DUBAI/JERUSALEM: Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation — a response that appeared gauged toward averting region-wide war. The limited scale of the attack and Iran’s muted response both appeared to signal … Read more
LYON: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday marks 80 years since Nazi forces raided a Jewish orphanage in the southeast of France and sent almost all its occupants to extermination camps. The event is among the first of a sequence of ceremonies Macron will lead this year to mark eight decades since the penultimate year … Read more
How a ceasefire and unrestricted aid access could yet prevent a famine in north Gaza LONDON: Desperate appeals from UN agencies urging Israel to allow aid into Gaza to alleviate hunger and avert an imminent famine in the north of the embattled Palestinian enclave appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Despite a UN Security … Read more
DUBAI: Is there any hope for the children of Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, restrictions on aid access, and a looming famine in the north of the enclave? According to UN Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder, who recently toured the length of Gaza, only an immediate ceasefire can turn the humanitarian situation around. Appearing … Read more
RAFAH: Palestinians who fled during an ongoing Israeli raid in and around the Gaza Strip’s main hospital described days of heavy fighting, mass arrests, forced marches past dead bodies and flattened buildings in interviews Sunday. The Israeli military says it has killed over 170 militants and detained some 480 suspects in the raid on Shifa … Read more
US warplanes strike Houthi storage facilities in Yemen after missile and drone attack WASHINGTON: American fighter jets struck three underground storage facilities in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen late Friday in an apparent counter-strike after the Iran-backed militia launched another set of missiles and drones toward targets in the Red Sea. A US official late on … Read more
DUBAI: Several Jewish organizations have defended filmmaker Jonathan Glazer for his criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza, as the director faced a backlash for his comments. Glazer, whose movie “The Zone of Interest” won this year’s Oscar for best international feature, had said in his acceptance speech last week that the film showed “where dehumanization … Read more
GAZA STRIP: Prospects for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire dimmed on Sunday after the US signaled it would veto the latest push for a UN Security Council resolution and mediator Qatar acknowledged that separate truce talks have hit an impasse. Efforts to pause the over four-month-old war languish as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to reject international … Read more
DUBAI: When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020, governments worldwide were caught off guard. Having faced no health emergency of this magnitude in generations, states were left scrambling to protect their populations and shield their economies. Now that life has largely returned to normal following years of social distancing, travel controls and trade … Read more
MANILA: A Filipino nun who stayed at her church in Gaza is unreachable, Philippine authorities said on Friday, as they are trying to evacuate 14 nationals from the city of Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed in tents amid heavy Israeli bombardment. Of the 137 Filipinos trapped in Gaza since Israel began its daily bombardment … Read more