HEBRON: The Israeli military said it demolished two homes on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron belonging to Palestinians accused of carrying out a deadly attack in Tel Aviv in October of 2024. In a statement, the military said its forces “destroyed in Hebron the homes of the two terrorists who carried out the attack at the Jaffa light rail station in which seven Israelis and foreign residents were murdered and 15 additional civilians were injured.” The attack took place on October 1 last year, just as Iran was launching a wave of around 200 missiles at Israel in support of its allies Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas, which had been at war with Israel since its October 7, 2023 attack, claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv shootings, and said they “coincided with the painful strikes... executed by Iran.” The assailants, armed with “an M-16 automatic rifle, several magazines, and a knife,” according to Israeli police, had opened fire on tram passengers and pedestrians. One of the attackers, 19-year-old Muhammad Misk, was shot dead in the street, while the other, Ahmad Al-Haimoni, was wounded and arrested, police said. Haimoni had lived on the second story of a three-story house. The middle floor of the structure was demolished with explosives, according to an AFP photographer at the scene. Israel, whose army has occupied the West Bank since 1967, regularly destroys the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis. The government argues that these demolitions serve as a deterrent, but critics denounce them as collective punishment that leaves families homeless. Violence has soared throughout the West Bank since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in Gaza. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 905 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian health ministry. At least 32 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the operation in the city’s Daatur district killed “four civilians,” including two “guards at a local school“Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia province, said that “during the operation, the criminal cell threw bombs at the security patrols, wounding a number of personnel“BEIRUT: A Syrian Arab Republic war monitor said Wednesday that four civilians have been killed in a security operation in the coastal city of Latakia that was launched after a deadly attack on security services.Latakia province is a former stronghold of the government of ousted president Bashar Assad and the heartland of his family’s Alawite minority.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the operation in the city’s Daatur district killed “four civilians,” including two “guards at a local school” on Tuesday and two construction workers on Wednesday.State media had said that forces launched the campaign after “militia remnants” supporting Assad killed two personnel in an ambush.Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia province, said that “during the operation, the criminal cell threw bombs at the security patrols, wounding a number of personnel.”“Our forces responded immediately to the sources of fire and managed to arrest a number of people involved in these criminal acts, and neutralized a number of others,” Kneifati added in a statement on the interior ministry’s Telegram channel.The Observatory said “a cautious calm” returned to Daatur “after the arrest of a number of residents and wanted persons.”Restoring and maintaining security across Syria remains one of the most pressing challenges for the new authorities after Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad on December 8.In Sanamayn, in the Daraa province in the south, the Observatory said security forces carried out a “large-scale campaign... searching for wanted men and weapons.”The operation came a day after clashes in the city between security forces and a group linked to the ousted government’s military security killed three fighters and wounded “three civilians including a child,” the Britain-based Observatory said.Daraa province’s Telegram channel reported ongoing “military operations to purge the area of armed elements.”A local security official, Abdul-Razzaq Al-Khatib, was quoted as saying that “military reinforcements” reached the city in the morning, with clashes ongoing in buildings in the southwest.He said Tuesday’s clashes resulted in an unspecified number of casualties, while gunfire also wounded a member of the security forces at a checkpoint.Daraa province, the cradle of the 2011 uprising which led to Syria’s civil war, returned to government control in 2018 but has been plagued by unrest in recent years.Syria has seen clashes and shootings in a number of areas, often blamed on Assad supporters, with the new authorities announcing campaigns targeting “regime remnants” and making arrests.Latakia initially saw heightened tensions and violence, including reprisals against people seen as linked to the former government, though incidents have decreased somewhat despite occasional attacks on checkpoints, according to the Observatory.

DOHA: Qatar on Wednesday rebuffed what it said were “false accusations” by Israel’s domestic security agency attributing funds from the Gulf state to an increase in Hamas’s military strength before its unprecedented October 7 2023 attack. “False accusations made by the Shin Bet security agency linking Qatari aid to the October 7 attack are yet another example of deflection driven by self-interest and self-preservation in Israeli politics,” Qatar’s International Media Office said in a statement. The security agency published findings from an internal probe on Tuesday acknowledging its own failings in preventing the over-border attack from Gaza on southern Israel which sparked 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory. The Shin Bet report also said “the influx of Qatari funds and their transfer to the military wing” was one of the “main reasons for the strengthening of Hamas that allowed it to launch the attack,” according to its executive summary. “It is well known within Israel and internationally that all aid sent from Qatar to Gaza was transferred with the full knowledge, support, and supervision of the current and previous Israeli administrations and their security agencies — including the Shin Bet,” the Qatari statement said. “No aid has ever been delivered to Hamas’s political or military wing,” it added. Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012, with the blessing of the United States, but also fueling accusations that it supports the Palestinian militants, which Doha has always denied. The gas-rich Gulf state played a key role in securing a fragile truce in Gaza, mediating between Hamas and Israel alongside the United States and Egypt. Since the deal’s first phase ended at the weekend, after six weeks of relative calm that included exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the parties have hit an impasse over the truce’s continuation. “At this critical juncture, the Shin Bet and other Israeli security agencies should focus on saving the remaining hostages and finding a solution that ensures long-term regional security, rather than resorting to diversionary tactics,” the Qatari statement said. “Claims that Qatari aid went to Hamas are entirely false and serve as evidence that the accusers are intent on prolonging the war,” it added. Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, most of them civilians, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 48,405 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.

PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling of a famine-hit displacement camp near North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher killed six people on Wednesday, activists in Sudan said. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a brutal conflict with the regular army since April 2023, pressed an attack on the Abu Shouk camp, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan. Wednesday’s shelling came a day after the group reported 80 casualties from artillery fire on Tuesday, although it could not confirm the exact numbers of dead and wounded. The RSF assault on the camp began on Sunday, the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in the northeast African country. Civilians had been shopping for Ramadan supplies when shells hit the camp and a crowded market nearby, killing six people, rescuers said. The attacks come as the RSF keeps up its months-long siege of El-Fasher, the last state capital in the vast western region of Darfur still under army control. Fighting around the city has seen the army and allied forces repel repeated paramilitary attacks as civilians bear the brunt of relentless shelling. The RSF holds nearly all of Darfur while the army controls the country’s east and north and has this year made gains in the capital Khartoum and central Sudan. The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, making it the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” according to the International Rescue Committee. In North Darfur alone, nearly 1.7 million people are displaced. Around two million people face extreme food insecurity, and 320,000 are already suffering famine conditions, according to UN estimates. Famine has hit three displacement camps around El-Fasher — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to spread to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May.

“Israeli drones carried out more than one strike on a vehicle in Ras Naqura, near a rubbish dump” south of a UN peacekeeping positionThe strikes come a day after Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah navy commander in the southBEIRUT: Lebanese official media said two people were wounded Wednesday when Israeli drones struck a vehicle in the south, a day after a deadly raid and despite an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.“Israeli drones carried out more than one strike on a vehicle in Ras Naqura, near a rubbish dump” south of a United Nations peacekeeping position, the National News Agency (NNA) said.“Two siblings who were collecting scrap metal” were wounded and taken to hospital, it added.The strikes come a day after Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah navy commander in the south, accusing the slain militant of violating the November 27 ceasefire.The truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war during which Israel sent in ground troops.Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.Israel was due withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems “strategic.”The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in what he called a “buffer zone” in south Lebanon.

