Israeli troops to remain in Jenin refugee camp, defense minister says

Israeli troops to remain in Jenin refugee camp, defense minister says
An Israeli soldier stands behind a wall during a military raid in Jenin, occupied West Bank, Jan. 29, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 29 January 2025
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Israeli troops to remain in Jenin refugee camp, defense minister says

Israeli troops to remain in Jenin refugee camp, defense minister says
  • Israel Katz: ‘Jenin refugee camp will not be what it was’
  • Palestinian Authority condemns ‘provocative’ comments by Katz

JENIN, West Bank/JERUSALEM: Israeli troops will remain in the Palestinians’ Jenin refugee camp once the large-scale raid they launched last week is complete, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday as a crackdown in the occupied West Bank extended into a second week.
Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armored vehicles have been fighting sporadic gunbattles with Palestinian militants while carrying out searches in the streets and alleyways for weapons and equipment.
“The Jenin refugee camp will not be what it was,” Katz said during a visit to the refugee camp. “After the operation is completed, IDF forces will remain in the camp to ensure that terrorism does not return.”
He did not give details and a military spokesperson declined to comment.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it called Katz’s “provocative” statement and called for international pressure on Israel to stop the operation, which has already been condemned by countries including France and Jordan.
Israeli forces went into Jenin immediately after the start of a six-week ceasefire in Gaza, saying it aimed to hit militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which receive support from Iran.
Israel regards the West Bank as one part of a multi-front war against Iranian-backed groups established around its borders, from Gaza to Lebanon and including the Houthis in Yemen, and it turned its attention to the area immediately after the halt to fighting in Gaza.
At least 17 Palestinians, including six members of armed militant groups and a two-year-old girl, have been killed in Jenin and the surrounding villages during the operation, according to Palestinian officials.
The military said forces had killed at least 18 militants and detained 60 wanted individuals, dismantling over 100 explosive devices and seizing a weapons manufacturing workshop.
An investigation into the death of the girl is still ongoing, a spokesperson said.
Within the camp, dozens of houses have been demolished and roads have been dug up by special armored bulldozers, driving thousands of people from their homes. Water has been cut and Palestinian officials say at least 80 percent of the camp’s inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes.
“It’s terrifying, the explosions the fires, the houses which were demolished,” said Intisar Amalka, a displaced camp resident who said her nephew’s car had been destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer.

The Jenin refugee camp, a crowded township built for descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of the state of Israel, has been a center of militant activity for decades and the target of repeated raids by Israeli troops.
Just prior to the latest raid, security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in parts of the West Bank, conducted a weeks-long operation of its own in a bid to reassert control in Jenin.
As the fighting in Gaza has subsided, at least for the moment, Israeli forces have stepped up operations across the area, setting up checkpoints and roadblocks which have made traveling even short distances between towns and villages an hours-long trial for Palestinians.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces have been carrying out an operation in Tulkarm, another volatile city where they have clashed repeatedly with militants recently, moving into the city itself as well as into its refugee camp.
The West Bank, a kidney-shaped stretch of land about 100 kilometers (62 miles) long, was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and is seen by Palestinians as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
It has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, many of them armed gunmen but also including stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians, and thousands have been arrested.
Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel have also killed dozens of Israelis.


Cairo building collapse kills 10: state media

Updated 3 sec ago
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Cairo building collapse kills 10: state media

Cairo building collapse kills 10: state media
  • Eyewitnesses told the state-owned outlet that “a gas cylinder explosion” caused the collapse
CAIRO: A building collapse in the Egyptian capital killed 10 people and injured eight more on Monday, with several others believed to be missing under the rubble, state media reported.
Ambulances were dispatched to the scene in the working class neighborhood of Kerdasa, where civil defense teams searched for people thought to be missing under the rubble, according to the Al-Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper.
Eyewitnesses told the state-owned outlet that “a gas cylinder explosion” caused the collapse, and a police investigation was under way.
Building regulations are unevenly enforced in the sprawling metropolis of Cairo, home to over 26 million people.
The city has seen a number of deadly building collapses in recent years, both due to the dilapidated state of some and, at times, failure to comply with building regulations.

