On Friday, official and factional Palestinian bodies praised the ability of a quarter of a million citizens to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque and perform Friday prayers there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said, in a statement, that the movement of citizens to pray in the blessed Al -Aqsa Mosque is evidence of their adherence to the capital of their state, and the failure of the Israeli occupation policy aimed at separating Jerusalem from its surroundings and its Palestinian identity.

The Ministry condemned the military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation to limit the entry of citizens to pray in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, considering that it is a collective punishment aimed at severing the citizens' relationship with their holy city, contrary to its claims.

For his part, the head of the National Council, Ruhi Fattouh , said that the human encroachment towards Al-Aqsa is a clear response to the measures taken by the apartheid government to isolate the city from its Palestinian surroundings. .

Fattouh added, in a press statement to him, that the human advance is a message to all those haunted by illusion and daydreaming that Jerusalem is not divisible by two, and it is the essence and heart of the conflict. There is no Palestine without Jerusalem, and no Jerusalem without Palestine.

He explained that despite the barriers, oppression, and harassment of worshipers, Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards were adorned with human waves of worshipers that exceeded a quarter of a million worshipers, at a time when thousands of worshipers were prevented from arriving because of the racist occupation police.

He pointed out that Jerusalem is the key to peace and stability, and these masses have disappointed the occupation, dispelling their illusion of changing the identity of the Islamic civilized city, the eternal capital of Palestine. like he said.

While the "Hamas" movement saluted the masses who reached Al-Aqsa, despite the restrictions of the occupation, which impeded the access of many citizens to the mosque, which reflects the commitment of our sacred people to defend it and protect it from the violations of the fascist occupation. as she said.

And she stressed the importance of continuing the ritual prayer and i'tikaaf in Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to revive Islamic rituals and protect the shrine of our noble Prophet from the threats and violations of the occupation army and its terrorist settlers. according to the text of its statement.

On Friday, the staff of the Palestinian Embassy identified the body of a living martyr, Ayman Abu Abed, from the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis , in the southern Gaza Strip .

The young man, Abu Abed, lost his traces weeks ago in the Aegean Sea, while trying to migrate from Turkey to Greece .

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates indicated that his body was identified by matching DNA samples.

On Friday, the Tunisian authorities approved a set of restrictions on the use of drinking water , including the adoption of a quota system to distribute it to the population for several months, following a drought in the country.

The Minister of Agriculture issued a decision to limit the use of potable water for agricultural purposes, to irrigate green spaces, to clean streets and public places, and to wash cars.

A quota system will also be adopted to distribute water to the population until next September.

The ministry justified its decision by "frequent years of drought and poor revenues from dams, which negatively affected its water reserves, which reached an unprecedented level."

Tunisia is facing a severe drought crisis with declining rainfall, and the rate of filling of dams did not exceed 31%, and some of them are less than 15%, in a country whose economy depends mainly on agriculture.

These decisions coincide with the advent of the month of Ramadan, and residents in different areas of the Tunisian capital spoke of water cuts at night when the rate of consumption increased.

Agricultural unions began sounding the alarm for the agricultural season, especially with regard to the grain sector.

The Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries said in a statement that thousands of hectares were affected by the lack of rain and the low level of dams, in addition to the damage to fruit trees, vegetables and others.

Union spokesman Anis Kharbash said in media statements that the grain season "will be disastrous and the harvest season will be non-existent" this year, and that Tunisia will produce only "2 million quintals" of grain. And this number is not enough even for the seeds of the next season.
Experts attribute the main cause of drought and the frequency of climatic disasters such as floods and hurricanes, which are expected to increase, to the exacerbation of climate warming.

Dozens of citizens were injured today, Friday, as a result of the Israeli  forces ’ suppression of the weekly marches in the West Bank .

The Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the citizens participating in the marches, condemning the settlement and the continuous Judaization of their land.

Clashes erupted in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, Beit Dajan in the east, the Zawiya area in Hebron, and the town of Kafr Qaddum in Qalqilya.

On Thursday, a New York state court filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump , in a precedent in US history that is only the first step on a long judicial path.

A New York court opened an investigation in 2018 into the payment of $130,000 to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election in order to cover up an alleged extramarital affair with Donald Trump.

The amount was not declared in the accounts of the Republican candidate's campaign in violation of state election laws and was recorded as "legal fees" in the accounts of his company, which is headquartered in New York.

