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Middle East takes more precautions as global fight against COVID-19 continues

Governments in the Middle East are taking more precautionary measures, including extending stay-at-home campaigns, in a bid to stop the continuoud rise of coronavirus infections. (AFP)
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Updated 30 March 2020
Arab News
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Middle East takes more precautions as global fight against COVID-19 continues

  • The UAE extends a sanitization program with a 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew
  • Oman plans to fly back 800 nationals from the US and Canada
Updated 30 March 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: Governments in the Middle East are taking more precautionary measures, including extending stay-at-home campaigns, in a bid to stop the continuoud rise of coronavirus infections.

The total number of cases globally has reached more than 650,000 as of Sunday morning, with the US reporting the highest number of local infections at approximately 124,000.

COVID-19 has killed nearly 31,000 people globally so far.

Sunday, March 29 (All times in GMT)

20:30 - Some Shiite pilgrims returning to Iraq from Syria have tested positive for coronavirus, raising concern that such pilgrim travel could be a source for a larger spread of the disease, a senior Iraqi official and health officials said on Sunday.

19:12 - Egypt's health ministry reported four new coronavirus deaths and 40 new confirmed cases.

17:25 - The number of deaths from the coronavirus in New York state increased by 237 in the past day, reaching a total of 965 since the outbreak began, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The state also reported 7,195 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past day for a total of 59,513, Cuomo told a news conference. Another 1,175 people were hospitalized in the past day, increasing the total to more than 8,500 hospitalizations in the state, including more than 2,000 in intensive care, Cuomo said.

17:19 - The UAE Ministry of Health said it recorded 102 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 570.

The ministry also said a 47 year-old woman, who suffered from chronic illnesses, died from the virus following health complications.

17:15 - Turkey’s deaths from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131 on Sunday, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,815 to 9,217, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

The minister added on Twitter that 9,982 tests had been conducted in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests carried out in Turkey to 65,446 since the outbreak began.

17:12 - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy climbed by 756 to 10,779, the Civil Protection Agency said on Sunday, the second successive fall in the daily rate.

The total number of confirmed cases in Italy rose on Sunday to 97,689 from a previous 92,472, the lowest daily rise in new cases since Wednesday.

16:50 - Sudan amended its curfew period from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time.

16:24 - The number of coronavirus related deaths in Iran rises to 5,301, Iranian websites quoting medical sources said.

15:54 - Syria’s health ministry said a woman who died after being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment was found to have been infected by coronavirus in the first officially-reported death from the disease.

15:30 - The Saudi Health Ministry announced four more deaths from coronavirus and 96 new case in Saudi Arabia, increasing the total number of cases in the Kingdom to 1,299. READ FULL STORY.

14:30 - Spain announced on Sunday a record 838 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, while Morocco announced cases in the country had hit 450.

13:30 - The number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose to 1,228, according to figures released on Sunday, an increase of 209. The previous increase saw the death toll rise by 260 people.

12:38 – Saudi Ministry of Health has reported 96 new coronavirus cases and four new deaths, increasing totals to 1299 cases and eight deaths.

10:16 – Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the coronavirus outbreak had entered a new phase as the total number of cases in the Russian capital exceeded 1,000 with many Muscovites going out despite a plea to stay home.

10:15 – Pope Francis backed a call by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire so the world can focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

10:05– Lebanon reported 26 new coronavirus cases, bringing total number to 438. 

09:37 – Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 838 cases overnight to 6,528 the health ministry said on Saturday, marking the highest daily rise in fatalities.
The total number of those infected rose to 78,797 from 72,248 on Saturday.

09:36 – Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus has climbed to 2,640 and the number of infected people has reached 38,309, a health ministry official tweeted on Sunday.

09:21 – The Philippine health ministry on Sunday reported 343 new coronavirus cases, marking the country’s largest daily increase in infections, and three additional deaths.

09:19 – Malaysia reported 150 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking the total to 2,470, the highest in Southeast Asia.
The number of deaths from the virus outbreak rose by seven to 34, the health ministry said. 

09:16 – Kuwaiti Ministry of Health has registered 20 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 255.

09:15 – Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the number of coronavirus infections increased to 106.

