Middle East & North Africa

06 Feb 2021; MEMO: A spokesperson of the US Department of State has called for Israel to stop its settlement, Palestinian land annexation and house demolition, Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper reported on Friday.

The remarks of the spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, came in response to the Israeli demolition of the Palestinian village of Humsah in the occupied Jordan Valley.

"We are aware of what is going on," the spokesperson told the Palestinian newspaper.

06 Feb 2021; MEMO: Egyptian authorities have released Al Jazeera News Network journalist Mahmoud Hussein after more than four years in prisons, news agencies reported on Friday.

Hussein was arrested in December 2016 in Cairo Airport while he was back to Cairo from Doha. He was remanded in custody over claims of broadcasting false news about the internal situation in the country.

06 Feb 2021; MEMO: A Yemeni official has denied on Friday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had ended its military presence in his country, calling on Abu Dhabi to "stop arming militias in the south."

05 Feb 2021; MEMO: The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) has today condemned the Egyptian regime of General turned President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's denial of adequate medical treatment for detainees in its prisons.

05 Feb 2021; MEMO: The most widely read English-language newspaper in Saudi Arabia published an op-ed by Israeli writers for the first time yesterday. The Arab News carried an article by Dr Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak and Dr Jonathan Spyer.

Jerusalem, Feb 6 (AP-PTI) The United Arab Emirates drastically reduced its funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in 2020, the year it signed a US-brokered normalisation accord with Israel that was heavily criticized by the Palestinian Authority.

The agency known as UNRWA provides education, health care and other vital services to some 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, mainly descendants of the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Friday that its jurisdiction extends to territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, potentially clearing the way for its chief prosecutor to open a war crimes probe into Israeli military actions.

The decision was welcomed by the Palestinians and decried by Israel’s prime minister, who vowed to fight “this perversion of justice.” The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, said it opposed the decision.

RIYADH, Feb 5 (NNN-SPA) – The interior minister of Saudi Arabia, announced yesterday, additional steps to contain COVID-19, including closing cinemas and indoor entertainment centres.

Shopping malls, gyms and sports centres will also be shut down for 10 days, which could be extended.

The minister also announced the suspension of dining services in restaurants and cafes, for the same period.

All events and parties, including weddings and corporate meetings, in banquet halls, wedding halls or hotels, will be suspended for 30 days.

ADEN, Feb 5 (NNN-SABA) – At least 10 members of the Houthi militia were killed in an ambush, set up by pro-government forces, in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah yesterday, a government official said.

The local government source said, “The joint pro-government soldiers ambushed a group of Houthi fighters, while they were attempting to advance into military sites, in Hodeidah’s district of Tuhyata.”

He said that armed confrontations broke out between the two warring sides following the ambush, leaving nearly 10 rebels killed at the scene.

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Reuters) - Abu Arkan Ibrahim picked up a rifle and joined the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops when they occupied his hometown of Fallujah in 2003. He was badly burned in the fighting. Now, he fears the departure of the Americans he once battled.