Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, October 25. /TASS/: The international community should exert pressure on Israel to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip and protect civilians, King Abdullah II of Jordan told visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

"The international community must act immediately to put pressure on Israel so that it would stop the war, protect civilians and lift its siege on the Gaza Strip," the Jordan News Agency, or Petra, quoted the Jordanian monarch as saying.

RAMALLAH, Oct 25 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday, called for a “complete ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, and the opening of permanent corridors for the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in the coastal enclave.

Abbas made the remarks, during his meeting with visiting French President, Emmanuel Macron, at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

Abbas condemned the killing of civilians on both sides and called for the release of civilians, prisoners, and detainees on both sides.

GAZA, Oct 25 (NNN-WAFA) – The Palestine Health Ministry, yesterday warned of the possible outbreak of a major epidemic wave in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israeli regime’s airstrikes and siege on the Palestinian enclave.

Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qedra, said in a press statement that, up to 3,150 cases of diseases were recorded in a single day, after the outbreak of Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct 7, with the most of them reported among children. The diseases included diarrhea, food poisoning, skin symptoms, scabies, and bronchial infections.

GAZA Oct 25 (Reuters) - Israel has agreed to delay an expected invasion of Gaza for now so that the United States can rush missile defences to the region to protect U.S. troops there, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. and Israeli officials.

U.S. officials have so far persuaded Israel to hold off until U.S. air-defence systems can be placed in the region, as early as later this week, the WSJ said.

ANKARA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands.

NATO member Turkey condemned the civilian deaths caused by Hamas's Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, but also urged Israeli forces to act with restraint in their response. Ankara has strongly criticised Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

CAIRO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egypt is playing a positive role to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Sisi made his remarks during an inspection of the Third Field Army's Fourth Armoured Division in Suez province on the 50th anniversary of the October War victory, according to state-run Nile TV.

CAIRO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit denounced Israel's recent condemnation of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the AL said in a statement on Wednesday.

"It is an attempt of moral and political blackmail," Aboul-Gheit made the remarks before his return to Cairo following his participation in the UN Security Council (UNSC) session in New York, which was dedicated to discussing the developments in Gaza.

GAZA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to 6,546, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 17,439 Palestinians were wounded in the coastal enclave, the ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli airstrikes were triggered by a large-scale Hamas attack on Israeli military targets and towns on Oct. 7, which has so far killed at least 1,400 people in Israel.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. warned on Wednesday that without more fuel it will soon sharply curtail relief operations in the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded and devastated by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.

The warning came as hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources, and as the U.N.'s top official faced an angry backlash from Israel after saying the Hamas massacre of Israelis that sparked the fighting did not “take place in a vacuum.”

ANKARA, October 24. /TASS/: The conflict in the Middle East is escalating, causing more and more casualties among civilians in the Gaza Strip, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.