UN chief issues new call for end to military operations in south Syria

The Syrian regime's offensive in Daraa follows the capitulation of opposition enclaves near Homs and Damascus. AFP
Updated 30 June 2018
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UN chief issues new call for end to military operations in south Syria

  • At least eight towns in the northern and eastern Daraa countryside agreed to ‘reconciliation’ deals after talks in each town between Russian generals as well as local notables and remaining rebels
  • More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests

BEIRUT/NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a new call for “an immediate cessation” to military operations in southwest Syria, where regime forces are attacking opposition-held areas.

Guterres is “deeply alarmed by the military offensive in southwestern Syria and its devastating toll on civilians,” said a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“The secretary-general recalls that the southwest area of Syria is part of a de-escalation agreement agreed between Jordan, Russia and the United States,” the statement said.
Guterres “calls on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law, protect civilians and facilitate safe, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access.”
The UN chief had made a similar call earlier this month, after Russian-backed regime forces began attacking opposition-held parts of Daraa province on June 19.

Death of civilians
Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled since the beginning of the offensive, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says that nearly 100 civilians have been killed.
On Saturday, the monitor said at least eight battered opposition-held towns in southern Syria had returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals after nearly two weeks of bombardment.
The agreements for the eight towns were reached even as regime airstrikes on Saturday pounded other opposition holdouts in the wider southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
With the latest deals brokered by regime ally Russia, regime forces now control more than half of the province, up from just 30 percent at the start of the escalation, it said.
“At least eight towns in the northern and eastern Daraa countryside agreed to ‘reconciliation’ deals after talks in each town between Russian generals as well as local notables and remaining rebels,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The deals are the latest in a string of such “reconciliation” agreements across the country that have seen the government retake opposition-held areas, often after deadly air and ground offensives.
These deals imposed by the regime often see opposition fighters hand over their heavy weapons and allow those who want to leave to board buses headed to opposition-held areas in the north of Syria.
Pro-regime news agency SANA confirmed the deals for the five towns of Dael, Western Ghariya, Eastern Ghariya, Talul Khlayf and Tal Al-Sheikh Hussein. They had come under regime control “after fighters handed over their weapons to the army in preparation for settling their status” with the regime, it added.
State television broadcast live images from Dael of residents holding up posters of President Bashar Assad in front of the camera, and chanting slogans in support of the army.
With the “reconciliation” deals in Daraa, the regime has further chipped away at a U-shaped patch of territory controlled by the rebels in southern Syria.
Retaking the whole of Daraa province would be a symbolic victory for the regime, as it is seen as the cradle of the anti-Assad uprising seven years ago that spiralled into civil war.

Lucrative trade
It would also allow the regime to reopen the Naseeb border crossing with neighboring Jordan and resume lucrative trade across the frontier.
But half of the province — including part of the provincial capital Daraa city — still remains in the hands of opposition forces not willing to give up the fight.
“The regime wants us to hand over everything — Daraa city, the Naseeb crossing, ourselves and the heavy weapons. It’s inadmissible,” said a negotiator in the rebel-held part of Daraa city.
The Observatory said the towns to return to regime control also included Ibtaa, Um Walad and Eastern Karak.
In the last town, a community leader was killed along with five members of his family on Friday in obscure circumstances likely linked to the “reconciliation” talks, the monitor’s Abdel Rahman said.
Regime and Russian strikes on other parts of Daraa on Saturday killed at least five civilians, the Observatory said.
That brought the total number of civilians killed in regime bombardment on the province to 105 including 19 children since June 19.
In that same period, 96 pro-regime fighters and at least 59 rebels have lost their lives.
More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.


Musk calls Lebanese president as Starlink seeks license

Updated 57 min 40 sec ago
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Musk calls Lebanese president as Starlink seeks license

  • Musk called Aoun and “expressed his interest in Lebanon and its telecommunications and Internet sectors“
  • Aoun invited Musk to visit Lebanon

BEIRUT: Billionaire businessman Elon Musk and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun spoke by phone to discuss making elements of Musk’s sprawling business empire available in Lebanon, a statement from Aoun’s office said on Thursday.

The statement said Musk called Aoun and “expressed his interest in Lebanon and its telecommunications and Internet sectors.”

Aoun invited Musk to visit Lebanon and said he was open to having Musk’s companies present in the country, which ranks among the countries with the lowest Internet speeds.

The call came just weeks after Aoun and other top Lebanese officials met with Starlink’s Global Director of Licensing and Development, Sam Turner, in Beirut for talks on providing satellite Internet services in Lebanon. US ambassador Lisa Johnson was pictured attending those meetings.

The negotiations have prompted some pushback in Lebanon. Internet access in the country has so far been operated exclusively by state-owned companies and their affiliates, who are lobbying the government not to license Starlink.

Starlink recently received licenses to operate in India and Lesotho.


Greece seeks cooperation with Libya to stop migration, PM says

Updated 26 June 2025
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Greece seeks cooperation with Libya to stop migration, PM says

  • Greece said it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands
  • Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants

BRUSSELS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that Libya should cooperate with Greece and Europe to help halt a surge in migration flows from the north African state.

Seaborne arrivals of migrants in Europe from the north of Africa, including war-torn Sudan, and the Middle East have spiked in recent months.

Greece said on Monday it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos.

“I will inform my colleagues about the significant increase in the number of people from eastern Libya and ask for the support of the European Commission so that the issue can be addressed immediately,” Mitsotakis said ahead of an European Union summit in Brussels that began on Thursday.

Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants sailing from there or turn them back before they exit Libyan territorial waters.

He added that the EU’s migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta would travel to Libya early in July to discuss the issue.

Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.


Israeli strikes kill 2 in south Lebanon

Updated 26 June 2025
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Israeli strikes kill 2 in south Lebanon

  • Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital
  • Israeli military said they “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force“

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Thursday killed two people, the Lebanese health ministry said, with the Israeli army saying its raids targeted Hezbollah operatives.

In statements carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force” in the Baraasheet area, referring to the Iran-backed group’s elite unit, and an operative from “Hezbollah’s observation force” in Beit Lif.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, particularly in the south, since a November 27 ceasefire meant to end over a year of hostilities that left Hezbollah severely weakened.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops but has kept them in five locations in south
Lebanon that it deems strategic.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said three people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district.

The Israeli military said it killed the head of a currency exchange firm who worked with Hezbollah to transfer funds for the Iran-backed group’s “terrorist activities.”


WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2

Updated 26 June 2025
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WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2

  • WHO chief says nine truckloads are 'a drop in the ocean' of Gaza's needs
  • Shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Thursday that it had delivered its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, adding though that the nine truckloads were “a drop in the ocean.”
Wednesday’s shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory in the coming days, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2. More than two months later, it began allowing some food in, but no other aid items until now.
Tedros said nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma were delivered via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, “without any looting incident, despite the high-risk conditions along the route.”
“These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days,” Tedros said.


“The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex’s cold storage facility for onward distribution to hospitals facing critical shortages, amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites.”
Last week the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were minimally to partially functional, with the rest unable to function at all.
Tedros said four WHO trucks were still at Kerem Shalom and more were on their way toward Gaza.
“However, these medical supplies are only a drop in the ocean. Aid at scale is essential to save lives,” he said.
“WHO calls for the immediate, unimpeded and sustained delivery of health aid into Gaza through all possible routes.”
Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following its more than two-month total blockade, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new US- and Israel-backed food distribution system, began handing out food in Gaza on May 26.
But the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF — an officially private effort with opaque funding — over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Israel is pressing its bombardment of the territory in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating the militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.


The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war

Updated 26 June 2025
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The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war

  • “Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said
  • “The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum

OR AKIVA, Israel: Liran Berman hasn’t had much to keep hopeful over the 629 days of his twin brothers’ captivity in Gaza. Ceasefire deals have collapsed, the war has dragged on, and his siblings remain hostages in the Palestinian enclave.

But the war between Israel and Iran, and the US-brokered ceasefire that halted 12 days of fighting, have sparked fresh hope that his brothers, Gali and Ziv, may finally return home.

With Iran dealt a serious blow over nearly two weeks of fierce Israeli strikes, Berman believes Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, is at its most isolated since the war in Gaza began, and that might prompt the militant group to soften its negotiating positions.

“Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said. “I think the dominoes fell into place, and it’s time for diplomacy to reign now.”

A long nightmare for the families of hostages

During their Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most have been freed in ceasefire deals, but 50 remain captive, less than half of them believed to still be alive.

The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

The families of hostages have faced a 20-month-long nightmare, trying to advocate for their loved ones’ fates while confronted with the whims of Israeli and Hamas leaders and the other crises that have engulfed the Middle East.

Israel’s war with Iran, the first between the two countries, pushed the hostage crisis and the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza to the sidelines. Hostage families again found themselves forced to fight for the spotlight with another regional conflagration.

But as the conflict eases, the families are hoping mediators seize the momentum to push for a new ceasefire deal.

“The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum, a grassroots organization representing many of the hostage families.

“To conclude this decisive operation against Iran without leveraging our success to bring home all the hostages would be a grave failure.”

Netanyahu may have more room to maneuver

It’s not just a diminished Iran and its impact on Hamas that gives hostage families hope. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Berman said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has left him the most optimistic since a truce between Israel and Hamas freed 33 Israeli hostages earlier this year. Israel shattered that ceasefire after eight weeks, and little progress has been made toward a new deal.

The Israeli government team coordinating hostage negotiations has told the families it now sees a window of opportunity that could force Hamas to be “more flexible in their demands,” Berman said.

Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ is in disarray

Over the past four decades, Iran built up a network of militant proxy groups it called the ” Axis of Resistance ” that wielded significant power across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.

Hamas may have envisioned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack as a catalyst that would see other Iranian-sponsored militants attack Israel. While Hezbollah and the Houthis launched projectiles toward Israel, the support Hamas had counted on never fully materialized. In the past two years, many of those Iranian proxies have been decimated, changing the face of the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump’s involvement in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has also given many hostage families hope that he might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.

“We probably need Trump to tell us to end the war in Gaza,” Berman said.

Inseparable twins who remain in captivity

Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted there; of those, only the Berman twins remain captive.

The family has heard from hostages who returned in the previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately.

Liran Berman said that’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. Until their abduction, they were inseparable, though they are very different, the 38-year-old said.

In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said. Gali is the handyman who would drive four hours to help a friend hang a shelf, while Ziv would go along and point to where the shelf needed to go.

The war with Iran, during which Iranian missiles pounded Israeli cities for 12 days, gave Liran Berman a sense of what his brothers have endured as bombs rained down on Gaza, he said.

“The uncertainty and the fear for your life for any moment, they are feeling it for 20 months,” he said. “Every moment can be your last.”