Israeli shelling kills 5 in Gaza; US strikes Islamic State in Syria

The Israeli military said on Saturday its forces had arrested a suspected Islamic State group jihadist in Syria earlier this week and taken him back to Israel.

In a statement, the military said that on Wednesday "soldiers completed an operation in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS".

"The suspect was transferred for further processing in Israeli territory," the statement said.

The head of Iraq's highest judicial body said Saturday that the leaders of armed factions have agreed to cooperate on the sensitive issue of the state's monopoly on weapons.

However, the powerful Kataeb Hezbollah group said that it would only discuss giving up its arms when foreign troops leave the country.

"The resistance is a right, and its weapons will remain in the hands of its fighters," the group said in a statement.

The leaders of three other pro-Iran factions designated by Washington as terrorist groups said that it is time to restrict weapons to state control, although they too have stopped short of committing to disarm - a long-standing US demand.

Faiq Zidan, the head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, in a statement thanked "faction leaders for heeding his advice to coordinate together to enforcing the rule of law, restrict weapons to state control, and transition to political action after the national need for military action has ceased".

(AFP)

Turkey's MIT intelligence agency chief met Hamas' negotiating team head Khalil Al-Hayya on Saturday and discussed necessary measures to be taken for proceeding to the second phase of the Gaza peace plan, Turkish security sources said.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin met the Hamas delegation in Istanbul within the scope of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, and they discussed steps to be taken to prevent what they said were Israel's ceasefire violations.

They also discussed measures to be taken to resolve existing issues for proceeding to the second phase of the plan, the sources also said, without giving details.

This came on the same day that Turkey's foreign minister joined senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and the US in Miami to discuss progressing the ceasefire.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering launching a new war against Iran and will present attack plans with US President Donald Trump, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former US officials.

The US news outlet said that Israeli officials are arguing that the country's ballistic missile programme justify a renewed attack.

Netanyahu will also cite Iran's efforts to repair nuclear sites and air defence systems damaged during the 12-day war in June.

The first phase of the plan to confiscate weapons south of the Litani River will end in a "few days", Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement on Saturday.

A US-backed ceasefire agreed in November 2024 required the disarmament of Lebanon's Iran-algined Hezbollah, beginning in areas south of the river, the area adjacent to Israel.

Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris left for New York Saturday to meet the UN chief and other officials and discuss humanitarian access and a possible ceasefire, two government sources said.

The trip comes as fighting between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted in April 2023, intensifies in southern Kordofan, raising fears of new atrocities similar to those reported in the city of El-Fasher in late October.

Reports of mass killings, rape and abductions followed the RSF's capture of the army's last stronghold in the western Darfur region.

A Sudanese government source told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that Idris is expected to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, with the aim of "putting an end to the worsening humanitarian crisis" in Sudan.

Idris's adviser Mohamed Abdel Qader also told AFP the talks would focus on "facilitating aid access" and reaffirm the government's commitment to a roadmap handed over to the UN, including a "conditional ceasefire linked to the withdrawal of the RSF from areas and cities it occupies".

(AFP)

A drone of unknown origin has been found in Turkey, less than a day after another unmanned aerial vehicle of suspected Russian origin crashed in the northwest, Turkish media reported on Saturday.

According to several independent television networks and the Cumhuriyet newspaper, the drone was found in an empty field near the town of Balikesir, some three hours southwest of Istanbul.

The Turkish authorities had yet to react to the news, but the Halk TV and Haberturk broadcasters reported that the drone was transported to Ankara for analysis.

The incident, the third of its kind since Monday, comes after Turkey warned both Russia and Ukraine against letting their ongoing war spill over elsewhere in the region.

Two more buildings in the Gaza Strip previously damaged by Israeli strikes have collapsed in the enclave on Saturday.

The buildings' collapse was due to heavy rainfall in Gaza, where cold winter temperatures and storms have exacerbated living conditions.

Rescue teams helped evacuate residents in the Al-Ada 6 Tower in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood southwest of Gaza City, after cracks appeared and the top four floors collapsed, the Palestinian Wafa agency said.

Another building in the Nasr neighbourhood belonging to the Mughni family also collapsed.

No injuries have been reported from either incident.

The death toll in Gaz has risen to 70,925 since the start of Israel's war in Gaza, medical source told Palestinian media .

The number of those injured has risen to 171,185,ith scores of victims believed to be trapped under rubble and remain unaccounted for.

Over the past 24 hours, at least 13 Palestinians were reported killed.

Jordan's army participated in the US strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday, state-owned Jordan TV said on Saturday.

The US military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, US officials said.

(Reuters)

Five Palestinians were killed and others injured in renewed Israeli shelling in Gaza overnight, a medical source has told Al Jazeera Arabic.

A correspondent for the Qatari broadcaster reported shelling Khan Younis and Gaza City.

The deaths came after Israeli forces struck a building housing displaced people in the Al-Tuffah suburb of Gaza City.

Gaza's Civil Defence said most of those killed were children.

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff have created a draft proposal to rebuild Gaza into a futuristic 'smart city' and tourism destination in what is the latest iteration of the president's much-derided 'Gaza Riviera' plan.

The proposal, seen by the Wall Street Journal, envisions more than $112 billion being invested to reconstruct the territory, which has been almost entirely destroyed by the Israeli military over the past two years.

Some US officials remain sceptical of the plan, with efforts to bring a permanent end to the conflict and begin reconstruction at a standstill.

Israel continues to violate the ceasefire on almost a daily basis and is threatening to renew its genocidal offensive if Hamas does not surrender its weapons.

Iran has put to death a man accused of spying for Israel, the latest execution since a 12-day June war between the archenemies, the judiciary's press agency announced Saturday.

"The death sentence for Aghil Keshavarz, found guilty of spying for the Zionist regime, communicating and cooperating with the regime, and taking photographs of military and security sites, was carried out after being upheld by the Supreme Court and following legal procedures," the Mizan agency reported.

The man, described as an agent of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service, had been arrested between April and May in Urmia in northwestern Iran, it added.

Since the war, Iran has promised swift trials for those arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Israel. It has announced multiple arrests and the executions of at least ten people convicted of working with Mossad.

(AFP)

US forces struck more than 70 Islamic State group targets in Syria on Friday in what President Donald Trump described as "very serious retaliation" for an attack that killed three Americans last weekend.

A Syria war monitor said at least five Islamic State members - including a cell leader - were killed in the strikes.

"The operation employed more than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites," US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

(Agencies and TNA staff)

Israeli forces launched a new raid in Quneitra province in southern Syria on Saturday morning, according to local media.

Soldiers in five Israeli vehicles entered the village of Ein Ziwan, set up a checkpoint and searched civilians, a correspondent for Syria TV reported.

Israeli forces have launched frequent raids into Syria in the year since they seized swathes of territory in the wake of the overthrow of the Assad regime.