DAMASCUS: Syria on Tuesday accused Israel of committing “state terrorism” after reported Israeli air strikes killed 15 people including civilians.
“Israeli authorities are increasingly practicing state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.
“The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.
Israeli air strikes near Damascus and in Homs province late Sunday killed nine mostly foreign pro-regime fighters and six civilians, including three children, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It was not immediately clear if the civilians died in the strikes or in their aftermath, it added.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment.
Syria’s foreign ministry filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council over the attack, demanding accountability, according to SANA.
It said Israel’s “dangerous and hostile” actions would not have been possible without the support of its ally the United States, which protects it in the Security Council.
The strikes hit several Iranian positions near Damascus, and also targeted a research center and a military airport west of the city of Homs where the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Iranians are deployed, the Observatory said.
One of the pro-regime fighters killed was Syrian, while the rest were of other nationalities, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and the regime’s allies Iran and Hezbollah.
The Syrian conflict has killed more than 370,000 people and drawn in world powers since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria says Israel strikes ‘state terrorism’
Syria says Israel strikes ‘state terrorism’
- “Israeli authorities are increasingly practicing state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said
- Israeli air strikes near Damascus and in Homs province late Sunday killed nine mostly foreign pro-regime fighters and six civilians
Key negotiators who helped get a Gaza ceasefire deal
- Qatar, Egypt and the United States mediated the long-running efforts to halt the fighting in the ravaged Palestinian territory
DOHA: A ceasefire agreement in Gaza has been reached between Israel and Hamas after more than 15 months of war. The United States, Egypt and Qatar have mediated the long-running efforts to halt the fighting in the ravaged Palestinian territory, often coming close to a deal before a frustrating breakdown in negotiations.
The latest round of talks proved successful this week, with all sides bringing their top negotiators to the Qatari capital, Doha.
Here is a look at the key players who negotiated the deal:
David Barnea
The head of Israel’s spy agency headed up Israel’s negotiation team throughout the negotiation process.
Working alongside the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and top political and military advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meeting with the Biden administration, Barnea was the highest-profile member of the Israeli negotiating team — but kept his own proclivities private during the talks.
Ronen Bar
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency also has been involved in negotiations for months. Bar’s agency handles matters relating to Palestinian security prisoners, some of whom, under the agreed-upon deal, are set to be released by Israel in exchange for hostages.
Bar has led the agency since 2021. Just days after the devastating Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that launched the war, he took responsibility for failing to thwart the militants. He said investigations into what happened would need to come after the war.
Khalil Al-Hayya
The acting head of Hamas’ political bureau and the militant group’s chief negotiator is based in Qatar but does not meet directly with Israeli or American officials, communicating instead through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
His role increased in importance after Israeli soldiers killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, was believed to be dictating the Hamas stance in negotiations up until his death.
But even before Sinwar’s death, Al-Hayya was managing affairs for the militant group. Al-Hayya, seen as less of a hard-liner than Sinwar, had served as Sinwar’s deputy and had managed ceasefire negotiations in 2014 as well.
He is a longtime official with the group and survived an Israeli airstrike that hit his home in Gaza in 2007, killing several of his family members.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani
Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister led his country’s pivotal mediation efforts in the stop-start negotiations. He has been a key communicator with Hamas throughout the process, as Israel and Hamas have not communicated directly.
The most consequential phase of negotiations — those that have occurred over the last few weeks — took place in Doha, his country’s capital.
Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect Sunday.
Hassan Rashad
The director of Egypt’s General Intelligence Agency was also a liaison with Hamas throughout the talks.
Rashad took office in October 2024, replacing former chief intelligence official Abbas Kamel, who led the negotiations during the first ceasefire in November 2023.
Several rounds of negotiations have occurred in Cairo, and the mediators will move to the Egyptian capital Thursday for further talks on implementing the deal.
Brett McGurk
President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser has been putting together a draft of the deal from the discussions with the two sides as the lead negotiator in the Israel-Hamas negotiations.
McGurk has been a fixture in US Mideast policy for more than two decades in the National Security Council and White House under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
He’s shuttled frequently to the Middle East for talks with senior officials about the conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah.
Steve Witkoff
President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East has met separately in recent weeks with Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, another key mediator.
Witkoff, a Florida real estate investor and co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, has kept in contact with Biden’s foreign policy team as the incoming Trump and outgoing Biden administrations coordinated on the deal.
A look at the Gaza ceasefire deal
DOHA: Key mediator Qatar said on Wednesday that 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza would be released in the first stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the war in the Palestinian territory.
Two sources close to Hamas earlier told AFP that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, while an Israeli government spokesman said hundreds would be released.
Below are the key details of the expected initial phase of the deal according to Qatari, US, Israeli and Palestinian officials and media reports:
Qatar said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza starting on Sunday and a hostage and prisoner exchange after 15 months of war.
Thirty-three Israeli hostages will be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement that could become a “permanent ceasefire,” said Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.
