RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man Saturday evening during clashes in the occupied West Bank.
The ministry identified the slain man as Mohammad Fareed Hassan, 20, from Qusra village near Nablus city.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Hassan was shot in the chest as residents confronted settlers who stormed the village from a nearby settlement. It said Israeli troops accompanied the settlers.
Palestinians have been holding weekly protests against the expansion of Israeli settlements at several locations of the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
Nearly 500,000 Israelis live in more than 130 authorized settlements and dozens of outposts across the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians and much of the international community view all settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace.

ALEXANDRIA: Yemenis have expressed hope for a deal to end the war, amid reports that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will name a new envoy to the country.

Politicians, rights activists and experts want the new envoy, tipped to be EU Ambassador to Yemen Hans Grundberg, to apply an inclusive approach for mediation between the warring parties.

Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi, Yemen’s former foreign minister, hailed the Swedish national as an experienced envoy with knowledge about the complications of the crisis as he had been working as a diplomat in the country for years.

A good knowledge of the region and its conflicts, a deep understanding of the Yemeni issue as ambassador to the country, and being aware of the obstacles and mistakes of previous envoys may help Grundberg get out of obstacles and failures, Al-Qirbi tweeted. He said the new envoy had to cooperate with regional forces to succeed in reaching an agreement that would end the war.

Activists said the envoy should focus on ending Houthi rights abuses and secure the release of hundreds of war prisoners.

“We strongly demand he personally pay attention to the issue of abducted and detained women in Houthi prisons and to provide them with psychological and legal support,” Amat Al-Salam Al-Hajj, chair of the Mothers of Abductees Association, an umbrella organization for thousands of female relatives of war prisoners, told Arab News.

The outgoing envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths was appointed in Feb. 2018 but he, like previous envoys before him, failed to convince the Yemeni parties to strike a deal to end the war.

However his biggest achievement might be brokering the Stockholm Agreement, which defused a major offensive by government forces on the western city of Hodeidah through which most of the country’s humanitarian and food supplies enter.

He also sponsored an inmate swap between the government and Houthis that led to the freedom of more than 1,000 war prisoners.

Yassin Saeed Noaman, Yemen’s ambassador to the UK, said Grundberg would succeed in brokering a peace deal in Yemen if the EU used its relationship with Iran to pressure the Houthis to accept peace initiatives.

“Some hope can be expected that this huge European bloc will play a positive role in its relationship with Iran, which alone has the power to put pressure on the Houthis,” Noaman added.

In Riyadh, the Yemeni government had not been officially informed about the name of the new UN envoy, a senior government official told Arab News on Saturday.

Yemen experts argued that the new envoy would inherit a difficult situation as his predecessor had exhausted all options to convince factions to accept peace ideas.

“The world awaits the announcement of a new envoy whose mandate will be to find a swift path to peace where no obvious one exists,” Elana DeLozier, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said on Friday. “The path is more likely to be a long, hard slog that requires a renewed focus on laying the groundwork for sustainable peace.”

Others advised the UN to expand talks to end the war beyond the government and Houthis and to include other parties such as women and leaders of military units and politicians.

“The Crisis Group has long advocated for the UN to expand the talks beyond the two-party framework,” Peter Salisbury, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, said last month. “It should include militia leaders and politicians who can make a ceasefire stick, as well as organizations, particularly women-led groups.”

Salisbury advised the new envoy to spend more time shuttling between Yemeni cities, mediating between different factions and groups instead of traveling between regional and international capitals.

“UN member states should press the new envoy to spend as much time in Yemen as possible, consulting widely among, and even mediating between, a range of groups,” he added.

CAIRO: Egypt’s minister of water resources and irrigation accused Ethiopia of intransigence over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Saturday.

Mohamed Abdel-Aty was representing his ministry while addressing a conference organized by the German government.

He said Egypt is one of the driest countries in the world and suffers from water scarcity; Egypt’s water resources are estimated at 60 billion cubic meters annually, most of which comes from the waters of the River Nile, in addition to very limited amounts of rainwater, estimated at 1 billion cubic meters, and deep, non-renewable groundwater in the deserts.

