Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Syrian regime found responsible for Douma chemical attack

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Watchdog report follows years-long investigation into strike that killed 43 civilians in Damascus suburb

Investigators from the global chemical weapons agency have found the Syrian regime responsible for a poison gas attack that killed 43 people in a suburb of Damascus in 2018, leaving victims choking to death in the basement of a home.

In a report nearly five in the making, the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the canisters carrying poison gas had been dropped by a Syrian air force helicopter over Douma – then one of the last opposition strongholds near the Syrian capital.

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Tense but calm after deadly Jenin raid triggers Israel-Gaza rocket fire exchange

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Palestinian Authority suspends security cooperation after nine people were killed by Israeli defence forces

Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories remained tense but calm after an exchange of rocket fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel triggered by a deadly raid in the West Bank.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) entered the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied territory at about 7am (5am GMT) on Thursday acting on intelligence suggesting a cell linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad was planning to carry out imminent attacks, the army said in a statement.

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Irish family reveal six-year legal battle in Qatar over daughter’s severe injuries

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Birmingham-based Soffe family still fighting for compensation after fire in Gulf state left Elizabeth with life-threatening burns

A Birmingham family have revealed the distress they have endured in a six-year legal battle in Qatar to gain compensation for the severe injuries experienced by their youngest daughter when they lived in the Gulf state.

Elizabeth Soffe, now eight, received life-threatening burns as a baby in a fire at her family’s villa in Al Waab, near the country’s capital, Doha, in 2014.

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Concerns over escalating violence after Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians during West Bank raid

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Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza on Friday morning, to which Israel responded with missile strikes

Washington has raised concern over the escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence after Israeli forces on Thursday killed nine Palestinians during a West Bank raid in the deadliest single day in the territory in decades.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he feared the security situation could worsen after two rockets were fired from Gaza early on Friday and Israel responded with airstrikes on the territory.

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Archaeologist hails possibly oldest mummy yet found in Egypt

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The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara

Egyptologists have uncovered a Pharaonic tomb near the capital, Cairo, containing what may be the oldest and most complete mummy yet to be discovered in the country, the excavation team leader has said.

The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft in a recently uncovered group of fifth and sixth dynasty tombs near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, director of the team, told reporters.

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Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians during West Bank raid

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Palestinian leaders cut security ties with Israel after deadly gun battle at Jenin refugee camp

Israeli forces have killed nine Palestinians during a raid in the north of the occupied West Bank in the deadliest single day in the territory in years, prompting Palestinian leaders to cut security ties with Israel and leaving international mediators scrambling to prevent the violence from escalating.

A 61-year-old woman and a male civilian were among the dead, the Palestinian health ministry said, and about 20 more people were seriously injured in the violence on Thursday morning. Two of the casualties were claimed by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another four by Hamas, and one by the armed wing of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

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Children go hungry at Kenya refugee camp as malnutrition numbers soar

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MSF charity reports 33% rise in malnourished patients at giant Dadaab complex after influx from drought-stricken Somalia

Malnutrition among children in one of the world’s largest refugee camps has surged over the past year as concerns grow at worsening conditions at the site in Kenya.

Médecins Sans Frontières said its health facility in Dagahaley, a camp in the Dadaab refugee complex, has treated 33% more patients – mainly children – for malnutrition over the past year, while the rate of malnourishment in the camps grew by 45% in the last six months of 2022.

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EU toughens stance on non-EU countries taking back citizens denied right to stay

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Campaigners say bloc’s plan to use development aid, trade policy and access to visas as ‘leverage’ fails to put human rights first

The European Union could use development aid, trade policy and access to visas as “leverage” over non-EU countries that are deemed to be failing to take back their citizens denied the right to stay in Europe, according to a draft communique seen by the Guardian.

The EU’s 27 national leaders could endorse a plan at a summit in Brussels next month to use “all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including development, trade and visas as well as opportunities for legal migration” as “leverage” over migrants’ countries of origin.

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Beirut explosion inquiry in chaos as judges row and suspects released

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Sudden restart of investigation sets off developments leaving doubts justice for victims will be delivered

More than two years since the huge explosion that levelled Beirut’s port and horrified the world, a blazing row has broken out that has involved Lebanon’s leading judges filing charges against each other and all suspects in the stalled investigation being released.

The surprise moves come after Tarek Bitar, the judge tasked with investigating the blast, suddenly resumed his work. The inquiry had been stalled for more than a year, opposed by the country’s political factions, which have shown no interest in delivering justice for the 202 people killed and the hundreds more injured.

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Bank of Israel governor says judicial reform could hurt economy – reports

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Amir Yaron said to have warned PM that erasing democratic checks and balances could deter crucial foreign investment

The governor of the Bank of Israel has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that his new government’s proposals for sweeping judicial reform could damage the country’s economy, according to Israeli media reports.

Prof Amir Yaron met the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, after requesting an “urgent meeting”.

