Middle East & North Africa

20 May 2021; MEMO: Kuwait yesterday launched a public aid campaign to support the Palestinian people, amid the ongoing Israeli aggression against them.

The announcement came in a joint press conference by Assistant Undersecretary for Social Development at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Social Affairs, Hana Al-Hajri, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Development and International Cooperation, Nasser Al-Subaih, and Palestinian Ambassador Rami Tahboub.

20 May 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces have killed 230 Palestinians in Gaza since start of ongoing offensive on 10 May, including 65 children, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said today.

Among the dead, the Ministry of Health said, were 39 women and 17 elderly people, who were mostly killed in air strikes that hit their homes without warning while they were inside.

20 May 2021; MEMO: The UAE is continuing to operate direct flights and tours to the Yemeni island of Socotra despite not having the permission of the government.

According to local sources, hundreds of foreign tourists have arrived on the archipelago over the past few days using visas granted to them by Abu Dhabi, from where weekly direct flights started in March.

Jerusalem, May 20 (AP-PTI) Israel is at war with Hamas, Jewish-Arab mob violence has erupted inside Israel, and the West Bank is experiencing its deadliest unrest in years. Yet this may all bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Just over a week ago, the longtime Israeli leader's political career seemed all but over. He had failed to form a coalition government following an indecisive parliamentary election, and his political rivals were on the cusp of pushing him out of office.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to press ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, pushing back against calls from the United States to wind down the operation that has left hundreds dead.

Netanyahu’s tough comments marked the first public rift between the two close allies since the fighting began last week and could complicate international efforts to reach a cease-fire. His pushback also plunges the pair into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

(Reuters) --- U.S. President Joe Biden pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to reduce tensions in the Gaza conflict on the path to a ceasefire, a White House spokeswoman said.

Netanyahu said earlier he could set a timeframe for an end to 10 days of hostilities as Israel's military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes and Gaza's ruling Hamas militants unleashed new cross-border rocket attacks.

19 May 2021; MEMO: Jordan King Abdullah II said Israel's repeated provocative practices against the Palestinian people have led to the ongoing escalation and pushed the region towards more tension, the Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement.

19 May 2021; MEMO: Israel's terror could trigger a global or regional war, the leader of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, warned yesterday as he called on the United Nations to place peacekeepers in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

19 May 2021; MEMO: For the first time in 16 years, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the Palestinian Fatah movement, organised a march in occupied Ramallah on Monday, denouncing Israel's ongoing aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

The brigades walked through the streets of Ramallah firing bullets into the air and came under attack from Israeli occupation forces near the Qalandia checkpoint, leading occupation forces to close the checkpoint.

19 May 2021; MEMO: The Israeli Prison Service has transferred senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to the maximum-security Ayalon prison in Ramallah, following a message he issued urging Palestinians to continue resisting the Israeli occupation.