The project on the River Nile has been a source of diplomatic tension between Cairo and Addis Ababa since its construction began in Ethiopia in 2011. The Ethiopian government sees the hydroelectricity project as crucial for the economy and a vital source of energy. But Egypt and Sudan, which are downstream, fear the $4 billion GERD will greatly reduce their access to water.

Ethiopia began the second phase of filling the reservoir behind the GERD in early May.

Abdel-Aty added that total water needs in Egypt amount to about 114 billion cubic meters annually, and the gap is compensated by reusing agricultural drainage water and surface groundwater.

He said Egypt and other countries were witnessing increasing climatic changes, pointing to the resulting threats to sustainable development and the human right to water.

“In addition to the risks that the most fertile lands are facing as a result of the expected rise in sea levels, the intrusion of saline water, which affects the quality of groundwater, will lead to the displacement of millions of Egyptians residing in the north of the delta,” he said.

In his speech, Abdel-Aty stressed Egypt’s desire for negotiations to reach an agreement that met the aspirations of all parties over the GERD.

He added that Egypt would not accept unilateral action to fill and operate the dam; Cairo, he continued, did not object to a dam in Ethiopia and supports its development, but wanted a fair settlement for both itself and Sudan.

Abdel-Aty said any shortage of water resources would cause severe damage, as the lack of 1 billion cubic meters of water could cost200,000 families their main source of livelihood in agriculture.

“This means that 1 million citizens will be affected,” he said.

The agricultural sector in Egypt employs at least 40 million people, and any shortage of water resources will have huge repercussions on a large percentage of the Egyptian population, the minister said.

This could lead to societal instability, and possibly a wave of emigration to Europe and other countries, or a rise in young, disillusioned people turning to extremist groups.

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday inaugurated a naval base in the Gargoub area on the northwest coast, near Libya.
The opening ceremony was attended by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Mohamed Al-Menfi, president of the Libyan Presidential Council, as well as other international leaders and officials.
El-Sisi inspected units at the July 3 Naval Base after signing the establishment document and raising the Egyptian flag.
Ahmed Khaled, commander of Egypt’s Naval Forces, said the July 3 Base was adding to the country’s growing capabilities within a comprehensive modernization program for the armed forces.
It was within the political leadership’s strategic vision to develop the armed forces, Khaled said, and the new base sent out a message of peace and development.
He added that Egypt was implementing a plan for progress after achieving victory over terrorism and extremism with the weapons of thought and comprehensive development.
He said the challenge was great and that factors of time, accuracy, quality, and good resource management were a strong element in implementing the comprehensive development plan for the armed forces.
The July 3 base is the latest Egyptian military base on the Mediterranean and, according to a statement from the presidency, it is designed to secure the country in the northern and western strategic directions, preserve its economic capabilities, secure maritime transport lines, and maintain maritime security by using combat groups.
It will launch centers for the logistical support of Egyptian forces in the Red and Mediterranean Seas to confront any challenges and risks that may exist in the region, as well as combat smuggling operations and illegal immigration.
A few days ago the Ministry of Defense said that July 3 and its facilities complied with the code of international naval bases.
It was an integrated military zone that constituted a launch pad to protect the nation along the strategic northern and western directions, it added.
It said the July 3 base would witness the Qader 2021 maneuver, which is one of Egypt’s largest military exercises.

JERUSALEM: Israeli defense officials were checking whether Iranian forces were behind a possible attack on a cargo ship under partial Israeli ownership on Saturday on its way from Jeddah to the United Arab Emirates, Israel’s N12 Television News reported.
The crew were not hurt and the ship, possibly hit by a missile, was not badly damaged and continued on its journey after the incident, N12 said, citing unnamed sources within Israel’s defence establishment. Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen had reported earlier that the ship was attacked in the Indian Ocean.
N12 said the vessel, the Tyndall, was owned by Zodiac Maritime Ltd. Zodiac Maritime’s website says the CSAV Tyndall is a container ship that sails under a Liberian flag.
A source familiar with Zodiac Maritime’s fleet said the company had sold the CSAV Tyndall several months ago and that no such incident had taken place involving any of its vessels, they said.
Ship-tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon showed a vessel called the CSAV Tyndall that was last docked in Jeddah was off the coast of Dubai.