Browsing: Region
The UAE’s president has accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, the foreign ministry said yesterday, the body meant to oversee post-war reconstruction in Gaza. “Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, has accepted the invitation from the US to join the Board of Peace,” the ministry said in a statement. Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said: “The UAE’s decision reflects the importance of fully implementing President Donald J Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which is critical for the realisation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” Source link
Israel demolished structures inside the UN Palestinian refugee agency’s East Jerusalem compound yesterday after seizing the site last year, in an act condemned by the agency as a violation of international law.Surrounded by Israeli forces, bulldozers razed several large buildings and other smaller structures inside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound, where dozens of agency staff once worked. UNRWA, which Israeli authorities accuse of bias, has not used the building since the start of last year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises and cease its operations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Israel’s action yesterday.“The secretary-general urges the government of Israel to immediately cease the demolition of the UNRWA Sheikh Jarrah compound, and to return and restore the compound and other UNRWA premises to the United Nations without delay,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters. A spokesperson for UNRWA, Jonathan Fowler, said Israeli forces entered the compound around 7am (0500GMT), forced out the compound’s security guards and then brought in bulldozers to begin demolishing buildings inside. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini condemned the demolition in a statement on X, calling it “a new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law”.He said it was the latest in a series of Israeli actions against UNRWA, including a raid on a medical clinic this month and a plan to cut power and water to UNRWA facilities in the coming weeks. Some former UNRWA staff said the structures demolished yesterday had been used to store aid for the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.“The destruction by the Israeli occupation is another message to the world that Israel is the only country that can demolish international law and get away with it,” said Hakam Shahwan, former UNRWA chief of staff in East Jerusalem. Israel’s parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency.Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video on social media standing in front of the UNRWA compound as a bulldozer began to tear it down. In his statement, Lazzarini said that Israel had conducted “a large-scale disinformation campaign” against UNRWA.Israel’s Jerusalem municipality raided the compound last year, saying UNRWA had failed to pay property taxes after multiple warnings. UNRWA said the agency had no debts to the municipality.Meanwhile, Palestinian officials and civil institutions yesterday called out the takeover of the UNRWA premises by the Israeli occupation. In a statement, the institutions slammed the razing operations carried out by Israeli bulldozers at the main UNRWA building.The statement deemed the razing and raiding operations, as well as the displaying of Israeli might, as a move intended to eliminate the agency’s operations and the right of Palestinian refugees to return under UN Resolution 194.These operations are part of the ongoing episodes by the Israeli occupation targeting Palestinian tents in the northern West Bank, the statement acknowledged.It called on the world to spring into action to halt these crimes and amplify the voice of the UN, which founded the agency and has been operating under its umbrella for 77 years. Source link
Iran’s national police chief said people who were “deceived” into joining demonstrations the authorities have deemed “riots” would receive lighter punishment if they turned themselves in within three days. “Young people who became unwittingly involved in the riots are considered to be deceived individuals, not enemy soldiers”, and “will be treated with leniency by the Islamic republic system”, Ahmad-Reza Radan said, adding they had “a maximum of three days” to surrender. Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” fuelled by US and Israel and aimed at destabilising the Islamic republic. Source link
One hundred days into the ceasefire, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced it has significantly expanded its life saving operations across the Gaza Strip, reaching more than one million people each month.The Programme stated that “while critical progress has been made in pushing back famine, the situation remains extremely fragile,” stressing “Border crossingsآ must stay open,آ volumes of food aid and commercial goodsآ must keep flowing, andآ the ceasefire must holdآ if we are to prevent Gaza from slipping back into the worst levels of hunger.” In Gaza, bakeriesآ continue to be a vital lifeline.آ By supporting bakeries, WFP provides food and jobs. Source link
Israeli forces advanced into and continued their attacks on towns in southern Lebanon. Field sources reported that Israeli forces blew up two houses in the town of Kfarkela after advancing close to the municipal center.Another Israeli force also blew up a house in the town of Markaba, near the town of Rabaa Thalathin.A ceasefire agreement in southern Lebanon came into effect on Nov. 27, 2014, stipulating the withdrawal of Israeli entity’s forces from border villages and towns in southern Lebanon within 60 days. Following this, the Beirut government agreed to extend the deadline until Feb.18, 2014. However, the Israeli army remains in five locations and continues its violations, which have exceeded 7,000 aerial violations and more than 2,400 military activities in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) area of ​​operations in southern Lebanon since last November Source link
