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Middle East countries impose strict measures during Eid to prevent coronavirus spread

An aerial view shows deserted streets in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah on April 21, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic crisis. (File/AFP)
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Updated 26 May 2020
Arab News
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Middle East countries impose strict measures during Eid to prevent coronavirus spread

Updated 26 May 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: Countries in the Middle East have issued strict rules during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday with an aim to prevent further spread of coronavirus.

Saudi Arabia celebrated the first day of Eid al-Fitr in a state of 24-hour lockdown, imposed last week to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Earlier King Salman thanked people in Saudi Arabia for abiding by the curfew.

In Egypt, a video of a man wearing Al-Azhar University’s uniform being chased by police was posted by social media users on Sunday. The incident happened after the country cancelled Eid prayers in mosque grounds.

May 25, 2020, Monday (All times in GMT)

19:30 - Britain will reopen thousands of high street shops, department stores and shopping centers next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, setting out a timetable for businesses as part of moves to ease the coronavirus lockdown. READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

18:28 - Kuwait will not extend its 24-hour curfew beyond May 30, the interior minister said, adding that the cabinet will announce on Thursday the details of a partial curfew and a plan for public life to return to normal gradually.
Kuwait had imposed a full-time curfew from May 10 to May 30 to help to curb the spread of coronavirus.

18:11 - Saudi Arabia's health minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said "the early measures taken by the Kingdom helped us take control of the pandemic," adding that the lockdown will ease in phases starting from Thursday, and will be extended depending on reported cases.

17:06 - Dubai will allow free movement and business activity to restart during the day from Wednesday, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said.
Restrictions will remain in place however from between 11.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m., the Dubai Media Office said in a press release.

18:14 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Britain could reopen all non-essential retail stores on June 15 if the coronavirus remains contained.
“On June 15, we intend to allow all non-essential retail, ranging from department stores to small independent shops, to reopen,” Johnson told reporters, stressing that this “will be contingent upon progress against” the disease.

16:02 - Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 92, against 50 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases dropped to just 300 from 531 on Sunday.
The number of confirmed cases amounts to 230,158, the sixth highest global tally behind those of the US, Russia, Spain, Britain and Brazil.

15:48 - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's special adviser Dominic Cummings said he feels that the rules allowed him to exercise his judgment.

12:50 - Saudi Arabia reported nine new deaths from coronavirus, bringing the total to 399, the health ministry said.

It also reported 2,235 new cases and 2,148 cases have recovered, bringing the total to 45,668.

12:15 - War-torn Syria has reported 20 new cases of coronavirus, the largest single-day increase to date in the country, the health ministry said.

12:01 - Lebanon has reported five new coronavirus cases, raising total to 1,119.

11:59 - German government said it aims to extend social distancing rules to July 5 according to a policy draft

11:32 - Qatar has recorded 1,751 new coronavirus infected cases.

11:30 - Ethiopia has registered 73 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 601.

10:22 - Morocco has reported 62 new coronavirus cases, raising total to 7,495.

10:06 - Iran has confirmed 34 new coronavirus deaths, raising total number of fatalities to 7,451. It also registered 2023 new cases, bringing the total to 137,724.

10:05 - Kuwait has recorded 665 new coronavirus cases.

09:46 - A total of 172 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Malaysia, raising the total number of infected patients to 7,417.

09:15 - Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has lifted coronavirus state of emergency.

09:05 - Scientists in Thailand have joined the race to find a vaccine for coronavirus, after a successful first phase they are now testing their hoped cure on monkeys.

08:15 - A cafe in South Korea has taken social distancing to a whole new level witn the introduction of a robot barista.

05:38 - Legendary Egyptian actress Ragaa El-Gedawy has tested positive for coronavirus, ET Bilarabi reported.

04:48 - Thailand has recorded two new coronavirus cases and one death.

04:47 - Germany has reported 178,570 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,257 deaths according to Robert Koch Institute.

May 24, 2020, Sunday

23:00 - Yemen’s Marib has imposed an 11-hour coronavirus curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Sunday until further notice.

18:07 - Jordan launched a website to help in the implementation of the country’s third phase of repatriation for citizens wanting to return to the Kingdom, state news agency Petra reported citing the Director of the Coronavirus Crisis Cell Brig. Gen. Mazen Al-Faraya.

13:16 - The UAE recorded 781 new coronavirus cases overnight after conducting an additional 35,000 tests, bringing the country’s total number of known infections to 29,485, the health ministry said. 

