Middle East & North Africa

DUBAI, Dec 01 (APP): Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday met Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte wherein he invited the Dutch firms to invest in agriculture, horticulture, water management and renewable energy sectors of Pakistan.

In the meeting held on the sidelines of COP 28, they appreciated the celebrations held in Islamabad and The Hague to mark 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year.

TEL AVIV, December 1. /TASS/: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues to advance in the Gaza Strip and will use all its power to accomplish its goals in the fight against the Palestinian movement Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"Our forces are advancing. We will keep on fighting with all our might until all our goals are accomplished," his office reported, publishing the prime minister’s statement.

DUBAI, December 1. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested using the resources that Western countries waste on wars to address environmental issues around the globe.

DUBAI, Dec 1 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia hope to see countries coming together with ambitious and concrete commitments to address climate change during the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), here.

Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said through innovative solutions, sustainable practices, and collaborative initiatives, our nation will proudly showcase its role as a regional leader in addressing climate challenges at the Malaysia Pavilion.

RAFAH, Dec 1 (NNN-MENA) – A total of 2,781 trucks, loaded with humanitarian aid, have so far entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, the only linking point between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave, Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said, yesterday.

Ayman Walash, manager of the SIS press centre for foreign media, said that, since the first relief convoy was allowed into Gaza on Oct 21, a total of 3,176 tonnes of medical materials, 1,308 tonnes of fuel, and 13,348 tonnes of food, had been sent to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, until Wednesday.

DUBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior State Department official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet have let them know that the United States will take its own action against an undisclosed number of individuals.

DUBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Britain's King Charles wore a tie bearing the colours and symbols of the Greek national flag to a climate conference on Friday, days after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak snubbed his Greek peer Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a row over the Parthenon Sculptures.

Charles, who wore the tie when he met Sunak on the sidelines of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and when he delivered a speech at the event, has Greek lineage through his father, the late Prince Philip who was born on the Greek island of Corfu.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israel's army published a map Friday, splitting the Gaza Strip into "evacuation zones" in full-force strikes on the Palestinian enclave following a seven-day truce.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the online map divides the Gaza Strip into numbered areas, aiming to help civilians understand from which areas they are required to evacuate ahead of Israeli strikes.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts along the two countries’ border and Israel shelled a village in southern Lebanon on Friday, killing two civilians, officials said.

It was the first time Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli troops along the Lebanon-Israel border since the start of a seven-day truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah. That cease-fire collapsed on Friday, plunging the Israel-Hamas conflict back into open combat.

JERUSALEM (AP) — There was no trace of Hanan Yablonka — not on the 42-year-old Israeli’s social media accounts nor on his phone, found in the bullet-riddled car he and four friends tried to flee in after Hamas militants attacked the music festival they were attending in southern Israel.

The friends were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. But nearly two months later, Yablonka’s family still has no news about what happened to him. He is one of dozens of people still unaccounted for after Hamas infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.