Three people, including a woman, were killed after being electrocuted in three separate incidents in Babil Governorate, in the center of the country, during heavy rains that swept the country, an Iraqi medical official announced Thursday.

The same source said that the victims, aged 16, 22, and 30, all went out on Wednesday evening during a storm that struck the country to cut off the power supply to their homes during heavy rains, fearing that fluctuations in intensity would damage their home appliances.

Babil province, like most parts of the country, was affected on Wednesday by heavy rains and storms.

The streets of the city of Hilla, the largest city in Babylon, were flooded with rainwater, and it became almost impossible for cars to move along the main street of the city, according to an AFP correspondent.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani ordered the suspension of official working hours in all state institutions due to bad weather, with the exception of the security services and some public services.

Heavy rains also affected the cities of the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

The village of Khabat was subjected to torrents that swept away some shops and caused damage to homes, while the villagers rushed with the help of an excavator to clean a road full of mud brought by torrents, according to an AFP photographer.

In addition, videos posted by Rudaw TV showed torrents sweeping a car off the roads as it flowed through the mountainous terrain.

Iraq has been suffering from drought and rainfall has decreased for three years, while farmers express their joy at the rare rains beneficial to rivers and the increase in water reserves in dams.

But in a country that suffers from poor infrastructure despite large oil revenues, exceptional rains cause flooding in cities due to poor sewage systems or power outages.

According to the United Nations, Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to certain effects of climate change. Often, activists deplore the lack of effective public policies to mitigate these unrest and the authorities' lack of seriousness in seeking solutions.

At the end of February, the authorities became aware of an alarming drop in water levels in the south of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two largest rivers that cross the country.
The government blames this phenomenon on drought but above all on the dams built upstream on the two rivers by its two great neighbours, Turkey and Iran.

A 60-year-old Israeli woman was killed today, Thursday, and 34 were injured in a bus rollover in South Korea .

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth website, 32 of the injured are Israelis who were on a tourist trip to the country.

The site indicated that 13 of the injured were described as serious, and all of them were transferred to hospitals for treatment.

And the site indicated that the Israeli embassy in South Korea is following up the circumstances of the accident that occurred.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia will host a meeting to exchange views on the return of Syria to the Arab incubator, in the midst of major regional diplomatic moves that have changed the political landscape in the region since Riyadh and Tehran agreed to resume relations last month.

The meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries is being held in Jeddah, and Egypt, Iraq and Jordan are also participating in it, to discuss the issue of Syria's return to the Arab League after its membership was suspended since 2012, about a month before the Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

An Arab diplomat in Riyadh, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday that "the purpose of the meeting is to overcome the Gulf differences over Syria as much as possible."

And Saudi Arabia received, on Wednesday, at the same time, an Iranian delegation to prepare for the reopening of Iranian diplomatic missions in the Kingdom, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Al-Miqdad, for the first time since the beginning of the conflict in his country.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, and his Syrian counterpart discussed "the necessary steps to achieve a comprehensive political settlement to the Syrian crisis that ends all its repercussions, achieves national reconciliation, and contributes to the return of Syria to its Arab surroundings and the resumption of its natural role in the Arab world."

Following the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, several Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, severed diplomatic relations with Damascus, and the League of Arab States suspended Syria's membership.

And last month, Riyadh announced that it was in talks with Damascus regarding the resumption of consular services between the two countries.

Another Arab diplomat stated that "there is a possibility" that Al-Miqdad will attend the Jeddah meeting "to present the Syrian point of view," explaining that the participating countries have not yet received the agenda for the meeting.

The senior diplomat confirmed that "Saudi Arabia is fully leading these efforts, but under the umbrella of the Gulf Cooperation Council."

He stated that "the Saudis are trying at least to ensure that Qatar does not object to Syria's return to the Arab League if the issue is put to a vote," noting that he does not expect a unified position on this issue.

Announcing Doha's participation in the meeting, Majid al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday that the change in the Qatari position on Syria "is mainly linked to the Arab consensus and to a field change that achieves the aspirations of the Syrian people."

Gulf states, most notably Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, provided financial and military support to the Syrian opposition factions, before the support gradually declined over the past years.

In February 2022, Doha hosted a symposium aimed at "improving the performance of the Syrian opposition" in the face of President Bashar al-Assad's regime's restoration in recent years of some of its diplomatic position and military control of most parts of the country.

Recently, regional efforts are being made to end Syria's isolation. In the past two months, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Oman and the UAE, the only two Arab countries that Assad has visited since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

Before the Iranian delegation visited Saudi Arabia, a Saudi delegation visited Tehran on Saturday to discuss mechanisms for reopening the Kingdom's diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic.

The foreign ministers of the two most important regional powers in the Gulf met in Beijing last week, following the sudden announcement of an agreement to resume relations between the two countries under Chinese auspices last month.

On March 10, Tehran and Riyadh announced that they had reached the agreement after a seven-year estrangement, following the attack on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran over the execution of Saudi cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Observers hope that the agreement will contribute to the calm in Yemen, where the two countries have been waging a proxy war since 2015. This may also apply to other countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, where Iran is more present than ever before.

Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi is expected to visit Riyadh after receiving an invitation from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, while the Saudis held talks with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels this week to end the war in Yemen.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in support of the internationally recognized government in the face of the Houthis, after they took control of Sana'a and large areas of the country, and a prisoner exchange process is expected to begin on Friday between the two parties, according to a Yemeni official on Wednesday.

Today, Thursday, the Tel Aviv District Court issued an order banning 4 Hamas websites.

According to the Hebrew Channel 14, this decision came at the request of the Shin Bet and the Cyber Department.

The court claimed that the decision was taken on the recommendation of those agencies, claiming that these sites incite "terrorism", especially in sensitive periods of escalation, as happened in recent days at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

A study, the results of which were published Thursday, confirmed that the accumulation of the “alpha-synuclein” protein in the brain is indeed linked to certain forms of Parkinson ’s disease, which may open the way for early diagnosis of this disease.

The study, published in the journal "The Lancet Neurology" and supervised by American neurologist Andrew Sideroff, concluded that the presence of elevated levels of this protein in the cerebrospinal fluid "helps with great accuracy (in determining) the typical forms of Parkinson's disease."

Parkinson's, along with Alzheimer's, is one of the major diseases affecting the brain. However, it is still largely unknown the cause of this malignant injury, which gradually loses the patient's ability to move.

However, several factors have been linked to this disease. In this context, it has been known for years that patients often have alpha-synuclein in the brain.

This new study, the first of its kind conducted on hundreds of patients, confirmed that monitoring the presence of this protein at high levels can largely reflect a person's Parkinson's disease.

However, the results are not equal in accuracy. Patients who carry a gene mutation known as LRRK2, which is associated with certain forms of Parkinson's disease, do not have these lumps systematically.

However, we are still a long way from having a "biological" test for Parkinson's disease, which is currently diagnosed only by its symptoms.

In particular, it will be necessary to determine if the technique works well with blood tests, which are much easier to perform than those for cerebrospinal fluid.

But this study "lays the foundations for the biological diagnosis of Parkinson's disease," according to a comment also published in "The Lancet Neurology" by neurologists Daniela Berg and Christine Klein, who were not involved in the research.

And the two doctors considered that the results of the study prove that alpha-synuclein protein "changes the equation in diagnosis, research and clinical trials for Parkinson's disease."

They also pointed out that what is particularly interesting is that the researchers also detected a high concentration of this protein in patients who had early signs of Parkinson's disease, especially a weak sense of smell, without proving this.

UN experts said, "The international community must take immediate action to halt Israeli forced evictions and displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem , as part of Israel's annexation of the city and the expulsion of Palestinians from it."

The UN experts, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Paula Gaviria Betancourt, added in a statement, that "while The world's attention focused on Israel's recklessness at Al-Aqsa, the rockets fired, and the Israeli and international deaths, and while the ten-fold Palestinian death toll was not making similar headlines, there was an unchecked ongoing tragedy: the forced eviction of Palestinians from their homes.

They said that despite the efforts of international organizations and activists, "Palestinians under Israeli occupation continue to be forced to leave their homes and dispossessed of their land and property on the basis of discriminatory laws, aimed at strengthening Jewish ownership in Jerusalem, irreparably altering its demographic composition."

They added that "Israel's transfer of its population to the occupied territories confirms a deliberate intention to colonize the territories it occupies - a practice that is strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law", repeating their previous statement that "it amounts to a visible war crime".

The statement said that it is estimated that about 150 Palestinian families in the Old City of Jerusalem and nearby neighborhoods such as Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah are at risk of forced eviction and displacement by the Israeli authorities and settler organizations.

He added that over the past decades, settlers have seized hundreds of Palestinian properties in occupied East Jerusalem, in part because of a law that purports to allow the transfer of pre-1948 Jewish property to the "original Jewish owners" or their "heirs". "But in reality it helps settler organizations to seize Palestinian property by manipulating the law."

The statement continued, "This is the legal battle in action. The law is discriminatory and based on appropriation, and there is no such right to compensation for the more than one million Palestinians and their descendants who were displaced and expelled from Jerusalem, Israel, and the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1947 to 1967. They still are." They long for justice.”

The UN experts expressed particular concern about three families in East Jerusalem: Shehadeh in Silwan, Ghaith Sub Laban in the Old City, and Salem in Sheikh Jarrah.

They said that “although these families have lived in their homes for many decades under a protected lease, they have faced eviction lawsuits filed by settler organizations seeking to seize their property for years. The Ghaith Sub Laban family has already exhausted all legal avenues to challenge the eviction order, and the authorities have notified them Israelis must vacate their home by April 25, or face forced eviction.”

They emphasized that "this is a flagrant violation of international law, which does not give the occupying power the power to change domestic legislation unless strictly required by security needs: the intentions and interests of settler colonialism are not a security need."

The UN experts stressed that “the establishment and expansion of settlements constitutes a grave violation of international law, and can be prosecuted under the Rome Statute.” and non-discrimination."

They said, "For Palestinians, the enjoyment of human rights is a distant hope because the suppression of these rights is part of the structure of the Israeli occupation."

They added that “the manner in which the occupation is allowed to act with impunity in general and without consequences, makes international law a travesty and the credibility of the regime charged with its enforcement,” stressing that “the occupation must end with all speed and until that day, Israel must fully comply with international humanitarian law and its obligations.” international human rights law”.

The UN experts noted that these issues have been raised repeatedly with the Government of Israel, without any response so far.

The Prisoners Club said that the occupation prison administration transferred the prisoner , Muhammad al-Khatib (40 years), from Tulkarem, to Soroka Hospital, this morning, Thursday, after an additional deterioration in his health condition.

The prisoner, Al-Khatib, suffers from chronic and severe back problems, which caused him great difficulty in movement, in addition to health symptoms resulting from the amount of narcotic painkillers he received over the past period, and more than a month ago, his health began to deteriorate rapidly.

And the Captive Club indicated that the transfer of the prisoner Al-Khatib came late, and after several months of claims from him, and from the competent authorities that had to go to the courts in order to transfer him for medical examinations only, in light of the emergence of new health symptoms indicating that additional health problems he began to suffer from. .

Last week, the Israeli police arrested no less than 122 workers from the occupied West Bank .

Shaher Saad , Secretary-General of the Palestinian Trade Union Federation, told the official Wafa News Agency that the Israeli police launched a campaign against Palestinian workers seeking to earn a living, and arrested a large number of them who do not have permits or whose permits have expired.

He pointed out that the information received indicates that the detainees are transferred to detention centers pending their trial, and that the Union is working to collect the names of the detainees to provide them with legal assistance.

Saad explained that Israel targets Palestinian workers and applies penalties against them, to the exclusion of other migrant workers.

He noted that the federation sent a letter to the International Labor Organization, in which it affirmed that the arrest of workers violates the Convention on Freedom of Work and Movement.

The Secretary-General of the Palestine Trade Union Confederation called on the International Labor Organization to intervene urgently to release the detained workers.

Palestinian workers who hold permits suffer at Israeli military checkpoints, where they are subjected to intense searches that take hours.

Palestinian workers, whether they hold permits or not, are looking for work in Israel due to the high wages compared to the West Bank, which forces them to sleep in difficult conditions, in order to provide for their families and their families, due to the high rate of unemployment and poverty resulting from the occupation’s policies aimed at preventing the economic development of the West Bank. .