07:28 – Morocco’s Health Ministry has confirmed 35 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 437 and 26 deaths.

07:27 – Palestinian authorities have recorded six new coronavirus cases, increasing total to 104.

07:26 – Number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rises to 52,547 and 389 deaths.

06:50 – Oman has recorded 15 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infected patients in the country to 167, the health ministry reported on Sunday. It also confirmed the recovery of 23 cases and urged everyone to follow its instructions with regards to social distancing.

03:14 – The US has reported the first prisoner to die of COVID-19.

01:41 – Mexico’s deputy health minister said measures asking citizens to stay at home could be extended.

The total number of infections in the country has reached 848 with 16 fatalities.

01:24 – The Center for Disease Control in the US has warned residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut against non-essential travel for 14 days.

01:16 – South Korea has reported 105 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 9,583.

Saturday, March 28 (All times in GMT)

20:10  – UAE helps Germany repatriate hundreds of tourists using Ras Al-Khaimah airport.

19:44 – Libya has recorded two new cases of coronavirus, increasing toll to three.
19:13 – Egypt has reported 40 new coronavirus cases and six deaths, bringing totals to 576 and 36, UAE state news agency WAM reported.
19:10 – Jordan has detected 11 new COVID-19 cases, increasing total number to 246.
17:05 – The Omani government is to fly about 800 of its citizens back to the Sultanate after calls for them to repatriated to their country amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, national daily Times of Oman reported on Saturday, citing the Washington embassy.

15:10 – UAE’s Ministry of Health has recorded 63 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 468.

14:48 – Rent payments in Dubai have been postponed for up to six months, national daily Gulf News reported, citing Dubai Free Zones.

Topics: Coronavirus coronavirus COVID-19 Coronavirus

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Lebanon says three dead in Israel strikes on Tyre

Updated 8 sec ago
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Lebanon says three dead in Israel strikes on Tyre

Updated 8 sec ago
The strikes targeted three buildings in the city
Israel had issued no evacuation warning ahead of the strikes

BEIRUT: The Lebanese health ministry said at least three people were killed and 30 others wounded on Friday in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Tyre.
The official National News Agency said the strikes targeted three buildings in the city and caused heavy damage to neighboring apartment blocks.
It said Israel had issued no evacuation warning ahead of the strikes.
Israel has been at war with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since late September, when it broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border, even as the Gaza war continues.
Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israel in support of Hamas following its Palestinian ally’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least three people were killed and 30 others wounded on Friday in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Tyre. (X/@SawsanaMehanna)

‘Strong likelihood’ famine imminent in north Gaza, say food security experts

Updated 08 November 2024
Reuters
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‘Strong likelihood’ famine imminent in north Gaza, say food security experts

  • The warning comes just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza
Updated 08 November 2024
Reuters

LONDON: There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts warned on Friday, as Israel pursues a military offensive against Palestinian militants Hamas in the area.
“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert.
The warning comes just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid.

Topics: War on Gaza Famine Israel Hamas

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Israeli army discovers ‘Hezbollah training center’ near UNIFIL outpost as raids continue in Lebanon

Updated 08 November 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
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Israeli army discovers ‘Hezbollah training center’ near UNIFIL outpost as raids continue in Lebanon

  • Several videos showed residential houses and tourist, social and religious facilities being set with explosives and blown up remotely
  • Adraee also accused Hezbollah of “using ambulances to transport saboteurs and arms” and called on “medical personnel to avoid dealing and cooperating with Hezbollah members”
Updated 08 November 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI

