Middle East & North Africa

18 April 2024; MEMO: Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” amid Israeli threats, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander said on Thursday, raising concerns about Tehran’s nuclear programme which it has always said was strictly for peaceful purposes, Reuters reports.

“A review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible,” Ahmad Haghtalab, the Commander in charge of nuclear security said, according to semi-official Tasnim news agency.

18 April 2024; MEMO: The Israeli Ministry of Defence’s Rehabilitation Department said it has received 7,209 wounded soldiers since the beginning of the war on Gaza on 7 October, and that 30 per cent of them had developed psychological issues as a result of the war.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Defence said about 60 per cent of the wounded soldiers had psychological trauma as the primary form of injury.

18 April 2024; AP: PARIS — Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem captured this year’s prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award Thursday with a depiction of loss and sorrow in Gaza, a heartrending photo of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her young niece.

18 April 2024; AP: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint from close allies.

BEIRUT, Apr 17 (NNN-NNA) – Two Hezbollah fighters and an Amal Movement member were killed, and three civilians wounded last night, in an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese town of Shehabiya, Lebanese military sources said.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, said, Israeli drones fired three air-to-surface missiles towards the centre of the town, causing casualties and damage to several shops, and over 22 homes.

01 April 2024; MEMO: Israeli officers and soldiers have admitted that most of the fatalities classified by the army as “terrorists” during its war on the Gaza Strip are actually civilians, a report said Sunday.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz collected testimonies from officers and soldiers who have fought in Gaza during the war, which has been ongoing since Oct. 7, 2023.

“The Israeli army says 9,000 terrorists have been killed since the Gaza war began,” the report said.

01 April 2024; MEMO: The new Palestinian government, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, should prepare for holding legislative and presidential elections in all Palestinian governorates, especially in East Jerusalem, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday, Anadolu news agency reported.

Abbas’s remarks came on the occasion of the new government’s swearing-in ceremony, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

02 April 2024; MEMO: Despite the Israeli army’s destruction of scores of mosques in the Gaza Strip, the call to prayer (Adhan) still resonates from these houses of worship at its designated times, Anadolu news agency reported.

In northern Gaza, the minaret of the Masjid al-Awda still stands tall, though the Israeli air strikes destroyed the mosque during the ongoing war since 7 October 2023.

02 April 2024; MEMO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is set to commence his third term following a swearing-in ceremony at the New Administrative Capital (NAC) tomorrow. The inauguration marks the opening of the first phase of the controversial mega-project, which has garnered widespread criticism due to its hefty cost amid worsening economic conditions.

Damascus; 01 April 2024 (UMMN): Suspected Israeli air strike that flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday killing seven military advisers including three senior commanders in a marked escalation in a war pitting Israel against its regional adversaries.