BEIRUT: The U.N. children's agency says the European Union has donated 90 million euros ($100.3 million) that will help provide critical services and support to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
UNICEF said in a statement Tuesday that the donation on World Refugee Day will help it along with host countries to provide hundreds of thousands of children and young people with access to education, vocational training and psychological support.
It said the latest contribution brings the total funding from the EU Trust Fund for UNICEF's work on the Syria crisis response to nearly €200 million ($223 millions).
The announcement came days after UNICEF appointed its newest Goodwill Ambassador, Syrian Muzoon Almellehan, 19, the first person with official refugee status to become an Ambassador for UNICEF.
It said around 2 million children from Syria live as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, adding pressure on already stretched support systems.
Syrian opposition activists say a truce that went into effect three days ago in the southern city of Daraa has collapsed amid a government offensive near the Jordanian border.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces pushed on Tuesday into some rebel-held areas in Daraa, as well as its western outskirts. The 48-hour truce that had started there at noon Saturday was supposed to be extended.
Daraa-based activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh says fighting is now underway in the city. He is blaming the government for the truce's collapse.
Daraa is where Syria's crisis first broke out in March 2011 as an uprising against President Bashar Assad's government. The crisis quickly became a civil war, which has since left at least 400,000 people dead.
The Syrian government forces' march toward the Jordanian border comes two weeks after they reached the border with Iraq for the first time in years.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard says all six ballistic missiles it launched at Islamic State militants in Syria earlier this week hit their targets.
Guard spokesman Gen. Ramazan Sharif told The Associated Press on Tuesday the force's "local sources and drone films say that all the six missiles the Guard launched hit their targets."
The remarks came amid questions whether the strike — Iran's first in the Syrian war — had been effective.
It was not known what exactly was hit and Iran has provided no details. Israeli security officials said Monday they were studying the missile strike to see what they could learn about its accuracy and capabilities.
Sharif says the missile launch reflects Iran's "military power" though Iran has no intention of starting another war.
He says: "We are not the initiator of any conflict and war but we do not tolerate creation of insecurity in our country."
The Guard has described the missile strike as revenge for attacks on Tehran earlier this month that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50, the first such IS assault in the country.
Australia has suspended its airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as a precaution after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane earlier this week.
In Canberra, a Defense Department statement said on Tuesday that "Australian Defense Force protection is regularly reviewed in response to a range of potential threats."
Australia has six fighter jets based in the United Arab Emirates that strike targets in Syria and Iraq.
The development comes as tensions rise in Syria with Russia and Iran sending U.S. warnings.
Russia threatened aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition in Syrian-controlled airspace and suspended a hotline intended to avoid collisions in retaliation for the U.S. military shooting down a Syrian warplane on Sunday. Also, Iran fired several ballistic missiles Sunday night at IS positions in eastern Syria.
EU gives $100M to UNICEF for Syrian children
EU gives $100M to UNICEF for Syrian children
Ex-minister Yaalon accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza
- Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said it was a “shame” for Israel to “have had such a figure as army chief and defense minister”
JERUSALEM: Israel’s former defense minister Moshe Yaalon on Saturday accused the Israeli army of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip, sparking an outcry in the country.
“The road we are being led down is conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing,” Yaalon said in an interview on the private DemocratTV channel.
Pressed on the “ethnic cleansing” appraisal, he continued: “What is happening there? There is no more Beit Lahia, no more Beit Hanoun, the army intervenes in Jabalia and in reality the land is being cleared of Arabs.”
The north of the Gaza Strip, which includes the areas Yaalon mentioned, has been the target of an Israeli offensive since October 6 aimed at preventing the Palestinian militant group Hamas from regrouping.
Yaalon, 74, was the head of the Israeli army between 2002 and 2005, just before Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.
He served as defense minister and deputy premier before resigning in 2016 over disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
There was immediate anger in Israel at his comments.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said it was a “shame” for Israel to “have had such a figure as army chief and defense minister.”
Netanyahu’s Likud party, to which Yaalon once belonged, slammed his “empty and dishonest remarks,” calling them “a gift to the ICC and to the camp of Israel’s enemies.”
The statement was a reference to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
The war in the Palestinian territory erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,207 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Earlier this month, a UN special committee pointed to “mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians.”
Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza was “consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” the committee said, in the first use of the word by the UN in the context of the current war in Gaza.
Israel has rejected the United Nations assessment as “anti-Israel fabrications.”
Hamas military arm releases new video of Israeli hostage in Gaza
- The family of hostage soldier Edan Alexander, 20, declined to comment but permitted the 3-1/2 minute video to be published
- The video shows a pale-looking Alexander sitting in a dark space against a wall
JERUSALEM: Palestinian militant group Hamas published a video of an Israeli-American hostage on Saturday, in which he pleads for US President-elect Donald Trump to secure his release from captivity.
The family of hostage soldier Edan Alexander, 20, declined to comment but permitted the 3-1/2 minute video to be published. Alexander was abducted to Gaza during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
The video shows a pale-looking Alexander sitting in a dark space against a wall, identifying himself, addressing his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump. It is unclear whether his statement was scripted by his captors.