In January, Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg entrusted this case to a grand jury.

In the United States a grand jury consists of citizens chosen by lot who are responsible for the investigation in strict secrecy to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring formal charges against a suspect.

After hearing the testimony of a number of witnesses, the grand jury called Donald Trump to testify in mid-March.
The former president had refused this before and called on his supporters to demonstrate in protest against his upcoming "arrest".

The grand jury convened at 14:00 (18:00 GMT) Thursday with three prosecutors in charge of the case, according to The New York Times. After three hours of discussions behind closed doors, they adopted an indictment in which the charges were not disclosed.

Prosecutors contacted Donald Trump's attorney Thursday night to schedule a court appearance in New York to be formally notified of the indictment.

If he refuses he can be arrested and it will then be necessary to "extradite" him from Florida, where he lives, to New York since each state has its own legal system.

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Twitter that he would not be cooperative even though the constitution bars him from opposing his transfer.

And US media reported that Trump will agree to appear in person in New York court, most likely at the beginning of next week.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said, "He will be photographed, his fingerprints recorded, and Trump will be presented to the judge, who will ask him 'on what basis will he defend himself'." He added that he would "certainly plead not guilty".

Donald Trump's lawyers may launch a legal battle to try to quash his accusation, possibly by arguing that the investigation was flawed in procedure or form. If they fail to do so, the normal course of justice provides for three scenarios after the indictment:
Charges can be dropped. This is relatively common and may be especially related to the arrival of a new attorney general, but is unlikely in the case of Donald Trump.

- The accused can make an agreement with the Public Prosecution and agree to plead guilty to avoid trial and get a lighter sentence. But that is unlikely because Donald Trump maintains that he did nothing wrong.

- The judiciary organizes a trial, but many procedures must first be respected with many previous hearings. Once again, Donald Trump's lawyers may use every means possible to delay this deadline.

- of course no. In the United States, anyone who has been criminally charged or convicted can run for office and be elected. The Constitution provides for only one exception to the exercise of an official function: participation in an "insurrection" or "rebellion" against the United States.

Donald Trump, who launched his campaign last November for the 2024 presidential elections, is under investigation by the federal judiciary for his role in storming the Congressional Building (Capitol) on January 6, 2021, but no charges have been brought against him at this stage.

The so-called "Temple" gangs continue to mobilize their supporters to target the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque , by intensifying the incursions and desecrating it with their racist rituals, and these calls intensify on Jewish occasions and holidays.

And the “alleged Temple groups” and the “We Return to the Mountain Movement” announced that they would allocate sums of money as rewards for settlers who attempt to slaughter an “oblation” in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, during the Jewish Passover holiday, noting that it will provide 25 thousand to those who can slaughter the “oblation” inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Shekels, and 2,500 shekels in the event that its activists were arrested inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and in possession of the “qurban.”

Extremist settler groups called on their supporters to carry out the largest storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Passover holiday, coinciding with what the occupation army announced to impose a closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to close all checkpoints during the holiday period.

Last Wednesday, 15 rabbis sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir , requesting that settlers be allowed to slaughter this year's Passover offerings in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Friday, the Israeli occupation forces assaulted citizens and journalists in the town of Hawara , south of Nablus .

The occupation forces fired stun grenades and tear gas at the citizens and journalists, after performing the Friday prayers.

Large forces of the occupation army were deployed in the town.

And those forces arrested a young man after assaulting him.

Tens of thousands of citizens performed the second Friday prayer of the month of Ramadan, at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque .

The Islamic Endowments Department reported that 250,000 worshipers performed the second Friday prayer of the month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the Israeli occupation's restrictions on worshipers and its attempt to impede their access to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Local sources stated that the occupation forces closed the Qalandia checkpoint in front of citizens' vehicles, and prevented those under the age of 55 from crossing, in addition to erecting iron barriers at Damascus Gate, Al-Anbiya Street, Salah Al-Din Street, and others, in an attempt to impede the arrival of worshipers to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The New York Times published a news analysis, under the headline “Biden’s confrontation with Netanyahu has been brewing for years,” in which it was stated that when US President Joe Biden explicitly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he “cannot continue on this path” regarding judicial reform in His country provoked the kind of response usually expressed by opponents of the United States, not its allies, as Netanyahu said on Wednesday that "Israel is a sovereign state that makes its decisions by the will of its people and is not based on pressure from outside, including from best friends," accusing the US president of meddling in Another country's politics - which is exactly what Biden intended to do.