The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeksIsrael says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposalJERUSALEM: Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid. Most are displaced from their homes, and many need shelter. Fuel is needed to keep hospitals, water pumps, bakeries and telecommunications — as well as trucks delivering the aid — operating.Israel says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. Israel has delayed moving to the second phase of the deal it reached with Hamas, during which the flow of aid was supposed to continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he is prepared to increase the pressure and would not rule out cutting off all electricity to Gaza if Hamas doesn’t budge.Rights groups have called the cutoff a “starvation policy.”Four days in, how is the cutoff affecting Gaza?Food, fuel and shelter supplies are threatenedThe World Food Program, the UN’s main food agency, says it has no major stockpile of food in Gaza because it focused on distributing all incoming food to hungry people during Phase 1 of the deal. In a statement to AP, it said existing stocks are enough to keep bakeries and kitchens running for under two weeks.WFP said it may be forced to reduce ration sizes to serve as many people as possible. It said its fuel reserves, necessary to run bakeries and transport food, will last for a few weeks if not replenished soon.There’s also no major stockpile of tents in Gaza, said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council. The shelter materials that came in during the ceasefire’s first phase were “nowhere near enough to address all of the needs,” she said.“If it was enough, we wouldn’t have had infants dying from exposure because of lack of shelter materials and warm clothes and proper medical equipment to treat them,” she said.At least seven infants in Gaza died from hypothermia during Phase 1.Urgently checking reserves“We’re trying to figure out, what do we have? What would be the best use of our supply?” said Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF. “We never sat on supplies, so it’s not like there’s a huge amount left to distribute.”He predicted a “catastrophic result” if the aid freeze continues.During the ceasefire’s first phase, humanitarian agencies rushed in supplies, with about 600 trucks entering per day on average. Aid workers set up more food kitchens, health centers and water distribution points. With more fuel coming in, they could double the amount of water drawn from wells, according to the UN humanitarian agency.Around 100,000 tents also arrived as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians tried to return to their homes, only to find them destroyed or too damaged to live in.But the progress relied on the flow of aid continuing.Oxfam has 26 trucks with thousands of food packages and hygiene kits and 12 trucks of water tanks waiting outside Gaza, said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the West Bank.“This is not just about hundreds of trucks of food, it’s about the total collapse of systems that sustain life,” she said.The International Organization for Migration has 22,500 tents in its warehouses in Jordan after trucks brought back their undelivered cargo once entry was barred, said Karl Baker, the agency’s regional crisis coordinator.The International Rescue Committee has 6.7 tons of medicines and medical supplies waiting to enter Gaza and its delivery is “highly uncertain,” said Bob Kitchen, vice president of its emergencies and humanitarian action department.Medical Aid for Palestinians said it has trucks stuck at Gaza’s border carrying medicine, mattresses and assistive devices for people with disabilities. The organization has some medicine and materials in reserve, said spokesperson Tess Pope, but “we don’t have stock that we can use during a long closure of Gaza.”Prices up sharplyPrices of vegetables and flour are now climbing in Gaza after easing during the ceasefire.Sayed Mohamed Al-Dairi walked through a bustling market in Gaza City just after the aid cutoff was announced. Already, sellers were increasing the prices of dwindling wares.“The traders are massacring us, the traders are not merciful to us,” he said. “In the morning, the price of sugar was 5 shekels. Ask him now, the price has become 10 shekels.”In the central Gaza city of Deir Al-Balah, one cigarette priced at 5 shekels ($1.37) before the cutoff now stands at 20 shekels ($5.49). One kilo of chicken (2.2 pounds) that was 21 shekels ($5.76) is now 50 shekels ($13.72). Cooking gas has soared from 90 shekels ($24.70) for 12 kilos (26.4 pounds) to 1,480 shekels ($406.24).Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Israel cut off all aid to Gaza for two weeks — a measure central to South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. That took place as Israel launched the most intense phase of its aerial bombardment of Gaza, one of the most aggressive campaigns in modern history.Palestinians fear a repeat of that period.“We are afraid that Netanyahu or Trump will launch a war more severe than the previous war,” said Abeer Obeid, a Palestinian woman from northern Gaza. “For the extension of the truce, they must find any other solution.”

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has been conducting secret talks with Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza, a source briefed on the conversations told Reuters. US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the source said, confirming a report by Axios. Until recently the United States had avoided direct discussions with the militant group. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The source said the talks have focused on gaining the release of American hostages still held in Gaza, but also have included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce. US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to return to the region in coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.

NEW YORK CITY: The UK and the four EU countries that are members of the UN Security Council (France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia) on Wednesday urged Israeli authorities to immediately allow the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

BARDALA, West Bank: Just meters from the last houses in Bardala, a Palestinian village at the northern end of the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army has been bulldozing a dirt road and ditch between the community and open grazing land on the hills behind it.

DUBAI: Jordanian border forces clashed on Thursday with armed smuggling groups attempting to cross the northern border from Syria into Jordan, the Jordan Armed forces said in a statement. The clashes resulted in the death of four smugglers, while the remaining individuals retreated into Syrian territory. According to the statement, the smugglers had attempted to exploit poor weather conditions and dense fog to cross the border, but Jordanian forces “applied engagement rules to prevent their infiltration.” Large quantities of narcotics and weapons were seized and transferred to the relevant authorities, the armed forces said. The amount of the seized drugs was not disclosed. In January, Jordan and Syria agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border, combat arms and drug smuggling and work to prevent the resurgence of Daesh militants. Western anti-narcotics officials say the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon has for years been mass-produced in Syria and that Jordan is a transit route to the oil-producing Gulf states. Jordan’s army has conducted several pre-emptive airstrikes in Syria since 2023 that Jordanian officials say targeted militias accused of links to the drug trade, as well as the militias’ facilities.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s government has begun proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing “prolonged disagreements.” In a letter published late Wednesday, Justice Minister Yariv Levin said the move was over “inappropriate conduct and the existence of significant and prolonged disagreements between the government and the attorney general.” The minister also indirectly accused Baharav-Miara, Israel’s first female attorney general, of politicizing her position as legal adviser of the government. “Legal advice reflects the position of the law,” the letter stated, and should not be “advice that serves as a political tool, misusing its position for political purposes to completely paralyze the work of the government.” Levin submitted a motion of a no-confidence to the cabinet secretary, part of a process that commentators say could go all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court. Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence, has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu’s government. When the prime minister returned to power in 2022 after being ousted, Baharav-Miara warned that his new government’s legislative program threatened to turn Israel into a “democracy in name, but not in essence.” In March 2023, she accused Netanyahu of acting “illegally” when championing the controversial judicial reforms that caused political division and mass protests. After the war in Gaza started, she criticized the unequal enforcement of Israel’s mandatory military service, due to long-standing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. Opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested on Wednesday on X that her criticism of the government’s stance on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community was behind the attempt to sack her. “She only told them two things they needed to do: recruit evaders and stop transferring corrupt funds to the ultra-Orthodox under the table. That’s why they want to oust her,” Lapid wrote on X.

