MIDDLE EAST

Israeli soldiers shot two Palestinians in a Nakba day demonstration near Ramallah in West Bank. The Palestinians, twenty-year-old Musaab Nuwarah and seventeen-year-old Mohammed Udeh, died of their wounds in a Ramallah hospital on Thursday. The Palestinians were shot in the chest by Israeli Border Police forces during a demonstration held on Nakba, literally translating to catastrophe, remembering the day of …

The UK had changed the status of the London office of the Syrian opposition into a mission on Thursday. The National Coalition, led by Ahmed Jarba, was given a similar vote of confidence when the United Stated states gave it similar recognition 10 days ago. After a Friends of Syria group meeting in London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said that …

UK based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that 850 people have been killed in Syrian security forces facilities and prisons this year. The monitoring group said that the victims lost by executions, torture, due to poor conditions or maltreatment. Six women and 15 children were among the victims, the group added. The monitoring group, …

Lakhdar Brahimi, in a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, announced that he would resign from his position as UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, and said that he was mostly frustrated by plans of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hold elections in June. In the press conference in New York, Brahimi said he would step down …

BDS is a ” global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel” which aims to force Israel to comply with international law by using   non-violent punitive measures,like the boycott against apartheid in South Africa. It was initiated by Palestinian civil society in year 2005, and coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), which was established …

An audio tape allegedly made by Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), sharply criticized al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and rejected his call for the ISIL to leave Syria. The tape also urged him to remove Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as the leader of the al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda’s local affiliate in the country. …

Ramallah-based rights group The Palestinian Prisoners Society accused Israeli authorities of cracking down on all Palestinian lawyers, following the indictments and arrests of several attorneys, charged on passing information between the Hamas and people inside and outside Israeli prisons. The organization said that the moves against the attorneys were “dangerous” and “unprecedented”. The groups’ head Qaddura Fares said that the …

US Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly set to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his scheduled trip to London on Wednesday, a few weeks after peace talks between Palestine and Israel, brokered by the US, collapsed. According to sources, the two will talk about the resumption of the peace talks with Israel. However, John Kerry’s spokeswoman Jen …

On Friday, the last of the rebel forces evacuated the Old City in Homs, as Syrian army troops entered the city. The move is being seen as a symbolic victory for the government, with civilians slowly finding their way back to the neighborhoods in the city. The pullout sees the rebels now confined to only one district on the outskirts …

Eleven people were killed in violence as the Iraqi Armed Forces on Friday launched an operation to regain control of areas in the proximity of the militant-held city Fallujah. Anti-government forces have been in control of the city, not far from Baghdad, and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi, since January. The operation is being considered as preparation for a …