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Yemen: MASAM Project Clears 1,353 Houthi Landmines in 1st Week of September

Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty but the deadly munitions still pose a major threat (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)
Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty but the deadly munitions still pose a major threat (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)
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Yemen: MASAM Project Clears 1,353 Houthi Landmines in 1st Week of September

Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty but the deadly munitions still pose a major threat (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)
Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty but the deadly munitions still pose a major threat (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)

The project ran by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) for clearing MASAM Houthi landmines in Yemen managed to remove 1,353 landmines during the first week of September 2020.

This operation cleared 18 antipersonnel mines, 277 anti-tank mines and 1,049 unexploded ordnance.

Since the beginning of the project, as many as 183,581 mines, planted by the Houthi militias, have been dismantled

Houthis plant landmines in schools and homes and try to hide them in different forms, colors and methods, which killed and caused serious injuries to a large number of people.

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Arab World

France to Give Syria 50 Mn Euros Stolen by Assad Uncle, Says Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a joint press conference with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a joint press conference with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP)
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France to Give Syria 50 Mn Euros Stolen by Assad Uncle, Says Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a joint press conference with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a joint press conference with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday on a visit to Syria that Paris will return more than 50 million euros ($57 million) stolen by the family of former ruler Bashar al-Assad to the country.

During his landmark visit to Damascus, the first of a European Union head of state since Assad fell in late 2024, the two countries signed several agreements focusing on development and reconstruction after more than a decade of civil war.

One of them involves the return of money that France had confiscated from Rifaat al-Assad, the ousted leader's uncle.

Macron told a joint press conference with Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa that "more than 50 million euros from the seizure of ill-gotten gains by the family of the former dictator... will be returned to the Syrian people to finance concrete development projects in the territory".

The declaration of intent signed by both countries' foreign ministers said that the two nations will "begin the process of returning 51 million euros from the seizure of Rifaat al-Assad's ill-gotten gains, confiscated by the French justice system".

Rifaat went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France, and later presenting himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.

In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds.

Two years later, Rifaat appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, the ruler's wife Asma and other relatives.

Shortly after Bashar's ousting, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.

His family announced his death in January, aged 88.

Rifaat's role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Hama", referring to the central Syrian city.

The death toll from 27 days of violence, which took place under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.

Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of a long list of crimes, including ordering "murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions" while an officer in the Syrian army.

Arab World

Israeli Fire Kills Six People in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
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Israeli Fire Kills Six People in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the territory's health officials said. 

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed a man and wounded two children in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The Israeli military told Reuters they had targeted a Hamas fighter. 

Another Israeli airstrike hit near a tent encampment housing displaced families in western Gaza City, killing one person and wounding five others, medics ‌said, while ‌a third airstrike in Khan Younis killed one person and ‌wounded ⁠three others.  

The Israeli ⁠military said both of those strikes had also targeted fighters.  

The Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group that has long carried out armed attacks against Israel, said one of the two Israeli strikes in Khan Younis had killed a senior leader of the group, Waheed Abu Salem.  

Later on Tuesday, one Palestinian was killed and nine others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in an area of Rafah in the south of Gaza, medics ⁠and witnesses said.  

Meanwhile, in Gaza City's Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, ‌an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle, killing two ‌people, medics said, taking Tuesday's death toll across the Gaza Strip to at least six.  

The ‌Israeli military did not immediately comment on the last two incidents.  

CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS 

Israel has ‌repeatedly carried out strikes in Gaza since a US-mediated ceasefire with Hamas was reached last October, saying it is targeting fighters who threaten its forces or who took part in the October 2023 attack on Israel. 

Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. Nikolay Mladenov, ‌US President Donald Trump's appointed Board of Peace envoy to Gaza, has said both sides have violated the agreement.  

Since the ⁠ceasefire took effect ⁠eight months ago, more than 1,070 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, according to figures released by the two sides. Hamas does not disclose the number of its fighters killed. 

Israeli troops control more than 60% of Gaza, patrolling what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes as a buffer zone to deter Hamas attacks. Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw from the territory. 

Israel's devastating aerial and ground bombardment of Gaza displaced nearly the entire population of 2 million people, most of whom now live in tents or damaged buildings in a narrow coastal strip of territory governed by Hamas.  

Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people during their cross-border attack into Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. The Gaza health ministry said more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since then. 

Arab World

Syria President Says Relying on French Help to Stop Israeli Escalations

French President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (AFP)
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Syria President Says Relying on French Help to Stop Israeli Escalations

French President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (AFP)

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Tuesday that he is counting on an "active French role" to halt Israeli escalations against his country.

During a joint press conference with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Damascus, Sharaa condemned "systematic Israeli attacks", saying "we are counting on an active French role to stop this escalation and ensure respect for international agreements".

Al-Sharaa also announced an agreement with Macron to install ambassadors, with the French embassy in Damascus closed since 2012 during the country's bloody civil war.

"I am pleased to announce today our agreement to begin the process of exchanging resident ambassadors between Damascus and Paris as soon as possible, signaling the return of diplomatic relations to their normal state," Sharaa said.

"After the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the world realized the value of safe and stable corridors... here the importance of Syrian geography is highlighted, which today has regained its vital role as an indispensable link in the global corridors market, and we want France to be our primary partner in this path," Sharaa noted. 

For his part, Macron said Syria should not let the blasts that wounded 18 people during his landmark visit to Damascus on Tuesday affect the country's stability.

In a joint press conference with Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa, Macron called to "not let ourselves be destabilised" after the attacks, while Sharaa saluted Macron's "courage" for continuing his visit after the bombings.