According to the newspaper, "It was a remarkable public explosion of this type of dispute that usually takes place in secret, but there were other factors brewing for many years, as there is no affection that can disappear between the two leaders, despite the polite facade that they show regarding their relationship that has been going on for decades." Time and their shared commitment to defending Israel, and Netanyahu has made no special effort to hide his support for President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, making clear his preference for someone who did everything he asked for, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and paying little attention to the Palestinians and allegedly backing Israel. entitlement to the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.

In Biden's view, the newspaper says in its news analysis, "Netanyahu himself engaged in what was perhaps the most daring intervention in the American legislative process in modern history, when he arrived in Washington in 2015 and addressed Congress, denouncing the pending nuclear agreement with Iran and describing it as" a nightmare that will almost ensure that Iran has those nuclear weapons, and a lot of them."

At the time, according to the newspaper, "Netanyahu denied that he was meddling in American politics — instead, he insisted that he was making an argument against an agreement he believed would weaken Israel's security." However, former officials who helped shape US policy toward Israel in administrations described The current crisis is unusual.

The analytical report credits Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Middle East peace negotiator at the State Department, as saying: “This is unlike any other crisis in the relationship between the United States and Israel. I have never seen any administration interact with a new Israeli movement.” With a force and a pace - and a high level - comparable to this."

Miller and others said the past weeks have dramatically altered US perceptions of Netanyahu, leaving Biden administration officials far less confident that differences with the Israeli leader and his right-wing government can be contained. "What amazes me is that the Biden administration is dealing with Netanyahu so differently than anything anyone has dealt with in the past," said Daniel Kurtzer, who served as US ambassador to Israel during the George W. Bush administration.

On Friday, the Israeli occupation army announced the imposition of a comprehensive closure on the Palestinian territories during the Jewish "Passover".

According to a statement by the occupation army, the closure will begin in the afternoon of next Wednesday (April 5), to be lifted again at midnight (Saturday-Sunday), and this includes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip crossings.

He pointed out that on Friday, the seventh of April, the crossings will be opened to the movement of Palestinians from the West Bank, according to the civil steps that were approved on the occasion of the month of Ramadan.

Another comprehensive closure will be imposed on Tuesday afternoon (11 April), and the crossings will be opened and the closure lifted at midnight Wednesday-Thursday.

The Chinese telecoms giant, Huawei, announced on Friday a sharp decline of 69 percent in its net profits last year, especially due to US sanctions that significantly weakened its phone sales.

At the same time, the group announced in a statement Friday that its CFO, Ming Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei's founder, will take over the company's rotating presidency from Saturday for a period of six months.

And Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018 at the request of the United States, which led to a major diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Ottawa, with the arrest of two Canadians accused of espionage in China.

In an atmosphere of competition with China in the technology sector, the administration of former US President Donald Trump blacklisted Huawei in 2019.

The measure bars US companies from selling the group sensitive technologies, including microprocessors. The current administration of Joe Biden has not changed this policy.

The sanctions cut Huawei off from global supply chains for components as well as from Google's Android operating system, which is found in most smartphones in the world.

This situation led to a significant weakening of the Huawei phone branch in recent years, which in 2020 separated from its first brand, Honor.

In this context, Huawei announced on Friday that its net profit decreased by about 69 percent year on year during 2022.
The group achieved profits of 35.6 billion yuan (4.7 billion euros) in 2022, compared to 113.7 billion yuan in 2021, when it recorded its best historical performance.

On the other hand, the group's sales increased slightly in one year (+0.9 percent) and amounted to 642.3 billion yuan (85.8 billion euros). And it had decreased in 2021 by more than 28 percent.

"In 2022, difficult business conditions and non-market factors continue to affect Huawei's business," Eric Xu, Chairman of Huawei's Board of Directors, said in a statement, without explicitly referring to the sanctions.

Huawei was one of the three largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, along with the Korean Samsung and the American Apple. It held the top spot for a brief period, helped by demand in China and sales in emerging markets.

Huawei did not disclose details of the number of mobile phones it sold last year.

The company is not listed on the stock exchange, so it is not subject to the same obligations to certify accounts or details in publishing its results.

Huawei is also the world's leading provider of 5G equipment. But Washington pressured its allies to abandon it to equip their own 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use Huawei to monitor state communications and data traffic.

