PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will on Friday host the foreign ministers of four key Arab states for talks on the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, his office said.
Joined by his own top diplomat Stephane Sejourne, Macron will discuss the situation with Qatar’s Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry, Ayman Safadi of Jordan and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, the Elysee said.
![]()
Macron to host Arab foreign ministers for Gaza talks
Short Url
https://arab.news/4kea2
Macron to host Arab foreign ministers for Gaza talks
Nine ‘Indian-sponsored’ militants killed in Pakistan’s northwest — army
- Both India and Pakistan have traded accusations of supporting militancy on each other’s soil, a charge that each denies
- Pakistan has blamed India for being behind recent terror attacks in the country, including suicide bombing of school bus
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army said on Sunday it had killed nine “Indian-sponsored” militants in three separate operations in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Tensions remain high after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on May 10 following the most dramatic escalation of hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades earlier this month.
Since the military confrontation cooled off with the truce, Pakistan has blamed India for being behind several terror attacks in the country, including when three children were among at least five people killed when a suicide bomber struck an army school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province earlier this week. India denies it backs militancy in Pakistan.
In a statement released on Sunday evening, the army said it had carried out three operations in KP’s Dera Ismail, Tank and Khyber districts.
“An intelligence-based operation was conducted by the security forces in Dera Ismail Khan District … and after an intense fire exchange, four Indian sponsored khwarij [militants] were sent to hell,” the statement said.
It added that two militants were separately killed in Tank and three in Khyber.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other kharji found in the area, as the security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country,” the statement added.
Both India and Pakistan have traded accusations of supporting militancy on each other’s soil, a charge that each denies. The latest escalation, in which the two countries traded missiles and drones, was sparked when India accused Pakistan of supporting a militant assault on tourists in the Indian-administered portion of the contested region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies any involvement.
Pakistan has mostly blamed India of supporting a separatist insurgency in Balochistan, a southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan. It also accuses it of backing the Pakistani Taliban who regularly carry out attacks in the country’s northwestern and other regions.
India denies the allegations.
Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia meets with CEO of Diriyah Gate Development Authority
- The meeting focused on strengthening Saudi-Pakistani ties in the field of heritage and culture
RIYADH: Ahmad Farooq, Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, met with Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of Diriyah Gate Development Authority in Riyadh.
The meeting focused on strengthening Saudi-Pakistani ties in the field of heritage and culture, the Pakistani Embassy wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
The ambassador presented Inzerillo with a painting from his own Diriyah-themed series, created to celebrate the Kingdom’s history and heritage.
He also presented him with a made-in-Pakistan FIFA-standard football “symbolizing Pakistan’s craftsmanship and the mutual spirit of friendship.”
Saudi reserve engages pilgrims on biodiversity
- Pilgrims were welcomed at Al-Shuqaiq in the Jouf region, where more than 4,000 gifts reflecting the reserve’s history and conservation efforts were distributed
RIYADH: Hajj pilgrims arriving in the Kingdom by land were introduced to projects and initiatives of the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority.
The initiative aims to enhance biodiversity, restore vegetation and breed endangered species to create a more sustainable natural environment.
The authority also distributed educational brochures to raise awareness about environmental preservation, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Pilgrims were welcomed at Al-Shuqaiq in the Jouf region, where more than 4,000 gifts reflecting the reserve’s history and conservation efforts were distributed.
Visitors were informed about the reserve’s environmental heritage, biodiversity, and commitment to sustainable ecological stewardship, the SPA added.
The authority works to preserve biodiversity by protecting habitats and creating safe environments for wildlife and plants to thrive.
Its achievements include planting more than 2.4 million trees, scattering four tonnes of native seeds and rehabilitating 250,000 hectares of degraded land.
The reserve hosts more than 290 documented bird species — about 58 percent of those recorded in the Kingdom — and includes five internationally recognized important bird areas.
Covering 130,700 sq. kilometers, the King Salman Reserve is the largest natural terrestrial reserve in the Middle East, spanning four administrative regions: Jouf, Hail, Northern Borders, and Tabuk.
