By Arie Perliger Director of Security Studies and Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass Lowell

Owais Hammam was walking near his home in Khirbet Bani Harith in the West Bank on Dec. 3, 2025, when, according to media reports, he was kidnapped by Jewish settlers. Over several hours at a nearby settlement, the 18-year-old Palestinian is alleged to have endured repeated beatings, humiliation and harassment.

A group of Syrian-American Jews have registered a nongovernmental organization in Syria in a bid to restore Jewish heritage in a country where the once-sizable religious minority has shrunk to almost nothing.

"Jewish Syrians are an integral part of the Syrian fabric," Syrian Minister of Social Affairs Hind Kabawat told The Associated Press Friday. "Our country is a mosaic of all sorts of civilizations, religions, sects, and nations."

Former Iraqi President Barham Salih is on track to become the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, according to a letter from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres shared with The Associated Press on Friday.

Salih, 65, is set to succeed longtime UNHCR veteran Filippo Grandi as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Grandi took office on Jan. 1, 2016, and his second five-year term expires on Dec. 31. He had succeeded Guterres in the post.

The head of Yemen's internationally recognized government has called on separatists to withdraw from territories they they have recently captured in the southeastern parts of the country, according to the government-run news agency.

The secessionist Southern Transitional Council, STC, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates, this month seized most of the the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra, including oil facilities. The move raised fears that the relative calm in the country's stalemated civil war might be shattered.

Israel's far-right national security minister on Thursday vowed to remove the grave of Arab nationalist leader Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose tomb lies in Israel and whose name was given to the armed wing of Hamas.

Itamar Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory remarks, posted a video on X showing him accompanying security forces as they dismantled a prayer tent next to the grave of the Syrian-born militant.

Israel has given the go-ahead for the construction of 764 more houses in three Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a decision likely to further stoke tensions as a watchdog group accused the Israeli government of moving toward "de facto annexation" of the Palestinian territory.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday that the Higher Planning Council, the body in charge of settlement construction plans in the West Bank, approved 478, 230, and 56 housing units in the Hashmonaim, Beitar Illit and Givat Ze'ev settlements, respectively.

Israel said on Thursday that Hamas "will be disarmed" as part of the U.S.-sponsored peace plan for Gaza, after a top leader from the Islamist movement suggested a weapons freeze.

"There will be no future for Hamas under the 20-point plan. The terror group will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized," the Israeli official told AFP.

Spain's PM on Thursday called on the international community to "raise its voice" to prevent the plight of Palestinians from being forgotten, during a meeting with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also repeated Madrid's support for a two-state solution, describing it as "the only possible solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A top Hamas leader has told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera that the militant group is open to a weapons "freeze", but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the U.S.-sponsored peace plan for Gaza.

"The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons)... to provide guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli occupation," said Khaled Meshaal in an interview aired Wednesday.

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for the first time of crimes against humanity during and after the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

"Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity during their attacks in southern Israel that started on 7 October 2023," the human rights watchdog said in a 173-page report.