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Morocco’s Interior Minister: COVID-19 Remains a Threat

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past closed shops in the Moroccan capital Rabat (AFP)
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past closed shops in the Moroccan capital Rabat (AFP)
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Morocco’s Interior Minister: COVID-19 Remains a Threat

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past closed shops in the Moroccan capital Rabat (AFP)
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past closed shops in the Moroccan capital Rabat (AFP)

Morocco’s Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said his country took necessary and precautionary measures in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which yielded positive results.

However, he warned that there remains a danger as long as the virus continues to spread, even if controlled, among citizens and around the world.

Laftit was speaking at a session of the House of Representatives during which he called for strict adherence to all the precautionary measures, namely social distancing, hygiene, and wearing of masks.

“The strategy adopted by Morocco to curb the spread of COVID-19 is based on measures aimed at safeguarding public health and strengthening social and economic aspects during the various phases of the fight against the pandemic,” the minister said.

Laftit pointed out that the pandemic tested the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative institutions, as well as the values of the Moroccan society. He praised the national widespread solidarity and mobilization towards the initiatives of public authorities.

Morocco was fast in taking proactive measures to preserve the health of the citizens, making it a top priority and major national choice.

Meanwhile, government spokesman Saaid Amzazi announced that the government will soon ease its restrictions and resume industrial and commercial activities to revive the national economy and limit the economic and social repercussions of COVID-19.

“The government has decided to gradually ease the quarantine measures according to zones and over phases, taking into account the evolution of the epidemiological indicators which have witnessed a positive trend to date”, Amzazi said in a statement to MAP.

These indicators are based on the number of new confirmed cases, whose rate remains very low despite the increase in the number of screening tests performed in the country that reach more than 17,000 per day, and the continuous decrease of active cases at the national level.

“Besides, the reproduction rate of the virus has reached a very reassuring level,” the spokesman explained, stressing that the set goal has been achieved nationally.

Amazazi added that the results of the evaluation will enable the reclassification of the provinces and zones either by including employment in Zone 1 instead of Zone 2 or vice versa.

The minister also recalled the differences between Zone 1 and Zone 2, announced during the state of emergency extension on June 9.

Zone 1 contains regions where the situation is “completely under control.” The zone includes seven regions and 59 prefectures and provinces, representing 80 percent of Moroccan regions and provinces, 95 percent of Morocco’s territory, and 61 percent of the population.

Zone 2, where the situation is partially under control, includes five regions and 16 provinces and prefectures but hosts approximately 87 percent of the country’s COVID-19 cases.

The government would also ease quarantine measures, thus lifting restrictions on many facilities and activities.

This will enable entering the second stage during which the country will allow domestic tourism, some gatherings with limited numbers, as well as cultural and sporting activities.

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Arab World

UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)

UN experts on Thursday called for an international investigation into the death of three Lebanese journalists in an Israeli strike, saying Israel had not provided "credible evidence" of their alleged links to armed groups.

The three journalists, including Ali Shoeib, a star correspondent for Al Manar channel of Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, were killed on March 28 in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.

"We denounce strongly what has now become a standard, dangerous practice of Israel to target and kill journalists and then claim, without providing any credible evidence, that they were involved with armed groups," the experts said in a statement.

The Israeli army had described Shoeib as a member of the Radwan force, an elite Hezbollah unit, operating "under the guise of a journalist".

According to the experts, Israel's only so-called "evidence" for its claims was a photoshopped image of the journalist.

Israel also confirmed it killed journalist Fatima Ftouni of Al Mayadeen, seen as close to Hezbollah, and her brother cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, describing him as "an additional terrorist in Hezbollah's military wing".

The experts argued that working as a journalist for a media outlet linked to an armed group does not constitute direct participation in hostilities under international humanitarian law.

"Israeli officials know this, yet they choose to ignore it -- emboldened by impunity for their previous killings of journalists in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank."

At least 231 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since 2023, including 210 in Gaza and 11 in Lebanon, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Although appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the UN.

