Category: Middle East

LONDON: In a bid to protect the rights of children, Kuwait recently raised the minimum age of marriage to 18. However, the fight against child marriage across the Arab world remains an uphill battle, particularly in conflict-ridden regions.

In mid-February, Kuwait amended its Personal Status Law No. 51/1984 and Jaafari Personal Status Law No. 124/2019, citing alarming rates of child marriage. In 2024 alone, 1,145 underage marriages were registered, including 1,079 girls and 66 boys.

KHARTOUM: Three civilians including two children were killed Sunday in an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, a medical source told AFP.
Eyewitnesses in the area reported seven rounds of shelling rocking residential neighborhoods controlled by the army, which in recent days regained most of central Khartoum’s government district from the RSF.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed Sunday in an Israeli drone strike, a day after the most intense escalation since a November ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
“The Israeli enemy raid with a drone on a car in Aita Al-Shaab led to the death of one citizen,” the health ministry said, after the official National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike on the southern village.
The NNA also reported separate Israeli strikes on Sunday on Naqurah, Shihin and Labbouneh in the south, near the Israeli border.

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Sunday pending trial, state media and other broadcasters said, in a move likely to stoke the country’s biggest protests in more than decade.
The decision to send Imamoglu — who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival — to prison comes after the main opposition party, European leaders and tens of thousands of protesters criticized the actions against him as politicized.

Jerusalem: Israel’s military said early on Sunday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded in several areas across the country.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli Air Force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
The latest interception is part of an escalation between Israel and the Houthis after the Iran-backed group claimed a series of missile launches this week.

DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 26 Palestinians overnight into Sunday, including a Hamas political leader and several women and children. The military sent ground troops into part of the southern city of Rafah as thousands of Palestinians heeded new evacuation orders.

Baghdad: In a Baghdad arena, a crowd cheers to the rhythm of drums, not for a football match but for a fiery centuries-old game enjoyed by Iraqis during Ramadan called “mheibes.”
“It’s a heritage game, the game of our ancestors, which unites all Iraqis,” said Jassem Al-Aswad, a longtime mheibes champion in his early seventies and now president of the game’s national federation.
The game involves members of one team hiding a ring — “mehbis” in Arabic — and the captain of the opposing team trying to guess who has it in the palm of his hand.

ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors have asked a court to jail Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and four of his aides pending trial on terrorism and corruption charges, Imamoglu’s office said, as thousands of people across the nation protest what they call his undemocratic detention.
Imamoglu, a key opposition figure and potential challenger to President Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday for charges such as graft and aiding a terrorist group.

JERUSALEM: Israel will keep striking Hamas targets in Gaza to ensure the return of hostages, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, as European countries called for a ceasefire and access for aid supplies.
Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, said military pressure pushed Hamas to accept the first truce in November 2023, in which some 80 hostages were returned. He said this was also the surest way to force release of the remaining 59 hostages.

JERUSALEM: The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognize more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighborhoods to independent settlement status.
The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of “disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions,” said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.