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Lebanese Army Foils Attempt to Smuggle 60 Syrians By Sea

A vessel patrols in the Mediterranean waters. PHOTO: JACK GUEZ / AFP
A vessel patrols in the Mediterranean waters. PHOTO: JACK GUEZ / AFP
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Lebanese Army Foils Attempt to Smuggle 60 Syrians By Sea

A vessel patrols in the Mediterranean waters. PHOTO: JACK GUEZ / AFP
A vessel patrols in the Mediterranean waters. PHOTO: JACK GUEZ / AFP

The Lebanese Army said Monday it has foiled an attempt to smuggle 60 Syrians by sea from the north of the country.

"A naval force unit stopped a boat detected by radar 10 nautical miles off the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Sunday trying "to smuggle 60 people, 59 Syrians and one Lebanese,” the Army said in a statement.

Their intended destination was not specified but neighboring Cyprus is the most popular sea smuggling route.

The operation came few days after the Internal Security Forces arrested 51 Syrian citizens (39 adult males, 5 adult women, 7 Children) who planned to make the crossing to Cyprus from the coastal town of Anfeh al-Harisha.

Smuggling attempts have been on the rise in Lebanon, especially among Syrian refugees who do not hesitate to take the risky trip and often choose Cyprus as their destination.

Last Saturday, the ISF said it detained Syrians who confessed that they were waiting for a boat to take them from the Anfeh area towards Cyprus, noting that they had paid a smuggler $2,500 each.

The army has said it also stopped another 69 Syrians in the last week of April.

Lebanon, home to more than six million people, is just 160 kilometers from Cyprus.

As well as hosting more than one million refugees from war-torn Syria, Lebanon is grappling with its most severe economic crisis for decades.

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Arab World

Israel Police to Deploy Around Al-Aqsa for Ramadan, Palestinians Report Curbs

Palestinian Muslim worshipper walks in the grounds of the Dome of the Rock Shrine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem, during a light dust storm on February 14, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian Muslim worshipper walks in the grounds of the Dome of the Rock Shrine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem, during a light dust storm on February 14, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Police to Deploy Around Al-Aqsa for Ramadan, Palestinians Report Curbs

Palestinian Muslim worshipper walks in the grounds of the Dome of the Rock Shrine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem, during a light dust storm on February 14, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian Muslim worshipper walks in the grounds of the Dome of the Rock Shrine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem, during a light dust storm on February 14, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli police said Monday that they would deploy in force around the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week, as Palestinian officials accused Israel of imposing restrictions at the compound.

Over the course of the month of fasting and prayer, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al-Aqsa -- Islam's third-holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed.

Arad Braverman, a senior Jerusalem police officer, said forces would be deployed "day and night" across the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and in the surrounding area.

He said thousands of police would also be on duty for Friday prayers, which draw the largest crowds of Muslim worshippers.

Braverman said police had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem.

He did not say whether age limits would apply, adding that the final number of people would be decided by the government.

The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate said in a separate statement it had been informed that permits would again be restricted to men over 55 and women over 50, mirroring last year's criteria.

It said Israeli authorities had blocked the Islamic Waqf -- the Jordanian-run body administering the site -- from carrying out routine preparations, including installing shade structures and setting up temporary medical clinics.

A Waqf source confirmed the restrictions and said 33 of its employees had been barred from entering the compound in the week before Ramadan.

The Al-Aqsa compound is a central symbol of Palestinian identity and also a frequent flashpoint.

Under long-standing arrangements, Jews may visit the compound -- which they revere as the site of their second temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD -- but they are not permitted to pray there.

Israel says it is committed to maintaining this status quo, though Palestinians fear it is being eroded.

Braverman reiterated Monday that no changes were planned.

In recent years, a growing number of Jewish ultranationalists have challenged the prayer ban, including far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who prayed at the site while serving as national security minister in 2024 and 2025.

Arab World

German President Urges Lebanon to Keep up Disarmament of Hezbollah

A general view of demonstrators during 2019 anti-government protests in central Beirut. (Reuters)
A general view of demonstrators during 2019 anti-government protests in central Beirut. (Reuters)
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German President Urges Lebanon to Keep up Disarmament of Hezbollah

A general view of demonstrators during 2019 anti-government protests in central Beirut. (Reuters)
A general view of demonstrators during 2019 anti-government protests in central Beirut. (Reuters)

Visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday urged Beirut to keep disarming militant group Hezbollah, saying it would help ensure the withdrawal of Israel's army from Lebanese territory.

Israel has kept up regular strikes and maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of the plan, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border.

Steinmeier said his visit was about "the demand that both sides fulfil their obligations under the ceasefire agreement and that the disarmament of Hezbollah here in Lebanon continues, thereby creating the conditions for the Israeli army to withdraw from southern Lebanon".

"Both sides are obliged to fulfil the ceasefire agreement -- I say this in Israel as well as in Lebanon," he told a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun, calling the deal "an opportunity".

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah -- which was badly weakened by war with Israel -- has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Lebanon's army is expected to update the cabinet on Monday over its progress on disarmament and the second phase, which covers the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometres south of Beirut.

Aoun said Lebanon asked Germany to "demand the Israeli side implement the ceasefire agreement and withdraw from the territories it occupies".

He also asked Germany to assist the Lebanese army and to play a "key role" after the departure of United Nations peacekeepers, whose mandate expires this year.

Germany has 179 personnel in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, according to the peacekeepers.

It has headed UNIFIL's maritime taskforce since 2021.

Arab World

Drone Attack on Sudan Market Kills 28, Says Rights Group

Sudanese vendors wait for customers at a fish market in the al-Mourada neighborhood of Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
Sudanese vendors wait for customers at a fish market in the al-Mourada neighborhood of Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack on Sudan Market Kills 28, Says Rights Group

Sudanese vendors wait for customers at a fish market in the al-Mourada neighborhood of Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
Sudanese vendors wait for customers at a fish market in the al-Mourada neighborhood of Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, on February 15, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack on a crowded market in central Sudan killed 28 people, a rights group reported Monday, as the army and its RSF rivals traded aerial strikes in their battle for territory.

The attack occurred in a RSF-controlled area in the far north of Sudan's Kordofan region, currently the fiercest frontline in the three-year-old war between the army and RSF, AFP reported.

According to the Emergency Lawyers, a group monitoring atrocities in the conflict, several drones hit the al-Safiya market outside the town of Sodari in North Kordofan on Sunday.

"The attack occurred when the market was bustling with civilians, including women, children and the elderly," the group said, adding that the toll was preliminary.

It gave no indication of who carried out the strike.

Sodari, a remote town where desert trade routes cross, is around 230 kilometres (132 miles) northwest of El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has been trying to encircle for months.

The Kordofan region has seen a surge in deadly drone attacks as both sides fight over the country's vital east-west axis, which links the western RSF-held region of Darfur, through El-Obeid, to the army-controlled capital Khartoum and the rest of Sudan.

Across vast stretches of territory, attacks by both sides -- many on remote towns and villages -- have killed up to dozens of civilians at a time.

Last Wednesday, two children were killed and a dozen wounded in one strike on a school, while another severely damaged a United Nations warehouse storing famine relief supplies.

After consolidating their hold on Darfur last year, the RSF has pushed east through oil- and gold-rich Kordofan, in an attempt to seize Sudan's central corridor.

Since April 2023, the war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced around 11 million, creating the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the centre, north and east while the RSF controls the west and, with their allies, parts of the south.