Middle East & North Africa

QAB ELIAS, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese officials are cracking down on Syrian refugees against the backdrop of a worsening economic crisis and political stalemate, an escalation that has caused a panic among Syrians in the country.

In recent weeks, the army has raided refugee camps and set up checkpoints to review the documentation of non-Lebanese citizens, arresting and in many cases deporting Syrians found not to have legal residency, according to refugees and humanitarian organizations.

02 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has accused the US of cooperating with Israeli protesters against his government's judicial overhaul plan, Anadolu news agency reported.

The Hebrew Walla website yesterday released a video of Levin saying that "the Americans are working in cooperation with them [protesters] against [judicial reform]."

02 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he does not intend at this time to introduce a bill that would grant ultra-Orthodox Jews exemption from service in the Israeli army, the Hebrew news website Walla has reported.

02 May 2023; MEMO: The Algerian Parliament announced on Sunday the resignation of its deputy speaker, Mondher Boudin MP, from the presidency of the Advisory Group for Combating Terrorism in the Inter-Parliamentary Union in protest at Israel's membership of the group. The move was said to be in support of the Palestinian cause.

02 May 2023; MEMO: A Syrian regime soldier was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Aleppo Airport in northern Syria, according to the state news agency, SANA, on Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

SANA, citing a military source, said two civilians and five soldiers were injured in the attack that put Aleppo Airport out of service.

There was no comment from Israel on the report.

02 May 2023; MEMO: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Tuesday, called on the Israeli authorities to release the body of Palestinian hunger striker, Khader Adnan, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad group member, died in prison on Tuesday, after 86 days of hunger strike in protest of his detention.

02 May 2023; MEMO: Turkiye officially opened Europe's biggest solar power plant in Konya, built on a single site and one of the five largest in the world, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, the solar power plant, bulit in Konya, Karapinar, is the size of 2,800 football fields and supplies the electricity needs of 2 million people.

It will increase Turkiye's share of installed solar energy by 20 per cent on its own, the report added.

02 May 2023; MEMO: Sudan's warring military factions agreed, on Tuesday, in principle to a seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, South Sudan announced, as more air strikes and shooting in the Khartoum region disrupted the latest short-term truce, Reuters reports.

A statement released by the Foreign Ministry of South Sudan, which had offered to mediate in the conflict, said its President, Salva Kiir, stressed the importance of a longer truce and of naming envoys to peace talks, to which both sides had agreed.

02 May 2023; MEMO: The ongoing conflict in Sudan has caused over 330,000 people to become displaced within the country and over 100,000 others to escape through the borders, the United Nations has revealed.

According to a situation report by the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM), "the total estimate of displaced individuals across Sudan has reached 334,053".

DAMASCUS, May 2 (NNN-SANA) – Israeli missiles hit the international airport and several military sites in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo last night, killing one soldier and wounding seven others, the Syrian army said in a statement.

The attack was carried out before midnight, hitting the airport and a number of military positions in the countryside of Aleppo, it said, adding that, two civilians were among the wounded.