Middle East & North Africa

AQABAT JABR REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army raided a refugee camp near the Palestinian city of Jericho on Saturday, besieging houses it said were being used as hideouts for Palestinian attackers and shooting at residents who opened fire. The fighting wounded six Palestinians, two seriously, said the Palestinian Health Ministry, and jolted a generally quiet oasis town that has seen less violence than other West Bank cities.

BEIRUT (AP) — Most wealthy Gulf Arab nations followed Saudi Arabia’s lead in recent years and ostracized crisis-hit Lebanon because of the growing influence of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. The exception was Qatar.

Doha has been silently expanding its influence in Lebanon. It continued receiving Lebanese leaders and pumped tens millions of dollars into helping the country’s armed forces amid a historic economic meltdown.

04 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu issued an angry statement on Friday to US Ambassador to Ankara Jeffry Flake, demanding: "Take your dirty hands off Turkiye."

According to Haberturk newspaper, Soylu added: "Every US ambassador who arrives in Turkiye is hurrying to find out how to make a coup possible in Turkiye."

03 Feb 2023; MEMO: Islamophobia needs to be recognised as a crime, a senior Malaysian official said on Friday, calling for "firmer" response by Muslim countries towards incidents of burning of the Muslims' holy book, the Quran.

03 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Israeli Occupation authorities decided to seize 500 dunams (123.6 acres) of land from the villages of Jaba and Hizma, located north-east of Occupied Jerusalem, to expand a bypass road used by settlers.

According to a Wafa news agency correspondent, the Israeli authorities have informed the two villages of its plan to seize lands for the main north-south highway in the Occupied West Bank, which is used by Palestinians and Jewish settlers, known as Highway 60.

03 Feb 2023; MEMO: Tunisia's President has resorted to intimidating the nation's people, the head of a major labour union in the country said on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"President Kais Saied chose the path of intimidating the people and calling them, directly or indirectly, to fight," Secretary-General Noureddine Taboubi said at an emergency administrative meeting of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT).

04 Feb 2023; MEMO: Kuwaiti activists, NGOs and political factions organised, on Friday, a massive rally in solidarity with Palestinian people, Quds Press reported.

The participants expressed their support for the Palestinians and their resistance against the Israeli Occupation. They also expressed their opposition to the normalisation of ties with the Zionist state.

During the rally, the participants chanted: "Palestine is a trust and normalisation is treason … Palestine is an Arab state."

04 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Friday denied reaching an agreement with an Israeli company to manage its services and decided to take legal action against those spreading the rumour.

A statement by the authority denied the news: "In response to the information that was circulated on some anonymous personal accounts on social media regarding the canal signing a contract with a company to manage its services through a 99-year contract."

04 Feb 2023; MEMO: An Iranian government-backed hacking team allegedly stole and leaked private customer data belonging to French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, security researchers at Microsoft said on Friday, Reuters reports.

04 Feb 2023; MEMO: The US House of Representatives has removed Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday evening under the pretext of "anti-Semitism" after she criticised the Israeli occupation.