BEIRUT: Israeli raids hit warehouses storing weapons for the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Syria Tuesday, a war monitor said, as a Syrian military source said air defenses had intercepted several missiles.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest strikes near the capital Damascus Tuesday had destroyed weapons and ammunition, causing secondary explosions and fires.
A military source quoted by Syrian state media said Israeli “air aggression” had targeted several military positions near Damascus.
“Our air defenses took action and shot down several missiles,” the source added.
The Britain-based Observatory said it was the second such strike in two days, coming after raids on Sunday hit another Hezbollah weapons depot and a separate site near Damascus.
Earlier this month, an Israeli strike reportedly killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard and two other people in Banias on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The Israeli army said last week it had hit about 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Israel hits Hezbollah arms depots in Syria: war monitor
https://arab.news/wk926
Israel hits Hezbollah arms depots in Syria: war monitor
- Strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7
Pakistan’s foreign reserves with central bank surge past $9 billion after IMF inflows
- Pakistan last month received $1.1 billion from IMF as final tranche of its $3 billion loan program
- Talks between IMF and Pakistan for a fresh loan program is expected to be held this month
KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves with its central bank surged to $9.12 billion on Thursday, data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) after Islamabad received the final tranche of $1.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month.
The SBP confirmed on April 30 that Pakistan had received the final tranche of $1.1 billion as part of a $3 billion IMF loan program it entered last summer.
The South Asian country is expected to hold discussions this month with an IMF mission for a “larger and longer” program that Islamabad hopes would help avert its macroeconomic crisis.
“Foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan total $ 9,120.3 million,” the SBP said in a statement. It added that total reserves held by the country stood at $ 14,458.9 million, out of which net foreign reserves worth $ 5,338.6 million were by commercial banks.
Pakistan has been struggling with a chronic economic crisis since April 2022 that has seen its foreign exchange reserves plummet to historic lows and its national currency depreciate significantly against the US dollar.
The South Asian country has turned to international financial institutions and multilateral partners to secure external financing in a bid to stave off a balance of payment crisis.
Desperate to shore its foreign reserves, Pakistan has recently welcomed visits by business delegations and diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar and Azerbaijan to attract investment.
Last year Pakistan set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council, a body consisting of Pakistani civilian and military leaders and specially tasked to promote investment in Pakistan. The council is so far focusing on investments in the energy, agriculture, mining, information technology and aviation sectors and specifically targeting Gulf nations.
Israel strikes eastern Rafah as ceasefire talks end with no deal
- Ceasefire talks make some headway, but no deal, say Egyptian security sources
- Israeli official said operation in Rafah to proceed as planned
- Rafah residents fear a full invasion
CAIRO/RAFAH/WASHINGTON: Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded areas of Rafah on Thursday, Palestinian residents said, after President Joe Biden said the United States would withhold weapons from Israel if its forces mount a major invasion of the southern Gaza city.
A senior Israeli official said that the latest round of indirect negotiations in Cairo to halt hostilities had ended and Israel would proceed with its operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned.
Israel has submitted to mediators its reservations about a Hamas proposal for a hostage release deal and the Israeli delegation was returning from the Egyptian capital, the official added.
In Gaza, Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks massed on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Residents and medics in Rafah, the biggest urban area in Gaza not yet overrun by Israeli ground forces, said an Israeli attack by a mosque killed at least three people and wounded others in the eastern Brazil neighborhood.
Video footage from the scene showed the minaret lying in the rubble, two bodies wrapped in blankets and a wounded man being carried away.
On the city’s eastern edge, residents said a helicopter opened fire, while drones hovered above houses in several areas, some close to rooftops.
Israel says Hamas militants are hiding in Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of Gazans seeking refuge from bombardments elsewhere in the coastal enclave, and it needs to eliminate them for its own security.
One of the displaced, Mohammad Abder-Rahman, said he feared the Israeli bombardments presaged an invasion of the city.
“It reminds me of what happened before Israeli tanks stormed our residential areas in Gaza City, heavy bombardment usually allows tanks to roll toward places they intend to invade,” the 42-year-old told Reuters via a messaging app.
