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Hamas Spokesperson Qanoua Killed in Israeli Airstrike

People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hamas Spokesperson Qanoua Killed in Israeli Airstrike

People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said early on Thursday, the latest group figure to be killed since Israel resumed its operations in the enclave.
Al-Qanoua was killed when his tent was targeted in Jabalia, the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television said, according to Reuters. The same strike wounded several people, while separate attacks killed at least six in Gaza City and one in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, medical sources said.
Earlier this week, Israel killed Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas' political office, and Salah al-Bardaweel, another senior leader.
Both Bardaweel and Barhoum were members of the 20-member Hamas decision-making body, the political office, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.
Last week, Israel ended a two-month-old ceasefire by resuming bombing and ground operations, increasing pressure on Hamas to free the remaining hostages in its captivity.
At least 830 people, over half of them children and women, have been killed since Israel resumed major military strikes in Gaza on March 18, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaching the truce. It had broadly held since January and offered respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardizing efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension. He repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in Gaza if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds.

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Arab World

Syrian Interior Ministry: 120 ISIS Members Escape from Prison amid Clashes

Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
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Syrian Interior Ministry: 120 ISIS Members Escape from Prison amid Clashes

Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA

Syria's ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 ISIS members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which guards the prison.

Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” The Associated Press quoted the statement as saying.

The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape at a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides.

Also Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison near the city of Raqqa, which it called a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.”

The SDF, the main US-backed force that fought ISIS in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 ISIS members have been held for years without trial.

Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly.

On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of ISIS in Syria’s northeast.

The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF.

Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance," appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria.

Arab World

Egypt’s Sisi to Meet Trump on the Sidelines of Davos, Presidency Says

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt’s Sisi to Meet Trump on the Sidelines of Davos, Presidency Says

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's President Abdel ​Fattah al-Sisi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Egypt's presidency said on Tuesday.

This ‌will be ‌the first ‌meeting ⁠between ​the ‌two leaders since the US announced it was launching the second phase of its plan to end the war in Gaza.

Sisi and ⁠Trump met in the ‌Red Sea resort ‍of Sharm ‍el-Sheikh in October during a ‍summit convened by Egypt to sign a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the ​war.

On Friday, Trump said that he was also ⁠ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve the dispute over an Ethiopian dam, which both Egypt and Sudan consider a serious threat to vital water supplies.

Arab World

Palestinian Infant Dies Due to Severe Cold in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians in a temporary camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians in a temporary camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip (EPA)
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Palestinian Infant Dies Due to Severe Cold in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians in a temporary camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians in a temporary camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip (EPA)

A Palestinian infant died Tuesday morning due to extreme cold in the Gaza City.

The Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) quoted medical sources as saying that "the 7-month-old infant, Shatha Abu Jarad, died in Gaza due to severe cold."

According to the agency, "the number of children who have died in the Gaza Strip due to the extreme cold since the beginning of winter has risen to nine, amid a shortage of aid and a lack of heating".

The Civil Defense in Gaza warned on Monday of the possibility of increased deaths among children due to an unprecedented drop in temperatures.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, said in a statement: "The sharp drop in temperatures we are witnessing tonight is unprecedented since the beginning of winter. The cold is so severe that we no longer feel our feet, so how about infants, patients, and families living in dilapidated tents?"

Displaced people in Gaza are facing a very difficult situation due to a stormy weather accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, coinciding with temperatures dropping to freezing levels.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned last week that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire, as severe weather conditions threaten progress in the field of humanitarian response, noting that more than one million people are in dire need of shelter as rainstorms continue.