Author: Anadolu Agency
Greece announced on Monday a national strategy to address internet addiction and excessive social media usage among minors, state news agency AMNA reported. Speaking at the launch event, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “It is the image of children glued to a mobile phone who lose touch with the world. We discover along the way that they have severe psychological problems – depression, isolation, distraction. It has to do with the dark side of technology.” Maintaining that a universal ban would not be ineffective, he said the examination of the state’s regulatory role and holding the companies that design algorithms…
Azerbaijan said on Monday that Moscow had promised to punish those responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that Baku says was shot at by Russian air defences. The AZAL Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Moscow accept responsibility for mistakenly firing on the plane as it tried to make a scheduled landing at Grozny airport in south Russia. Russia has not confirmed that one of its air-defence missiles hit the plane, though President Vladimir Putin told Aliyev in a…
Many Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody have gone unaccounted for with the army denying any knowledge about their whereabouts, according to Israeli media on Monday. “The fate of many Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the Israeli army is unknown,” Haaretz newspaper said. “The army claims there is no indication that those Palestinians have been detained, despite the fact that they were last seen by the soldiers or before their arrest,” it added. The newspaper said Palestinians and rights groups have filed 27 petitions to Israeli courts to know the fate of those detainees. “Most of these petitions, however,…
A group of UN experts on Monday said that Israel “must face the consequences” of its campaign to undermine the legal framework for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts as the military aggression continues unabated. “As we have repeatedly reminded Israel, international humanitarian law comprises a set of universal and binding rules to protect civilian objects and persons who are not, or are no longer, directly participating in hostilities and limits permissible means and methods of warfare,” the experts said in a statement. “Rather than abide by these rules, Israel has openly defied international law time and again, inflicting…
An Israeli soldier was killed and seven others injured, including three in critical condition, on Monday when a house sheltering soldiers in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, was hit by an anti-tank missile, according to multiple sources. The Israeli military identified the fallen soldier as Sergeant Uriel Peretz, 23, from the Beitar Illit settlement near Jerusalem. He served in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion (97th) under the Kfir Brigade. In the same attack, three other members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion sustained severe injuries and were taken to an Israeli hospital, the military said in a statement on X. While the army…
The spiritual leader of the Druze community expressed Syrians’ desire to establish a state that upholds the rule of law, embraces all its citizens and safeguards Syria’s sovereignty both within and beyond its borders. “Syrians want the establishment of a state that upholds the rule of law, is inclusive of all its people … and where everyone feels like a citizen,” Hikmet Selman al-Hijri told Anadolu. He said that minorities in Syria had not experienced such sectarian divisions until Bashar al-Assad’s regime came to power. “The Syrian regime promoted itself with labels such as a national, revolutionary, and that as…
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria’s new administration, vowed Sunday that his government would prevent the terrorist group PKK/YPG from using Syria as a base of operations. Speaking to the Saudi Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath television channel, al-Sharaa laid out his vision for Syria’s future, highlighting plans for constitutional reforms and elections. Stressing that Kurds are an integral part of Syria, al-Sharaa said his administration would not allow the country to serve as a base for the terrorist PKK/YPG and reiterated that Syria must remain united. Addressing ongoing negotiations with the terrorist PKK/YPG, which also operates under the name SDF, he said the…
The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders Sunday evening for civilians northwest of Gaza City ahead of imminent attacks in the area. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered residents in areas classified as D1 and D3, including Al-Nasr area, Al-Awda City, and Al-Murabitin neighborhood, to leave immediately and move to shelters in the center of Gaza City. The spokesman claimed that the move followed rocket fire from these areas towards Israel. Over the past months, the Israeli military has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for Palestinian residents in large areas across Gaza before carrying out military operations. Displaced civilians in Gaza typically…
At least 13 Palestinians, including children, were killed and several others injured in Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, a medical source said. Fighter jets hit a home in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, leaving six people dead, the source said. A mother and her three children were among the victims, while several people were injured in the attack, it added. Medics and residents were unable to reach the site to rescue the wounded due to the intensive Israeli bombardment, according to eyewitnesses. Seven people, including children, also lost their lives in Israeli artillery shelling in the…
One more Israeli soldier was killed and another injured in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, the army said on Sunday. A military statement said the soldier, from the army’s 9th Battalion in the 401st Brigade, lost his life in clashes in northern Gaza, without giving further details. Another soldier from the 931st Battalion was seriously wounded in clashes in northern Gaza, the army said in another statement. According to Israeli military figures, at least 824 soldiers have been killed and 5,541 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli army has continued…