Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israeli troops kill three Palestinian gunmen in West Bank, says military

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Israel’s military says soldiers responded after coming under fire

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, adding that another gunman turned himself in and was arrested.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed three people were killed near the city of Nablus on Sunday. It did not immediately disclose their identities. The deaths bring to 80 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the year, as Israel has stepped up arrest raids in the West Bank. Palestinian attacks have killed 14 people in 2023.

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Iran and Saudi Arabia agree to restore ties after China-brokered talks

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Embassies to reopen in move that could have wide implications for Iran nuclear deal and Yemen war

Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two great oil-producing rivals of the Middle East, have agreed to restore ties and reopen embassies seven years after relations were severed.

The agreement came after Chinese-brokered talks held in Beijing. “As a result of the talks, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies … within two months,” Iran’s state news agency Irna reported, citing a joint statement.

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Pentagon chief ‘disturbed’ by West Bank violence and warns against inflammatory rhetoric

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US defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit was disrupted by protests against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial changes

The Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, has expressed his concerns over rising levels of violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and warned against acts that could trigger more insecurity.

The US defence secretary’s talks in Israel came as Israeli police killed three suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank and a Hamas gunman shot and wounded three people on a Tel Aviv street.

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March of the unicorns: Israel’s tech sector rebels against Netanyahu ‘power grab’

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Proposals to neuter the country’s judiciary have spooked entrepreneurs who had seemed immune to the political weather

About 20 years ago, the skyline of Tel Aviv began to change. The city’s collection of elegant white Bauhaus buildings has been joined by tower after tower, each one a salute to Israel’s rapid transformation into one of the world’s most important advanced technology centres.

It is no accident that the rise of the “startup nation” has dovetailed with the career of its longest serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, as he is widely known, is a firm believer in the free market and has championed Israel’s vaunted hi-tech sector as his own personal achievement. At 15.3% of GDP, it is now Israel’s main engine of economic growth, employing 10% of the country’s salaried workforce, and generating about a quarter of income taxes.

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Campaign calls for gender apartheid to be crime under international law

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Prominent Afghans and Iranians say current laws do not capture the systematic suppression of women

A prominent group of Afghan and Iranian women are backing a campaign calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under international law.

The campaign, launched on International Women’s Day, reflects a belief that the current laws covering discrimination against women do not capture the systematic nature of the policies imposed in Afghanistan and Iran to downgrade the status of women in society.

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At least six Palestinians killed in IDF raid on Jenin refugee camp

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Israeli forces enter camp to find gunman suspected of killing two brothers in Huwara last week

At least six Palestinians have been killed and 10 wounded in an Israeli army raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials, the latest bloody incident in a new chapter of violence across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

A fierce gun battle erupted in the crowded refugee camp on Jenin’s western outskirts on Tuesday afternoon after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) mounted an operation to find the Palestinian gunman suspected of killing two Israeli brothers as they drove through the West Bank town of Huwara last week.

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Iran makes first arrests over suspected schoolgirl poisonings

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No details given about suspects as regime cracks down on criticism of its response to alleged school attacks

Iran has announced the first arrests connected to a spate of suspected poisonings of schoolgirls that has gripped the country.

“Based on the intelligence and research measures of the intelligence agencies, a number of people have been arrested in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation,” the deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, told state television. Mirahmadi did not provide details on the detained individuals.

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Journalists go on trial in Egypt for ‘offending MPs’

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Mada Masr, Egypt’s only remaining independent news outlet, reported alleged corruption among supporters of President Sisi

Three journalists from Egypt’s last remaining independent news outlet have gone on trial in Cairo on charges of misusing social media and offending members of parliament.

Rana Mamdouh, Sara Seif Eddin and Beesan Kassab, who work for the Mada Masr news platform, face up to two years in prison and fines of 300,000 EGP (£8,100) if the court convicts them.

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Israeli military reservists refuse to train in protest at far-right government

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Growing numbers including from elite air force squadron say they are unwilling to serve ‘dictatorial regime’

Growing numbers of Israel’s military reservists, including members of its most important air force squadron, are refusing to attend for service, an unprecedented step that comes as part of the protest movement against the country’s new far-right government.

In an announcement on Sunday, all but three of the 40 reservist pilots in Israel’s elite 69 Squadron said they would not take part in a training exercise later this week, and instead participate in widespread public protests, claiming they were not prepared to serve a “dictatorial regime”.

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Sphinx-like statue and shrine discovered in southern Egypt

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It is thought the Roman emperor Claudius could have inspired work found in the temple of Dendera

Archaeologists have unearthed a sphinx-like statue and the remains of a shrine in an ancient temple in southern Egypt.