BEIRUT: The Israeli army on Friday continued to destroy houses in Lebanon’s southern border villages to establish a buffer zone. The latest bombing targeted the areas of Yaroun, Aitaroun and Maroun Al-Ras in Bint Jbeil.
Several videos showed residential houses and tourist, social and religious facilities being set with explosives and blown up remotely.
In parallel with the deliberate destruction, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued “a new urgent warning to the residents of southern Lebanon,” instructing them “to refrain from returning to the south, or to their houses or olive fields,” describing the region as “a dangerous combat zone.”
Adraee also accused Hezbollah of “using ambulances to transport saboteurs and arms” and called on “medical personnel to avoid dealing and cooperating with Hezbollah members.”
The army will take the “necessary measures against any vehicle transporting armed members regardless of its type,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed that “surveillance cameras of the Oded Brigade reservists captured a Hezbollah training center just 200 meters from a UNIFIL outpost.”
The army claimed that “the forces discovered the training facility, which was used by Hezbollah for training, studying, and storing large quantities of weapons.”
It said that “the facility contained missile launchers used for firing at Israeli settlements, as well as documents and instructional books detailing Hezbollah’s operational methods, maps of Israel, explanations of the Israeli army’s equipment, and additional weapons.” The army said “the weapons were confiscated and the compound was dismantled.”
The Israeli army resumed raids on the Baalbek-Hermel area, killing and injuring people and causing further destruction.
The Ministerial Emergency Committee estimated that, as of Thursday evening, Israel had conducted 121 raids, including 56 on Nabatieh, 24 on Baalbek and 23 in the south.
The committee said the number of people killed so far in Israeli attacks on Lebanon exceed 3,100, while 14,000 people have been injured.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced, with close to 200,000 staying in shelters, it added.
Lebanese observers believe this transitional phase, from now until US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, is the most dangerous period for Lebanon.
Raids on Kfar Tebnit killed two people after a building comprising residential apartments and commercial shops was destroyed.
A raid on Zebdine in Nabatieh killed Mohammed Fayez Mokaddam and his sons, Fayez and Hadi Mokaddem, after their building was destroyed.
Zaher Ibrahim Ataya, a medic with Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee from the southern town of Tair Harfa, was killed when Israeli forces struck a newly established medical center.
The strike was part of a broader Israeli aerial campaign that targeted more than 50 towns across the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts in the past 48 hours.
The Lebanese Red Cross chief Georges Kettaneh announced that rescue teams have returned to Wata Al-Khiyam to complete the recovery of victims from an incident on Oct. 27.
Working alongside UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese Army, teams recovered four bodies and remains, with efforts continuing to ensure the mission’s completion.
Earlier the Red Cross retrieved 17 bodies from the site where civilians, who had been tending to livestock, sought shelter in a building during an Israeli incursion.
The Israeli military initially stalled permission for the Lebanese Red Cross to recover the victims, eventually granting only a four-hour window for the operation.
The Israeli air campaign extended to Lebanon’s Bekaa region, with strikes hitting Hrabta town west of Baalbek and Hosh Al-Sayyed Ali near the Syrian border north of Hermel.
Sirens sounded across northern Israel, including Haifa, Nazareth, Kiryat Shmona and surrounding areas, as well as the Ramat Trump settlement in the Golan Heights and Israeli media reported approximately 30 rockets launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel and Haifa’s suburbs.
The Israeli military confirmed detecting about 20 rockets, with some being intercepted, and reported drone incursions in northern airspace, including one near Caesarea.
The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier from Battalion 8207, Alon Brigade (228), who succumbed to wounds sustained in southern Lebanon on Oct. 26, while Israeli army radio detailed a fierce battle in the border village of Aitaroun that claimed the lives of six Israeli soldiers.
Hezbollah said on Friday it had launched “dozens of rockets reaching as far as Haifa and south of Nazareth.”
The group claimed strikes on several targets, including the Stella Maris naval base and Ramat David air base, northwest and southeast of Haifa, respectively, Kiryat Shmona settlement, and military gatherings in Misgav Am and Margaliot settlements.
In response to Israeli infiltration attempts, Hezbollah reported targeting Israeli forces south of Adaisseh with artillery fire. The group also claimed to have destroyed a military bulldozer and inflicting casualties on accompanying infantry forces trying to advance northwest of Kfarkila.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon UNIFIL Hezbollah Israel Avichay Adraee

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Buried for 14 hours after Israeli strike, Lebanese toddler makes recovery

Updated 08 November 2024
AFP
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Buried for 14 hours after Israeli strike, Lebanese toddler makes recovery

  • Two-year-old Ali Khalifeh is the only survivor of his family after Israel blew up the apartment block where they lived
  • The toddler’s parents, sister and two grandmothers all perished in the strike that killed 15
Updated 08 November 2024
AFP

