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Arab World

Israel Calls on Famine-Stricken Residents to Flee and Targets More High-Rises in Gaza City

Palestinians fleeing south, ride vehicles with their belongings, along the coastal road near the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians fleeing south, ride vehicles with their belongings, along the coastal road near the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Israel Calls on Famine-Stricken Residents to Flee and Targets More High-Rises in Gaza City

Palestinians fleeing south, ride vehicles with their belongings, along the coastal road near the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians fleeing south, ride vehicles with their belongings, along the coastal road near the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

The Israeli army issued evacuation orders and targeted high-rise buildings in famine-stricken Gaza City on Saturday, calling on Palestinians to move to the territory's south as it escalates operations ahead of a new offensive to seize the city of nearly 1 million. 

Aid groups warn that a large-scale evacuation would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza City, which the world's leading hunger watchdog says is suffering from famine as a result of Israel's restrictions on food into the territory. 

Most families have already been displaced several times over the nearly two-year-long Israel-Hamas war and say they have nowhere left to go, as the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed tent encampments that it had designated as humanitarian zones. 

Some Palestinians — who at times have nothing to eat for days in a row — say they are too weak to uproot themselves again. 

Israeli army urges Palestinians to move to a ‘humanitarian zone’ 

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged Palestinians on Saturday to flee to the south of the Gaza Strip, saying on social media platform X that the army had declared the makeshift tent encampment of Muwasi and parts of the southern town of Khan Younis to be a humanitarian zone. 

It shared a map of Khan Younis neighborhoods within the redrawn borders of the humanitarian zone, which covered the district home to Nasser Hospital. Israel hit the hospital last week in a strike that killed 22 people, including five journalists — among them Mariam Dagga, who worked for The Associated Press and other media outlets. 

Palestinians would be able to drive from Gaza City to Khan Younis, and the overcrowded coastal community of Muwasi to the town's west, via a designated road without being searched, Adraee said. 

Aid groups have raised alarm about woefully inadequate shelter, sanitation, water and food in Muwasi. Months of bombardment have decimated civilian infrastructure in Khan Younis. 

The military said in a statement that it would work to provide field hospitals, water pipelines and food supplies within its newly designated humanitarian zone. 

The United Nations on Saturday said its staff would remain in Gaza City to provide badly needed aid to Palestinians caught up in Israel's renewed assault on the city. It said Palestinians who heed Israeli evacuation orders must be able to return voluntarily when the situation allows. 

Exhausted and despairing, many Palestinians said they won't pack up and leave again. 

“Nowhere is safe across the strip,” said Gaza City resident Ayman Abo Saif, adding that the surge of displaced people in the overcrowded south had sent rents soaring to over $7 a day for just 25 square meters (270 square feet). 

Israel targets high-rises in Gaza City  

Israel on Saturday issued evacuation warnings for two high-rises in Gaza City and surrounding tents, with Adraee, the military spokesperson, saying that the buildings were targets because Hamas had infrastructure inside or near them. Hamas didn't comment on the allegations. 

Soon after, Adraee said that the military had struck one of the buildings. There was no immediate information on casualties. 

Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, posted a video of the tower collapsing in an enormous cloud of smoke along with the words: “We continue.” 

The strike comes a day after Israel hit another high-rise building in Gaza City, saying Hamas fighters used it for surveillance, without providing evidence. Hamas denied those claims. 

The leveling of high-rises comes as Israel ramps up its offensive after announcing last month it planned to take control of Gaza's largest northern city, where many families are crammed into tents in the ruins of bombed-out buildings, in an effort to dislodge Hamas. 

Earlier this week, the Israeli military said it had already seized control of 40% of the city. 

At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday, officials were counting the dead and tending to the wounded from Israeli bombardment the day before. 

They said 15 people had been killed, including a family of five whose apartment was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on the city's Shati refugee camp and civilians killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid near the Zikim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. 

More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at distribution points or along UN convoy routes, the Gaza Health Ministry reports, many of them by Israeli fire. 

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those killed Friday. 

Israeli hostage families appeal to Trump  

Israelis have staged widespread protests over the military's renewed assault on Gaza City, fearing it will further endanger the remaining hostages held in the strip, 20 of whom Israel believes to still be alive. 

Those fears intensified on Friday when Hamas released a propaganda video showing two hostages, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel, being held in Gaza City. 

Families of the hostages have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to prioritize the safety of their loved ones and called on US President Donald Trump to help accelerate the release of Israelis in Hamas captivity. 

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing many families of the hostages, thanked Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday for their work advancing Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations. The statement praised them for “unwavering determination, courage and compassion.” 

Yet for all their appeals, a lasting truce has proven elusive. Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators last month. Israel has not yet responded to the latest offer, vowing the war will continue until Hamas disarms and releases all Israeli hostages. 

It also has insisted on retaining open-ended security control of the territory of some 2 million Palestinians — a condition unacceptable to Hamas. 

The war erupted when Hamas-led fighters invaded southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others on Oct. 7, 2023. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements. 

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants beyond saying that women and children make up around half the dead. 

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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.