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Palestinians Approve 36 Candidate Groups to Run in May Vote

A picture taken with a drone shows the exterior of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Gaza City March 30, 2021. Picture taken March 30, 2021. (Reuters)
A picture taken with a drone shows the exterior of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Gaza City March 30, 2021. Picture taken March 30, 2021. (Reuters)
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Palestinians Approve 36 Candidate Groups to Run in May Vote

A picture taken with a drone shows the exterior of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Gaza City March 30, 2021. Picture taken March 30, 2021. (Reuters)
A picture taken with a drone shows the exterior of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Gaza City March 30, 2021. Picture taken March 30, 2021. (Reuters)

Palestinian election officials announced Sunday that 36 candidate lists had been approved to run in legislative elections set for next month, the first Palestinian polls in 15 years.

The vote, which precedes a presidential election called for July 31, is part of an effort by the dominant Palestinian movements -- Fatah secularists and Hamas Islamists -- to boost international support for Palestinian governance, AFP reported.

Groups had until Wednesday to submit their lists of candidates to contest in the May 22 legislative polls.

Individual names on each list are due to be published Tuesday, but the Palestinian electoral commission announced on its website that it had approved all 36 applications.

President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is contesting the polls, as is Hamas, which has run the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip since 2007.

Fatah is facing challenges from dissident factions including the Freedom list, led by a nephew of the late Palestinian icon Yasser Arafat, Nasser al-Kidwa.

Freedom has been endorsed by Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader whom supporters have described as the Palestinian Mandela.

Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for allegedly organizing deadly attacks during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) from 2000-2005.

Abbas’s former Gaza security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, is also backing a list of challengers.

Former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, an ex-World Bank official with a track record of fighting corruption, is supporting another.

While Fatah and Hamas have reached an agreement for voting to take place in the West Bank and Gaza, the ability of Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem to vote remains uncertain.

Israel bans all Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem, but Palestinian leaders insist voting be held in the city’s east, which they claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

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Arab World

Israel Says Will Not Allow Gaza-bound Aid Flotilla to Break Its Blockade

This photograph shows Palestinian flags waging as a flotilla depart for Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and activists vowing to try "to break the siege of Gaza", in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on September 12, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows Palestinian flags waging as a flotilla depart for Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and activists vowing to try "to break the siege of Gaza", in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on September 12, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Says Will Not Allow Gaza-bound Aid Flotilla to Break Its Blockade

This photograph shows Palestinian flags waging as a flotilla depart for Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and activists vowing to try "to break the siege of Gaza", in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on September 12, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows Palestinian flags waging as a flotilla depart for Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and activists vowing to try "to break the siege of Gaza", in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on September 12, 2025. (AFP)

Israel vowed on Monday that it would not allow a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid to break its blockade of the Palestinian territory.

"Israel will not allow vessels to enter an active combat zone and will not allow the breach of a lawful naval blockade," the foreign ministry said in a statement, accusing Hamas of organizing the flotilla to serve the group's purpose.

The ministry said the vessels would be allowed to dock at Ashkelon from where the aid could be delivered to Gaza.

"If the flotilla participants' genuine wish is to deliver humanitarian aid rather than serve Hamas, Israel calls on the vessels to dock at the Ashkelon marina and unload the aid there, from where it will be transferred promptly in a coordinated manner to the Gaza Strip," the ministry said.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, also carrying prominent pro-Palestinian advocates including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, set sail for Gaza earlier this month from Tunisia after repeated delays.

It aims to break Israel's siege of Gaza and deliver aid to the territory.

Prior to its departure it said that two of its boats were targeted by drone attacks.

Israel blocked two earlier attempts by activists to reach Gaza by sea in June and July.

Arab World

Syria’s Sharaa, in New York, Renews Call for US to Formally Drop Sanctions

Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
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Syria’s Sharaa, in New York, Renews Call for US to Formally Drop Sanctions

Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa renewed his call on Monday for Washington to formally lift US sanctions imposed under the 2019 Caesar Act while visiting New York to attend the first UN General Assembly of a Syrian leader in nearly six decades. 

Sharaa led opposition forces that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's government last year. US President Donald Trump met him in Riyadh in May and ordered most sanctions lifted but the Caesar Syria Civil Protection Act of 2019 authorizing them remains US law. 

Speaking at a summit on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly, Sharaa said the sanctions imposed on the previous Syrian leadership were no longer justified and were increasingly seen by Syrians as measures targeting them directly. 

"We have a big mission to build the economy," Sharaa said. 