Ceasefire talks in Egypt’s capital made some headway but no deal was reached, according to two Egyptian security sources.
The Hamas delegation left for Doha for consultations, blaming Israel for the lack of agreement so far.
Israel has said it is open to a truce, but has rejected demands for an end to the war as it has vowed to demolish Hamas.
Biden, who says Israel has not produced a convincing plan to safeguard civilians in Rafah, issued his starkest warning yet against a full ground invasion.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, ... I’m not supplying the weapons,” Biden told CNN in an interview on Wednesday.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 80,000, most of them civilians, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
It launched its offensive in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Israel on Oct. 7 in which they killed about 1,200 people and abducted 252. Some 128 hostages remain in Gaza and 36 have been declared dead, according to the latest Israeli figures.
80,000 PALESTINIANS FLEE AGAIN THIS WEEK
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route and forcing 80,000 people to flee the city this week, according to the United Nations.
“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on X.
An Israeli military statement on Gaza operations on Thursday morning did not refer to Rafah.
The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Biden acknowledged that US bombs have killed Palestinian civilians in the seven-month-old offensive.
US officials have said Washington paused delivery of a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.
Israel’s United Nations ambassador Gilad Erdan said the US decision to pause some weapons deliveries to Israel would significantly impair the country’s ability to neutralize Hamas’ power, according to Israeli public radio.
But Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel’s “enemies and friends” it would do whatever necessary achieve its war aims in Gaza, underlining the scale of the standoff.
Israel kept up tank and aerial strikes across Gaza and tanks advanced in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents said. The Israeli military said it was securing Zeitoun, starting with a series of intelligence-based aerial strikes on approximately 25 “terror targets.”
Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza was heaving with people who had fled Rafah in recent days. Palestinian medics said two people, including a woman, were killed when a drone fired a missile at a group of people there.
CIA DIRECTOR SHUTTLES BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND CAIRO
In Cairo, delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar had been meeting since Tuesday. CIA Director William Burns has shuttled between Cairo and Jerusalem, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Izzat El-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political office in Qatar, said the Hamas delegation had left Cairo, having reaffirmed its approval the mediators’ ceasefire proposal. The plan entails the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza and a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
MEDICAL SECTOR COLLAPSED
The closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt has prevented the evacuation of the wounded and sick and the entry of medical supplies, food trucks and fuel needed to operate hospitals, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.
The only kidney dialysis center in the Rafah area had stopped operating due to the shelling.
“There used to be medical aid coming in, and now there is no medical aid,” said Ali Abu Khurma, a Jordanian surgeon volunteering at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
“The entire medical sector has collapsed.”
Change of opponent for Saudi fighter Al-Qahtani after PFL MENA weigh-ins
- Abdullah Al-Qahtani meets Jordan’s Yazeed Hasanain in the featherweight main event
- Ali Taleb faces Nawras Abzakh in the bantamweight co-main event
RIYADH: The Professional Fighters League begins the historic inaugural season of PFL MENA (Middle East and North Africa) on Saturday at the Green Halls in Riyadh, with bantamweight and featherweight fighters from the region going head to head.
In the main event, Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al-Qahtani is now set to meet Jordan’s Yazeed Hasanain after Taha Bendaoud did not make the contracted weight. Al-Qahtani weighed in at 66 kg, while Hasanain weighed 66.4 kg.
In the co-main event, Iraq’s Ali Taleb faces Jordan’s Nawras Abzakh in a bantamweight contest. Taleb weighed in at 60.5 kg with Abzakh tipping the scales at 61.4 kg.
Maraoune Bellagouit weighed in at 66.1 kg and now faces Mido Mohamed, who weighed in at 65.8 kg. Bellagouit’s original opponent Motaz Askar was not medically cleared by the commission to compete.
Hattan Alsaif, the first female from Saudi Arabia to sign with a major Mixed Martial Arts promotion, makes her highly anticipated PFL SmartCage debut against Egypt’s Nada Faheem. Alsaif weighed in at 47.1 kg while Faheem was 47.9 kg.
