JERUSALEM: Hundreds of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners ended their 40-day fast on Saturday after reaching a compromise with Israel for additional family visits, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Israel prison service spokeswoman Nicole Englander said the inmates declared an end to the strike Saturday morning. She said it came after Israel reached a deal with the Palestinian Authority and the Red Cross for prisoners to receive a second family visit each per month.
Hundreds of prisoners observed the strike they said was aimed at improving prison conditions.
The hunger strike had evolved into one of the longest such protests with this many participants since Israel’s 1967 capture of territories Palestinian seek for their state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Englander said 1,578 prisoners participated in the hunger strike overall and 834 ended their fast Saturday. She said 18 were being treated in hospitals.
Many Israelis view the prisoners as terrorists and have little sympathy for their demands. More than 6,000 Palestinians are currently in prison for offenses linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for charges ranging from stone-throwing to weapons possession and attacks that killed or wounded Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Palestinians rallied behind the hunger strikers as national heroes, relishing a rare break from deep divisions between two rival political groups, the Islamic militant group Hamas which runs Gaza and Fatah, the movement of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who administers autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinians hoped the protest will draw the attention of a seemingly distracted international community as the Israeli occupation hits the 50-year mark in early June.
Support for the prisoners is an emotional consensus issue; hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been jailed by Israel at one time or another since 1967.
Israel’s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, alleged that the hunger strike was motivated by a power struggle in Abbas’ Fatah movement. He claimed that imprisoned strike organizer Marwan Barghouti cynically exploited his fellow prisoners to boost his standing in Fatah and secure his position as a possible successor to Abbas. Barghouti’s family has denied such claims.
Qadoura Fares, who runs the Prisoners’ Club advocacy group, said negotiations took place between Israel officials and a committee from the prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti. He said negotiations began on Friday and were the first since the strike began.
Barghouti is serving five life terms after being convicted by an Israeli court of directing two shooting attacks and a bombing that killed five people. In prison since 2002, he never mounted a defense, saying the court had no jurisdiction over him.
Earlier this month, Israel released footage it said shows Barghouti breaking his fast. Palestinians say the video is a fabrication.
Palestinian prisoners end mass hunger strike
Palestinian prisoners end mass hunger strike
Where We Are Going Today: ‘Beefbar’ Restaurant in Riyadh
- Overall, the ambiance is impressive and the concept has potential, but most of the food was forgettable
Beefbar, originally from Monte Carlo and known for its elevated take on street food, is one of the most talked-about steakhouses in Riyadh.
The space itself is beautiful — tall ceilings, dark tones and elegant interiors that give it a regal, high-end atmosphere.
But my experience did not live up to the hype.
We started the meal with what was supposed to be a Caesar salad, but it was watery and completely underwhelming. The croque sando sounded promising, but the flavor was flat — nothing more than an ordinary sandwich with fancy presentation.
The spicy pasta was perhaps the biggest letdown of the night.
The only standout dish for me was the wagyu tacos. The shells were perfectly crisp and the wagyu was cooked just right — juicy, flavorful and balanced.
We also tried the New York striploin, which came with a great sauce and was cooked well, but for SR355 ($95), it did not feel special or memorable enough to justify the price.
For dessert, we went with their signature marble chocolate, which was good and warm.
Overall, the ambiance is impressive and the concept has potential, but most of the food was forgettable. The biggest downside? The prices are extremely high for what you get. It’s a one-time visit for me.
For more details, check their Instagram @beefbar_riyadh.
Leicester relegated from the Premier League as Liverpool close in on title
Trent Alexander-Arnold came off the bench to score the only goal 14 minutes from time as the Reds moved to the brink of a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title.
Liverpool could be crowned champions on Wednesday should Arsenal lose at home to Crystal Palace.
If the Gunners avoid defeat, Arne Slot’s men have the chance to seal the deal when Tottenham visit Anfield next Sunday.
Leicester have not scored a single goal at home since December as nine consecutive defeats at the King Power have taken Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men down.
Alexander-Arnold appears to be coming toward the end of his time at his boyhood club.
The England international is reportedly close to joining Real Madrid when his contract expires at the end of the season.
Unlike Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who have signed new deals in recent weeks to prolong their stay at Anfield, Alexander-Arnold has just weeks to run on his current deal.
