Author: Faadi Kazemi

More than 123,540 Palestinians have been internally displaced as a result of Israel’s shelling of the besieged Gaza Strip, the UN OCHA said in a press release yesterday. “The hostilities have led to internal displacement. More than 17,500 families, comprising over 123,538 people, have been internally displaced in Gaza, mostly due to fear, protection concerns and the destruction of their homes. Out of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), UNRWA estimates 73,538 people are sheltering in 64 schools, some of which are designated emergency shelters,” the statement explained. Four large residential towers were also levelled during the bombardment; Palestine, Al-Hashim, Al-Watan and AL-Aklook.…

The sudden attack launched by Hamas against Israel from the Gaza Strip refocused attention on the Palestinian issue and dealt a blow to the momentum gained in recent months by the American effort to reach a normalisation agreement between the occupation state and Saudi Arabia. On Saturday, a new war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with Hamas calling its military operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The movement launched rockets and carried out raids and captured Israeli towns in the south, with Israel responding by launching raids on the densely populated Gaza Strip, which it has besieged for years. The operation came…

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit China in the upcoming week as the crisis-hit country makes progress on debt restructuring talks with its biggest lender. Wickremesinghe took office in July last year, after a popular uprising, brought on by an economic meltdown, had forced his predecessor out of power. His Oct. 15-19 visit to Beijing will be his first to China since then. Wickremesinghe, who is also finance minister, has been leading Sri Lanka’s push to manage its heavy debt and keep funds flowing from a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. He will attend a Belt and Road Forum in Beijing that would mark the…

Israeli occupation forces have maintained the closure of all checkpoints to occupied Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank closed for the third consecutive day, reported Wafa news agency. Restricting the movement of all Palestinians, Israeli forces have closed the main Qalandia checkpoint that links the northern occupied West Bank to Jerusalem, and all Bethlehem checkpoints linking the southern West Bank to Jerusalem. Moreover, the checkpoints at Shuafat refugee camp, Beit Iksa and Al-Jib, located around Jerusalem, remain inaccessible. According to Wafa, the Israeli occupation forces have also been preventing Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem since the early hours of this morning,…

Trilateral cooperation in the field of semiconductor chip design and production between universities, the public sector and the private sector in Türkiye is set to be encouraged as part of the development-based agenda presented in the recently unveiled “12th Development Plan.” According to a compilation from the plan covering the period between 2024 and 2028 by Anadolu Agency (AA), the aim is to increase the production and export of research and development-based competitive, high-value-added and high-tech products. Within this framework, support will be provided for the transfer and commercialization of technologies designed and produced domestically in defense electronics for civilian…

Spinneys continues to expand its store footprint across Egypt with its latest opening of a new store in Obour City. The new store, which opened on October 18, is located on the main Obour axis, right next to the Chillout gas station. The opening marks an important milestone for the company as it continues its accelerated expansion drive across the country. “This is our first store in Obour City which is also our first venture into the Kalioubeya governorate and it reflects our ongoing commitment to the Egyptian market in spite of the macroeconomic headwinds,” Spinneys CEO Mohanad Adly, said.…

Batelco, part of the Beyon Group, announced the launch of a new service, “Bwave” during Capacity Europe which took place in London. Batelco’s “Bwave” offers a wavelength service of 400G capacity high-speed connectivity, quadrupling its current service offering. To address the need of the exponential growth in data demand, Batelco collaborated with Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to elevate its solutions capabilities and provide higher capacities to its customers which include wholesale providers, hyperscalers, enterprises, data center operators, and content providers. Batelco has successfully increased its data capacity by 400% percent with the significant expansion allowing for a substantial increase in bandwidth, enabling…

The United Arab Emirates is to establish its own domestic card scheme in a bid to encourage strategic independence from the Visa/Mastercard duopoly. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and its subsidiary payments infrastructure provider Al-Etihad Payments are to develop and implement the DCS in partnership with NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), which led the development of India’s RuPay card scheme. Led by former Mastercard and Visa exec Ritesh Shukla, NIPL was established in 2020 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to sell the technology behind its RuPay network and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to other countries…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting Tuesday after an Israeli airstrike in the besieged Gaza Strip struck a hospital, killing hundreds of victims. “The UAE and Russia have called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, following the strike on a hospital in Gaza,” the UAE UN mission spokesperson Sgagad Matar wrote on X. More than 500 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital late Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu. Footage showed bodies…

The Ministerial Council of the Cooperation Council of the Gulf States (GCC) has announced immediate financial contributions of $100 million for a rapid and vital humanitarian aid operation in Gaza. This commitment was made during the council’s 43rd extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday in Muscat. The Council reiterated its steadfast support for the joint initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia, the European Union, and the League of Arab States to revive the Middle East peace process, in collaboration with Egypt and Jordan. Affirming its position on ending Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories, the Council expressed strong support for the Palestinian…