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Syrian Forces Advance in Aleppo, Airstrikes Underway

Vehicles carrying internally-displaced persons (IDPs) and their belongings drive past the IDP camp by Dayr Ballut near the Turkish border in the west of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on February 16, 2020, as people flee advancing government forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. (Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Vehicles carrying internally-displaced persons (IDPs) and their belongings drive past the IDP camp by Dayr Ballut near the Turkish border in the west of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on February 16, 2020, as people flee advancing government forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. (Rami al SAYED / AFP)
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Syrian Forces Advance in Aleppo, Airstrikes Underway

Vehicles carrying internally-displaced persons (IDPs) and their belongings drive past the IDP camp by Dayr Ballut near the Turkish border in the west of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on February 16, 2020, as people flee advancing government forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. (Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Vehicles carrying internally-displaced persons (IDPs) and their belongings drive past the IDP camp by Dayr Ballut near the Turkish border in the west of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on February 16, 2020, as people flee advancing government forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. (Rami al SAYED / AFP)

The Syrian army said on Monday it had taken full control of dozens of towns in Aleppo's northwestern countryside and it would press on with its campaign to wipe out militant groups "wherever they are found".

The advances were made after President Bashar al-Assad's forces drove opposition fighters from the M5 highway linking Aleppo to Damascus, reopening the fastest route between Syria's two biggest cities for the first time in years in a big strategic gain for Assad.

Backed by heavy Russian airstrikes, the government forces have been fighting since the start of the year to recapture the Aleppo countryside and parts of neighboring Idlib province where anti-Assad fighters hold their last strongholds.

Regime airstrikes on Monday hit Darat Izza, near the Turkish border about 30 km (20 miles) north of Aleppo city, wounding several civilians and forcing two hospitals to close, according to hospital staff.

Witnesses also reported airstrikes in southern areas of Idlib province.

The advances have sent hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians fleeing towards the border with Turkey in the biggest single displacement of the nine-year-old war.

It has also upset the fragile cooperation between Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing factions in the conflict.

Turkey and Russia began a new round of talks in Moscow on Monday after several demands by Ankara that Assad's forces should back down and a ceasefire be put in place.

Moscow has Russia defended its attack alongside the Syrian regime forces in Syria's Idlib province.

Both the Russian Armed Forces and the country's advisers will "support the Syrian Arab Republic armed forces in their fight against terrorism," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a briefing on Monday, adding that the Russian government "still regrets that these terrorists have revitalized in Idlib."

The statement follows US President Donald Trump's recent call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during which Trump "expressed concern over the violence in Idlib."

Trump also hoped that Russia would stop supporting the atrocities of the Assad regime.

Erdogan has said his military will drive back Syrian forces if they do not withdraw from Idlib by the end of the month. On Saturday, he appeared to move that date forward, saying Turkey would "handle it" before the end of the month if there was no pull-back.

Alarmed by the new refugee crisis on its border, Turkey has sent thousands of troops and hundreds of convoys of military equipment to reinforce its observation posts in Idlib, established under a 2018 de-escalation agreement with Russia.

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Arab World

Syrian Kurdish Officials Hand over 50 Women and Children Linked to ISIS to Tajikistan

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
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Syrian Kurdish Officials Hand over 50 Women and Children Linked to ISIS to Tajikistan

