The Takeaway: Would Hamas complicate US plans for reset with Palestinians? Also: the back story on the spat between Israel and Jordan; Gulf post-COVID economic trends; Turkey’s Kurds; Egypt and Somalia; and more! Originals
Egypt sentences activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison Seif, who had been in pretrial detention since June, was convicted Wednesday of spreading false news and misusing social media. Egypt
Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downed passenger plane The Iranian government said last year's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was the result of a human error. Iran
Palestinians receive first batch of vaccines through COVAX More than 60,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestine
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham arrests US citizen Bilal Abdul Kareem in Syria’s Idlib The State Department has yet to publicly acknowledge the activist's disappearance Syria
US seizes multi-million-barrel Iranian fuel shipment bound for Venezuela The US government has seized more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel contained in four tanker ships bound for Venezuela. Originals
What's next for Turkish-Iraqi ties after deadly drone strike? The killing of Iraqi border guards in a Turkish drone strike undermines Baghdad’s traditional flexibility toward Ankara at a time when Turkey’s Arab adversaries are seeking to draw Iraq to their side. Iraq
Oman says it supports UAE-Israel normalization of ties Israeli officials told the local press they are in talks with Oman to reach a similar normalization in ties. United Arab Emirates
Turkey threatens to cut ties with UAE over Israel normalization as feud continues Turkey and the UAE disagree on the Turkey-Kurdish conflict, Libya, drilling in the eastern Mediterranean and more. Israel
Women in Gaza turn to bodybuilding Despite the fact that bodybuilding is frowned upon in Palestinian society for women, some girls and women in the Gaza Strip have become interested in this sport. Palestine
Mossad chief likely to continue advancing Israel, UAE contacts Israel has plenty of professional diplomats specialized in the Arab world, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is relying on Mossad chief Yossi Cohen to advance ties with Gulf states. United Arab Emirates
Israel denies travel to Palestinian newborns To pressure Palestinians and force them to back down from their decision to stop security coordination, Israel is refusing to recognize more than 24,000 Palestinian newborns while preventing their movement through crossings as well as their travel abroad. Palestine
Is PA doing enough to stop arms proliferation in West Bank? Chaos prevails in the West Bank amid the proliferation of weapons, which embarrasses the Palestinian Authority that seems unable to curb this spread of arms that upped crime rates. Palestine
Residents of this Egyptian village forced to leave their homes Forced evacuation and a security campaign targeted the residents of Sayadeen village in Alexandria governorate in northern Egypt. Egypt