The Political Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ambassador Dr. Ahmed Al-Deek, confirmed that the Palestinian Embassy in Greece has completed the procedures for transferring the body of a living martyr , Ayman Hassan Abu Abed, to the Gaza Strip .

Ambassador Al-Deek added: "In response to the desire of the martyr's family to bury the body in the Gaza Strip, the Embassy of the State of Palestine in Athens communicated with the Palestinian and Greek official authorities and the family of the deceased to complete the procedures for transferring the body to its final resting place in Gaza."

On the other hand, Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Palestine to Greece, Youssef Derkham , said, "Today, an official farewell to the martyr's body took place, in the presence of the embassy staff and the head of the Palestinian community in Greece."

He confirmed that the body will leave Greek territory, this evening, Thursday, on its way to the homeland, where it will arrive at Cairo Airport on Sunday evening, 4/16/2023.

Israeli sources said today, Thursday, that the roads sub-committee in the Higher Planning Council of the Israeli Civil Administration approved several plans to build settlement roads in the vicinity of Jerusalem .

The committee approved the construction of Road No. 45, which will bypass Qalandia camp and confiscate thousands of dunams.

It also approved the construction of a road linking Street No. 1, west of Jerusalem, with Street No. 60 and the southern neighborhoods of the city.

The extremist Israeli Finance Minister, Bezliel Smotrich, confirmed that the approval of the road projects comes in an effort to facilitate the movement of settlers and prevent their vehicles from being attacked.

"We have nowhere to go, no water or food," says the pregnant Yemeni woman, "Nasra," and her seven children stood by her side. She is like 100 other asylum seekers who stand every day in front of the headquarters of the International Organization for Migration in Tunisia , hoping for a solution to their crisis.

Nasra Mohamed (27 years old) lives with her husband and their seven children in a tent that they set up with the help of volunteers in front of the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Beheira region of the Tunisian capital.

Nasra's case is similar to the case of other refugees coming from about fifteen countries, most of them from sub-Saharan countries, who are asking the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to evacuate them from Tunisia "to a safe country."

On Tuesday, they were dispersed during a strong intervention by the police forces using tear gas, and some of their tents were dismantled by a team from the municipality.

Dozens of them were arrested and arrested, according to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior on Tuesday.

Recently, the conditions of asylum seekers awaiting regularization in Tunisia have deteriorated, especially following a speech described as "hate" by President Kais Saied on February 21, in which he criticized illegal immigration and the large presence of migrants from sub-Saharan countries in the country.

Saied denounced what he saw as the arrival of "hordes of immigrants" from sub-Saharan African countries as part of a plot to "change the demographic composition" of his country, which led to a campaign against immigrants residing illegally in the country.

As a result of these statements, hundreds of immigrants found themselves in front of their country's embassies, demanding their deportation.

A large number of them have been returned to their countries, particularly to Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea and Mali.

On the other hand, others continued their attempts to cross the Mediterranean in illegal immigration operations towards the European coasts, which sometimes ended in drowning accidents, and dozens of them died.

Unlike migrants, asylum seekers cannot go to their embassies and ask for help because they have fled countries facing wars, famines and humanitarian catastrophes, or they are threatened with reprisals and are supposed to benefit from UNHCR protection.

Agence France-Presse asked the Commission on Wednesday for an explanation regarding the nature of the rights enjoyed by asylum seekers , but it did not respond.

The UN organization in Tunisia confirmed on its Facebook page its "deep rejection of the violence" that took place on Tuesday in front of its headquarters.

And the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that "a small group of 200 refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants" staged a sit-in for three weeks in front of its headquarters, "interfered by force and caused material damage," which prompted them to call the police for urgent intervention.

In its statement, in which it called for "dialogue" to find "solutions", the organization affirmed its "commitment to continue providing protection and vital assistance to the displaced in Tunisia."

Nasra and her family left war-torn Yemen in 2020 and arrived in Tunisia in April 2022 after crossing many countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Niger, Algeria and then Libya.

"We ask European countries to intervene... We don't want to stay in Tunisia. We will be buried here," Nasra told AFP.

Omar Khaled Ismail, a 17-year-old Sudanese with an asylum seeker card, has worked since his arrival in November 2022 in Tunisia and was staying with his employer, but after the president's speech, he found himself on the street, fired from his job.

He says, "I have no home and no place to go to, and I came to the Commission, and they told me that they had assigned a lawyer to negotiate with the authorities and find a solution."

In contrast, Ammar (19 years old), another asylum seeker who fled the war in Central Africa at the age of nine, smiles and arrived in Tunisia in 2021 after living in a refugee camp in Chad.

Ammar also hopes that the UNHCR will find a solution for him. "We are refugees and we want to be sent to another country where we can be respected and appreciated, where we can live and go shopping without being attacked or humiliated," he says.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised, this evening, Wednesday, the killing by his forces of two activists of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus , the martyrs Saud Al-Titi and Muhammad Abu Dra’ , yesterday, east of Nablus in the West Bank.

"Yesterday, we thwarted an attack in the West Bank. We will hold accountable anyone who tries to harm our citizens. We are fighting on several fronts, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, and we will continue our work with full force and determination," Netanyahu said during his celebration of the so-called "auspicious" holiday in Hadera.

Netanyahu touched on the internal disputes, saying: "I deeply believe in the enormous strength inherent in the people of Israel.. We will overcome all differences. We were united by our strength, and we all know what happened when there were two kingdoms of Israel and Judah.. I believe in the unity of Israel and the eternity of Israel."

While he was in Hadera, about 500 Israelis who rejected the "judicial reform" plan led by the Netanyahu government demonstrated, while dozens of his supporters demonstrated, amid a large deployment of the Israeli police.

The Secretary-General of the "Islamic Jihad" movement, Ziyad al-Nakhala , arrived this evening, Wednesday, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad , in response to an official invitation.

Al-Nakhala will hold meetings with high-level Iraqi official and party leaders, personalities and events in Iraqi society.

The Secretary-General of the "Jihad" movement will discuss the latest Palestinian and Arab developments and developments, and ways to support the resistance in Palestine, especially in Jerusalem, in the face of Israeli attacks and storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Two citizens were injured, this evening, Wednesday, when settlers attacked cattle herders, east of Ain Al-Hilweh, in the northern Jordan Valley .