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria on Thursday handed over 50 women and children — family members of ISIS militants — to a delegation from Tajikistan for repatriation back home.
The 17 women and 33 children, all citizens of Tajikistan, were handed over to a delegation headed by the Tajik ambassador to Kuwait, Zubaydullo Zubaydzoda, Syrian Kurdish officials said.
After the ISIS group declared its caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, thousands of foreigners, including hundreds from Tajikistan, came to Syria to join the group and live with their families.
After ISIS was defeated, most of the militants' family members were held in the sprawling al-Hol camp and the smaller Roj camp in northeastern Syria.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said the women and children were taken to the airport of Qamishli where they boarded a plane “to be reunited with their families” in Tajikistan on Thursday.
The repatriation came almost a month after an attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people. The massacre was carried out by four suspected attackers who were arrested and identified as Tajik nationals. ISIS claimed responsibility and said four of its fighters had targeted the hall in Russia.
Over the past few years thousands of people, mostly Iraqis have been repatriated from al-Hol, which houses tens of thousands, mostly ISIS militants' wives and children but also supporters of the militant group.
The heavily-guarded al-Hol, overseen by Syrian Kurdish-led forces allied with the United States, was once home to 73,000 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis. Over the past few years, the population dropped to about 43,000, according to Sheikhmous Ahmad, a Kurdish official overseeing camps for displaced people in northeastern Syria.
Tajikistan has said that at the height of ISIS, more than 1,000 fighters from the country joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, including ISIS. One of the most prominent was Gulmurod Khalimov, an officer with Tajikistan’s special forces who defected and joined ISIS in Syria in 2015.
Khalimov rose through ISIS ranks to become one of its top military commanders. In September 2017, the Russian military said he was killed in a Russian airstrike in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.
Thursday’s repatriation of Tajik citizens is not the first. Last May, 104 Tajik citizens were returned home, including 31 women and 73 children. And the year before, 146 women and children were repatriated.

Arab World

18 Countries Urge Hamas to Release Hostages, End Gaza Crisis

Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7 protest outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 25, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7 protest outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 25, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
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18 Countries Urge Hamas to Release Hostages, End Gaza Crisis

Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7 protest outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 25, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7 protest outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 25, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

The United States and 17 other countries on Thursday issued an appeal for Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis in Gaza, but the group vowed not to relent to international pressure.
"We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza now for over 200 days," a statement by the countries said, in what a senior US official called an extraordinary display of unanimity.

The 18 countries all have citizens held by Hamas six months after the Palestinian militant group launched its Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.

The signatories were the leaders of the United States, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and Britain.

"We emphasize that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities," the statement said.

"Gazans would be able to return to their homes and their lands with preparations beforehand to ensure shelter and humanitarian provisions," it said.

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Hamas would not be influenced by the statement and said the United States needs to force Israel to end its aggression.

"The ball now is in the American court," said Abu Zuhri.

A senior US official, briefing reporters about the statement, said there were some indications that there might be an avenue for an agreement on the hostage crisis but that he was not totally confident.

He did not elaborate but said the resolution was dependent on "one guy," the Hamas Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar.

The hostage proposal put forward earlier this year calls for the release of sick, elderly and wounded hostages in Gaza in exchange for a six-week ceasefire that could be extended to allow for more humanitarian aid to be delivered into the enclave.
It permits the unrestricted return of Gaza citizens to northern Gaza, the official said.

Arab World

Israel Intensifies Airstrikes on Gaza's Rafah Before Ground Operation

25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
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Israel Intensifies Airstrikes on Gaza's Rafah Before Ground Operation

25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa

Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies' warnings this could cause mass casualties.
Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist.
In the seventh month of a devastating air and ground war against Hamas, Israeli forces also resumed bombarding northern and central areas of the enclave, as well as east of Khan Younis in the south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet was holding meetings "to discuss how to destroy the last vestiges, the last quarter of Hamas' battalions, in Rafah and elsewhere," government spokesperson David Mencer said.
He declined to say when or whether the classified forum might give a green light for a ground operation in Rafah.
Israeli warplanes had hammered the north for a second day on Wednesday, shattering weeks of comparative calm there.
The war, now in its seventh month, has killed at least 34,305 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities said on Thursday. The offensive has laid to waste much of the densely populated and widely urbanized enclave, displacing most of its 2.3 million people and leaving many with little food, water or medical care.
Escalating Israeli warnings about invading Rafah, the last refuge for around a million civilians who fled Israeli forces further north earlier in the war, have nudged some families to leave for the nearby al-Mawasi coastal area or try to make their way to points further north, residents and witnesses said.
But the number of displaced people departing Rafah, abutting Gaza's southern border with Egypt, remained small. Many were confused over where they should go, saying their experience over the past 200 days of war had taught them that no place was genuinely safe.

