Ahmed Alid, 45, who had sought asylum in Britain, killed his 70-year-old victim after approaching him from behind on a road in Hartlepool, prosecutors said.

The incident happened during the early hours of October 15 last year after Alid had attacked his housemate with two knives, they added.

After his arrest, Alid told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza, and in revenge for Israel killing innocent children, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, CPS said.

The 45-year-old Moroccan blamed Britain for creating Israel, CPS said.

Alid said if he had a machine gun, and more weapons, he would have killed more people.

"By his own admission, Ahmed Alid would have killed more people on that day if he had been able to," Nick Price, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement.

"Whatever his views were on the conflict in Gaza, this was a man who chose to attack two innocent people with a knife, and the consequences were devastating."

Alid had first used two knives to attack his sleeping housemate, to whom he had become aggressive after learning of his conversion to Christianity, stabbing him six times while shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "god is greatest," the CPS said.

The 32-year-old housemate, one of five asylum seekers who shared the property, managed to fight him off and another occupant came to his aid. Alid left the house with one of the knives and walked towards the center of Hartlepool.

He passed Terence Carney on the opposite side of the road before circling back and attacking him from behind.

Alid stabbed Carney six times in the chest, abdomen and back. He died shortly after police arrived.

Following his interview with police, Alid attacked the two female detectives, with one suffering injuries to her shoulder and wrist.

Alid was found guilty at Teeside Crown Court of murder, attempted murder and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker. He will be sentenced on May 17, when the judge will decide if his actions were related to terrorism.

The protest — the latest large-scale rally of its kind in the North African nation — was called by Al Adl Wal Ihssane, an Islamist group that is banned but tolerated.

The group also organized similar gatherings in the capital Rabat and the port of Tangier.

The demonstrations were held to mark the last Friday in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, and Quds (Jerusalem) Day when annual rallies in support of the Palestinians are held around the region.

"Normalization is a hoax!" and "Down with the occupation!," protesters chanted in Casablanca, with the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas about to enter its seventh month.

In late 2020, Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the United States-brokered Abraham Accords which saw similar moves by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington's recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on October 7, large-scale demonstrations in the North African kingdom have called for the abrogation of the normalization deal.

"We came to say 'no' to the barbaric massacres Israel is committing against Palestinians, to the destruction in Gaza... and to the silence of the Arab states," protest organizer Mohammed Riahi told AFP.

Casablanca lawyer Mohammed Ennouini, 51, said: "Normalizing ties between Arab states and Israel gives it the green light to keep killing civilians."

Rabat has officially denounced what it said were "flagrant violations of the provisions of international law" by Israel in its war against Hamas, but has not given any indication that normalization with Israel would be undone.

According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 33,091 people have been killed in the territory during the war.

It began after Hamas's October 7 attack which left 1,170 people, mostly civilians, dead in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Diaz was included in Walid Regragui's 24-man roster for the matches against Angola and Mauritania this month, according to a statement released by Morocco’s Football Federation.

The 24-year-old Los Blancos winger represented Spain in one game and scored against Lithuania in 2021.

FIFA rules say players can switch international allegiance when they have made fewer than three appearances for a country before the age of 21. They should also not have played for that nation for at least three years.

Diaz, a former AC Milan winger, has produced fine displays for Real Madrid this season, having scored eight goals in 32 games across all competitions.

Moroccan candidate, Ambassador Omar Zniber, received 30 votes, and his South African opponent, Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi, secured 17 in a secret ballot in Geneva.

Prior to the vote, Nkosi said Morocco was the "antithesis of what the council stands for" and said the election of the North African nation would undermine the body's credibility.

Morocco, in turn, accused South Africa and some other African states of undermining its efforts to hold the position, a prestigious but mostly symbolic post.

"The Kingdom's election, supported by a large number of countries around the globe in spite of Algeria's and South Africa's efforts to counter it, demonstrates the trust and the credibility inspired by Morocco's external actions...," the Moroccan foreign ministry said.

The vote marks a rare public dispute in the African group whose turn it was to lead the 47-member council. It normally strives to take decisions as a bloc.

