DUBAI: Jordan’s awqaf ministry has announced that performing Taraweeh prayers in mosques will be banned during Ramadan this year, in a bid to help fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, state news agency Petra reported on Tuesday, citing the Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Mohammed Khalailah.
“We have been praying the obligatory prayers at homes and will pray the Taraweeh also at homes to exercise caution as we, along with the entire world, are facing a dangerous pandemic," Khalailah said.
He said the decision was “painful for us all, however, we need to keep ourselves and the homeland safe, for a higher purpose and a great goal and that is self-preservation which is one of the Sharia purposes.”
Meanwhile, the state will impose a curfew in the Kingdom for 48 hours starting April 17, until after midnight on Saturday, Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said.
The full curfew excludes all medical professionals in both public and private sectors, epidemiological inspection teams, and some officials, employees, and workers in vital sectors, Adaileh added.
“We will also allow, as of next week, some production and service facilities to operate, according to strict measures for prevention and health care, with a minimum number of workers," Adaileh said.
The minister said the government will also announce the measures taken to support day workers, through the National Aid Fund, adding that the decisions include offering a cash subsidy to day workers who were affected by the curfew decision. The cash subsidy covers about 200,000 families.
Ramadan’s Taraweeh prayers banned in Jordan mosques this year amid coronavirus fears
https://arab.news/b2tkf
Ramadan’s Taraweeh prayers banned in Jordan mosques this year amid coronavirus fears
- The state will impose a curfew in the Kingdom for 48 hours starting April 17
Lebanon PM, Syrian leader in talks to restore calm at border
- Israel hints at further incursions into southern Lebanon, demolishes more villages
BEIRUT: Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa has invited Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to visit his country to boost bilateral ties.
In a phone call on Friday with Al-Sharaa, Mikati discussed relations between the two countries, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Al-Sharaa also said that Syrian authorities had taken “necessary measures” to restore calm on the border between the two countries, according to the statement.
The call between Mikati and Al-Sharaa addressed an attack on the Lebanese army by Syrian gunmen on Friday.
Calm was restored on Saturday as political negotiations intensified to prevent any escalation.
The gunmen, from the Syrian region of Sarghaya, attacked the Lebanese soldiers to try and prevent them closing an illegal border crossing in Maarboun–Baalbek. Four soldiers were injured in the clashes.
The Lebanese Army Command said the troops “repelled Syrian gunmen after they targeted a military unit with medium weapons, causing moderate injuries to four soldiers.”
The Presidency of the Council of Ministers said on Saturday that Al-Sharaa “confirmed that the concerned Syrian agencies took all necessary measures to restore calm to the border and prevent the recurrence of such incidents.”
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has held for over a month, even though its terms seem unlikely to be met by the agreed-upon deadline.
Under the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on Nov. 27, the Israeli forces that penetrated the border area to depths ranging from three to 9 km have 21 days left to withdraw completely. But Israeli forces continue to violate the agreement extensively, both by air and by land, infiltrating towns they had not entered during the ground war launched on Oct. 1.
On Saturday morning, the Israeli army carried out excavation and leveling operations near cemeteries in Markaba town.
Security reports from the area said that “Israeli army patrols moved from Odaisseh toward Taybeh, conducting intensive sweeps with machine guns, while war drones flew at low altitudes in the western sector, particularly over the Tyre district.”
For the first time since the ceasefire, drones violated airspace over the towns of Doueir, Jibchit, Harouf, Ebba, Zebdine, and Choukine in the Nabatieh district. Residents reported “dozens of drones flying overhead at low altitudes.”
Israeli forces also conducted a sweep from the Maroun Al-Ras area toward the city of Bint Jbeil, using machine guns. The force included five tanks and a bulldozer and targeted a house with a shell fired from a Merkava tank before moving on to the building.
The garrisons of two Israeli army positions in Al-Ramtha and Al-Samaqa carried out wide-ranging sweeps with heavy machine guns targeting the surrounding valleys.
Israeli forces also carried out a demolition operation between the towns of Taybeh and Rab Al-Thalathin in the Marjayoun district.
Images captured by activists and shared on social media from the border area, particularly in Mays Al-Jabal, reveal unprecedented destruction of the town, affecting residential and commercial buildings, as well as places of worship.
The Israeli military also targeted the Imam Sadr Sports Complex west of Mays Al-Jabal with artillery on Saturday.
Israeli media reported that the current Israeli approach “aims to effectively restrict Hezbollah’s capabilities, preventing the group from conducting large-scale operations or controlling strategic areas in Lebanon.”
Strategic and military affairs researcher Ali Abbas Hamieh told Arab News that “Israeli forces, during their incursion into the border area over the past 38 days, have succeeded in targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure; however, these were general structures and did not include the strategic weapons possessed by the group.”
Hamieh said Israeli operations had sometimes destroyed the entrances to Hezbollah’s tunnels, but they had not eliminated what was inside them. “Consequently, the Israelis are attempting to extend the ceasefire period further.”
Hamieh said that Hezbollah “is currently reorganizing its military position despite the other siege being imposed on Hezbollah on the economic level, aimed at undermining it militarily.”
Hamieh expressed his concern that “extending the deadline for the presence of Israeli forces in the border area for an additional three months, as rumored, could serve as a pretext for the resumption of hostilities.”
The analyst said: “It is important to note that the formula used to persuade both parties to cease fire was that if the war continued, it would be a loss for both sides, whereas if it stopped, it would be a victory for both.”