Western countries, including the United States, have pleaded with Israel to hold back from attacking the city, saying this could cause a humanitarian disaster given the presence of many displaced people with only rudimentary shelter and little food or access to medical care.

Arab World

Belgian Agency Aid Worker Dies in Gaza

25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians children walk next to a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians children walk next to a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
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Belgian Agency Aid Worker Dies in Gaza

25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians children walk next to a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
25 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinians children walk next to a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa

An aid worker who was part of Belgium's development aid efforts in the Gaza Strip died in an Israeli strike on Rafah, the country's development minister, Caroline Gennez, said on Thursday.

"It is with deep sadness and horror that we learn of the death of our colleague Abdallah Nabhan (33) and his seven-year-old son Jamal, last night, following a bombardment by the Israeli army in the eastern part of the city of Rafah", the minister said in a statement.

Nabhan, whose nationality was not disclosed, worked for the Enabel agency, assisting small businesses, Reuters reported.
The statement said at least seven people were killed by the strike on a building that housed about 25 people, including displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip occupied by Israeli forces following an attack on Israel by Hamas last October.
"The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians goes against every international and humanitarian law and the rules of war," Gennez said.

Arab World

Biden Names New Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues

Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
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Biden Names New Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues

Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

US President Joe Biden on Thursday appointed Lise Grande as the new special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, the State Department said in a statement.

Grande, who replaces David Satterfield, is currently head of the independent US Institute of Peace.

She previously worked for the United Nations for more than 25 years, a career that included running aid operations in Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan.

The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza in the six months since Israel began an aerial and ground offensive against the Gaza Strip's Hamas.

Israel's military campaign has reduced much of the territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with an unfolding humanitarian disaster since October, when Hamas ignited war by storming into southern Israel.

Satterfield said on Tuesday that Israel has taken significant steps in recent weeks on allowing aid into Gaza, but considerable work remained to be done as the risk of famine in the enclave is very high.

Arab World

Ship Comes Under Houthi Attack off Coast of Yemen

FILED - 27 January 2024, Yemen, Gulf of Aden: The Marlin Luanda vessel on fire in the Gulf of Aden after it was reportedly struck by an anti-ship missile fired from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. Photo: Indian Navy via ZUMA Wire/dpa
FILED - 27 January 2024, Yemen, Gulf of Aden: The Marlin Luanda vessel on fire in the Gulf of Aden after it was reportedly struck by an anti-ship missile fired from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. Photo: Indian Navy via ZUMA Wire/dpa
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Ship Comes Under Houthi Attack off Coast of Yemen

FILED - 27 January 2024, Yemen, Gulf of Aden: The Marlin Luanda vessel on fire in the Gulf of Aden after it was reportedly struck by an anti-ship missile fired from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. Photo: Indian Navy via ZUMA Wire/dpa
FILED - 27 January 2024, Yemen, Gulf of Aden: The Marlin Luanda vessel on fire in the Gulf of Aden after it was reportedly struck by an anti-ship missile fired from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. Photo: Indian Navy via ZUMA Wire/dpa

