DAMASCUS: Damascus said Thursday it is opening a corridor for civilians to leave the rebel-held northwestern region of Idlib, where government bombardment has killed hundreds since late April, state media said.
The announcement came a day after government forces captured the key Idlib province town of Khan Sheikhun from extremists and allied rebels.
Damascus has opened such corridors out of other rebel bastions in the past as a prelude to retaking them either by force or through negotiated surrenders.
The Idlib region, which sits on the Turkish border, is now the last major stronghold of opposition to the Russia-backed government of President Bashar Assad.
Wednesday’s advance saw government forces cutting of a pocket of territory stretching from the south of Idlib province into neighboring Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
“The Syrian government announces the opening of a humanitarian corridor in Souran in the northern countryside of Hama province,” state news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying Thursday.
The corridor will be used to evacuate “civilians who want to leave areas controlled by terrorists in northern Hama and the southern countryside of Idlib.
The Idlib region has been ruled since January by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance, which is led by extremists from Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The government refers to all rebel groups in Idlib as “terrorists.”
The region of some three million people was supposed to be protected by a proposed buffer zone agreed by Moscow and rebel backer Ankara last September.
But the extremists of HTS failed to pull back from the zone as agreed and in April government and Russian forces resumed intense bombardment of the region.
Around 890 civilians have been killed, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
More than 400,000 more have led their homes, the United Nations says.
The entry of government forces into Khan Sheikhun raises the stakes between Damascus and Ankara, which has troops deployed in the nearby town of Morek, that is now cut off.
The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people since it started with the brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2011.
Damascus to let civilians flee rebel-held Idlib
Damascus to let civilians flee rebel-held Idlib
- The corridor will help evacuate individuals in “areas controlled by terrorists”
- The Idlib region has been ruled since January by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance
Child survivor of Gaza family strike heads to Italy
ROME: An 11-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month, which killed his father and nine siblings, was due to arrive in Italy Wednesday for treatment.
Adam and his mother, paediatrician Alaa Al-Najjar, were due to fly to Milan in northern Italy on Wednesday evening alongside his aunt and four cousins, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
“Adam will arrive in Milan and will be admitted to the Niguarda (hospital), because he has multiple fractures and he will be treated there,” Tajani told Rtl radio.
A plane carrying Palestinians in need of medical care is scheduled to land at 7:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) at Milan’s Linate airport, according to the foreign ministry.
Adam had a hand amputated and suffered severe burns across his body following the strike on the family house in the city of Khan Yunis on May 23.
His mother was at work when the bomb hit the house, killing nine of her children and injuring Adam and his father, doctor Hamdi Al-Najjar, who died last week.
Al-Najjar, who ran to the house to find her children charred beyond recognition, told Italy’s La Repubblica daily: “I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream.”
“But when I remember it’s too painful, so I try to keep my mind focused entirely on Adam,” she said in an interview published Wednesday ahead of their arrival.
Asked by his mother during the interview to describe his hopes, Adam said he wanted to “live in a beautiful place.”
“A beautiful place is a place where there are no bombs. In a beautiful place the houses are not broken and I go to school,” he said, according to La Repubblica.
“Schools have desks, the kids study their lessons but then they go play in the courtyard and nobody dies.
“A beautiful place is where they operate on my arm and my arm works again. In a beautiful place my mother is not sad. They told me that Italy is a beautiful place,” he said.
Al-Najjar said she has packed the Qur’an, their documents and Adam’s clothes.
“I am heartbroken. I am leaving behind everything that was important to me. My husband, my children, the hospital where I worked, my job, my patients,” she said.
“People are dying of hunger. If not of hunger, of bombs. We would just like to live in peace,” she told the daily.
Adam is one of 17 children being brought to Italy on Wednesday from Gaza along with relatives, Tajani said.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
UAE foreign minister holds talks with US counterpart in Washington
- Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Marco Rubio discussed enhancing strategic ties to support shared interests
- Sheikh Abdullah said that the US is a key strategic ally of the UAE, and the UAE will work with the US to promote peace and stability
LONDON: UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan held talks on Wednesday with his US counterpart Marco Rubio at the US Department of State headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The meeting focused on enhancing strategic ties to support shared interests, according to the Emirates News Agency.
They assessed collaboration in the economic, commercial, scientific, advanced technology, and artificial intelligence sectors, along with the results of US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the UAE in May.