500 days of the Israel-Hamas war, by the numbers

500 days of the Israel-Hamas war, by the numbers
Updated 54 min 55 sec ago
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500 days of the Israel-Hamas war, by the numbers

500 days of the Israel-Hamas war, by the numbers
  • The current phase of the truce is set to expire in early March and it is unclear if the sides will extend it
Monday is the 500th day of the war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel.
A tenuous ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has held for nearly a month. But the current phase of the truce is set to expire in early March and it is unclear if the sides will extend it, begin negotiations for a more lasting ceasefire or resume fighting.
Here are some numbers that show the scale of death and devastation. Sources include the Israeli government, the Gaza Health Ministry and UN agencies.
People killed in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023: Around 1,200
Hostages taken into Gaza: 251
Hostages remaining in Gaza: 73, including 3 taken before Oct. 7, 2023
Hostages in Gaza believed to be dead: 36, including one from before Oct. 7, 2023
Palestinians killed in Gaza: Over 48,200 (This figure from the Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead were women and children)
Palestinians wounded in Gaza: Over 111,600
Israeli soldiers killed since Oct. 7, 2023: 846
Rockets fired at Israel from Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023: Over 10,000
Percentage of Gaza’s population displaced: Around 90 percent
Palestinians who have crossed into northern Gaza since the ceasefire began: 586,000
Israelis displaced by attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon at their peak: Over 75,500
Housing units damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 245,000
Primary roads damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 92 percent
Health facilities damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 84 percent

Experts push to restore Syria’s war-torn heritage sites, including renowned Roman ruins at Palmyra

Experts push to restore Syria’s war-torn heritage sites, including renowned Roman ruins at Palmyra
Updated 17 February 2025
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Experts push to restore Syria’s war-torn heritage sites, including renowned Roman ruins at Palmyra

Experts push to restore Syria’s war-torn heritage sites, including renowned Roman ruins at Palmyra
  • One of Syria’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites, Palmyra was once a key hub to the ancient Silk Road
  • Control of Palmyra shifted between Daesh and the Syrian army before Assad’s forces recaptured it

