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Jordan Closes 97 Facilities after Mass Food Poisoning

A chef slices shawarma at a restaurant on 31 July 2019. EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP
A chef slices shawarma at a restaurant on 31 July 2019. EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP
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Jordan Closes 97 Facilities after Mass Food Poisoning

A chef slices shawarma at a restaurant on 31 July 2019. EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP
A chef slices shawarma at a restaurant on 31 July 2019. EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP

The Jordanian authorities ordered on Sunday the closure of 23 food facilities and one restaurant in Amman and refered their owners to the Public Prosecution after a five-year-old boy died and over 800 people were hospitalized from food poisoning in Baqa'a Ein al-Basha region last week.

Health Minister Saad Jaber said the initial investigation showed that the source of poisoning is the supplier of meat and other foodstuff served at restaurants with meals.

“Five tons of expired meat were seized in addition to half a ton of potatoes from the supply center,” he said.

Jaber told Petra news agency on Sunday that 20 facilities in Salt, Sweileh, Ein al-Basha, and one restaurant in Amman were closed as a precautionary measure until the lab tests results are issued.

He said his Ministry instructed the formation of a crisis cell to deal with the issue and also asked the General Prosecutor to take all legal measures and hold accountable those involved in the mass poisoning.

Fifty-seven new food poisoning cases were reported in Ein Al-Basha on Sunday, Jaber noted, adding that all cases were admitted to the Prince Al-Hussein Hospital in Salt and Al-Hussein Hospital in Ein Al-Basha.

Director General of Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) Nizar Mhidat said a lab test had shown bacteria in the meat and poultry.

Test results showed that the chicken is not safe for human consumption due to the presence of dense bacterial growth caused by poor storage conditions at meat warehouses and a failure to follow JFDA guidelines for high-risk materials, which require storage temperatures not to exceed five degrees Celsius.

Legal measures were taken and all violators were transferred to the Public Prosecutor for legal action.

Petra said the meat distributor turned himself in at Ein al-Basha police station on Sunday.

Seven people were arrested in relation to the mass food poisoning incident in Ein al-Basha.

The owner of the restaurant and six of his employees were charged with four offences causing harm, handling food in unsuitable conditions that made it harmful to human health, handling food that is not safe for human consumption and practicing a craft that causes harm.

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Arab World

UN Doubles Appeal for Lebanon Aid to Nearly $640 Mn

A man inspects the aftermath at the site of an Israeli strike that hit the previous day in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on June 5, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
A man inspects the aftermath at the site of an Israeli strike that hit the previous day in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on June 5, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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UN Doubles Appeal for Lebanon Aid to Nearly $640 Mn

A man inspects the aftermath at the site of an Israeli strike that hit the previous day in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on June 5, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
A man inspects the aftermath at the site of an Israeli strike that hit the previous day in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on June 5, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

The UN on Friday more than doubled its aid appeal for Lebanon as the country reels from Israel's war against Hezbollah, saying nearly $640 million was needed over six months.

"The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is severe and deteriorating," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a revised appeal for the country.

"Repeated displacements, insufficient shelter capacity and limited prospects for safe return are deepening vulnerability," it said, warning that "affected people are rapidly exhausting their coping capacities, and essential services are under increasing strain."

The UN had appealed for $308 million in March to support a massive emergency response led by Lebanon's government through to the end of May.

On Friday it said that another $331 million would be needed through the end of August.

Only $185 million had so far been received out of the initial appeal, OCHA said, adding that that amount had helped provide assistance to around 680,000 people between March 2 and May 31.

The aim now, it said, was to more than double that number to reach all of the 1.4 million people in Lebanon -- around a quarter of the population -- estimated to need humanitarian assistance in the country.

Lebanon says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Nearly one million people have fled their homes while more than 1.2 million are facing acute food insecurity, Friday's appeal showed.

Price pressure was adding to the misery, with the cost of water, fuel and electricity up more than a third nationally, and as high as 70 percent in the conflict-affected areas, AFP quoted it as saying.

It also highlighted the strain that the conflict was placing on healthcare in Lebanon, with 62 hospitals and other health facilities either damaged or closed.

OCHA said nearly 450 schools were being used to shelter displaced people, driving learning loss and drop-out risks.