Arab World

European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
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European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)

Eighteen European countries on Thursday urged Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting as their latest conflict reached one month and with fears over Israeli plans to occupy part of southern Lebanon post-war. 

"Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah's attacks must cease," the foreign ministers of the countries including Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Ireland said in a joint statement. 

"We urge Israel to fully respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and call on all parties, both Hezbollah and Israel, to halt military action," the statement said. 

Lebanon was sucked into the Middle East war after Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. 

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive. 

Lebanese authorities say the hostilities have so far killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than one million others. 

The European ministers said they were "appalled by the dramatic situation" in Lebanon and called for an end to "unjustified and unacceptable" attacks on civilian targets such as healthcare personnel, aid workers and journalists. 

They pledged to continue providing humanitarian relief for the Lebanese population and called on the international community "to mobilize further" to help the country. 

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the current war against Hezbollah has ended. 

The comments have raised fears for the area's fate following the last Israeli occupation that lasted nearly two decades. 

The European nations "strongly encouraged" Israel to hold direct negotiations with the Lebanese authorities and said reform efforts by Lebanon's government "must be supported instead of being undermined". 

"Efforts to support stabilization in Lebanon are instrumental to lasting peace and security in the Middle East. De-escalation is urgently needed. Diplomacy must prevail," they said. 

The countries include Spain, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovenia and Sweden. 

Arab World

War Crimes Complaint Filed in France Over 2024 Deadly Israeli Strike in Beirut

A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
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War Crimes Complaint Filed in France Over 2024 Deadly Israeli Strike in Beirut

A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)

A complaint filed Thursday in France seeks a war crimes investigation into an Israeli strike on a Beirut apartment building in November 2024 said to have killed seven civilians including the parents of a French-Lebanese artist, a human rights group said.

The artist, Ali Cherri, and the International Federation for Human Rights, or FIDH, said the complaint was filed with France’s war crimes unit in Paris against unknown perpetrators over the strike in Beirut’s Noueiri neighborhood, just hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.

The human rights group said the strike hit at about 5:30 p.m. and destroyed a ninth-floor apartment owned by Cherri, as well as apartments on the seventh and eighth floors. The group identified the dead as Cherri’s parents, Mahmoud Naim Cherri and Nadira Hayek, and domestic worker Birki Negesa, among others.

“We want an investigation to help us clear up the facts and understand why civilians were targeted in this horrific way,” Cherri told The Associated Press.

The filing argues that the bombing of a civilian building could constitute a war crime under French criminal law and international humanitarian law. FIDH said it draws in part on analysis by human rights groups Forensic Architecture and Amnesty International.

Amnesty International said Thursday it supported the case and that its own investigation found no evidence of a military objective in or near the building at the time of the strike. It also said civilians received no effective advance warning and that the attack should be investigated as a war crime.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry referred questions about the case to Israel’s military, which did not immediately respond Thursday, a religious holiday in Israel. Israel’s military has previously said it follows international legal norms and strikes only legitimate military targets.

On the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024.

Around 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during that conflict while 47 Israeli civilians and more than 80 Israeli soldiers were killed before the Nov. 2024 ceasefire.

Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, a new war has erupted between Israel and Hezbollah. On March 2, Hezbollah began firing salvos of missiles across the border.

Israel has since launched aerial bombardment of large swathes of Lebanon and launched a ground invasion. More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than a million displaced in Lebanon to date.

According to FIDH, French courts do not have jurisdiction over the killings themselves because the dead were not French nationals. But it said Cherri’s dual French-Lebanese nationality gives French authorities jurisdiction to investigate the bombing of the apartment he owned.

The group also said no legal proceedings had been initiated in Lebanon or abroad to date over the attack.

“It’s going to be a long process, and probably with no cooperation from the Israelis,” Cherri said. “But it’s important to seek justice and to stop the cycle of impunity.”

Cherri, a Paris-based artist and filmmaker originally from Beirut, has said he is seeking recognition and accountability over the attack that killed his family members and other civilians.