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Jordan: Razzaz Receives Green Light to Fight Corruption

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz in Amman, Jordan. April 10, 2018. Muhammad Hamed / Reuters
Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz in Amman, Jordan. April 10, 2018. Muhammad Hamed / Reuters
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Jordan: Razzaz Receives Green Light to Fight Corruption

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz in Amman, Jordan. April 10, 2018. Muhammad Hamed / Reuters
Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz in Amman, Jordan. April 10, 2018. Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz announced he has received a green light from King Abdullah II to fight corruption regardless of the status of those involved.

In a telephone interview with the local news website, Saraya news, Razzaz reportedly said that since his appointment by King Abdullah, he has had a “green light” and free hand to combat graft.

Razzaz said that the government would give priority to the fight against corruption, stressing “it is not fair to increase taxes on citizens before handling corruption.”

Regarding the tobacco case, the premier said, “this time no mediation will be accepted”.

He stressed that the security services and customs are doing their best, and that in the past two days, successful raids have been made in that regard.

Commending cooperation in the case, Razzaz said that “people have been contacting the government not for mediation but to provide information”.

"I realize that things are not easy, but we want to open corruption files to investigate and bring the corrupt to justice so that citizens feel that we are serious and that no one is immune,” Razzaz stressed.

On the other hand, the Jordanian premier hailed the great efforts made by the Public Security Department (PSD) to protect citizens and their properties.

“Thanks to them, Jordan has been referred to as an oasis of security on a global level,” he said.

During his visit to the PSD's headquarters and meeting with its Director General, Maj. Gen. Fadel al-Hamoud, and senior officers on Sunday, in the presence of Interior Minister Samir Mubaidain, Razzaz said “the security situation we have been witnessing is the result of strenuous efforts exerted by the armed forces, public security and security apparatuses.”

He stressed the importance of strengthening the rule of law.

On efforts to combat drug trafficking, the Prime Minister praised the PSD and highlighted the importance of coordinating public security endeavors with the Ministries of Education, Higher Education and Social Development to combat the drug phenomenon and its destructive effects on society, and human health, mind and productivity.

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Arab World

Lebanon Says Israel Strikes Kill 14 in Deadliest Day Since Truce

Israeli soldiers operate on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 26 April 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers operate on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 26 April 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
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Lebanon Says Israel Strikes Kill 14 in Deadliest Day Since Truce

Israeli soldiers operate on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 26 April 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers operate on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 26 April 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country's south on Sunday killed 14 people, the deadliest day since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war came into force over a week ago.

It came as Israel and the Iran-backed group traded fresh accusations of breaching the fragile truce, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the military was "vigorously" targeting Hezbollah and the group vowing to keep responding to "violations".

Israel's military has carried out repeated strikes in Lebanon since the April 17 ceasefire, which on Thursday was extended for three weeks, after six weeks of war in which Israel also invaded the country's south.

Israeli troops are operating inside an Israeli-announced "yellow line", which demarcates a ribbon of Lebanese territory around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep along the length of the border, where residents have been warned not to return.

Lebanon's health ministry said the dead on Sunday included two women and two children, adding that 37 other people were wounded.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 36 people since the truce began, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

Israel's military said Sunday that one of its soldiers was killed "during combat" in southern Lebanon, and six were wounded, four of them severely.

- 'Freedom of action' -

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes in multiple locations in the south on Sunday, both in areas where Israel issued an evacuation warning and elsewhere.

AFP correspondents reported heavy traffic heading north as people fled following the warning and intensified raids.

"Hezbollah's violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire," Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting.

Tehran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

"We are acting vigorously in accordance with arrangements agreed with the United States and, incidentally, also with Lebanon," Netanyahu said.

Under the truce, which came after a landmark meeting between Israeli and Lebanese officials that angered Hezbollah, Israel reserves the right to respond to "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

"This means freedom of action not only to respond to attacks... but also to pre-empt immediate threats and even emerging threats," Netanyahu said.

Hezbollah said that Israel's "continued ceasefire violations... and above all its continued occupation of Lebanese territory and violations of its sovereignty will be met with a response".

It said its fighters targeted Israeli troops and positions in south Lebanon in response to ceasefire violations and attacks on Lebanese villages.

- More than 2,500 killed -

Israel's military issued evacuation orders for residents of seven towns and villages in the south on Sunday.

Shortly afterwards, the NNA said Israeli warplanes struck in Kfar Tibnit, causing casualties, while a raid on Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, another of the flagged villages, destroyed a mosque and another religious building.

The NNA also reported Israeli shelling in several border villages.

AFP correspondents saw clouds of grey smoke rise over Nabatieh al-Fawqa and several other locations after Israeli strikes.

Israel's military said it had struck "rocket-launching terrorist cells and weapons storage facilities" after earlier conducting "artillery and aerial strikes targeting terrorists and military infrastructure sites" used by Hezbollah north of the so-called "yellow line".

