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Israelis hold mass protest outside parliament against judicial reforms

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested outside parliament on Monday against the government's controversial judicial reform plan, which aims to give lawmakers substantially more control over the supreme court.

The measures, which were inching towards approval through a series of preliminary votes inside the chamber, have provoked widespread criticism and charges that they would give the legislative branch nearly unchecked authority.

Israeli protesters wave national flags outside the parliament in Jerusalem against the controversial legal reforms being touted by the country's hard-right government

Two wounded in Jerusalem after Gaza and West Bank violence

An Israeli policeman and a Jewish teenager were wounded Monday in two separate stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinian boys in annexed east Jerusalem, police said, amid a spike in violence.

Earlier on Monday, Israel struck a Hamas base in Gaza after rocket fire from the enclave, and a Palestinian was killed as the army detained alleged attackers in the occupied West Bank.

Fire and smoke rise above Gaza City after Israel launched air strikes on a Hamas facility in the Palestinian enclave early on February 13, 2023

Israeli air strike hits Hamas complex in Gaza: military

Israel hit Gaza with air strikes on Monday in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave at the weekend, the army said, as unrest persisted in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person was killed in a pre-dawn Israeli army raid in Nablus in the northern West Bank, the scene of near-relentless violence over the past year.

The army did not immediately comment on the Nablus raid.

Miracle rescues a week after Turkey-Syria quake

Rescuers pulled more survivors from the rubble a week after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria leaving more than 33,000 dead, as the UN warned the toll was set to rise far higher.

A young boy and a 62-year-old woman were the latest miracle rescues after nearly seven days trapped under the wreckage of collapsed buildings since last Monday's devastating quake.

Thousands of rescue workers are continuing the search for survivors nearly a week after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria

UN admits aid failure for Syria as quake toll hits 33,000

The United Nations denounced Sunday the failure to deliver desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria, while warning the death toll of more than 33,000 from the earthquake that also struck Turkey is set to rise far higher.

A UN convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the agency's relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.

"We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," Griffiths said on Twitter.

Emirati rescuers pursue search operations in the Syrian regime-controlled town of Jableh in Latakia province

Turkey's once mighty developers under fire after quake

Their mugshots are everywhere: a Turkish developer arrested while trying to flee the country and two colleagues connected to a luxurious apartment tower that crumbled in Monday's disastrous quake.

The traumatised country's social media users are calling for their heads.

Turkish officials are turning them into the focus of public outrage at the shoddy business dealings that appear to have contributed to the disaster's almost unfathomable scale.

Monday's quake has left a trail of destruction while claiming more than 30,000 lives

Syria's Assad may consider more border crossings for quake aid: WHO

The WHO chief said Sunday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad had voiced openness to more border crossings for aid to be brought to quake victims in the country's rebel-held northwest.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with the Syrian president in Damascus on Sunday afternoon to discuss the response to the devastating earthquake which has killed more than 33,000 people across Syria and Turkey.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad visits areas hit by the earthquake

Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy in West Bank: ministry

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager Sunday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, with the army reporting they came under fire during a raid.

The ministry reported 14-year-old Qusai Radwan Waked died "as a result of being seriously wounded in the abdomen by live fire from the occupation (Israel)" in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank.

The army said Israeli forces were shot at while they were trying to arrest an alleged Palestinian militant, while "explosive devices and rocks" were also thrown at them.

The mother and relatives of a young Palestinian boy react, after he was reportedly shot dead by Israeli forces during confrontations in the West Bank town of Jenin, on February 12

Lebanon's Hezbollah sends aid to Syria's quake-hit Latakia

Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah sent Sunday a convoy of 23 trucks carrying food and medical aid to Syria's quake-stricken province of Latakia, a stronghold of the group's allies.

"This the moment of support, the moment of assistance," senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine told reporters in Lebanon's capital Beirut.

It comes six days after a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing more than 33,000 people in total, including over 3,500 in Syria.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid provided by Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah set out for Syria on February 12 in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake

Abbas urges world support for Palestinians

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday accused Israel of having "crossed all red lines" in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, and urged world leaders to put an end to its actions.

The international community must "protect" the Palestinian people and "put a stop to Israeli aggression... (and) unilateral actions", the head of the Palestinian Authority told an Arab League meeting in Cairo.

"Israeli intransigence and practices have crossed all red lines", he said at the gathering attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas speaks during the Arab League's "Summit for Jerusalem" in Cairo on February 12, 2023