“I’ve said all season, I’m not going to speak on my situation,” Alexander-Arnold told Sky Sports.
“But these days like today are always special.
“Scoring goals, playing, winning games, being close to winning titles as well as being in title races. They’re special moments that will be with me forever and I’m glad to be a part of them.”
A Liverpool cruise seemed in store when Mohamed Salah hit both posts with a glorious chance inside the first two minutes.
But after storming clear of the chasing pack in Slot’s early months in charge to build a near unassailable lead, Liverpool have slowed in recent weeks as the finish line approaches.
“Normally we’re a bit better if we create chances that we score goals. Today, it took us a long time, and of course, a great moment for Trent,” said Slot.
Wilfred Ndidi came close to ending Leicester’s barren run with a low strike that came back off the post.
Liverpool struggled to create from open play in what remained of the first half.
Ibrahima Konate came closest to breaking the deadlock when Ndidi hooked clear his goalbound header from a corner.
Leicester did finally have the ball in the net in the second half but Patson Daka had fouled Alisson Becker before Connor Coady headed into an unguarded net.
Slot introduced Alexander-Arnold for the final 20 minutes on his return from a five-week absence due to an ankle injury.
The right-back took just five minutes to score his 23rd and potentially last goal for his boyhood club.
Salah and Diogo Jota somehow contrived to hit the woodwork rather than the net from point-blank range as Leicester struggled to clear a corner.
The loose ball broke to Alexander-Arnold, whose shot went straight through the grasp of Mads Hermansen.
Leicester still had a chance to snatch an unlikely point.
But Facundo Buonanotte’s wasteful finish with just Alisson to beat summed up their season to forget.
Champions of England just nine years ago, the Foxes have found life back in the top-flight far too much of a step up in class after romping to the Championship title last season.
“I think you see among the promoted sides it’s such a mountain to climb to stay in the Premier League,” said Van Nistelrooy, who has won just two of his 20 league games since taking charge in December.
Leicester join Southampton, whose relegation was confirmed with a record seven games to go, in an immediate return to the second tier.
Ipswich, who are 15 points adrift with five games to go, are set to follow as for the second consecutive season all three promoted sides will fail to avoid the drop.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of breaching Easter truce
- The 30-hour truce had been meant to start Saturday to mark the religious holiday
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of keeping up its attacks on the front line
KRAMATORSK: Russia and Ukraine on Sunday accused each other of violating an Easter truce announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 30-hour truce had been meant to start Saturday to mark the religious holiday, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of keeping up its attacks on the front line.
While Ukrainian troops told AFP that fighting had eased, Zelensky said Russian forces staged hundreds of shelling and drone assaults along the front line despite the surprise truce.
“The Ukrainian army is acting and will continue to act in an absolutely mirror image” of Russia,” he warned.
Zelensky also renewed a proposal for a 30-day truce.
Moscow said it had “repelled” assaults by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells, causing civilian casualties.
“Despite the announcement of the Easter truce, Ukrainian units at night made attempts to attack” Russia’s positions in the Donetsk region, its defense ministry added.
Russian troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire,” the defense ministry insisted.
Rescue services in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka said they had recovered the bodies of a man and a woman from the ruins of building hit the previous day by Russian shelling.
The Russian-appointed mayor of Gorlovka in occupied Donetsk, Ivan Prikhodko, said two civilians had been wounded there, without giving details.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now occupies around 20 percent of the country.
Putin’s order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get the war rivals to agree to a ceasefire.
But on Friday, Trump threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.
Ukrainian soldiers told AFP that they had noticed a lull in fighting.
A drone unit commander said that Russia’s activity had “significantly decreased both in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions,” combat zones in the south and northeast where the unit is active.
“Several assaults were recorded, but those were solitary incidents involving small groups,” the commander told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Fewer guys (soldiers) will die today.”
Russian “artillery is not working. it is quiet compared to a regular day,” Sergiy, a junior lieutenant fighting in the Sumy border region, wrote to AFP in a message.
Ukrainian troops “are on the defensive,” he added. “If the enemy doesn’t move forward, they don’t shoot.”
AFP journalists monitoring in eastern Ukraine heard fewer explosions than usual and saw no smoke on the horizon.
