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Coronavirus infections continue to rise in Middle East

A women wearing facemasks walk near the Grand Bazaar in central Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, on March 13, 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak. (File/AFP)
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Updated 15 March 2020
Arab News
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Coronavirus infections continue to rise in Middle East

  • Saudi Arabia will suspend international flights for two weeks starting Sunday
  • Egypt recorded 13 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 93
Updated 15 March 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: Governments in the Middle East and the rest of the world have taken more precautionary measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including travel restrictions, work and class suspensions and quarantines.

Saturday, March 14 (All times in GMT)

20:46 - Kuwait will close shopping malls and children's entertainment centres over coronavirus fears, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported. 

19:30 - Moroccan authorities on Saturday suspended flights to and from 21 countries including Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Senegal, among others, the state news agency reported.

19:24 - Dubai said on Saturday it was temporarily suspending operations at four major theme parks and tourist attractions until the end of March amid coronavirus concerns.
The emirate's government media office said in a statement that Motiongate Dubai, Legoland Dubai, Legoland Waterpark Dubai and Bollywood Parks Dubai would be closed to ensure the health and safety of guests and employees.

19:05 - Saudi Arabia has suspended all public social gatherings including weddings and announced the temporary closure of places designated for recreational and sports activities in and outside of shopping malls to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Kingdom. 

18:50 - French prime minister says the country is to shut down cafes, shops, restaurants and cinemas to prevent spread of coronavirus. He also said government would be keeping public transport open, but asked the public to limit its use.

Death toll in France jumps to 91 from 79.

18:25 - Saudi Arabia's central bank said on Saturday it had prepared a SR50 billion ($13 billion) package to help small and medium-sized enterprises cope with the economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
The funding from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) is aimed at granting SMEs six-month deferrals on bank payments, concessional financing and exemptions from the costs of a loan guarantee programme.

16:45 - US Vice President Mike Pence said during a White House briefing on Saturday that the UK and Ireland would be included in the US travel restrictions on Europe effective from midnight on Monday (eastern time).

16:30 - Jordan said Saturday it would halt flights, close its land borders and shut down schools, places of worship and public gatherings to stop the spread of novel coronavirus.

Prime Minister Omar Al-Razzaz told official news agency Petra that "all flights into and out of the kingdom will be suspended from Tuesday until further notice."

He said exceptions would be made for cargo flights and those carrying diplomats and staff of international organisations, providing they follow health ministry guidelines -- including a two-week quarantine.

 

 

16:00 - Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced 17 new cases on Saturday.

15:10 - Egypt announced that schools and universities country-wide would be closed for two weeks starting from Sunday March 15.

14:50 - The UAE announced three new coronavirus recoveries, meaning the total number of people who have recovered in the emirates now stands at 23.

14:45 - A reminder of today's earlier news, Saudi Arabia has suspended international flights in and out of the Kingdom from Sunday (Mar. 15) to prevent the spread of coronavirus. FULL STORY HERE.

14:30 - The UK's National Health Service confirmed on Saturday that a further 10 people have died in England from the coronavirus, meaning Britain's total death toll is 21.

14:00 - The UAE's General Authority of Civil Aviation announced on Saturday the suspension of all incoming and outgoing flights to Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Iraq from March 17 until further notice due to the virus.

Elsewhere in the emirates, the UAE's tourism body has asked all hospitality establishments to close nightclubs with immediate effect, while Abu Dhabi announced the closure of movie theaters, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, theme parks, and other tourist attractions.

13:45 - Spain's government has put the country under lockdown as part of state of emergency measures meant to combat coronavirus. 

According to a draft decree, Spaniards will be ordered to stay in their homes except to buy food or drugs, go to the hospital, go to work or in emergency situations.

13:00 - The UAE is to stop issuing visas from March 17 with the exception of diplomatic passport holders to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

12:00 - Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sports announced the suspension of all sporting activities and competitions in the Kingdom on Saturday.

A statement issued by the ministry said that private sport centres and gyms would also close as of Sunday.

10:40 – Iran said the confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country have reached 12,729 on Saturday, with 97 new deaths increasing the toll to 611.

10:30 – Kuwait has confirmed on Saturday four new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 104.

10:25 – The Tunisian transport ministry said they have taken strict measures to monitor ships due to the new virus.

It said the country was limiting its flights to and from Paris to once daily, adding they were working to evacuate 160 Tunisians stuck in the hard-hit European country.

10:20 – Oman has suspended schools for one month starting March 15.

09:55 – Abu Dhabi has closed tourist areas, entertainment cities, and the Louvre museum due to the outbreak.

09:10 – Iran will halt work on the expansion of its Abadan oil refinery until mid-April due to coronavirus.

