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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
⭕️ Iran and Russia have entered the second phase of linking their national payment systems, allowing Russian Mir cardholders to make payments in Iran via NFC-enabled terminals or the Mir Pay app.
Iranian officials announced that full integration will be completed by December 2025, enabling Iranians to use their phones for purchases in Russia.
The first phase, launched in November 2024, allowed Iranians to withdraw rubles from Russian ATMs, with hundreds of thousands of transactions recorded. The cooperation aims to bypass US sanctions by strengthening bilateral financial infrastructure.
(Mehr News Agency)
⭕️ Hassan Aslih, a Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday, appears in a resurfaced video expressing a somber truth: that, like many reporters killed in Gaza, his death would likely be forgotten.
Aslih, who led the Alam24 news agency and was widely respected for his frontline reporting, had been recovering from injuries sustained from an assassination attempt weeks earlier in an Israeli strike that hit a media tent near a hospital.
That previous attack claimed the lives of two fellow journalists and left several more wounded.
❗️Hamas is indirectly participating in the talks in Doha, according to CNN.
"A high-level Israeli delegation is meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US envoy Adam Boehler in Doha, Qatar, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN Wednesday."
❗️US special envoy to west Asia Steve Witkoff presented Israeli-American released captive Edan Alexander with a Star of David necklace that had once belonged to his late son, Andrew.
“You would be doing a great honor to my son if you keep wearing this,” Witkoff told Alexander as he placed the chain around the dual national’s neck, according to Israeli Channel 12.
❗️US President Donald Trump:
"This is a once in a generation opportunity to forge a Lebanon that is prosperous and at peace with its neighbors."
⭕️ Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced today that Tehran will meet with European signatories concerning a nuclear agreement in Istanbul on Friday, following the postponement of a previously scheduled meeting on 2 May.
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❗️First images emerge from the meeting between US President Donald Trump, Syria’s interim self-appointed President Ahmad al-Sharaa (Julani), and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
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❗️Donald Trump: “We will work to add more countries to the Abraham Accords.”
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❗️Donald Trump: “I would like to make a deal with Iran, but it must stop supporting ‘terrorism’ in the region and abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, and we must enforce the sanctions imposed on Tehran.”
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Israel's ruling coalition stumbles over arrest campaign of Haredi draft dodgers
After 18 months of committing genocide in Gaza, the Israeli army faces a severe shortage of about 10,000 soldiers, with reservists serving longer and responding less to call-ups
❗️According to Yedioth Ahronoth, 40 bunker-buster bombs were dropped in Khan Yunis during yesterday's assassination attempt on Mohammad Sinwar.
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❗️A ballistic missile was launched from Yemen toward Israel this morning, as Ansarallah intensifies its operations in solidarity with Gaza. Air raid sirens were triggered across occupied Jerusalem, the southern West Bank, and the Dead Sea area. One Israeli was reportedly injured while scrambling to reach a bunker.
This marks the third missile launched from Yemen toward Israel in the past 24 hours, and the third in two days. A similar missile, launched just 13 hours earlier, also triggered sirens in Jerusalem.
BREAKING | Dozens of Palestinians killed in a matter of hours as Israel escalates Gaza massacres.
Since midnight, Israel has carried out brutal attacks across Gaza, resulting in at least 46 deaths, majority of them in north Gaza's Jabalia Camp.
Among the dead are children.
UPDATE | Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal:
"Rescue teams managed to retrieve 28 martyrs following the fire belts that targeted the vicinity of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, particularly the area of the Al-Afghani family.
The direct shelling and fire belts caused extensive destruction to civilian homes.
The occupation renewed the shelling after civil defense crews arrived at the site, leading to injuries among the teams.
One of the targeted homes was overcrowded with residents, and the bodies of more than 20 martyrs remain inside to this moment due to the difficulty of reaching them amid the intensity of the bombardment."
