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RIYADH: �������� on Wednesday strongly condemned statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in support of a so-called “Greater Israel.”

In an interview with i24 News on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he is “very attached” to the vision of a “Greater Israel.”

The term is understood to refer to an expansionist concept of Israeli territory that includes East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights and parts of other neighboring Arab countries.

The Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said it completely rejected the “settlement and expansionist ideas and projects” adopted by Israeli authorities.

The ministry also said the Palestinian people had a historical and legal right to establish an independent, sovereign state on their lands, based on relevant international laws.

“The Kingdom warns the international community against the Israeli occupation’s persistence in flagrant violations that undermine the foundations of international legitimacy, blatantly violate the sovereignty of states, and threaten regional and global security and peace,” the ministry said.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had approved the framework for a new offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The approved plan for the expanded offensive comes days after Israel’s security cabinet called for the capture of the Palestinian territory’s largest city.Israel’s 22 month war on Gaza has killed more than 61,000 people and created dire humanitarian conditions.

RIYADH: A new study using Saudi and Japanese pangenome samples exclusively has revealed genetic insights relating to these two populations.

“Up to 12 percent of patients with genetic disorders go undiagnosed due to reliance on reference genomes that don’t reflect their population’s genetic background,” said Malak Abedalthagafi, professor at Tufts Medical Center and one of the lead authors of the study.

“By constructing population-specific pangenome graphs, we improve variant calling and help close this diagnostic gap.”

The pangenome is considered a powerful reference tool to study individual and group DNA.

Similar to how a map shows a person’s position in relation to their landscape, the pangenome allows researchers to compare a person’s genetic makeup with the full spectrum of genetic variation found across a population.

“Having worked on the Saudi genome for several years, contributing to this project marks a meaningful step in my commitment to advancing representation in genomics and ensuring precision medicine serves diverse populations,” Abedalthagafi said.

Fellow author of the study and KAUST Professor Robert Hoehndorf explained that building the graphs, which the study calls JaSaPaGe (Japanese Saudi PanGenome), using samples from two distinctive populations offers new health insights.

“Japan and �������� are pretty much at the opposite ends of Asia and have been separated for a long time. It gave us a chance to study the effects of population-specific pangenome graphs on variant calling when populations do not match,” Hoehndorf said.

JIHS’ Yosuke Kawai, another author of the study, added that there were clinical benefits to be gained for both populations.

He said: “The joint development of a population-specific pangenome graph for the Japanese and ��������n populations addresses a critical gap in global genomic representation.

“By integrating diverse data from both countries, we have created a powerful resource that not only improves variant detection accuracy but also holds great potential for advancing precision medicine tailored to each population’s unique genetic landscape.”

The first human pangenome was reported in 2023, but none of the DNA samples collected were taken from individuals with Arab or Japanese descent, meaning it was constructed without representation from almost 10 percent of the world’s population.

The study was carried out by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Tufts University and the Japan Institute for Health Security.