PALMYRA, Syria: Experts are returning to Syria’s war-ravaged heritage sites, hoping to lay the groundwork for restoring them and reviving tourism, which they say could provide a much-needed boost to the country’s decimated economy after nearly 14 years of war.
Once-thriving landmarks like the ancient city of Palmyra and the medieval Crusader castle of Crac des Chevaliers remain scarred by years of conflict, but local tourists are returning to the sites, and conservationists hope their historical and cultural significance will eventually draw international visitors back.
Palmyra
One of Syria’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites, Palmyra was once a key hub to the ancient Silk Road network linking the Roman and Parthian empires to Asia. Located in the Syrian desert, it is renowned for its 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins. It is now marked by shattered columns and damaged temples.
Before the Syrian uprising that began in 2011 and soon escalated into a brutal civil war, Palmyra was Syria’s main tourist destination, attracting around 150,000 visitors monthly, Ayman Nabu, a researcher and expert in ruins said. Dubbed the “Bride of the Desert,” he said “Palmyra revitalized the steppe and used to be a global tourist magnet.”
The ancient city was the capital of an Arab client state of the Roman Empire that briefly rebelled and carved out its own kingdom in the third century, led by Queen Zenobia.
In more recent times, the area had darker associations. It was home to Tadmur prison, where thousands of opponents of the Assad family’s rule in Syria were reportedly tortured. The Daesh group demolished the prison after capturing the town.
Daesh militants later destroyed Palmyra’s historic temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, viewing them as monuments to idolatry, and beheaded an elderly antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins.
Between 2015 and 2017, control of Palmyra shifted between Daesh and the Syrian army before Assad’s forces, backed by Russia and Iran-aligned militias, recaptured it. They established military bases in the neighboring town, which was left heavily damaged and largely abandoned. Fakhr Al-Din Al-Ma’ani Castle, a 16th-century fortress overlooking the city, was repurposed by Russian troops as a military barracks.
Nabu, the researcher, visited Palmyra five days after the fall of the former government.
“We saw extensive excavation within the tombs,” he said, noting significant destruction by both Daesh and Assad government forces. “The (Palmyra) museum was in a deplorable state, with missing documents and artifacts – we have no idea what happened to them.”
At the theater, the Tetrapylon, and other ruins along the main colonnaded street, Nabu said they documented many illegal drillings revealing sculptures, as well as theft and smuggling of funerary or tomb-related sculptures in 2015 when Daesh had control of the site. While seven of the stolen sculptures were retrieved and put in a museum in Idlib, 22 others were smuggled out, Nabu added. Many pieces likely ended up in underground markets or private collections.
Inside the city’s underground tombs, Islamic verses are scrawled on the walls, while plaster covers wall paintings, some depicting mythological themes that highlight Palmyra’s deep cultural ties to the Greco-Roman world.
“Syria has a treasure of ruins,” Nabu said, emphasizing the need for preservation efforts. He said Syria’s interim administration, led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, has decided to wait until after the transition phase to develop a strategic plan to restore heritage sites.
Matthieu Lamarre of the UN’s scientific, educational and cultural organization UNESCO, said the agency had since 2015, “remotely supported the protection of Syrian cultural heritage” through satellite analyzes, reports and documentation and recommendations to local experts, but it did not conduct any work on site.
He added that UNESCO has explored possibilities for technical assistance if security conditions improve. In 2019, international experts convened by UNESCO said detailed studies would need to be done before starting major restorations.
Crac des Chevaliers
Beyond Palmyra, other historical sites bear the scars of war.
Perched on a hill near the town of Al-Husn, with sweeping views, Crac des Chevaliers, a medieval castle originally built by the Romans and later expanded by the Crusaders, was heavily bombarded during the Syrian civil war.
On a recent day, armed fighters in military uniform roamed the castle grounds alongside local tourists, taking selfies among the ruins.
Hazem Hanna, an architect and head of the antiquities department of Crac des Chevaliers, pointed to the collapsed columns and an entrance staircase obliterated by airstrikes. Damage from government airstrikes in 2014 destroyed much of the central courtyard and the arabesque-adorned columns, Hanna said.
“Relying on the cultural background of Syria’s historical sites and their archaeological and historical significance to enthusiasts worldwide, I hope and expect that when the opportunity arises for tourists to visit Syria, we will witness a significant tourism revival,” he said.
Some sections of Crac des Chevaliers were renovated after airstrikes and the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2023 that struck a wide area of neighboring Turkiye and also Syria, Hanna said. However, much of the castle remains in ruins.
Both Nabu and Hanna believe restoration will take time. “We need trained technical teams to evaluate the current condition of the ruin sites,” Nabu said.
The Dead Cities
In Northwest Syria, more than 700 abandoned Byzantine settlements called Dead Cities, stretch across rocky hills and plains, their weathered limestone ruins featuring remnants of stone houses, basilicas, tombs and colonnaded streets. Despite partial collapse, arched doorways, intricate carvings and towering church facades endure, surrounded by olive trees that root deep into history.
Dating back to the first century, these villages once thrived on trade and agriculture. Today, some sites now shelter displaced Syrians, with stone houses repurposed as homes and barns, their walls blackened by fire and smoke. Crumbling structures suffer from poor maintenance and careless repurposing.
Looters have ravaged the ancient sites, Nabu said, leaving gaping holes in search of artifacts. Local visitors carve names and messages into centuries-old walls. Sheep enclosures dot the ruins, plastic debris blending with ancient stone.
Moustafa Al-Kaddour, a local resident, returned after eight years. Touring the ruins with family members he brought from Quneitra, he reflected on childhood memories.
“This is where we went to school,” he said, pointing in the distance. “In the middle of class, we used to leave and come here to see the ruins.”
“My feelings are indescribable,” Al-Kaddour, who also saw his father for the first time in years, told the AP. “My brain still cannot comprehend that after eight years, by God’s will, we made it back home.”
He said the Assad forces had established a military position in the village, subjecting the ruins to heavy shelling and gunfire. The area was then controlled by rebels, who made the area off-limits to most Syrians and international tourists, unlike Palmyra, which still saw some visitors during the war.
The Dead Cities were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2011 as an open-air museum, said Nabu. Idlib province alone hosts “over 1,000 heritage sites spanning different time periods – about a third of Syria’s total ruins,” he added.
Beyond the bombings and air raids, looting and unauthorized digging have caused significant damage, Nabu said, adding that new construction near the ruins lacks planning and threatens preservation.
“Tens of thousands” of looted artifacts remain undocumented, he said. For those documented, authorities are compiling case files for international circulation in coordination with the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums to locate them and hopefully retrieve them.


