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A handout picture obtained from the media office of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on February 13, 2020, shows a view of the power plant in…
Data issued by the Statistical Center for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf revealed that the Council countries achieved a remarkable milestone in the field of immunization, as the coverage rate for essential vaccines reached 100 percent during 2024, compared to approximately 84 percent globally. This reflects the efficiency of national immunization programs and the strength of public health systems in the GCC countries.The data provided in the weekly bulletin issued on the occasion of World Health Day 2026 indicates that the GCC countries continue to bolster their leading role in supporting global health through investment in medical research and development, and by expanding access to affordable medicines and vaccines. This confirms that continuous investment in health infrastructure and the strengthening of international cooperation represent the cornerstone of Gulf health policies to achieve universal health coverage and ensure a sustainable, healthy future for all.In the context of supporting international health efforts, the volume of the GCC countries' contribution to financing the health sector and medical research within Official Development Assistance (ODA) reached approximately US$842.7 million during 2023. This represents about 4.6 percent of the total international development assistance, providing a clear indicator of these countries' commitment to enhancing global health and transferring medical knowledge.The bulletin emphasizes that these efforts come within the framework of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the third goal concerned with ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, with a focus on supporting scientific research as a primary pillar for improving the quality of health services.Furthermore, the GCC countries highlight their role as active partners in supporting developing nations by contributing to the development of health systems and enhancing their capacities to face health challenges, in addition to ensuring that essential medicines and vaccines reach various population groups. Source link
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said his country has had enough “reckless” wars for foreign interests, calling for Arab and international support in Beirut’s negotiations with Israel. Speaking at an non-governmental organisation (NGO) dinner on Friday, Salam said that he hoped to “mobilise all Arab and international support to bolster our position in the negotiations” with Israel, shortly after the last round of talks ended and extended the ongoing truce for 45 days. In an implicit rebuke to Hezbollah, which joined the Middle East war in support of Iran on March 2, Salam said the country had “enough of these reckless adventures serving foreign projects or interests, the latest being a war we did not choose but was forced upon us, which led to Israel occupying 68 towns and villages”. “And after all this, with all the killing, destruction, displacement, and tragedies (the war) brought, someone comes along trying to insult our intelligence and calls it a victory,” he added, also hinting at Hezbollah. “Enough with the incitement and accusations of treason; this will not and cannot intimidate us.” Source link
Israel launched a massive series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon yesterday, despite an extension of the truce between the two countries.Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah but the strikes were preceded by an evacuation warning covering nine villages. And the continuing bombardment has only increased scepticism about the truce among the Lebanese driven from their homes in the south.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on more than two dozen villages yesterday, including one over 50km from the border.It also reported a new exodus of residents towards the southern city of Sidon and the capital Beirut. On Friday, the two countries agreed to extend a ceasefire, which began on April 17, by another 45 days.UN chief Antonio Guterres said yesterday that he “welcomes” the extension and “urges all actors to fully respect the cessation of hostilities”. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to conduct strikes in Lebanon, and its forces are occupying territory near the border.Hezbollah, meanwhile, regularly claims attacks on northern Israel and against the Israeli military in southern Lebanon. Israeli attacks since the start of the war have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities.Israel has also reported the deaths of 19 soldiers in southern Lebanon since fighting with Hezbollah erupted. The latest strikes come after envoys from Israel and Lebanon held negotiations in Washington, following the first direct talks in decades last month between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.They agreed to extend the ceasefire. Iran-backed Hezbollah opposes the negotiations and claimed an attack yesterday against Israeli troops in the Lebanese town of Khiam.The group justified their action by accusing Israel of ceasefire violations and “attacks that targeted villages in southern Lebanon”. Residents from southern Lebanon say the truce is not being implemented.“This is not a truce as long as Israeli attacks continue against the south and its people, with deaths, injuries and destruction,” said Ali Salameh, 60, from a school in Beirut where he has been displaced since the start of the war. “What kind of truce is this when they have just threatened villages and people are being displaced? Where is the state? We stand only with the resistance,” said Nawal Mezhir, also displaced from the south.Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. On Friday, Israel struck the southern city of Tyre.“They destroyed the entire neighbourhood,” said Ibrahim Kahwaji, a tailor who was wounded in the leg. “They are emptying the south of its population… It’s a real occupation. We want a solution.” Related Story Source link
