Middle East & North Africa

GAZA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 56 Palestinians were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, told reporters that 38 of them were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers' live ammunition.

The injured Palestinians include 22 children and three women, and the Israeli soldiers targeted an ambulance that belongs to the medical services, al-Qedra said.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his country is determined to destroy what he called a “terror corridor” in northern Syria — regardless of whether or not Turkey and the United States agree on the establishment of a so-called “safe zone” there.

CAIRO (AP) — Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, went missing and were feared drowned when their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.

A top U.N. official described Thursday’s shipwreck as “the worst Mediterranean tragedy” so far this year.

26 July 2019; MEMO: The Indonesian government condemned on Thursday the Israeli occupation’s demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

A statement issued by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said that Indonesia calls on Israel to stop these practices as soon as possible.

The statement added that Israeli practices violate international laws and resolutions of the UN Security Council.

ANTALYA, July 26. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said on Friday that he is hoping that the United States will display reason when considering whether to impose sanctions following Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile systems.

"We can begin actively using S-400 in April 2020 after their deployment and our specialists’ training are completed. I am hoping for the United States’ common sense," the NTV channel quoted him as saying.

26 July 2019; MEMO: The Iranian supreme leader’s advisor for defence affairs, Hossein Dehghan, yesterday announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had sent a number of delegates to Tehran for peace talks, in the wake of the ongoing tensions in the Gulf region.

“The UAE has become a US base for striking Iran’s national security,” Dehghan told Al-Jazeera, pointing out that Abu Dhabi had sent official envoys to Tehran to discuss peace in the region.

ANTALYA, July 26. /TASS/: The trade turnover of Russia and Turkey should reach $100 bln in coming years, while it totaled $25.5 bln in 2018, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday at the intergovernmental commission meeting.

"The leaders of our countries set an ambitious task - to boost trade turnover to $100 bln," Novak said. The upside for mutual investments is in such spheres as space, pharmaceuticals and digital technologies, further to traditional industries as agriculture, construction, metals and energy.

26 July 2019; DW: British Airways suspended flights to the Egyptian capital last weekend as a security precaution. Egypt has been marred by militant attacks since a 2014 military coup.

British Airways will resume flights to Cairo on Friday following a weeklong suspension over unspecified security concerns.

"Following a thorough assessment of the security arrangements, we are pleased that our service to and from Cairo will resume from Friday July 26," British Airways said in a statement.

26 July 2019; DW: Palestinian leaders have decided to "stop implementing agreements" with Israelis, President Mahmoud Abbas has said. The move comes after Israeli forces bulldozed dozens of Palestinian homes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the recent Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes as "ethnic cleansing" and said he would cut cooperation with Israeli authorities.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, the North African country’s first democratically elected leader and a symbol of the generation of Tunisians who shook off French rule in the 1950s, died Thursday. He was 92.

In a hasty ceremony hours after Essebsi died at a military hospital in Tunis, the leader of parliament took over as interim president. However, Essebsi’s death while still in office could lead to new power struggles in the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy and relative stability.