According to local sources, the settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, attacked the shepherds, which resulted in the injury of Muhammad Qadri Daraghmeh and Muhib Fathi Daraghmeh.

US documents , some of them top secret, that have been leaked and posted online, detail Washington's views on the war in Ukraine , and appear to indicate intelligence gathering on a number of close US allies.

And the US Department of Defense (The Pentagon) considered that the disclosure of classified documents represents a "very serious danger" to US national security, and the Ministry of Justice opened a criminal investigation.

However, the US authorities have not publicly confirmed the authenticity of these video documents that are circulating on various sites, nor have independent sources.

Below is a glimpse of the content of documents seen by AFP.

- Toll of the war in Ukraine -
One of the documents deals with the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine on March 1, 2023, a little more than a year after the start of the war. Russian losses are estimated at between 35,500 and 43,500 dead, compared to 16,000 to 17,500 on the Ukrainian side.

Moscow also lost, according to the same source, more than 150 aircraft and helicopters, compared to more than 90 aircraft for Kiev.

Another version of the document, apparently amended, to the contrary estimates that Ukrainian losses are higher than Russian losses.

This discrepancy confirms the Pentagon's fears that this leak may "feed misinformation," according to the ministry.

- Shortage of anti-aircraft missiles -
Two documents dated February 28 illustrate the alarming state of Ukraine's air defenses, which have so far played a decisive role in fending off Russian strikes and preventing Moscow from gaining control of the airspace.

They said that Kiev's ability to maintain medium-range air defenses to protect the front line "will be reduced to zero by May 23."

One of them states that approximately 90 percent of Ukraine's medium- and long-range defenses consist of Soviet-era SA-11 and SA-10 systems that may run out of ammunition in late March and early May, respectively.

- Planned drone strikes in Russia -
In an undated document, it was stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed to his top generals his regret that the Ukrainian army did not have long-range missiles that would allow targeting enemy forces directly on Russian territory, and proposed at the end of February to carry out such strikes with drones.

This information, which appears to indicate Washington eavesdropping on a close partner, could partly explain the US reluctance to provide Kiev with the long-range weapons it requests. But American hesitation predates the history of this statement.

- Israel protests -
Another undated document says that leaders of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, encouraged its officials and ordinary citizens to protest Israel's controversial judicial reform.

Here, too, it seems that the source of this information - by looking at electronic communications - refers to US espionage operations against an allied country.

- Concern about South Korean ammunition -
South Korea's National Security Council fears that the United States may transfer to Kiev certain munitions that the Pentagon ordered from Seoul, which contradicts South Korea's desire to refrain from supplying lethal equipment to Ukraine, according to a document detailing a March 1 exchange between two South Korean officials. .

The leak, which suggested Washington was spying on a close ally, sparked criticism in South Korea, where the opposition called on Wednesday for an investigation. President Yoon Suk Yul's office responded by calling the wiretapping charges "ridiculous lies."

- Watching the Black Sea -
A document dated February 27 tells of reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea carried out by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and NATO from late September to late February using manned or unmanned aircraft.

About two weeks after writing this document, Washington accused the Russian military of intercepting and damaging an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, which Moscow denied.

On Wednesday evening, about 20,000 worshipers performed the Isha and Tarawih prayers in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque .

The citizens performed their prayers despite the strict military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation on the arrival of worshipers at the mosque and at its gates.

Adviser to the Prime Minister Abd al-Ilah al-Atira sharply criticized Finance Minister Shukri Bishara on the background of his statements, which he made at noon, regarding his ministry's inability to provide employees with a salary before Eid al-Fitr, and that employees do not need it.

Al-Atira, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said, "The Minister of Finance has bypassed all administrative standards and governmental protocol norms, by violating Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh ."

Al-Atira added: "With the administrative hierarchy in any institution in the whole world, whether it is a private sector institution, a government sector, or even a political system, when an official announces a decision, it may not be violated or annulled except by the official who issued the decision or a higher level with authority and powers."

Al-Atira considered that "this is a major defect that reaches the point of defect and even shame, because it shakes the prestige of the government and the prestige of the entire state, and thus causes the loss of the local and even international community in the government and the state." like he said.

And he continued: "Not only this, but it shakes confidence and deals a death blow to the Fatah movement , as it represents the guarantee for this government, as the prime minister was appointed to the position to build the general mood of the Fatah movement, and the Revolutionary Council and the Central Committee adopted this mood."

Al-Atira continued: "It would have been more appropriate for the Minister of Finance, if he had good intentions, to go to the Prime Minister and inform him of the existence of a financial crisis, and then the Prime Minister's State would act by coming up with a clarification."

The head of the Consumer Protection Association in the northern West Bank , Dr. Fayhaa Bahsh , there is a clear increase in the prices of clothes for the holiday , by at least 20% compared to the previous year, while she pointed out that the next week will witness a rise in the prices of fruits with the approach of the holiday, as in every year.

Al-Bahsh told Al-Quds.com: "The prices of clothes vary from one store to another, but it is clear that their prices for this year are high, whether children's, women's, men's or youth's clothes, in light of the economic situation."

And Al-Bahsh continued, "The increase rate has reached at least 20%, and part of the increase was due to the exploitation of a need. It is true that there is an increase in prices and the exchange rate of the dollar, but the prices are supposed to be lower than what they are sold for now, especially when we compare the increase with neighboring countries." ".

On the other hand, Al-Bahsh confirmed that the prices of basic commodities are stable, with the exception of poultry, which is still high despite many attempts to control the markets, and that sweets are supposed to be stable, and if there is a rise, it will be simple, and the prices of fruits will rise next week, as we approach Eid.

Al-Bahsh noted that there must be pressure to publicize prices, and that housewives must search for clothing prices in more than one comparison shop and get the best price suitable for the family.

Al-Bahsh stressed that the chambers of commerce must have a role to play by putting pressure on merchants to adjust prices, and merchants must also have mercy on people in the month of mercy, and that we appreciate people's difficult conditions, in order to contribute to strengthening and strengthening the purchasing movement.

Today, Wednesday, the Prisoners Affairs Authority said, "The Israeli Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem will hold sessions tomorrow to try West Bank detainees."

It is noteworthy that they were arrested from Al-Aqsa Mosque last week.