Father in intensive care after nine children killed in Israeli strike on Gaza
- Hamdi Al-Najjar, himself a doctor, was at home in Khan Younis with his 10 children when an Israeli air strike occurred, killing all but one of them
GAZA/CAIRO: The father of nine children killed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza over the weekend remains in intensive care, said a doctor on Sunday at the hospital treating him.
Hamdi Al-Najjar, himself a doctor, was at home in Khan Younis with his 10 children when an Israeli air strike occurred, killing all but one of them. He was rushed to the nearby Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza where he is being treated for his injuries.
Abdul Aziz Al-Farra, a thoracic surgeon, said Najjar had undergone two operations to stop bleeding in his abdomen and chest and that he sustained other wounds including to his head.
“May God heal him and help him,” Farra said, speaking by the bedside of an intubated and heavily bandaged Najjar.
The Israeli military has confirmed it conducted an air strike on Khan Younis on Friday but said it was targeting suspects in a structure that was close to Israeli soldiers.
The military is looking into claims that “uninvolved civilians” were killed, it said, adding that the military had evacuated civilians from the area before the operation began.
According to medical officials in Gaza, the nine children were aged between one and 12 years old. The child that survived, a boy, is in a serious but stable condition, the hospital has said.
Najjar’s wife, Alaa, also a doctor, was not at home at the time of the strike. She was treating Palestinians injured in Israel’s more than 20-month war in Gaza against Hamas in the same hospital where her husband and son are receiving care.
“She went to her house and saw her children burned, may God help her,” said Tahani Yahya Al-Najjar of her sister-in-law.
“With everything we are going through only God gives us strength.”
Tahani visited her brother in hospital on Sunday, whispering to him that she was there: “You are okay, this will pass.”
On Saturday, Ali Al-Najjar said that he rushed to his brother’s house after the strike, which had sparked a fire that threatened to collapse the home, and searched through the rubble. “We started pulling out charred bodies,” he said.
In its statement about the air strike, the Israeli military said Khan Younis was a “dangerous war zone.”
Practically all of Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians have been displaced after more than 20 months of war.
The war erupted when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 more.
The retaliatory campaign, that Israel has said is aimed at uprooting Hamas and securing the release of the hostages, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, Gazan health officials say.
Most of them are civilians, including more than 16,500 children under the age of 18, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Lando Norris wins in Monaco to slash Oscar Piastri’s F1 lead
- Win is Briton’s first since Melbourne, who cuts Australian’s lead to three points
- Mandatory second pitstop fails to change order
MONACO: Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position on Sunday and slashed McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri’s Formula One lead to three points in a race more about strategy than speed.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished runner-up in the home race he won last year, with Piastri third and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth — all four finishing in the order they started.
The afternoon featured two mandatory pitstops for the first time but hopes of more action around the harborside circuit fell short.
Drivers through the field played a waiting game, with Verstappen holding off his final stop until the penultimate lap and those behind biding their time while keeping out of trouble. Norris ultimately lapped all but four cars.
The win was the Briton’s second in eight races and first since the Australian season-opener in March, as well as McLaren’s first at Monaco since 2008.
“Monaco baby!,” he shouted over the radio as the chequered flag finally fell.
“The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead but we won in Monaco,” said Norris.
“This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.”
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was fifth with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar sixth and Haas’s Esteban Ocon seventh.
Liam Lawson scored his first points of the season for Racing Bulls in eighth place and Williams completed the top 10 with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes had a dismal afternoon in the Mediterranean sunshine, after a nightmare in qualifying, with George Russell 11th and Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli 18th and the last car still running.
The virtual safety car was deployed on the opening lap when Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto went into the tire wall at Portier, the turn before the tunnel, as Antonelli passed on the inside.
Bortoleto made it back to the pits and continued.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was the first retirement, the Frenchman crashing into the back of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull at the tunnel exit on lap nine and limping back to the pits with the front left wheel hanging off.
“Is he an idiot, what is he doing?” exclaimed Tsunoda.
Gasly, who said he had no brakes, almost took out Argentine rookie team mate Franco Colapinto as he careered through the Nouvelle Chicane.
Aston Martin’s double world champion Fernando Alonso was the second retirement, pulling off on lap 38 with a smoking car to continue his scoreless run for the season.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.