A seven-month-old infant girl died Tuesday due to the extreme cold in Gaza City, medical sources told Palestinian news agency (WAFA). With this death, the toll of children who have died in the Gaza Strip due to extreme cold since the beginning of winter rises to nine, amidst a shortage of aid and a lack of heating.The sources also highlighted that the incident reflects the severity of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, particularly for children and displaced families living in fragile tents unfit to withstand cold weather. Residents of Gaza face a lack of shelter and medical care, as well as insufficient heating due to fuel shortages, amid stormy, cold, and rainy weather conditions Source link
The Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a new food distribution project for the benefit of 72,000 war-affected and internally displaced people (IDPs) across the Gaza Strip. The initiative is co-implemented by Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) as part of the ongoing Qatar aid programme for the people of Gaza. The project is aimed at alleviating the suffering of those worst hit by the recent war, including patients (kidney failure, cancers, heart disease, diabetes and chronic diseases, disabilities, malnutrition, and war injuries); IDPs and destroyed homes; children and young people; socially vulnerable families and older persons; and other victims of bombing and zero-income workers who have lost their jobs. Relief catering hubs have already been set up to prepare and pack the family-size hot meals, each of which is sufficient for 3-5 persons. The project’s field team is deployed to distribute the ready-made meals in the target areas over 12 days, at a rate of 450-500 meals per day for each of the project’s three phases. Related Story Source link
Ten-year-old Malak Khader, who lost her right leg, and who is the sole survivor of her family after all her relatives were killed in the Israeli army bombing of the Fatima Bint Assad School, in Jabalia in May 2025, helps her grandmother, Naifa Khader, 72-years-old, whom she now lives with, in a camp for displaced people in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, yesterday. Right: A displaced Palestinian man who lives amongst the rubble and debris of homes and businesses destroyed by the Israeli military in over two years of military strikes on the Gaza Strip enclave, uses crutches to stands outside his shelter, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, yesterday. Source link
The Syrian General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport announced the resumption of air traffic at Aleppo International Airport starting next Tuesday. In a statement, the Authority affirmed it will continue focusing on the airport to develop its services and enhance the travel experience in a manner that meets passengers’ expectations and befits the people of Aleppo and all Syrians. The General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport had announced on Jan. 6 the suspension of all flights to and from Aleppo International Airport for 24 hours due to security disturbances in the city of Aleppo. The suspension was subsequently extended for two consecutive weeks as security conditions escalated. The Authority attributed this decision to its concern for the safety of passengers and flight crews, with scheduled flights diverted to Damascus International Airport until the completion of the necessary technical and security assessments. Source link
A drone view shows people welcoming Syrian army following the withdrawal of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Maskanah, Syria, yesterday. Syria’s army took control of swathes of northern Syria and threatened to bomb parts of Raqa province yesterday after Kurdish forces pulled back from territory they had held for over a decade. The government appeared to be seeking to extend its grip on parts of the country under Kurdish control a day after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority official recognition. The Kurds have said the move fell short of their aspirations. The army drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods last week and took control of an area east of the city yesterday, after implementation stalled on a March deal that was supposed to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state. Authorities later announced they had seized two oil fields near the city of Tabqa in Raqa province. An AFP correspondent in Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres east of Aleppo city, saw several fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence. Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead, as both sides traded blame for violating the withdrawal deal.Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone” and warned it would target what it said were several military sites. SDF chief Mazloum Abdi on Friday had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.But the SDF said yesterday that Damascus “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions”. It said Kurdish forces were clashing with troops in an area south of Tabqa, “which was outside the scope of the agreement”.The army meanwhile urged the SDF leadership to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River”. The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.US envoy Tom Barrack was in Erbil yesterday to meet Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi, a source in the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region told AFP. The US for years has supported the Kurds but also backs Syria’s new authorities. The US Central Command yesterday urged “Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and Al-Tabqa”, in a post on X. Source link