Recent fighting surrounding Syria’s capital of Damascus has cut 161,000 people in Douma and 142,000 people in Kafr Batna off from humanitarian aid. Conflict has destroyed supply routes that were used by convoys to deliver food and other supplies, and now supplies are dwindling. Even if the convoys were guaranteed safety while delivering supplies, the Syrian government has not green… Read more »
Reuters: Fighting around Syria’s capital Damascus has cut 300,000 people off from humanitarian aid and pauses in the conflict are needed to let aid convoys in, Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian advisor on Syria, said on Thursday.
Reuters: About 400,000 Iraqi civilians are trapped in the Islamic State-held Old City of western Mosul, short of food and basic needs as the battle between the militants and government forces rages around them, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday.
BBC: Fifteen militants were killed and seven others arrested during the operation, according to a statement.
Al Jazeera: A Palestinian teen has been killed and two other men wounded by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to health officials.
At the end of 2016, a $5 billion dollar foreign aid package expired and now Jordan’s economy is seeing the consequences. In an effort to reduce the Jordanian budget deficit of 827 million Jordanian dollars, or $1.2 billion, the Jordanian government approved the 2017 budget which seeks to raise $643 million in taxes and tariffs on food items, fuel, commodities,… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Unidentified gunmen have opened fire on a convoy carrying the prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, in Tripoli without causing any casualties, according to his administration.
Al Jazeera: Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-US secretary of state John Kerry, former US officials confirmed.
Al Jazeera: Aid organisations are racing against the clock to prepare for what is expected to be a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of civilians from Mosul as Iraqi forces advance west of Mosul in the final stage of the battle for Mosul to recapture the city from the Islamic State or Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Amman – Protests are erupting across Jordan in response to rising prices and the government’s decision to raise taxes on food items and services that was enacted last week.