Over 70% of newspeople killed last year while on the job deaths were attributed to Israeli actions by a report released Wednesday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Israel's Defense Forces (IDF) were said to have been behind the demise of 82 Palestinian journalists in Gaza and three in Lebanon.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul Gheit spoke Wednesday during the World Governments Summit in Dubai against relocating the Palestinian population living in the Gaza Strip, as US President Donald Trump suggested earlier this month. Abul Gheit thus concurred with Jordan's King Abdullah II, who made similar remarks after talks with the Republican leader at the White House late Tuesday. Trump had suggested Jordan could be one of the destinations for the Gaza residents after the US takes it over.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres Tuesday urged the terrorist group Hamas not to drop the plan to release Israeli hostages in exchange for convicted Palestinians. The Portuguese diplomat urged both sides of the conflict to avoid hostilities and carry on with the second stage of the ceasefire. Hamas had announced it would not abide by the deal after Israel allegedly violated the truce.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that his US colleague Donald Trump's idea to take over the Gaza Strip made no sense. He also found the idea of relocating the local population to other countries hard to swallow. The Republican leader made these announcements Tuesday after meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Chilean Government of President Gabriel Boric Font announced Friday that the South American country had joined South Africa's filing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for its alleged breach of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian community.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza. He made those remarks as tension and gunfire mounted between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization and Israel. Guterres spoke of a “bellicose rhetoric” between both parties and insisted that one false move could trigger a catastrophe for the whole region and beyond.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Monday kicked off his new Middle East tour in Cairo. He is believed to be seeking a ceasefire in Gaza eight months into the conflict triggered by the terrorist group Hamas' invasion of Israel killing over a thousand people and taking some 250 others hostage, of whom about 50% have been either rescued or handed back over to their land. It is yet to be known how many of them are still alive. Blinken reportedly plans to broker their release.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira held a telephone conversation Tuesday with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov during which they reviewed the recent terrorist attack in Moscow and the UN Security Council resolution ordering an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, among other topics. The South American diplomat offered his country's help to cool down the spiraling global tensions.
Israel reported that natural gas exports from the Leviathan field to Egypt increased by 28% last year. Exports jumped from 4.9 billion cubic meters (BCM) in 2022 to 6.3 BCM in 2023.
Brazilian authorities Sunday confirmed the landing in Sao Paulo on a commercial flight of a 30-year-old woman and her children, aged 4, 2, and a baby born on Dec. 24 last year, who fled the war-torn Gaza Strip through Cairo, Agencia Brasil reported.