Putin announced a truce from 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) Saturday to midnight Sunday Moscow time (2100 GMT), saying it was motivated by “humanitarian reasons.”
Zelensky responded that Ukraine was ready to follow suit and proposed extending the truce for 30 days to “give peace a chance.”
But he said Sunday that Russia “has not yet responded to this.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had given no order to extend the truce.
In Kyiv, as Easter Sunday bells rang out, people doubted Russia’s good faith.
“They’ve already broken their promise,” said 38-year-old Olga Grachova, who works in marketing. “Unfortunately, we cannot trust Russia today.”
Natalia, a 41-year-old medic, said of Zelensky’s 30-day proposal: “Everything we offer, unfortunately, remains only our offers. Nobody responds to them.”
People in Moscow welcomed an Easter truce and hoped for more progress toward an end to the war.
“We dreamt of course that peace would come by Easter. Let it come soon,” said Svetlana, a 34-year-old housewife.
“I think that this awful thing will end at some point, but not soon,” said Irina Volkova, a 73-year-old pensioner.
“All is not going well for us in Ukraine,” she added. “People are dying, our guys are dying.”
Moscow said this weekend that it had now recovered 99.5 percent of its Kursk region, which Ukrainian troops occupied in a surprise offensive in August.
Piastri wins Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from Verstappen to take F1 lead
JEDDAH: Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday to seize the lead in the Formula One world championship from McLaren teammate Lando Norris with his third win in five races.
Red Bull’s four-times champion Max Verstappen was runner-up, 2.843 seconds behind the Australian, after starting from pole at Jeddah’s Corniche circuit but collecting a five-second penalty for a first corner clash with Piastri.
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari’s first podium of the campaign and Norris clawed his way from 10th on the grid to fourth.
Victory made Piastri, triumphant in Bahrain last weekend and China last month, the first Australian to lead the championship since his manager Mark Webber in 2010 and also the first back-to-back winner this season.
He now leads Norris, whose race was heavily compromised by a crash in qualifying, by 10 points after starting the night three behind.
Piastri has 99 points to Norris’s 89 and Verstappen’s 87. Champions McLaren stretched their lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ standings to 77 points.
“It was a pretty tough race. I’m very, very happy to have won. Made the difference at the start. Made my case into Turn One, and that was enough,” said the happy winner.
“Definitely one of the toughest races I’ve had in my career,” he added after 50 laps in 30 degree temperatures around a super-fast track.
George Russell was fifth for Mercedes with Italian teammate Kimi Antonelli sixth and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.
Williams had Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon eighth and ninth with Racing Bulls’ French rookie Isack Hadjar the final points scorer in 10th.
FIRST CORNER
There was immediate controversy at the start as Verstappen and Piastri went side-by-side into the first corner, with the Red Bull emerging ahead after cutting across the runoff.
“He needs to give that back, I was ahead,” Piastri told McLaren over the team radio. “He was never going to make that corner regardless of whether he was there or not.”
Verstappen gave his version in similar fashion to Red Bull: “He just forced me off, there was no intention of him to make that corner.”
Stewards decided the champion was at fault and handed him the penalty, with Verstappen reacting by saying sarcastically “Oh, that is lovely’.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner did not let it lie after the chequered flag either, complimenting Verstappen and adding: “That first corner we’ve all got our opinions on.”
The safety car continued a sequence of appearing at all five races in Saudi Arabia so far with an appearance at the end of the opening lap after Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly collided and crashed.
Both drivers retired, Tsunoda after getting his car back to the pits.
Saudi Arabia’s fight to protect liver health
- ‘Take care of your liver now, and it will take care of you for life,’ deputy minister for population health tells Arab News
- Saudi Ministry of Health focuses on measures to tackle liver disease
JEDDAH: The liver plays a central role in keeping our bodies healthy. It filters toxins, supports digestion, stores energy and essential nutrients, and helps the body fight infections.
The major concern with liver diseases, however, is that they are often silent killers. The progression is very gradual, and most patients experience no symptoms, leaving them unaware of their condition. This makes awareness and early detection vital.
This is a national health priority for Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health, which is focusing on preventive care.
Protecting liver health means preventing long-term complications and improving the quality of life for millions, contributing to the ministry’s targets to improve healthy life expectancy, in line with Vision 2030’s goal of creating a vibrant society.