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Washington Post condemns Pompeo for ‘vile’ Khashoggi ‘falsehoods’

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Fred Ryan says former secretary of state ‘outrageously misrepresents’ Post journalist murdered by Saudi Arabian regime

The publisher of the Washington Post, Fred Ryan, has blasted the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo for “outrageously misrepresenting” and “spreading vile falsehoods” about Jamal Khashoggi, the Post columnist murdered by the Saudi Arabian regime in 2018.

“It is shameful that Pompeo would spread vile falsehoods to dishonor a courageous man’s life and service and his commitment to principles Americans hold dear as a ploy to sell books,” Ryan said.

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Yazidi women kept as slaves by IS appeal to UN to intervene in their fight for compensation

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Lawyers demand support from Australia for five victims of Khaled Sharrouf in test case for international law on torture survivors

Five Yazidi women held as slaves by an Islamic State fighter are appealing to the UN to intervene in their case for compensation in a move lawyers hope will help fix a “lawless” global system that is failing torture survivors.

The women, captured in Iraq in 2014, were taken to Syria as slaves by IS fighters, including the Australian citizen Khaled Sharrouf, who was pictured standing next to his young son holding a severed human head.

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Huge protest in Israel over rightwing government’s judicial changes

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Estimated 100,000 people took to streets in Tel Aviv in what protesters described as ‘fight for Israel’s destiny’

An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what protesters described as a “fight for Israel’s destiny” over sweeping judicial changes proposed by the new far-right government.

Israel’s longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to office last month at the helm of a coalition of conservative and religious parties that make up the most right-wing government in the country’s history.

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Iran to rule on release of film-maker Jafar Panahi

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Lawyer for award-winning director says court of appeal expected to decide on case by end of week

Iran’s judiciary is to rule on whether to release the film-maker Jafar Panahi on bail after his conviction was overturned by the supreme court, his lawyer said.

Panahi, 62, who has won a number of awards at European film festivals, was arrested on 11 July last year and sent to jail to serve a six-year sentence which had been handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”. He served two months at the time before being granted a conditional release. He was also barred from leaving Iran and making films, and was largely confined to his home until his arrest in July.

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‘Attack on freedom’: Israel moves to claw back state funds from critical films

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Culture minister’s attack on two documentaries set in Palestinian territories part of campaign to silence dissent, film-makers say

Israel’s culture minister is attempting to revoke state funding from two documentary films dealing with the occupation of the Palestinian territories, increasing concerns that the country’s new hard-right government will follow through on promises to crack down on dissenting voices.

The minister, Miki Zohar, of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, has pledged to “revoke funding that promotes our enemy’s narrative” and withhold grants from films that “present Israeli soldiers as murderers”. He has also said he will require film-makers to sign a declaration they will not use state funds to create content that “harms the state of Israel or IDF soldiers”.

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Iran: fears grow of security crackdown in Zahedan as anti-regime protests persist

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Checkpoints have sprung up and armed police flood the streets in the restive city where dozens of civilians were killed last year

Protesters say they fear Iran’s security services may be planning an assault in the city of Zahedan – the site of a deadly attack on civilians last year – as reports emerge that there are thousands of armed police on the streets.

Fifteen checkpoints have been put up in the past week across the city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, and several people have been detained by security forces.

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MEPs call for blacklisting of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

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Ministers under pressure to pass ban but some fear it could lead to collapse of nuclear talks

The European parliament has called for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to be blacklisted in Europe, a move some western politicians fear could provoke Iran to walk out of talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

The parliament has only an advisory role, but EU foreign ministers are due to meet on Monday to discuss further sanctions, and the Iranian diaspora is making the proscription of the IRGC its key demand.

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Iran to execute mentally ill man for allegedly burning Qur’an during protest

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Rights groups say Javad Rouhi, who was sentenced on charges including apostasy, was tortured so badly he can no longer speak

A 35-year-old man from a small village in northern Iran has been sentenced to death on charges including apostasy for allegedly burning a Qur’an and “insulting holy things” during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Javad Rouhi has not been entitled to a lawyer of his choice in court and suffers from a severe mental illness. Human rights groups say he was tortured so terribly in a detention centre run by the feared Revolutionary Guards that he lost his ability to speak and walk, and became incontinent.

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Netanyahu told by Israel’s supreme court he must fire key ally from cabinet

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Prime minister’s coalition in jeopardy after Aryeh Deri ruled ineligible for government due to tax offences

Israel’s supreme court has ruled that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must fire a key ally from the country’s new cabinet, presenting the Israeli leader with a potential coalition crisis and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.

Ten of 11 judges on the high court found that Aryeh Deri, the influential head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party who has served repeatedly in Netanyahu’s previous governments, is disqualified from serving as a minister after he was convicted last year for tax offences and placed on probation as part of a plea deal. Deri has pledged not to quit and met Netanyahu after the ruling.

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Family of executed British-Iranian national ‘prevented from seeing body’

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Alireza Akbari’s sister and daughter went to cemetery to collect his remains but were told he had already been interred

The Tehran-based family of the executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari have been prevented from seeing his body or burying him in the grave in which he had asked to be laid to rest in Shiraz, his birthplace, family members have told the Guardian.

Akbari was executed for spying for M16, charges he vehemently denied and for which there is no substantive evidence, save a confession extracted under torture.

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