Middle East & North Africa

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel tightened COVID-19 lockdown measures on Friday as critics accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to curb protests against his handling of the health and economic crises.

Netanyahu’s government decided on Thursday to tighten a three-week lockdown imposed on Sept. 18, forcing Israelis to stay mostly at home, shutting down most businesses and curbing group prayers during the ongoing Jewish high-holiday season.

ANKARA, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for the detention of 82 Kurdish politicians, including former lawmakers of pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), as part of an investigation launched over deadly protests in 2014.

"The Ankara Prosecutor's Terror Crimes Investigation Bureau has launched an investigation on the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) terrorist organization and its so-called executives, as well as certain political party executives and members," the prosecutor's office said on Friday.

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: A video is circulating online of Egyptian security forces shooting at demonstrators in Kafr Qandil village.

The video has been dated 23 September and shows several men throwing rocks into an alleyway and running back when they hear the sound of gunshots.

Armed security forces then emerge from the alley and start shooting.

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chief of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, are scheduled to meet in Uganda in the near future to discuss bilateral relations, Israeli media outlets reported.

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: Lebanon’s security forces have started carrying out DNA tests on bodies that washed up on the country’s coast to determine whether they are victims of the 4 August Beirut blast or of a recent migrant boat tragedy, Arab News reported.

At least five bodies that were discovered washed up on Lebanon’s northern coast are being DNA tested by security forces so they can be identified.

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: Egyptian security forces have called on the heads of political parties and MPs to gather supporters for a demonstration today.

Sources have told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that General turned President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s supporters will be brought to the capital to gather in support of the president, who is facing increasing calls to stand down.

The buses used to ferry them into Cairo will be rented by the Nation’s Future Party, which backs the president.

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: Hamas and Fatah have agreed to hold the first elections in Palestine in nearly 15 years, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

Following a meeting at the Palestinian Embassy in Istanbul, a press release was issued that confirmed the two biggest Palestinian factions had reached “a unified vision”.

DIKILI, Turkey (AP) — Shortly after reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of Afghan migrants say, their hopes for a new life in Europe were cut short when Greek authorities rounded them up, mistreated them, shoved them into life rafts and abandoned them at sea.

CAIRO, September 24. /TASS/: A leader of the Northern African branch of the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) was killed in a Libyan National Army (LNA) operation in southern Libya, an LNA source told TASS.

According to reports on September 15, LNA forces conducted a major operation in the southern city of Sabha some 750 km away from the capital Tripoli, where a group of radicals took shelter in a well-fortified cluster of houses. A shootout ensued, lasting more than six hours. As a result, nine militants and three LNA servicemen were killed.

DAMASCUS, Sept 24 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday, accused the rebels in the north-western province of Idlib, of preparing a chemical attack, to frame the Syrian army.

In a statement, the ministry said, the rebels in cooperation with the so-called White Helmet group, and under the Turkish support, are preparing to fabricate a chemical attack in Idlib.

Two tonnes of chemical substances have been brought to a village, in south-western Idlib, over the past two days, as part of the preparation for the attack, it said.