Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The first truck loaded with about 25,000 liters of fuel crossed the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing on Wednesday en route to the Gaza Strip, according to an Egyptian security source.

The fuel would be delivered to the United Nations to facilitate the delivery of aid and would enter Gaza directly without inspection by the Israeli side, the source told Xinhua on conditions of anonymity.

BEIRUT, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon filed on Tuesday a complaint to the UN Security Council (UNSC) against Israel for launching attacks on journalists, said Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

"Israel's deliberate and direct bombing of the journalists' convoy is a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime," Bou Habib said in a statement carried by the National News Agency (NNA).

On Monday, two Israeli strikes targeted a team of journalists from several media outlets covering field developments in the southern Lebanese village of Yaroun.

RAMALLAH, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Tulkarm, northern West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

The clashes occurred when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was conducting a massive manhunt for Palestinian suspects in the Tulkarm refugee camp, local eyewitnesses told Xinhua.

The IDF said in a statement that its troops clashed with "local terror operatives" and responded with a drone attack at armed Palestinians who were hurling explosives at them.

RAMALLAH, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Tulkarm, northern West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

The clashes occurred when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was conducting a massive manhunt for Palestinian suspects in the Tulkarm refugee camp, local eyewitnesses told Xinhua.

The IDF said in a statement that its troops clashed with "local terror operatives" and responded with a drone attack at armed Palestinians who were hurling explosives at them.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The leader of the United Arab Emirates toured the Dubai Air Show on Wednesday as a sanctioned Russian arms supplier displayed an attack helicopter used in its war on Ukraine, highlighting his country’s continued ties to Moscow despite Western sanctions targeting it.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan toured the show with his brother, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a vice president and deputy prime minister of this autocratic country of seven sheikhdoms.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces raided Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday, where hundreds of patients, including newborns, have been stranded with dwindling supplies and no electricity, as the army extended its control across Gaza City and the north.

Shifa Hospital has become a symbol of the widespread suffering of Palestinian civilians during the war between Israel and Hamas, which erupted after the militant group killed some 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in a surprise Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel.

JERUSALEM, Nov 15 (NNN-MA’AN) – The number of passengers taking international flights at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv fell by 41.25 percent year-on-year, in Oct, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said in a report yesterday.

Due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas that broke out on Oct 7, the airport only saw 1.17 million passengers passing through in the month, compared to almost two million in Oct, 2022.

Yesterday, the daily passenger count at the airport declined to 11,100, the lowest daily figure since the conflict erupted.

BEIRUT, Nov 15 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, yesterday, warned of an expansion of Israel-Hamas conflict, amid the ongoing clashes between the Israeli army and Lebanese militants in southern Lebanon.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it had its own intelligence that Hamas was using Gaza's largest hospital Al Shifa to run its military operations, and probably to store weapons, saying those actions constituted a war crime.

"We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control mode" and probably to store weapons, national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One. "That is a war crime."

SANAA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Leader of Yemen's Houthi militia Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on Tuesday vowed to attack any Israeli ship sailing in the Red Sea or the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to revenge Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip.

"Our eyes are open to constantly monitor and search for any Israeli ship in the Red Sea, and in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in particular, and off the Yemeni territorial waters," al-Houthi said in a televised speech aired by the group's satellite TV channel al-Masirah.