Middle East & North Africa

Huge crowds of people have gathered in Istanbul Airport to volunteer in southeast Turkiye to help in the aftermath of the earthquakes.

They hope to join over 24,000 search and rescue firefighters, doctors, soldiers and civilians who are searching the rubble for survivors.

In the early hours of yesterday morning northern Syria and southern Turkiye were hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by a second just hours later.

07 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned on Monday that the judicial overhaul proposed by the current coalition government will break Israel, the Times of Israel has reported.

ADANA, Turkey (AP) — Rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria searched through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 4,000 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region.

Authorities feared the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

JERUSALEM, Feb 6 (NNN-MA’AN) – The Israeli Secondary School Teachers’ Association, yesterday staged a one-day strike, in high schools in the country, for a pay increase.

Some middle school teachers, who are members of the association, also took part in the strike, which aimed to pressure the Finance Ministry into reaching a new collective agreement with teachers in time, as the previous one had expired more than a year ago.

The association said in a statement that, the ministry had yet to negotiate such an agreement, leaving the teachers with “no one to talk to.”

RAMALLAH, Feb 6 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that, the decisions of the Palestinian leadership will continue to be implemented, including halting security coordination with Israel.

Abbas made the remarks, during a meeting at the presidential headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, with chiefs of Palestinian security apparatuses.

Abbas underlined that the leadership’s decisions, “aim to protect the rights and national interests of the Palestinian people.”

TEHRAN, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that "diplomatic dynamism" exists through different channels in the talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal and remove anti-Iran sanctions.

Exchange of messages between different sides to the deal is continuing at different levels, Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted Nasser Kanaani as saying during a weekly press conference.

Iran has always welcomed with goodwill efforts and measures aimed at resolving the issue and achieving a nuclear agreement, he noted.

AQABAT JABR, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen linked to the Islamic militant Hamas group in a raid on refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the latest bloodshed in the region that will likely further exacerbate tensions.

The Palestinian president’s office called the violence a crime, urging the United States to pressure Israel to hold back on its incursions. The military said the raid was meant to apprehend a militant cell that staged a botched shooting attack on a restaurant in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

AZMARIN, Syria (AP) — A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing more than 1,900 people. Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.

05 Feb 2023; MEMO: Thousands of people took to the streets in Israeli cities Saturday for a fifth straight week to protest the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning proposed judicial reforms, Anadolu reports.

Demonstrators from non-governmental organizations, lawyers and technology sectors staged the protests/

Police closed roads leading to squares in Tel Aviv during the day and took security measures in the surrounding area.

05 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to resign in protest of the policies of the Benjamin Netanyahu government, according to local media, Anadolu reports.

The private Channel 13, citing sources close to Ben-Gvir, said the far-right minister was critical of the government's "lenient" response to rocket fire from Gaza and the slow evacuation of the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin community near East Jerusalem.