RAMALLAH: The results of a 2022 census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics will worry Israel’s leaders, according to a Palestinian political expert.

“Israelis are constantly concerned about Palestinian demographic superiority as they want control over the Palestinians … still, at the same time, they want a pure Jewish society,” Ghassan Al-Khatib told Arab News.

“The most important fact is that we are equal to the Jews in terms of demography,” he said.

RAMALLAH: Palestinian leaders have called on the international community and human rights groups to intervene to stop the ‘extremist’ Israeli government from escalating violence in the West Bank.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that it had warned previously that the new right-wing government in Israel would “escalate its crimes in an unprecedented manner against our people” and called for “unity at the highest levels to repel this aggression.”

LEBANON: Lebanese celebrating New Year’s Eve are looking back on a period that deepened the political and economic crisis in the country, with 2022 being described as a year of missed opportunities.

In January, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri retreated, along with the Future Movement, from political life.

“There is no room for any positive opportunity in Lebanon in light of Iranian influence, international confusion and national division,” Hariri had said.

LONDON: Documents released by the National Archives in the UK have revealed that Tony Blair’s government believed Nelson Mandela was “unlikely to be helpful” in mediation efforts with Libya in the aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, but that he could be used “against” Tripoli in the event of negotiating compensation.

At a meeting in London in 2001, former South African President Mandela told Blair that the UK was “wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the Lockerbie bombing” following the conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi earlier that year.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said its prosecutor has filed indictments against two soldiers who allegedly hurled an explosive device at a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, a rare instance of Israeli troops facing serious charges over an offense against Palestinians.