Türkiye Brings in New Reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib

File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
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Türkiye Brings in New Reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib

File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.

The Turkish army on Monday dispatched to their positions in Syria’s eastern Idlib new military reinforcements, including a number of vehicles, tanks and field artillery.
The Turkish military convoy entered Syria via the Kafr Lossin border crossing in northern Idlib. It was later dispatched to Turkish observation posts in Sarmeen, Banash, Nayrab and Taftanaz east the governorate in northwestern Syria. The new reinforcement aims to boost Turkish presence amid the military escalation in the area.
In the past few days, Syrian regime forces and their backed-militias stepped up their attacks on northwestern Syria. Forces stationed in the vicinity of Idlib targeted several neighborhoods in the east of the city with rockets and artillery.
Turkish media outlets quoted civil defense sources as saying that five civilians were injured by Syrian regime forces and their backed Iranian militias who fired at the Saraqib area and the village of Sarmeen in eastern Idlib governorate.
On Sunday, the Turkish forces had targeted positions of the government forces in the city of Saraqib in eastern Idlib with artillery, following a rocket strike carried out by the government forces on Idlib.
The injury of five civilians was confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said that Syrian regime artillery forces had fired at Sarmeen city in eastern Idlib governorate. The shells struck the popular market in the city center near the Sarmeen High School for Girls and the ancient Grand ‘al-Kabir’ Mosque, it added.
The Observatory later mentioned that Turkish forces stationed in the “Putin-Erdogan” area fired missiles on regime positions in Saraqib and Khan Al-Sabl near the road between Damascus and Aleppo “M5.”
Meanwhile, regime forces fired highly explosive missiles on the frontlines of Al-Sirmaniya village in Hama countryside and Al-Sheikh Sandiyan village in Idlib countryside. However, no casualties were reported.
Syrian regime forces also bombed the villages of Sfuhn and Al-Baraa in Jabal al-Zawiya, south of Idlib, the villages of Kafar aama and Kafr Taal, west of Aleppo, and the Kabana area in Jabal al-Akrad, north of Latakia.
The regime forces then targeted Hayat Tahrir al-Sham positions in Jabal Al-Akrad.
For their part, Ansar al-Tawhid forces targeted the village of Al-Malaja in Jabal al-Zawiya, south of Idlib, with mortar shells, amid the hovering of intense Russian drones in Jabal al-Zawiya, Jabal Al-Akrad, and Al-Ghab plain in the Hama countryside.
In a separate development, the Turkish security forces “neutralized” five members of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The YPG members were preparing for an attack in the Euphrates Shield and Peace Spring regions, the ministry said on X.



Lebanon Central Bank Says New Audit to Scrutinize Transactions for Graft

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon August 25, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon August 25, 2023. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Central Bank Says New Audit to Scrutinize Transactions for Graft

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon August 25, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon August 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Lebanon's central bank said Wednesday that an outside firm had begun a forensic audit into past transactions linked to its foreign assets, scrutinizing them for evidence of graft in the wake of the country's economic collapse.

The move is part of measures the institution has taken to improve oversight, steps that have also resulted in the arrest of the body's former governor, Riad Salameh.

A forensic audit has also been a key demand of the international community and the International Monetary Fund as Lebanon seeks bailout funds after the economic crash, which began in 2019.

The central bank said Wednesday that on August 17, the New York-based Alvarez & Marsal began the forensic audit of "selected transactions", covering the period from October 2019 to the end of 2023.

The audit includes "transactions related to the central bank's foreign assets, including subsidy programs for essential goods and materials" as well as other transfers, it said.

In May, the central bank had said that the audit aimed to verify that payments and transfers "were executed pursuant to proper authorizations and approvals", and that funds "were used for their intended purposes, without any violation, misuse, or misappropriation".

In 2020, Alvarez & Marsal had launched an audit of the central bank but later halted work after the body failed to hand over necessary data.

The firm resumed that audit the following year, and its preliminary report in 2023 painted a damning picture of the institution under long-serving former governor Salameh.

Salameh, who headed the bank from 1993 to July 2023, is widely viewed as a key culprit in the country's dramatic economic crash and is accused of having amassed a fortune during his time in the job.

He has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement and tax evasion in probes in Lebanon and abroad but has consistently denied any wrongdoing, insisting he is being made a "scapegoat" for the economic collapse.

