DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A fire struck downtown Abu Dhabi early Wednesday, with authorities initially blaming a gas cylinder for an explosion caught on camera in social media.
The blast struck Hamdan Street in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as it hosts the FIFA Club World Cup. Journalists from Brazil covering a match with Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras reported on the blast.
The state-run WAM news agency described the fire as coming from “a gas cylinder explosion.” Some footage showed what appeared to be a fireball on the roof of a building as emergency service vehicles could be seen on the street.
The images seen in videos corresponded to known features in Abu Dhabi. Authorities initially said by Twitter there were no injuries, but did not include that detail in a later update.
“The process of cooling and limiting the damage caused by the fire is underway,” the WAM report said.
The incident comes after Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched several attacks targeting Abu Dhabi, including a recent attack that killed three people and wounded six.
Authorities say fire strikes downtown Abu Dhabi
https://arab.news/p45r7
Authorities say fire strikes downtown Abu Dhabi
- The blast struck Hamdan Street in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as it hosts the FIFA Club World Cup
Thousands stage pro-Gaza rally in Istanbul
- Thousands joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to the violence in the tiny war-torn territory
ISTANBUL: Thousands joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to the violence in the tiny war-torn territory.
Demonstrators gathered in freezing temperatures under cloudless blue skies to march to the city’s Galata Bridge for a rally under the slogan: “We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine,” an AFP reporter at the scene said.
More than 400 civil society organizations were present at the rally, one of whose organizers was Bilal Erdogan, the youngest son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Police sources and Anadolou state news agency said some 500,000 people had joined the march at which there were speeches and a performance by Lebanese-born singer Maher Zain of his song “Free Palestine.”
“We are praying that 2026 will bring goodness for our entire nation and for the oppressed Palestinians,” said Erdogan, who chairs the board of the Ilim Yayma Foundation, an educational charity that was one of the organizers of the march.
Turkiye has been one of the most vocal critics of the war in Gaza and helped broker a recent ceasefire that halted the deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.
But the fragile October 10 ceasefire has not stopped the violence with more than more than 400 Palestinians killed since it took hold.