The Libyan authorities announced the arrest of an American on charges of "Christian proselytizing" activities, according to a press release issued by the Internal Security Agency.

"We were able to arrest one of the foreigners (American nationals) who were the reason for seducing our children to leave Islam and convert to Christianity," the agency said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.

He added, "The foreigner took advantage of his presence in a foreign school teaching the English language, to carry out the call and preach Christianity."

The agency published the confessions of a Libyan explaining how a foreigner residing in Libya incited him to convert to Christianity.

At the same time, the Libyan Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of another Libyan on charges of "apostasy and promoting atheism."

The ministry said on Facebook that he was "referred to the prosecution after confessing the facts attributed to him."

On Friday, Salem Musa, a member of the High Council of State and the Political Dialogue Committee, revealed the "kidnapping" of his son Sifaw on March 26, accusing the Inspector General's office of being responsible for that.

For its part, the Internal Security Agency justified the arrest of Sifaw and others on charges of "apostasy and promoting actions against state systems," stressing its intention to prosecute all "apostates from the true religion."

He said that the arrests against them came "according to the law."

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, Libya has plunged into chaos and divisions, with two governments competing for power, one based in Tripoli (west) and recognized by the United Nations, and the other based in the east and supported by Field Marshal Haftar's camp and the House of Representatives.

Libya has been a fully Islamic country for several decades, and its official religion is Islam.

As for non-Muslims, most of whom are foreigners, most of them are Christians who enjoy the freedom to practice their religious rites in churches, especially in Tripoli.

The Ministry of Finance announced, this evening, Wednesday, the disbursement of the April salary payment, at a rate of 30%, before Eid Al-Fitr next week.

The Ministry will also disburse the social affairs payment amounting to "131" million shekels, distributed to "111" thousand families, including "81" thousand families in the Gaza Strip, and "30" thousand families in the West Bank.

The ministry had provided the full salary for the month of March last Wednesday.

The Tunisian National Guard announced today (Wednesday) the recovery of 10 bodies of illegal immigrants after their boat sank, and the rescue of 76 others off the Tunisian coast.

The official spokesman for the General Administration of the National Guard (Gendarmerie), Brigadier General Hussam Eddine Al-Jababli, said in a statement he published today on his official page on ((Facebook)) that "the floating units of the Naval Guards in the center (the maritime region of Sfax) and the north (the maritime region in Tunisia) have recovered 10 Bodies of illegal immigrants whose boat sank at sea while trying to sneak into the Italian coast.

Al-Jababli added that the naval units "were also able to thwart two operations to cross the maritime borders by stealth and rescue and rescue 76 illegal immigrants, including 4 Tunisians and the rest from sub-Saharan African countries."

The Tunisian official did not mention the date of the recovery of these bodies and the thwarting of the two attempts to cross the Tunisian sea borders by stealth, as he only indicated that the Public Prosecution Office ordered, after consulting it, to take the necessary measures regarding these illegal immigrants.

The announcement of the recovery of these bodies comes four days after a Tunisian judicial official announced that a boat sank on Friday/Saturday night off the coast of the Tunisian governorate of Sfax and the loss of about 20 African immigrants among its passengers while trying to sneak into the Italian coast.

Recently, there has been a significant increase in illegal immigration attempts from the Tunisian coast, which extends for 1,300 kilometers, towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.

This Italian island, which illegal immigrants usually choose as the first stop for their cruise, is the closest point to the Tunisian shores, only about 80 kilometers away.

Last Monday, Italian news reports said that about a thousand illegal immigrants had arrived last Sunday to the island of "Lampedusa" on boats they sailed from the Tunisian and Libyan coasts.

According to data published by the Italian Ministry of the Interior earlier, more than 28,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Italy by boat since the beginning of the year until last Monday.

Faced with this situation, the Italian authorities announced yesterday, Tuesday, the imposition of a state of emergency for a period of six months, with the aim of addressing the phenomenon of the increasing arrival of large numbers of illegal immigrants to the Italian coasts.

Saleh al-Arouri , deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, said on Wednesday evening that the resistance's response to the recent scenes of the attacks at Al-Aqsa prevented the occupation from controlling part of the mosque.

Al-Arouri added in a speech during a conference on the occasion of International Quds Day in Beirut, "The resistance stopped settler incursions in the last ten days of Ramadan, and we have the resistance that will stop the aggression and liberate Al-Aqsa."

And he continued: "The resistance was standing and present to respond to the aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque , and the last response from Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza 48 proved that the mosque has a God to protect it and a people to protect it, and the occupation chose to submit."

The leader of "Hamas" saw that the conditions are preparing and moving vigorously in favor of the axis of resistance, which has come to represent the entire Islamic nation, and those who make peace and normalize an exception and a departure from the general line. like he said.

Al-Arouri added, "The entire Islamic nation is an axis of resistance, and it is on the rise, and there is a great acceleration in events in favor of the axis of resistance."

And he continued, "Those who opened up in their relations with the occupying entity, their situation has reached rock bottom, and the entity has never experienced this state of conflict, failure, and division."

There are analyzes that need deep thinking, taking the subject from its various angles and turning it around in several aspects, linking matters that are barely insinuated and others that are completely hidden and others that are declared, going back to the past and looking at precedence and measuring them, taking subjective and objective considerations among those involved in a case, and then linking some of them some to reach convincing conclusions that are close to the truth, a process that requires extensive involvement, the ability to analyze, and a comprehensive vision.

The real problem is in analyzing what does not need to be analyzed, because it is like interpreting water after effort with water.

The position on what is happening in Al-Aqsa is clear and does not need an explanation. Despite this, we see analysts from different sects and regions preoccupied with it.

The incursions continue throughout the year, and it is a declared policy that seeks to impose a new fait accompli on the Al-Aqsa Mosque campus, and its temporal and spatial division between Muslims and Jews, meaning that Muslims have known and limited hours during which they enter the sanctuary that Jews do not enter, at least in the early stages, and for Jews Known hours during which they enter the sanctuary and during which Muslims are prevented from entering it, then the Jewish control over it expands little by little, according to local, Arab, Islamic and international circumstances and reactions.

From this point of view, they attack the seclusion in Al-Aqsa, and consider that their presence obstructs this plan, as the time set for Muslims ends with the end of the evening prayer, and whoever remains after that in the mosque is considered an “instigator and saboteur.”