Those first released would be “civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people... civilian ill people and wounded,” he said.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Tuesday Israel was “prepared to pay a heavy price — in the hundreds” in exchange for the 33 hostages.
An anonymous Israeli official said “several hundred terrorists” would be freed in exchange for the hostages, with the final number depending on how many of the 33 hostages are alive.
Two sources close to Hamas told AFP that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including those with “lengthy sentences.”
Sheikh Mohammed said the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalized” during the initial 42 days.
The 33 are among the 94 hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the ongoing war. The total includes 34 captives the Israeli military has declared dead.
According to the Times of Israel, Israeli officials believe the 33 hostages are alive, though confirmation from Hamas is pending.
Gaza humanitarian situation, by the numbers
- At least 1.9 million people are displaced
- 92 percent of housing units are destroyed
- 68 percent of the road network is destroyed or damaged
- There are “zero” fuel reserves to operate generators at hospitals
- 88 percent of school buildings need rebuilding or major repairs
- Food aid amounting to three months’ of rations for Gaza’s population are waiting to enter
During the initial, 42-day ceasefire Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to “allow for the swap of prisoners, as well as the swap of remains and the return of the displaced people,” Qatar’s prime minister said.
Negotiations for a second phase would commence on the “16th day” after the first phase’s implementation, an Israeli official said.
This phase would cover the release of the remaining captives, including “male soldiers, men of military age, and the bodies of slain hostages,” the Times of Israel reported.
Israeli media reported that under the proposed deal, Israel would maintain a buffer zone within Gaza during the first phase.
Israeli forces were expected to remain up to “800 meters inside Gaza stretching from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanun in the north,” according to a source close to Hamas.
Israeli forces would not fully withdraw from Gaza until “all hostages are returned,” the Israeli official said.
Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel would allow the movement of residents from southern Gaza to the north.
The source close to Hamas said Israeli forces would withdraw from the Netzarim corridor westward toward Salaheddin Road to the east, enabling displaced people to return through an electronic checkpoint equipped with cameras.
“No Israeli forces will be present, and Palestinian militants will be barred from passing through the checkpoint during the return of displaced persons,” he said.
Joint mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt will monitor the ceasefire deal through a body based in Cairo, Sheikh Mohammed said, urging “calm” in Gaza before the agreement comes into force.
There was “a clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” Qatar’s prime minister said as he unveiled the deal.
Under the arrangements outlined by Qatar, the details of phases two and three will be “finalized” during the implementation of phase one.
US President Joe Biden said the as-yet unfinalized second phase would bring a “permanent end to the war.”
Biden said phase two would comprise an exchange for the release of remaining hostages who are still alive, including the male soldiers. Then all remaining Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza, the US president said.
Netanyahu says Gaza ceasefire is still not complete, hours after US and Qatar announce deal
- ’Final details’ of Gaza deal being worked out, Netanyahu’s office says
- Mediators will next head to Cairo for talks on implementing the ceasefire
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire agreement with Hamas is still not complete and final details are being worked out.
“An official statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be issued only after the completion of the final details of the agreement, which are being worked on at present,” his office said in a statement released at midnight.
Netanyahu has not said explicitly whether he accepts the deal announced hours earlier by Qatar’s prime minister and President Joe Biden.
In a statement, Netanyahu said he would only issue a formal response “after the final details of the agreement, which are currently being worked on, are completed.”
Netanyahu’s statement comes hours after the United States and Qatar announced the deal, which would pause the devastating 15-month war in Gaza and clear the way for dozens of hostages to go home. The conflict has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.
Egyptian, Qatar and US negotiators will head to Cairo on Thursday for further talks on implementing all aspects of the ceasefire deal, according to a senior US official.
The official said the negotiators are focused on making sure expectations are clear to both Israel and Hamas, and that implementation of the agreement is carried out as smoothly as possible.
The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militant group after Hamas, hailed the ceasefire deal as “honorable.”
Hamas had needed the group’s support for the deal in order to avoid a potential disruption in the process.
“Today, our people and their resistance imposed an honorable agreement to stop the aggression,” Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement.
The group said the deal between Israel and Hamas includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as well as an “honorable” prisoner exchange. It said that militant groups in Gaza “will remain vigilant to ensure the full implementation of this agreement.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s fighters took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and have since been battling Israeli forces in Gaza.
Gazans celebrate
Large crowds of joyful Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza when the agreement was announced, cheering and honking car horns.
“No one can feel the feeling that we are experiencing now, an indescribable, indescribable feeling,” said Mahmoud Wadi in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah before joining a chanting crowd.
The Israel Hamas-war has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health authorities there. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people and abducted around 250. A third of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be dead.