He was arrested in September 2024 and charged with offenses including the alleged embezzlement of $44 million from the central bank, but was released a year later after posting record bail of more than $14 million.

He was placed in custody again in July over accusations including embezzlement and illegal enrichment after a complaint lodged by the new central bank authorities.


Israel Ready to Remove Gaza Population if US Gives Approval, Says Minister

An Israeli military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, September 1, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, September 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Ready to Remove Gaza Population if US Gives Approval, Says Minister

An Israeli military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, September 1, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, September 1, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel has plans ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the defense minister said Wednesday.

"There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration," Defense Minister Israel Katz told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Israeli government "is organized and prepared to get them out -- by sea, by air, by every way possible", he said.

The US embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department in Washington.

US President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, stunned much of the world by calling for all two million Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.

Trump spoke of developing the Mediterranean territory, devastated by Israeli bombardment since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, into a luxury resort destination.

Trump walked back the idea following strong pushback including from Egypt, the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.

The proposal was also condemned by Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the "Nakba", or catastrophe -- their mass displacement during Israel's creation in 1948.

Announcing a Gaza war ceasefire in October, Trump laid out 20 points for the territory that included no forced displacement.

Katz, known for his outspoken remarks, said that Trump had only "frozen" the idea as he looks for countries to take in Palestinians.

"The plan hasn't been cancelled; it is being discussed all the time, even now, and I think there is no other solution for everyone's good," he said.

"But for it to happen, we need the US. When will we get their approval? Whenever it becomes clear that Hamas is not meeting its obligations" under the ceasefire, he said.

Katz, without citing his source, said 80 percent of people in Gaza wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them.

Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz's predecessor Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes, which both Israel and the United States deny.

Israeli attacks have already internally displaced the vast majority of Gaza's people following the unprecedented Hamas attack, which killed 1,221 people, according to official Israeli figures.

Israel's offensive has since claimed 73,470 lives in Gaza, with more than 1,330 since the ceasefire, according to the Gaza health ministry, which operates under Hamas.


Netanyahu Says ‘We Are Not Retreating’ During Gaza Visit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza on Wednesday. (Netanyahu on X)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza on Wednesday. (Netanyahu on X)
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Netanyahu Says ‘We Are Not Retreating’ During Gaza Visit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza on Wednesday. (Netanyahu on X)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza on Wednesday. (Netanyahu on X)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday visited Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, where he vowed not to pull back troops despite a recent push by mediators to advance a US-backed ceasefire plan calling for their withdrawal.

It was the first time Netanyahu has visited the war-shattered territory since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in October 2025.

"We control the area. We are not retreating. We are staying on this line," Netanyahu said near the so-called Yellow Line, which demarcates the areas under Hamas and Israeli military control.

"We control 60 percent of the Strip, and we are not stopping, because we are eliminating the terrorists who threaten us, day in and day out."

Israel has kept striking the Gaza Strip and its forces have made further inroads despite the US-brokered ceasefire, insisting it must eliminate threats from Hamas, which led the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel.

International appeals to move to the next stages of the US-led peace plan have not stopped Israel targeting Palestinians it says are militants.

Netanyahu, facing tight elections in October, last month rejected a proposal for advancing to the next stage of the plan after Hamas said it had agreed to hand over its weapons.

The Israeli premier has vowed no military pullout until the Palestinian movement is "genuinely" disarmed.

On Tuesday, Israel said its forces and a Palestinian anti-Hamas militia captured the head of Hamas's internal security apparatus during a ground operation in Gaza City that Palestinian health officials said killed four people.

Hamas's Interior Ministry identified the man as Muein al-Arabid, and said he was an "officer in the internal security service", but did not mention whether he was its chief.

"We are doing everything to reach our goal -- disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza. Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said Wednesday, adding that "there is still work left to complete -- and we will complete it".

Israel's defense minister on Wednesday said the country had plans to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but was waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them.

"There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration," Defense Minister Israel Katz told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Israeli government "is organized and prepared to get them out -- by sea, by air, by every way possible", he said.

Similar suggestions in the past that Gazans could be displaced from the territory entirely have drawn international outrage, as well as condemnation from Palestinians themselves.

Announcing the Gaza war ceasefire in October, Trump laid out 20 points for the territory that included no forced displacement.

Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 1,334 people since the ceasefire came into effect, according to the Palestinian territory's health ministry, which also operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the death of one civilian contractor.