CAIRO: One of the sons of Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak has said his 78-year-old mother and former first lady is in hospital.

Alaa Mubarak tweeted that Suzanne Mubarak was in intensive care but did not elaborate on her illness. 

He sought to reassure his followers and tweeted: “Things will be fine, God willing!”

During Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-long rule, his wife had enjoyed significant political power and championed several projects, including efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation.

The 91-year-old Mubarak was ousted in the 2011 uprising that swept Egypt as part of the Arab Spring uprisings across
the region. 

He was sentenced to life imprisonment but later retried and subsequently acquitted and released in 2017.

Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were both convicted and served terms for corruption.

AL-QARARA, Gaza Strip: Mohammed Abu Amra and his wife, Marwa, had not even finished their honeymoon when they found themselves without a house, after Israeli warplanes turned the family building in Al-Qarara in the southern Gaza Strip to rubble.

Mohammed, 34, had worked and saved to pay for his wedding and apartment for three years. In moments, it was gone.

Since Wednesday, Mohammed, Marwa, and his large family of 20 have been crammed into a small shack, after Israel escalated activities in Gaza after the assassination of a senior military leader of the group Islamic Jihad.

“We became displaced, and the work of years now lies in the ruins of the house, with all our furniture, possessions, even our identity papers,” Mohammed told Arab News.

The couple were dreaming of a calm and stable life. Mohammed is in shock, and does not know what to expect in the coming days, while his bride Marwa suffered “severe psychological trauma” after the attack.  “I dreamed that my happiness would last with my wife, that the honeymoon would be completed and that our days would become more beautiful, but the work of years was destroyed,” he said.

With sadness and pain, Mohammed remembers the moment of the bombing of his house, built by his father three decades ago to house his children and grandchildren.

“That night, my father’s cell phone rang from someone who identified himself as an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officer, who asked my father to leave the house within seven minutes,” he added.

Hamouda Abu Amra, Mohammed’s father, took up the tale of the fateful night.

“At that point, I only had minutes to save my family. I screamed at them to evacuate, and rushed to the neighbors.

“I received a second call from the officer, who told me that they would bomb the house within two minutes. Then I remembered that Mohammed and his bride were still in their apartment. I rushed and brought them out with nothing but the clothes they had on.”

Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip since the 2014 war, informing residents of the need to evacuate minutes before destroying targets.

“We gathered, my family and my neighbors, 200 meters from the house. A drone fired a warning missile, then a warplane fired two missiles,” Hamouda said.

The IDF launched an operation in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday last week, with the assassination of the commander of the northern Al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, Bahaa Abu Al-Atta and his wife.

Thirty-four Palestinians, including eight children and three women, have since been killed and 109 others injured. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza announced that Israeli airstrikes destroyed had 30 housing units completely and 500 others partially were damaged.

BERLIN: The EU should recognize a Palestinian state after the US expressed support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

Monday’s announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo abandoned the position that settlements in Israeli-occupied territory were “inconsistent with international law,” reversing a stand taken under President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

Palestinians say the settlements jeopardize their goal of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the US move will make an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal even more elusive.

“Recognizing Palestine as a state would be neither a favor nor a carte blanche but rather a mere recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to its own state,” Asselborn said. 

“It would not be meant against Israel,” he added, but a measure intended to pave the way for a two-state solution.

The US decision was a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is struggling to remain in power after two inconclusive Israeli elections this year, and a defeat for the Palestinians.

It could deliver a new blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a peace plan that has been in the works for more than two years but has drawn widespread skepticism even before its release.

The EU said after the US announcement that it continued to believe that Israeli settlement building in occupied Palestinian territory was illegal under international law.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution in 2014 supporting Palestinian statehood in principle. The motion was a compromise reached after lawmakers on the left sought to urge the EU’s 28 member states to recognize Palestine unconditionally.

Since the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks in 2014, Israel has pressed on with building settlements in territory the Palestinians want for their future state.

