BEIRUT: Fierce fighting raged in Latakia province on Syria’s coastline on Sunday, as the army pushed an advance and killed a jihadist leader, a monitoring group said.
The regime deployed massive reinforcements to fight rebels in Latakia, which has strategic and symbolic significance because it is the ancestral home of President Bashar Assad’s clan.
Rebels positioned in remote enclaves of Latakia’s mountains launched the “battle for the liberation of the Syrian coast” about two weeks ago.
Poorly equipped local fighters allied themselves with the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), despite a history of poor relations.
Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army sent “massive reinforcements” to Latakia to fight the rebels and “bombed rebel areas heavily.”
State television said the army has reclaimed rebel positions in the province, including Kharata, Janzuriyeh, Baluta, Baruda and Hambushiyeh.
But according to Abdel Rahman, “the army has only been able to secure the outskirts of some villages. The battles are ongoing and they are fierce.”
“Scores of foreign (jihadist) fighters are being killed in the Latakia fighting,” he told AFP.
Among them was a Libyan emir or local leader of ISIS, said the Observatory.
“Confirmed reports emerged of the killing of a Libyan ISIS emir while fighting in Jamusiyeh village,” said the Britain-based monitoring group.
The Syrian air force also struck several rebel positions across the country, it added.
Among its targets were the Jabal Al-Arbaeen area of the northwestern province of Idlib, Daraya and Zabadani near Damascus, and Deir Ezzor city in the east of Syria and a rebel area nearby.
It also struck a rebel area in Homs province, said the Observatory.
Syria’s war has killed more than 100,000 people in 29 months, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday alone, at least 124 people were killed across Syria, the Observatory reported.
Advancing army kills jihadist emir in Syria’s Latakia: NGO
Advancing army kills jihadist emir in Syria’s Latakia: NGO
Germany says Gaza civilian deaths ‘extremely worrying’
- Negotiations have stalled over an extension of the ceasefire
- The Israeli government has announced plans for a special agency for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans
BERLIN: Germany said on Monday it was extremely worried by the surge in civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip since Israel renewed its full-scale military offensive on the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel restarted intense air strikes across the densely populated Strip on Tuesday followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm of a six-week ceasefire agreement with Hamas, which governs Gaza.
Negotiations have stalled over an extension of the ceasefire.
Israel and the United States have sought to change the terms of the ceasefire deal, a move rejected by Hamas as a violation of the agreement all parties signed.
“It is now very clear that we must quickly return to negotiations and to the ceasefire that was in place,” German foreign ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said in Berlin.
Israel’s renewed military operations would not lead to the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza being released and meant that “the humanitarian situation is once again catastrophic,” he said.
Berlin, traditionally a staunch ally of Israel, also condemned “unacceptable statements” by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who last week threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas releases the remaining Israeli hostages.
Katz has also said that measures targeting Hamas could include implementing US President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to redevelop Gaza as a Mediterranean resort after the removal of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.
The Israeli government has announced plans for a special agency for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans.
“If the aim is to set up an authority that has the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as its goal, then that is unacceptable and must be condemned,” Wagner said.
He also condemned an Israeli decision to recognize more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the “expansive settlement policy” undermines efforts toward a two-state solution.
“The German government rejects Israel’s entire settlement policy as legally unacceptable. It is clear that this policy must end,” he said.
On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas launched a cross-border attack in Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people and the capture of 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s ensuing bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed at least 50,021 people in the territory, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures to be reliable.
Egypt makes new proposal to restore Gaza ceasefire deal, sources say
- The Egyptian plan suggests Hamas release five Israeli hostages each week, with Israel implementing the second phase of the ceasefire after the first week
CAIRO: Egypt made a new proposal last week aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire deal, security sources told Reuters on Monday.
The proposal follows an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against Hamas last Tuesday, effectively ending a two-month period of relative calm.
The Egyptian plan suggests Hamas release five Israeli hostages each week, with Israel implementing the second phase of the ceasefire after the first week, the sources said.
Both the US and Hamas agreed to the proposal, the security sources said, but Israel had not yet responded.
The sources said Egypt’s proposal also includes a timeline for the release of all hostages in exchange for a timeline for Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, backed by US guarantees.
Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January ceasefire agreement but has said it is still willing to negotiate a ceasefire and was studying proposals from US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Lebanese defense minister to visit Syria: official
- The aim of the visit was to “discuss ways to manage the situation at the border”
BEIRUT: Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa will visit Syria on Wednesday to discuss recent tensions along the border between the two countries, a Lebanese official said.
“The defense minister will head a security delegation to Damascus to meet with his counterpart, Marhaf Abu Qasra,” the official told AFP on Monday on condition of anonymity.
The aim of the visit was to “discuss ways to manage the situation at the border, strengthen bilateral coordination and prevent cross-border aggression,” the source said.
Ten people were killed in clashes that broke out along the fronter in mid-March.
Damascus accused Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group once allied with deposed president Bashar Assad, of abducting and killing three Syrian soldiers, which the Iran-backed movement strongly denied.
Subsequently, seven Lebanese were killed in air strikes from Syria, according to Lebanese authorities.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that Syrian forces shelled the border area after three Syrian soldiers were killed by armed Lebanese smugglers.
Both countries later announced they had reached a ceasefire agreement.
Syria shares a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no official demarcation.
In February, Syrian authorities announced the launch of a security campaign in the border province of Homs aimed at shutting down routes used for arms and goods smuggling.
Hezbollah, which fought alongside Assad’s forces during the Syrian war, has long exerted influence over large parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The group was massively weakened in its war with Israel late last year.
Israeli strike kills Hamas official Ismail Barhoum in Gaza hospital
- Member of Hamas’s political bureau was getting treatment at Nasser Hospital
- Barhoum is the fourth member of Hamas’s political bureau killed since last Tuesday
GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike on Sunday killed a member of Hamas’s political bureau as he underwent treatment in hospital, a source in the Islamist movement said, after Israel confirmed it targeted “a key terrorist.”
“The Israeli army assassinated Hamas political bureau member Ismail Barhoum,” the Hamas source said, requesting anonymity to speak more freely.
“Warplanes bombed the operating room at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where Barhoum was receiving treatment after sustaining critical injuries in an air strike targeting his home in Khan Yunis at dawn last Tuesday.”
AFP photos showed the building of about four-storys largely undamaged except for fire blazing in one section off a stairwell.
Barhoum is the fourth member of Hamas’s political bureau killed since last Tuesday when Israel resumed air strikes in the territory after an impasse over continuing a ceasefire.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement that Barhoum had been targeted in the strike.
The Israeli military said it hit the hospital with “precise munitions” following extensive intelligence-gathering.
It said the target was a key member of “the Hamas terrorist organization who was operating inside the Nasser Hospital compound.”
The Ministry of Health in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli forces “have just targeted the surgery building inside the Nasser Medical Complex, which houses many patients and wounded individuals, and a large fire has erupted at the site.”
The ministry later confirmed that one person had been killed and said many others were injured, including some medical staff. The entire department was evacuated, the ministry said in a statement.
Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency said the hospital’s emergency department had been targeted.
Earlier Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike the previous day near Khan Yunis killed Salah Al-Bardawil, a senior member of its political bureau.
Bardawil, 65, was killed along with his wife in a camp in Al-Mawasi, the group said.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had targeted Bardawil, saying that “as part of his role, (he) directed the strategic and military planning” of Hamas in Gaza.
His “elimination further degrades Hamas’ military and government capabilities,” it added.
EU top diplomat: Israel strikes on Syria, Lebanon ‘risk further escalation’
- Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon
- In Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites since Islamist-led rebels overthrew strongman Bashar Assad
JERUSALEM: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned on Monday during a visit to Jerusalem that Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon threatened to worsen the situation.
The most intense escalation since a November ceasefire, which ended the war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, occurred on Saturday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said seven people were killed, with Israel saying it attacked in response to rocket fire, which Hezbollah denied responsibility for.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.
“Military actions must be proportionate, and Israeli strikes into Syria and Lebanon risk further escalation,” Kallas said at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
In Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites since Islamist-led rebels overthrew strongman Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities it considers jihadists.
“We feel that these things are unnecessary because Syria is right now not attacking Israel and that feeds more radicalization that is also against Israel, which we don’t want to see,” Kallas told journalists.
The Israeli military has also deployed to the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, separating the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan from that still controlled by Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria and said his country will not tolerate the presence of forces from the new authorities south of Damascus.
Syria’s foreign ministry has accused Israel of waging a campaign against “the stability of the country.”
Kallas will hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa in the occupied West Bank later on Monday.
