Author: Arshad Shaheen

Jordan, on Monday, said that what is happening in Gaza is a “humanitarian tragedy” and Israel should be held accountable for it, Anadolu Agency reports. Addressing the 8th Regional Forum of Foreign Ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean, held on 26-27 November in Barcelona, Spain, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, said the situation in Gaza is tragic, with massacres occurring and families dying. Israel launched a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October. It has since killed at least 14,854 Palestinians, including 6,150 children and over 4,000 women, according to health authorities…

Iranian authorities have denied a man executed for murdering a government agent and taking part in last year’s anti-government protests a burial in a Muslim cemetery, and his parents were arrested during his funeral, reports the opposition outlet, Iran International. According sources cited by BBC Persian, Milad Zohrevand, 21, was “secretly executed” on Thursday in the western city of Hamadan. He was accused of being among a group of five masked men who fatally shot Ali Nazari, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence service, amid protests following the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini in police custody. Hengaw, a human…

The US has expanded its military deployments across the Middle East in support of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, even as one historian has warned that the occupation state is carrying out a “textbook case of genocide” in the besieged enclave. Israeli historian Raz Segal’s claim was reported in Jewish Currents. He condemned the latest bombing of Gaza. Open-source information gathered by Haaretz newspaper reveals that close to 80 US military and dozens of leased civilian aircraft are hauling equipment in a massive weapons airlift to Israel and Cyprus. At least 62 US and Israeli transport aircraft had landed in Israel by…

The Freedoms Committee in the Tunisian Parliament, on Tuesday, approved a draft law criminalising the normalisation of relations with Israel, amid ongoing protests in solidarity with Palestinians in the country. Reuters reports. The move paves the way for hearings on the bill followed by a public session for discussion and vote. The draft comes as Israeli reprisal strikes on blockaded Gaza have killed more than 5,000 people in response to Hamas, who killed at least 1,400 Israelis in a rampage after breaching the fence enclosing Gaza on 7 October. Tunisia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, but Israeli tourists, most of…

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir today agreed to form an unconditional unity government, Haaretz reported. “Reality dictates that unity and cohesion are what’s needed to defeat our enemies,” Smotrich said. He added: “Leave behind teams and leave negotiations. I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and [head of the opposition] Benny Gantz to rise to the occasion, meet immediately and agree on the establishment of a national emergency government that will unite the people, raise the spirit, provide full support to the IDF [army] and bring about the complete elimination of Hamas and the terrorist organisations in…

Jordan’s Queen Rania called out the “glaring double standard” in the global reaction to the massacres taking place in Gaza when compared to the reaction to the Palestinian resistance’s surprise infiltration of Israeli towns around the besieged enclave. Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Queen Rania said: “The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding.” “In the past couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.” “When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right…

Iran’s Permanent Mission to the UN said yesterday that Tehran was not involved in the Hamas-led resistance operation against Israel, the bloodiest and costliest so far for the occupation state. According to a statement, Iran’s UN mission said: “The resolute measures taken by Palestine constitute a wholly legitimate defense against seven decades of oppressive occupation and heinous crimes committed by the illegitimate Zionist regime.” The country’s UN mission noted that the “success” of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was largely down to the surprise element of the attacks against the occupation army outposts and illegal settlements: “They [Israel] find it very difficult to accept that…

Some 42 American and Canadian airlines suspended their flights to Israel after the occupation state declared a state of war with the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. According to America’s ABC News, 42 airlines in the US and Canada suspended their flights and evacuated their employees from Israel as events escalated. The network cited the US State Department as saying that it had advised its citizens to be more cautious if they were travelling to Israel or the occupied West Bank due to “terrorism and civil unrest”, and it warned travellers not to travel to Gaza. United Airlines said it had…

Egypt has become the first country to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to elimination of Hepatitis C, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, Anadolu Agency reports. “Egypt has successfully transitioned from having one of the highest rates of Hepatitis C in the world to one of the lowest by reducing the prevalence of Hepatitis C from 10 per cent to 0.38 per cent in just over a decade,” the statement said, adding that the country has surpassed the “gold tier” targets by diagnosing 87 per cent of infected individuals and providing curative treatment to 93 per cent of…

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