The artefacts were found in the temple of Dendera, in Qena province, 280 miles (450km) south of Cairo, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said.

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Iraqi customs officials ordered to impose import ban on alcohol

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Move met with indignation by many across country, where liquor sales have boomed in recent years

Over the past two decades of problems in Iraq, where to find a drink has never been one of them. But one of the country’s most popular vices – alcohol – is again at the centre of a tussle between hardliners, who are demanding an import ban, and drinkers intent on defying them.

The latest row about whether alcohol can be served has followed a decree from a conservative cabinet minister at the weekend that ordered customs officials to impose an import ban.

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IAEA chief qualifies claim that Iran will restore nuclear site monitoring

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Head of UN nuclear watchdog had said Tehran agreed to restore equipment and hand over data

The head of the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate was forced to qualify some of the claims he made about commitments he had extracted from Iran at the weekend about increasing access to UN inspectors.

At his first press conference on his return from Tehran on Saturday, Rafael Grossi said “yes” when asked if Iran had pledged to restore all the cameras and other surveillance equipment that it had removed from its nuclear-related sites. But at Monday’s press conference he qualified this, saying it required further discussion.

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Iran supreme leader calls suspected schoolgirl poisonings ‘unforgivable’

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says culprits should be severely punished, amid signs hundreds of girls have been treated in hospital

Iran’s supreme leader has called the suspected poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls in recent months an “unforgivable” crime amid signs that hundreds of schoolgirls have been treated in hospital, many more than the regime had previously admitted.

“Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. This is an unforgivable and big crime … The perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. He added there would be no amnesty for those found guilty.

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What do we know about suspected poisonings of schoolgirls in Iran?

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More than 1,000 girls appear to have suffered ‘mild poison’ attacks since November

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More than 1,000 Iranian girls in schools across the country appear to have suffered “mild poison” attacks since November, when the first cases emerged in the city of Qom, according to state media and officials.

The suspected attacks have been described by some observers as part of an extremist response – perhaps with tacit state endorsement – to the protests led by women and girls that have convulsed Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

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Evangelical Christians flock to Republicans over support for Israel

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Powerful voting bloc looking to back pro-Israel politicians in hopes of dictating policy that fits their theological views

When Israel’s former ambassador to the US said his country should worry less about what American Jews think and concentrate on Christian evangelicals as the “backbone” of support for the Jewish state, he had in mind the Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee.

Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a group that claims 11 million members, who have had a significant influence on Republican party politics and in hardening Washington’s already strong support for Israel.

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UK urged to seek release of Tunisian opposition figure jailed in crackdown

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Daughter of Said Ferjani, who lived in UK for more than 20 years, says he has been falsely imprisoned and asks MPs to intervene


Britain is being urged to help protect the last vestiges of the Arab spring by calling for the release of Said Ferjani, the leading Tunisian politician who has been thrown into prison as part of an effort to silence the critics of the country’s increasingly authoritarian president.

Ferjani, 68, lived in the UK in political exile for more than two decades before returning for Tunisia’s democratic awakening in 2011.

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Simon Schama urges UK Jews to condemn Israel’s ‘horrifying’ shift to far right

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Historian and TV presenter is among those to speak out as protest grows over settler violence against Palestinians

British Jews must speak out over the “complete disintegration of the political and social compact” that underpins the state of Israel, the historian Simon Schama has said.

His call comes amid mounting disquiet among Jews in the UK and the US at the threats to Israeli democracy, violent attacks on Palestinians and a police crackdown on Israeli protesters.

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Dozens more Iranian schoolgirls taken to hospital after suspected poisonings

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Students from across five provinces receive treatment as president asks ministers to investigate latest cases

Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls across five provinces have been admitted to hospital in a new wave of suspected poisoning attacks, according to local media.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported over the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospital treatment.

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IAEA chief holds ‘constructive’ talks in Iran after uranium enrichment findings

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Rafael Grossi to meet president to ‘relaunch dialogue’ on nuclear programme, says source, following discovery of 83.7% enrichment

The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said he has had “constructive” meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran after the discovery of uranium particles enriched to near weapons-grade level.

The two-day visit by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, comes as the Vienna-based organisation seeks greater cooperation with Iran over its nuclear activities.

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British health worker shot multiple times in Iran protests, injuries show

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Exclusive: British-Iranian man says he was attacked after protesting against an assault on a teenage girl by security services

This story contains graphic images

A British-Iranian health worker who joined anti-regime street protests in Tehran still has five shotgun pellets lodged in his body after being fired at repeatedly by Iranian security forces at point-blank range.

It is thought the security officers were using shotguns to fire buckshot cartridges containing multiple pellets that then spread through the victim’s body.

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