Middle East & North Africa

02 Aug 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Sunday warned of the repercussions of the lack of medicine and treatment protocols for cancer patients due to the continued Israeli blockade.

02 Aug 2021; MEMO: An Israeli settler shot at Palestinians in the occupied West Bank using an Israeli soldier's weapon, footage released by rights group B'Tselem shows.

Palestinian who witnessed the incident, which took place on 26 June, said the soldier gave the settler the weapon, while the Israeli military claims the settler "took the weapon from the soldier and shot in the air", Haaretz reported.

02 Aug 2021; MEMO: A local official of the Iran-backed and Lebanon-based Shia militant movement Hezbollah was assassinated publicly at a wedding on Saturday, in an act of revenge for the killing of Sunni teenager last year.

After the fierce clashes that took place in the Lebanese coastal town of Khaldeh last year, in which the Sunni Arab teenager Hassan Zaher Ghosn was reportedly killed by Shia militants, there have been ongoing tensions between the two communities which have only escalated.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Ending Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories, mainly in East Jerusalem, is an important step for trust-building with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

Member of the executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Ahmed Majdalani told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah that "the Israeli settlement building and the confiscation of Palestinian land must stop."

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet advanced a national budget on Monday for the first time since 2018 in a sign of stability for the country’s fragile new government.

The 120-member Knesset must still approve the two-year spending plan by November to avoid dissolving the government and new elections.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Once a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader is sworn in as president this week, hard-liners will control all parts of the Islamic Republic’s civilian government.

Given the brinkmanship over its accelerating nuclear program and the West alleging that Tehran launched a fatal drone attack targeting an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire last week, one might think that had already happened.

BEIRUT, Aug 1 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed on Sunday in an ambush on Shi'ite mourners in a town south of Beirut, a day after a revenge killing of a member of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, security sources and a senior source in the group said.

The three were shot in the town of Khaldeh, where sectarian tensions have long flared between the town's mixed Shi'ite and Sunni residents. Several others were taken to hospital in civilian cars, witnesses said.

AMMAN, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Syrian troops stepped up shelling of an opposition enclave in the southern city of Deraa in a bid to assert control over an area that has defied state authority since it was retaken three years ago, witnesses, the army and residents said.

An army assault on the old quarter of Deraa suffered a blow on Thursday when rebels mounted a counter-offensive across the province, capturing dozens of troops. 

JERUSALEM, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israel's cabinet started on Sunday to debate the state budget, after no budget has been approved for more than three years amid a political deadlock.

"After three years in which Israel has been working without a budget, the most basic tool for running a country, we are now submitting for cabinet approval the 2021-2022 budget," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the beginning of a weekly cabinet meeting.

According to Bennett, the budget includes investments in public transportation, internet infrastructure and technology, and education.

CAIRO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt expressed full solidarity with the Tunisian people's confidence in the country's presidency to overcome the current political crisis, said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Sunday.

Egypt also stressed "the necessity to avoid escalation and refrain from violence against state institutions," and praised the role of Tunisian national institutions in maintaining the country's security and stability.