SIDON, Lebanon: Rescuers did not expect to find two-year-old Ali Khalifeh alive after an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed his entire family and left him trapped under the rubble for 14 hours.
Amputated, bandaged and hooked to a respirator in a hospital bed that was way too big for him, “Ali is the sole survivor of his family,” said Hussein Khalifeh, his father’s uncle.
The toddler’s parents, sister and two grandmothers all perished in the strike on September 29, days after Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah militants.
The strike on Sarafand, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) south of the coastal city of Sidon, flattened an apartment complex and killed 15 people, many of them relatives, according to residents.
“Rescue workers had almost lost hope of finding anyone alive under the rubble,” 45-year-old Khalifeh told AFP from the hospital in Sidon where his two-year-old relative was being treated.
But then “Ali appeared among debris in the shovel of the bulldozer, after we all thought he had died,” he said.
“He emerged from the rubble, barely breathing, after 14 hours.”
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah since late September, when it broadened its war focus from fighting Hamas militants in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
An escalating Israeli air campaign, after nearly a year of low intensity cross-border fire, has killed more than 2,600 people across Lebanon since September 23, according to health ministry figures.
Signs of the violence were apparent even at the hospital in Sidon where Ali was rushed to following the strike on Sarafand.
The toddler, under a medically induced coma after doctors amputated his right hand, has since been transferred to a medical facility in the capital Beirut where he is due to undergo pre-prosthetic surgery.
“Ali was sleeping on the couch at home when the strike hit. He is still asleep today... were are waiting to complete his surgeries before waking him up,” said the relative Hussein Khalifeh.
Other family members were also fighting to stay alive after the Sarafand strike.
One of Khalifeh’s nieces, 32-year-old Zainab, was trapped under the rubble for two hours before being rescued and transferred to the nearest hospital, said the man.
It was there that she was later informed that her parents, her husband and three children, aged between three and seven, had all been killed.
The strike left her with only one, severely injured eye.
Zainab said she “did not hear the sounds of the missiles that rained down on her family’s home,” according to Khalifeh.
“She only saw darkness and heard deafening screams,” he said.
Ali Alaa El-Din, a doctor treating her, said that “the psychological scars that Zainab suffered are much greater than her physical injury.”
He has also tended Zainab’s sister Fatima, 30, who was wounded in the same strike.
Both had injuries “throughout their bodies, with fractures in the feet and damage to the lungs,” said the doctor.
Medically, he added, “Zainab and Fatima’s cases are not among the most difficult cases we have faced during the war, but they are the most severe from a psychological and human perspective.”

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Israel sidon

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UN accuses Israel of ‘deliberate’ attack on peacekeeping position in Lebanon

Updated 08 November 2024
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UN accuses Israel of ‘deliberate’ attack on peacekeeping position in Lebanon

  • UN Interim Force in Lebanon cites ‘seven other similar incidents’
  • Accuses Israel of ‘flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701’
Updated 08 November 2024
Ephrem Kossaify

NEW YORK: The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon on Friday said two Israeli excavators and a bulldozer destroyed part of a fence and a concrete structure in one of its positions in Ras Naqoura in southern Lebanon.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon added that in response to its “urgent protest,” the Israel Defense Forces denied any activity was taking place inside its position.

UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel, an area that has seen more than a year of fighting that turned into fierce clashes since last month between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters.

Israel claims that UN forces provide cover for Hezbollah, and has told UNIFIL to evacuate peacekeepers from southern Lebanon for their own safety.

But UNIFIL said the incident, which took place on Thursday, “like seven other similar incidents, is not a matter of peacekeepers getting caught in the crossfire, but of deliberate and direct actions by the IDF.”

UNIFIL issued a statement warning that “the IDF’s deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701.”

It called on the IDF and all other actors to honor “their obligation to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times.”

UNIFIL also expressed concern over the destruction and removal this week of two of the blue barrels that mark the UN-delineated line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel (the Blue Line). Peacekeepers said they directly observed the IDF removing one of them.

“Despite the unacceptable pressures being exerted on the mission through various channels, peacekeepers will continue to undertake our mandated monitoring and reporting tasks under resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said.

Topics: UNIFIL Lebanon Battlefield Lebanon Israel

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