Middle East Experience

Most users complained of having connectivity issues and claimed the app failed to send messages.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: WhatsApp down, cutting off tens-of-thousands off users

Family Day and Rare Disease Awareness Day coincide on the calendar, and to me, this is an important reminder: Every family is a family, no matter how they came to be. 
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: On Family Day and Rare Disease Awareness Day, we must fight for equality

Miriam’s true strength doesn’t lie in the number of projects she has funded or initiatives she has launched – it lies in her ability to unite, inspire, and act without seeking anything in return.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Miriam Adelson’s legacy: Philanthropy and unwavering commitment

An Egyptian-British mother on hunger strike in protest against the detention of her activist son in Cairo has been given a glucose drip after being hospitalised in London, a campaign group said on Friday.Laila Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike for 152 days and was admitted to London's St Thomas's Hospital late on Monday due to "dangerously new lows" in her blood sugar and sodium levels, as well as her blood pressure.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Hunger-striking mother of jailed UK-Egyptian activist on glucose drip

Eli Sharabi, who was held hostage in Gaza for more than 490 days, has recounted his suffering in captivity in a televised interview, an extract of which was posted on social media by Israel's foreign ministry Friday."For a year and four months my legs were shackled with chains with very, very heavy locks that cut into your flesh," Sharabi said in the interview broadcast late Thursday on Israel's Channel 12.He spoke of intense hunger, food deprivation and the days when the only thing to eat was "this quarter of a pita that you can finish in three bites".
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Released Israeli hostage recounts hunger, chains that 'cut into your flesh'

US President Donald Trump's idea to rebuild the Gaza Strip as a swanky riviera is unacceptable unless it is for Gazans themselves to live in, a Palestinian minister said on Friday."It's very good to rebuild Gaza as a riviera -- but with its people in it," said Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian.Trump's vision for Gaza involves the United States taking over the occupied Palestinian territory, resettling its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere and transforming the war-ravaged strip into a riviera for "world people".
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Trump's Gaza 'riviera' should be for Gazans, says minister

Israel has publicly declared its mistrust of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist faction that led the campaign that toppled Assad.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel lobbies US to keep Russian bases in a 'weak' Syria, sources say

The surviving Bibas patriarch told Sinjilawi how important it was to him that a Palestinian came to visit
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Former Palestinian prisoner visits Bibas family, asks for forgiveness

Amid fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon and shifting dynamics for Iran, Syria and others, the region is preparing for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Muslims across Middle East welcome Ramadan despite war, inflation

The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce is drawing to a close on Saturday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive.The ceasefire took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country's history.Over the initial six-week phase, Gaza militants freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Uncertainty looms as first phase of Gaza truce due to expire