Middle East & North Africa

16 October 2023; MEMO: The Egyptian National Security Council, headed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, yesterday decided to continue contacts with international and regional partners in pursuit of de-escalation and to stop the targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting headed by Al-Sisi, the council discussed the regional situation and the military escalation in the Gaza Strip.

16 October 2023; MEMO: The United States provided its forces in the Deir Ez-Zor province in eastern Syria with a radar system after oil fields in the area were attacked by “groups backed by Iran,” local sources reported.

The sources told the Anadolu Agency that US forces brought four radar systems from Iraq to their base in the Al-Shaddadah area, in Al-Hasakah province, northeastern Syria, through the Al-Walid border gate on Saturday.

16 October 2023; MEMO: A landlord in Chicago, Illinois, killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother in an attack motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiments related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) expressed shock and called for an end to Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

The young boy was brutally stabbed 26 times, while his mother suffered over a dozen stab wounds.

BEIRUT, October 15. /TASS/: The Palestinian movement Hamas believes that Russia is capable of playing a key role to put an end to the military escalation in the Middle East, which was triggered by Israeli aggression, Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, told TASS.

BAGHDAD, Oct 15 (NNN-NINA) – A Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq yesterday, killed a senior member and two militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Counter-Terrorism Service of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said, in a statement.

They were killed at 5:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT), when a Turkish drone attacked their vehicle on a road near the town of Amedi in Duhok province, the statement said.

TEHRAN Oct 14 (Reuters) - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Iran's foreign minister on Saturday in Qatar, where they discussed the Palestinian militant group's deadly attack in Israel "and agreed to continue cooperation" to achieve the group's goals, Hamas said in a statement.

During their meeting in Qatar's capital Doha, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian praised the rampage as a "historic victory" that had dealt a setback to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

DUBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Iran warned Israel of escalation if it failed to end aggressions against Palestinians, with its foreign minister saying other parties in the region were ready to act, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

"If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger," Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying.

CAIRO, Oct 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel on Monday, a senior State Department official said, extending his Middle East shuttle diplomacy by a day as Israel prepares for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and the United States works to stop the conflict from spreading.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the militant group Hamas in retaliation for a rampage by its fighters in Israeli towns eight days ago in which its militants shot men, women and children and seized hostages in the worst attack on civilians in the country's history.

JERUSALEM, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Israel's defence minister said on Sunday that Israel has no interest in waging war on its northern front and that if the Lebanese group Hezbollah restrains itself then Israel will keep the situation along the border as it is.

Sporadic fire across the Israel-Lebanon border over the past week has raised concerns that fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza could escalate into a broader conflict.

CAIRO, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt offered to host a multilateral meeting to address the latest situation and the future of the Palestinian issue, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement on Sunday.

The invitation was made after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a National Security Council meeting to review regional developments, notably with regard to the military escalation in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt is ready to exert any effort to achieve calm in Gaza and activate a genuine peace process, the presidency said in a statement.