Myanmar junta leader casts doubt on return of Rohingya
FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugee children look on at the Jamtoli camp in the morning in Cox s Bazar, Bangladesh, January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain reuters tickers
This content was published on May 24, 2021 - 11:17
May 24, 2021 - 11:17
(Reuters) - Myanmar s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing cast doubt on the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled to Bangladesh in comments made in his first interview since taking power in a Feb. 1 coup.
Min Aung Hlaing was asked by Chinese-language Phoenix television whether the Muslims could be allowed back to Rakhine State - from where most fled an army crackdown in 2017 that U.N. investigators said had genocidal intent .
Gaza truce holds as Israel admits Jewish visitors to flashpoint site
A Palestinian girl carries a boy amid the rubble of their houses which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza May 23, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem reuters tickers
This content was published on May 23, 2021 - 10:22
May 23, 2021 - 10:22
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) - The Israel-Hamas ceasefire held into a third day on Sunday as Israeli police admitted Jewish visitors to a contested Jerusalem holy site where earlier confrontations with Palestinian protesters helped to ignite the cross-border Gaza fighting.
Police reported no unusual incidents at the al-Aqsa mosque compound - one of Islam s holiest sites - as Israeli social media accounts showed a few dozen Jews in religious garb strolling around the site under guard.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Egyptian mediators sought to reinforce a day-old ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants on Saturday, and aid officials appealed for a period of calm to start tackling a humanitarian crisis in Gaza after 11 days of fighting. The ceasefire, which began before dawn on Friday, was still holding on Saturday evening, enabling officials to start assessing the scale of the damage. Despite confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters at a Jerusalem holy site on Friday, there were no reports of Hamas rocket launches from Gaza or Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian enclave overnight or on Saturday. Rockets fired by Hamas and other Islamist militant groups paralysed towns in southern Israel during the hostilities, and caused widespread panic, but did much less damage than the bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials put reconstruction costs at tens of millions of dollars in Gaza, where me
Touring Gaza, regional U.N. humanitarian chief presses both sides over ceasefire
Lynn Hastings, the Head of the humanitarian operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, visits Gaza City May 22, 2021. REUTERS/Nidal al-Mughrabi reuters tickers
This content was published on May 22, 2021 - 14:40
May 22, 2021 - 14:40
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - After touring rubble-strewn areas of Gaza hit by air strikes during fighting between Israel and Hamas, the top U.N. aid official in the region appealed to both sides on Saturday to observe a ceasefire as aid teams assess the damage.
The ceasefire, which began early on Friday, ended 11 days of Israeli aerial attacks and barrages of rockets fired at Israel by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.