Eight years of war claims 370,000 human lives in Syria

Tel Aviv, Mar 16: Israel's Naftali Bennett is a multi-millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur who made a name in politics with hardline religious-nationalist rhetoric and who could be the kingmaker following Israel's election next week.

Bennett leads the Yamina party, which has backed Israel's proposed annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, while Bennett himself has made pitches to hard-right voters throughout his career.

As the former defence minister eyes a return to government, he has highlighted his management experience, arguing he is the man to heal Israel's pandemic-battered economy.

Bennett had been part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition that collapsed in 2018.

But he was not asked to join the Netanyahu-led unity government formed in May, a move seen as an expression of the premier's personal contempt towards him, despite their shared ideology.

Bennett entered politics after selling his tech start-up for $145 million in 2005 and the next year became chief of staff to Netanyahu, who was then in opposition.

He was widely regarded as a Netanyahu protege, but now he could play a starring role in ending the prime minister's record 12-year tenure.

Polls point to another inconclusive result in the March 23 vote, Israel's fourth in two years.

While the precise vote share is impossible to predict, multiple scenarios suggest Yamina's seats will be decisive in determining whether Netanyahu, or the anti-Netanyahu bloc, can form a majority.

Bennett has said he could sit in an anti-Netanyahu government, but he has not ruled out joining the premier, especially if that helps avoid a dreaded fifth election.

A former special forces commando who will be 49 two days after the election, Bennett is the son of US-born parents and lives with his wife Galit and four children in the central city of Raanana.

After leaving Netanyahu's office he became in 2010 the head of the Yesha Council, which lobbies for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

He then took politics by storm in 2012 when he took charge of the hard-right Jewish Home party, which was facing extinction from parliament.

He increased its parliamentary presence fourfold, while making a series of incendiary comments about the Palestinian conflict.

In 2013, he said Palestinian "terrorists should be killed, not released."

He also argued that the West Bank is not under occupation because "there was never a Palestinian state here", and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not be resolved but must be endured like a piece of "shrapnel in the buttocks".

Beyond holding the defence portfolio, Bennett has served as Netanyahu's economy minister and education minister.

He re-branded Jewish Home as Yamina (Rightward) in 2018.

In opposition and with the coronavirus pandemic raging last year, Bennett dampened his right-wing rhetoric to focus on the health crisis, releasing plans to contain the virus and aid the economy.

He has sought to broaden his appeal, and in Israel's chaotic and divided political scene, he has an outside shot at being prime minister in an anti-Netanyahu coalition.

"In the next years we need to put aside politics and issues like annexation or a Palestinian state, and focus on gaining control over the coronavirus pandemic, healing the economy and mending internal rifts," he told army radio in November.

Jeddah, Mar 20: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health is working on raising the percentage of COVID-19 vaccine recipients in the cities of Makkah and Madinah to at least 60 percent before Dhul Hijjah 1, 1442H (July 13), Okaz has learned from well-informed sources.

In coordination with the National Transformation Program (NTP), the ministry has set out a health plan for Hajj this year. According to the plan, all those assigned to work in Hajj this year must receive two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine approved in the Kingdom. It also stipulates that the domestic pilgrims must obtain two doses of an approved vaccine inside the Kingdom before Dhul Hijjah 1, the sources revealed.

The sources indicated that the ministry is intending to make it mandatory for all pilgrims coming from abroad to obtain two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the second dose of the vaccine should be taken one week before arrival in Saudi Arabia. There is also a need for the pilgrim to obtain an approved and negative COVID-19 laboratory test, 72 hours before arrival in the Kingdom.

The ministry will oblige all pilgrims to submit to a 72-hour quarantine during which they must repeat the laboratory test for coronavirus from an approved authority.

In its health controls plan for the 1442H Hajj, the ministry mentioned the need for all pilgrims and workers to adhere to wearing masks. They should also comply with the mandatory social distancing in their residences. When moving, they should maintain a mandatory distancing of at least 1.5 m between one person and the other.

The ministry is set to exclude the most vulnerable groups from being nominated to perform Hajj and to limit the age groups to between the ages of 18 and 60 only.

Dubai, Mar 16: United Arab Emirates had banned Taraweeh prayers - the special prayers offered during the holy month of Ramadan – last year due to covid-19 pandemic. 

However this Ramadan, mosques across UAE are allowed to host Taraweeh prayers, official sources said. The holy month will begin in less than a month.

The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) said strict Covid safety protocols will be in place at mosques.

The maximum duration of the prayers has been capped at 30 minutes. Women's prayer halls will remain closed.

Mosques were first closed in March last year as a precautionary measure against the spread of Covid-19. They had reopened for the five daily prayers in July, but Friday prayers remained suspended. The Friday prayers resumed on December 4.