LEBANON: The government plans to begin repatriating Syrian refugees within months, Minister for the Displaced Issam Charafeddine said today.
Lebanon hosts the most refugees per capita in the world, including over a million Syrians who fled the civil war there.
Syria says it will drop charges against former opposition fighters and provide safe places for returning refugees to live, but the UN High Commission for Refugees says it is still unsafe.
PALESTINE: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian trying to resist arrest in the illegally occupied West Bank village of Jaba today.
RAMZY BAROUD looks at how entire West Bank communities have been shattered, their social and physical fabric deliberately dismantled by Israel to enable its formal annexation
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE


