GAZA CITY: Palestinian officials say an Egyptian delegation has arrived in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to call for calm between Palestinian factions and Israel.
The Egyptian general intelligence officials crossed Friday from Israel through the Erez crossing and headed to meetings with Hamas officials.
The Gaza-Israel frontier has remained largely quiet since May, after the militant Hamas group and Israel ended their worst round of conflict in years. But Hamas warns Israel is avoiding an unofficial truce calling for easing restrictions and improving conditions in the impoverished enclave.
On Thursday, Hamas accused Israel of deliberately killing a member near the border fence. Israel said the incident was a misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Palestinians began gathering at the frontier as part of a protest campaign Hamas launched last year against the blockade that Israel and Egypt imposed since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007.

CAIRO: Members of a militant cell linked to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group have been arrested in Kuwait, the interior ministry said on Friday.

The arrested people were wanted by Egyptian authorities, the ministry added in its statement.

Members of the cell had escaped and were evading Egyptian authorities, making Kuwait the center of their operations, a statement made by the Ministry of Interior on Friday said.

Special units of the ministry discovered the cell, and were able to identify the location of members and arrest them in different places after launching a special operation.

After initial investigations, the members of the cell admitted carrying out terrorist operations and breaching security in Egypt.

Investigations are still ongoing to find out who helped them evade the authorities and cooperated with them.

GIBRALTAR: Gibraltar police said Friday they have arrested two more officers from a seized Iranian tanker suspected of breaching EU sanctions by shipping oil to Syria, a day after detaining the captain and chief officer.
All four men are Indian nationals and are being questioned in connection with an “investigation of the suspected export of crude oil to the Banyas refinery in Syria”, the Royal Gibraltar Police said in a statement.

GENEVA: Thirty men were sentenced to death by Houthi authorities in Yemen this week amid credible allegations that many were tortured during three years of politically-motivated detention, the UN human rights office said on Friday.
It urged the Appellate Court in the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa, which is due to review the ruling, to take into account the serious allegations and violations of their right to a fair trial and due process in the lower court.
The specialised first instance criminal court handed down the death sentences on Tuesday, UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.
Most of the 30 men are academics, students and politicians “affiliated with the Islah party that has been critical of the Houthis”, she told a news briefing. She was referring to an Islamist party that is part of the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
“At no point were they given a proper chance to present a defense,” Shamdasani said.
Houthi officials did not respond immediately to a Reuters request for comment.
The men were arrested in 2016 and charged in April 2017 with allegedly participating in an organised armed group intending to carry out attacks on or assassinations of security personnel and popular committees affiliated with the Houthis, and providing intelligence to other parties, Shamdasani said.
“There is a high likelihood that many of these charges are politically-motivated. There are very credible allegations of torture and mistreatment, our teams have been able to speak to families,” Shamdasani said.
“Any politically-motivated charges should be dismissed and international fair trial standards fully complied with,” she said.
Amnesty International, in a statement this week, denounced what it called a “sham trial” where the 30 men faced “trump-up charges including espionage for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.”
Detainees include Youssef Al-Bawab, a linguistics professor and political figure who was held in incommunicado detention amid allegations of torture and lack of access to legal counsel and medical care, the London-based group said. 

TUNIS: The Red Crescent said 38 more bodies were recovered Thursday from the sea off Tunisia, raising to 68 the number found since an Italy-bound boat filled with migrants sank last week, the worst migrant boat disasters to date.
Thirty-six of the apparent victims were found close to Zarzis in southeast Tunisia and two off the nearby island of Djerba, the Tunisian Red Crescent’s Mongi Slim said.
A Malian survivor, one of only three to have escaped with their lives, has told the UN’s International Organization for Migration that 86 people had been on board the dinghy which capsized on July 1.
“Only today, the Coast Guard recovered 38 bodies off the coast of Zarzis, bringing the death toll to 58,” said Mongi Slim, an official of the Tunisian Red Crescent.
The boat, filled with mostly African migrants, tipped over shortly after setting out from the Libyan town of Zuwara, west of Tripoli, with the aim of reaching Italy.
Tunisian fishermen rescued four people who were on board the same overcrowded boat but one later died in hospital, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said last week.
Libya has in recent years been a major departure point for migrants seeking to reach Europe in perilous journeys across the Mediterranean.