DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has shortened Friday sermons at mosques to protect worshippers from severe heat, amid rising summer temperatures linked to climate change.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs, in a statement on Thursday, ordered preachers to limit Friday sermons to 10 minutes from June to October, when temperatures cool.
The sermons usually last for 20 minutes for the main weekly prayers on Fridays but can run even longer, with large crowds gathering outside mosques at midday.
The decision was aimed at ensuring “the safety of worshippers... especially during the summer months,” the statement said.
It coincides with UAE authorities’ efforts to avoid heat strokes and other complications as temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country.
From June until September, the UAE prohibits work under direct sunlight and in open-air areas between noon and 3:00 p.m. as part of a longstanding “midday break” policy widely adopted across the Gulf.
The desert region, already one of the world’s hottest, faces rising threats from high temperatures attributed to climate change.
Earlier this month, more than 1,300 people died while performing the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia during intense heat, according to Saudi authorities.
Most where unauthorized pilgrims who had to walk long distances under direct sunlight, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
“Rising temperatures in the region, combined with high humidity, create dangerous conditions,” said Karim Elgendy, as associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank.
“This presents a serious threat to human health in outdoor environments,” the climate expert told AFP.
UAE cuts Friday sermons at mosques over sizzling heat
https://arab.news/pydnf
UAE cuts Friday sermons at mosques over sizzling heat
- The desert region, already one of the world’s hottest, faces rising threats from high temperatures attributed to climate change
Israel says 18 soldiers hurt in Golan Heights
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said on Sunday 18 of its soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, when a drone struck their position in the occupied Golan Heights, which border Lebanon.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement the strike happened earlier on Sunday. It said since then, it had struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon with air strikes and artillery fire.
Fighting between the IDF and Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been escalating, after it was triggered by the Gaza war.
Propane tank explosion in western Turkiye kills 5 people, injures 63 others
- Security cameras recorded the explosion, which devastated the street and caused minor damage to surrounding buildings
- Izmir Gov. Suleyman Elban visited the injured at the hospital and announced that 40 of them had already been released
ISTANBUL: A propane tank explosion at a restaurant in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Sunday left five people dead and 63 others injured, authorities said.
Security cameras recorded the explosion, which devastated the street and caused minor damage to surrounding buildings.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on social media that dozens of rescue personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene.
Izmir Gov. Suleyman Elban visited the injured at the hospital and announced that 40 of them had already been released.
Authorities have detained one suspect who might be responsible. The man had replaced the propane tank with a new one on Saturday.
Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
- Tens of thousands of men rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to protest the order
- Israeli police said protesters threw rocks and attacked the car of an ultra-Orthodox Cabinet minister, pelting it with stones
JERUSALEM: Thousands of Jewish ultra-Orthodox men clashed with Israeli police in central Jerusalem on Sunday during a protest against a Supreme Court order for them to begin enlisting for military service.
The landmark decision last week ordering the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel wages war in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of men rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to protest the order. But after nightfall, the crowd made its way toward central Jerusalem and turned violent.
Israeli police said protesters threw rocks and attacked the car of an ultra-Orthodox Cabinet minister, pelting it with stones. Water cannons filled with skunk-scented water and police mounted on horses were used to disperse the crowd. But the demonstration was still not under control late Sunday.
Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to skip military service and instead study in religious seminaries.
The long-standing arrangement has bred resentment among the broader public, a sentiment that has grown stronger during the eight-month war against Hamas. Over 600 soldiers have been killed in fighting, and tens of thousands of reservists have been activated, upending careers, businesses and lives.
Ultra-Orthodox parties and their followers say forcing their men to serve in the army will destroy their generations-old way of life. Earlier Sunday, thousands of men crowded a square and joined in mass prayers. Many held signs criticizing the government, with one saying “not even one male” should be drafted.
The ultra-Orthodox parties are key members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition and could potentially force new elections if they decide to leave the government in protest.
Party leaders have not said whether they will leave the government. Doing so could be risky, with Netanyahu’s coalition’s popularity lagging since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.
Palestinians say Israeli drone strike kills West Bank militant
NUR SHAMS: The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday in the occupied West Bank killed a man identified by the Islamic Jihad militant group as one of its commanders.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack, which official Palestinian news agency Wafa said was carried out with a drone.
