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Russian Military Patrols Syria's Golan Heights

Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
    Damascus, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Russian Military Patrols Syria's Golan Heights

Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)

Russia media published a video of Russian military units patrolling the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.

The video showed soldiers and vehicles separating the Syrian and Israeli armies and observation points on hills and high areas in the region. Some of the soldiers were seen wearing combat fatigue bearing the letter "Z," the symbol of the military campaign in Ukraine.

Last January, Russian military planes carried out a patrol with the Syrian Air Force in the Golan, along with Israel, which continues to bomb Iranian sites around Syria.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the fighters were launched from the Russian Hmeimim base and al-Dumayr Airport.

The statement said the Russian and Syrian military pilots had conducted a joint air patrol mission along the Golan Heights and the Euphrates River.

"The mission's route ran along the Golan Heights, the southern border, the Euphrates River and over northern Syria," the statement read.

"Russian pilots took off from the Hmeymim Air Base, while Syrians took off from the Seikal and Dumayr airfields outside Damascus," the ministry added.

The mission involved Russia's Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft and the A-50 early warning and control aircraft, as well as Syria's MiG-23 and MiG-29 planes.

At the end of 2020, it was reported that Russian forces would conduct their first patrol along the Syrian border with Israel.

Sources said the Russian vehicles moved towards the military base, the Russian observation center in the Quneitra region.

The redeployment implemented Moscow's decision to revive the UN Disengagement Forces (UNDOF) in the Golan.

According to a Russian official, Moscow is assisting the Syrian army in joint exercises in the Golan region, noting that the goal of the Russian presence is to monitor the ceasefire in the demilitarized zone on the border with Israel.

In August 2018, international forces agreed on a de-escalation zone in southern Syria.

Israeli and international media said that the Iranian forces had withdrawn their heavy weapons in Syria to 85 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"The Iranians withdrew, and the Shiite formations are not there," TASS news agency quoted Russian presidential special envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, as saying.

The redeployment came in implementation of the agreement concluded between former US President Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Helsinki in mid-July 2018.

Both presidents asserted that the US and Russia would work together to ensure Israel's security.

"We both spoke with Bibi (the then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), and they would like to do certain things with Syria having to do with the safety of Israel," Trump said, adding that "creating safety for Israel is something both Putin and I would like to see very much."

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Arab World

Israeli Strikes Kill 3 People in Gaza, Hospital Says

Makeshift tents of displaced Palestinian families next to the beach in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
Makeshift tents of displaced Palestinian families next to the beach in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 3 People in Gaza, Hospital Says

Makeshift tents of displaced Palestinian families next to the beach in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
Makeshift tents of displaced Palestinian families next to the beach in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 February 2026. (EPA)

Israeli military strikes on Monday killed three people west of Gaza City, according to the hospital where the casualties arrived.

Shifa Hospital reported the deaths amid the months-old ceasefire that has seen continued fighting. The Israeli army said Monday it is striking targets in response to Israeli troops coming under fire in the southern city of Rafah, which it says was a violation of the ceasefire. The army said it is striking targets “in a precise manner."

The four-month-old US-backed ceasefire followed stalled negotiations and included Israel and Hamas accepting a 20-point plan proposed by US President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war unleashed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel. At the time, Trump said it would lead to a “strong, durable, and everlasting peace.”

Hamas freed all the living hostages it still held at the outset of the deal in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the remains of others.

But the larger issues the agreement sought to address, including the future governance of the strip, were met with reservations, and the US offered no firm timeline.

Rafah crossing improving, official says

The Palestinian official set to oversee day-to-day affairs in Gaza said on Monday that passage through the Rafah crossing with Egypt is starting to improve after a chaotic first week of reopening marked by confusion, delays and a limited number of crossings.

Ali Shaath, head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News that operations at the crossing were improving on Sunday.

He said 88 Palestinians were scheduled to travel through Rafah on Monday, more than have crossed in the initial days since reopening. Israel did not immediately confirm the figures.

The European Union border mission at the crossing said in a statement Sunday that 284 Palestinians had crossed since reopening. Travelers included people returning after having fled the war and medical evacuees and their escorts. In total, 53 medical evacuees departed during the first five days of operations.

That remains well below the agreed target of 50 medical evacuees exiting and 50 returnees entering daily, negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials.

Shaath and other members of the committee remain in Egypt, without Israeli authorization to enter the war-battered enclave.

The Rafah crossing opened last week for the first time since mid-2024, one of the main requirements for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. It was closed Friday and Saturday because of confusion around operations.

Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people are seeking to leave Gaza for medical care unavailable in its largely destroyed health system.

Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first days after the crossing reopened described hourslong delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. Israel denied mistreatment.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on Monday that five people were killed over the previous 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 581 since the October ceasefire. The truce led to the return of the remaining hostages — both living captives and bodies — from the 251 abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

Hamas-led fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the attack. Israel’s military offensive has since killed over 72,000 Palestinians, according to the ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and is staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.

Arab World

Residents of North Lebanon City Lose Neighbors, Livelihoods in Building Collapse

People stand at the site of the collapsed residential building in Tripoli, Lebanon, 09 February 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
People stand at the site of the collapsed residential building in Tripoli, Lebanon, 09 February 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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Residents of North Lebanon City Lose Neighbors, Livelihoods in Building Collapse

People stand at the site of the collapsed residential building in Tripoli, Lebanon, 09 February 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
People stand at the site of the collapsed residential building in Tripoli, Lebanon, 09 February 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

Rubble is all that remains of the building once home to Adnan Mardash's grocery shop in north Lebanon's Tripoli after it collapsed, killing 14 people and shining a spotlight on the impoverished city's neglect.