The company is now focusing again on the Chinese market and diversifying its activities, particularly in cloud computing, connected cars and chip design.

The Huawei Group is headquartered in Shenzhen, in southern China, and has about 207,000 employees, with centers in more than 170 countries.

On Friday, the Malaysian judiciary rejected the appeal submitted by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak against a 12-year prison sentence he was serving on charges of corruption, thus closing the door to his return to the political arena.

Abdul Razzaq asked the Federal Court to reconsider the rejection of an appeal against his conviction of embezzling large sums of money from the sovereign wealth fund "1MDB".

Court judge Vernon Aung Lam Kyat said "there was no partiality or miscarriage of justice" against the accused, and rejected the appeal.
Najeeb Abdul Razzaq, 69, said that he did not have a fair trial and said that the judge was affected by a conflict of interest and that his defense did not have enough time to examine all the documents.

Razak's 12-year prison sentence is linked to the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.1 million) from a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB to his personal bank account.

The former prime minister appeared affected by the court's decision during the session attended by his wife, Rosmah Mansour, who was convicted of embezzlement last year.

Najeeb Abdul Razzaq still faces dozens of other charges in the complex corruption case, which could extend his sentence. Most of them relate to his supposed role in the sovereign wealth fund scandal, which was intended to develop the Malaysian economy.

But Najeeb Abdul Razak and his associates are accused of profiting from large-scale purchases, from luxury real estate to works of art to the purchase of a yacht.

The scandal prompted investigations around the world, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, for using their financial systems to launder misappropriated money. The scandal had a major role in the defeat of Najib Abdul Razzaq and his party in the 2018 elections.

The Israeli occupation forces impeded the arrival of worshipers to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque , on the second Friday of the month of Ramadan, by setting up several military checkpoints in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Local sources stated that the occupation forces put iron barricades and erected roadblocks at crossroads and main streets in the Al-Musrara neighborhood, Bab Al-Sahira, Al-Anbiya Street, and others.

Despite these measures, worshipers continue to crawl to Al-Aqsa Mosque from Jerusalem, the West Bank and the 1948 lands, to perform the second Friday prayer of the month of Ramadan.

Today, Friday, settlers uprooted hundreds of olive and vine saplings from the lands of the town of Al-Khader , south of Bethlehem , and stole part of them.

According to local sources, the settlers of "Eliezer", established on the citizens' lands by force, uprooted 400 seedlings, including 250 olive seedlings, and the rest are vines, in the "Wadi Abu Bakir" area belonging to the citizen Youssef Abdel Hajar Musa.

Salah added that the settlers stole about 150 olive seedlings, noting that the citizen's land was attacked a while ago, represented by its cultivation by the settlers, before he won a case to file it and expel them from it.

The death toll in a temple accident in central India on Thursday has risen to 35, a senior police officer said on Friday.

Rescue work at the accident site in Indore, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, is still underway, with one person still missing, the officer said.

"So far 35 bodies have been recovered and one person is still missing. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Army are conducting search and rescue operations," he added.

The accident occurred at the sudden collapse of a terraced well on Thursday. Nineteen people were rescued from the site and taken to a local hospital as of Thursday evening, where rescue work continued throughout the night.

In the same context, state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced compensation of 500,000 Indian rupees (about 6,086 US dollars) for the families of each victim, and 50,000 Indian rupees (about 608 dollars) for each injured person.

Last night, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken welcomed the recent efforts made to prevent escalation and an increase in tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Blinken affirmed, in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen , the United States' continued commitment to the two-state solution, as stated in a statement, published on the Hebrew Walla website, at dawn on Friday.

Blinken and Cohen discussed common challenges, including the issue of Iran, as well as efforts to advance common interests.

At dawn on Friday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested the boy, Naim Fatatfa, from the town of Silwan , south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem .

According to local sources, those forces stormed the house of the boy's family, Fatafta, and arrested him and transferred him for interrogation.

A grand jury in the Manhattan borough of New York City has voted to convict former US President Donald Trump , making him the first person in US history to serve as US president and then be charged with a crime, as he paves the way for his rival in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

According to The New York Times, the indictment has been sealed, meaning that the specific charge or charges are not known to the public, but the grand jury was hearing evidence about money paid to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, allegedly because Trump and his presidential campaign prevented her from saying She had a sexual encounter with Trump years ago in exchange for money.

