CAIRO -- Eight Muslim-majority countries strongly condemned a new Israeli law that allows the death penalty for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, a joint statement released by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar rejected the law's "de facto application against Palestinians," warning against "the increasingly discriminatory, escalating Israeli practices that entrench a system of apartheid." (Egypt-Israel-Condemnation)
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JERUSALEM -- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday threatened to kill Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem, according to a statement from his office.
Speaking at a situation assessment with Israel's army chief Eyal Zamir and other senior officers, Katz said "Qassem and his colleagues would pay a very heavy price" for the heavy firing of rockets and missiles at Israel during the traditional Passover holiday meal on Wednesday evening. (Israel-Lebanon-Killing)
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TEHRAN -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said Thursday it has targeted and destroyed Amazon's cloud computing operation center in Bahrain in its first action against U.S. and Israeli "espionage" firms in the region in retaliation for the "assassinations" of Iranians.
In a statement on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said it had issued a warning in the past concerning possible attacks on such firms given more U.S. and Israeli strikes, and that the attack in Bahrain was in response to U.S. and Israeli disregard of the warning by continuing to strike Iranians on Wednesday. (Iran-Bahrain-Amazon Cloud Computing Center)
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DAMASCUS -- Syria continues to face one of the world's largest displacement crises, with about 5.5 million people displaced, while 13.3 million people face food insecurity, including 7.2 million suffering severe shortages, senior UN officials said here Thursday.
At a press briefing, Tom Fletcher, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, and Alexander De Croo, administrator of the UN Development Programme, joined Syria's foreign affairs official Qutaiba Qadish in calling for sustained international support for Syria. (Syria-UN-Humanitarian condition) ■