"Syria has a diverse workforce. They love to work, it's in their genes. So don't be worried, just lift the sanctions and you will see the results." 

Sharaa, the first Syrian president to participate in the General Assembly since 1967, is expected to deliver his first address at the General Assembly, which opens its 80th session on Tuesday. 

Members of Congress have been debating whether to repeal the Caesar Act, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Syria under Assad. Some lawmakers, including Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, want its repeal to be included as an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense bill expected to pass by the end of December. 

FROM BATTLEFIELD TO DIALOGUE 

Washington has separately been pressuring Syria to reach a security deal with Israel during the New York meetings this week, Reuters reported. 

Israel and Syria remain formally in a state of war rooted in territorial disputes, military confrontations and deep-seated political mistrust. 

Damascus hopes to secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria. 

Sharaa said those talks had reached an advanced stage and he hoped the outcome would preserve Syria's sovereignty and address Israeli security concerns. 

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, told Axios he would support canceling sanctions against Syria if Sharaa's government officially moved toward a new security deal with Israel and joined a coalition against the ISIS extremist group. 

Asked whether Syria could join the Abraham Accords that some Arab countries have signed to normalize relations with Israel, Sharaa said anger over Israel's occupation of Syrian territory would influence the country's position toward Israel. 

"Israel must withdraw from Syrian land, and security concerns can be addressed in talks. The question is whether Israel’s concerns are truly about security or about expansionist designs — this is what the talks will reveal,” Sharaa said. 

Sharaa was interviewed in New York by retired General David Petraeus, who commanded US forces during the Iraq War, putting the two men on opposing sides as Sharaa joined the insurgency following the 2003 US invasion. 

"It’s good that we were once in the battlefield zone and have now moved to another theater — that of dialogue,” Sharaa told Petraeus. 

Syria remains deeply fractured after 13 years of civil war. 

Sharaa said a deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in control of the northeast of the country, was delayed. 

Calls for decentralization by Kurdish parties were a step toward separation that risked igniting a wider war, he said. "This could present threats to Iraq, Türkiye and even Syria," he added. 

Sharaa later met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York and did not respond to a reporter asking if he was hopeful that the US would lift the sanctions. 

Arab World

At Least 11 Children Killed in El-Fasher Drone Strike, UN Says

Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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At Least 11 Children Killed in El-Fasher Drone Strike, UN Says

Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)

At least 11 children were killed in the Friday drone strike that hit a mosque in the besieged city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the UN children’s agency said Monday.

Local aid groups and activists and the Sudanese army accused the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces of launching the drone that struck the mosque during Fajr prayers early Friday, killing at least 70 people.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell in the Monday statement called the attack “shocking and unconscionable.” Russell said initial reports indicated that at least 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15 were killed and “many more” injured in the attack, which also damaged nearby homes.

The strike in the besieged city of el-Fasher completely destroyed the mosque and many bodies were trapped under rubble, said a worker with the local aid group Emergency Response Rooms on Friday. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the RSF.

The strike comes as the army and the RSF are fighting increasingly intense battles as part of the country’s ongoing civil war. The war has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, displaced as many as 12 million others, and pushed many to the brink of famine.

Three doctors also died in the attack, according to the Preliminary Committee of Sudan’s Doctors Trade Union and Sudan Doctors Network. They were among 231 medical personnel killed since the war in Sudan broke out, according to Sudan Doctors Network.

“The latest attack has torn apart families and shattered any sense of safety for children who have already suffered so much,” said Russell, adding that the RSF's siege of el-Fasher has trapped children who endure violence and have little access to food, clean water and healthcare while being “forced to witness horrors no child should ever see.”

Antoine Gerard, Sudan Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator with the UN, told The Associated Press on Monday that they are seeing more attacks on civilians now inside el-Fasher, who are also struggling to seek safety outside the city due to the siege and lack of safe routes.

“We are quite concerned about targeting civilians, targeting the population and particularly hospital, mosque and schools and any other civilian premises,” he said.

In a statement on Sunday, Sudan’s neighboring nation Egypt condemned the drone strike on the mosque and said it “constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, denouncing the targeting of places of worship and innocent civilians in the conflict.”

Fighting over the control of el-Fasher and surrounding areas in North Darfur intensified by early April and more than 400 civilians have been killed in RSF attacks in the area since April 10, according to a Friday report by the UN's human rights office. The majority were killed in a major offensive that seized the nearby Zamzam displacement camp.

The camp was turned into an RSF military base used to launch assaults on el-Fasher, according to the report.