Mardash, 54, said he shut the small ground-floor store where he worked for more than three decades and went to his nearby home shortly before the disaster on Sunday afternoon.

"Our neighbors and loved ones died... people lost their livelihoods," said the father of four, who has no other income.

"We felt the building's situation wasn't good and we contacted the municipality but got no response," he told AFP.

Only eight people were pulled out alive after the building, home to 12 apartments, collapsed in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.

People were angry and grieving on Monday, some peering over balconies to watch emergency workers remove debris after the disaster, which came just over two weeks after another building in the city collapsed, killing two people.

"Officials come, put on a show then leave, they're all liars... nobody cares about the poor people. If an official had lived in this building, it would have been fixed in seconds," Mardash said.

Naser Fadel, 60, who has lived all his life in the neighborhood, stood at his small store weeping.

"We live here in extreme poverty. We've gone through wars... There are no words to express what we have been through," he said.

Those who died were "the best people, they were poor and humble," he said.

- 'Rich people' -

Even before a years-long economic crisis began in Lebanon in 2019, more than half of the city's residents lived at or below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The building that collapsed is on a crowded street that divides the predominantly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood from the mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen.

Buildings still bear the scars of recurring clashes between the two neighborhoods from 2007 to 2014.

The fighting, and a 2023 earthquake that hit Türkiye and neighboring Syria, not far from Tripoli, worsened the situation.

The Tripoli municipality on Sunday declared the city "disaster-stricken" and urged the Lebanese state to bear its responsibilities.

After an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said authorities had decided to evacuate 114 buildings at risk of collapse and provide a year of housing allowances for the affected families.

Tripoli Mayor Abdel Hamid Karimeh told AFP that at least 600 other buildings needed "direct intervention to reinforce them" but he warned that the real number could be much higher.

He said the municipality has recently evacuated 12 buildings and relocated residents to a hospitality institute.

In the Qubbeh neighborhood near to Bab al-Tebbaneh, Yousef Ahmed, 80, had moved in with his daughter after losing his home in last month's deadly building collapse.

"Nobody has given us any help... there are lawmakers and rich people" in the city but "nobody asks about our situation", he lamented.

- 'Without oversight' -

Lebanon is dotted with derelict buildings, and many inhabited structures are in an advanced state of disrepair.

Several buildings have collapsed before in Tripoli and other parts of the country over the years, with the authorities failing to take appropriate measures to ensure structural safety.

Many buildings were built illegally, especially during the 1975-1990 civil war, while some owners have added new floors to existing residential blocks without permits.

Abir Saksouk, co-founder of research and design firm Public Works Studio, said authorities had allowed buildings to fall into disrepair and noted a lack of oversight and legislative gaps.

She said a public safety decree dating to the early 2000s fails to provide a mechanism for restoring buildings constructed before it was issued.

Many buildings were also built "without oversight", she told AFP, while decrying neglect of the issue and "unjust housing policies".

Many residents have little choice but to stay in their dilapidated homes.

Mohammed al-Sayed, 56, has remained in his building despite pieces falling from a second-floor balcony.

He said the municipality had repeatedly warned about cracks after four additional floors were built on the original two.

But he said he was unable to leave the building where he has spent almost his whole life.

"I have no shelter or alternative place to live," he said.

Arab World

UN: Israeli Measure in West Bank is ‘Unlawful,’ Erodes Two-State Solution

Palestinian men sit on the rubble as others console each other after a Palestinian home was demolished by the Israeli army in the village of Shuqba, west of the city of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
Palestinian men sit on the rubble as others console each other after a Palestinian home was demolished by the Israeli army in the village of Shuqba, west of the city of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
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UN: Israeli Measure in West Bank is ‘Unlawful,’ Erodes Two-State Solution

Palestinian men sit on the rubble as others console each other after a Palestinian home was demolished by the Israeli army in the village of Shuqba, west of the city of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
Palestinian men sit on the rubble as others console each other after a Palestinian home was demolished by the Israeli army in the village of Shuqba, west of the city of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday voiced grave concern over the reported decision by the Israeli security cabinet to authorize a series of administrative and enforcement measures in Areas A and B in the occupied West Bank, warning that such measure erodes the prospect for the two-State solution.

“Such actions, including Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are not only destabilizing but – as recalled by the International Court of Justice – unlawful,” according to a statement issued by his spokesperson.

Guterres reiterated that all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law, including relevant UN resolutions.

The Secretary-General called on Israel to reverse the measures. He also urged all parties “to preserve the only path to lasting peace, a negotiated two-State solution, in line with relevant Security Council resolutions and international law.”

On Sunday, the Ynet news website revealed that the Israeli cabinet is advancing a series of dramatic decisions aimed at deepening Israel’s de facto annexation of parts of the West Bank.

It said the measures, advanced by ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, are expected to bring far-reaching changes to land registration and property acquisition procedures in the West Bank, enabling the state to demolish Palestinian-owned buildings in Area A.

The decisions are also expected to significantly expand Jewish settlement across the West Bank.

In Ramallah, the Palestinian Presidency strongly denounced the dangerous decisions approved by the Israeli cabinet aimed at deepening attempts to annex the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

The Presidency considered the decisions “a continuation of the comprehensive war waged by the Israeli government against Palestinians, and an unprecedented escalation targeting the Palestinian presence and its national and historical rights throughout the Palestinian territory, especially in the occupied West Bank.”

It warned of the grave implications of these decisions, which represent the practical implementation of annexation and displacement plans.

“These decisions also violate all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, as well as international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, and constitute a blatant violation of the Oslo Accords and the Hebron Agreement,” the Presidency said.