In an exclusive interview following World Liver Day on Saturday, Dr. Abdullah Assiri, the deputy minister for population health, said that viral hepatitis — especially hepatitis B and C — has been a long-standing concern and is responsible for many cases of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and liver cancer.
He said: “In Saudi Arabia, the hepatitis C virus has caused the most cirrhosis, decompensated cirrhosis, and liver transplants.”
Hepatitis is essentially an inflammation of the liver caused by different viruses — types A, B, C, D, and E — each differing in how they spread, how severe they become, and how they are prevented.
Assiri added: “The challenge with hepatitis is that up to 95 percent of people living with the infection globally are unaware they have it, because the illness can remain silent for years.
“In terms of early warning signs, these can be quite vague, including fatigue, abdominal discomfort, or mild jaundice, but there are often no symptoms at all until the disease is advanced.”
Assiri explained that the main reason why liver conditions go undiagnosed until the later stages is that the liver is a remarkably resilient organ.
It continues to function well, even when partially damaged. Unfortunately, by the time symptoms like swelling, jaundice, or digestive issues appear, the disease may have already progressed to cirrhosis or liver failure.
He said: “Late detection can lead to serious consequences, including irreversible scarring of the liver, liver cancer, and life-threatening complications.
“That’s why we strongly recommend that people, especially those with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, or a family history of liver disease, undergo regular check-ups and screenings.”
Lifestyle is everything when it comes to liver health. Poor diet, lack of physical activity, and smoking all put extra pressure on the liver.
Though alcohol-related liver disease is less prevalent in the Kingdom, other lifestyle factors, like unhealthy eating habits, along with viral hepatitis, play a larger role.
He said: “The good news is that the liver has an exceptional capacity to heal if given the right care. Even early-stage damage can often be reversed through lifestyle changes. I have personally witnessed patients transform their health by adopting better habits.”
As a medical professional Assiri always recommends lifestyle changes centered around four key pillars: nutrition, sleep, relaxation, and exercise. These are all vital to maintaining a healthy liver, as are hepatitis vaccinations.
At the national level the Ministry of Health is tackling liver diseases through policies that focus on prevention, early detection, infection-control practices in healthcare, and effective treatment.
Assiri said: “A major milestone in the national strategy was the introduction of direct acting antiviral medications in 2014, which marked the beginning of an ambitious nationwide effort to eliminate hepatitis C.
“Data shows that a comprehensive program combining targeted screening, aggressive treatment of around 8,000 patients per year, and strengthened prevention strategies could see this disease eliminated in Saudi Arabia by 2030 — or even earlier.
“Eliminating hepatitis C would save an estimated 3,000 Saudi lives and SR10 billion ($2.6 billion) in healthcare costs.
“Importantly, this elimination program also enables broader screening initiatives for other ‘silent killer’ diseases such as hepatitis B, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia — allowing us to implement early preventive health interventions on a national scale.”
He added: “Our progress has been substantial. We met our 80 percent treatment coverage targets in 2023, are on track to reduce mortality by 65 percent by 2025, aim to diagnose 90 percent of cases by 2026, and are working to reduce new hepatitis C infections by 80 percent by 2030.”
These metrics reflect a robust public health response, and demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s strong commitment to leading by example in regional disease control efforts.
In addition to this, Saudi Arabia continues to be a leader in medical innovation and research in the field. For example, the world’s first robotic left liver lobe transplant was performed here, demonstrating the Kingdom’s commitment to world-class liver care.
The ministry has several initiatives underway. One of the key programs is premarital screening, which tests couples for hepatitis B and C to reduce the risk of transmission and ensure early intervention.
Additionally, it is expanding community screening drives, especially for high-risk groups, and enhancing access to affordable treatment for hepatitis C. In collaboration with health centers, the ministry continues to promote hepatitis vaccinations for adults who may have missed earlier immunization.
Assiri said: “Take care of your liver now, and it will take care of you for life. The liver is the largest and one of the most vital organs in the human body, yet it often doesn’t get the attention it deserves because symptoms of disease can be silent.
“I urge everyone to lead a more active life: eat healthier, stay hydrated, sleep, and get regular check-ups, especially if you have risk factors like diabetes or obesity.
“Get vaccinated, and remember that small changes in your daily routine can make a big difference for your liver and your overall health.”
