RAMALLAH: Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have launched a protest campaign against punitive measures brought in by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Widespread demonstrations have led to increased tensions in prisons, and a situation that Palestinian prisoner affairs officials on Thursday warned could boil over if not addressed.

Protests erupted after the Israeli Prisons Administration began imposing collective punishment against Palestinians including by closing canteens and other facilities on Friday and Saturday.

CAIRO: A concert held on Monday at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, southern Egypt, in the presence of 3,000 people, has sparked widespread controversy on social media.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities organized the event, with some calling it an effective way to promote tourism, but others saw it as extremely harmful to the area not befitting its prestige. 

WASHINGTON: As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt worldwide, countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which was already the most water-scarce region in the world, are facing ever-greater depletion of their water resources.

Meanwhile economic instability often stands in the way of effective water-related development and management programs.

These were among the key messages from an online panel discussion hosted by Middle East Institute in Washington on Wednesday.

DUBAI: Seif Al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer and a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda with a $10 million US bounty on his head, is now the “uncontested” leader of the militant group, according to a new UN report on the organization.

Al-Qaeda has not formally named a successor for Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who was believed to have been killed in a US missile strike in Kabul last year, dealing a blow to the organization since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

QAMISHLI, SYRIA: More than a week after twin earthquakes devastated parts of southeastern Turkiye and northwestern Syria, the death toll continues to rise by the hour. As of Tuesday, the total reported dead in the two countries stood at over 41,000, with tens of thousands more people injured.

Although the number of confirmed fatalities is lower in Syria — about 5,814 compared with 35,418 in Turkiye — more than a decade of civil war has left the country wholly unprepared to cope with a disaster of this magnitude.