The dispute in part revolves around Morocco's sovereignty claim over Western Sahara, where the Algeria-backed Polisario Front is seeking independence. Rabat has denied allegations of rights abuses against its opponents there.

As part of a broader strategy, Morocco has been courting countries, including African neighbors, to build support for its policies for the former Spanish territory.

It has failed to garner the support of South Africa, which helped organize an event to promote self-determination for the Sahrawi people in Geneva last year.

Rights groups say Morocco's new role should prompt it to safeguard human rights at the highest level.

"In particular, Morocco must refrain from intimidating or carrying out reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the U.N.," said Tess McEvoy, the Co-Director of the New York office of the International Service for Human Rights advocacy group.

The U.N. Human Rights Council, which convenes several times a year, is the only intergovernmental global body designed to protect human rights worldwide. It can increase scrutiny of countries' human rights records and authorize probes.

Overnight Sunday to Monday, more than 1,110 people were detained in the cities of Nador, M'diq and Fnideq during multiple operations carried out by the army and security forces, the general staff of the armed forces said in a statement.

The army said that the 175 migrants apprehended in Nador, close to the border with Melilla, were from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Yemen.

It did not provide nationalities for the other detained migrants.

Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish territories on the northern Moroccan coast, are the European Union's only land borders on the African continent and are frequently the target of migrants hoping to reach mainland Europe.

Spain and Morocco signed a cooperation agreement on migration in February last year, while Morocco has received hundreds of millions of dollars from the EU in recent years to help tackle the issue.

Another significant migration route runs through Spain's Canary Islands, with migrants departing from the coast of Morocco and the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

In 2023, the archipelago faced its worst migration crisis since 2006. Between January 1 and November 15, 32,436 migrants arrived on the islands, a 118 percent increase on the same period in 2022, according to figures from the ministry of the interior.

Hundreds died last year attempting to make the perilous sea journey from as far away as Senegal.

The reform of the legal code was ordered directly by King Mohammed VI, who is expected to have the final say in any disputes over the new law.

A committee tasked with drafting the changes was formed in September and includes the justice minister as well as judicial and religious figures.

By the end of November, the committee had already received proposals from more than 1,000 civil organizations, as well as political parties and official institutions.

Women's rights advocates in the North African country have given a hopeful welcome to the plans.

Latifa Bouchoua, a member of the Federation of Women's Rights Leagues, FLDF, said she wanted "a deeper reform (than the last) adapted to the aspirations of new generations who believe in rights and freedoms."

Activists are demanding equality in inheritance, child custody, and a total ban on child marriage — none of which they say are guaranteed under the current family code.

Child marriages

The most recent reform took place in 2004 and was heralded as a breakthrough at the time. However, campaigners say the changes still failed to provide women with their full rights.

That code gave women joint responsibility for their families, which had previously been granted only to men, and imposed restrictions on unilateral divorce by men, polygamy and underage marriage.

However, the reforms fell short of preventing "injustice, discrimination, and legal violence, whether in the text or in its application," said Samira Muheya, president of the FLDF.

In the summer of 2022, King Mohammed said in a speech Morocco needed to "address the deficiencies and negative aspects noted from experience" of the family code.

Under current legislation, women are entitled only to half of what men inherit, in line with strict interpretations of the Koran.

Polygamy remains legal, although it requires men to have the written consent of their first wife. Only 0.3% of marriages across Morocco in 2022 were polygamous, according to officials.

In a divorce, men receive custody of their children by default, while those mothers who do gain custody of their children lose it immediately if they remarry.

The key demand made by activists is an end to child marriage. While the legal age for marriage was raised from 15 to 18 in 2004, the authorities continue to issue exemptions for underage girls to marry.

A study by the public prosecutor's office found that 85% of all requests to marry an underage girl submitted between 2011 and 2018 were approved.

Atifa Timjerdine, vice-president of the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women, told AFP that the issue "embodies ... the discrimination of the law and raises great concerns."