UN Security Council calls on countries to stop arming Houthis as Red Sea attacks continue
- Resolution drafted by Greece and US calls for root causes of the attacks to be addressed, including ‘conflicts contributing to regional tensions’
- Russia abstains from vote, describes draft resolution as ‘highly unbalanced and politicized’ because it fails to denounce attacks on Yemeni sovereignty by US, UK and Israel
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution that extends by six months the requirement for the secretary-general to provide monthly reports on attacks by the Houthis in Yemen against ships in the Red Sea.
The reporting obligation was established by the adoption of Resolution 2722 in January 2024, which was introduced in response to the repeated attacks on commercial shipping. The Iran-backed Houthis vowed to continue targeting vessels until Israel ended its war in Gaza.
The attacks prompted retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen by the US, UK and Israel. Meanwhile, the EU launched Operation Aspides, a defensive mission based in Greece that aims to safeguard and escort vessels in the Red Sea but does not participate in any offensive action.
The text of the extension resolution was drafted by Greece and the US, the co-penholders on the issue of the Red Sea crisis. Twelve members of the Security Council voted in favor, while Algeria, China and Russia abstained.
A source at the Russian mission in New York told Arab News that although the safety of maritime navigation is of the utmost importance to Moscow, it considered the language of Resolution 2763 to be “highly politicized and unbalanced” because it failed to mention “the attacks on the sovereignty of Yemen” in the form of airstrikes by the US, UK and Israel.
The text of the resolution, which was seen by Arab News, demands that the Houthis immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and release the cargo ship Galaxy Leader and its crew. The Houthis hijacked the vessel in November 2023 and 25 crew members remain detained by the group.
The new resolution also emphasizes the need “to address the root causes of these attacks, including the conflicts contributing to regional tensions and the disruption of maritime security.”
It notes the use of advanced weaponry by the Houthis and demands that UN member states stop supplying the group with arms.
Greece’s permanent representative to the UN, Evangelos Sekeris, told fellow council members that the “Houthis’ constant attacks against vessels are still disrupting international commercial shipping. Maritime security conditions remain degraded and are expected to further deteriorate, while rerouting of shipping companies continues in favor of safer but costlier alternative maritime routes.”
Sekeris lamented that fact that “we are still witnessing the Houthis’ ongoing aggressiveness and escalatory actions through launching unjustified attacks, with the systematic use of advanced weaponry such as anti-ballistic missiles and drones, even against civil infrastructure, including oil terminals under the control of the government of Yemen.”
He added: “The humanitarian repercussions are severe. We need to put an end to this, by looking thoroughly into the origins of the use of advanced weaponry and by preserving the applicability of the targeted arms embargo.”
This year, Greece, which has a keen interest in maritime security, took over from Japan as the co-penholder on the issue of the Red Sea crisis.
Maritime security is also a key concern for Denmark, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia, who took their seats as newly elected nonpermanent members of the Security Council at the start of this year.
Ships owned or operated by companies from Denmark, Greece and Panama have been targeted by the Houthis in the Red Sea, while Pakistan has participated in maritime-security operations in the Western Indian Ocean. Somalia has been dealing with piracy off its coast for several years.
UN chief calls for major aid boost to ease ‘immense’ Palestinian suffering, as he welcomes Gaza ceasefire
- Efforts to end the occupation and implement a 2-state solution should also be a top priority, says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
NEW YORK CITY: Following the announcement on Wednesday of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the secretary-general of the UN said the primary focus now must be efforts to alleviate the “immense suffering” of civilians in the territory.
Antonio Guterres called for a “major increase” in the amount of urgent, lifesaving humanitarian aid for “the countless Palestinians” who continue to suffer.
“It is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza so that we can support a major increase in urgent, lifesaving humanitarian support,” he said. “The humanitarian situation is at catastrophic levels.”
After weeks of painstaking negotiations in Doha, the ceasefire agreement was announced by the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who said it would come into effect on Sunday.
The deal includes the phased release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and will enable hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza to return to what is left of their homes.
It also promises to clear the way for a surge in the amount of much-needed humanitarian aid entering the enclave, which has been devastated by 15 months of conflict.
As he welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire agreement and hostage deal, and praised the mediators for their “unwavering commitment,” Guterres called on all parties to ensure the agreement is fully implemented.
The deal is a “critical first step,” he said as he stressed the need to intensify efforts to achieve broader objectives, such as maintaining the unity, contiguity and integrity of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian unity is vital for lasting peace and stability, he added, and ensuring unified Palestinian governance must remain a top priority.
“I urge the parties and all relevant partners to seize this opportunity to establish a credible political path to a better future for Palestinians, Israelis and the broader region,” Guterres said.
“Ending the occupation and achieving a negotiated two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, in line with international law, relevant UN resolutions and previous agreements, remain an urgent priority.
“Only through a viable two-state solution can the aspirations of both peoples be fulfilled.”
Guterres paid tribute to the civilians who lost their lives during the conflict, including UN personnel and humanitarian workers.
“The United Nations is steadfast in its commitment to supporting all efforts that promote peace, stability and a more hopeful future for the people of Palestine and Israel, and across the region,” he added.