UPDATE | Death toll from the Israeli attack near the European Hospital in Gaza's Khan Yunis exceeds 20, with dozens wounded. The casualty toll continues to rise.
The site of the bombing is still under attack.
⭕️ Video shows Israel's massive bombing of the vicinity of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis yesterday, during which bunker buster bombs were used.
Israel claims it destroyed an underground complex belonging to the Palestinian resistance, in an attempt to assassinate top leader Mohammad Sinwar.
The attacks killed dozens of Palestinians.
❗️Israel has killed at least 70 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip since midnight, 54 of them in northern Gaza.
(Medical sources to Al Jazeera)
⭕️ ‘Shameful, unacceptable, inhumane’ – Macron blasts Israel’s Gaza policy, considers 'revisiting' EU-Israel cooperation
French President Emmanuel Macron slammed Netanyahu’s Gaza policy as “unacceptable” and “shameful,” saying, “There is no water, no medicine, the wounded cannot get out, the doctors cannot get in.”
He called the crisis “an unacceptable humanitarian tragedy,” and said he “got angry” in talks with Netanyahu, but noted Israel “depends on American weapons, not us.”
Macron revealed he visited the Egypt-Gaza border and personally witnessed that “all the aid that France and other countries deliver is blocked by the Israelis.”
“We need the United States. President Trump has the levers,” he said, emphasizing that only Washington can apply decisive pressure on Israel.
While stopping short of calling it genocide, Macron stated, “It is not up to a president of the republic to say ‘this is a genocide,’ but rather to historians.”
He urged Europeans to consider increasing pressure and sanctions, and raised the idea of revisiting EU–Israel cooperation agreements, which currently allow duty-free Israeli exports.
❗️Gaza's Indonesian Hospital:
"50 martyrs, including 22 children and 17 women, arrived as a result of Israeli bombing of northern Gaza this morning."
❗️An Israeli drone targeted a car in south Lebanon's Wadi al-Hujayr road earlier this morning, killing one person.
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❗️White House: US President Donald Trump calls on Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (Julani) to deport Palestinian resistance factions from Syria.
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Trump announces end of Syria sanctions ahead of Sharaa meeting
The US president said he wants Syria to have 'a chance at greatness' as government forces continue to carry out targeted killings along sectarian lines
❗️US President Donald Trump meets Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (Julani) in Riyadh.
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❗️The Gulf-US Summit is set to start shortly in Riyadh, with the attendance of US President Donald Trump.
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❗️Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan participates in a video conference meeting with his American counterpart, the Saudi Crown Prince, and the Syrian President.
(Anadolu Agency)
⭕️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to launch a “full-scale assault on the besieged Gaza Strip in the very coming days,” according to a statement from his office.
“We are going in with full force to complete the operation. Completing the operation means defeating Hamas. It means destroying Hamas,” he declared, adding that “there will be no situation where we stop the war. A temporary ceasefire might happen, but we are going all the way.”
❗️Israel has killed at least 65 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip since midnight.
(Medical sources to Al Jazeera)
BREAKING | Missile sirens sound in Sderot and Ashkelon.
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❗️According to Israeli media, Mohammad Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar and current leader of Hamas in Gaza, was targeted in the brutal attack on the vicinity of the European Hospital in south Gaza. However, there is so far no confirmation of this news.
● According to Israeli Army Radio (GLZ):
– "The Air Force used dozens of bombs in the strike, including bunker-buster bombs."
– "The attack was carried out in a manner similar to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah."
– "All entrances and exits of the underground complex were targeted, aiming to prevent any escape in case Sinwar survived the initial strike."
– "To reinforce the likelihood of the assassination’s success, the Air Force is now carrying out multiple follow-up strikes on anyone who approaches or attempts to rescue the wounded from the underground compound."
UPDATE | 16 killed and 70 wounded in Israel's bombing of the European Hospital in Gaza and its vicinity, according to the Ministry of Health.
Israel is attacking anyone who tries to get close to the site.