Islamist objections

Supporters of women's rights said that gender inequality in Morocco covered much more than family issues alone.

Writer Ahmed Assid said the forthcoming reform should go beyond household rules and aim to "change the patriarchal system" as a whole, which he said was "responsible, for example, for widespread unemployment among women, even as girls represent around two thirds of baccalaureate winners each year."

Nearly 35% of women with a university degree are unemployed in Morocco, compared with a rate of 20.8% among men, according to official figures.

Nevertheless, there has been vocal opposition to the idea of liberal reforms, especially from religious groups.

The calls for equality and banning underage marriage and polygamy drew strong objections from within the country's Islamist organizations, which maintain that such practices are drawn from a traditionalist interpretation of Islamic texts.

Al Adl Wa Al Ihsane, an Islamist group that is officially banned but to which the authorities turn a blind eye, insists on "the supremacy of the Islamic reference system" and rejects "any proposal that contradicts it."

The Islamist Justice and Development Party said it would only accept amendments to the law that fitted within "the Islamic framework."

The FLDF's Muheya insisted that campaigners' demands were compatible with an "enlightened" interpretation of Islamic texts and pointed to the principle of equality enshrined in Morocco's 2011 constitution.

It is 47 years since Morocco last won the continental competition but after reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar last year, they are now one of the favorites to win the title in Ivory Coast.

"The more African competitions take place, the further away we get from the date when we won it," said Regragui.

"But that's no reason to put pressure on ourselves. We're going to go there to play our football, to give it the maximum, and, above all, not to have regrets."

Since winning the cup in 1976, Morocco have only reached the final once, in 2004 when they lost to hosts Tunisia.

At the last edition in Cameroon in 2022, they lost to Egypt in the quarterfinals.

"What is important is the state of mind," said Regragui.

"We must go there with complete confidence to overcome the curse of the African Cup."

Regragui has retained the bulk of his World Cup squad, who beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal before falling to a 2-0 defeat by France in the semis, including Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi, Sevilla's Youssef En-Nesyri and Manchester United midfielder Sofyan Amrabat.

But he has also brought in younger talents — for "good balance between the present and the future", he said — such as PSV's Ismael Saibari and Real Betis defender Chadi Riad, who won this year's Under-23 AFCON.

The Atlas Lions will face the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia in the group stages when the tournament gets underway on January 13.

Beneficiaries will receive a direct monthly payment starting at 500 dirhams ($50), Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch told a government meeting, according to an official statement.

The first payments under the new scheme will be made on Thursday, it said.

Government spokesman Mustapha Baitas said in late October that the aid to families was expected to cost Morocco 25 billion dirhams through 2024.

The launch comes a decade after the program was proposed, and as part of an overhaul of social services announced in 2020 by King Mohammed VI.

The king's agenda also introduced in 2021 basic health coverage for all Moroccans.

Once reserved only for civil servants and private sector employees, the health care scheme provided coverage for 3.8 self-employed Moroccans and their families, official news agency MAP said, based on data for September.

It also provided free health care to about 10 million low-income Moroccans, paid for by the state.

The reforms are rolled out at a time of economic slowdown and deepening inequalities in Morocco, a country of 36 million people.

According to the latest estimates by the central bank, Morocco's economy will end 2023 with a growth rate of 2.7% and 6.1% inflation.

Government aid so far has been indirect, with the state subsidizing some goods but not offering payments to low-income people.

Protests against Israel's war in Gaza have repeatedly drawn thousands of people in Morocco since the conflict began more than two months ago, mostly led by pan-Arab and Islamist groups.

The protesters were called to the streets by a disparate group of organizations backing the Palestinians, including left-wingers and members of the Islamist Justice and Charity movement.

They marched along Mohammed V Avenue in the heart of the city, beneath banners declaring "stop the war of extermination in Gaza, stop normalization."

The crowd chanted slogans lauding the "resistance of the Palestinian people" and directed particular fury at the United States for its support of Israel's war against Hamas.

Hachimi Damni, a 62-year-old protester, said he had come to express his opposition to the bombing in Gaza and normalization with Israel.