In his justification for the recent storming, in which hundreds of young men were arrested after they were beaten with batons, rifle butts, and all kinds of abuse, Netanyahu said that the police entered the mosque to remove worshipers who had been detained by "extremist elements" and forced them to stay in the mosque.

These words are not directed at domestic consumption, as all Jews and Arabs know that it is a thick lie, but he directs it to America, the West and the world, as there are those who still hear, or need such nonsense to justify their positions in support of the occupation.

The current escalation is related to the situation of the current government, and Netanyahu wants it to be a calculated escalation, first an opportunity to embarrass his opponents who are demonstrating against his judicial reforms, and what they call a dictatorship, and at the same time give his allies among the religious nationalists what they are asking for. The Commander-in-Chief of the Police declares his opposition to the storming of Al-Aqsa in the past ten years, because he expects the results, which may lead to a loss of control and an expansion of the confrontations on the various fronts.

Netanyahu does not want Hezbollah and Iran behind it to reach a situation that forces them to confront and intervene, because this means contributing to raising Iran’s shares, and giving a strong impetus to the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, and this disturbs the atmosphere for the normalizers, especially those who have a relationship with Jerusalem such as the Jordanian regime, which is considered an agent of Administration of holy sites in Jerusalem according to the Wadi Araba agreements.

The escalation will push the Jordanian people to take to the streets in anger, in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the people who are subjected to abuse in its vicinity simply for performing religious rituals, and this will put Jordanian-Israeli diplomatic relations under great pressure that King Abdullah cannot ignore. This will apply to other Arab countries.

For their part, the "Hamas" and "Islamic Jihad" movements in the Gaza Strip cannot remain silent if the attacks on the mosque and worshipers escalate, and they will be forced to respond, in coordination with Hezbollah, and this will trigger a response.

Hezbollah, which declared on every occasion that Al-Aqsa is not alone, will find itself in a confrontation that it does not want, but it cannot ignore it, and it may retaliate. Who and how and with his knowledge.

The statements of the leaders of the opposition parties that Netanyahu may demolish what his predecessors built. They intend to strain relations with countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, as well as with Islamic countries, even those far away, in addition to losing the traditional sympathy of many European countries, and of course weakening the Palestinian Authority so that its role ends, and this For Netanyahu's opponents, it means returning to the square that preceded the Oslo Accords, and this means burying a stage and starting a new stage of the conflict.

We said that the obvious must be clarified, which is that the occupation is the first and last responsible for escalating or reducing the flames, and is responsible for the results in both cases. About "Arab 48"

Simply put, this is wrong and must end. Some honest and direct questions: How can we look at our Palestinian neighbors and not feel the immorality of our 55-year domination over them? How can we Jews, who have suffered more persecution than anyone else in history, not feel their pain at their suffering at our hands? How can we, who have just celebrated the festival of freedom and soon will celebrate the establishment of our state as a nation, not understand the burning desire of millions of Palestinians for freedom and independence? How can we not sympathize with their passion and willingness to fight and fight for freedom and independence against those who associate them with the occupation as we did?
Those of us who have worked for peace across lines of conflict for decades have too often centered our approaches and arguments on interests, on what would be beneficial to Israel and the Palestinians. We have calculated the economic costs of occupation and what profits can be made from peace. We avoided talking about ethics. We were told, and we said to ourselves, that we would be called "yafe nefesh" (good spirits - quasi-curse term in Hebrew). This Easter, hours before Passover, I wrote: How do we celebrate freedom while our oppression against the Palestinians continues with unrestrained brutality? Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Qibli Mosque, which the Israeli police brutally attacked and raided to empty it, because many Muslims during the month of Ramadan want to sleep in it and continue praying until dawn prayer? This is a common custom in the Islamic world, especially in Al-Aqsa. Early in the morning, the Israeli police came again and brute force pushed the Muslims who were praying on prayer rugs while walking on them in their military boots violating their seclusion with brute force. How can we as Jews look at this scene and not feel sympathy for the Muslims who are praying? Israeli forces cleared the mosque and forced the worshipers to make way for the Jews who were invited by the criminal Minister of State Security Itamar Ben Gvir to climb up the Temple Mount in groups in a show of force - who is the owner of this holy site.

I am disgusted by our brutality throughout the Occupied Territories. I am ashamed of 55 years of occupation. I have witnessed with my own eyes and heard from hundreds of my Palestinian friends and colleagues about the shameful behavior of our forces and Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians. No moral person can look at what we Israelis do to the Palestinian people and not feel moral outrage. It does not matter that the Palestinians also bear responsibility for their plight. It does not change my moral outrage that they are using violence against us. I don't buy the false myth that they learned to hate Jews with their mother's milk. Their incitement against us is a direct result of the conditions in which they are forced to live under a brutal occupation. Their struggle for freedom and liberation is no less just than our "struggle for freedom and liberation." At Easter we sing "We were slaves and now we are free." But we are not free. We are slaves to the occupation we maintain and feel we have no choice because we tell ourselves we have no partners.

The fervor of Israeli settler movements fully supported by nearly every government in Israel since 1967 has created an unequal binational reality akin to the apartheid we live in today. This is a fact and peacemaking based on partition seems less likely than ever. I do not know how to establish a Palestinian state based on the lines of June 4, 1967, even with an equal exchange of land to enable about 80% of the settlers to live under Israeli sovereignty. I am quite sure of this - there is no possible solution to this conflict based on hard separation. Whoever dreams of a unilateral retreat behind the wall forgets about it. Gaza should be an example of what happens when we do this. At the time of the 2005 Gaza disengagement, there was an opportunity to connect with Mahmoud Abbas who had just won a major victory in the Palestinian elections on the ticket of non-violence and opposition to the armed second intifada. Prime Minister Sharon rejected this possibility, because he knew that if he negotiated anything with Abbas over Gaza, the next step would be negotiating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well. So we withdrew unilaterally from Gaza, locked the gate, and threw away the key. Then Hamas declared victory because it claimed that it was through "resistance" that the Jews escaped. The Palestinian public accepted this narrative and saw Abbas's narrative of moderation and negotiations as a broken strategy that only led to more Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.

