DAMASCUS: Syrians were voting for members of a new parliament in an election Monday that was expected to hold few surprises but could pave the way for a constitutional amendment to extend the term of President Bashar Assad.
The vote is the fourth in Syria since mass anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces spiraled into an ongoing civil war in 2011.
There are 1,516 government-approved candidates running this year for the 250-seat People’s Assembly.
The number of eligible voters has not been announced. In parliamentary elections, unlike presidential elections, the millions of diaspora Syrians — whose numbers have ballooned since the civil war — are not eligible to vote.
Some 8,151 polling stations were set up in 15 voting districts in government-held areas.
In the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida, where anti-government protests have been taking place regularly for nearly a year, many called for a boycott of the polls. Videos posted online showed protesters seizing ballot boxes off a truck in an attempt to stop them arriving to polling stations.
Elsewhere, campaigning was low key and candidates’ campaigns largely revolved around general slogans such as national unity and prosperity.
Assad’s Baath Party won 166 seats in the 2020 elections, representing nearly two-thirds of its membership, in addition to 17 members from allied parties. Another 67 seats went to independent candidates.
Vladimir Pran, an independent adviser on transitional political and electoral processes, said the competitive part of the Syrian election process comes before voters go to the polls, during the Baath Party primary process, when party members vote on which candidates’ names are sent to the party’s central command to make the final list.
“Elections are really already finished... with the end of the primary process,” he said. Once the Baath party list is completed, “you can check the list and the results, and you will see that literally all of them will be in the Parliament.”
The number of incumbents who made the final list this year was relatively low, suggesting a reshuffling within the Baath party.
Maroun Sfeir, a consultant on transitional electoral and political processes, said the 169 candidates put forward by the Baath party alone is past the margin of 167 MPs needed to propose a constitutional amendment, protect the president from being accused of treason and veto legislation.
Adding to that 16 candidates from Baath-allied parties running on the same list, he said, “you’re only three MPs short of three quarters of the parliament, which is required for (passing) a constitutional amendment.”
While that leaves 65 slots open for independent candidates, Sfeir said they should not be expected to present a real opposition bloc.
“They are all pre-vetted... to ensure that they’re all loyal or without any threat,” he said.
With Assad facing term limits that would end his presidency in 2028, the next parliament is widely expected to try to pass a constitutional amendment to extend his term.
Syrians vote for their next parliament, which may consider allowing Assad to extend his rule
https://arab.news/renb8
Syrians vote for their next parliament, which may consider allowing Assad to extend his rule
- Syrians are voting for members of a new parliament in an election that is expected to hold few surprises
- Syrians who’ve left their country due to the war are not eligible to vote in parliamentary elections
Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
“We call on the mediators to ensure that the occupation adheres to the agreement and does not stall,” they added.
A second official said the group was “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round.”
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel — the first phase of which came into effect on January 19 — indirect talks to hammer out the details of phase two were due to start Monday.
The 42-day phase one revolves around the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for around 1,900 prisoners, most of them Palestinian, being held in Israeli jails.
The second phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining hostages and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said he will begin discussions about the second phase with US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.
The Israeli premier is currently in Washington, and is due to meet Trump on Tuesday.
Queen Rania calls for protecting children at Vatican summit
- Queen Rania explained that one in six children globally lives in conflict-affected areas
- Around 96% of vulnerable children in the Gaza Strip feel their death is imminent
LONDON: Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan called on Monday for respecting and protecting children’s rights during the World Summit on Children’s Rights held by the Holy See at the Vatican.
The queen spoke at “The Rights of the Child in Today’s World” panel, following the opening remarks of Pope Francis at the international summit.
“Whether they are missing their two front teeth or have lost limbs to war wounds, every child has an equal claim to our protection and care,” Queen Rania said, according to Petra agency.
She explained that one in six children globally lives in conflict-affected areas, where dozens are killed or injured each day, Petra added.
Queen Rania highlighted shocking findings from a December study showing that 96 percent of vulnerable children in the Gaza Strip feel their death is imminent following more than a year of Israeli bombardment.
“Almost half said they wanted to die,” she added. “Not to become astronauts or firefighters like other children, they wanted to be dead. How did we let our humanity come to this?”
At least 47,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, with the majority being women and children.
“From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Myanmar, and beyond, this ‘un-childing’ creates chasms in our compassion,” she said.
“It stifles urgency in favor of complacency. It allows politicians to sidestep blame, and put narrow agendas above collective obligations.”
The Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day initiated the World Summit on Children’s Rights to further the Roman Catholic Church’s mission of advocating for the rights of children.
The summit was attended by Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani; former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi; Climate Reality Project founder and chairman, Al Gore; and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, among others.
Gazans in Egypt reject displacement, grapple with decision when to go home
- “We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza,” a displaced Gazan said
- “If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost,” she added
CAIRO: Weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians who left for neighboring Egypt are grappling with the question of when they might go home, though they reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by US President Donald Trump.
