to one of those killed on Tuesday, Mohammed Al-Ghandour. Two girls were crying and being comforted by a woman outside the hospital’s morgue.”The Zionist enemy doesn’t know anything called truce and does not commit to international treaties or laws or humanitarian laws,” said the victim’s uncle, Abu Omar Al-Naffar.At least 830 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire deal took effect, according to local medics, while Israel says militants have killed four of its soldiers over the same period.Israel says its strikes are aimed at thwarting attempts by Hamas and other Palestinian militants to stage attacks against its forces.More than 72,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza war started in October 2023, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.Since the truce last October, Israel still occupies more than half of Gaza, where it has ordered residents out and demolished almost all remaining structures. Nearly the entire population of more than 2 million Palestinians now lives in a narrow strip along the coast, mainly in tents and damaged buildings, under the de facto control of Hamas. Related Story Source link
The UAE’s shock decision to leave Saudi-dominated OPEC was not targeted at anyone, the UAE minister who heads the state oil giant said yesterday. The move aimed at focusing on national priorities and the UAE economy, said Sultan Al Jaber, who is ADNOC’s CEO and the country’s industry and advanced technology minister. The decision, which took effect on Friday, followed months of tensions with neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and de facto leader of OPEC, over foreign policy, oil output and the Middle East war, which has strained Gulf economies. A close partnership between the Gulf nations has turned into open rivalry since a public falling out in December over Yemen, but the minister said the decision to withdraw from the oil cartel was not aimed at any nation. “The United Arab Emirates’ sovereign decision to reposition itself within the global energy landscape, and to exit OPEC and OPEC+, is not a decision directed against anyone,” he told a conference in Abu Dhabi. The exit of the UAE, which was OPEC’s fourth-largest producer, dealt a blow to the cartel’s ability to control oil prices.It also further strained UAE-Saudi ties, which plunged after their row over Yemen in December, according to analysts. The two sides have long been at odds over OPEC production quotas. Leaving OPEC “serves our national interests and long-term strategic objectives, aligns with our industrial, economic, and developmental ambitions, and gives us greater ability to accelerate investment, expand, and create value”, Jaber said. “This move was not done in isolation,” he said at the Make It In The Emirates conference on UAE industry. “It is part of a broader effort to reshape our economy and industrial base through a vision that connects energy, technology, and industry, aligning our resources with national priorities to build a stronger, more resilient economy.” While the UAE is not the first country to leave OPEC, it is by far the biggest producer to do so. The UAE has long been frustrated with OPEC’s quotas, which sought to cap Emirati production at 3.4 million barrels a day. Abu Dhabi seeks to expand the UAE’s production capacity to five million barrels a day by 2027. On Sunday, ADNOC pledged to spend $55 billion on new projects over the next two years.The added revenue from oil sales would allow the UAE to step up its investments in artificial intelligence and other high-tech sectors, some analysts have said.“There is a great difference between those who focus only on surviving crises… and those who seize them as opportunities… and turn them into new beginnings,” Jaber said. Related Story Source link
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said yesterday a security deal and an end to Israeli attacks were needed before any meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought by Washington.Aoun’s office said in a statement that the president “reiterated his view that the timing is not appropriate now for a meeting” with Netanyahu. The statement quoted Aoun as saying: “We must first reach a security agreement and stop the Israeli attacks on us before we raise the issue of a meeting between us.” Israeli and Lebanese representatives last month met twice in Washington — the first such meetings in decades, which came after Iran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, sparking heavy Israeli strikes and a ground invasion. After the first talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon that began on April 17, and a three-week extension after the second round.The two countries are preparing for direct negotiations. The statement from Aoun’s office said a third round of “preparatory talks” were expected “in the coming days”. At the second meeting later in April, Trump said he expected Aoun and Netanyahu to meet jointly with him at the White House “over the next couple of weeks”. Last week, the US embassy in Beirut urged such a meeting, saying that “Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Its people have a historic opportunity to reclaim their country and shape their future,” adding that “the time for hesitation is over”. A direct meeting between Aoun and Netanyahu, “facilitated by President Trump, would give Lebanon the chance to secure concrete guarantees” including on sovereignty, the embassy added, at a time when Israeli troops are still operating in south Lebanon. The planned negotiations have caused a rift in Lebanon, with Hezbollah rejecting direct negotiations as well as Beirut’s previous commitment to disarm it. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem earlier Monday criticised direct talks, saying they put Lebanon “under tutelage”, and instead called for diplomacy that leads to an end to the war. “Direct negotiations are a gratuitous concession, without results,” Qassem said. Aoun said “there is no turning back from the path of negotiations, because we have no other option”, according to the statement from his office, reiterating that the process sought to achieve an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Israeli strikes have killed almost 2,700 people in Lebanon, including dozens since the ceasefire. Related Story Source link
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi has strongly condemned an attack on a tanker operated by the UAE’s energy company Adnoc while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Albudaiwi described the incident as “piracy and dangerous coercion” against maritime security, accusing Iran of continued attacks on vessels passing through the strategic waterway. He said such actions constitute a “flagrant violation” of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2817, and pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation and global energy supplies. The GCC chief expressed full solidarity with the UAE, affirming the council’s support for all measures taken by Abu Dhabi to safeguard its sovereignty, security and stability. Source link
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah discussed the latest regional developments in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that the call addressed the ongoing efforts to maintain the security and stability of the region. Source link