Middle East & North Africa

25 June 2021; MEMO: Honduras has opened a new embassy in Jerusalem, Anadolu has reported. The opening ceremony was attended by President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. This is the third country to open an embassy in the city after the US and Guatemala, even though the international community does not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

24 June 2021; MEMO: The Egyptian government executed eight people on Monday bringing the total number of people hanged this year alone to 57, according to the NGO Reprieve.

The news comes shortly after Egypt's court of appeal upheld the death penalty for 12 members of the Muslim Brotherhood who had been convicted in the Rabaa sit-in case.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Turkey's foreign minister yesterday reiterated his country's support for Libya following the Libya conference in Berlin, Anadolu Agency reported.

"Attended Second Berlin Conference on #Libya … Emphasized that we will continue to support peace, security, stability and sovereignty of Libya," Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Israeli Jewish settlers yesterday blocked the Jerusalem-Hebron highway, described by Wafa news agency as the main road to the south of the occupied West Bank.

According to sources, scores of settlers spread across the Al Faghur agricultural area of the town of Al Khader, south of Hebron.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Fatah and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas thwarted reconciliation efforts when he cancelled the general elections, the Deputy Head of Hamas' Political Bureau Saleh Al-Arouri said yesterday.

24 June 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip has said that it will not agree to have Qatari aid for Palestinian families living in poverty be channeled through the UN, Arabi21 reported.

Quoting a prominent source from the Palestinian resistance, Arabi21 said that the Palestinians in Gaza are thinking of boycotting the UN Envoy to the Peace Process Tor Wennesland.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Kuwait's parliament approved the 2021-22 state budget on Tuesday focusing on job support as the country witnessed record annual job losses earlier this year.

Finance Minister Khalifa Hamada said 71.6 per cent of expenditure is allocated for job support, the state news agency KUNA reported.

The budget estimates a revenue of $36 billion.

GAZA, Jun 24 (NNN-WAFA) – A Hamas senior official said yesterday that, the Palestinian Authority’s decision to postpone the Palestinian elections, has hindered the efforts to end the internal Palestinian split.

Saleh Arouri, Hamas’ deputy chief, who is in charge of the reconciliation issue, said in a press statement that, the failure to achieve a breakthrough in the previous rounds of dialogue was a result of postponing the elections.

The decision not to hold the elections “was made without consultations with the partners or the guarantors,” Arouri added.

JERUSALEM, Jun 24 (NNN-PNN) – The number of active COVID-19 cases in Israel has more than tripled, in the past two weeks, the state’s ministry of health said yesterday.

The number of active cases in Israel has reached 606, compared with 477 reported on Tuesday and 186 on Jun 9.

A total of 146 new cases were reported yesterday, raising the total caseload in the regime to 840,225.

The death toll from the virus remained unchanged at 6,428, and the number of patients in serious condition remained 26, out of 50 hospitalised patients.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Iran said yesterday it had foiled a "sabotage attack" which targeted a building belonging to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, without causing damages or casualties, state television reported.

"The saboteurs failed to carry out their plan, and there were no casualties or damage," the station reported.

Meanwhile, Tasnim news agency said the building was near the city of Karaj, 50 kilometres west of the capital, Tehran.