More than 135 countries already recognize a Palestinian state, including several East European countries that did so before they joined the EU.

Netanyahu’s chief rival announced that he had failed to form a new government, dashing his hopes of toppling the long-time Israeli prime minister and pushing the country closer toward an unprecedented third election in less than a year.

The announcement by Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, prolongs the political paralysis that has gripped the nation for the past year. It also provides a new lifeline for the embattled Netanyahu, who is desperate to remain in office as he prepares for an expected indictment on corruption charges, possibly as early as Thursday.

Gantz, a former military chief, was tapped to form a government last month after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a coalition in the wake of inconclusive
September elections. 

But during four weeks of intense negotiations, Gantz was unable to muster the support of a required 61-member majority in the 120-seat parliament by Wednesday’s midnight deadline.

Addressing reporters, Gantz accused Netanyahu of scuttling attempts to form a broad-based unity government between
their parties.

“He should have come to terms with the fact that the outcome of the elections required him to negotiate directly, with no blocks or barriers,” Gantz said angrily.

“Most of the people chose a liberal unity government headed by Blue and White,” he added. 

“Most of the people voted to weaken the power of extremists, and most of the people voted to go on a different path from that of Netanyahu in recent years.”

JEDDAH: US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday expressed support for anti-government protesters in Iran. 

Trump said Iran is so “unstable” that the government has shut down the Internet so Iranians cannot disclose what he says is the “tremendous violence” occurring in the country.

Trump tweeted Thursday that the Iranian government wants “ZERO transparency” and believes that by shutting down the Internet the rest of the world will not find out about the “death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime is causing!”

Pence, also in a tweet, he said: “As Iranians take to the streets … the Ayatollahs in Tehran continue to use violence and imprisonment to oppress their people. The United States’ message is clear: The American people stand with the people of Iran.”

More than 100 protesters have been killed by security forces, according to Amnesty International. The EU, France, Germany and human-rights organizations have condemned the use of lethal force against the protesters.

The unrest erupted on Nov. 15 after the government announced gasoline price hikes of at least 50 percent. Protests began in several provincial areas before spreading to about 100 cities and towns across the country. They soon turned political, with protesters demanding top officials step down.

On Thursday, the regime began restoring Internet access in Tehran and a number of provinces, following a nationwide shutdown designed to stifle the unrest.

The blockage made it difficult for protesters to post videos on social media to generate support, and to obtain reliable reports on the extent of the unrest.

Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks said the restoration of connectivity in Iran was only partial, covering about 10 percent of the country.

Meanwhile, the UN nuclear watchdog’s top inspector will travel to Tehran next week to demand an explanation of the origin of uranium traces found at an undeclared site, the agency’s acting chief said on Thursday.

It was first reported in September that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had found uranium traces at the site. Tehran said the site is a carpet-cleaning facility.

Two weeks ago, the IAEA confirmed that environmental samples taken at an unspecified site had shown traces of uranium that was processed but not enriched.

“We have continued our interactions with Iran since then, but have not received any additional information and the matter remains unresolved,” acting IAEA Director General Cornel Feruta told a quarterly meeting of his agency’s 35-nation board of governors in Vienna.

Feruta told Iran in September that “time is of the essence” in clearing up the origin of the traces. 

The IAEA has not been convinced by Tehran’s explanations.

“A meeting between the agency and Iran is scheduled next week in Tehran to discuss it further,” Feruta said. “It is essential that Iran works with the agency to resolve this matter promptly.”

LONDON: Britain urged Israel to halt its “counterproductive” settlement expansion on Thursday, saying it was illegal under international law.
The Foreign Office reiterated its position on the settlements after the United States on Monday effectively backed Israel’s right to build Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The position of the UK on settlements is clear,” it said in a statement. “They are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace, and threaten the viability of a two-state solution. We urge Israel to halt its counterproductive settlement expansion.” (Reporting by Kate Holton Editing by William Schomberg)