At least 25 people, including women and children, were killed in Aleppo Tuesday when Syrian forces attacked a bus with a rocket, according to the opposition Aleppo Medical Center,

It said the attack from a nearby Syrian military base burned everyone inside the bus beyond recognition and that it was impossible to know the actual death toll.

Aleppo has been wracked by fierce clashes between opposition forces and the Syria army and air force the past several weeks. More than 500 people were killed in attacks by “barrel bombs” that are packed with TNT and shrapnel, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The regime, of course, called the rebels “terrorists” and that despite their “destruction, murder and abduction the Syrian people continue to live their lives and the state’s establishments continue to carry out their duties.”

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the “steadfastness” of so-called “Palestinian refugees” in Syria in a televised speech but forget to mention his concern for them did not extend to helping those who are dying of starvation.

“Marking the 49th anniversary of the Palestinian Revolution … Abbas [said], “We negotiate to reach a fair solution to the refugees’ issue based on the UN Resolution 194 as stated in the Arab Peace Initiative,” the official Palestinian Authority WAFA website reported Wednesday.

“Abbas greeted the ‘steadfastness’ of the Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon and the Diaspora,” it continued

The several million “refugees” living outside of Israel serve as the Arab world’s doomsday demographic weapon to destroy Israel as a Jewish state. If their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great grandparents had come from any other country, the United Nations would not have designated them as refugees, the United Nations would have considered them to be ordinary citizens who have to get on in life. The international body reserves the “refugee” status for first-generation people who flee or are forced out of a country.

It makes an exception for Arabs from Israel. The approximately 700,000 Arabs, who left on their own free will, fled or were forced out in previous wars, have grown to more than 5 million.

They are under the jurisdiction of UNRWA (U.N. Relief and Works Agency) and almost without exception are denied citizenship in their host countries.

However, their ranks have dwindled lately. At least 15 died from starvation in war-torn Syria since September, the Beirut Daily Star reported recently. UNRWA spokesman Chris Guneess told the French news agency AFP that approximately 20,000 of them in the village of Yarmouk are suffering from limited medical and good supplies.”

On Saturday, WAFA reported that Abbas finally ordered the dispatch of immediate food supplies to the Yarmouk camp. Well, he least that is what said.

That was on December 28, 2013.

And what did Abbas do exactly a year ago in January 2013?

He turned down an Israeli offer to allow “refugees” fleeing Yarmouk to enter Judea and Samaria. Why? Because Israel insisted they could enter only if they gave up their “right of return” to whatever would be left of Israel if Abbas gets his Palestinian Authority state on his terms.

The same week, five of the “refugees” were killed in the civil war.

Abbas’ great concern for the refugees is that they serve their true purpose in his life – pawns to be moved into Tel Aviv, Tzfat (Safed), Tiberias and anywhere else where the Palestinian Authority would have no legal sovereignty under its ”two-state” solution, which is his interim phase towards a one-state solution to the Jewish problem.

Moroccan officials said they have arrested more than 50 suspects in a bust on a nationwide “terrorist cell” that operated in 50 cities. The suspects included those “who have trained with terrorist organizations in the handling of various weapons and explosives,” Morocco’s interior ministry stated.

One of those arrested formerly had been held on charges of terrorism and now is accused of raising money and recruiting terrorists, many of whom were trained to use rifles and explosives.

The members of the terror camel were arrested after returning from Syria, according to a lawyer for Salafists who also was taken into custody.

Al Qaeda released a video in September calling for jihad in Morocco, which is an ally of France and the United States.

More than 300 Syrians, including at least  87 children and 30 women, have been killed in the week-long “barrel-bombing” offensive by the regime on Syrian President Bassar al-Assad, opposition sources reported.

The civil war’s violence, which consistently has been reported as the worst possible, continues to defy description for its barbarity on both sides. A rebel suicide bombing killed 10 people on Sunday in central Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated that more than 500,000 people have been wounded in  the war and that tens of thousands have been “detained.”

The death toll ranges anywhere from 125,000 to 200,000, and more than four million have fled the country, which only the years ago was considered the kingpin by the Obama administration for peace in the Middle East. The number of homeless is estimated to be at 9 million, which is more than a third of Syria’s total population.

Khaled Mashaal, the supreme leader of Hamas who lives in Qatar,  spent 10 minutes on the phone with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas in what the official PA news agency WAFA said was a “warm” conversation.

Mashaal fled to Qatar from Syria, where he had been living in exile from Jordan until the Syrian civil war came between him and Syrian President Bassar al-Assad.

