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This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on December 30, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Somalian President…
The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen after Saudi Arabia backed a call for UAE forces to leave within 24 hours, in a major crisis between the two Gulf powers and oil producers.Hours earlier, Saudi-led coalition forces had attacked the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla. The airstrike on what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment was the most significant escalation to date in a widening rift.The UAE defence ministry said it had voluntarily ended the mission of its counterterrorism units in Yemen, its only forces still there after it ‘concluded’ its military presence in 2019.The ministry said its remaining mission was limited to ‘specialised personnel as part of counterterrorism efforts, in coordination with relevant international partners’.In a statement, it said recent developments had prompted a comprehensive assessment, the state news agency WAM reported.Saudi Arabia had accused the UAE of pressuring Yemen's separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to push towards the kingdom's borders, and declaring its national security a ‘red line’.It was Riyadh's strongest reaction yet in the falling-out between the neighbours, who once cooperated in a coalition against Yemen’s Houthis but have seen their interests there steadily diverge.The UAE withdrawal of the few forces it had kept in Yemen may ease tensions for now. But the real issue is whether it will keep supporting the STC.Riyadh for its part has continued, through the coalition it heads, to back Yemen's internationally recognised government and the cabinet said it hoped the UAE would end all military or financial assistance to the STC.The coalition bombed what it said was a dock used to provide foreign military support to the separatists. Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's presidential council, gave Emirati forces 24 hours to leave.The UAE said it had been surprised by the airstrike, and that the shipments in question did not contain weapons and were destined for the Emirati forces. But it said it sought a solution ‘that prevents escalation, based on reliable facts and existing coordination’.In a televised speech, Alimi said it had been ‘definitively confirmed that the United Arab Emirates pressured and directed the STC to undermine and rebel against the authority of the state through military escalation’, according to the Yemeni state news agency.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, about ongoing tensions in Yemen and regional security, the State Department said Tuesday.Saudi Arabia and the UAE are both major players in the OPEC oil exporters' group, and any disagreements could hamper consensus on oil output.They and six other OPEC+ members meet online next Sunday, and OPEC+ delegates say they will extend a policy of maintaining first-quarter production unchanged.Major stock indexes in the Gulf fell.Tuesday's airstrike followed the weekend arrival of two ships from the UAE port of Fujairah on Saturday and Sunday without coalition authorisation, the coalition said.The Saudi state news agency published a video showing a ship it identified as ‘Greenland’, from which it said arms and combat vehicles were unloaded. The registered owner and operator of the Greenland, a roll-on/roll-off cargo vessel, is Salem Al Makrani Cargo Company, headquartered in Dubai, with a branch in Fujairah, the company website indicates.The coalition said the strike caused no casualties or collateral damage, according to Saudi state media. Two sources told Reuters that it targeted the dock where the cargoes were unloaded.Reuters could not immediately verify what had been hit or the nature or origin of any cargoes that may have been attacked.Yemeni state TV showed what it said was black smoke rising from the port in the early morning, with burned vehicles. Alimi declared a no-fly zone, and a sea and ground blockade on all ports and crossings for 72 hours.Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of the STC and deputy head of the presidential council, said in a joint statement with three other members of the council that the UAE remained a main partner in the fight against the Houthis. It rejected Alimi's orders and said they lacked consensus. Source link
As 2025 draws to a close, Palestinians in Gaza are marking the new year not with celebration, but with exhaustion, grief and a fragile hope that their “endless nightmare” might finally end.For residents of the battered territory, daily life is a struggle for survival.Much of Gaza’s infrastructure lies in ruins, electricity remains scarce and hundreds of thousands of people live in makeshift tents.”We in the Gaza Strip are living in an endless nightmare,” said Hanaa Abu Amra, a displaced woman in her thirties living in Gaza City.”We hope that this nightmare will end in 2026…The least we can ask for is a normal life– to see electricity restored, the streets return to normal and to walk without tents lining the roads,” she said.Across Gaza, a territory of more than 2mn people, scenes of hardship are commonplace.Children queue with plastic containers to collect water, while rows of tents stretch across streets and open spaces, sheltering families who have lost their homes.What were once bustling neighbourhoods now bear the scars of bombardment, with daily activity reduced to the bare essentials.For many, the end of the year is a moment to mourn as much as to hope.In Gaza City, a teenager painted “2026” on his tent, while an AFP journalist observed a local artist sculpting the same in sand in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.The outgoing year brought relentless loss and fear, said Shireen Al-Kayali.”We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief,” she said.”We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror.”Her experience reflects that of countless Gazans who have been forced to flee repeatedly, often with little warning, taking with them only what they could carry.Entire families have been uprooted, livelihoods destroyed, and communities fragmented as the war dragged on for two years.Despite the devastation, some residents cling to the belief that the new year might bring an end to the fighting and a chance to rebuild.For many Gazans, hope has become an act of resilience, particularly after the truce that came into effect on October 10 and has largely halted the fighting.”We still hope for a better life in the new year, and I call on the free world to help our oppressed people so we can regain our lives,” said Khaled Abdel Majid, 50, who lives in a tent in Jabalia camp.Faten al-Hindawi hoped the truce would finally end the war.”We will bid farewell to 2025, leaving behind its pain, and we hope that 2026 will be a year of hope, prayer, determination and success stories.”Such hopes are shared widely across Gaza, even as conditions on the ground remain dire.Humanitarian agencies have warned that shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies persist, while winter conditions are worsening life in overcrowded displacement camps.Amid the rubble and the tents, many Gazans say their aspirations are modest: safety, stability and dignity.”I hope the reconstruction of Gaza begins in 2026. Gaza was beautiful, and we hope it returns to being beautiful again.” Related Story Source link
