https://arab.news/pmtsn
CAIRO: Firefighting teams and civil defense forces extinguished a fire that broke out at the gas department of Syria’s Homs refinery, state media reported early on Tuesday.
Cooling operations are currently being carried out, it added.
BEIRUT: A Lebanese security official told AFP that the country’s national airline had to switch landing strips on Monday after Israeli strikes near Beirut’s only international airport hit close to the main runway.
“Middle East Airlines switched the runway it was using because the main runway is close to the site of the Ouzai strike,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
JERUSALEM: Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, Israel’s military said on Monday, adding it will not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group’s financial assets.
Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shiite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it only had operating rooms, patients and a morgue.
Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated. Israel’s military said it was not going to strike the facility.
Reuters could not independently verify the details provided by the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, which he said had been collected by Israeli intelligence for years.
Hezbollah could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a televised statement, Hagari said Hezbollah’s former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel killed last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.
“There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker right now. I’m calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities, and the international organizations — don’t allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel,” Hagari said.
“The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself,” Hagari said.
Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told troops in Lebanon that overnight between Sunday and Monday, aircraft had struck around 30 sites belonging to Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which Israel says is Hezbollah’s financial arm.
Hagari said more strikes against Hezbollah financial sites were to continue.
AMMAN: Queen Rania met a group of young Jordanians in Amman on Monday to discuss their income-generating projects, as part of a program previously supported by her sponsorship initiative.
The sponsorship scheme, which aimed to empower young entrepreneurs, has successfully backed 190 youth-led projects across Jordan.
The schemes were primarily selected by civil society organizations with support from the Jordan River Foundation, utilizing its own community empowerment programs, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The entrepreneurs shared insights into their initiatives at the meeting, detailing the job opportunities they had created and the vocational and professional skills developed among fellow Jordanians.
They highlighted several success stories that demonstrated the positive impact of the ventures on their lives and communities and, rather than pursuing traditional employment routes, had showed their commitment to following their passions and launching unconventional projects.
Each participant in Queen Rania’s sponsorship program had already established a small project, successfully creating between one and three part-time or full-time jobs prior to receiving support.
The initiative aimed to provide young leaders with the necessary resources and mentorship to expand their businesses further to enhance their social impact.
UNITED NATIONS: US President Joe Biden has signaled “tacit approval and explicit support for Israel’s unlawful military aggression against Iran,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on Monday, citing remarks by Biden in Germany last week.
“The United States will bear full responsibility for its role in instigating, inciting and enabling any acts of aggression by Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran ... as well as for the catastrophic consequences on regional and international peace and security,” Iran’s UN mission said in a letter to the UN Security Council.
Biden, on a visit to Berlin, also told reporters he has an understanding of how and when Israel will respond to the missile attacks by Iran. He declined to elaborate.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s airport authority on Monday resumed operations at the country’s main airport, Ben Gurion, after briefly closing its airspace.
Local media reported a “suspicious object” being spotted near the facility that led to its closure for about 30 minutes.
“The airport is open for landings and departures,” the airport authority said in a statement.
The Israeli army later said in a statement that five drones had been intercepted “in the area of the Mediterranean Sea” and stressed that there were no security risks to the airport.
“The UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” it said.
“In addition, it should be emphasized that there is no concern for a security incident in the area of Ben Gurion Airport,” which is near the commercial center of Tel Aviv.
The temporary suspension of the airport’s operations came weeks after Israel’s airspace was briefly closed when Iran targeted the country with around 200 missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later vowed to make Iran “pay” for its “big mistake,” while Tehran in turn warned of a “decisive and regretful” response to an Israeli attack.
Israel is at war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has previously claimed rocket fire toward Tel Aviv from Lebanon.
Another Iran-backed group, the Houthis of Yemen, in early October claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv, after saying they had fired a missile at Ben Gurion Airport. The latter attack led to Israeli air strikes on Yemen.
