BEIRUT: Syria’s leading opposition body on Saturday blamed the government for the mysterious death of one of its members after a car accident in the capital Damascus.
Munir Darwish, 80, was a writer and founder of a Cairo-based opposition group seen as “tolerated” by President Bashar Assad’s government.
He joined the mainstream Syrian Negotiations Committee (SNC) in November but continued to live in Damascus.
The SNC said Darwish was the victim of “a hit-and-run outside his home in Damascus, followed by a premeditated elimination (killing)” on Friday night.
“We hold the tyrannical Assad regime responsible for Munir Darwish’s death,” the SNC said in a statement, referring to the incident as an “assassination.”
Firas Al-Khalidi, who heads the Cairo Platform, told AFP that the exact cause of death remained unclear.
After the car accident, Darwish underwent ankle surgery at the capital’s Mawasat Hospital and was in “excellent health,” awaiting release on Saturday, he said.
“At around midnight on Friday, they called to say he’s dead. I found out from his son,” he said.
Khalidi said Darwish had not left Syria since late November out of fear for his safety, even though both his sons and wife lived abroad.
“He clearly hinted that there were threats,” Khalidi added, without directly accusing the government.
“Who has an interest in his assassination, except those who hate Syria — with the regime at the top of the list?” Khalidi told AFP.
A statement from the office of Syria’s UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of Darwish’s death.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops have recaptured dozens of towns and villages from opposition fighters, a monitor said Sunday, bringing them closer to a key military airport in the country’s northwest.
“In the past 24 hours, regime forces have taken at least 79 villages in the southern parts of Aleppo province, an area near the Abu Duhur military airport,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Russia-backed regime troops are aiming to reach the Abu Duhur base as part of a weeks-long assault against Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate.
The offensive has seen Syrian forces seize surrounding territory in the provinces of Aleppo and Hama as they close in on Abu Duhur, which lies just inside the Idlib province.
They briefly broke into the air base this week from the south but were ousted in a ferocious counter-offensive by opposition fighters.
With the latest push in Aleppo province, Abdel Rahman said, army troops were seeking to open a new front on the airport’s northern and eastern flanks.
“Regime troops lost control of those villages in southern Aleppo province in 2012,” he said.
“They are advancing quickly now because of HTS’s collapse, and the withdrawal of its fighters and those of other groups from the area,” Abdel Rahman added.
Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government, also reported that the army was “encircling” the airport.
The airport straddles the border between Aleppo and Idlib, the last province in the country outside the government’s control.
In addition to the base, the regime hopes to secure a key patch of highway running through Idlib that links the northern city of Aleppo with the capital Damascus further south.
Opposition fighters overran Idlib province over the course of several months in 2015, capturing Abu Duhur in September of that year.
Syria opposition accuses regime of Damascus ‘assassination’
Syria opposition accuses regime of Damascus ‘assassination’
UN envoy in rare Yemen visit to push for peace
- Grundberg’s office said his visit would also “support the release of the arbitrarily detained UN, NGO, civil society and diplomatic mission personnel”
SANAA: Hans Grundberg, the United Nation’s special envoy for war-torn Yemen, arrived Monday in the rebel-held capital in a bid to breathe life into peace talks, his office said.
Grundberg last visited the capital Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis, in May 2023 for meetings with the rebels’ leaders in an earlier effort to advance a roadmap for peace.
The envoy’s current visit “is part of his ongoing efforts to urge for concrete and essential actions... for advancing the peace process,” Grundberg’s office said in a statement.
Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Houthis forced the internationally recognized government out of Sanaa. The rebels have also seized population centers in the north.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened to prop up the beleaguered government.
A UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 calmed fighting and in December 2023 the warring parties committed to a peace process.
But tensions have surged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as the Houthis struck Israeli targets and international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in a campaign the rebels say is in solidarity with Palestinians.
In response to the Houthi attacks, Israel as well as the United States and Britain have hit Houthi targets in Yemen over the past year. One Israeli raid hit Sanaa’s international airport.
Grundberg’s office said his visit would also “support the release of the arbitrarily detained UN, NGO, civil society and diplomatic mission personnel.”
Dozens of staff from UN and other humanitarian organizations have been detained by the rebels, most of them since June, with the Houthis accusing them of belonging to a “US-Israeli spy network,” a charge the United Nations denies.
US says anti-Daesh operation in Iraq kills coalition soldier
- US officials have said Daesh is hoping to stage a comeback in Syria following the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar Assad
WASHINGTON: The US military said on Monday operations against Daesh in Iraq over the past week led to the death of a non-US coalition soldier and wounded two other non-US personnel.
It also detailed operations in Syria against Daesh militants led by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, including one that resulted in the capture of what the US military’s Central Command said was an Daesh attack cell leader.
