Middle East & North Africa

GAZA CITY, 13 Jan 2019; AA: Palestine; A Palestinian man on Sunday succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli army gunfire during demonstrations near the Gaza Strip’s eastern border, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Anwar Mohamed Qadeih, 33, was martyred due to wounds he sustained in the neck a few weeks ago, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.

Since March, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured by Israeli army fire during protests near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

CAIRO; 13 Jan 2019; AA: Egyptian parliament on Sunday approved a presidential decree to extend the nationwide state of emergency for another three months, according to the official gazette.

This is the seventh time the state of emergency is being renewed for three months since April 2017.

The decision will be valid as of the early hours of Tuesday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi first declared a three-month state of emergency in April 2017 after twin bomb attacks killed 45 people in northern Egypt.

Tehran, Jan 13, IRNA - Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi while denouncing the Polish authorities for hosting an anti-Iran summit reminded them to pay a visit to Iran-Poland Friendship Symbol in Warsaw.

AMMAN, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said on Sunday that France and Jordan agreed that the lack of a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict threatens the security of Middle East.

At a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Amman, Safadi said the two countries believe that lack of a solution could lead to eruption of crises in the region, said a statement by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chief of Yemen's military intelligence agency Brigadier General Saleh Tamah injured in a Houthi drone strike against an army parade died of his wounds on Sunday, a government official told Xinhua.

The Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi group targeted the strategic military air base of Anad three days ago, leaving six soldiers killed and injuring 20 others including high-ranking army commanders.

GAZA; 12 Jan 2019; AA: The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, seized "great secrets" during the failed Israeli security operation in the Gaza Strip on Nov., its spokesman said on Saturday.

"We seized equipment and technical devices that contain great secrets. The enemy [Israel] thought that made tools and equipment unusable and the equipment became evaporated," Abu Ubayda said at a news conference in Gaza.

ANKARA, January 12. /TASS/. The Turkish Armed Forces have conducted a military exercise in the Hatay province bordering the Syrian region of Idlib, the Turkish news agency Anadolu said on Saturday.

Turkish military detachments have been deployed to reinforce the border area in Hatay’s Yayladagi region. Later, tank exercises were held in that area.

Turkey is sending more armored vehicles to the border with Syria, the agency added.

RAMALLAH, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least six Palestinians were injured on Saturday evening during clashes with Israeli army forces which stormed the city of Ramallah, Palestinian medics said.

The six were injured by rubber gunshots in the fierce clashes that broke out in the center of Ramallah after an Israeli army force stormed the city on Saturday evening, said the Health Ministry in a press statement.

KHARTOUM, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in Sudan's protests has risen to 24, said Amer Mohamed Ibrahim, head of a Sudanese government fact-finding committee in charge of investigating the recent protests in Sudan on Saturday.

The Attorney General in Sudan Omer Ahmed Mohamed received reports from the head of the higher committee and heads of the states' committees to follow the investigations on the recent protests in Gadarif, Nahral-Neel, White Nile, Khartoum and Northern States, said Ibrahim at a press conference in Khartoum.

DUBAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Saturday the formation of an Arab force and alliance capable of encountering regional challenges, Al Arabiya TV reported.

"The United States is not going to leave the Middle East region," Pompeo said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Friday.