Middle East & North Africa

16 August 2022; MEMO: Tunisia's trade deficit has increased by 57.1 per cent on an annual basis in the first seven months of this year, Anadolu has reported. The increase comes amid a sharp rise in import costs due to inflation and the rising prices of basic commodities.

According to the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics, the trade deficit — the difference between exports and imports — amounted to 13.70 billion dinars ($4.3bn) compared with 8.72bn dinars ($2.78bn) recorded during the same period last year.

16 August 2022; MEMO: An Israeli soldier has been killed by so-called "friendly fire" near the apartheid "separation" wall in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. Natan Fitoussi was at first said by the occupation army to have been the victim of Palestinian "gunmen", but the army retracted its account of his death and said that one of his colleagues had shot and killed him in error.

16 August 2022; MEMO: Israel admitted responsibility for killing five  Palestinian children in an air strike on the Fallujah cemetery in the town of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on 7 August, after it had initially claimed they were killed as a result of a missile fired by Islamic Jihad.

16 August 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement said on Monday that Israel promotes "fake" achievements and victories to cover up its failures. Hamas made the claim following an announcement by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) that its troops had uncovered an "attack tunnel" under the fence around the Gaza Strip.

16 August 2022; MEMO: Drones believed to belong to the UAE targeted Yemen army posts in the Shabwa governorate in the east of the country on Monday, local sources and activists have reported.

One anonymous source told Arabi 21 that the UAE's bombing of government forces paved the way for militias loyal to Abu Dhabi to expand their area of control towards the international highway linking the Shabwa and Hadhramout governorates from the south, and Marib from the north.

16 August 2022; MEMO: A member of the Hamas' political bureau in the Gaza Strip, Dr Mahmoud Al-Zahar, has denied reports that he has resigned from his position in the movement, saying this is a "despicable lie".

In an exclusive statement to Donia Al-Watan newspaper, Al-Zahar said that this news "is completely false," noting that what was circulated was done by "Fatah members".

16 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia is China's "strategic partner", the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, said yesterday.

"China and Saudi Arabia are comprehensive strategic partners," Wenbin said.

"In recent years, with the commitment and guidance from the leaders of both countries, China-Saudi Arabia relations have grown robustly with fruitful cooperation in various areas." Wenbin added.

16 August 2022; MEMO: Israel has incurred 300 million shekels (about $92 million) in losses as a result of its recent aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, according to the Maariv newspaper.

The paper said the Knesset Finance Committee held a meeting on the damages resulting from the recent military aggression in Gaza and concluded that the value of damages to Israeli properties amounted to about 300 million Israeli shekels.

About 500 million birds, including about 400 species of European birds, began their autumn seasonal migration from Europe to Africa passing through Asia, particularly Palestine and Jordan.

DAMASCUS, Aug 15 (NNN-SANA) – The Israeli regime fired several missiles, on military sites, in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the coastal city of Tartous, last night, killing three soldiers.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles from the direction of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and targeted military sites, in the countryside of Damascus, the Syrian military said, in a statement.

Another attack, launched simultaneously from over the Mediterranean, hit military facilities in Tartous, in north-west Syria, it adds.