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Turkey, HTS Hold Talks to Contain Tension

A general view shows a damaged building in the western Damascus suburbs, Syria in this handout released by SANA on April 27, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
A general view shows a damaged building in the western Damascus suburbs, Syria in this handout released by SANA on April 27, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
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Turkey, HTS Hold Talks to Contain Tension

A general view shows a damaged building in the western Damascus suburbs, Syria in this handout released by SANA on April 27, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
A general view shows a damaged building in the western Damascus suburbs, Syria in this handout released by SANA on April 27, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Talks are ongoing between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Turkey to end the tension in the wake of Turkish forces’ intervention to disperse a protest near Nayrab on Sunday.

This weekend, the region witnessed the first military confrontation between Turkish forces and HTS militants.

As retaliation for Turkish forces opening fire on HTS militants on Sunday — killing four protesters participating in Al-Karama sit-in — the militant group targeted a Turkish armored vehicle with a missile in Al-Nayrab.

On Sunday morning, Turkish forces destroyed tents in Al-Karama and reportedly fired tear gas and live rounds to open the road for the passage of four Russian cars, enabling joint patrols with Russian forces on the M4 highway.

But the protesters retaliated by throwing stones at the Turkish troops.

Turkey’s drones also targeted HTS positions for the first time on Sunday, near the village of Al-Nayrab, hinting at a possible large-scale operation in the near future. The attack killed two members of the HTS and injured three others.

Sources revealed that talks were held on Sunday to contain the tension after the armed clash. Representatives from Sham Legion and other pro-Turkey factions took part in the talks.

HTS along with Idlib residents protest against the Russian presence and the signed deals between Turkey and Russian on Idlib. The most recent is the March 5 agreement signed in Moscow on a ceasefire, the establishment of a safe corridor 6 km along the M4 road in Idlib, and launching Turkish-Russian patrols.

Notably, these joint patrols commenced on March 15 but the Turkish and Russian forces had to cut short 5 patrols due to protests along the road.

Furthermore, Russian and Turkish forces conducted on Monday morning a new joint patrol in western countryside of Ain al-Arab (Kobani). Russian-Turkish armored vehicles set off from the village of Ashma and roamed villages and towns in the western countryside of Kobani, with two Russian helicopters flying over the area at low altitude.

On April 16, Syrian Observatory sources confirmed that the Russian and Turkish forces have conducted a new joint patrol in the eastern countryside of Ain Al-Arab (Kobani). This falls under Sochi Agreement signed on Oct. 22 regarding the east of Euphrates.

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Arab World

Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill Man in Jenin Refugee Camp

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill Man in Jenin Refugee Camp

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man inside the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.

"A citizen... was killed by Israeli fire in the Jenin camp, and ambulance crews transported his body to Jenin Government Hospital," the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement, without specifying when he was killed.

Contacted by AFP, Israel's military said it was "checking" reports of the man's killing.

The director of Jenin's Government Hospital, Wissam Baker, identified the victim as Nasser al-Saadi, noting that "he arrived dead at the hospital after being shot in the thigh".

"It appears he bled heavily after being injured before an ambulance was called to transport him to the hospital," Baker told AFP.

The Palestinian Red Crescent had earlier announced that Israeli forces handed over the body of a 30-year-old from inside the Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city of Jenin.

Israeli forces have occupied and barred access to the Jenin refugee camp since January 2025, when they launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at uprooting Palestinian armed groups from the West Bank's densely populated refugee camps.

The operation has caused the displacement of nearly 40,000 people from the camps, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

At least 1,073 Palestinians, including several armed fighters, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the outbreak of the Gaza war following Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority data.

On the other hand, official Israeli data shows at least 46 Israelis -- civilians and soldiers -- have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.

Arab World

Israel Issues Expropriation Order for West Bank Religious Site

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Issues Expropriation Order for West Bank Religious Site

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel has issued an expropriation order for land in the occupied West Bank near the site of a Biblical prophet's grave north of Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO reported Tuesday.

The site, known as Nabi Samuel, is believed in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim tradition to include the grave of the Biblical figure of prophet Samuel, and includes a mosque owned by Palestinian religious authorities, the Waqf.

"This marks the first time that the (Israeli) Civil Administration has expropriated a holy site owned by the Muslim Waqf in the occupied West Bank," Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement.

According to the Israeli order, dated May 9 but published this week, the area for expropriation will include 109.79 dunams (roughly 11 hectares), including access roads, agricultural land, and a mosque.

The order says the decision was made "for the development and preservation of the archaeological site of the Tomb of the Prophet Samuel".

A source in COGAT, the Israel defense ministry body in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, said the decision was made "following the refusal of Waqf officials to cooperate with the procedures required for the renovation of the tomb compound".

The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs issued a "strong condemnation" of the expropriation order for Nabi Samuel.

"This confiscation is part of a policy aimed at suffocating the mosque and completely isolating it from its Palestinian surroundings, turning it into a Jewish archaeological site by force of arms," the ministry said in a statement.

Peace Now's Yonatan Mizrahi pointed out that Israeli authorities had already taken over administration of much of the land by converting it into an Israeli national park in the 1990s, decades after demolishing a Palestinian village on the site.

"There was no need to decide about the expropriation of the land," Mizrahi told AFP, while Peace Now denounced "the messianic agenda of the Israeli government".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

In 2025, Israel expropriated an area in the center of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, arguing the order concerned an open area intended for roofing works and not a religious structure.

Arab World

Remnants of Assad's Chemical Weapons Program Recovered, Syrian Official Says

FILE PHOTO: A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
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Remnants of Assad's Chemical Weapons Program Recovered, Syrian Official Says

FILE PHOTO: A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo

Syria's transitional leadership has located remnants of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's clandestine chemical weapons program, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used to carry out deadly gas attacks during the country's long-running civil war, a Syrian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Syrian authorities have also taken into custody 18 suspects for alleged involvement in Assad's chemical weapons program, including high-level military, political and technical officials, said Mohamad Katoub, Syria's permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, in an interview.