Middle East & North Africa

DAMASCUS, April 19 (Xinhua) -- In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes targeting Syrian air defense sites in the southern region, the Syrian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The airstrikes started at approximately 2:55 a.m. local time on Friday (2355 GMT Thursday) from northern Israel and aimed at air defense installations in southern Syria, it said.

The strikes caused material losses, but no casualties were reported, it added.

ANKARA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye on Friday expressed its concern that tensions between Iran and Israel could turn into a wider conflict, calling on both countries to refrain from any steps that could escalate the conflict after an alleged Israeli attack against Iranian targets.

"In light of the latest developments, it is becoming increasingly evident that the tensions that were initially caused by Israel's illegal attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus risk turning into a permanent conflict," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Emirati counterpart have stressed the need to put an end to the crimes being committed by the Zionist regime against the people in the besieged Gaza Strip.

During a phone conversation late on Thursday, Amirabdollahian and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates called for expediting humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza.

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Iran suspended flights above some of its cities, such as Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran, the IRNA news agency reported.

Besides, air defense systems were activated in Isfahan, Reuters said citing an Iranian source. Presumably, the systems reacted to a drone.

IRNA said air defenses were in action in several Iranian provinces.

LONDON, April 19. /TASS/. Tehran does not plan to immediately retaliate amid reports of an attack on Iranian soil, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified senior Iranian official.

"The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack," the news agency quoted him as saying.

18 April 2024; MEMO: Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” amid Israeli threats, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander said on Thursday, raising concerns about Tehran’s nuclear programme which it has always said was strictly for peaceful purposes, Reuters reports.

“A review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible,” Ahmad Haghtalab, the Commander in charge of nuclear security said, according to semi-official Tasnim news agency.

18 April 2024; MEMO: The Israeli Ministry of Defence’s Rehabilitation Department said it has received 7,209 wounded soldiers since the beginning of the war on Gaza on 7 October, and that 30 per cent of them had developed psychological issues as a result of the war.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Defence said about 60 per cent of the wounded soldiers had psychological trauma as the primary form of injury.

18 April 2024; AP: PARIS — Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem captured this year’s prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award Thursday with a depiction of loss and sorrow in Gaza, a heartrending photo of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her young niece.

18 April 2024; AP: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint from close allies.