Netanyahu said in a statement that the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Alexander’s family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home.
Around half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to still be alive.
Hamas leaders were expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday for ceasefire talks with Egyptian officials to explore ways to reach a deal that could secure the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
The fresh bid comes after Washington said this week it was reviving efforts toward that goal.
The Hostages Families Forum urged the administrations of both outgoing US President Joe Biden and Trump — who takes office in January — to step up efforts in order to secure a hostage release.
“The hostages’ lives hang by a thread,” it said.
World Central Kitchen says pausing Gaza operations after Israeli strike
- WCK in a statement said it “had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack“
- “All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis,” Bassal said
GAZA: US charity World Central Kitchen said Saturday it was “pausing operations in Gaza at this time” after an Israeli air strike hit a vehicle carrying its workers.
The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike, accusing the worker of being a “terrorist” who “infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre” last year.
WCK in a statement said it “had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack,” and did not confirm any deaths.
Earlier Saturday, Gaza civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed, including “three employees of World Central Kitchen,” in the strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
“All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis,” Bassal said, adding that the vehicle had been “marked with its logo clearly visible.”
WCK confirmed a strike had hit its workers, but added: “At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details.”
The Israeli army statement said representatives from the unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza had “demanded senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify the issue and order an urgent examination regarding the hiring of workers who took part in the October 7 massacre.”
It also said its strike in Khan Yunis had hit “a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not coordinated for transporting of aid.”
In April, an Israeli strike killed seven WCK staff — an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole.
Israel said it had been targeting a “Hamas gunman” in that strike, but the military admitted a series of “grave mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.
The UN said last week that 333 aid workers had been killed since the start of the war in October of last year, 243 of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Palestinian militants’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
Israel hits Hezbollah targets in Lebanon days into fragile truce
- The army said it had also struck “military infrastructure” on the Syria-Lebanon border, where it accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons in violation of the truce
- Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported “continued violations of the ceasefire” by Israel
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military carried out air strikes in Lebanon Saturday against Hezbollah activities that it said “posed a threat,” days into a fragile ceasefire between it and the Iran-backed group.
The army said it had also struck “military infrastructure” on the Syria-Lebanon border, where it accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons in violation of the truce.
In a speech this week announcing his government was ready to accept a ceasefire after more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned that Israel would maintain “full military freedom of action” in the event of any breach.
In a statement on Saturday, the military listed four separate strikes in Lebanon on facilities, weapons and vehicles belonging to Hezbollah, saying it had acted “against activities in Lebanon that posed a threat to the State of Israel, violating the ceasefire understandings.”
Lebanon’s health ministry said that an Israeli “strike on a car in Majdal Zoun wounded three people including a seven-year-old child.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported “continued violations of the ceasefire” by Israel, including an incident in which an Israeli tank “crushed a number of cars and surrounded some families” who were later evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Separately, Israel’s military said it had launched a “strike on military infrastructure sites adjacent to border crossings between Syria and Lebanon that were actively used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons,” adding that the alleged smuggling took place after the ceasefire took effect.
The ceasefire deal, which was intended to end more than a year of cross-border exchanges of fire and two months of all-out war, went into effect early on Wednesday.
As part of the terms of the agreement, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers will deploy in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws over a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah is also meant to withdraw its forces north of the Litani river, approximately 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
On Friday, the group’s chief Naim Qassem vowed to cooperate with the Lebanese army “to implement the commitments of the agreement.”
NNA reported that army chief Joseph Aoun met US Major General Jasper Jeffers to discuss “the general situation and coordination mechanisms between concerned parties in the south.”
The US military’s Central Command said Jeffers arrived in Beirut this week “to serve as co-chair for the implementation and monitoring mechanism of the cessation of hostilities.”
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, at least 3,961 people have been killed in the country since October 2023 as a result of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, most of them in recent weeks.
On the Israeli side, the hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.
Israel stepped up its campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
West faces ‘reckoning’ over Middle East radicalization: UK spy chief
- MI6 head Richard Moore cites ‘terrible loss of innocent life’
- ‘In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state’
LONDON: The West has “yet to have a full reckoning with the radicalizing impact of the fighting, the terrible loss of innocent life in the Middle East and the horrors of Oct. 7,” the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 has warned.
Richard Moore made the comments in a speech delivered to the British Embassy in Paris, and was joined by his French counterpart Nicolas Lerner.
Moore said: “In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state. And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious.”
Daesh is expanding its reach and staging deadly attacks in Iran and Russia despite suffering significant territorial setbacks, he added, warning that “the menace of terrorism has not gone away.”
In October last year, Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5, said his agency was monitoring for increased terror risks in the UK due to the Gaza war. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in over a year of fighting.
In Lebanon, a 60-day truce agreed this week between Hezbollah and Israel brought an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of Lebanese civilians.