US officials have said Daesh is hoping to stage a comeback in Syria following the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
How Israeli raids on northern Gaza hospitals compound the enclave’s healthcare emergency
- Kamal Adwan Hospital was raided by Israeli forces on Dec. 27, dealing a fresh blow to Gaza’s already devastated health system
- Israel alleged the facility was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold,” detaining its director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, patients, and other staff
DUBAI: For months, prominent Palestinian pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya had been pleading with the international community to protect medical staff and patients at the Kamal Adwan Hospital amid repeated Israeli assaults.
As one of just two functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan served as a lifeline for thousands in need of medical assistance under an Israeli siege that has blocked the delivery of food, shelter materials, and medical supplies since Oct. 5.
However, the pleas of Dr. Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, fell silent on Dec. 27 when Israeli forces stormed the facility and detained him along with patients and other medical staff, alleging it was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold.”
Since early October 2024, Israel has intensified its siege on northern Gaza, mounting a series of operations intended to root out Hamas fighters. The raid on Kamal Adwan knocked the hospital out of action, dealing a fresh blow to northern Gaza’s already devastated healthcare system.
The following day, health officials said Israeli forces targeted Al-Awda Hospital, severely damaging the last functioning facility in northern Gaza. The hospital had been overflowing with patients after the Indonesian Hospital was reportedly put out of service earlier in the month.
On Dec. 29, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli strikes had left two facilities in Gaza City — Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital and Al-Wafaa Hospital — with significant damage.
“Hospitals have once again become battlegrounds, reminiscent of the destruction of the health system in Gaza City earlier this year,” the World Health Organization said in a statement.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian hospitals for military purposes, employing patients and medical staff as human shields — a claim that the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza has consistently denied.
In its latest raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Israeli military said its troops had killed 20 “terrorists” and detained 240 others, including Dr. Abu Safiya on suspicion of being “a Hamas terrorist operative.”
On Friday, Israel confirmed it was holding Dr. Abu Safiya, but did not specify where. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces” as he was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas.
Israel launched its military operation in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage, including many foreign nationals.
The air and ground campaign in Gaza has caused the death of some 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and left 108,000 wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, but a third are believed to be dead.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been the target of around 50 recorded attacks on or near the facility since early October 2024, according to the WHO.
The latest raid left the hospital’s laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operating theater, and medical store severely damaged by fire.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, denied troops had entered the facility or started the fire.
“While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” he said. A preliminary investigation had found “no connection” between the military operation and the fire, he added.
Dr. Abu Safiya’s detention has sparked global outcry as UN agencies, rights groups, and non-governmental organizations demanded his immediate release.
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A viral image of Dr. Abu Safiya, believed to depict his final moments before his arrest, shows him walking alone, dressed in his white lab coat, among the rubble of a devastated street towards Israeli tanks.
Healthcare workers around the world joined an online solidarity campaign, prompting the launch of a petition calling on the US to pressure Israel to release Dr. Abu Safiya and stop targeting hospitals, medical staff, and patients.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, urged global medical professionals to cut ties with Israel in protest at the arrest.
“For each Palestinian life that should and could have been saved in Gaza, we have been put to the test. And we have failed, over and over,” she posted on X. “We must not fail again. All of us must do all we can to save Dr. Abu Safiya.”
According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1,000 medical workers have been killed and more than 300 detained since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023, while some 130 ambulances have been knocked out of action.
The whereabouts of Dr. Abu Safiya and his staff remains unknown, although several released detainees told CNN he was being held at the Sde Teiman military base — a facility close to the Gaza border notorious for allegations of abuse, which Israel denies.
Dr. Abu Safiya rose to prominence for documenting the challenges facing healthcare professionals in Gaza since the war began, including shortages of staff and medical supplies.
In an earlier raid on Oct. 25, he was briefly detained and questioned after refusing multiple orders to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital. The Israeli army had stormed the facility, detained many patients and 57 hospital staff, according to Gaza health authorities.
During that Israeli operation, Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was reportedly killed in a drone strike at the hospital gate. Dr. Abu Safiya insisted on continuing to tend to his patients, and continued to do so even after he was wounded in an attack on Nov. 23.
“We are suffering from a severe shortage of doctors, especially surgeons,” he said at the time. “Right now, we only have pediatricians — it is a huge challenge to work under these circumstances.”
On Dec. 31, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report detailing the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare facilities. The report found that 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities had suffered 136 strikes between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
The UN warned that the strikes caused “significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure,” and pushed the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory to the “brink of total collapse.”
Just 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, according to the WHO’s latest figures.
In its report, the UN labeled Israel’s claim that Gaza’s hospitals are being used by Hamas for military purposes as “vague” and “insufficient.”
A day earlier, UN human rights experts said the backing of allies has enabled Israel to continue committing “genocidal acts” and defying international law. They stressed that Israel needed to be held accountable for “inflicting maximum suffering” on Palestinian civilians, particularly in northern Gaza.
They noted the siege, “coupled with expanding evacuation orders, appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation.”
Israel said the siege was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.
As ceasefire talks continue, the Palestinian health ministry has called on the international community to intervene to protect healthcare professionals, secure the release of detainees, and facilitate a safe environment in which the sick and injured can receive treatment.
