Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in West Bank Shooting 

Israeli army soldiers stand guard at the scene of a shooting attack on the Tayasir checkpoint east of Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on February 4, 2025. (AFP) 
Israeli army soldiers stand guard at the scene of a shooting attack on the Tayasir checkpoint east of Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on February 4, 2025. (AFP) 
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Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in West Bank Shooting 

Israeli army soldiers stand guard at the scene of a shooting attack on the Tayasir checkpoint east of Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on February 4, 2025. (AFP) 
Israeli army soldiers stand guard at the scene of a shooting attack on the Tayasir checkpoint east of Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on February 4, 2025. (AFP) 

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight wounded when a gunman opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, setting off a gunfight in which the shooter was killed by Israeli soldiers, the military said. 

Two of the wounded soldiers were in a serious condition, with the other six lightly injured, the military said. 

The incident, at a checkpoint near Tayasir in the Jordan Valley, took place during a period of high tension in the West Bank, with major Israeli operations underway in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm and smaller raids in other locations. 

Israeli media outlet Ynet reported that the attacker, armed with an M-16 automatic rifle, opened fire from close range on a soldier coming out of a fortified bunker, leading to a gunfight that lasted several minutes. 

The incident is the latest in a surge in violence across the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023. 

Israeli troops have conducted repeated sweeps, arresting thousands of Palestinians and killing hundreds, including both gunmen and uninvolved civilians. 

Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel.  



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.