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Moroccan King, French President Inaugurate Al Boraq High Speed Train

Thursday's launch marks the end of a seven-year project [Youssef Boudlal/Reuters]
Thursday's launch marks the end of a seven-year project [Youssef Boudlal/Reuters]
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Moroccan King, French President Inaugurate Al Boraq High Speed Train

Thursday's launch marks the end of a seven-year project [Youssef Boudlal/Reuters]
Thursday's launch marks the end of a seven-year project [Youssef Boudlal/Reuters]

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated on Thursday Morocco’s first high-speed rail line, the first ever such line in Africa.

The project required an investment of USD2.3 billion of which 51 percent was financed by France, 27 percent by Morocco and 22 percent by four sovereign Gulf funds.

The Moroccan and French leaders boarded the train in Tangier after they were handed tickets by Director General of the National Railway Office Mohamed Rabie Khlie, according to State agency MAP.

The new railway linking Casablanca to Tangier through Rabat and Kenitra will be a landmark in the field of road transportation of passengers in Morocco.

The French president arrived Wednesday in Tangier Airport in a short visit to Morocco, in which the Elysee statement revealed that Macron is committed to another event in Paris during the same day.

This achievement required 11 years to be completed since sealing the agreement in 2007 during a visit to Morocco by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy – construction works commenced in 2011 because the project was supposed to be inaugurated in 2015.

The high-speed train can run up to 320km/h reducing the journey time from Tangier to Kenitra then up to 180km/h between Kenitra, Casablanca passing through Rabat.

According to Morocco’s National Railway Office (ONCF), the trip duration between Tangier and Kenitra will be reduced from 3.15 hr to only 47 minutes thanks to Al Boraq. As for the trip duration from Rabat to Tangier then it will become 1.20 hr instead of 3.45 hr. Once the railway is fully completed in 2020, the trip duration between Rabat and Tangier will take one hour only. After the trip from Casablanca to Tangier was 4.45 hr, it will become 2.10 hr and in 2020 only 1.30 hr.

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Arab World

Explosion at Mosque in Syria’s Homs Kills Three, Says Local Official

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Explosion at Mosque in Syria’s Homs Kills Three, Says Local Official

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)

Three people were ​killed and five injured when an explosion struck a mosque ‌the ⁠Syrian ​province ‌of Homs on Friday, a local official said.

Syrian state media said ⁠security forces had ‌imposed a ‍cordon around ‍the area ‍and were investigating.

Local officials told Reuters it ​may have been caused by ⁠a suicide bomber or explosives placed there.

Arab World

Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
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Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

A major Gaza hospital has suspended several services because of a critical fuel shortage in the devastated Palestinian territory, which continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis, it said.

Devastated by more than two years of war, the Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat cares for around 60 in-patients and receives nearly 1,000 people seeking medical treatment each day.

"Most services have been temporarily stopped due to a shortage of the fuel needed for the generators," said Ahmed Mehanna, a senior official involved in managing the hospital.

"Only essential departments remain operational: the emergency unit, maternity ward and pediatrics."

To keep these services running, the hospital has been forced to rent a small generator, he added.

Under normal conditions, Al-Awda Hospital consumes between 1,000 and 1,200 liters of diesel per day. At present, however, it has only 800 liters available.

"We stress that this shutdown is temporary and linked to the availability of fuel," Mehanna said, warning that a prolonged fuel shortage "would pose a direct threat to the hospital's ability to deliver basic services".

He urged local and international organizations to intervene swiftly to ensure a steady supply of fuel.

Despite a fragile truce observed since October 10, the Gaza Strip remains engulfed in a severe humanitarian crisis.

While the ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into Gaza, only 100 to 300 carrying humanitarian assistance can currently enter, according to the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

The remaining convoys largely transport commercial goods that remain inaccessible to most of Gaza's 2.2 million people.

- Health hard hit -

On a daily basis, the vast majority of Gaza's residents rely on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs for survival.

Gaza's health sector has been among the hardest hit by the war.

During the fighting, the Israeli miliary repeatedly struck hospitals and medical centers across Gaza, accusing Hamas of operating command centers there, an allegation the group denied.

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders now manages roughly one-third of Gaza's 2,300 hospital beds, while all five stabilization centers for children suffering from severe malnutrition are supported by international NGOs.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza, at least 70,942 people - also mostly civilians - have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Arab World

Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon

FILED - 27 November 2025, Lebanon, Mahmoudieh: Smoke billows after Israeli air raids on Hezbollah positions in the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudieh. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 27 November 2025, Lebanon, Mahmoudieh: Smoke billows after Israeli air raids on Hezbollah positions in the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudieh. Photo: Stringer/dpa
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Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon

FILED - 27 November 2025, Lebanon, Mahmoudieh: Smoke billows after Israeli air raids on Hezbollah positions in the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudieh. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 27 November 2025, Lebanon, Mahmoudieh: Smoke billows after Israeli air raids on Hezbollah positions in the southern Lebanese village of Mahmoudieh. Photo: Stringer/dpa

The Israeli military announced a series of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Friday, including weapons depots and a training complex. 

"A number of weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure sites were struck, which were used by Hezbollah to advance terror attacks against the state of Israel," a military statement said. 

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported a "series of airstrikes" by Israeli aircraft on mountainous areas in Nabatiyeh and Jezzine districts in the south, and the Hermel district in the east of the country. 

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Israel has continued to strike in Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic. 

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports. 

The strikes on Friday come a day after similar Israeli attacks near the Syrian border and in southern Lebanon left three people dead. 

The Israeli military had reported on Thursday it had killed a member of arch-foe Iran's elite Quds Force in a strike in Lebanon. 

On Friday, the military said it had struck several military structures of Hezbollah, warning it would "remove any threat posed to the state of Israel". 

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, starting in the south of the country near the frontier. 

Lebanon's army plans to complete the disarmament south of the Litani River -- about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel -- by year's end. 

Israel has questioned the Lebanese military's effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.