DUBAI: Residents in Dubai’s Torch Tower were evacuated for the second time in as many weeks, when the fire alarms sounded in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Still shaken by the recent fire that ripped up the side of the building in the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 4, people grabbed belongings and headed for the fire escapes, fearful that the vast tower was experiencing a third blaze.
The alarm sounded at about 4.30 a.m. (local time) on this occasion, according to UAE daily The National.
Residents evacuated on Thursday had only recently been allowed to move back in, and it is only those living in lower levels.
Yazen Al-Timimi, a Canadian consultant living on the 22nd floor told the newspaper: “I heard the alarm for about a minute, it then stopped… After what happened the other week I panicked and took some clothes, money and my passport and ran downstairs.
“There were families with babies trying to get out. Everything above the 28th floor is still empty. We thought it was the same thing happening again. Everyone was in panic mode, some were barefoot.”
Fortunately on this occasion it turned out to be a false alarm, and people were allowed to return immediately to their homes.
Repair work on the building is still underway from the first blaze that struck in 2015.
And it was only recently that the building management company responsible for Torch Tower informed its residents that the final repairs had been signed off, when the second fire struck.
Now many residents are discovering that they will be out of pocket because they had not taken out insurance on their possessions and their homes and they are not covered under the building owner’s insurance or that of their individual landlords.
Residents in Dubai’s fire damaged Torch Tower evacuated for second time in 2 weeks
Residents in Dubai’s fire damaged Torch Tower evacuated for second time in 2 weeks
Israeli military: American killed in West Bank was likely shot ‘unintentionally’ by Israeli forces
The White House had earlier said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of Eygi
RAMALLAH, West Bank: The Israeli military said Tuesday that an American activist who was killed in the West Bank last week was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces who were aiming at someone else.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle, was killed Friday following a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.
The military said its inquiry “found that it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by (Israeli army) fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot.”
The White House had earlier said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of Eygi, who also held Turkish citizenship, and called on Israel to investigate what happened.
In his account to AP, Pollard said the shooting occurred about half an hour after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces had subsided.
Eygi, a volunteer with the activist group International Solidarity Movement, was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion that has been held for years and has often brought Israeli crackdowns and protester stone-throwing.
The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.
Jordan reopens West Bank crossing after deadly attack
- Jordanian national carried out his attack at the Allenby Crossing on Sunday nearly a year into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
- The shooting was the first such incident in the area since the 1990s
AMMAN: Jordan reopened a border crossing with the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, two days after a truck driver shot dead three Israeli guards in a rare attack.
The Jordanian national carried out his attack at the Allenby Crossing on Sunday nearly a year into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has also seen a spike in violence in the West Bank.
Israel’s military shot dead the attacker, saying that he had killed three Israelis working as “security guards” who were not in the army or police.
Jordan’s authorities closed the crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, after the attack.
The shooting was the first such incident in the area since the 1990s.
The crossing, in the Jordan Valley, is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Jordanian security source said Jordan had reopened the crossing to passengers, but that it would remain closed to freight traffic.
The reopening came as Jordan held a parliamentary election Tuesday, with the Israel-Hamas war weighing heavily on voters’ minds.
Analysts predicted a high abstention rate, with Islamist candidates struggling to harness public anger over the devastating war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the assailant as a “despicable terrorist” inspired by “a murderous ideology” which he said was fueled by Israel’s regional arch-foe Iran.
Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it, adding it “affirms the Arab peoples’ rejection of the occupation, its crimes, and its ambitions in Palestine and Jordan.”
Israel defense minister says Gaza truce deal a ‘strategic opportunity’
- Yoav Gallant firmly supports the first stage of a three-phase ceasefire deal announced by US President Joe Biden
- He also says Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely damaged after more than 11 months of war
TEL AVIV: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant offered his support for a hostage release agreement in the first phase of a Gaza truce deal, saying it would give Israel a “strategic opportunity” to address other security challenges.
Bringing the hostages home is “the right thing to do,” Gallant told foreign journalists.
“Achieving an agreement is also a strategic opportunity that gives us a high chance to change the security situation on all fronts,” he said.
Israel, which has been at war with Palestinian militants in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack, is also engaged in near-daily clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on its northern border with Lebanon.
Urging the international community to keep up the pressure on Hamas to reach an agreement, Gallant said he firmly supported the first stage of a three-phase ceasefire deal announced by US President Joe Biden on May 31, hoping to build on it for an eventual end to the war.
“Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages,” Gallant told journalists at a sit-down on Monday at his office. His remarks were released for publication on Tuesday.
Gallant also said Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely damaged after more than 11 months of war and that it no longer existed as a military formation in Gaza.
“Hamas as a military formation no longer exists. Hamas is engaged in guerrilla warfare and we are still fighting Hamas terrorists and pursuing Hamas leadership,” he said.
His comments came as mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt struggle to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,000 people.
The widespread destruction has produced a dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory, underscored by the recent confirmation of its first polio case in 25 years.
Yemen’s Houthis say they downed a US drone in Saada
DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthis downed a US MQ-9 drone in Saada province, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Tuesday.
Polls open in Jordan’s parliamentary elections
- Of Jordan’s 11 million people, 5.1 million are registered voters aged over 18
AMMAN: Polls opened on Tuesday in Jordan’s first parliamentary elections under a new law aimed at diluting the strong impact of tribalism and bolstering political parties, with Islamists expected to gain support due to anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The 2022 electoral law is meant to be pave the way for political parties to play a bigger role, but the election is still expected keep the 138-seat parliament in the hands of tribal and pro-government factions.
The new law for the first time directly allocates 41 seats for over 30 licensed and mostly pro-government parties. It also raised the quota for women’s representation to 18 from 15 seats and lowered the age for elected deputies to 25 from 30.
Of Jordan’s 11 million people, 5.1 million are registered voters aged over 18. There are 1,623 candidates, including 353 women, competing for seats over 18 districts
Jordan retains a voting system that favors sparsely-populated tribal and provincial regions over the densely-populated cities mostly inhabited by Jordanians of Palestinian descent, which are Islamic strongholds and highly politicized.
Officials say powerful King Abdullah’s decision to go ahead with the polls was a message that politics is continuing as normal despite the Gaza war that has cast its shadow over Jordan’s economic and political outlook.
In a country where anti-Israel sentiment runs high, the Gaza war is expected to help the electoral fortunes of the Islamists, the country’s largest opposition, who have led some of the region’s biggest rallies backing the militant Palestinian Hamas group, their ideological allies.
