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Palestinians Warn of Consequences of Prisoners' Abuse

Palestinian detainees during family visit (Prison Service)
Palestinian detainees during family visit (Prison Service)
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Palestinians Warn of Consequences of Prisoners' Abuse

Palestinian detainees during family visit (Prison Service)
Palestinian detainees during family visit (Prison Service)

Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders have warned the Israeli government of the consequences of the "reckless decisions" of the extremist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, against Palestinian prisoners.

Recently, Ben-Gvir directed the Israeli Prison Service to reduce family visitation for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israeli jails from once a month to once every two months.

The head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Qaddoura Fares, confirmed that targeting prisoners will have severe consequences in the face of the occupation and on all fronts.

Fares said in press statements that the factions, forces, and institutions would be united inside and outside the Israeli detention centers to support the prisoners.

He added that the decision of the extremist Ben Gvir comes within the framework of racist retaliatory behavior, aiming to harm the prisoners and their families and violate their basic rights.

Fares stressed that the coming period will prove that Ben-Gvir poses a threat to regional security and stability and the security of Israel itself.

-Family Visits

The vice president of the Prisoner's Club, Abdullah al-Zaghari, warned of the new decision, saying it harms the system and deprives thousands of family members of prisoners of visits for security pretexts.

He revealed that the prisoner movement is expected to announce several steps to confront this decision, and it is ready to resume its ongoing battle against the policies and procedures of the Israeli government.

He cautioned that if implemented, Ben-Gvir's measures would lead to an open confrontation with the prisoners, especially since this decision comes a week after the minister deprived them of their TV privileges.

Ben Gvir, facing a decline in popularity and widely referred to as a failed minister, reduced the family visits without coordinating with relevant security services, the Prison Service, the General Intelligence Service (Shin Bet), or the army.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that the Commissioner General of the Prisons Authority, Katy Perry, opposed the decision and warned Ben-Gvir of its severe consequences.

-Sensitive issue

Speaking to the paper, sources within the Israeli military and the intelligence services warned that the security implications of the move had not been considered and that the decision was "irresponsible."

They emphasized that changing the circumstances of Palestinian prisoners is a huge event and could push them to a breaking point.

Ben-Gvir responded to this situation with a retaliatory decision against Perry, preventing her from traveling to Belgium to participate in an international conference, claiming her trip would be very expensive.

Notably, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli prisons, and 2,200 are under administrative detention without trial or charges.

Since March 9, 2022, Israeli forces have been carrying out daily arrests.

Ben-Gvir belongs to a right-wing movement in Israel that claims that Palestinian prisoners enjoy good accommodation conditions.

Since forming the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir has been making decisions regarding the prisoners despite receiving strong opposition from his associates.

He recently canceled the administrative discharge or early release of sick and elderly prisoners nearing the end of their sentence. It is a method used by the Prison Service to reduce prison overcrowding.

-Israeli forces kill a Palestinian

Israeli forces on Friday killed a Palestinian in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry said Abdul Rahim Fayez Ghannam, 36, was "shot by live occupation (Israeli) fire in the head" in the village of Al-Aqaba in the northern West Bank, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

The Israeli army said in a statement a firefight broke out, and a hit was identified on one of the gunmen.

Witnesses said that the dead man did not participate in the clashes and was in a nearby field when he was shot.

The army troops also "used shoulder-fired missiles and grenades" in the violence and subsequently found improvised explosive devices and other weapons in the building.

After Israeli forces withdrew, Palestinian residents inspected bullet marks and a hole left in the wall of a house.

-A new wave of violence

The West Bank has witnessed a wave of violence over the past eighteen months, with a series of attacks launched by Palestinians in Israeli cities.

Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian towns and villages, and the Israeli army intensified raids.

Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and hundreds killed since last year in clashes with Israeli forces, including civilians who did not participate in the conflicts.

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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.