Middle East & North Africa

28 April 2022; MEMO: Israeli naval forces detained six Palestinian fishermen yesterday and destroyed their boat off the Rafah coast, south of the blockaded Gaza Strip, reported Wafa news agency.

Zakaria Baker of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAEC) in Gaza said that Israeli gunboats opened fire on a group of fishermen while they were sailing north of the sea of Rafah, before arresting them and confiscating their two boats.

29 April 2022; MEMO: The state-owned oil and gas company QatarEnergy yesterday awarded a major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the North Field East LNG expansion to a consortium of Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas and China's Wison Engineering, Anadolu reported.

QatarEnergy said in a statement that the consortium would work on the expansion of the sulphur handling, storage and loading facilities within Ras Laffan industrial city.

28 April 2022; MEMO: The Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting in Yemen said, on Thursday, it would release 163 prisoners from Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group who fought against the Kingdom, as part of a humanitarian initiative, Reuters reports.

The coalition had already begun taking measures to release the prisoners in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, added a statement on the Saudi state news agency, SPA.

28 April 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's President, Tayyip Erdogan, is planning a visit to Riyadh on Thursday in a push to mend ties, Anadolu News Agency reports.

According to the report, Erdogan will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz to bolster trade with Saudi Arabia as Turkiye's current economic crisis costs him support ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

28 April 2022; MEMO: Six Israeli reserve battalions will be stationed along the illegal Separation Wall that isolates the occupied West Bank from Israel, the military announced yesterday.

The decision to call-up reserve battalions in replacement of regular forces was approved by the Chief of the Israeli Army, Aviv Kohavi, in order to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel without passing through one of the occupation's illegal checkpoints in the West Bank.

28 April 2022; MEMO: China and Iran have agreed to expand their military cooperation following the visit by Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe to Tehran yesterday, where he held talks with senior Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi.

28 April 2022; MEMO: The United States called on Libyan leaders, on Wednesday, to work "immediately" to end the closure of oil installations. It considered the suspension of production as a hasty measure that harms the Libyans and undermines international trust toward Libya as an actor in the global economy.

29 April 2022; MEMO: Supplies of transportation fuel from the Arab Gulf region to Europe have increased 130 per cent, as the Federation of Arabian Gulf States covers the current supply shortage from Russia due to sanctions resulting from its war on Ukraine, Bloomberg has reported.

CAIRO, Apr 28 (NNN-MENA) – At least two people were killed and 43 others wounded yesterday, after a bus overturned in Egypt’s South Sinai Province, the Egyptian Health Ministry announced in a statement.

The wounded passengers were taken to the nearby Sharm El Sheikh international hospital, according to the statement.

A total of 25 ambulances were sent to the site of the accident, which was on a highway leading to the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, according to Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry.

AMMAN, Apr 28 (NNN-PETRA) – King Abdullah II of Jordan, yesterday met with visiting Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and stressed the need to work with the international community, to restore calm in Jerusalem.

During the meeting in Amman, King Abdullah underscored the importance of stepping up efforts, to prevent further violations against Islamic and Christian holy sites, and the people of Jerusalem, according to a statement by the Royal Hashemite Court.