The closure of Kamal Adwan Hospital leaves a population of some 75,000 Palestinians in the north without access to medical care — a crisis exacerbated by bitter winter conditions and shortages of food, medicine, and shelter.
More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been repeatedly displaced, according to aid agencies, with many now enduring winter temperatures in squalid tent camps, often flooded by heavy rain, in south and central Gaza.
For those who have remained in northern Gaza, hospitals are no longer an option for shelter.
“As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap,” Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, said in a statement.
Health officials say the loss of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in particular, will leave civilians in northern Gaza without treatment at the very moment they are most vulnerable.
In a post on X, Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta said hypothermia, malnutrition, and injury had become the triad of death.
“This means that people will die of hypothermia at higher temperatures, will starve to death much quicker, and will succumb to less severe wounds.”
US temporarily eases some Syria sanctions
- Transitional government in Damascus has been lobbying to have sanctions lifted
- International community has been hesitant to roll back restrictions, many countries have said they are waiting to see how the new authorities exercise their power
WASHINGTON: The United States announced Monday that it was providing additional sanctions relief on some activities in Syria for the next six months to ease access to basic services following the fall of strongman Bashar Assad.
The US Treasury said it had issued a new general license to expand the allowed activities and transactions with Syria while Washington continues to monitor developments under the militants who overthrew Assad last month.
The move was made “to help ensure that sanctions do not impede essential services and continuity of governance functions across Syria, including the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Monday’s actions build on existing authorizations that support the work of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and humanitarian and “stabilization efforts” in the region, it said.
“The end of Bashar Assad’s brutal and repressive rule, backed by Russia and Iran, provides a unique opportunity for Syria and its people to rebuild,” said deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo.
“During this period of transition, Treasury will continue to support humanitarian assistance and responsible governance in Syria,” he added.
The transitional government in Damascus has been lobbying to have sanctions lifted.
But the international community has been hesitant to roll back restrictions, and many countries — including the United States — have said they are waiting to see how the new authorities exercise their power before doing so.
The Treasury Department emphasized that it had not unblocked any property or other interests of people or entities currently on its sanctions blacklist.
This includes Assad and his supporters, the Syrian central bank and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Al-Qaeda offshoot that played a key role in toppling the former government.
It also does not authorize “any financial transfers to any blocked person other than for the purpose of effecting certain authorized payments to governing institutions or associated service providers in Syria,” the Treasury said.
Over 45,850 Palestinians killed in Gaza offensive
- Israeli forces kept up their bombardment of Gaza on Monday, with the territory’s civil defense agency reporting 13 people killed in strikes in the territory
GAZA CITY: The Health Ministry in Gaza said on Monday that 49 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll of the war to 45,854.
The ministry also said in a statement that at least 109,139 people had been wounded in nearly 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Also on Monday, the UN World Food Programme said that Israeli forces opened fire on its convoy in Gaza on Jan. 5 in an incident it described as “horrifying.”
The agency said that its convoy of three vehicles carrying eight staff members was struck by 16 bullets near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, causing no injuries.
The WFP statement said the convoy was clearly marked and had received prior security clearances from Israeli authorities.
Israeli forces kept up their bombardment of Gaza on Monday, with the territory’s civil defense agency reporting 13 people killed in strikes in the territory.
Mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and the US have been working for months to strike a deal to end the fighting in Gaza, but both warring sides have accused the other of derailing the negotiations.
Israel said on Monday that Hamas had yet to clarify whether 34 hostages it claimed it was ready to free were dead or alive, throwing doubt on the group’s assertion that it needed time to ascertain their fate.
The offer from Hamas came as Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip, where rescuers said 13 people were killed on Monday.
In recent days, mediators have resumed indirect talks, and a senior Hamas official said late on Sunday that the group was prepared to release an initial batch of captives but would need “a week of calm” to determine whether they were still alive.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer, however, rejected that claim on Monday.
“They know precisely who is alive and who is dead. They know precisely where the hostages are,” Mencer told journalists in an online briefing. “Gaza is a very small place. Hamas know exactly where they are.”
In an earlier statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had not received any confirmation or comment from Hamas regarding the “status of the hostages,” adding those slated for inclusion were part of a list “originally given by Israel to the mediators” last year. The Hamas official had also said the group came from a list presented by Israel and would include all the women, children, elderly, and sick captives still held in Gaza.
“Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead,” the official said, but the group needed time “to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead.”
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced confidence that a ceasefire deal would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan.20.
“If we don’t get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I’m confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully, sooner rather than later,” Blinken said on a visit to Seoul.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on Jan. 20, has vowed even stronger support for Israel and has warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it does not free the hostages.
Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported Monday that negotiations with Hamas “are approaching a crossroads, and Israeli decision-makers are optimistic that a deal can be finalized within the next few days.”
Some Israeli news websites reported that the chief of Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, was joining the country’s negotiators in Doha.