Engaging on the path of a true peace process is the only way forward to achieve security and peace for both peoples living on earth. As long as the occupation continues with settler violence and settlement building, there will be violence against Israelis. The occupation is violence and can even be called state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people. There are no easy solutions and peace may be a long way off with more innocent victims along the way, but there is no chance of getting there without serious engagement. Serious engagement begins with leaders who, instead of repeating every day that we have no one to talk to, say that our intention is to make peace and end Israel's control over the Palestinian people. Then begins the long and difficult process of communication and speaking, coupled with actions on the ground that end provocations, freeze settlement construction and also enable the Palestinian economy in Gaza to open up to the world and improve people's lives.

Scenes of continuous protests in the Israeli street for a very long time, and continuing despite the attempts of Benjamin Netanyahu's government to "change the subject" and direct Israeli public opinion to the dangers threatening from "Palestinian terrorism", "Lebanon terrorism" or "Syrian terrorism"... This situation What is new in Israel makes those interested in reading the Israeli scene attach importance to diving into it and analyzing it to find out what is really happening.

The society from which Israel is formed is originally a colonial society of immigrants. Today, the conflict is no longer a political struggle between the left and the right. Rather, it has become a multi-layered struggle, an ethnic, racial, and class struggle, which is an essential dimension related to the Zionist founding project.

It is important to know that the opposition camp in Israel today consists of Western Jews known as the Ashkenazim, who are secular, called the founding group of the state, because they are the ones who established the basic laws and policies of the state, and enshrined the separation of powers and the form and main character of the state. It remains necessary to ask the following question; Who is important in the opposite camp? The so-called New Right, which is represented by the Israeli government today, can be briefly said that it is made up of groups that historically did not contribute to the establishment of the Zionist project, and were in its margins or joined it later, after a period of the date of the establishment of Israel in 1948. They are mainly from the Oriental Jews known as The Sephardim and Mizrahis belong classally to the less fortunate and lower-income classes in Israeli society, and religiously they are considered the most puritanical and the most fundamentalist and conservative. Added to them are the Ethiopian Falasha Jews who feel persecution and discrimination.

Eastern Jews were not part of the first Zionist project to establish Israel, but they came to it later through various organized displacement campaigns from Arab and Islamic countries. At the time of its founding, Israel was made up of Ashkenazi Western Jews at a rate of more than 95 percent of the composition of the population, and therefore with the completion of the arrival of the eastern Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, the State of Israel practically became a country divided in half between the two groups, not forgetting that there is another important group, which is the “Haredi.” »It is the name given to the fundamentalist religious group, a group that was against the Zionist project and its basic project, but in the last moments before the declaration of the Israeli state in 1948, it was agreed between it and the founding Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion to grant them a form of autonomy, in exchange for their participation And their agreement to establish the state.

And the last group, which is very important and influential, is the group of settlers, and it is very important, because it is the one that leads the new right. Its importance lies in the fact that religious Zionism has historically been marginalized, weak, and small, and it was not nationally extremist, unlike the Haredim group. And this group of settlers deeply believes that the turn now has come to achieve the “salvation of the land” to fulfill the Lord’s promise of Greater Israel after the fulfillment of the “slave’s salvation” and their salvation on the Promised Land, after the concern of religious discourse was such as preserving the customs of the Sabbath and the sacred slaughter.

Deep demographic changes remain the most important source of the extreme right's strength. It is a radical shift in the "humanitarian cloth" in Israel. In short, the number of secularists is decreasing sharply, because the ultra-Orthodox Haredim have children in huge numbers, and the secular have few children, and their emigration from Israel to Western countries has become remarkable. The secular, who once made up 95 percent of Israel's population at its founding, barely make up 45 percent of the population today. This massive shift in the "character" of the Israeli state makes it lose the "absolute support" of American Jews, and reduces the historical support of the Democratic Party, to which most members of the Jewish community in the United States belong.

It may seem logical to shed light at this stage on Benjamin Netanyahu, and this would be a mistake, because he is just an opportunistic politician whose cards have been burned, and the same mistake may be made by focusing on the controversial figure, Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, because he is populist, but with a weaker ideology, and relies on agitation and passion.

It is important to focus on the figure of this stage, who is leading the counter-movement in the Israeli street, and he is Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionist Party (religious settlement extremism). He is religious, nationalist, and it is very clear that the weaker classes represent his ideological backbone, and behind him are rabbis who read, look and present to him the opinions of the Torah and the Talmud.

Israel is changing violently from within and its society is threatened by existential confrontations. In agreement with the "Middle East"

Whether from the secretions of reality depending on interests and alignments, or as a result of conflict between two or more parties, the Americans were able, after their success in the folds of the Cold War and its details and results in 1990, to impose themselves and those with them, whether they were allies or tools, by controlling them as one pole on the global political scene, taking advantage of what is available. They have gains, markets, privileges, and the imposition of the dollar currency as the most powerful global currency in circulation.

The emergence of China as a competing second economic power after the United States, Russia's recovery of part of its power, and their collision, individually or collectively, with American policies, and their rejection of American exclusivity and dominance, reinforced the emergence or gradual restoration of them as the second pole in the face of the United States and Britain, and those with them.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine strengthened the state of sorting and alignment, and almost marked the beginning of the next political scene, a return to the presence and politics of the two poles, and a gradual end to the hegemony of the American one pole.

The French President's statements following his visit to Beijing indicate the emergence of a European pole that lies between the two poles, and are almost tangible premises that express independent positions, and a desire to move away from American hegemony, without falling under Sino-Russian hegemony, i.e. not replacing the American-British pole with the Russian-Chinese pole. Rather, it is an independent policy that heralds the birth of a third pole led by France with Germany.

Germany has the capabilities to liberate itself from American hegemony as a result of World War II, which defeated Germany, or the outcome of the Cold War, which defeated Russia and its socialist camp in 1990.

Germany has a productive economic capacity that puts it in the position of the third economic country in the world after the United States and China, and it also occupies the first political position in Europe, but it does not have the military capacity that matches its economic superiority and its political position, and for this reason it allocated an amount of one hundred billion euros last year as a financial advance to build its national army And it is in the process of allocating another hundred billion this year and the next so that it will be prepared for the day of its liberation, or rather its independence and restoration of its sovereignty on 1/1/2025, with the end of the period of sanctions imposed on it since its defeat in World War II, and thus Germany will be the owner of its power: economic, political and military And then it will get rid of Washington's hegemony, and move towards its independent decisions, and remove the American bases from its lands.