Trump's advisers were discussing a possible surrender on Tuesday and a court appearance, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

For his part, former US President Donald Trump rejected the accusation against him in the case of "buying silence" porn star Daniels, with whom she alleged he had an affair, and poured out his anger on the public prosecutor and his political opponents. Republican leaders condemned the decision.

"This is a political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history," Trump said in a statement, adding, "I think this persecution will backfire on (President) Joe Biden."

"Even before I was sworn in as President of the United States, the radical left-wing Democrats, the enemies of the toiling men and women of this country, engaged in a witch hunt against me," he added.

In a five-paragraph statement, released within minutes of news of the indictment breaking, Trump vowed revenge as he plans to return to the White House in the 2024 election.

"The Democrats lied, cheated, and stole in their obsession with trying to bait Trump, but now they have done the unthinkable, indicting someone who is completely innocent, in scandalous election interference," Trump said.

He added, "It is the use of our judicial system as a weapon in order to punish a political opponent, who happens to be the president of the United States (formerly) and the most prominent Republican candidate for president (in the upcoming elections), and this has never happened before." He continued, "I think this prosecution will rebound." Massively counterproductive to Joe Biden."

Trump's lawyers, Joseph Takopina and Susan Nickellis, said they would "fight vigorously" the charges, while another attorney, Alina Haba, expected him to be acquitted.

Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, considered that the decision had caused "irreparable damage" to the United States, at a time when allies of the former president launched a fierce attack on Democrats and judicial officials.

McCarthy said Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg "has irreparably damaged our country by trying to interfere with our presidential election."

He added, "The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg accountable for his unprecedented abuse of power."

The 76-year-old Trump became the first former or sitting president to be charged with a felony, on the cusp of the presidential election that Trump seeks to run in 2024.

In turn, Ron DeSantis, Trump's main competitor for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, criticized the accusation of the former president, describing it as "contrary to American values."

DeSantis, the governor of Florida, Trump's residence, said he "would not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances" of the indictment, which he described as part of a "political agenda".

It is noteworthy that the investigation in Manhattan is one of several legal challenges facing Trump, and the charges may harm his efforts to return to the presidency. About 44 percent of Republicans think he should drop out of the race if indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week.

The porn star's attorney, Stormy Daniels, said Thursday that the indictment of Trump shows that "no one is above the law".

The charges rely heavily on testimony from Michael Cohen, a former Trump aide who said he paid $130,000, on Trump's orders, to "keep Stormy Daniels quiet."

Cohen said, according to The New York Times, that Trump ordered him to buy Ms. Daniels' silence, and that Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, helped cover it up.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced, at dawn on Friday, the death of Bahaa Muhammad Abu al-Haija, one of its members, after he was hit by a live bullet by mistake during his shift at one of its positions at the entrance to Jenin camp .

In a brief statement, the Brigades pledged to move forward on the path of the martyrs until the liberation of Palestine.

On Friday, thousands of citizens performed the Fajr prayer in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque , despite the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation forces.

The occupation police officers searched some young men at some of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and tried to block the entry of hundreds of people from Hatta Gate, before opening it completely to the movement of worshipers coming from several areas, including from the West Bank and the occupied interior.

The Israeli occupation forces will deploy thousands of its members in the morning hours in the Old City of Jerusalem, and in the city and the surrounding checkpoints, especially with the West Bank, under the pretext of trying to maintain calm.

It is expected that tens of thousands of citizens in the West Bank and the occupied interior will arrive at Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the second Friday prayers of the blessed month of Ramadan .

At dawn on Friday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested 3 young men while they were passing through the town of Hawara, south of Nablus .

According to local sources, the three detainees are from the village of Yatma, south of Nablus, and were arrested by the occupation forces while they were passing through the town of Hawara.

It indicated that the detainees are Raouf Sanobar, Muhammad Hatem, and Muhammad Al-Ramahi.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested two young men at the entrance to the town of Ya`bad , southwest of Jenin .

Eyewitnesses told Al-Quds.com that the occupation forces set up a flying checkpoint at the main entrance to the town, seized a vehicle and, after checking the cards of its passengers, arrested two young men.

The witnesses indicated that the two detainees were Muhammad Akram Turkman and Muhammad Ali Turkman, from Ya`bad, and they were transferred to an unknown destination.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli army launched raids on targets in the vicinity of the Syrian capital, Damascus .

