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Arab World

UN and Lebanon Launch an Appeal for $426 Million in Urgent Aid

Search and rescue team members try to find victims following an overnight raid by the Israel army on the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh, in Sidon, Lebanon, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
Search and rescue team members try to find victims following an overnight raid by the Israel army on the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh, in Sidon, Lebanon, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
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UN and Lebanon Launch an Appeal for $426 Million in Urgent Aid

Search and rescue team members try to find victims following an overnight raid by the Israel army on the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh, in Sidon, Lebanon, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
Search and rescue team members try to find victims following an overnight raid by the Israel army on the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh, in Sidon, Lebanon, 01 October 2024. (EPA)

The United Nations and the Lebanese government have launched a $426 million flash appeal for urgent humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

The appeal was launched in Beirut Tuesday by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza.

Mikati said that Lebanon is going through “one of the most dangerous moments in its history.” He said that 1 million people have been displaced as a result “of the destructive war launched by Israel on Lebanon.”

The flash appeal seeks to assist the displaced by addressing urgent needs in areas such as food, basic assistance, shelter, health care, water and municipal services, the UN said.

“Without sufficient resources, humanitarians risk leaving the population of an entire country without the support they urgently require,” Riza warned. He added that no amount of aid can fully address the crisis if civilians continue to be targeted.

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Arab World

Israeli Fire Kills Three in Gaza, as US Seeks to Advance Gaza Deal

Palestinian children play with a wheelchair amid destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 25, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian children play with a wheelchair amid destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 25, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Fire Kills Three in Gaza, as US Seeks to Advance Gaza Deal

Palestinian children play with a wheelchair amid destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 25, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian children play with a wheelchair amid destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 25, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli fire killed three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while an Israeli drone wounded four others in Gaza City, local health authorities said on Sunday.

Medics said Israeli fire killed at least two people east of Tuffah neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip, while a 41-year-old man was killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.

Earlier medical workers said an Israeli ‌drone exploded ‌on the rooftop of a multi-floor building in ‌Gaza ⁠City, wounding four civilians ‌in the street nearby.

There was no comment by the Israeli military on any of the incidents.

US ENVOYS MEET WITH ISRAEL PM NETANYAHU

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met in Israel on Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, Witkoff said on Sunday.

"The discussion was constructive and positive, with both sides aligned on next steps and the importance of ⁠continued cooperation on all matters critical to the region," Witkoff said in a post on X.

Gaza ‌has been reduced to rubble in the ‍war that was triggered by an attack ‍by the Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel on October ‍7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says more than 71,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli fire since then. It also says that at least 480 people have been killed by Israeli fire since a ceasefire agreement came into effect last October.

BOTH SIDES TRADE BLAME FOR VIOLATIONS

Israel has said four soldiers ⁠had been killed by militants in Gaza since the ceasefire began. Both sides have traded blame for violations of the truce.

Earlier this month, Washington said the plan had moved into a second phase, in which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza, and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory's administration.

Meanwhile, in Khan Younis, more than 100 people attended the funeral of a person killed by Israeli drone fire on Saturday, after holding special prayers in front of his white-shrouded body at the morgue in Nasser Hospital.

"They are liars, there is no ceasefire," said Fares Erheimat, a relative ‌of the dead man, during the funeral.

Arab World

Damascus Opens Humanitarian Corridor to Kurdish-Majority Town

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
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Damascus Opens Humanitarian Corridor to Kurdish-Majority Town

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP

Syria's military said on Sunday it had opened a humanitarian corridor to the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane, filled with people displaced by recent clashes, as a UN convoy carrying life-saving aid headed there.

The aid came as the Syrian government and Kurdish forces extended a ceasefire agreement by 15 days, after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government troops.

Earlier this week, residents in Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic, told AFP that they lacked food, water and power and that the enclave was flooded with people who had fled the Syrian army's advances.

In a statement, the Syrian military said it was opening two corridors, one to Kobane and another in nearby Hasakeh province to allow "the entry of aid".

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, representative of the United Nations' refugee agency in Syria, said on X that "thanks to the cooperation with the Syrian government... a convoy of 24 trucks carrying essential food, relief items, and diesel" departed for Kobane "to deliver life-saving and winter assistance to civilians affected by the hostilities".

The town is surrounded by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides. It is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Kurds' stronghold in Syria's far northeast.

Kobane, which Kurdish forces liberated from a lengthy siege by the ISIS group in 2015, became a symbol as their first major victory against ISIS.

On Saturday, Syria's government and Kurdish forces extended their truce with Damascus saying it was intended to support the US transfer of ISIS group detainees from Syria to prisons in Iraq, which started earlier this week.

Arab World

Lebanon Says Israeli Strike on South Kills One

Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ayal Margolin /File Photo
Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ayal Margolin /File Photo
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike on South Kills One

Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ayal Margolin /File Photo
Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ayal Margolin /File Photo

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed one person on Sunday, the health ministry reported, as Israel's military said it struck Hezbollah targets.

Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure, AFP reported.

In a statement, the ministry said "an Israeli enemy raid" near Khirbet Selm, south Lebanon, killed one person and wounded another in a preliminary toll.

The Israeli army said it struck a Hezbollah "weapons manufacturing site" in the south where it "identified the terrorist activity of Hezbollah operatives".

The army said it also struck "military infrastructure sites belonging to Hezbollah" in the eastern Bekaa area.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that the strike on the south targeted a hangar, while the attacks on the east hit mountains near the town of Nabi Sheet.

On Wednesday, Israel struck four crossings along the Syria-Lebanon border, alleging they were used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.

Lebanon's army said this month it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

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

More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.