“A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Shorouk, who earns a living selling Palestinian food in Cairo, going by the name Gaza Girl. “Do you choose to go back and sit in the destruction and a place that still needs to be reconstructed or stay and go back when it is reconstructed?“
Whether or not she is able to go home soon, she does not want people like her to be accepted as residents outside Palestinian land.
“We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza,” she said. “If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost.”
A proposal by Trump that much of the population of Gaza be cleared out and residents sent en masse to Egypt and Jordan has been universally denounced across the Arab world as a form of ethnic cleansing.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. Asked if it would be a temporary or long term solution, he said: “Could be either.”
Egypt says it will never participate in the mass displacement of Palestinians, which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi described as an “act of injustice.”
But there are already about 100,000 Palestinians in Egypt, who say they do not know how or when they will be able to return.
During the war in Gaza, the border was mostly sealed and the vast majority of the 2.3 million residents were made homeless and forced into temporary shelters within the territory.
There were however months when some people were permitted to leave, including Palestinians with foreign passports, their close relatives or severely ill patients evacuated for humanitarian reasons.
Most have no long-term permission to stay in Egypt and view their stays as temporary, surviving on small trade or savings. The ceasefire agreement that paused the fighting in January has yet to resolve their fate.
Some say they will return as soon as they have a chance.
“There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” said Hussien Farahat, a father of two.
But others say the personal decision is more complicated, without a home to go back to.
“Even if the war were over, we still do not know our fate and nobody mentioned those stranded in Cairo. Are we going back or what will happen to us? And if we go back, what will happen to us? Our houses are gone,” said Abeer Kamal, who has lived in Cairo since Nov. 2023 and sells handmade bags with her sisters.
“There is nothing, not my house, or my family, or siblings, nothing,” she said.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s campaign has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities there, driven most Gazans from their homes and laid swathes of the territory to waste.
While Gazans in Egypt may vary in their personal plans, all said they reject any proposal by Trump to clear large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza.
“This is our land and it’s not his to control us,” said Fares Mahmoud, another Gazan in Cairo. “It’s our land, we leave it and go back to it when we want.”
Palestinians appeal for help with short-term shelter in Gaza
- Gaza needs $6.5 billion in temporary housing aid, PA official says
- Hamas requests 200,000 tents, 60,000 caravans for displaced Gazans
CAIRO/RAMALLAH: With fighting in Gaza paused, Palestinians are appealing for billions of dollars in emergency aid — from heavy machinery to clear rubble to tents and caravans to house people made homeless by Israeli bombardment.
One official from the Palestinian Authority estimated immediate funding needs of $6.5 billion for temporary housing for Gaza’s population of more than two million, even before the huge task of long-term reconstruction begins.
US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff estimated last week that rebuilding could take 10-15 years. But before that, Gazans will have to live somewhere.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has moved quickly to reassert control of Gaza after a temporary ceasefire began last month, says Gaza has immediate needs for 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.
In addition, it says there is an urgent need for heavy digging equipment to begin clearing millions of tons of rubble left by the war, both to clear the ground for housing and to recover more than 10,000 bodies estimated to be buried there.
Two Egyptian sources said heavy machinery was waiting at the border crossing and would be sent into Gaza starting Tuesday.
World Food Programme official Antoine Renard said Gaza’s food imports had surged since the ceasefire and were already at two or three times monthly levels before the truce began.
'Dual use' goods face impediments
But he said there were still impediments to importing medical and shelter equipment, which would be vital to sustain the population but which Israel considers to have potential “dual use” – civilian or military.
“This is a reminder to you that many of the items that are dual use need also to enter into Gaza like medical and also tents,” he told reporters in Geneva.
More than half a million people who fled northern Gaza have returned home, many with nothing more than what they could carry with them on foot. They were confronted by an unrecognizable wasteland of rubble where their houses once stood.
“I came back to Gaza City to find my house in ruins, with no place else to stay, no tents, no caravans, and not even a place we can rent as most of the city was destroyed,” said Gaza businessman Imad Turk, whose house and wood factory in Gaza City were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war.
“We don’t know when the reconstruction will begin, we don’t know if the truce will hold, we don’t want to be forgotten by the world,” Turk told Reuters via a chat app.
Countries from Egypt and Qatar to Jordan, Turkiye and China have expressed readiness to help, but Palestinian officials blame Israel for delays. Egypt and Qatar both helped broker the ceasefire that has, for now, stopped the fighting.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to a request for comment.
Palestinians accuse Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as 70 killed in West Bank
- Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank
RAMALLAH: The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year.
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing.”
Later the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said there had been “70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year,” with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
The ministry confirmed to AFP they were “killed by the Israeli occupation.”
The figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, it added.
The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
“We demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,” Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency WAFA in a statement coinciding with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
On Sunday, the army said it had killed more than 50 “terrorists” during the operation that began on January 21 and in air strikes the preceding week.
Netanyahu is visiting Washington, where he is expected to begin talks on a second phase of Israel’s truce with Hamas in Gaza on Monday.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