“Mashaal telephoned president Abbas to thank him for his efforts at different levels, particularly sending aid to the Gaza Strip,” WAFA reported, referring to the support sent by the PA to Gaza as it recovers following the major winter storm in recent days.

However, the most immediate and influential help came from Qatar, which donated diesel fuel, and Israel, which shipped it to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The Fatah terrorist movement, headed by Abbas, and Hamas said more than two years ago they would patch up their differences and establish a unity government, but no actions have been  taken to confirm the announcement.

With the “peace process” considered dead by virtually all parties except  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the phone call gave Abbas the opportunity to promise Mashaal that  the “sacred and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” are a state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, Palestinian refugees’ rights and the release of all Palestinian prisoners.”

The number of refugees from Syria next year will reach 4 million, more than one-sixth of the country’s population of 23 million, the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA predicted.

An additional 9.3 million will be in need of assistance inside the country, devastated by the civil war that erupted from the Arab Spring protests three years ago.

According the U.N. figures, half of Syria; population will be under refugee status or in need of aid within the country. The refugees have flooded Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, and many also have arrived in Egypt by the end of 2014.

The situation of embittered Syrians has bloated the OCHA’s 2014 budget requests to $12.9 billion.

See: IDF Confirms: Soldier Killed from Lebanon Gunfire

A Lebanese soldier opened fire Sunday at an Israeli vehicle in the Rosh Hanikra border area, killing Israeli soldier Shlomi Cohen, 31. Six to seven shots were fired at the vehicle, which was on a road adjacent to the electronic border fence with Lebanon, on Israel’s side.

The Rosh Hanikra border crossing. Photo credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Office

At around 1:00 AM Monday, Lebanon’s LBCI television reported the Israeli army retaliated by opening fire at the Lebanese General Security post at the border crossing. the incident had taken place at 9 PM, Sunday.

The incident has not been confirmed by the Lebanese army.

Israel protested to the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, which, apparently, stood by and watched the incident as it was unfolding.

“The IDF has protested this outrageous breach of Israel’s sovereignty with UNIFIL and has heightened its state of preparedness along the border,” the IDF statement said. “We will not tolerate aggression against the state of Israel and maintain the right to exercise self-defense.”

In the 2006 war, which started after Hezbollah terrorists crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers, about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis lost their lives. This is the reason the Lebanese media and government are on edge each time there’s a clash at their southern border, lest it blossom into a bigger conflict.

Hezbollah, which has tens of thousands of missiles aimed at Israel, is preoccupied with helping Syrian President Bashar Assad push back the Suni rebels—a move which Israel tacitly approves. So, for now, Hezbollah and Israel are strangely supporting the same side in Syria, and the Lebanese terror organization is not interested in opening a second front with Israel.

Since the last war, the Lebanese border has seen only sporadic violence, with Israel responding with airstrikes and artillery fire following a number of rocket attacks and shootings across the border.

In 2010, a high-ranking Israeli officer was killed by a Lebanese sniper. Israel responded with artillery fire, killing two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said “a Lebanese army force opened fire at an Israeli unit on the border, near the Naqoura crossing.”

Lebanese TV networks, including al-Manar, and Arab televisions, including Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, reported the incident.

The Hezbollah news agency Al-Manar fabricated a story about how an Israeli force tried to infiltrate Lebanese territory in Naqoura, which provoked a clash with the Lebanese army.

But the Lebanese TV network said a single soldier opened fire and that “contact with him was lost.”

A military source told MTV that “there are no clashes between the Lebanese army and Israeli army and the situation is under control.”

The MTV correspondent in Jerusalem reported that “a Lebanese soldier opened fire at a civilian car that was on the Israeli side of the border, killing an Israeli navy officer who was in it.”

Later on Sunday, NNA said the Lebanese and Israeli armies were both on alert on the border and that an Israeli surveillance drone was flying at low altitude over Ras al-Naqoura.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tinenti told AFP that his force was informed about a “serious” border incident and was trying to establish the facts. “The situation is ongoing and the UNIFIL force commander is in contact with counterparts, urging restraint.”

On Thursday, the IDF reported shots fired across the border by Lebanese “hunters,” with no casualties.

Last August, the Lebanese army and UNIFIL reported that four Israeli soldiers on patrol were wounded in a blast 400 yards inside Lebanese territory.

Three seriously wounded Syrians have been brought to Nahariya hospital in northern Israel for treatment. The three were injured in the chest and body in the country’s civil war.

Nahariya hospital has treated 169 wounded Syrians, of which 21 are still in the hospital.