Also on Saturday, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said the government would “inform Washington that it will not withdraw from Lebanon after the current deadline expires and will convey a message to the US that it will not allow residents of Lebanese villages near the border to return to their homes.”
But Israeli media reported later that “no decision has been made yet regarding extending the Israeli army’s presence in southern Lebanon.”
Hamas armed wing releases video of Gaza hostage
- The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Albag’s family has not authorized publication of video
JERUSALEM: The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.
In the undated, three-and-a-half-minute video recording that AFP has not been able to verify, 19-year-old soldier Liri Albag called in Hebrew for the Israeli government to secure her release.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted, said Albag’s family has not authorized publication of the video.
“We appeal to the prime minister, world leaders and all decision-makers: it’s time to take decisions as if it were your own children there,” the family said in a statement.
Albag was 18 when she was captured by Palestinian militants at the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border along with six other women conscripts, five of whom remain in captivity.
Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released a number of videos of Israeli hostages in their custody during nearly 15 months of fighting in Gaza.
The militants seized 251 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
Hamas said late on Friday that indirect negotiations with Israel for a truce and hostage release deal were to resume in Qatar that same night. There has since been no update.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of effort that have failed to end the war.
Weekly demonstrations organized by the hostages forum, the latest scheduled in Tel Aviv on Saturday, have kept up the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a deal to free the hostages.
The prime minister’s critics in Israel have accused him of stalling on a deal.
The forum said the latest video was “firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized Israeli negotiators to join the latest round of truce and hostage release talks in Qatar.
Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza Strip as new ceasefire talks begin
- Surge in Israeli operations and number of Palestinians killed in recent days comes amid renewed push to reach truce
An Israeli military strike killed 12 people in a house in Gaza City early on Saturday, bringing the death toll from strikes across Gaza to 65 over the last day, Palestinian medics said, as mediators launched a new ceasefire push in Qatar.
Residents and medics said at least 14 people had been in the house of the Al-Ghoula family when the strike took place in the early hours, destroying the building.
People scoured the rubble for possible survivors trapped under the debris and medics said several children were among those killed. A few flames and trails of smoke continued to rise from burning furniture in the ruins hours after the attack.
“At about 2 a.m. we were woken up by the sound of a huge explosion,” said Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbor of the Al-Ghoula family, adding that 14 or 15 people had been staying in the house.
“Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, there is no one there who shot missiles, or is from the resistance,” Ayyan told Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
The military said in a statement on Saturday that its forces had continued their operations this week in Beit Hanoun town in the northern edge of the enclave, where the army has been operating for three months, and had destroyed a military complex that had been used by Hamas.
In Jabalia in the north, an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians, medics said. Earlier in the day, another Israeli airstrike killed three people in a car east of the central town of Deir Al-Balah, they said.
Saturday’s deaths brought the toll to 65 since Friday, health officials said.
RENEWED CEASEFIRE PUSH
A surge in Israeli operations and the number of Palestinians killed in recent days comes amid a renewed push to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war and return Israeli hostages before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Israeli mediators were dispatched to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and US President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to broker the talks, urged Hamas on Friday to agree to a deal.
Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement but it was unclear how close the two sides were.
Later on Saturday, the armed group released a video showing an Israeli female hostage — identified by Israeli media as a soldier — urging Israel to do more to secure the hostages’ release, saying her life and that of other captives was in danger because of the ongoing Israeli military action in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment by Israel’s military, which has in the past called such videos “psychological warfare” by Hamas.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants stormed border communities from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Its military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has leveled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,717 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Damascus Airport to resume international flights starting January 7
- International aid planes and foreign diplomatic delegations have already been landing in Syria
DAMASCUS: Syria said on Saturday the country’s main airport in Damascus would resume international flights starting next week after such commercial trips were halted following last month’s ouster of president Bashar Assad.
“We announce we will start receiving international flights to and from Damascus International Airport from” Tuesday, state news agency SANA said, quoting Ashhad Al-Salibi, who heads the General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport.
“We reassure Arab and international airlines that we have begun the phase of rehabilitating the Aleppo and Damascus airports with our partners’ help, so that they can welcome flights from all over the world,” he said.
International aid planes and foreign diplomatic delegations have already been landing in Syria. Domestic flights have also resumed.
On Thursday, Qatar Airways announced it will resume flights to the Syrian capital after nearly 13 years, starting with three weekly flights on Tuesday.
A Qatari official told AFP last month that Doha had offered the new Syrian authorities help in resuming operations at Damascus airport.
On December 18, the first flight since Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad on December 8 took off from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north, AFP journalists saw.
Palestinian health ministry says one dead in Israel West Bank raid
- Israeli raids refugee camp, with the military saying it had opened fire at ‘terrorists’
- Israel has occupied the West Bank since conquering it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in the occupied West Bank said one person was killed and nine injured in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp, with the Israeli military saying Saturday it had opened fire at “terrorists.”
An 18-year-old man, Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer, “was killed by bullets from the (Israeli) occupation in the Balata camp” in the territory’s north, the Palestinian health ministry said in a late-night statement, adding that nine people were injured, “four of whom are in critical condition.”
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the raid began on Friday night and triggered violent clashes.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli troops entered the camp from the Awarta checkpoint and “deployed snipers on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said that during the “counterterrorism” operation, “terrorists placed explosives in the area in order to harm (military) soldiers, hurled explosives, molotov cocktails, and rocks and shot fireworks at the forces.”
“The forces fired toward the terrorists in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified,” the statement said.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since war broke out in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Since then, at least 815 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 25 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since conquering it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
