ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece had not kept its promises regarding such activities in the region.
NATO members Turkey and Greece have long been at loggerheads over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources and tensions flared up last month, prompting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to hold talks with the country’s leaders to ease tensions.
“We have started drilling work again,” Erdogan told reporters after participating in Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia mosque. “We don’t feel obliged to talk with those who do not have rights in maritime jurisdiction zones.”
He said Turkey’s Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, a seismic survey vessel, had been sent to the region to carry out its duties. The ship moved into waters off Cyprus in late July and remains in that region.
Erdogan made the comments when asked about an accord signed by Egypt and Greece on Thursday designating an exclusive economic zone between the two nations in the east Mediterranean.
Diplomats in Greece said their agreement nullified an accord reached last year between Turkey and the internationally recognized government of Libya.
However, Erdogan said the Egypt-Greece accord was of no value and that Turkey would sustain its agreement with Libya “decisively.” The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said the Egypt-Greece zone falls in the area of Turkey’s continental shelf.
Turkey and Greece are also at odds over a range of issues from flights over each other’s territory in the Aegean Sea to ethnically divided Cyprus.
Erdogan: Turkey resumes energy exploration in east Mediterranean
https://arab.news/9acyw
Erdogan: Turkey resumes energy exploration in east Mediterranean
- Turkey and Greece have long been at loggerheads over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources
Israel says Hamas committed two violations of Gaza ceasefire deal
JERUSALEM: Israel said on Sunday that Hamas had violated a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect one week ago and has so far resulted in the release of seven hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners.
“During the execution of the second phase of the swap yesterday, Hamas committed two violations. Arbel Yehud, a civilian hostage who was scheduled for release on Saturday, has not been freed, and the detailed list of all hostages’ statuses has not been provided,” said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Israeli fire wounds five in south Lebanon as residents try to return, Lebanese media reports
- Israel said on Friday it intended to keep troops on the ground beyond the Sunday deadline
- Kfar Kila is one of dozens of border villages where residents are forbidden from returning
Israel said on Friday it intended to keep troops on the ground beyond the Sunday deadline stipulated in the US-brokered ceasefire that halted last year’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel did not say how long its forces would remain.
The deal stipulated that Israeli forces should withdraw from south Lebanon as Hezbollah’s weapons and fighters were removed from the area and the Lebanese army deployed, within in a 60-day period which ended on Sunday morning.
Israel has said the terms had not been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, while Lebanon’s US-backed military on Saturday accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli forces opened fire on residents of the village of Kfar Kila after they crossed a barricade put up by Israeli forces, wounding five.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Kfar Kila is one of dozens of border villages that the Israeli military has said residents are forbidden from returning to until further notice.
WHO chief urges end to attacks on Sudan health care after 70 killed in drone strike
- WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: ‘We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan’
The head of the World Health Organization called on Saturday for an end to attacks on health care workers and facilities in Sudan after a drone attack on a hospital in Sudan’s North Darfur region killed more than 70 people and wounded dozens.
“As the only functional hospital in El Fasher, the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital provides services which include gyn-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics, along with a nutrition stabilization center,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X after the Friday strike.
“We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged,” Tedros said.
The war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023 due to disputes over the integration of the two forces, has killed tens of thousands, driven millions from their homes and plunged half of the population into hunger.
The conflict has produced waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Darfur Governor Mini Minnawi said on X that an RSF drone had struck the emergency department of the hospital in the capital of North Darfur, killing patients, including women and children.
Fierce clashes have erupted in El Fasher between the RSF and the Sudanese joint forces, including the army, armed resistance groups, police, and local defense units.
Devastating toll for Gaza’s children: Over 13,000 killed and an estimated 25,000 injured, UN says
- UN says out of 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far, roughly a third or 13,319 were children
- Nearly 19,000 children were hospitalized for acute malnutrition in four months before December 2025
UNITED NATIONS: The war in Gaza has been devastating for children: More than 13,000 have been killed, an estimated 25,000 injured, and at least 25,000 hospitalized for malnutrition, according to UN agencies.
As Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, recently told the Security Council, “Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world to be a child.”
“The children of Gaza did not choose this war,” he said, “yet they have paid the ultimate price.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Thursday that of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far in Gaza, one-third – 13,319 – were children. The office said Friday the figures came from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the estimate of 25,000 children injured came from its analysis based on information collected together with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
UN deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said nearly 19,000 children had been hospitalized for acute malnutrition in the four months before December.
That figure also came from UNICEF, which said it was from data collected by UN staff in Gaza focusing on nutrition, in coordination with all pertinent UN agencies.
The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war.
Yasmine Sherif, executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, told a press conference that 650,000 school-age children haven’t been attending classes and the entire education system has to be rebuilt because of the widespread destruction in Gaza.
Diplomats from Britain, France and other countries also cited the toll on Israeli children who were killed, injured and abducted during Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 – with some still being held hostage.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon asked the Security Council whether it ever paused to consider the plight of Israeli children “mutilated, tortured and murdered” on Oct. 7, the 30 who were kidnapped and the tens of thousands who have been displaced, their homes destroyed.
“The trauma they have endured is beyond imagination,” he said.
Danon called Thursday’s council meeting on children in Gaza “an affront to common sense,” accusing Hamas of turning Gaza into “the world’s largest terror base” and using children as human shields.
“The children of Gaza could have had a future filled with opportunity,” he said. “Instead, they are trapped in a cycle of violence and despair, all because of Hamas, not because of Israel.”
Devastating toll for Gaza’s children: Over 13,000 killed and an estimated 25,000 injured, UN says
- The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war
UNITED NATIONS: The war in Gaza has been devastating for children: More than 13,000 have been killed, an estimated 25,000 injured, and at least 25,000 hospitalized for malnutrition, according to UN agencies.
As Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, recently told the Security Council, “Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world to be a child.”
“The children of Gaza did not choose this war,” he said, “yet they have paid the ultimate price.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Thursday that of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far in Gaza, one-third – 13,319 – were children. The office said Friday the figures came from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the estimate of 25,000 children injured came from its analysis based on information collected together with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
UN deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said nearly 19,000 children had been hospitalized for acute malnutrition in the four months before December.
That figure also came from UNICEF, which said it was from data collected by UN staff in Gaza focusing on nutrition, in coordination with all pertinent UN agencies.
The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war.
Yasmine Sherif, executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, told a press conference that 650,000 school-age children haven’t been attending classes and the entire education system has to be rebuilt because of the widespread destruction in Gaza.
Diplomats from Britain, France and other countries also cited the toll on Israeli children who were killed, injured and abducted during Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 – with some still being held hostage.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon asked the Security Council whether it ever paused to consider the plight of Israeli children “mutilated, tortured and murdered” on Oct. 7, the 30 who were kidnapped and the tens of thousands who have been displaced, their homes destroyed.
“The trauma they have endured is beyond imagination,” he said.
Danon called Thursday’s council meeting on children in Gaza “an affront to common sense,” accusing Hamas of turning Gaza into “the world’s largest terror base” and using children as human shields.
“The children of Gaza could have had a future filled with opportunity,” he said. “Instead, they are trapped in a cycle of violence and despair, all because of Hamas, not because of Israel.”