Germany and France will constitute the third pole, and there is no doubt that strong countries will walk with them and towards them, and take refuge in them, in the face of the domination of a pole or the singularity of a pole, which creates a balanced outcome in the world, more than what prevails today, as what Washington did in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen And in other countries, this was done by an American decision, albeit with the desire, push, and incitement of the Israeli colony.

French President Emmanuel Macron's statements that "Europe should pursue a policy independent of the United States and China, and cease subordination to Washington" do not require clever extraction or diligence in guesswork, as he talks about the continent's "strategic independence" for Europe from the United States, and he says so. Combined with the development of the first gradual steps when it deals with steps to reduce Europe's dependence on American weapons, energy sources, the US dollar, or other steps of political, economic or military action, moving away from the issues of the collision of the two poles, and not taking sides with one against the other, as it is. The case is in Ukraine, Taiwan, or any other sharp, explosive headline.

The Arabs and Palestine will be the first to benefit and be the first to support, and had it not been for Saudi Arabia's early reading of these trends, it would not have responded to the Chinese initiative to restore Saudi-Iranian relations, and to work for the continuation of the cease-fire and the renewal of the armistice in Yemen.

The educational issue is facing a dilemma that is more serious than it can be represented by the strike, the legal demands of the teaching staff, and the lack of response or inability of the government to respond to these demands. The teacher has every right to defend his rights, and there is no dispute about that, but the strike has very negative effects and threatens an entire generation of thousands of male and female students as a result of disrupting the educational process.

What is required is that the conflict between the teachers’ demands and the government’s positions not be a battlefield, because the government’s demands and positions must be consistent and cooperative and not conflicting, overflowing with challenges such as a comprehensive strike and disrupting the entire educational process, with respect and appreciation for the teachers’ demands and their strategic role in life and future generations.

We have heard from official spokespersons that things are approaching a breakthrough, and this is not the first time, but in many cases it was just a statement that does not reflect the reality. They say we have reached a solution, and the teachers deny this and continue the strike. The problem has been prolonged and they have not found a solution to it. What is required is for both sides to fully understand the situation. That is, when they demand an increase in salaries and the government does not have enough money to do so, the situation must be evaluated positively and the strike stopped, or at least reduced, that is, the strike takes place one day a week or one daily portion that is suspended by the strike.

And if the teaching staff is required to understand the situation, even at the expense of their demands in part, then the government must make an initial response and explain its potential and capabilities to respond to the teachers' demands, and the teachers must understand that.

The comprehensive strike certainly threatens the entire academic year, and this is a catastrophe whose effects will extend for several years, in which the Tawjihi students will be affected in the first place, and an entire academic year will be lost for them.

We stand with the teachers and their demands and we see that they are right, but we see the comprehensive and continuous strike as a black catastrophe that harms an entire generation as well as the teachers who caused it.

What is required is to find a solution through mutual understanding and appropriate and patriotic assessment, and not to limit the teachers’ demands to their conditions only, and to ignore the students and their rights, and they are the ones who have no fault whatsoever.

What is required is a field and realistic understanding session that includes a number of teacher leaders, education officials, and perhaps the prime minister, and that each side understands the reality of the other side, and therefore the national interest is the ruling, which is the point of understanding and the way out of this impasse by striking.

Time has passed, statements have increased, and nothing has really changed. The stage has come at this time for a meeting between the elite teachers, the Ministry of Education and the Prime Minister, and finding a logical solution that appreciates the circumstances, capabilities, capabilities, duties, and responsibilities of each party. Thus, they can find a solution if the government understands the right of demands, and teachers understand the government's financial capabilities.

The Director-General of the United Nations Organization for Migration, Antonio Vitorino, announced on Wednesday that the first quarter of this year witnessed the largest death toll from migration across the Mediterranean recorded between January and March since 2017, explaining that 441 migrants died on these crossing trips.

Vitorino said that the period between January and March 2023 saw the highest number of victims recorded in migrant crossings across the Mediterranean since 2017.

"The ongoing humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is unbearable," he added.

He pointed to "more than twenty thousand deaths on this road since 2014," stressing, "I fear that the death of these people will become a normal matter."

The International Organization for Migration warned that "during the Easter holidays, 3,000 migrants arrived in Italy, bringing the total number of arrivals since the beginning of the year to 31,192."

The International Organization for Migration noted that delays in search and rescue operations were a critical factor in at least six incidents this year, killing at least 127 of the 441 people.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement that "the complete absence of response during the seventh rescue operation claimed the lives of at least 73 migrants" who are included in the above toll, noting that search and rescue efforts carried out by non-governmental organizations have decreased significantly in recent months.

"The ongoing humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable," said Vitorino.

The UN agency's Missing Migrants Project investigates many cases of missing boats in which no survivors and wreckage have been found and which have not received search and rescue operations.

The organization said that about 300 people who were on board these boats are still missing.
"Saving lives at sea is a legal duty of states," Vitorino stressed.

"We need proactive coordination of countries in search and rescue efforts.

We call on countries to work together and strive to reduce the loss of human life along migration routes, in a spirit of shared responsibility and solidarity.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said today, Wednesday, that Jordan was and will continue to stand by the Palestinians in order to stop the Israeli practices that deprive the Palestinian people of exercising their full rights.

Al-Safadi said during a session in the House of Representatives: "Instead of the whole international debate becoming that Jordan withdrew its ambassador and expelled the Israeli ambassador , we wanted the international community to remain focused on Israel's measures and aggressions."

He added, "Jordanian diplomacy is aware of the extent of the danger that Israel is posing in the occupied Palestinian territories, and has worked and is working continuously to stop all Israeli measures and violations against the Palestinians."

Al-Safadi indicated that Jordan has made extensive efforts to put an end to what Israel is doing, noting that Jordan is currently dealing with the conflict according to a political approach, and Jordan offers the interests of the Palestinians, and it will not hesitate for a moment to take everything that would help the Palestinian brothers.

He stressed that ending the Israeli occupation is the only way to achieve peace in the region, and we will not accept anything less than respecting the historical and legal status quo in the sanctities of Jerusalem.

He said: "If it weren't for the Hashemite tutelage, Israel would have fully imposed its sovereignty over the Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem."