GAZA: In a wooden shack in the Gaza Strip, a 13-year-old girl holds classes for neighborhood children who have missed out on their studies since schools were closed in March due to the novel coronavirus crisis.
Only 20 people have tested positive for the virus in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, where cross-border traffic has long been limited by Israel and Egypt and those entering Gaza in recent months have gone into quarantine.
Fajr Hmaid, who hopes to become a professional teacher one day, provides English, Arabic and math lessons to a class that has grown from four pupils to 15.
“I wanted to bring them here and teach them, this is my talent,” Hmaid said, wearing a white head-covering in the religiously conservative enclave.
“I have one girl in first grade. If she is absent from school for a period of time, she will forget how to grab the pen and how to write.”
Gaza teachers have also been giving lessons online during the health crisis.
Fajr’s father, Bandar Hmaid, said he was fine with the role his daughter has taken on.
“I said okay — but don’t make noise,” he said.

DUBAI: The UAE will extend a nightly curfew by two hours starting this week after reporting an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
The curfew, which currently runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., would start at 8 p.m. as of Wednesday until further notice, Saif Al-Dhaheri, spokesman for the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, said on Monday.
The renewed restrictions will also cover the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which is set to start on either May 22 or 23. 
Malls and shopping centers would be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. as part of the changes, Al-Daheri said.
Supermarkets can continue to operate 24 hours, as well as restaurants, which can continue to provide takeaway meals. 
Authorities urged people to avoid handing out “Eideya” money – a sum given to children in celebration of Eid – to avoid physical contact with money where possible. It is advised to use electronic transfer instead.
The UAE on Monday reported 832 new infections and four deaths from the virus to take its overall count to 24,190 cases with 224 deaths.

DUBAI: The Middle East media giant, MBC Group has condemned the attacks on its Iraq offices in Baghdad on Monday.
The attacks left considerable damage to the equipment and studios, and the group asked local authorities to investigate the matter.
There has been no official statement on the perpetrotrators of the attack yet.

MBC Group strongly condemns the deliberate attack that has targeted MBC IRAQ’s studios and offices in Baghdad today, which has resulted in severe damage to studio and office property.
In terms of immediate action, MBC Group places the matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities, trusting in its security protocols, as well as judicial process, in order to protect MBC IRAQ’s employees and the organisation, which operates in Iraq in accordance with the laws and regulations of the country. 
MBC Group hopes to receive full details of the circumstances of the attack at the earliest, and work with the authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable, as well as bring them to justice, in order to prevent similar attacks in the future.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior released a statement on their website, which stated that they will investigate the matter and find the perpetrators.

While we affirm and guarantee the right to peaceful protest by legitimate means, we reject any outlawed aggression or behavior against the media or private and public property and it will be dealt with in accordance with the laws in force.  Ensuring the freedom and security of the media is part of the responsibility of the security forces, and the regulation of the work of the media is the responsibility of the Communication and Media Commission, which started with legal measures to address what was issued earlier from the Middle East TV network (MBC)

Dozens of demonstrators were protesting in front of the channel’s headquarters in Baghdad as they considered the channel’s portrayal of slain Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis an “insult,” local media reported.
The Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi leader was killed alongside top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.
MBC has aired a program – called Malek Beltawila – which discussed in one of the episodes how the wife of a famous Arab poet was killed in the 1981 attack on Iraq’s embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The show said that Al-Muhandis was involved in the planning of the attack.

DUBAI: MBC Group condemned the attacks on its Iraq offices in Baghdad on Monday, a press release by the company said.
The attack has caused considerable damage to the equipment and studios, and the group asked local authorities to investigate the matter.

No official statement on the perpetrotrators of the attack yet.

JERUSALEM: An Israeli district court on Monday convicted a Jewish extremist of murder in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents, a case that had sent shock waves through Israel and helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The court ruled that the Jewish settler Amiram Ben-Uliel hurled firebombs late one night into a West Bank home in July 2015 as a family slept, killing 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived.
“This trial won’t bring my family back,” Hussein Dawabsheh, the toddler’s grandfather, said outside the courtroom in central Israel. “But I don’t want another family to go through the trauma that I have.”
At the time of the arson killing, Israel was dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists. But the deadly firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma touched a particularly sensitive nerve.
The attack was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged “zero tolerance” in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Investigators placed several suspects under “administrative detention,” a measure typically reserved for alleged Palestinian militants that allows authorities to hold suspects for months without charge.
“This was an attack with racist motives,” said prosecutor Yael Atzmon. “The court ruled it as a terrorist attack and this sends an important message that terror is terror and the identity of the perpetrators is irrelevant.”
Critics, however, noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double-standard, where suspected Palestinian militants are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country’s criminal laws.
Ben-Uliel’s lawyers, however, claimed their client was severely tortured and that was how his confession was exacted. They did not offer evidence for their claim but said they were not surprised by the verdict and would appeal. There was no immediate word on when the sentencing would take place.
“We hope that the Supreme Court will overturn the judgment,” said Yitzhak Baum, one of his lawyers.
The Shin Bet internal security service had said Ben-Uliel confessed to planning and carrying out the attack, and that two others were accessories. It said he claimed the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier.
Ben-Uliel belonged to a movement known as the “Hilltop Youth,” a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops — land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
As the judges walked into the court, the 25-year-old Ben-Uliel sat slouched in the dock, a large white skullcap on his head and blue mask on his face, reading what looked to be a biblical text. He was exonerated of the charge of belonging to a terrorist organization.