Middle East & North Africa

20 March 2024; MEMO: Half the workers at Israel’s Eilat Port are at risk of losing their jobs after the seaport took a major financial hit due to the crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes, Reuters reported officials saying today.

Eilat sits on a northern tip of the Red Sea and was one of the first ports to be affected as shipping firms rerouted vessels to avoid attacks on Israel-linked vessel by the Houthis in Yemen.

20 March 2024; MEMO: An online Israeli influencing campaign employing fake social media accounts has been attacking the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), according to a recent report by a disinformation watchdog cited by Haaretz.

20 March 2024; MEMO: Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, said yesterday Wednesday that Israel’s response to the movement’s latest truce deal and prisoner swap proposal was “generally negative”.

20 March 2024; MEMO: Israel yesterday announced that it has informed the United States of its opposition to Qatar’s involvement in building and operating a floating pier in the Gaza Strip that will bring humanitarian aid into the Strip.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said the US had invited Qatar to be involved in constructing the pier in spite of Tel Aviv’s objection.

Tehran, IRNA- The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it has targeted Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, in a latest of attack on Zionist targets deep inside Israel in a show of support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

IRNA, citing the media of the Iraqi Islamic Resistance War said that the attack in the early hours of Wednesday was carried out using several drones.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the strike on the airport that has been targeted by the resistance group several times in recent weeks.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over a report on income and wealth inequalities in India over a century, alleging that "Narendra Modi's Billionaire Raj" is now more unequal than even the British Raj.

Party general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that on March 18, leading global economists, including Thomas Piketty, published the report titled "Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj." with some extremely concerning findings.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Israel has lost its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a former Israeli military commander said yesterday.

“You can’t lie to many people for a long time,” Yitzhak Brick, a former major general, said in an article in Maariv newspaper, according to Anadolu.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon will blow up in our faces sooner or later,” he warned.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented the Israeli occupation’s “systematic” targeting of dozens of programmers and IT experts, alongside the destruction of their company headquarters as part of its genocide in the Gaza Strip.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Hamas is “part of the Palestinian national fabric” and China is keen on relations with it, Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envoy, Wang Kejian, said yesterday.

This came during Kejian’s meeting with the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to Qatar, Cao Xiaolin, according to a statement by the movement.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that Jews storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in the last ten days of Ramadan, according to Israeli media reports.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that “Ben-Gvir demanded abolishing the well-known policy in Israel and allowing Jews to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last ten days of Ramadan.”

It revealed that security officials were informed of Ben-Gvir’s request before the Council of Ministers discuss this matter over the next two weeks.