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Israeli Intelligence Chiefs Attend Talks in Cairo as Gaza Bombing Continues

A man inspects the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024. © Omar al-Qattaa, AFP
A man inspects the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024. © Omar al-Qattaa, AFP
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Israeli Intelligence Chiefs Attend Talks in Cairo as Gaza Bombing Continues

A man inspects the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024. © Omar al-Qattaa, AFP
A man inspects the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024. © Omar al-Qattaa, AFP

The heads of Israel's Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet domestic security service took part in talks towards an eventual Gaza hostage agreement in Cairo on Thursday, an Israeli government spokesman said. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued to bomb several locations in the Gaza strip, killing at least five people, according to the Gaza civil defence agency.

Hopes for a deal have dwindled though as Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas have traded blame for failing to reach a deal after more than 10 months of war in the Gaza Strip.

A main sticking point remains Hamas's longstanding demand for a "complete" Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed.

Netanyahu's spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP that Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and Ronen Bar, head of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service, were in the Egyptian capital and "negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement".
The war triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Diplomatic efforts have intensified to try to avert a wider war following the high-profile killings of two Iran-backed militants that sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its allies, which blamed Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed home without a breakthrough on Wednesday from his latest tour of the Middle East aimed at finalising a ceasefire.

Blinken spoke with the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Thursday after the two were unable to meet during the US top diplomat's brief stop in Doha earlier this week.

They discussed the latest push towards a truce and "affirmed that no party in the region should take actions to undermine efforts to reach a deal", the State Department said.

Netanyahu, whose hard-right coalition relies of the support of members opposed to a truce, said Israel must "control" the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt.

"Netanyahu insists on the principle that Israel control the Philadelphi Corridor in order to prevent Hamas from rearming itself," his office said.

An earlier statement rejected as "incorrect" media reports that "Netanyahu has agreed that Israel will withdraw" from the strip of territory along the Gaza-Egypt border.

During his regional tour, Blinken said Netanyahu had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a truce that "is very clear on the schedule and the locations" of the Israeli withdrawal.

Without mentioning Philadelphi directly, Blinken also said that Washington "does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel".

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, citing "officials knowledgeable about the negotiations", reported that "the Americans understood the mistake" Blinken had made in his remarks about Netanyahu accepting the proposal.

Hamas said Sunday that the US proposal "responds to Netanyahu's conditions" and accused him of "obstructing an agreement".

Some analysts and critics in Israel have also accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war.

In its statement, Hamas cited Netanyahu's "insistence on continuing to occupy" the Philadelphi Corridor as well as Netzarim junction, which sits at a strategic point between northern and southern Gaza and where witnesses reported clashes on Thursday.

'Tired of displacement'
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza civil defense agency, said "five bodies were pulled from under the rubble" of a house in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, hit by Israeli bombardment on Thursday.

"The bombing never stops," said 32-year-old Tahani Abu Sherbi, a mother of four, in central Gaza.

Although Israel has issued an evacuation order for the area, "we decided not to move despite the danger," she told AFP.

"We are tired of displacement."

Witnesses said they saw heavy Israeli shelling in Khan Yunis and air strikes in southern and central Gaza, while the military said Israeli troops intensified operations around Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah further north.

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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.