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Palestinian PM Calls for Opening Quds Airport Instead of Ramon for Palestinians

The main building of Quds International Airport near Qalandia in Ramallah (AFP)
The main building of Quds International Airport near Qalandia in Ramallah (AFP)
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Palestinian PM Calls for Opening Quds Airport Instead of Ramon for Palestinians

The main building of Quds International Airport near Qalandia in Ramallah (AFP)
The main building of Quds International Airport near Qalandia in Ramallah (AFP)

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the Israeli authorities to open al-Quds Airport in Jerusalem to the Palestinians in direct rejection of the authority’s proposal to open the remote Ramon Airport.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet session on Monday in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said that the Israeli authorities are fully responsible for the restrictions and disruptions of Palestinians’ movement at the Karama crossing.

He demanded the opening al-Quds Airport in Qalandia and removing all obstacles to moving people and goods to and from Palestine.

Since the beginning of summer, Palestinians have been suffering from lengthy travel procedures and humiliation at the three crossings they must pass by when traveling. They usually wait for hours before being allowed to cross; some are even forced to sleep at the border or return later because of sudden closures.

Palestinians are forced to pass through the Karama crossing, stamp their passports and pay a tax before moving in buses to the Israeli Allenby Crossing to be subject to a second check and inspection, and then via buses to the King Hussein Bridge for a third check before entering Jordan. Those traveling outside Jordan will have to go to Queen Alia Airport.

The journey takes several hours, and they must pay for departure and entry taxes, travel allowance, and baggage transfer.

Israel proposed, in a move considered a goodwill gesture to the Palestinians, to open the remote Ramon Airport to the residents of the West Bank.

Tel Aviv began preparations to operate Ramon Airport, near Eilat, to launch the first flight to Istanbul next month.

Israeli media said Turkey’s Pegasus airline is preparing to operate direct flights. Pegasus operates direct flights to Turkey from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

Palestinians are banned from traveling from Ben Gurion Airport unless they obtain a special permit, which is a rare and complicated matter.

Transporting Palestinians to Ramon Airport will be done in a special framework, where passengers obtain permits and take a four-hour trip from Ramallah.

The Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) said Ramon Airport is about 18 kilometers north of Eilat and roughly 340 kilometers from Jerusalem. It was established in 2019 with over 14,000 dunams, which can be expanded, but it is a failed project.

In 2019, 348,000 passengers traveled from Ramon Airport 2019, dropping to 126,000 in 2020, and then 4800 international travelers in 2021.

In 2022, only 20 passengers flew from Ramon Airport on nine different flights.

Israelis are reluctant to use the very remote Ramon Airport because of the coronavirus pandemic, the high prices, and the distance.

However, Israel realizes it must save the airport, making it more likely to believe that allowing the Palestinians to travel from Ramon may provide an immediate rescue.

MADAR believes opening Ramon Airport to the Palestinians aims to reduce the conflict by maintaining and expanding the Israeli occupation and settlements. It also seeks to minimize contact between Palestinians and Israelis, offering economic and vital “incentives” such as allowing the Palestinians to use Israeli airports.

Palestinians reject Ramon Airport because it carries a political symbol.

Al-Quds Airport, also known as Qalandia Airport, was established in 1920 during the British Mandate and was used for military purposes. Jordan then turned it into a civilian airport before Israel occupied the area in 1967, and transformed it for tourism and commercial purposes, and then closed it.

The Palestinian Ministry of Transport spokesman, Musa Rahal, said that the Israeli plan is a “unilateral act” that is rejected by the ministry.

Rahal asserted that the position of Palestine is absolutely clear and that the signed agreements must be implemented before taking any other choice.

“Palestinians still have the occupied Qalandia and Lod airports, which must be handed over to the State of Palestine according to international agreements, to work on the travel of Palestinian citizens through [them], especially since they are located in 1967 borders,” he noted.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and 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 its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.