A 34-year-old Palestinian man was martyred on Saturday morning by live ammunition fired by Israeli occupation forces during a military storming of the Jenin refugee camp.The Palestinian Ministry of Health officially confirmed the casualty, noting that the youth sustained a fatal live ammunition wound during the early morning raid.Cities, towns, and refugee camps throughout the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem are continuously subjected to daily raids and incursions by Israeli forces and settlers. These routine incursions frequently result in confrontations, arrests, and the recurring use of live ammunition. Source link
Wearing traditional Palestinian dresses, the white fabric intricately embroidered in a rainbow of colours, dozens of smiling brides clutched red bouquets as they walked with their grooms past the tents and ruined buildings of Gaza City.To the tune of popular songs played from loudspeakers in a city square, the couples whose marriages had been long-delayed by war and displacement, sat on stage with joy written across their faces.Thousands turned out to watch the mass wedding against the backdrop of buildings gutted by Israeli strikes over the course of the devastating two-year war.Attendees clapped and smiled as a troupe performed the dabke, an Arabic folk dance, while women’s ululations echoed through the crowd.”I can’t quite believe that I’m finally getting married,” Ali Mosbeh told AFP at the start of the ceremony.”I was sitting in the tent when my phone rang… I couldn’t believe it. I’m still in shock,” he said, recounting the moment he received the call informing him that he was among the 50 young men selected.The mass wedding is one of many to have been organised since a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in October.This particular event was organised and funded by the Turkish humanitarian organisation IHH.The smartly-dressed grooms wore traditional Palestinian kaffiyeh scarves adorned with the Turkish organisation’s logo, while the brides’ bouquets were dotted with small Turkish flags.For Mosbeh and his bride Huda al-Kahlout, the high cost of weddings had also posed an obstacle to tying the knot.”I never imagined I’d get married in such circumstances,” he said.Most of Gaza’s population was displaced at least once during the war between Israel and Hamas, with hundreds of thousands still living in tents or makeshift shelters.Mosbeh said he would now share a tent with his wife while hoping to find a job – something that has become near impossible in Gaza.”Our future is uncertain; we depend on aid to survive,” admitted Kahlout, but said that despite “war, loss and death… Marriage remains a beautiful milestone for us young people”.”Most of the buildings around the venue have been destroyed and reduced to rubble, with the martyrs buried beneath them,” said fellow bride, Fayqa Abu Zeid.However, she added: “We are trying, despite everything, to find joy and carry on living.”Before the war, “the newlyweds would move into a flat with new furniture. Today, we move into a tent, if there is one”, she said.Despite the devastation, her husband Mohammed al-Ghossain was smiling.”We are very happy,” he said. “It is the happiest day of our lives.” Related Story Source link
MoFA describes incident as blatant violation of international lawOIC calls the move a deliberate provocation to Muslims worldwide Qatar condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israel’s extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir , as well as the provocative actions and violations committed by settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, including restrictions on worshipers’ access to the mosque.In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident as a blatant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, and an unacceptable provocation to the sentiments of millions of Muslims around the world.The ministry also warned that such actions represent a dangerous attempt to alter the historical and legal status quo in occupied Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites. The ministry stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place of worship exclusively for Muslims, affirming that all unilateral measures aimed at changing the historical and legal status of Jerusalem and its holy sites are null and void under international law.It warned that continued violations and provocations would further fuel violence and instability in the region and undermine efforts to restore calm and stability. The ministry renewed Qatar’s call on the international community to take urgent action to compel Israel, as the occupying power, to halt its ongoing violations against the Palestinian people and their holy sites, and to comply with relevant international resolutions.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reiterated Qatar’s firm support for the Palestinian cause and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, based on ending the occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.Meanwhile, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned a visit by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.In a statement issued from its headquarters in Makkah, the OIC described the visit, which took place under Israeli police protection, as a “blatant assault” and a deliberate provocation to Muslims worldwide.The organization also criticised the raising of the Israeli flag and what it described as provocative religious practices carried out within the compound’s courtyards. The OIC reiterated its long-standing position that Israel, as an occupying power, holds no sovereignty over the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites. Related Story Source link