A Palestinian woman holds a child wearing a perspex protective mask as she speaks to a member of staff at the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins…
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Wednesday four Palestinian civilians after having raided the governorates of Tulkarm and Bethlehem across the occupied West Bank.WAFA news agency reported that the IOF arrested three young Palestinians in Kafr Al-Labad town, east of Tulkarm governorate, after having raided their homes.In Bethlehem Governorate, the IOF arrested a Palestinian in Beit Fajjar town, deployed in several neighborhoods, and raided several other homes.These arrests come as part of the daily raids carried out by the IOF across the West Bank, during which Palestinians are repeatedly arrested, and their homes are raided. Related Story Source link
Hundreds of settlers stormed Al Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.The Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA), citing local sources, said that 524 settlers stormed the courtyards of Al Aqsa Mosque from the direction of the Mughrabi Gate, performed Talmudic rituals, and carried out provocative tours.The incursions come as part of the occupation's efforts to obliterate the Islamic and historical identity of Jerusalem, and to implement its plans for the temporal and spatial division of Al Aqsa Mosque. Source link
The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October. 7, 2023, has risen to 71,269 martyrs, in addition to 171,232 wounded.The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip reported in its daily statistical report that 3 martyrs, 2 of whom were recovered, and 10 injured people arrived at hospitals during the past 48 hours.The ministry indicated that the total number of deaths since the ceasefire on Oct. 10 has reached 415, in addition to 1,152 wounded, and 682 bodies have been recovered, while a number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at this moment.Meanwhile, the ministry reported the death of a young man and a child as a result of a building collapse due to the storm affecting the Strip, bringing the number of victims who arrived at hospitals due to the storm to 19 deaths. Related Story Source link
A Palestinian girl was martyred Tuesday after being shot by Israeli occupation forces east of Gaza City.Local sources reported that the 11-year-old girl succumbed to her wounds after being shot by the Israeli army in the Zarqa area, northeast of Gaza City.This comes amid continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement. The Government Media Office documented 969 violations committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the agreement came into effect on October 10.The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has risen to 71,266 martyrs and 171,222 wounded. Related Story Source link
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday that approximately 235,000 people in the Gaza Strip were affected by Storm Byron, which caused buildings to collapse and damage to tents between Dec. 10-17. In a post on its official X account, UNRW affirmed that months of war and displacement have forced people in Gaza to live among unstable rubble, temporary shelters or worn-out tents. It described Storm Byron, which struck the Gaza Strip on Dec. 10, as “a natural disaster, but its consequences were man-made,” referring to the exacerbation of the damage due to widespread destruction and the lack of safe shelters following Israel’s ongoing genocide. According to UNRWA, at least 17 buildings collapsed, and more than 42,000 tents or temporary shelters were completely or partially damaged, affecting at least 235,000 people,” according to the Gaza Shelter Cluster, which includes UN agencies and NGOs. Since the onset of severe weather systems in Gaza earlier this month, 18 people, including four children, have died, and nearly 90 percent of the shelters housing displaced people whose homes were destroyed by Israel have been flooded. Related Story Source link
The United Nations stated that UN staff who entered El Fasher, western Sudan, last Friday for the first time since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control last October, found the city almost deserted.Denise Brown, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, explained in a statement Monday that it was impossible to determine the exact number of people remaining in El Fasher. She noted that the people UN staff saw were living inside abandoned buildings or in makeshift camps made of simple plastic sheeting.She noted that negotiations regarding the UN’s demands for safe passage and freedom of movement had lasted several weeks, while the visit itself only lasted a few hours. She added, “The city wasn’t teeming with people. There were very few people we were able to see.”Brown explained that the visit aimed to assess whether El Fasher could be safely accessed while the UN explored ways to deliver essential supplies to the city. She added, “But frankly, we remain deeply concerned about the wounded, whom we haven’t been able to see, and who may be in detention.”She said that during the visit, medical staff were observed at the Saudi hospital in the city, but they had no supplies. She also pointed out that the World Health Organization had previously reported that the hospital was the site of a massacre in which 460 people were killed.Survivors had previously reported mass killings motivated by ethnicity and widespread arrests during and after the city’s capture. The fate of many people in El Fasher and the surrounding areas remains unknown.It is worth noting that more than 100,000 people have fled El Fasher since late October, after the RSF seized control following an 18-month siege. Related Story Source link