 

Topics: Coronavirus

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Turkiye’s foreign minister visits Athens to help mend ties between the regional rivals

Updated 7 sec ago
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Turkiye’s foreign minister visits Athens to help mend ties between the regional rivals

Updated 7 sec ago
ATHENS, Greece: Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived Friday in Athens for meetings with his Greek counterpart as part of efforts to ease tension between the two neighbors and regional rivals.
Both NATO members, Greece and Turkiye have been at loggerheads for decades over a long series of issues, including volatile maritime boundary disputes that have twice led them to the brink of war. The two have renewed a diplomatic push for over a year to improve ties.
“Step by step, we have achieved a level of trust so that we can discuss issues with sincerity and prevent crises,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said in an interview with Turkiye’s Hurriyet newspaper published Thursday.
The meeting between the two foreign ministers follows a series of high-profile talks between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a relation-mending initiative launched in 2023.
Officials in Athens are expected to raise concerns about rising illegal migration, as Greece has seen an uptick in arrivals. And, despite deep disagreements on Israel and fighting in the Middle East, both foreign ministers are also expected to explore ways to improve regional stability.
The talks will help set the stage for a Greece-Turkiye high-level cooperation council planned for early 2025 in Ankara, Turkiye.

Turkiye’s Erdogan hopes Trump will tell Israel to “stop,” NTV reports

Updated 9 min 57 sec ago
Reuters
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Turkiye’s Erdogan hopes Trump will tell Israel to “stop,” NTV reports

Updated 9 min 57 sec ago
Reuters

ANKARA: Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan said that he hoped US President-elect Donald Trump will tell Israel to “stop” the attacks and halting arms support to Israel could be a good start, broadcaster NTV reported on Friday.
Trump’s presidency will seriously affect political and military balances in the Middle East region, Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters on his flight back to Turkiye from Budapest, where he attended a European Political Community summit. 

Topics: Erdogan Trump Turkiye

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Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead women and children, UN rights office says

Updated 15 min 55 sec ago
Reuters
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Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead women and children, UN rights office says

  • UN Human Rights Office: Systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law
  • The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman
Updated 15 min 55 sec ago
Reuters

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The UN count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago.
The 8,119 victims verified by the UN Rights Office in that seven-month period is considerably lower than the toll of over 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the full 13 months of conflict.
But the UN breakdown of the victims’ age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.
This finding indicates “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality,” the UN rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.
“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.
Israel did not immediately comment on the report’s findings.
Israel’s military, which began its offensive in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized more than 250 hostages, says it takes care to avoid harming civilians in Gaza.
It has said approximately one civilian has been killed for every fighter, a ratio it blames on Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group uses civilian facilities. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.
YOUNGEST VICTIM AGED ONE DAY
The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.
Overall, children represented 44 percent of the victims, with children aged five-nine representing the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including four.
This broadly reflects the enclave’s demographics, which the report said reflected an apparent failure to take precautions to avoid civilian losses.
It showed that in 88 percent of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli military’s use of weapons with an effect across a wide area, although it said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

Topics: War on Gaza Gaza Israel UN

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Khamenei aide warns against impulsive Iran response to Israel attack

Updated 54 min 27 sec ago
AFP
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Khamenei aide warns against impulsive Iran response to Israel attack

  • Israel is engaged in conflicts with the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon
  • Israeli warplanes struck military sites in Iran on October 26 in retaliation for a large Iranian missile attack
Updated 54 min 27 sec ago
AFP

TEHRAN: An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned against launching an “instinctive” response to Israeli air strikes on the Islamic republic last month.
Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, is engaged in conflicts with the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes struck military sites in Iran on October 26 in retaliation for a large Iranian missile attack on Israel at the start of the month.
“Israel aims to bring the conflict to Iran. We must act wisely to avoid its trap and not react instinctively,” the adviser, Ali Larijani, told state television late Thursday.
Iran said it fired 200 missiles at Israel on October 1 in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran.
After Israel hit back, it warned Iran against any counterattack, but the Islamic republic has vowed to respond.
“Our actions and reactions are strategically defined, so we must avoid instinctive or emotional responses and remain entirely rational,” Larijani added.
The former parliament speaker also praised Nasrallah for accepting a ceasefire during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war rather than making an “emotional decision.”
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a potential ceasefire between Tehran’s allies and Israel could affect Iran’s response to the Israeli strikes.

Topics: Iran Israel

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Hezbollah claims second attack on Israel naval base in 24 hours

Updated 08 November 2024
AFP
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Hezbollah claims second attack on Israel naval base in 24 hours

  • The group had on Thursday claimed another attack on the same area
  • Israel has been at war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since late September
Updated 08 November 2024
AFP

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with missiles Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group said it targeted the “Stella Maris” naval base northwest of Haifa with a missile barrage, “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy.”
The group had on Thursday claimed another attack on the same area.
In a separate statement, the group claimed that it had also targeted the Ramat David air base, southeast of Haifa, with missiles.
Israel has been at war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since late September when it broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border.
It escalated its air campaign and later sent in ground forces into the country’s south.
This came after a year of cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah, which has said it was acting in support of Hamas Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
The war has killed more than 2,600 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Hezbollah Lebanon Israel

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