Smoke rises behind buildings following an Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Tyre yesterday. – AFP Israel carried out new strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday that it said targeted Hezbollah, wounding 37 people as the two countries’ envoys started a second day of peace talks in Washington.United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza condemned the “unacceptable” toll from continued attacks, saying that “diplomatic efforts now offer a critical opportunity to stop the violence”.A truce in the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been in place since April 17, but it has not stopped the fighting, with hundreds killed in strikes since then and both sides accusing the other of violations.”The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli military said in a statement.An AFP correspondent reported a series of strikes, two of them near the city of Tyre, while state media said another targeted a centre run by a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) near a hospital.Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes on the Tyre district wounded at least 37 people, including six hospital personnel, nine women and four children.Hafez Ramadan, a resident near the building targeted by the airstrike, said it had housed people who had fled their towns due to the war, and was adjacent to a hotel where more displaced were staying.”There are only women, children and the elderly here,” he said. “Because of this strike, people have been displaced again.”The Israeli army had earlier issued evacuation warnings for five towns and villages in and around the southern coastal city.It later issued a new evacuation warning for five other towns across the south.In a separate statement, the military said an Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March to 19.A civilian contractor was also killed.It said it killed more than 220 Hezbollah fighters over the past week and struck hundreds of targets.Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported other strikes on locations in the south not included in the Israeli evacuation warnings.Hezbollah meanwhile claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in several southern Lebanese towns.It also claimed a drone attack on the headquarters of the Israeli army’s 300th brigade, one of the units operating in Lebanon.Riza said “the reality on the ground in Lebanon has been deeply alarming”, adding that “airstrikes and demolitions continue daily, with an unacceptable toll on civilians and civilian infrastructure”.However, he expressed his hope that the Lebanon-Israel talks “will pave the way toward a political solution”.Representatives from Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, resumed talks at the State Department in Washington shortly after 9am (1300 GMT), one diplomat said.The US described the first day of talks in Washington on Thursday as positive, but neither Lebanon or Israel have commented.Lebanon hopes that the round of negotiations in Washington will end with an extension of the ceasefire and an agreement from Israel to halt its attacks.If an extension is not agreed, the truce will expire tomorrow.Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.Israeli attacks since then have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities.Lebanon is under heavy US and Israeli pressure to disarm Hezbollah.Israeli troops have invaded parts of southern Lebanon since the start of the war, carrying out widespread demolitions of villages over the past weeks.Hezbollah, meanwhile, rejects outright any direct engagement between the two countries.Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati said yesterday that Beirut “going to direct, humiliating negotiations with the Israeli enemy is not a separate issue from a comprehensive conspiracy against the nation, its sovereignty and its resistance” at a time when “the south is being destroyed and martyrs are being killed daily”. Related Story Source link
More than 10,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Lebanon since a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the head of the country’s National Council for Scientific Research said yesterday. “Since the current ceasefire… we have witnessed 5,386 housing units that were completely destroyed, and 5,246 housing units damaged,” CRNS chief Chadi Abdallah told through a news conference. Israel has kept up heavy airstrikes despite the April 17 ceasefire, and Israeli soldiers are operating inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line”. Related Story Source link
The high representative for Gaza in US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace yesterday said the fragile ceasefire in the Palestinian territory was holding despite daily violations. “We have a ceasefire. It is holding… It is far from perfect. There are violations every day, and some of them are very serious,” said Nickolay Mladenov during a meeting with the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.The ceasefire officially came into force on October 10. Gaza remains gripped by violence, as Israeli strikes continue and both sides trade blame over ceasefire violations.The first phase of the truce saw the release of the last hostages seized in October 2023, in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel. The transition to the second phase — involving Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, which still controls more than 50% of the Gaza Strip — has been stalled for weeks, while international attention has been focused on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Mladenov urged Hamas yesterday to relinquish power over the parts of the Gaza Strip it controls and lay down its weapons. “We are asking the political leadership of those who govern Gaza now to step aside. This is required by the Security Council resolution in the 20-point plan,” said the envoy, referring to the peace plan for the territory sponsored by the US president. “We are not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement. A political party that disavows armed activity can compete in national Palestinian elections,” he said.“What is not negotiable, however, is that armed factions or militias… can exist alongside a transitional Palestinian authority,” he continued. For those who refuse disarmament, the plan offers the option of “safe passage to third countries”, he added. Mladenov meanwhile pointed to the scale of destruction in the Palestinian territory, noting that it would take a long time to rebuild.“If we look at the tens of millions of tons of rubble that needs to be removed, at the number of people, over a million people, who need some sort of permanent shelter and basic water and sanitation — this is, by any scale, a generation of work for Gaza,” said Mladenov. Related Story Source link