A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest assault likely carried out by Yemen's Houthis over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack comes after the US military said early Thursday an allied warship shot down a Houthi missile targeting a vessel the day before near the same area. The Houthis claimed Wednesday's assault, which comes after a period of relatively few attacks on shipping in the region over Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In Thursday's attack, a ship was targeted just over 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The captain “reports a loud bang heard and a splash and smoke seen coming from the sea,” the UKMTO said. “Vessel and all crew are safe.”
The attack was also reported by the private security firm Ambrey.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it typically takes them hours to acknowledge an assault. European Union forces separately shot down a drone launched from Houthi territory on Thursday, Gen. Robert Brieger said.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the group has been targeted by a US-led airstrike campaign in Yemen and shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat.
American officials have speculated that the Houthis may be running out of weapons as a result of the US-led campaign against them and firing off drones and missiles steadily in the last months.
However, Wednesday's attack was the first one by the Houthis in some time. An explosion struck some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden, the UKMTO said.
Early Thursday, the US military’s Central Command said the explosion came from a coalition warship shooting down the missile likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a US-flagged, owned and operated vessel with 18 US and four Greek crew members.
“There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition or commercial ships,” Central Command said.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack but insisted without evidence that the missile hit the Yorktown. Saree also claimed the Houthis targeted another ship in the Indian Ocean, without providing proof. The Houthis have made repeated claims that turned out to not be true during their yearslong war in Yemen.
The Houthis have said they will continue their attacks until Israel ends its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
Most of the ships targeted by the Houthis have had little or no direct connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war.

Arab World

Israel in 'Offensive Action' in South Lebanon

Lebanese villagers flash victory signs from their house which was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Kfar Kila, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese villagers flash victory signs from their house which was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Kfar Kila, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
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Israel in 'Offensive Action' in South Lebanon

Lebanese villagers flash victory signs from their house which was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Kfar Kila, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese villagers flash victory signs from their house which was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Kfar Kila, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Israel said Wednesday its forces were carrying out "offensive action" in Lebanon after launching cross-border strikes targeting Hamas ally Hezbollah as Israeli aircraft and tanks pounded the Gaza Strip.
Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group and Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire, heightening fears of a wider conflict breaking out, said AFP.
In war-battered Gaza, there has been mounting concern over Israeli plans to launch an assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge, many in makeshift encampments.
Aid groups warn any invasion would create catastrophic conditions for civilians. However, government spokesman David Mencer said Israel was "moving ahead" with its operation in Rafah, which Israeli officials have described as the "last" major Hamas stronghold where militants may be holding hostages.
Hamas meanwhile released a video of an Israeli-American man who was one of the 129 hostages Israel estimates remain in Gaza, a figure that includes 34 presumed dead.
Also on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing $13 billion in military aid to close ally Israel.
The bill also included $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, which Biden demanded Israel allow reach Palestinians "without delay".
Middle East tensions remain high more than 200 days into the devastating war, which has also seen rising violence between Israel and Iran's proxies and allies in the region.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that "many forces are deployed" along Israel's northern border, claiming the military has eliminated "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon" over months of violence.
Israel has struck increasingly deeper into Lebanon, while Hezbollah has stepped up rocket fire and drone attacks on Israeli military bases across the border.
Israeli forces are “currently carrying out offensive action throughout southern Lebanon", Gallant said, without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border.
A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, told AFP that "we didn't detect any ground crossing today."
The Israeli army had earlier said its forces struck around 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, with Lebanese official media reporting at least 13 strikes on several villages.
The war in Gaza began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,262 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Arab World

Israel Moving Forward with Rafah Assault to Pressure Hamas on Hostages

Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed in Israeli bombardment as they transport them for burial from the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed in Israeli bombardment as they transport them for burial from the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
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Israel Moving Forward with Rafah Assault to Pressure Hamas on Hostages

Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed in Israeli bombardment as they transport them for burial from the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed in Israeli bombardment as they transport them for burial from the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Israel's biggest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said on Thursday that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will move forward with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to resume hostage negotiations.

The daily said that Israel would attack Rafah to put more pressure on Hamas and increase chances for an agreement on the hostages who were taken by the militant group in its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Netanyahu's government said Israel was "moving ahead" with its plans for a ground operation on Rafah but gave no timeline.

The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The offensive has laid to waste much of the enclave, displacing most of its 2.3 million people and creating a humanitarian crisis.

