RAMALLAH: Israeli security authorities oversaw a complete closure of West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings on the eve of parliamentary elections, fearing Palestinian armed attacks against Israeli targets during voting day, either inside Israel or in the West Bank.

All of the West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings with Israel will remain shut between midnight on Oct. 31 until midnight on Nov. 1 in view of Tuesday’s election.

More than 130,000 Palestinian workers will be unable to enter Israel, and the import and export of goods will be halted.

BEIRUT: A rights group accused Syrian regime forces on Monday of burning bodies inside pits in an effort to make the corpses unidentifiable — the latest in a slew of accusations of crimes by Damascus.

“This may reflect a broader practice of the Syrian regimes to destroy evidence of their crimes and deny the families of their victims their right to know the fates of their loved ones or receive their remains,” the Washington-based Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability said in a report.

BEIRUT: Lebanon took delivery on Monday of its first vaccines to combat a worsening cholera outbreak — together with sharply worded criticism of the crisis-hit country’s crumbling public health infrastructure from donor nation France.

By Sunday, cases of cholera — a disease typically spread through contaminated water, food or sewage — stood at 1,447, with 17 deaths, since the first were recorded in the country a month ago, the Health Ministry said.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has said he hopes to end the presidential vacuum but that his cabinet has the right to assume the office’s powers following the departure of Michel Aoun without a replacement.

Najib Mikati said that the country’s constitution allows for his administration’s use of presidential powers, and that he does not seek conflict in the crisis gripping Lebanese politics.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s outgoing head of state Michel Aoun on Sunday launched a blistering attack on his political opponents and the country’s judiciary as he bowed out of the presidential palace.

In a speech, the departing president said he was leaving behind, “a robbed country, a worn-out state, and institutions that no longer have any value.”

Exiting one day before his mandate expired without a designated successor — deepening the country’s political crisis — he blasted the judiciary for failing to do its job and accused judges of taking bribes.