ANKARA: Turkish police on Monday detained 98 suspects over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK militant group, most of them on a charge of spreading PKK propaganda on social media, the Interior Ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said the suspects were detained in simultaneous operations across 18 provinces, with most of the detentions being in southeastern regions.

RAMALLAH: In Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank, long the turf of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, the green flag of Hamas is flying ever higher thanks to prisoner-hostage exchanges.

For three nights, Palestinians have celebrated the return of dozens of detainees freed from Israeli jails, in exchange for women and children seized during Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

That has seen the popularity of Hamas soar in the West Bank, run by Abbas’ Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Ahmed Abdelaziz, 63, joined the celebrations on Sunday.

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes on Sunday made Damascus airport inoperable just hours after flights had resumed following a similar attack last month, a war monitor said, as state media also reported the attack.
“Israeli warplanes on Sunday afternoon carried out a new raid targeting Damascus international airport … putting it out of service again,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said the raid targeted the runways, and reported the sound of an explosion from the direction of a military airport elsewhere in the capital.

CAIRO: The eighth Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean takes place in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Monday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was setting off on Sunday to join the talks which will this year focus on the developments in Gaza.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee would meet in Barcelona for dialogue with the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

LONDON: Members of Jordan’s Lower House legal committee on Sunday met with experts in international and constitutional law to scrutinize the country’s agreements with Israel and investigate the possibility of prosecuting Israeli leaders in the International Criminal Court, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Committee attendees, focusing on legal accountability, discussed establishing a legal framework to potentially sue Israeli leaders as war criminals for alleged actions against Palestinians in Gaza. In-depth reviews of accords signed with Israel were also carried out.