07:30 – Two coronavirus cases recovered in Kuwait, bringing the total number of recoveries to seven.

07:20 – Morocco has suspended travel to Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal, banned gatherings of more than 50 people and cancelled sports, cultural and arts events due to coronavirus.

06:30 – New Zealand has canceled a national remembrance service to mark Sunday’s first anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks because of coronavirus fears, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

04:25 – Colombia’s president has ordered his nation’s border with Venezuela closed as a coronavirus containment measure.

Iván Duque announced late Friday that all official border crossing with the neighboring Andean nation will be shuttered beginning at 5 a.m. Saturday.

03:05 – Saudi Arabia will suspend international flights for two weeks starting Sunday to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, the interior ministry announced on Saturday.

02:40 – Two Saudi citizens have recovered from coronavirus (COVID-19) and have left the medical isolation unit in Al-Salmaniya hospital, the Saudi Embassy in Manama reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi Airlines will operate flights to Riyadh and Jeddah starting Sunday, the Saudi embassy in the Philippines said.

Friday, March 13 (All times in GMT)

18:50 - The UAE government said it will activate remote work for a segment of federal government employees, starting March 15 to March 26, and subject to renewal.

This video explaining how COVID-19 transmits person to person was produced by the World Health Organisation

18:40 – Oman’s Ministry of Health reported a new confirmed coronavirus case of a citizen linked to traveling to Iran. This brings the total number of infected cases to 20.

15:15 – In Kuwait, the Head of the Kuwait's Center for Government Communication (CGC) and its official spokesperson, Tareq Al-Mizrem, denied rumoured curfew imposed in Kuwait due to coronavirus.

13:55 – Sudan reported its first coronavirus death in the country. The patient was a 50-year-old man living in Khartoum.

09:00 – Morocco’s health ministry reported a new coronavirus case, bringing the total number of infected cases to eight.

09:00 – Egypt recorded 13 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 93.

Topics: Coronavirus Middle East coronavirus Coronavirus

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Israel fights a seemingly endless war in Gaza’s most devastated region

Updated 01 November 2024
AP
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Israel fights a seemingly endless war in Gaza’s most devastated region

  • Since its Oct. 7 attack into Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, Hamas has taken heavy losses
  • esidents say Israeli forces raid shelters for the displaced, forcing people out at gunpoint
Updated 01 November 2024
AP

JERUSALEM: More than a year into a war that has ricocheted across the Middle East, Israeli troops are still battling Hamas in the most heavily destroyed and isolated part of the Gaza Strip.
In northern Gaza, Hamas militants carry out hit-and-run attacks from bombed-out buildings. Residents say Israeli forces have raided shelters for the displaced, forcing people out at gunpoint. First responders say they can barely operate because of the Israeli bombardment.
Since its Oct. 7 attack into Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, Hamas has taken heavy losses. The recent killing of its top leader, Yahya Sinwar, was viewed as a possible turning point, yet the two sides do not appear any closer to a ceasefire, and Hamas, which still holds scores of hostages, remains the dominant power in Gaza.
The conflict has drawn in militants from Lebanon to Yemen, and their key sponsor, Iran, has inched closer to all-out war with Israel. But in northern Gaza, the war seems stuck in a loop of devastating Israeli offensives, followed by Hamas fighters regrouping.
Israel is once again ordering mass evacuations, severely restricting aid despite global outrage and raiding hospitals it says are used by militants.
In the northern border town of Beit Lahiya — one of the first targets of last year’s ground invasion — two Israeli strikes this week killed at least 88 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children. The military said its target was a spotter on the roof.
As the war grinds on, Israel is resorting to ever more draconian measures. There is even talk of adopting a surrender-or-starve strategy proposed by former generals.
On Monday, Israel passed legislation that could severely restrict the UN agency that is the largest aid provider in Gaza despite protests by the United States and other close allies. It accuses the agency of allowing itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the UN
Another offensive, as Hamas keeps filling the void
Israel launched its latest offensive in northern Gaza in early October, focusing on Jabaliya, a crowded, decades-old urban refugee camp where it says Hamas had regrouped.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250 that day. Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence, and the United States says Hamas is no longer capable of mounting an Oct. 7-style attack.
But Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas where they had battled before — only to face renewed attacks. At least 16 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza since the latest operation began, including a 41-year-old colonel.
Israel has yet to lay out a plan for postwar Gaza and has rejected a US push for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to return and govern with Arab support. Plainclothes Hamas security men still patrol most areas.
“It’s endless war,” said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who now leads a Palestinian studies program at Tel Aviv University.
He says Israel has only two options to break the cycle: Either completely reoccupy Gaza, which would require several thousand troops to be stationed there indefinitely. Or secure a ceasefire with Hamas that involves the release of its hostages in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails, and a full Israeli withdrawal — the kind of deal that has long eluded US and Arab mediators.
“We are in Jabaliya for the fourth time, and maybe in the next month we will find ourselves there for the fifth and the sixth.” he said.
‘Leave now’ if you care about the lives of your children
Around a million people fled the north, including Gaza City, when Israel ordered its wholesale evacuation at the start of the war. They have not been allowed to return.
Some 400,000 have remained, even as Israel has encircled the area and obliterated entire neighborhoods and critical infrastructure.
The UN says at least 60,000 people have fled to Gaza City in recent weeks from Jabaliya and the northern border towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Residents who remain describe being stuck in their homes for days at a time because of the fighting, with bodies rotting in the streets and rescue teams unable to venture out.
Amna Mustafa and her children were asleep before dawn in a crowded school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya last week when an Israeli drone hovering overhead ordered everyone to evacuate. “If you care about your life and the lives of your children, leave now,” it said.
She said men were ordered to strip down and taken away in trucks. The military says it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians, and that such procedures are used to search and detain militants who it says hide among civilians.
Women and children were ordered to walk to a nearby hospital, where Israeli soldiers searched them before allowing most to walk onward to Gaza City, several miles (kilometers) to the south. Mustafa said she spent two nights in the open before moving into a new tent camp in a soccer field.
“There is no food, no water, no blankets, no diapers and no milk for the children,” she said. “We are here waiting for God’s mercy.”
The Israeli military shared drone footage of a similar exodus, showing thousands of people walking down a plowed up road past tanks. It said Hamas had prevented them from leaving before its forces arrived, without providing evidence.
The UN human rights office warned earlier this month that Israel “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governate through death and displacement.”
Israel restricts aid despite US warnings
Israel has severely restricted aid to Gaza in October, allowing in only about a third of the humanitarian assistance that entered the previous month.
Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, said Israel has not allowed UN agencies to deliver aid to the north outside of Gaza City since the latest offensive began.
Col. Elad Goren, a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, attributed the lack of aid in the first half of the month to Jewish holiday closures and troop movements.
At a briefing last week, he said there was no need for aid deliveries in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya because there was “no population” left in either town. That was before this week’s strikes on Beit Lahiya killed scores of people.
The Biden administration has told Israel to increase the supply of aid entering Gaza, warning it of US laws that could require it to reduce its crucial military support.
Does Israel plan to empty the north?
Palestinians fear Israel is carrying out a strategy proposed by former generals in which aid to the north would be cut off, civilians would be ordered to leave and anyone remaining would be branded a militant. Rights groups say the plan would violate international law.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited the region last week for the 11th time since the start of the war, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him that Israel had not adopted the plan. The military has denied receiving such orders.
But the Israeli government has not publicly repudiated the plan, even after Blinken’s visit.
Milshtein says the fact that Israel is even considering it is “a post-traumatic phenomenon” born of desperation.
“Many people in the (Israeli military) know it’s a bad idea... But they say: ‘OK, we don’t have any other plan, so let’s try it.”

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Hamas

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Strikes hit south Beirut after Israeli evacuation orders — Lebanon news agency

Updated 01 November 2024
AFP
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Strikes hit south Beirut after Israeli evacuation orders — Lebanon news agency

  • At least 1,829 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel began an air campaign targeting Hezbollah strongholds on Sept. 23
  • Friday’s strikes come a day after Israeli PM Netanyahu met visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon
Updated 01 November 2024
AFP

BEIRUT:  At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn on Friday, Lebanon’s official news agency said, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for buildings in the area.

AFPTV footage showed explosions followed by clouds of smoke that rang out in the city’s suburbs after the Israeli army ordered several buildings in Hezbollah’s stronghold to evacuate.

“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires,” the National News Agency (NNA) said.

Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting the suburban areas of Ghobeiry and Al-Kafaat, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of the Al-Mujtaba Complex, and the old airport road, it added.

The Israeli military has repeatedly bombarded south Beirut in recent weeks, while also carrying out deadly strikes elsewhere in the capital and across Lebanon.

Friday’s strikes come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon, with the death toll mounting on both sides of the border.

