Middle East

Channel 12 News reports that the Palestinian postal authority's refusal to acknowledge addresses marked "Israel" leads to many orders going undelivered.

Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad slams Israel's "criminal actions" on the strategic plateau as a "dangerous and unprecedented escalation." Israel and Syria have technically been in a state of war since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

Currently, Doha's aid to the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave includes fuel deliveries to the monthly tune of $7 million. The "Gas for Gaza" initiative could save the Palestinians $10 million a month, but finalizing the deal could still be years away.

Newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed also reports that Cairo is pressing the Bennet-Lapid government to take action on the issue of Palestinian security prisoners in Israel and increase the number of work permits for Gaza residents.

"Our targets related to enriching uranium are meeting our industrial and production needs... and those of our people," Atomic Energy Organization of Iran director Mohammad Eslami was quoted as saying.

Chief of Iranian military Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri was an answer to Israel's "massive but pointless threats" and missiles fired were "a tiny part of hundreds of missiles that can hit any hostile target simultaneously."

Loss of international tourism, the lifeblood of Bethlehem's economy, has hit hotels, restaurants, and gift shops especially hard. Town's mayor says residents optimistic 2021 Christmas will be better than last year's.

Spurred on by one of the world's highest coronavirus vaccination rates, the Emirati megalopolis springs back to life with home-buyers flooding the market, tourists snapping up hotel suites, and brunch-goers drinking with abandon.

Diplomats from the three European countries involved said after the seventh round ended in mid-December that negotiators in Vienna are “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”

The Dec. 10 explosion in a Hamas arms depot in Lebanon is a reminder of the Islamist terrorist group's growing armed presence in Israel’s neighbor to the north, Maj. (res.) Tal Beeri or the Alma Research and Education Center explains.