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Screened in Cyprus, British and Cypriot Aid Heads to Gaza via Egypt

A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on January 2, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on January 2, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Screened in Cyprus, British and Cypriot Aid Heads to Gaza via Egypt

A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on January 2, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on January 2, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

Britain and Cyprus have sent 87 tons of aid to Gaza via Egypt, the two countries said on Tuesday, with Cypriot officials saying they had successfully tested a screening mechanism for cargoes offering an alternative route for badly needed supplies.

The Jan. 1 delivery to Port Said in Egypt for transfer to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing fell short of Cyprus' ultimate objective to establish a direct aid corridor to the Israel-besieged Palestinian enclave. But, for the first time, it offered a workaround on how aid could be accelerated by eliminating security checks in Israel itself, officials said.

The Cypriot initiative to create a sustained, one-way sea route into Gaza entails aid undergoing security checks in Cyprus by government agencies, including from Israel, before being dispatched onwards from the eastern Mediterranean island.

"The international community now has a workable alternative at its disposal to send additional humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza," Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said in a written statement.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Britain was committed to supporting the people of Gaza.

"Significantly more aid needs to reach Gaza to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people," he said.

Israel is waging a nearly 12-week-old offensive on Gaza in retaliation for a cross-border killing and kidnapping spree by Hamas militants.

Israeli bombardments have reduced much of the territory to rubble, killing at least 22,000 people and causing a humanitarian disaster with most of the 2.3 million population homeless and acutely short of food, water, medicine and fuel.

Eli Cohen, Israel's outgoing foreign minister, said on Sunday his country was prepared to let ships deliver aid to the war-ravaged enclave "immediately".

Cyprus, situated some 370 km (230 miles) northwest of Gaza, is the closest European Union member state to the region. Its plan is meant to expand capacity for humanitarian relief to the Gaza Strip beyond limited deliveries now being made overland through Rafah.

Any direct sail to Gaza with Israel's consent would mark the first easing of an Israeli naval blockade first imposed on Gaza in 2007 after Palestinian movement Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave.

But underscoring logistical challenges, the British Royal Fleet auxiliary ship which offloaded thermal blankets, shelter packs and medicine in Egypt on Monday was at sea for at least 10 days awaiting clarity as to whether it could sail directly to Gaza, individuals with knowledge of the situation said.

The direct route is not currently executable due to requirements including security matters which have "not been met at this point in time", one of those sources said.

"The situation is very dynamic and we will continue to deliberate with all relevant stakeholders on the best time and way to operationalize the initiative," the source said.

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Arab World

Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping and long-awaited amnesty law that should benefit thousands of prisoners and wanted people, in the first legislation of its kind since 1991.

The law, which had been a demand of various political factions and a topic of debate for years, aims to reduce prison overcrowding with many inmates awaiting trial for years.

The office of the country's parliament speaker announced the "approval of a draft law aimed at granting a general amnesty and exceptionally reducing the terms of certain sentences".

Authorities did not immediately announce the number of people that would benefit from the law.

According to Imad al-Hout, one of the lawmakers in favor of the bill, the law reduced the sentences of those facing death and life imprisonment to 17 prison years.

That is equivalent to 12 years and nine months of actual imprisonment in Lebanon, where a prison year is calculated as nine months.

The law also calls for the release of inmates detained for more than 12 prison years without charges as their trial continues.

In its 2025 report, the country's National Human Rights Commission said that prisons had an overcrowding rate of 300 percent, with prison authorities reporting at least 6,268 inmates by the end of March.

But general amnesty was brought back into the limelight after the 2024 fall of longtime Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, as many extremist prisoners in Lebanon were jailed over events linked to the Syrian civil war.

Most of them are accused of crimes that include attacking the Lebanese army, participating in clashes and planning bombings.

Other political forces, including Iran-backed Hezbollah, have been demanding amnesty for their communities.

Thousands of families from the eastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, bastions of Hezbollah and its ally Amal where illicit cannabis cultivation is widespread, have been demanding amnesty for drug-related offenses and car theft for years.