Sheikh Abdullah said that the US is a key strategic ally of the UAE, and the UAE will work with the US to promote peace and stability both in the region and globally.
During the meeting, Sheikh Abdullah and Rubio also discussed regional developments.
The meeting was attended by Yousef Al-Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US; Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, assistant minister for political affairs; Saeed Mubarak Al-Hajeri, assistant minister for economic and trade affairs; and Dr. Maha Taysir Barakat, assistant minister for medical affairs and life sciences at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
More than 55,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza war
- Gaza Health Ministry says more than half the victims are women and children
- More than 127,000 Palestinians have been wounded
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war has climbed past 55,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead.
It’s a grim milestone in the war that began with Hamas’ attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and shows no sign of ending. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians, because they operate in populated areas.
The ministry says 55,104 people have been killed since the start of the war and 127,394 wounded. Many more are believed to be buried under the rubble or in areas that are inaccessible to local medics.
Israeli forces have destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90 percent of its population and in recent weeks have transformed more than half of the coastal territory into a military buffer zone that includes the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah.
A 2½-month blockade imposed by Israel when it ended a ceasefire with Hamas raised fears of famine and was slightly eased in May. The launch of a new Israeli- and US-backed aid system has been marred by chaos and violence, and the UN says it has struggled to bring in food because of Israeli restrictions, a breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid, but the UN and aid groups deny there is any systematic diversion of aid to militants.
Hamas has suffered major setbacks militarily, and Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The militants still hold 55 hostages — less than half of them believed to be alive — and control areas outside of military zones despite facing rare protests earlier this year.
The war began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. More than half the captives have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s military campaign, one of the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, has transformed large parts of cities into mounds of rubble. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in squalid tent camps and unused schools, and the health system has been gutted, even as it copes with waves of wounded from Israeli strikes.
Syria requires women to wear burkinis on public beaches
- Tourism ministry decision issued this week marks the first time the Damascus authorities have issued guidelines related to what women can wear since Bashar Assad was toppled
DAMASCUS: Syria’s Islamist-led government has decreed that women should wear burkinis or other swimwear that covers the body at public beaches and swimming pools, while permitting Western-style beachwear at private clubs and luxury hotels.
The tourism ministry decision issued this week marks the first time the Damascus authorities have issued guidelines related to what women can wear since Bashar Assad was toppled in December.
During the Assad family’s iron-fisted rule of Syria, which was shaped by a secular Arab nationalist ideology, the state imposed no such restrictions, though people often dressed modestly at public beaches, reflecting conservative norms.
The new requirements were set out in a wider decree dated June 9 and which included public safety guidelines for beaches and swimming pools ahead of the summer, such as not spending too long in the sun and avoiding jellyfish.
It said that beachgoers and visitors to public pools should wear “appropriate swimwear that respects public decency and the feelings of different segments of society,” requiring “more modest swimsuits” and specifying “the burkini or swimming clothes that cover the body more.”
Women should wear a cover or a loose robe over their swimwear when moving between the beach and other areas, it said.
Men should wear a shirt when not swimming, and are not allowed to appear bare-chested “in the public areas outside the swimming areas – hotel lobbies or ... restaurants,” it said.
The decree added that “in public areas outside the beaches and swimming pools,” it was preferable to wear loose clothing that covers the shoulders and knees and to avoid transparent or very tight clothing.
It offered an exception for hotels classed as four stars or above, and for private beaches, pools and clubs, saying “normal Western swimwear” was generally permitted, “with adherence to public morals and within the limits of public taste.”
Since Sunni Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad, fliers have appeared urging women to cover up, but the government has issued no directives ordering them to observe conservative dress codes.
A temporary constitution passed earlier this year strengthened the language on the role of sharia (Islamic law) in Syria.
Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led an Al-Qaeda group before cutting ties with the jihadist network, has sidestepped interviewers’ questions on whether he thought Syria should apply sharia, saying this was for experts to decide.
Israel opposition submits bill to dissolve parliament: statement
JERUSALEM: Israel’s opposition leaders said Wednesday they submitted a bill to dissolve parliament, which if successful could start paving the way to a snap election.
Ultra-Orthodox parties that are propping up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are threatening to vote for the motion.
“The opposition faction leaders have decided to bring the bill to dissolve the Knesset to a vote in the Knesset plenum today. The decision was made unanimously and is binding on all factions,” the leaders said in a statement, adding that all their parties would freeze their ongoing legislation to focus on “the overthrow of the government.”