Ukraine’s Zelensky in UAE for official visit

Ukraine’s Zelensky in UAE for official visit
Updated 17 February 2025
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Ukraine’s Zelensky in UAE for official visit

Ukraine’s Zelensky in UAE for official visit
  • The UAE has been an important mediator between Russia and Ukraine, helping with prisoner exchanges

KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he had arrived in the United Arab Emirates for a visit with a “large humanitarian program,” ahead of an expected meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky posted a video of him getting off the plane in UAE and holding talks with officials.
“An official visit with the First Lady to the United Arab Emirates,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
“The priority is to bring even more of our people home from captivity. As well as investment and economic partnership. A large humanitarian program,” he added.

 


He said this week that he planned to visit the country – as well as Turkiye and Saudi Arabia – in the coming days.
But he said on Friday that he had no plans to meet with Russian or US officials there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, and first lady Olena Zelenska were welcomed to UAE by Reem Al-Hashimy, the minister of State for International Cooperation. (X: @ZelenskyyUa)


Moscow and Washington are preparing for a summit between their two leaders, with Europe and Kyiv worried they will try to settle the three-year war in Ukraine without them.
The UAE has been an important mediator between Russia and Ukraine, helping with prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia, throughout the war.

 


In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs

In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs
Updated 17 February 2025
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In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs

In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs
  • An aerial video of the area shows rows of houses that are still standing but with their roofs missing

MARAAT AL-NUMAN, Syria: After a decade of war and displacement, many Syrians are returning to their homes, only to find them looted and roofless.
In towns like Maarat Al-Numan and Kfar Nabl in northern Syria, residents who fled years ago have returned since the fall of former President Bashad Assad but are now confronting the harsh reality of widespread theft and destruction.
Strategically located on the route between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, Maarat Al-Numan became a touchpoint in the Syrian civil war.
Assad’s forces seized the area back from rebel control in 2020. After that, groups affiliated with Assad looted houses and demolished some of them to extract valuable materials and furniture, human rights groups said. Steel and wires were taken out of rooftops to be sold.
An aerial video of the area shows rows of houses that are still standing but with their roofs missing.
Anmar Zaatour, a resident who left in 2019, said he came back in 2025 to find his home destroyed.
“There was nowhere to put our children,” he said. “This destruction isn’t from the bombing, it was the military. And it’s not just mine, it’s my neighbors, and friends.”
Zakaria Al-Awwad burst into tears of mixed joy and sorrow upon his return to Maarat Al-Numan. His house was destroyed, “one of the first ones to get hit,” he said.
“There is no place like home,” he said. “Even if I have to put on a sheet of cloth, it is better than anything else. We have freedom now, and that is priceless.”
Others were more circumspect about the future.
“The problem is, it’s impossible to resume a life without a roof,” said returning resident Hassan Barbesh. “Maarat Al-Numan is an impoverished town. It’s a very difficult task to start from scratch.”