Middle East & North Africa

13 October 2023; MEMO: Israel has told the United Nations that the northern Gaza Strip must be evacuated within 24 hours.

The Israeli occupation army informed the UN “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement late yesterday.

DUBAI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Iran's top envoy accused Israel of seeking "genocide" by enforcing a siege against the Gaza Strip, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday, as he began a regional tour to discuss the conflict between Tehran's Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel.

Israel said there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip, launched after Hamas militants' devastating attacks on Israel on Saturday, until all Israelis taken hostage that day were freed.

Iran  Oct 11 (Reuters) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Wednesday, in the first telephone call between the two leaders since a China-brokered deal between Tehran and Riyadh to resume ties.

The two leaders' call came as Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a deadly attack by Palestinian Hamas militants in Israel.

Raisi and the Saudi crown prince discussed the "need to end war crimes against Palestine," Iranian state media said.

CAIRO, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Egypt has discussed plans with the United States and others to provide humanitarian aid through its border with Gaza Strip but rejects any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave, Egyptian security sources said on Wednesday.

Gaza, a tiny coastal strip of land wedged between Israel in the north and east and Egypt to the southwest, is home to some 2.3 million people who have been living under a blockade since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas took control there in 2007.

DOHA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for protests across the Muslim world on Friday in support of the Palestinians and for the peoples of neighbouring countries to join the fight against Israel.

"[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday," Meshaal, who currently heads Hamas's diaspora office, said in a recorded statement sent to Reuters.

Meshaal, who is based in Qatar, said the governments and peoples of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt have a bigger duty to support the Palestinians.

12 October 2023; MEMO: Egypt’s largest and oldest religious institution, Al-Azhar University, has called on Arabs and Muslims to take a united position in the face of the inhumane Western support for the Israeli occupation state’s violation of all Palestinian rights. Al-Azhar said on Wednesday that there should be an international investigation into the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against children, women and the elderly in the besieged and isolated Gaza Strip.

12 October 2023; MEMO: Warning sirens were set off in northern Israel yesterday, sending “millions” to shelters amid reports of “hostile aircraft” breaching the border with Lebanon, the Times of Israel has reported.

Shortly after 6:30 pm local time, air raid sirens were activated due to conflicting reports that Hezbollah had launched a massive drone attack and deployed paragliders. It was later deemed to be a false alarm put down to human error.

GAZA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 1,354 Palestinians were killed, and 6,049 others wounded by the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, according to the Gaza-based health ministry.

In a press statement sent to Xinhua, the ministry said that "44 Palestinians were killed on Thursday as Israel intensified its air attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip."

According to the sources, Israel's attacks also targeted residential neighborhoods and multi-story buildings in the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday, pledging support and more weapon deliveries for Israel.

In a live broadcast statement alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said that more shipments of U.S. arms were "on the way." A cargo plane carrying the first shipment of advanced weaponry landed in Israel on Tuesday.

12 October 2023; MEMO: Israel has shelled the Ahl Al-Qur’an Mosque in the town of Al-Dhahira in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, Anadolu news agency reported.

Anadolu’s correspondent in southern Lebanon reported that the mosque and dozens of nearby homes were directly hit by the Israeli artillery shelling.

The Lebanese army patrols and inspects damage caused by the Israeli bombings.