Middle East & North Africa

17 October 2023; MEMO: Nearly 1,000 US citizens and family members have departed Israel on State Department-sponsored charter flights and other transport options since Friday for Europe, a department spokesperson told Reuters yesterday.

The State Department said it had offered more than 4,000 seats on US government-chartered transport by air and sea to US citizens and immediate family but said the flights and other departure options have generally departed at half capacity or less.

17 October 2023; MEMO: Three Ukrainian children who had been taken to Russia are to be released to Qatari diplomats in Moscow this week under a mechanism Qatar has set-up with the goal of returning many more children from Russia to Ukraine, a Qatari official briefed on the plans told Reuters yesterday.

17 October 2023; MEMO: Major General Dr Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha, Governor of North Sinai, yesterday received Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Egyptian Minister of Health, in the city of Bir Al-Abd during his visit to North Sinai Governorate.

17 October 2023; MEMO: Member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Izzat Al-Rishq, said the Israeli occupation army has “failed miserably” to make any political or military achievement in its aggression against the Gaza Strip.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.S. worked to break a deadlock over delivering aid to millions of increasingly desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged and under assault by Israel since a brutal attack by Hamas militants, as U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region.

Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Gaza early Tuesday, killing dozens of people in the besieged enclave’s south, where Israel told civilians from the north to seek shelter ahead of an expected ground offensive.

TEL AVIV, October 16. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has expressed a desire to visit Israel amid the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the Israeli side has made it clear to Kiev that such a visit would be untimely at the moment, the Israeli news portal Ynet said.

ABU DHABI, Oct 16 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Foreign Minister Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir on Sunday held a telephone conversation with his counterparts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brunei and Turkiye over the latest developments in Gaza and efforts to reduce escalation and protect civilians. 

He also had a conversation with the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.

AMMAN, Oct 16 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordanian King Abdullah II, yesterday warned against Israel’s attempts to displace Palestinians or force their internal displacement.

In separate phone calls with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and King Felipe VI of Spain, the Jordanian king urged joint efforts to galvanise international support to stop the escalation in Gaza, protect civilians, and respect international humanitarian law, according to a statement released by the Royal Hashemite Court.

ANKARA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a call on Monday that Western countries should refrain from "provocative steps" regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Turkish presidency said.

Erdogan also told Sunak that Western powers must "remember the unkept promises to Palestine and do what is necessary", the presidency said on social messaging platform X. It said the two also discussed the resolution of the "grave humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

NICOSIA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-six countries have requested Cyprus' assistance in repatriating their nationals from both Israel and the Gaza Strip, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, spokesman for the government of Cyprus, said here on Monday.

"We are responding to the best of our abilities," Letymbiotis said.

Earlier on Monday, Cyprus' National Council examined the situation in the region and possible developments that could affect Cyprus.