The Ramallah-based health ministry said a Palestinian man was killed and five other people were wounded “following a strike by the (Israeli) occupation” in the northern West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp.
Wafa identified the slain man as Saeed Izzat Jaber, 24.
Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad later said “the martyred leader” was one of its commanders, adding that he had previously “survived several assassination attempts.”
Jaber’s killing “will strengthen our resistance” against Israel, the group said.
According to Wafa, the Israeli military had fired three projectiles from a drone at a house in the camp near the town of Tulkarm.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews were treating two people wounded from “shrapnel following a strike on a house in the Nur Shams camp.”
The organization added that rescuers were initially unable to enter the targeted building “due to fire.”
An AFP correspondent later saw Nur Shams residents searching through the rubble, while blocks of concrete slabs lay scattered as a portion of the house was ripped off by the strike.
Even before the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, the West Bank saw a surge of violence which has since escalated to levels unseen in about two decades, with frequent military raids and attacks by Israeli settlers.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
At least 554 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces or settlers since the Gaza war began, according to Palestinian officials.
Attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank over the same period have killed at least 15 Israelis including soldiers, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Yemeni sides resume prisoner exchange discussions in Muscat
- More than 800 inmates were freed in April 2023 after negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthis
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi militia resumed prisoner exchange negotiations in the Omani capital on Sunday, raising hopes for a fresh deal that may free hundreds of war detainees.
Sponsored by UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg and the International Committee of the Red Cross, five Yemeni government delegates and the same number of Houthi delegates met in Muscat on Sunday for the first session of negotiations to reach a new prisoner exchange agreement as rights organizations urged the end of war prisoners’ suffering.
Majed Fadhail, a spokesperson for the government delegation, told Arab News that the Yemeni government seeks to achieve a deal that would lead to the release of all of the abductees held by the Houthis, including prominent politician Mohammed Qahtan.
“Our main demand is for the unconditional release of all prisoners and abductees,” Fadhail said.
Abdulkader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said upon his arrival in Muscat on Saturday that he hoped this round of talks would be fruitful and lead to a new agreement.
“May God help us to resolve this humanitarian issue,” he said in a post on X.
More than 800 inmates were freed in April 2023 after negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthis. Another successful round of discussions between the two parties resulted in the release of 1,000 detainees in October 2020.
The Yemeni government has previously said that it would boycott discussions with the Houthis unless they free Mohammed Qahtan or allow his family to contact or visit him.
On the other side, the Houthis have accused the Yemeni government of impeding the fulfillment of the agreed-upon term of a previous round of prisoner exchange discussions, which included trading visits to each other’s prisons.
At the same time, the Geneva-based SAM human rights organization and the Mothers of Abductees Association, which represents thousands of female relatives of war prisoners, issued a joint appeal to the Yemeni government and the Houthis in Muscat to reach an agreement to release all prisoners and reunite them with their families. They also appealed to international mediators to put pressure on both sides to release prisoners.
“The suffering of captives, abductees and their families ought to be prioritized. This is more than a political problem; it is a humanitarian one that impacts people’s lives and dignity,” the two rights groups said.
The war in Yemen started about a decade ago when Houthis captured the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and eventually put Yemen's former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi under house arrest.
The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen intervened militarily in Yemen in March 2015, tipping the balance of power in favor of the Yemeni government and allowing its troops to halt the Houthi advances while also seizing control of more than 70 percent of Yemeni territory.
The Houthis still dominate Yemen’s highly populated areas, including Sanaa and Ibb.
The resumption of prisoner swap talks on Sunday came as two Yemeni government forces were killed and seven others injured in a Houthi attack in the western province of Hodeidah.
A local military officer told Arab News that the Houthis assaulted the government’s Giants Brigades troops in Hodeidah’s Hays district on Sunday morning, killing two soldiers and injuring seven, in the latest round of military escalation by the Houthis across the country.
The officer talked on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media.
The Houthi attack in Hodeidah occurred less than a day after Yemen’s army said that it had killed four Houthis, including a field commander, while repelling a Houthi attack in the southern province of Taiz.