"When you bomb massively without distinction between military targets and civilians, including babies — that is a genocide. We must call a spade a spade," Jihane, a 27-year-old protester told AFP.

Israel rejects accusations of genocide, has expressed regrets for civilian deaths but blames Hamas by launching the October 7 attack.

Reuters reports that most of the 10,000 protesters appeared to be Islamists with men marching separately from women, waving Palestinian flags and holding placards reading "resistance till victory", "stop Moroccan government normalization with Israel" and "free Palestine."

Morocco agreed to strengthen ties with Israel in 2020, under a deal brokered by the U.S. administration under then President Donald Trump’s "Abraham Accords" initiative that also included Washington recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Protesters in Sunday's march also called for a boycott of brands they accuse of supporting Israel.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, after the group’s militants burst across the border fence on October 7 and went on a rampage through Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 240 hostages.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health authorities say more than 20,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israeli strikes and a ground offensive, with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

U.S. officials urged Israel to protect Palestinian civilians but so far have not called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Despite their policy of normalizing ties with Israel, Moroccan authorities have continued to back the creation of a Palestinian state and have urged a cease-fire in Gaza and the protection of civilians.

Although Morocco and Israel have not yet completed the process of setting up full embassies in each other's countries as they agreed, they have moved closer together, signing a defense cooperation pact.

Some information in this report came from AFP

"We have entered a critical phase after five years in a row of drought, which our country has never experienced before," Nizar Baraka told a news conference.

Drought has been a major concern for Morocco, whose agriculture sector employs about one-third of Moroccans of working ago and accounts for 14% of exports, according to authorities.

The last three months "showed that we are heading into another drought year, God forbid," Baraka said, noting rainfall had dropped 67% below the average for that period of the year.

Water scarcity is exacerbated by warmer temperates which increase evaporation in dams. The agriculture ministry forecasts average temperatures rising 1.3 degrees Celsius by 2050.

Morocco's dams are currently filled only to 23.5%, down from 31% at the same time last year, Baraka said, decrying "a very dangerous situation."

But he said he was hopeful "because the next three months (are usually) the rainiest in our country."

Local authorities might still need to cut off water supply temporarily, Baraka said.

In the face of water scarcity, authorities have been betting on seawater desalination.

Morocco plans to build seven desalination stations with a total capacity of 143 million cubic meters annually by the end of 2027.

According to official data, there are currently 12 desalination stations in the country with a total capacity of 179.3 million cubic meters annually.

The construction of a station in Casablanca, the country's largest city with 6 million inhabitants, is set begin next month.

Tourism accounts for 7% of gross domestic product and is a key source of foreign currency. The Tourism Ministry expects 2023 arrivals to reach 14 million by year end, with 13.2 million visitors by the end of November.

In 2022, 11 million tourists visited Morocco and in 2019, the last year before the COVID pandemic hit foreign travel, there were 13 million arrivals.

"All signs point towards hitting the 14 million milestone by December," said Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor by email.

Morocco aims to reach 17.5 million visitors by 2026 with the launch of new airline routes, and 26 million by 2030, when it will co-host the World Cup with Spain and Portugal, Ammor said.

The sector has overcome some adverse events. September's earthquake, that ravaged villages in the High Atlas mountains, caused minor damage in Marrakech, one of Morocco's main destinations, raising concerns for the area's economy.

Business recovered there with the IMF and World Bank meeting held in the city in October, but has slumped since the start of the war in Gaza, 3,500 km (2,200 miles) away, said Faouzi Zemrani, a Marrakech tour operator.

"There have been cancellations as well as a steep drop in bookings this winter," he said.

Several hotels contacted by Reuters in Marrakech said bookings for the new year holiday season were below pre-pandemic levels.

The head of the tourism federation, Hamid Bentaher, said this winter season will be good for the hotels that diversified their markets.

Most hotels affected by the Israel-Hamas war are those that depend on Israeli tourists, he said.

Morocco agreed to boost ties with Israel in 2020 and this year the countries had said they would upgrade ties to ambassadorial level.