BAGHDAD/DUBAI: A US diplomat will attend a planned meeting in Baghdad on Thursday on the resumption of Kurdish oil exports via Turkiye’s Ceyhan pipeline, five sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as Washington continues to push for a restart. The Iraqi oil ministry is hosting the talks on accelerating a resumption in oil exports from Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan region. They have been delayed till Thursday due to disagreements over terms between oil firms and the oil ministry. One of the sources, an Iraqi oil ministry official with direct knowledge of the meeting, said the planned attendance of the diplomat, based at the US embassy in Baghdad, had come in response to a request from Washington. The White House National Security Office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. “The presence of the US diplomat aims to help push the negotiations forward and reach solutions to the issues hindering the resumption of oil exports in a way that satisfies all parties,” the oil ministry official said. Reuters revealed last month that Iraq has come under increasing US pressure to allow Kurdish oil exports via Turkiye, thereby boosting supply to the global market at a time when Washington wants to reduce Iranian oil exports as part of its efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran views its neighbor and ally Iraq as vital for keeping its economy afloat amid international sanctions. But Baghdad, a partner of both the United States and Iran, is wary of getting caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s policy of squeezing Tehran, sources have told Reuters. “There is strong insistence from the US side on ensuring the success of the negotiations (on resuming Kurdish oil exports) by any means,” said a government official close to the talks. “We hope that the US role will help reach a reasonable and acceptable agreement for the Iraqi government.”

ISTANBUL: Outlawed Kurdish group PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm “immediately,” a Turkish defense ministry source said on Thursday, apparently referring to Kurdish forces in Syria. “The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons,” the source said. Last week, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militant group to dissolve and his fighters to lay down their arms in a historic call. The 75-year-old founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been jailed since 1999. The PKK, which has engaged in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in which tens of thousands of people have died, declared a ceasefire on Saturday and said it would comply with Ocalan’s call. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has backed the peace move, was quick to warn that if the promises weren’t kept, the military would continue its anti-PKK operations. “We always keep our iron fist ready in case the hand we extend is left hanging in the air or bitten,” he said on Saturday. Since January 1, 478 “terrorists” have been “neutralized” in anti-PKK military operations, the source said, of which 195 were in Iraq and 283 in Syria.

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed grave concern over the signing of a charter to establish a parallel governing authority in Sudan, warning that the move risks exacerbating the fragmentation of the war-torn country and worsening its already dire humanitarian situation. Council members said that any such unilateral action will undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and therefore threatens the stability of the country and the wider region. Sudanese political groups and armed movements aligned with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Tuesday signed what they billed “a transitional charter” in Nairobi, endorsing “a secular state for Sudan” and paving the way for a parallel government in RSF-controlled areas. The Sudanese government has rejected the move, saying it encourages the division of African countries and violates their sovereignty. Members of the Security Council called on both parties involved in the conflict to seek an immediate halt to hostilities and to engage, “in good faith,” in diplomatic efforts toward a durable ceasefire. They also welcomed calls by the African Union and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urgently declare a ceasefire during Ramadan. The 15-member body, tasked with maintaining international peace and security, also called for all parties to comply with their commitments outlined in the Jeddah Declaration. They emphasized “the importance of a genuine, inclusive, and transparent national dialogue leading to a free, fair and democratically elected national government, following a civilian-led transitional period, to realize the aspirations of the Sudanese people for a peaceful, stable and prosperous future, in full accordance with the principles of national ownership.” Council members further urged all countries to halt any external interference “which seeks to foment conflict and instability, to support efforts for durable peace, to abide by their obligations under international law, and to implement relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2750,” which was adopted last year to renew the arms embargo on Sudan. The Security Council also called on warring parties to adhere to international humanitarian law and resolution 2736. Resolution 2736, adopted in June 2024, demanded the RSF halt a siege and de-escalate fighting in North Darfur’s capital Al-Fashir. Since the beginning of the conflict in early 2023, humanitarian officials have decried the weaponization of hunger in Sudan and lamented the lack of access to the millions in need, which has caused famine to return to some parts of the country, including Zamzam camp.