Arab World

Israel Issues Evacuation Warnings North of Litani, Kills 7 in Strikes on Tyre

04 June 2026, Lebanon, Arnoun: Smoke billows after an Israeli air raid on the Southern Lebanese village of Arnoun. Photo: Stringer/dpa
04 June 2026, Lebanon, Arnoun: Smoke billows after an Israeli air raid on the Southern Lebanese village of Arnoun. Photo: Stringer/dpa
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Israel Issues Evacuation Warnings North of Litani, Kills 7 in Strikes on Tyre

04 June 2026, Lebanon, Arnoun: Smoke billows after an Israeli air raid on the Southern Lebanese village of Arnoun. Photo: Stringer/dpa
04 June 2026, Lebanon, Arnoun: Smoke billows after an Israeli air raid on the Southern Lebanese village of Arnoun. Photo: Stringer/dpa

Israel's air force struck a Lebanese village on Friday following warnings for several areas of imminent attacks against Hezbollah, after the Iran-backed militants rejected a truce brokered by the United States. 

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran's supreme leader. 

Lebanese and Israeli envoys meeting in Washington this week agreed to a conditional truce that Hezbollah flatly rejected, with the group instead demanding a comprehensive ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. 

Israel has staged its deepest incursion in two decades into Lebanon since the start of the war with Iran, which it launched in conjunction with its ally, the US. 

On Friday, the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee warned residents of six towns and villages including south Lebanon's Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate. 

He earlier warned three villages north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon to leave their homes. 

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by at least 1,000 meters into open areas," the army's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X. 

"Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities, or their weapons endangers their life!" 

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported mass displacement from the three villages named in the warning, and it subsequently reported a strike on one of the villages, Arqoun. 

Overnight, Israeli strikes killed seven people in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, a source from Lebanon's civil defense told AFP. 

- 'Freedom to kill' - 

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Thursday rejected a truce announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys in Washington that hinged on the group halting its attacks on Israel. 

"The ceasefire must be comprehensive... without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill," Qassem said, urging the government to halt "the farce and humiliation called direct talks" with Israel. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the army will "at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations... without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure". 

He said Israeli forces had the "freedom" to strike Lebanese capital Beirut if Hezbollah attacked Israeli communities. 

One Israeli strike near the Jabal Amel hospital in the historic city of Tyre killed four people overnight, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children. 

An AFP correspondent saw a heavily damaged bank near the hospital, one of only three in the city. 

- 'Not a life' - 

After Israeli orders for residents to leave most of Tyre, several people sought shelter in the small old city, so far spared from evacuation warnings and strikes and where the Christian quarter is located. 

With shelters full, displaced residents were sleeping in cars or tents, but many have left following an Israeli army claim on Tuesday that Hezbollah members were operating in the area, threatening to order evacuations should operatives remain. 

Hezbollah is Lebanon's only militant group that refused to hand over its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. 

After Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, calls on Hezbollah to disarm multiplied, with the leadership under President Joseph Aoun taking the firmest stance yet. 

The Lebanese government has declared Hezbollah's military activities illegal, and the army was working to disarm the group in areas south of the Litani River near Israel. 

The war launched by the US and Israel on Iran saw Hezbollah return to the battlefield, launching attacks into Israel while fighting Israeli troops inside Lebanon. 

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,526 people since March 2. 

As the trading of fire continued, Israelis in northern villages expressed little hope for the latest truce. 

"We can't keep doing this," the 60-year-old told AFP on Thursday from her home in Shlomi, a small town in Israel's far north. 

"This is not a life." 

Arab World

Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Man in West Bank

An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 01 June 2026. (EPA)
An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 01 June 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Man in West Bank

An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 01 June 2026. (EPA)
An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 01 June 2026. (EPA)

Israeli forces shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Friday, while the military said it had killed someone who threw firebombs at vehicles.

In the early hours of Friday, the health ministry said it had been informed of "the martyrdom of the young man Haitham Ezzedine Omar Hmeida, 18, by occupation gunfire in the village of Beitin," northeast of Ramallah.

It added that the man's body was being withheld.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its forces had "identified several terrorists throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles traveling on a major roadway" near the village of Beitin.

"The soldiers opened fire at the terrorists and eliminated one of them," the military said, adding that its forces were "currently pursuing the remaining suspects."

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 with Hamas's attack on Israel, near-daily violence has rocked the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,078 Palestinians since then, including many gunmen, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.

Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.