عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Israel Sends Dozens of Drones to Gaza, Lapid Cancels his Vacation

A Palestinian worker was unable to return to Gaza after Israel closed crossings (Reuters)
A Palestinian worker was unable to return to Gaza after Israel closed crossings (Reuters)
TT
TT

Israel Sends Dozens of Drones to Gaza, Lapid Cancels his Vacation

A Palestinian worker was unable to return to Gaza after Israel closed crossings (Reuters)
A Palestinian worker was unable to return to Gaza after Israel closed crossings (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid canceled his vacation due to the security situation in the south of the country, according to the Hebrew Channel 14.

Lapid's office said in a statement that the prime minister canceled his leave and will assess the situation at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

Israel sent dozens of drones into Gaza Strip amid the state of alert among its forces in the vicinity of the Palestinian enclave.

Tel Aviv is expecting a possible response after its brutal arrest and assault of the leader of the Islamic Jihad movement in Jenin, Bassam al-Saadi.

Hebrew media said that the Israeli Air Force attacked the Gaza Strip's borders to "target armed cells" that might launch anti-tank missiles or rockets or carry out sniping operations toward Israeli targets.

Meanwhile, the Chief of the General Staff, Aviv Kohavi, visited the Gaza Division and held an operational-security situational assessment with the Commanding Officer, Nimrod Aloni.

Kohavi ordered the Israeli forces to increase readiness for escalation and expand defensive and intelligence efforts.

Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Makan) announced that the area near the Gaza Strip witnessed a state of alert. Roads were shut and train stations were closed.

Israel closed Kerem Shalom commercial crossing and the Beit Hanoun crossing.

Based on a new assessment of the security situation, the Israeli army sent a letter to Gaza residents announcing the extension of the state of alert for another day.

According to Israel's Channel 14, the army will not tolerate maintaining the state of alert in the Gaza Strip for a long time and may replace this with economic sanctions, such as banning fishing in the Gaza sea and keeping the crossings closed, in an attempt to put financial pressure.

The Israeli army confirmed it has a strong intelligence warning that Islamic Jihad plans to operate on the border between Israel and the Strip soon.

The Ynet website said these attacks might include anti-tank missiles, snipers, or missiles.

Islamic Jihad official Khaled al-Batsh said that the movement responded to the Egyptian efforts, given that attacks and arrests stopped in the West Bank.

Israel refused and arrested 20 Palestinians on Thursday.

Later, a Hamas delegation left for Egypt to contain the situation. The movement does not want an escalation from Gaza, but it will not prevent the Islamic Jihad if an agreement is not reached, according to Israeli estimates.

The Israeli Minister of Tourism, Yoel Razvozov, said that the relevant authorities are working at the military and political levels to end the current tension.

Razvozov stressed that the decision to restrict movement in the region was taken after carefully studying the situation and in consultation with intelligence agencies.

He made it clear that Israel wants to calm the situation and will not allow the Islamic Jihad to escalate the situation or impose its conditions, warning that Tel Aviv will continue to respond to any breach from the Strip.

The Israeli minister tried to calm the Jewish settlers in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, who expressed anger at the continued Israeli restrictions. The settlers demanded compensation from the Israeli government, and some had to leave their homes.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Egypt Urges All Parties to Show Restraint before Gaza's Rafah Crossing Reopens

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
TT
TT

Egypt Urges All Parties to Show Restraint before Gaza's Rafah Crossing Reopens

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP

Egypt condemned Israel's latest strikes in Gaza on Saturday and urged all parties to respect a fragile US-brokered ceasefire ahead of the long-awaited reopening of the territory's Rafah border crossing, AFP reported.

In a statement from its foreign ministry, Egypt condemned Israel's "repeated violations" of the truce and demanded all parties "exercise the utmost restraint", after Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 28 people on Saturday.

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday on a trial basis and to allow only the "limited movement of people", not aid shipments.