At least 1,829 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel began an air campaign targeting Hezbollah strongholds on September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

Topics: Beirut Lebanon Israel Hezbollah Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu Arab News Pakistan

Dead or alive? Scores missing after paramilitary group’s attacks in Sudan’s Al-Jazira state

Updated 01 November 2024
AFP
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Dead or alive? Scores missing after paramilitary group’s attacks in Sudan’s Al-Jazira state

  • Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo's paramilitary RSF has been accused of killing people and "looting property including from markets and hospitals”
  • Amnesty International said the RSF had gone berserk in eastern Al-Jazira state after a high-ranking officer defected to the national army
Updated 01 November 2024
AFP

NEW HALFA, Sudan: Khadir Ali and his family managed to survive a harrowing paramilitary attack in war-torn Sudan. But by the time they got to safety, he realized that one person was missing.
“We escaped in total chaos — there was gunfire coming from every direction,” said the 47-year-old civil servant of the October 22 Rapid Support Forces attack on Rufaa in Al-Jazira state.
“But once we got out of the city, we noticed my nephew wasn’t with us,” he said.
Mohammed, 17, suffers from a congenital skin condition and “needs special care.”
The teenager is among scores of people reported missing as the RSF stages major attacks across eastern Al-Jazira state after a high-ranking officer from the area defected to the army.
In retaliation, the RSF has been “killing people in their homes, in markets and on the streets, and looting property including from markets and hospitals,” rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
“Six days have passed, and we know nothing about him,” Ali said, speaking in New Halfa in Kassala state.
He and his family have taken refuge there after an arduous 150-kilometer (90-mile) journey.
At least 124 people have been killed and dozens wounded in the fighting in Al-Jazira state over the past 10 days, according to the United Nations.
The death toll for the whole month is at least 200.
War has raged in Sudan since April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than half the population — 25 million people — face acute hunger.

So many persons missing
The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than 119,000 people have fled from Al-Jazira state amid the recent surge of violence.
Mohamed Al-Obaid from Al-Hajjilij village in the state told AFP his story.
“So far, we’ve counted 170 missing from our village. Entire families are unaccounted for,” he said from New Halfa, where some children arrive unaccompanied by family members.
Since February, communications networks and Internet services have been almost entirely severed in the state, making it practically impossible to check on someone’s whereabouts.
Activist Ali Bashir, who helps people get away from villages in eastern Al-Jazira, said “the communications blackouts are making the missing persons crisis even worse.”
Sudanese social media are filled with posts about missing persons, with activists sharing the pictures and names, many of them children or elderly.
Earlier this month, intense clashes between the army and the RSF spread to Al-Jazira’s Tamboul city.
Just hours after the army said it had taken control of Tamboul, witnesses reported that the paramilitaries were continuing to operate there, causing thousands of civilians to flee.
Among them was trader Osman Abdel Karim, who lost track of two of his sons during fighting on October 19.
“Two of my sons, one 15 and the other 13, were outside when the attack began that Saturday night, and we had to leave without them,” the 43-year-old said.
“Ten days have passed, and we don’t know if they’re dead or alive.”

Topics: Sudan Unrest Sudan civil war rapid support forces (RSF)

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Strikes hit south Beirut after Israeli evacuation orders: Lebanon news agency

Updated 01 November 2024
AFP
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Strikes hit south Beirut after Israeli evacuation orders: Lebanon news agency

Updated 01 November 2024
AFP

BEIRUT:  At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn on Friday, Lebanon’s official news agency said, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for buildings in the area.
AFPTV footage showed explosions followed by clouds of smoke that rang out in the city’s suburbs after the Israeli army ordered several buildings in Hezbollah’s stronghold to evacuate.
“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires,” the National News Agency (NNA) said.
Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting the suburban areas of Ghobeiry and Al-Kafaat, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of the Al-Mujtaba Complex, and the old airport road, it added.
The Israeli military has repeatedly bombarded south Beirut in recent weeks, while also carrying out deadly strikes elsewhere in the capital and across Lebanon.
Friday’s strikes come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon, with the death toll mounting on both sides of the border.
At least 1,829 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel began an air campaign targeting Hezbollah strongholds on September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Israel Hezbollah

At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry

Updated 01 November 2024
Reuters
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At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry

  • Strike on hospital torches medical supplies, officials say
  • Israel says militants were hiding in hospital
Updated 01 November 2024
Reuters

CAIRO: At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.
Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the charge.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on two houses in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least 16 Palestinians, medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the camp told Reuters. The dead included a paramedic and two local journalists, they added.
Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled Hamas’ command structure, is currently the main focus of the military’s assault in the enclave. Earlier this month it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya to flush out militants it said had regrouped.
Eid Sabbah, director of nursing at Kamal Adwan — which is in Beit Lahiya — told Reuters some staff suffered minor burns after the Israeli strike hit the third floor of the hospital.
There were no reports of any casualties at the hospital, which Israeli forces stormed and briefly occupied last week. Israel said it had captured around 100 suspected Hamas militants in that raid. Israeli tanks are still stationed nearby.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip called for all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.”
The Israeli military has said its forces are operating in the hospital area based on intelligence about the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the vicinity.
“During the operation, it was found that dozens of terrorists were hiding in the hospital, with some even posing as hospital staff,” said the military in a statement following Thursday’s strike.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”
The Gaza war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.

Topics: War on Gaza

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