According to the official Syrian news agency, SANA, the Syrian air defenses intercepted the Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights.

According to regular sources, the shelling was concentrated in the vicinity of southern Damascus, and the vicinity of the Al-Kiswah area in the western countryside.

It indicated that it targeted targets of the Iranian forces, as well as the first division of the Syrian army.

The Israeli army attacked targets before mid-Wednesday, in Damascus, wounding two Syrian soldiers.

Dozens of citizens were suffocated, Thursday evening, as the Israeli occupation forces fired a barrage of toxic tear gas canisters at Martyr Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram town , north of occupied Jerusalem .

According to local sources, the occupation forces attacked the stadium during the Martyr Yasser Arafat Football Cup final match between "Balata Center" and "Jabal Mukaber", which led to the suffocation of a number of players and fans in the stands, including children.

Medical staff intervened to provide field treatment to those suffering from suffocation.

The Central Bank of Egypt decided today (Thursday) to raise interest rates by 2% on deposits and lending to curb inflation , during a meeting of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee.

The bank said in a statement on its official website that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt decided, in its meeting today, to raise the rates of the one-night deposit and lending return and the price of the main operation of the Central Bank by 200 basis points, to reach 18.25%, 19.25% and 18.75%, respectively. .

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt also decided to raise the credit and discount rate by 200 basis points, to reach 18.75%.

The Central Bank of Egypt statement pointed to a slight slowdown in the growth rate of real economic activity, to record 3.9% during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to a growth rate of 4.4% during the third quarter of 2022, and the first half of the fiscal year 2022/2023 recorded a growth rate of 4.2%. .

With regard to the labor market, the unemployment rate recorded 7.2% during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to a rate of 7.4% during the third quarter of 2022.

The annual rate of urban general inflation continued to rise, to record 25.8% and 31.9% in January and February 2023, respectively, indicating that these increases reflect many factors, which include imbalances in supply chains locally and fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound, in addition to pressures from the side. Demand, which is evident in the developments of real economic activity compared to its maximum production capacity and the rise in the domestic liquidity growth rate.

The statement noted that, in light of the above, the Monetary Policy Committee decided to raise the basic interest rates by 200 basis points, stressing that the path of the basic interest rates depends on the expected inflation rates and not on the prevailing inflation rates.

The committee stressed the need to restrict monetary policy as a prerequisite for achieving the inflation rates targeted by the Central Bank of Egypt, which amount to 7 ± (2 percentage points) on average during the fourth quarter of 2024, and 5 ± (2 percentage points) on average during the fourth quarter of 2024. Year 2026.

On December 22, 2022, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt decided to raise the rates of the one-night deposit and lending return and the price of the main operation of the Central Bank by 300 basis points, or by 3 percent.

The Central Bank of Egypt stated in a statement at the time that the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decided to raise the rates of the overnight deposit and lending return and the price of the main operation of the Central Bank by 300 basis points, to reach 16.25 percent, 17.25 percent, and 16.75 percent, respectively.

The committee also decided to raise the credit and discount rate by 300 basis points, to reach 16.75 percent.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh discussed, in Ramallah today, Thursday, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan , Jeyhun Bayramov , in the presence of Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki , the latest developments and the strengthening of cooperation.

Shtayyeh stressed, when receiving his Azeri guest, the importance of strengthening cooperation at all levels between the two countries, especially academic and student exchange, and in terms of exchanging visits between businessmen and investors, appreciating Azerbaijan's support for Palestine in the United Nations and through the Non-Aligned Movement.

Shtayyeh put the Azerbaijani minister in the picture of the conditions, violations and unilateral measures of the occupation government against our people, the Judaization of Jerusalem and the sanctities in it, the isolation of Palestinian areas from each other with barriers and the wall, and the systematic destruction of the possibility of embodying the establishment of an independent and continuous Palestinian state geographically on the 1967 borders.

The European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janiz Lenarcic, announced today (Thursday) the provision of 60 million euros in humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable groups in Lebanon , including Syrian refugees and destitute Lebanese.

A statement issued by the European Commission indicated that Commissioner Lenarcic, who is visiting Lebanon to review humanitarian projects funded by the European Union and to meet with representatives of the Lebanese authorities.

The statement stated that "the new funding comes at a time when the Lebanese population is facing increasing levels of poverty, food insecurity and disease outbreaks, as about 4 million vulnerable people, including 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 2.2 million Lebanese, need humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs." .

