GAZA CITY: Egyptian mediators entered Gaza on Monday seeking to calm tensions after a week of clashes in which Israel has launched military strikes in response to airborne incendiary devices that have ignited wildfires.
Israel has targeted positions of Hamas, which it holds responsible for all cross-border attacks from the coastal enclave.
The delegation from Egypt, which has traditionally played the role of mediator in the restive Palestinian enclave, entered Gaza at around midday local time, according to security sources and eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP.
Israeli tanks pounded Hamas targets earlier Monday in what has become a daily response to Palestinian rockets, firebombs that are carried by bunches of balloons into southern Israel, and more recently to clashes on the border.
Israel has said that since August 6, fire-scene investigators have identified 149 blazes in southern Israel caused by incendiary balloons floating across from Gaza.
The army also reported violent protests on Saturday, as "rioters burned tyres, hurled explosive devices and grenades towards the security fence and attempted to approach it".
There were more frontier riots on Sunday, the army said.
Israel has also closed the Kerem Shalom goods crossing to Gaza and shut the strip's fishing zone.
With fuel imports blocked, Gaza's electricity authority announced that more service cuts would be implemented from Monday, adding to frustrations for Gazans who already endure irregular power supply.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, but an uneasy truce brokered last year by the United Nations and Egypt helped curb the violence.
The informal truce between Israel and Hamas also includes provisions on developing Gaza's economy and curbing rampant unemployment.
A source familiar with Israel-Hamas affairs, who requested anonymity, told AFP that there "seems to be a block" on these other issues and that Hamas wants to see progress.
Palestinian anger has flared further since Israel and the UAE last Thursday agreed to normalize relations, a move many Palestinians saw as a betrayal of their cause by the Gulf country.
Despite anger on the streets of Gaza following the deal's announcement, Saada said Hamas was not looking to make trouble over the pact.
“Hamas knows the agreement could not have happened without the blessing of (UAE allies) Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” the professor said.
“And Hamas is not interested in having a strained relationship with the Egyptian-Saudi camp.”
Hamas is primarily concerned with economic progress in Gaza right now, he added.
The poverty rate in the strip is above 50 percent, according to the World Bank, and is expected to climb higher because of the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Hamas “will continue to flirt with anyone” who can help Gaza financially and push Israel to ease the blockade, Saada said.
Egyptian mediators enter Gaza after week of clashes with Israel
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Egyptian mediators enter Gaza after week of clashes with Israel
- Israeli tanks pounded Hamas targets early Monday
- The latest incidents follow a week of heightened tensions, including border clashes
Iran foreign ministry affirms support for Syria’s sovereignty
- Assad fled Syria earlier this month as rebel forces led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) entered the capital Damascus
Tehran: Iran affirmed its support for Syria’s sovereignty on Monday, and said the country should not become “a haven for terrorism” after the fall of president Bashar Assad, a longtime Tehran ally.
“Our principled position on Syria is very clear: preserving the sovereignty and integrity of Syria and for the people of Syria to decide on its future without destructive foreign interference,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a weekly press briefing.
He added that the country should not “become a haven for terrorism,” saying such an outcome would have “repercussions” for countries in the region.
Assad fled Syria earlier this month as rebel forces led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) entered the capital Damascus after a lightning offensive.
The takeover by HTS — proscribed as a terrorist organization by many governments including the United States — has sparked concern, though the group has in recent years sought to moderate its image.
Headed by Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria’s new leader and an ardent opponent of Iran, the group has spoken out against the Islamic republic’s influence in Syria under Assad.
Tehran helped prop up Assad during Syria’s long civil war, providing him with military advisers.
During Monday’s press briefing, Baqaei said Iran had “no direct contact” with Syria’s new rulers.
Sharaa has received a host of foreign delegations since coming to power.
He met on Sunday with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, and on Monday with Jordan’s top diplomat Ayman Safadi.
On Friday, the United States’ top diplomat for the Middle East Barbara Leaf held a meeting with Sharaa, later saying she expected Syria would completely end any role for Iran in its affairs.
A handful of European delegations have also visited in recent days.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which has long supported Syria’s opposition, is expected to send a delegation soon, according to Syria’s ambassador in Riyadh.
Iran says ‘no direct contact’ with Syria rulers
- Foreign ministry spokesman: ‘We have no direct contact with the ruling authority in Syria’
TEHRAN: Iran said Monday it had “no direct contact” with Syria’s new rulers after the fall of president Bashar Assad, a longtime Tehran ally.
“We have no direct contact with the ruling authority in Syria,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a weekly press briefing.
Jordan foreign minister holds talks with Syria’s new leader
- It was the first visit by a senior Jordanian official since Bashar Assad’s fall
AMMAN: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, Amman said, the latest high-profile visit since Bashar Assad’s ouster.
Images distributed by the Jordanian foreign ministry showed Safadi and Sharaa shaking hands, without offering further details about their meeting.
A foreign ministry statement earlier said that Safadi would meet with the new Syrian leader as well as with “several Syrian officials.”
It was the first visit by a senior Jordanian official since Assad’s fall.
Jordan, which borders Syria to the south, hosted a summit earlier this month where top Arab, Turkish, EU and US diplomats called for an inclusive and peaceful transition after years of civil war.
Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, has welcomed senior officials from a host of countries in the Middle East and beyond in recent days.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohamed Momani told reporters on Sunday that Amman “sides with the will of the brotherly Syrian people,” stressing the close ties between the two nations.
Momani said the kingdom would like to see security and stability restored in Syria, and supported “the unity of its territories.”
Stability in war-torn Syria was in Jordan’s interests, Momani said, and would “ensure security on its borders.”
Some Syrians who had fled the war since 2011 and sought refuge in Jordan have begun returning home, according to Jordanian authorities.
The interior ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Syrians had left, out of some 1.3 million refugees Amman says it has hosted.
According to the United Nations, 680,000 Syrian refugees were registered with it in Jordan.
Jordan in recent years has tightened border controls in a crackdown on drug and weapon smuggling along its 375-kilometer border with Syria.
One of the main drugs smuggled is the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon, for which there is huge demand in the oil-rich Gulf.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill at least 20 people, Palestinian medics say
- Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry till date
Palestinian medics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people.
One of the strikes overnight and into Monday hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children. That’s according to the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.
Hospital records show another six killed in a strike on people securing an aid convoy and another two killed in a strike on a car in Muwasi. One person was killed in a separate strike in the area.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said three bodies arrived after an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli military says it only strikes militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late Sunday that it had targeted a Hamas militant in the humanitarian zone.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Around 100 captives are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
