Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Egypt condemned the recent two ballistic missile attacks launched by Yemen's Houthi group on the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jazan, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Egyptian government and people stand in solidarity with their counterparts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and support all the necessary procedures taken to maintain the security and stability of the kingdom," the statement said.

JERUSALEM, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel announces an emergency plan for the labor market after the national unemployment rate jumped more than five times in March, the Israel Employment Service announced Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The bureau said that the unemployment rate has jumped from 4 percent to 22.6 percent since the beginning of March.

According to the bureau, 781,608 Israelis have applied for unemployment benefits since March 1.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Prisoners in southern Iran broke cameras and caused other damage during a riot, state media reported Monday, the latest in a series of violent prison disturbances in the country, which is battling the most severe coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.

Iran had temporarily released around 100,000 prisoners as part of measures taken to contain the pandemic, leaving an estimated 50,000 people behind bars, including violent offenders and so-called “security cases,” often dual nationals and others with Western ties.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — When Nima Amraa returned to the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt earlier this month, she was surprised to learn she was being placed in a makeshift quarantine center set up by the ruling Hamas group.

But her initial jitters turned to fear when two fellow travelers in another facility tested positive for the coronavirus — the first cases to be confirmed in Gaza.

BEIRUT, Mar 30 (NNN-NNA) – Former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, said that, COVID-19 is not a door for discrimination in judicial decisions, stressing the need for the amnesty law to include the Islamist prisoners.

He said on twitter: “It is a good thing for the amnesty to include those whose sentence ends in six months, but what is more important is the fate of hundreds of Islamist prisoners, who are paying the price of the slowdown in trials or have been held under preventive detention for years.”

DUBAI, Mar 30 (NNN-WAM) – The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, announced that, it has extended the suspension of public transport services across the emirate.

The move comes as part of the National Disinfection Programme, jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Prevention and the Ministry of Interior.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq withdrew Sunday from a military base in the country’s north that nearly launched Washington into an open war with neighboring Iran.

The K1 Air Base is the third site coalition forces have left this month, in line with U.S. plans to consolidate its troops in two locations in Iraq.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president on Sunday lashed out at criticism of authorities’ lagging response to the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, saying the government has to weigh economic concerns as it takes measures to contain the pandemic.

Syria meanwhile reported the first fatality from the virus in the war-torn country, which has five confirmed infections. State news agency SANA said a woman died upon reaching an emergency room and tested positive for the virus, without saying where it happened.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Libya’s UN-recognized government said Saturday it has detected the arrival of three military cargo planes from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to an airbase controlled by warlord Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the government-led Volcano of Rage Operation said the planes took off from the Sweihan airbase in Abu Dhabi and arrived in Al-Khadim airbase in the city of Al-Marj.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: The Syrian regime and its allies killed hundreds of civilians in northwestern Idlib city between the period of two cease-fire deals reached on Jan. 12 and March 6 by Ankara and Moscow, according to a rights watchdog, Anadolu reports.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported that aggression of the Bashar al-Assad regime, Iran-backed foreign terrorist groups, and Russia left 387 civilians dead.