Christian parties meanwhile have pushed for the law to include the families of those who joined an Israeli-backed proxy and fled to Israel after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, fearing reprisals, particularly from Hezbollah and its supporters.

Lebanon previously passed a general amnesty law in the wake of its 1975-90 civil war, allowing former warlords to transition into politics without facing trial for crimes committed during the conflict.

Arab World

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan
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RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched drone strikes on capital Khartoum and other army-controlled cities on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent, witnesses and an army source said, in what appeared to be their largest coordinated attack in months.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by war between its regular military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The capital Khartoum, which was recaptured by the army last year, has been targeted by drone strikes before but enjoyed relative calm for months.

A source in the army said the RSF attacked the capital, the Kordofan city of El-Obeid, and the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer "with a large number of drones, which our anti-aircraft defenses engaged with".

El-Obeid is located nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Khartoum and around 650 kilometers from Atbara.

An AFP correspondent in the capital reported a drone attack at 5 am (0300 GMT) along with the sound of anti-aircraft missiles from the direction of the army's Wadi Seidna base, just north of the twin city of Omdurman.

In Khartoum North (Bahri), just across the Nile River, two drones hit a mosque and an electricity transformer in the El-Droshab area, according to an eyewitness.

It was not immediately clear if air defenses had shot them down.

Witnesses in the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer -- both also under army control -- gave similar reports of hearing explosions and seeing drones in the sky.

Some 120 kilometers southeast, in the town of Tamboul, civilians were in a "state of fear" after drones appeared above them, a witness told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attacks, including in the Khartoum North mosque which worshippers had recently emptied after dawn prayers.

Across the country, aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed in what the UN calls a "war of atrocities". The conflict has also caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

- Retaliatory strike -

The RSF has seemed to be on the back foot since the army last month pushed them off a key highway connecting Khartoum to El-Obeid, the southern Kordofan region's largest city, which they had tried to seize for months.

Daglo in the aftermath said he would "unleash" his fighters -- already accused of war crimes including genocide -- and his fighters have since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.

Burhan and Daglo, allies until they fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent most of the war in a relative stalemate, unwilling to hold negotiations while vying for a decisive battlefield advantage.

The RSF last year consolidated its hold on the vast western region of Darfur, and has since pushed to seize territory in Kordofan and along the southeastern Ethiopian border.

The army holds the country's center, north and east, and has tried to project an image of a return to normalcy in areas it controls.

But in Khartoum, 2.3 million people have returned from displacement, only to find vast amounts of uncleared war remnants, dilapidated infrastructure and limited electricity and water.

According to an eyewitness, Wednesday's drone attack "caused an explosion in an electricity transformer" in Khartoum North, where over half a million people already live without power.

Even parts of the city that have had more reliable services than Khartoum North have been without power for weeks.

Arab World

US Says New Round of Lebanon-Israel Talks in Rome in September

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
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US Says New Round of Lebanon-Israel Talks in Rome in September

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)

The United States will sponsor a new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel in early September in Rome, a State Department official announced Tuesday.

"The political track will reconvene in Rome in early September, and conversations will continue in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Washington in the interim," the official said on condition of anonymity. "We feel good about the trajectory."

The United States has been sponsoring talks between Lebanon and Israel aimed at putting an end to hostilities between them, with Beirut seeking Israel's phased withdrawal from the south.

In June, Lebanon and Israel agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones."

Talks last week in Rome were the seventh round since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

The US official speaking Tuesday gave an update on the last round of talks in Rome.

"The framework is being implemented, the first zones are live, and the working groups have aligned their language, maps, and procedures," the official said.

Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the direct talks between Lebanon and Israel and refuses to surrender its weapons.

Violence in Lebanon has decreased since the Lebanon-Israel deal and the signing in June of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the Middle East war.

But Lebanon has continued to report intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations and demolitions in southern villages.

At the next round of technical talks, the US official said: "Lebanon will present detailed roadmaps for securing new areas as implementation proceeds in the current zones."