MUST-READS

• Israel military strikes northern Gaza in heaviest shelling in weeks
  Israel bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, panicking residents and flattening neighbourhoods in an area where the Israeli army had previously drawn down its troops, residents said on Tuesday.
  Tanks made a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, though they did not penetrate far into the city, residents and Hamas media said. Gunfire reached some schools where displaced residents were sheltering.

• Saudi Arabia pushing for Israel to accept ceasefire, more aid into Gaza: FM

  Saudi Arabia is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of more aid into the territory amid Israel’s war on Hamas, the Kingdom’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in an interview with Al Arabiya.

  An agreement between Hamas and Israel must include those two factors, he said.

• EU announces five-year Schengen visas for Saudi, Omani and Bahraini citizens

  The Schengen Area, which includes 29 European countries, was expanded last February to include Bulgaria and Romania, eliminating all air and maritime border controls.

  Citizens from the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia have been exempted from the UK's pre-entry visa requirements.

  In November, Gulf countries announced plans for a unified tourist visa similar to the Schengen permit in a move to ease travel for residents and tourists.

• Saudi PIF Merges Mobile Tower Firms to Create Regional Giant

  Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy a majority stake in Saudi Telecom Co.’s tower unit for 8.7 billion riyals ($2.3 billion) and plans to merge it with other local assets to create a new mobile tower giant.

  The Public Investment Fund will own 54% of the new venture while STC, as Saudi Telecom is known, will hold 43%, according to a filing on the Saudi stock exchange. The entity will combine towers unit Tawal with Golden Lattice Investment Co., which the PIF bought from Zain Saudi last year, and manage a portfolio of about 30,000 towers across five countries.

• Middle East military burden is world’s highest in 2023 as Israel spending up 24%

  Middle East countries spent 4.2 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2023, the highest rate globally, as Israel's military expenditure jumped by nearly a quarter amid its intensifying war in Gaza, according to new research.

  Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP, known as the military burden, is a measure of the relative economic cost of defence for a country.

  In 2023 the average military burden "grew substantially" for nations in the Middle East by 0.5 percentage points, according to the latest data by the Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The independent institute conducts research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.

• Settler terrorism: Palestinians are becoming prisoners in their own homeland

  The recent surge of settler terrorism and violence in the occupied West Bank is the inevitable culmination of years of policy decisions. Over the past decade, successive Israeli governments have unabashedly armed settlers, effectively equipping them to carry out their own brand of intimidation and aggression. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s recent decision to distribute even more weapons in the wake of the events of 7 October is simply another chapter in this grim saga.

• Opinion: The Coming Arab Backlash Middle Eastern Regimes—and America—Ignore Public Anger at Their Peril

  It is difficult to exaggerate the extent to which Arabs blame the United States for this war. They can see that only U.S. weapons sales and United Nations vetoes allow Israel to continue its war. They are aware that the United States defends Israel for actions that are the same as those the United States condemned Russia and Syria for.

• Middle East Biennale pavilions challenge entrenched views of women

  Saudi Arabia and Lebanon's installations at the Venice Biennale seek to redress the balance by questioning masculine views and Western myths surrounding the portrayal of women in Middle Eastern societies.

• Chipotle kicks off Middle East expansion with first Kuwait restaurant

  Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has opened a location in Kuwait, marking its first restaurant in the Middle East and the first time Chipotle has entered a new country in 10 years. The Kuwait City restaurant has been operating with adjusted hours since the beginning of April to account for holidays and staff training, Chipotle CMG, +0.53% said, in a statement. The restaurant’s official grand opening will be on April 23.

  Last year Chipotle announced a partnership with franchise retail operator Alshaya Group to open restaurants in the Middle East. In Monday’s statement announcing the new location, Chipotle said that Alshaya Group will open the company’s first Dubai location later this year. Alshaya Group is expected to open total of four new restaurants this year, the company said.

• GCC economies to forge ahead despite geopolitical risks

  The growth forecast for the Middle East and Central Asia was revised slightly lower – to 2.8 per cent in 2024, from 2.9 per cent in January – largely due to the impact of conflict on trade and economic activity, as well as high debt levels in low-income countries in the region. The latter was also the focus of a World Bank report released last week.

  However, the outlook for the GCC economies remains relatively robust, with non-oil growth forecast at 3.6 per cent this year and a predicted headline gross domestic product growth of 2.4 per cent.

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