PFL MENA fight card:
Featherweight bout: Abdullah Al-Qahtani vs. Yazeed Hasanain
Bantamweight bout: Ali Taleb vs. Nawras Abzakh
Bantamweight bout: Xavier Alaoui vs. Rachid El Hazoume
Featherweight bout: Islam Reda vs. Adam Meskini
Bantamweight bout: Tariq Ismail vs. Jalal Al Daaja
Bantamweight bout: Elias Boudegzdame vs. Hassan Mandour
Women’s atomweight bout, amateur: Hattan Alsaif vs. Nada Faheem
Featherweight bout: Maraoune Bellagouit vs. Mido Mohamed
Featherweight bout: Ahmed Tarek vs. Abdelrahman Alhyasat
Flyweight bout, amateur: Malik Basahel vs. Harsh Pandya
Sri Lanka names T20 World Cup squad
- Team contains no changes from one that beat Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe this year
- Wanindu Hasaranga retained as skipper for World Cup set to kick off from June 2 in USA, West Indies
Colombo:: Sri Lanka named its T20 World Cup squad Thursday with no changes from the team that won the three series against Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe this year.
Wanindu Hasaranga was retained as skipper.
Sri Lanka squad announced by Sri Lanka’s cricket board: Wanindu Hasaranga (capt), Charith Asalanka, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana and Dilshan Madushanka.
The 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup will take place in the USA and the West Indies from June 1 to 29.
The USA will play the opening match of the tournament against Canada, before facing Pakistan, India and Ireland in the league stages.
China’s exports and imports return to growth
- Shipments from the country grew 1.5 percent last month by value: data
RIYADH: China’s exports and imports returned to growth in April after contracting in the previous month, signaling an encouraging improvement in demand at home and overseas.
The data suggests a flurry of policy support measures over the past several months may be helping to stabilize fragile investor and consumer confidence.
Shipments from China grew 1.5 percent year on year last month by value, customs data showed on Thursday, in line with the increase forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. They fell 7.5 percent in March, which marked the first contraction since November.
Imports for April increased 8.4 percent, beating an expected 4.8 percent rise and reversing a 1.9 percent fall in March.
“Export values returned to growth from contraction last month, but this was mainly due to a lower base for comparison,” said Huang Zichun, China economist at Capital Economics.
“After accounting for changes in export prices and for seasonality, we estimate that export volumes remained broadly unchanged from March,” she added.
In Q1, both imports and exports rose 1.5 percent year on year, buoyed by better-than-expected trade data over the January-February period. But the weak March figures prompted concerns that momentum could be faltering again.
Crude oil imports
China’s crude oil imports rose on the previous year in April, as refiners prepared for a fully recovered Labor Day holiday travel season, official data showed on Thursday.
Crude imports in April totaled 44.72 million tonnes, or about 10.88 million barrels per day, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
That represented a 5.45 percent increase from the relatively low 10.4 million bpd imported in April 2023.
China saw more than 1.3 billion passenger trips over the five day Labor Day holiday that began on May 1, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier, state media outlet Xinhua reported.
Highway traffic was up 2.1 percent while air trips surged 8.1 percent, Xinhua said.
Domestic airline seat capacity in April was up 1.3 percent on last year, data from consultancy OAG showed.
China’s manufacturing sector continued to see muted recovery in April.
Natural gas imports for April rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier to 10.30 million tonnes, data showed.
Prices of liquefied natural gas for Asia at the end of April were down 11.3 percent on the same period last year, and down 43 percent from last year’s peak in October.
Customs data also showed exports of refined oil products, which include diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, were up 21.46 percent from a year earlier at 4.55 million tonnes.
Coal imports
China’s coal imports rose in April fueled by lower domestic production and greater buying by power generators to swell stockpiles ahead of the peak summer demand season.
Shipments of coal into the world’s largest consumer of the fuel were 45.25 million tonnes last month, up 11 percent from 40.68 million a year earlier.
That was up by 9.4 percent from March and 2 million tonnes less than December’s record of 47.3 million tonnes.
The boost in imports is partly because domestic coal production has not increased to meet demand, said Feng Dongbin, an analyst with consulting firm Fenwei.
China’s coal output fell 4 percent on the year during the first quarter, the most recent data shows, in part because of a string of deadly accidents that forced mines in the top coal-producing province of Shanxi to halt operations for safety inspections.