Shortly after Netanyahu's remarks, the military said it had intercepted three drones heading for Israeli territory.

Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 2,500 people and wounded over 7,700 others since the war erupted.

The United Nations' UNIFIL peacekeeping force said it held a memorial in Beirut for an Indonesian peacekeeper who died on Friday after being wounded in a blast in south Lebanon last month.

A preliminary UN investigation found that an Israeli tank shell caused the explosion.

Arab World

UN: Drone Attack Hits Sudan Aid Truck

Shops operate beneath a war-damaged building in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Shops operate beneath a war-damaged building in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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UN: Drone Attack Hits Sudan Aid Truck

Shops operate beneath a war-damaged building in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Shops operate beneath a war-damaged building in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A drone attack hit an aid truck in Sudan's North Darfur state, destroying all the supplies on board, the UN refugee agency said on Sunday, without identifying who was responsible.

Drone strikes by both the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been locked in a brutal war since April 2023, have escalated in recent months, often killing dozens at a time.

The UNHCR-operated vehicle "came under drone attack" on Friday while transporting emergency shelter kits to Tawila, home to more than 700,000 displaced people who fled fighting elsewhere in the western Darfur region, AFP quoted the agency as saying.

The driver escaped unhurt, but all supplies were destroyed in the resulting fire, it added.

UNHCR condemned the attack, warning that it would "leave 1,314 families living in desperate conditions in Tawila without shelter" at a time when humanitarian needs are already overwhelming.

More than 127,000 people fled El-Fasher, North Darfur's capital and the army's last stronghold in the region, after it fell to paramilitary forces in October, with reports of mass killings, sexual violence, looting and rape following the takeover.

Fighting has since spread to neighboring Kordofan, now the main theatre of the war, and the southeastern Blue Nile state, raising fears of a longer and increasingly fragmented conflict.

According to the UN, nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes by both sides since January alone.

UNHCR voiced "deep concern" over the rising use of drones, calling repeated attacks on humanitarian operations "particularly abhorrent".

According to an assessment by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, 28.9 million people, around 62 percent of Sudan's population, are facing acute food insecurity.

That includes 10.2 million who face severe food insecurity, in particular in the wider Darfur region and South Kordofan state.

Famine was declared last year in El-Fasher and Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, with 20 other areas at risk in Darfur and Kordofan, a UN-backed assessment found.

The conflict has already killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 11 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.

Arab World

Palestinian Leader's Loyalists Win Local Elections, including Some in Gaza

A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Palestinian Leader's Loyalists Win Local Elections, including Some in Gaza

A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said on Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the Gaza Strip run by rival Hamas.

Saturday’s ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006 and the first Palestinian polls since the Gaza war began more than two years ago with Hamas' cross-border attack on southern Israel.

Abbas' West Bank–based Palestinian Authority (PA) said the inclusion of the Gaza city Deir al-Balah, which suffered less damage than other areas of the coastal territory during the war, was intended to show that Gaza was an inseparable part of a future Palestinian state.

The elections, in which voter turnout was low, had been held "at a highly sensitive moment amid complex challenges and exceptional circumstances", Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said as results were announced on Sunday.

But they represented "an important first step in a broader national process aimed at strengthening democratic life ... and ultimately achieving the unity of the land", he said.

POSSIBLE INDICATOR OF HAMAS SUPPORT

Hamas, which ousted the PA from Gaza in 2007, did not formally nominate candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Fatah's victory was widely expected.

But some candidates on one of the Deir al-Balah lists were widely seen by residents and analysts as aligned with the movement, making the vote a potential indicator of support for the Islamist group.

Preliminary results showed that the list, known as Deir al-Balah Brings Us Together, won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza.

The Nahdat Deir al-Balah list, backed by Abbas' Fatah party and the Western-backed PA, secured six seats. The remaining seats were won by two other Gaza-based groups, Future of Deir al-Balah and Peace and Building, not affiliated with either faction.

Abbas loyalists swept the election in the West Bank, running unchallenged in many seats.

"By electing figures linked to Fatah, voters appear to be seeking unrestricted international support for municipal governance and a gradual political shift that could extend beyond the local level," said Palestinian political analyst Reham Ouda.

The recent war has left much of Gaza reduced to rubble, with many residents displaced and focused on survival. Israel has continued conducting strikes despite an October ceasefire.

In Gaza voter turnout reached just 23%, while in the West Bank it was 56%, according to Chairman of the Central Elections Commission Rami al-Hamdallah.

Al-Hamdallah said some of the ballot boxes and voting equipment did not make it into the enclave because of Israeli security restrictions, though those challenges were overcome.

Hamas' Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, downplayed the significance of the election results, saying that they had no impact on wider national issues.