BEIRUT | Xinhua | On Sunday, I was sitting in the autumn sun, enjoying a pleasant afternoon. The Mediterranean wind swept through the city, carrying the diesel exhaust from the thousands of generators that supplement a power grid delivering electricity only in intervals. Suddenly, the ground murmured. A low, percussive …
Read More »Will potential U.S. F-35 sale to Saudi Arabia blunt Israel’s military edge?
JERUSALEM | Xinhua | The U.S. government’s recent indication that it may approve an F-35 sale to Saudi Arabia could reshape key dynamics in the Middle East’s security landscape, with possible implications for Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region. So far, Israel remains the sole operator of F-35 jets …
Read More »Two tables, one war: Life amid ceasefire in Israel and Gaza
JERUSALEM | Xinhua | Mohamed Alazeb, a university student in Gaza who shares his life on social media, has been studying at a small wooden table in a makeshift tent since the Gaza ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, which brought relative calm to the enclave and allowed him to …
Read More »Israel identifies latest remains returned by Hamas as Tanzanian student
JERUSALEM | Xinhua | Israel said Thursday that the remains handed over by Hamas the previous night were identified as those of a Tanzanian agricultural intern who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said forensic tests confirmed the identity of Joshua …
Read More »Researchers develop drug molecule to curb cancer growth
JERUSALEM |Xinhua | Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel have developed a new type of drug molecule that could help stop certain cancer cells from growing, the university said in a statement on Thursday. The discovery, published in Advanced Sciences, focuses on a molecule called TERRA. This …
Read More »Donald Trump’s Gaza deal
Egypt peace summit showed that it is more showbiz extravaganza than the ‘dawn of a new Middle East’ COMMENT | DAVID HASTINGS DUNN | Following the Middle East summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal has been compared in the media to the Good Friday agreement which brought …
Read More »Hunger, disease have not stopped in Gaza : WHO
GENEVA | Xinhua | Despite a ceasefire in Gaza and an increase in aid, hunger and disease persist, putting children’s lives at risk as the flow of aid remains only a fraction of what is needed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. “The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s …
Read More »The art of Trump’s Israel-Hamas deal
From ‘dead cat diplomacy’ to a ‘strangle contract’ COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | When Donald Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu on October 4 to tell him that Hamas had agreed to at least some of his 20-point ceasefire plan, the Israeli prime minister’s equivocal response was he saw …
Read More »Hamas begins releasing Israeli hostages, Israel’s state media reports
JERUSALEM | Xinhua | Hamas on Monday morning began releasing the first batch of hostages who had been held in Gaza for more than two years, as part of a major prisoner swap under a newly implemented ceasefire, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported. The prisoners were handed over to the …
Read More »Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal offers fragile hope after 2-yr bloodshed in Gaza
CAIRO, EGYPT | Xinhua | Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to a Gaza ceasefire deal, offering a tentative path toward ending the two-year conflict that has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, injured almost 170,000 others, and left the enclave in ruins. The deal on the “first phase” of a U.S.-backed …
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