Author: Gulf News Week
Desperate parents in Gaza struggle to feed their children as famine unfolds due to an Israeli blockade.Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Hani Abu Rizq walks through Gaza City’s wrecked streets with two bricks tied against his stomach as the rope cuts into his clothes, which hang loose from the weight he has lost.The 31-year-old searches desperately for food to feed his mother and seven siblings with the bricks pressed against his belly – an ancient technique he never imagined he would need.“We’re starved,” he says, his voice hollow with exhaustion.“Even starvation as a word falls short of what we’re all…
Khamis Ayyad, 40, died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to vehicles in town of Silwad, Health Ministry says.A Palestinian man has been killed after Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and homes in a town in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.The ministry said on Thursday that Khamis Ayyad, 40, died due to smoke inhalation after settlers attacked Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, around dawn. Ayyad and others had been trying to extinguish the fires, local residents said.Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the settlers also attacked the nearby villages of Khirbet Abu Falah and…
Lebanon’s President Aoun has reiterated calls for Hezbollah to disarm, which the group refuses to do under Israeli fire.The Israeli military has launched a massive series of air strikes on several areas across Lebanon, in its latest near-daily violation of a ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last November.Lebanon’s National News Agency reported at least seven air raids on towns in the Bekaa Valley and a mountainous region in Baalbek in the eastern and northeastern parts of the country, far from the southern border with Israel on Thursday. It also said more attacks targeted the Ghaziyeh area of…
Syria’s new rulers have decided to take a pragmatic approach, despite Russia’s support for previous President Bashar al-Assad.Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has said his country wants Russia “by our side”, marking the first formal visit to Moscow by an official of the new government in Damascus since Syria’s previous Russian-backed government was overthrown last year.“The current period is full of various challenges and threats, but it is also an opportunity to build a united and strong Syria. And, of course, we are interested in having Russia by our side on this path,” al-Shaibani told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov…
Stockholm court finds Osama Krayem guilty of ‘serious war crimes and terrorist crimes’ over ISIL killing of Muath al-Kassasbeh in Syria.A court in Sweden has sentenced a Swedish man to life in prison over his role in the killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in a cage by ISIL (ISIS) in Syria in 2015.Judge Anna Liljenberg Gullesjo said in a statement on Thursday that the investigation has shown the defendant – identified in court documents as Osama Krayem – was “at the execution site, uniformed and armed, and allowed himself to be filmed”.While the video evidence showed…
Some Lebanese turn to AI tools for help dealing with psychological problems brought on by war and economic crises.Beirut, Lebanon – By the time Zainab Dhaher and her family fled their southern Lebanese village last September, Israeli shelling had become relentless. They packed what they could and drove 13 hours to Beirut, only to find themselves once again within range of Israeli bombardment. The cycle of displacement repeated.“We left in a rush. I didn’t have time to pack clothes for my children,” the 34-year-old mother of two recalls, her voice cracking during a phone interview. “We moved from place to…
Canada and the US are working on negotiating a trade deal by August 1, with Trump threatening a 35% tariff on Canada.United States President Donald Trump has said it will be difficult to make a trade deal with Canada after it announced that it would back Palestinian statehood, following the examples of the United Kingdom and France amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza.“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” Trump wrote on his social media…
In an open letter, 58 former EU envoys urge the bloc to end arms exports, sanction Israel, and act to stop what they call atrocity crimes.To the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union,To the Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers of the EU Member States,We, 58 former ambassadors of the European Union, were appalled and outraged by the slaughter of innocent Israelis and hostage taking on October 7, 2023 by Hamas and others. No cause can justify such acts, and…
Sanctions said to target shipping network controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed new sanctions on more than 100 Iran-linked individuals, companies and ocean-going vessels in what it described as its “largest Iran-related action since 2018”.The sanctions, announced on Wednesday, target more than 50 vessels which the Treasury Department describes as being part of a “vast shipping empire” of oil tankers and container ships controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a senior political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.“This…
The UN has warned aid entering Gaza remains far below required levelsIsraeli attacks have killed at least 71 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid amid a deepening hunger crisis in Gaza, medical sources told media, as hospitals in the besieged territory recorded seven more deaths from famine and malnutrition.At least 51 people were killed and more than 648 others were wounded by Israeli forces on Wednesday as they were heading towards the Zikim crossing point for aid trucks entering northern Gaza, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.Another 20 people seeking aid were killed near the so-called Morag Corridor near Khan Younis…