Middle East

Demonstrators block roads, high schools cancel classes as judges decide whether to renew permit for hazardous facility By Times of Israel staff The ammonia storage tank in the northern city of Haifa. (Courtesy of Environmental Protection Ministry) Thousands of protesters filled the streets of Haifa Sunday morning demanding the closure of an ammonia storage tank

Former Palestinian Authority official Ashraf al-Ajami participated on Saturday in Arab-Jewish “Shabatarbut” (Culture on the Sabbath, events planned to include the secular) event in Acre. The event was led by Arab MK Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union), and attended by Coalition Chairman David Bitan (Likud) who shook hands with al-Ajami and posed with him in a

Dozens of Lebanese citizens protested on Saturday near the Lebanese-Israeli border. Some of them crossed the border with Israel near the Israeli village of Kibbutz Manara. IDF forces pushed the crowds back using tear gas and smoke grenades. On Wednesday, Arab media reported that IDF planes attacked Syrian army targets on the Lebanese border and

Cairo (dpa) – Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi ordered the government on Saturday to take all necessary measures to help Christians who escaped northern Sinai after the Islamic State militia killed at least six of them over the past month. This is the first official response by the state to the attacks targeting Christians in

US-backed Iraqi forces have pushed deeper into western Mosul on Saturday, after retaking the city’s airport from the self-styled Islamic State. Troops have also advanced into several populated built-up southern districts in the so-called Islamic State’s last major stronghold in the country. An alliance of government-sanctioned Shi’ite militias have been launching their own push west

An IS group video directed at Coptic Christians, the discovery of a shoulder-fired missile launcher near Cairo airport and recent killings have raised fears of increased terrorist activity in Egypt and resulted in Sinai Copts fleeing their homes. The Islamic State group released a video on Sunday declaring it would specifically target Christians in Egypt.

Damascus (dpa) – Forty-two security personnel were killed Saturday in synchronized attacks targeting government security facilities in the Syrian city of Homs, a monitoring group said, with up to six suicide bombers reported to be involved. The dead included the chief of a branch of the military intelligence service, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights