Middle East & North Africa

GAZA, May 10 (NNN-WAFA) – The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday, have killed 15 Palestinians and wounded 22 others, said the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, run by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The ministry said in a press statement that, among those killed included four children and five women, while seven of the 22 injured were in serious condition.

10 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel is ready to fight Iran on multiple fronts. He made his comment after launching Operation Arrow and Shield against the besieged Gaza Strip, killing 15 Palestinians — including women and children — and wounding 22 others.

"Ninety-five per cent of Israel's security problems come from Iran," claimed Netanyahu. This was a reference to an alleged Iranian attempt to start a multi-front campaign against Israel.

10 May 2023; MEMO: The Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza said on Tuesday that 156 homes were damaged by this week's Israeli air strikes against the besieged territory.

"The Israeli aggression on Gaza left 27 residential units completely damaged and 129 partially damaged," GMO head Salameh Maarouf told journalists.

10 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli soldiers, on Tuesday, shot an Israeli female settler near Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, believing she was a Palestinian.

The army said, in a statement posted on Twitter, that "a Palestinian woman was neutralised at a military checkpoint south of Hebron while she was trying to carry out an attack," without causing any Israeli casualties.

However, Israeli media outlets said the shot woman was a mentally ill Jewish woman.

9 May 2023; MEMO: UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said on Tuesday that Israeli occupation killing of civilians in Gaza "is unacceptable."

In a statement, a copy of which was sent to MEMO, he said: "I condemn the deaths of civilians in the Israeli airstrikes. This is unacceptable."

He added: "I am deeply alarmed by developments in Gaza after Israel launched a military operation this morning targeting members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ)."

BEIRUT, May 9 (Reuters) - Having brought President Bashar al-Assad in from the cold, Arab states want him to rein in Syria's flourishing drugs trade in exchange for even closer ties. But as Damascus makes its own demands, the way ahead appears far from simple.

Arab states turned the page on years of confrontation with Assad on Sunday by letting Syria back into the Arab League, a milestone in his regional rehabilitation even as the West continues to shun him after years of civil war.

9 May 2023; MEMO: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), on Tuesday, strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip, Anadolu News Agency reports.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured in Israeli air raids on the coastal territory early Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry. The fatalities included four children and four women.

9 May 2023; MEMO: Among the 10 civilian victims of the Israeli air strikes against resistance group leaders in Gaza on Tuesday was a dentist known for offering free treatment to poor families, who lived in the same residential block as Islamic Jihad leader, Tareq Izzeldeen, Reuters reports.

9 May 2023; MEMO: Turkiye raised the wages of some 700,000 civil servants by 45 per cent, President Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday, days before tight presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, Erdogan announced the pay rise on Tuesday at a meeting in Ankara that discussed the economic and social rights of public workers through a framework called the Public Collective Bargaining Agreement Framework Protocol.

9 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, informed American officials who visited Israel that he was planning to attack Gaza Strip, Israeli media revealed on Tuesday.

This happened, according to Kan public broadcaster, during a meeting with two senior Biden administration officials that took place one day before the attack.