Moroccan tourism leaders had hoped this would prompt a big surge in Israeli tourist arrivals.

However, that is now "at a standstill," said Henri Abizker, who organizes tours for Israeli tourists, though he expected it to pick up again after the war.

Now at 20, she has already seen a change in her outlook both on her own future as well as the planet's, after joining the school in the northwestern Moroccan city of Sale.

The school provides free training mainly to dropouts and other marginalized youths threatened with unemployment.

"After leaving school, I spent two years at home," said Bensbitia. "I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to be active."

Three years ago, she came across the gardening school, Bouregreg Med-O-Med, by sheer coincidence.

Launched by the Spain-based Islamic Culture Foundation, FUNCI, in 2018, the school is the first of its kind in Morocco.

"Before, I never imagined making gardening my job," said Bensbitia. "This training brought me a lot. I'm seeing the environment and the need to protect it in a different way."

Bensbitia says she feels "more in my element than anywhere else" at the school.

Bouregreg Med-O-Med aims to raise awareness about climate change while promoting the social inclusion of marginalized young people, particularly those affected by unemployment, as well as championing gender equality.

In October, it received the European Training Foundation's "Green Skills" award.

Unemployment and drought

Based in an eight-hectare field near an old landfill, the school promotes eco-responsible methods.

"The gardening model is entirely ecological," Ines Elexpuru, communications director at FUNCI, told AFP. "The building is bioclimatic, built with raw earth, and the electricity is solar."

The school has a nursery of local plants that are better adapted to water stress, which is crucial for Morocco as the country suffers its worst drought in almost 40 years.

The drought will get even worse, according to official forecasts, as rainfall is expected to drop by 11% while temperatures are projected to rise by 1.3 degrees Celsius (about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on average by 2050.

"Through this training, I realized that the life of a plant depends on our will to take care of it," said Mohssine Errahimi, an 18-year-old trainee. "Simple actions can make a difference."

Errahimi has been working as an apprentice gardener in hotels and for private employers since the age of 16. He joined the school with the encouragement of a former employer.

"After my training, I hope to start my own gardening business to help build my country," he said.

The professional integration of young Moroccans is key for the school, as they are often the hardest hit by economic difficulties.

Unemployment rates for those aged 15-24 reached 38.2% in the third quarter of 2023, compared to an overall unemployment rate of 13.5%, according to the kingdom's High Planning Commission.

In 2022, the commission found that more than one in four in the 15-24 age category were "not working, not in school or in any training."

'Complicated family situations'

Every year, the school takes in up to 90 apprentices, "young people who come from complicated family situations... and from really precarious and difficult surrounding neighborhoods," said Elexpuru.

They are "motivated, want to have a dignified life and earn money to support themselves and their families," she said.

She added that the three-year apprenticeship also contributes to "curbing irregular migration" as 70% of apprentices find a formal job once they graduate.

Between 20-25% of the trainees are young women, who are disproportionately affected by unemployment, at a rate of 19.8% compared to 11.7% for men.

Gardening "is always associated with men", said Elexpuru. "At the beginning, it was complicated, with clients who were looking to recruit only men, but things are starting to change."

Bensbitia said people sometimes showed her contempt for choosing this trade.

"For them, it's not fit for girls," she said. "But I don't care ... I have the support of my family and I will carry on."

Loubna Nassif, another apprentice aged 17, also said there were "a lot of stereotypes around jobs that women are not supposed to do.

"I say we should prove them wrong."

The Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement administration body on Monday shut at least 27 schools in Brussels and the neighboring Brabant region after a bomb alert on Sunday evening.

Belgian media reported that the sender of the alert had demanded 10 million euros to reveal the location of five bombs.

"The arrested person, who is of Moroccan nationality, was questioned and admitted the deeds to the Moroccan authorities. The investigation's initial conclusions do not point to terrorist motives," the office said in an e-mailed statement.

The prosecutor's office in Brussels said it was continuing the investigation in cooperation with Moroccan authorities to find out the suspect's motives.

The schools reopened on Tuesday.