Arab World

Lebanon: Theft Gangs on Beirut Airport Road Terrify Passers-by

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Theft Gangs on Beirut Airport Road Terrify Passers-by

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)

Lebanon’s airport road that links the country’s Rafik Hariri International Airport to the capital Beirut and to other areas has turned into a haven for outlaws and armed theft gangs leaving victims petrified and sometimes dead.
Months after security chaos, Lebanon’s security forces decided to take action and succeeded at arresting several members of these gangs mainly of Lebanese and Syrian nationalities. The arrests took place in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the Bekaa region.
Sources following up closely on the file, said the “belated security awakening” came after a “green light” given by the Hezbollah party who lifted the cover off these gangs.
“These gangs roam freely in Hezbollah’s security square (in the southern suburb of Beirut). They have turned into a burden on the party. They tend to run into the southern suburbs for shelter each time they carry out a theft”, the sources said.
They tend to execute their crimes either late at night or at dawn fishing for people coming or heading to the airport, according to the sources.
A security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the armed gangs tend to carefully choose the timing when road traffic is low, taking strategic positions that make their escape an easy one.
He said: “More than thirty incidents have been reported since the beginning of the year”. The gangs “have exploited the absence of security presence on the airport road. Security forces do not patrol that area 24/7 like they used to before the economic crisis”.
Meanwhile, security and strategic expert, Naji Malaeb, told Asharq Al-Awsat that what is happening on the airport road is the result of self-imposed security that some people advocate for in Lebanon.
He said the southern suburbs area has turned into a haven for outlaws when Hezbollah turned it into a security zone outside the state’s control.
In March, a theft incident left a taxi driver dead inside the airport tunnel. Also, video footage circulating on social media recently showed two men, one of them carrying a rifle, on a motorbike chasing a man on a motorcycle.
A source close to Hezbollah denied claims that the party is providing shelter for those. He said the party provides the security forces with information about gangs.

Arab World

Sisi Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences of an Israeli Assault on Rafah

FILED - 18 October 2023, Egypt, Cairo: President of Egypt Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is pictured in Cairo. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa Pool/dpa
FILED - 18 October 2023, Egypt, Cairo: President of Egypt Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is pictured in Cairo. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa Pool/dpa
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Sisi Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences of an Israeli Assault on Rafah

FILED - 18 October 2023, Egypt, Cairo: President of Egypt Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is pictured in Cairo. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa Pool/dpa
FILED - 18 October 2023, Egypt, Cairo: President of Egypt Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is pictured in Cairo. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa Pool/dpa

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday warned against any Israeli military assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said that Sisi’s concerns came during a telephone call with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

Sisi warned against what he described as “catastrophic” humanitarian consequences of any military act on Rafah, according to the Arab World Press.
The spokesman added in a statement published by the Egyptian presidency on its Facebook page that the war in Gaza must be brought to a halt, pointing to the dire consequences of an aggression against Rafah and its impact on regional peace and stability.
“It emphasizes the need for the international community to implement the related UN resolutions”, he said according to the statement.
Fahmy also pointed out that Sisi and Rutte stressed the need for joint swift efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza to allow the entry of humanitarian relief aid to the Palestinians in the Strip.
They also emphasized the importance of reaching a two-state solution to restore regional stability and peace.
On Tuesday, head of Egypt’s State Information Service Diaa Rashwan confirmed that Egypt has never discussed any plans with the Israeli side of a ground invasion on Rafah, denying reports published in US newspapers on this matter.
He stressed Egypt’s “firm and well-known” stance and complete rejection of this assault. “The Egyptian leadership has warned that any assault on Rafah will lead to massacres, heavy human losses, and widespread destruction", he stated.
Moreover, Egyptian security sources said that military and security coordination between Egypt and Israel over any Israeli incursion into Rafah did not mean approval of it.
Egypt welcomed the return of Palestinians northwards from Rafah, believing it to be in the interest of the population, the sources added.