 

Arab World

NGOs: Türkiye Blocks Aid Convoy to Syria's Kobane

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
TT
TT

NGOs: Türkiye Blocks Aid Convoy to Syria's Kobane

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP

Turkish authorities have blocked a convoy carrying aid to Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria encircled by the Syrian army, NGOs and a Turkish MP said on Saturday.

They said the aid was blocked before it reached the Türkiye -Syria border, despite an agreement announced on Friday between the Syrian government and the country's Kurdish minority to gradually integrate the Kurds' military and civilian institutions into the state.

Twenty-five lorries containing water, milk, baby formula and blankets collected in Diyarbakir, the main city in Türkiye's predominantly Kurdish southeast, "were prevented from crossing the border", said the Diyarbakir Solidarity and Protection Platform, which organized the aid campaign, AFP reported.

"Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable, both from the point of view of humanitarian law and from the point of view of moral responsibility," said the platform, which brings together several NGOs.

Earlier this week, residents of Kobane told AFP they were running out of food, water and electricity because the city was overwhelmed with people fleeing the advance of the Syrian army.

Kurdish forces accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic.

"The trucks are still waiting in a depot on the highway," said Adalet Kaya, an MP from Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party who was accompanying the convoy.

"We will continue negotiations today. We hope they will be able to cross at the Mursitpinar border post," he told AFP.

Mursitpinar is located on the Turkish side of the border, across from Kobane.

Turkish authorities have kept the border crossing closed since 2016, while occasionally opening it briefly to allow humanitarian aid to pass through.

DEM and Türkiye's main opposition CHP called this week for Mursitpinar to be opened "to avoid a humanitarian tragedy".

Turkish authorities said aid convoys should use the Oncupinar border crossing, 180 kilometres (110 miles) away.

"It's not just a question of distance. We want to be sure the aid reaches Kobane and is not redirected elsewhere by Damascus, which has imposed a siege," said Kaya.

After months of deadlock and fighting, Damascus and the Syrian Kurds announced an agreement on Friday that would see the forces and administration of Syria's Kurdish autonomous region gradually integrated into the Syrian state.

Kobane is around 200 kilometres from the Kurds' stronghold in Syria's far northeast.

Kurdish forces liberated the city from a lengthy siege by the ISIS group in 2015 and it took on symbolic value as their first major victory against the militants.

Kobane is hemmed in by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides, pending the entry into the force of Friday's agreement.

Arab World

Lebanon's Government Approves a Deal to Transfer Syrian Prisoners Back to Syria

The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
TT
TT

Lebanon's Government Approves a Deal to Transfer Syrian Prisoners Back to Syria

The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison

Lebanon’s Cabinet approved an agreement to transfer Syrian prisoners serving their sentences in Lebanon back to their home country.

The issue of prisoners has been a sore point as the neighboring countries seek to recalibrate their relations following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides. Many Lebanese resent the decades-long occupation of their country by Syrian forces that ended in 2005. Many Syrians resent the role played by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah when it entered Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government.

A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus had asked Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials said Beirut would not release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately.

The deal approved late Friday appeared to resolve that tension. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said other issues remain to be resolved between the two countries, including the fate of Lebanese believed to have been disappeared into Syrian prisons during Assad’s rule and the demarcation of the border between the two countries.

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that about 300 prisoners would be transferred as a result of the agreement.

Protesters gathered in a square below the government palace in downtown Beirut ahead of the Cabinet vote to call for amnesty for Lebanese prisoners, including some who joined militant groups fighting against Assad in Syria. Some of the protesters called for the release of cleric Ahmad al-Assir, imprisoned for his role in 2013 clashes that killed 18 Lebanese army soldiers.

“The state found solutions for the Syrian youth who are heroes and belong to the Syrian revolution who have been imprisoned for 12 years,” said protester Khaled Al- Bobbo. “But in the same files there are also Lebanese detainees. ... We demand that just as they found solutions for the Syrians, they must also find solutions for the people of this country.”