"The new humanitarian package will provide basic humanitarian aid such as food aid, cash support, and education and health services to those in dire need," the statement added.

The statement stated that "the political and economic crisis in Lebanon has led to widespread poverty, the collapse of public services, and the increase in societal tensions, and the global food and fuel crisis has exacerbated the already dire situation."

The statement estimated that 80% of the Lebanese live in poverty, and that 36% live below the extreme poverty line, while 90% of the Syrian refugees cannot cover their basic needs.

Lebanon is suffering from an acute economic, living and financial crisis, which the World Bank classified as one of the three worst crises in the world since the mid-19th century.

The statement pointed out that the European Union's funding for humanitarian purposes for Lebanon since 2011 amounted to about 860 million euros.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon registered on the lists of the International Commissioner for Refugees is about 900 thousand, while the Lebanese authorities report that their number is about two million and 80 thousand displaced people, most of whom reside in about 1,400 random camps distributed in various regions.

Today, the Prisoners’ Club said in a statement that the health condition of the prisoner, Muhammad al-Khatib (40 years), from Tulkarm , is deteriorating continuously in light of the emergence of new symptoms, including: increasing pain in the extremities, loss of feeling in his left foot, and for two days he has been suffering from His heart rate accelerated, and as a result he was transferred to the Negev prison clinic with the help of his fellow prisoners, using a stretcher, due to his inability to walk due to the severity of the pain.

The Captive Club confirmed that the prisoner, Al-Khatib, who suffered about two years ago from a serious herniated disc, today needs to undergo new medical examinations, to diagnose his health condition again, in light of the emergence of new health symptoms. On the other hand, the prison administration continues its approach of procrastination and medical neglect, and every time the prisoner Al-Khatib is transferred to the clinic, the prison administration tries to invent a new excuse for the reasons for the delay in not transferring him for the necessary examinations.

As a result, the prisoner, Al-Khatib, carried out a protest step today by refusing to enter the department, as he remained outside the department for three hours in the extreme cold, until he was provided with a wheelchair to enable him to move, due to the great difficulty he faces in his movement, and to meet his basic needs, until the management (response) Imprisonment for his request.

It is noteworthy that the suffering of the prisoner Al-Khatib appeared about two years ago, and at that time he was diagnosed with a severe herniated disc, but the medications he was given caused him additional health problems, and his health condition continued to worsen until today.

The prisoner Al-Khatib has been detained since 2003, and he is sentenced to 21 years in prison, and there is about a year left until his release date.

Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation authorities extended the detention of four young men from occupied Jerusalem .

And local sources reported that the occupation court extended the detention of the young man, Muhammad Abu Sneineh, until tomorrow, Friday, while extending the detention of the two young men, Abdel Nasser Abu Sneineh and Ahmed Najeeb, until next Monday, and the young man, Daoud Amer Al-Ghoul, from the Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, until the third of next April.

In a related context, the Israeli occupation authorities deported the citizen, Haroun Abu Sneineh, from Al-Aqsa Mosque for a period of six months.

Today, Thursday, the occupation authorities allowed the family of the prisoner, Walid Daqqa, to visit him at Barzilai Hospital in the occupied city of Ashkelon .

Sanaa Ahmed Salama, the wife of prisoner Daqqa, said that she was able to visit him with their daughter, Milad, this afternoon "for only a quarter of an hour."

Salama indicated that "Walid is still in a critical condition. It was difficult for him to talk to us because of his difficult respiratory condition in particular, and from the recent tests that were conducted for him, it was found that he had a blood clot in the lungs, in addition to acute pneumonia, which keeps him in danger." severe.

She added, “The doctor confirmed to us the seriousness of Walid’s respiratory condition. He is still in the intensive care room to closely monitor his condition, and the doctor did not deny the possibility of his condition deteriorating, God forbid, but rather said: The coming days are crucial, hoping that Walid will overcome the pulmonary danger that threatens his life.

The prisoner, Daqqa, and after great pressure from his fellow prisoners in Ashkelon prison and other prisons, was transferred to Barzilai Hospital in the occupied city of Ashkelon after his health condition deteriorated, as a result of his illness in general and the side effects of the sedatives he was taking after discovering that he had cancer in the prison. December 2022, and he suffered a stroke in his leg in February 2023.