GAZA STRIP: Israel hammered the Gaza Strip from the air, sea, and land Monday as the war in the Palestinian territory showed no sign of abating, with Hamas saying it was pulling out of truce talks.
Shells rained down on the neighborhoods of Tal Al-Hawa, Sheikh Ajlin, and Al-Sabra in Gaza City, AFP correspondents reported, while eyewitnesses said the Israeli army had shelled the Al-Mughraqa area and the northern outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent said they had retrieved the bodies of five people, including three children, after Israeli air strikes in the Al-Maghazi camp, also in the central Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported Israeli gunship fire east of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, and shelling and Apache helicopter attacks in western areas of the southernmost city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing its activity throughout the coastal territory, and said it had conducted raids in Rafah and central Gaza that killed “a number of” militants, as well as air strikes throughout the strip over the past day.
It also said its naval forces had been firing at targets in Gaza.
The relentless bombardments came as prospects dwindled for a truce and hostage release deal being secured any time soon.
Hamas said on Sunday it was withdrawing from ceasefire talks.
The decision followed an Israeli strike targeting the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, which the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said killed 92 people.
Deif’s fate remains unknown, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying there was “no certainty” he was dead while a senior Hamas official told AFP that Deif was “well and directly overseeing” operations.
Speaking after the strike on Al-Mawasi, a second senior official from the militant group cited Israeli “massacres” and its attitude to negotiations as a reason for suspending negotiations.
But according to the official, Haniyeh told international mediators Hamas was “ready to resume negotiations” when Israel’s government “demonstrates seriousness in reaching a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal.”
Last week, US President Joe Biden had suggested a deal might be close, saying at a NATO summit that both sides had agreed to a framework he had set out in late May.
Hamas on Monday lashed out at the US, accusing it of supporting “genocide” by supplying Israel with “internationally banned” weapons.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the... American disdain for the blood of the children and women of our Palestinian people... by providing all types of prohibited weapons to the ‘Israeli’ occupation,” a statement from the Hamas government media office said.
Talks between the warring parties have been mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with US support, but months of negotiations have failed to bring a breakthrough.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,584 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Gaza health ministry.
The war and accompanying siege have devastated the Palestinian territory, destroying much of its infrastructure, leaving the majority of its 2.4 million residents displaced and causing a dire shortage of food, medicines and other basic goods.
Among the devastated facilities have been multiple schools. On Sunday, Israeli forces struck a UN-run school in Nuseirat camp that was being used as a shelter for displaced people but which the military said “served as a hideout” for militants.
The civil defense agency in Gaza said 15 people were killed in the strike, the fifth attack in just over a week to hit a school used as shelter by displaced Palestinians.
Israel hits Gaza from land, sea and air as Hamas halts talks
https://arab.news/br7r6
Israel hits Gaza from land, sea and air as Hamas halts talks
- Relentless bombardments come as prospects have dwindled for a truce and hostage release deal
- Israel's military offensive has killed at least 38,584 people in Gaza, according to its health ministry
WFP says three staff killed in aerial bombardment in Sudan
“WFP is outraged by the killing of three of its staff members in an aerial bombardment in Sudan on December 19, 2024,” the agency said in a statement on X.
“A WFP field office was hit during the attack. We are gathering more information and will provide updates as we learn more.”
A spokesman was unable to give more details when contacted by AFP.
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The WFP on Thursday warned that Sudan risks becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis in recent history, with 1.7 million people across the country either facing famine or at risk of famine.
Turkiye will support Syria’s reconstruction, improve cooperation
- Turkish president says to intensify trade relations with Syria and Iraq ‘to bring new dynamism for both Syria and Turkiye in every respect’
ANKARA: Turkiye will do whatever necessary for the reconstruction of Syria following the ouster of Bashar Assad, including improving ties in trade, energy and defense, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
“We will intensify our trade relations with Syria and Iraq. This will bring new dynamism for both Syria and Turkiye in every respect,” Erdogan said, according to a transcript of remarks he made to journalists on his return flight from Egypt.
“We will collaborate in many areas, from defense to education and energy. Syria currently faces serious energy issues. But we will swiftly address all of these problems.”
Palestinian officials accuse Israeli settlers of mosque arson in West Bank
- Attack targeted the Bir Al-Walidain mosque in the village of Marda
- Settlers also vandalized the mosque’s walls with “racist graffiti” in Hebrew
NABLUS: Palestinian officials reported on Friday that Israeli settlers had set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank, an act Israeli police said was under investigation.
According to Abdallah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, the attack targeted the Bir Al-Walidain mosque in the village of Marda.
“A group of settlers carried out an attack early this morning by setting fire to the mosque,” Kamil said in a statement.
In addition to the arson, the settlers vandalized the mosque’s walls with “racist graffiti” in Hebrew, he said.
Photographs shared on social media showed slogans spray-painted in black including “Death to Arabs.”
Villagers of Marda confirmed the details, with one resident telling AFP: “They set fire to the entrance of the mosque and wrote Hebrew slogans on its walls.”
Another resident said the fire was extinguished before it could engulf the entire structure.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw villagers gathering at the mosque to assess the extent of the damage.
Governor Kamil alleged that settlers had previously entered the village “under the protection of the Israeli army,” and that similar acts of vandalism and graffiti had been reported in nearby areas.
The Palestinian foreign ministry in Ramallah condemned the incident, calling it a “blatant act of racism” and a reflection of the ” widespread incitement campaigns against our people carried out by elements of the extremist right-wing ruling government” of Israel.
Israeli police and the domestic Shin Bet security agency described the incident as a matter of “great severity.”
They said they would “act decisively to ensure accountability for those responsible,” adding an investigation was underway, with authorities gathering testimony and evidence from the scene.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has intensified since the war in Gaza began on October 7 last year following Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Since the start of the war, at least 803 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks have claimed the lives of at least 24 Israelis in the West Bank, based on Israeli official data.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
US diplomats and hostage envoy in Syria on first visit since Assad ouster
- First group of American diplomats to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since the US shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012
WASHINGTON: The first US diplomats to visit Syria since President Bashar Assad’s ouster earlier this month are now in Damascus to hold talks with the country’s new leaders and seek information on the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein and the Biden administration’s chief envoy for hostage negotiations, Roger Carstens, made the trip for talks with Syria’s interim leaders, the State Department said early Friday.
The team is also the first group of American diplomats to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since the US shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012.
“They will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the State Department said.
At the top of their agenda will be information about Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012. And they will push the principles of inclusion, protection of minorities and a rejection of terrorism and chemical weapons that the Biden administration says will be critical for any US support for a new government.
The US has redoubled efforts to find Tice and return him home, saying officials have communicated with the rebels who ousted Assad’s government about the American journalist. Carstens traveled previously to Lebanon to seek information.
Tice, who has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and others, disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified.
A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Assad’s government publicly denied that it was holding him.
The rebel group that spearheaded the assault on Damascus that forced Assad to flee — Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS — is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others. While that designation comes with a raft of sanctions, it does not prohibit US officials from speaking to its members or leaders.
The State Department said Rubinstein, Leaf and Carstens would meet with HTS officials but did not say if the group’s leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with Al-Qaeda, would be among those they see.
US officials say Al-Sharaa’s public statements about protecting minority and women’s rights are welcomed, but they remain skeptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.
The US has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Syria since 2012, when it suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus during the country’s civil war, although there are US troops in small parts of Syria engaged in the fight against the Islamic State militant group.
The Pentagon revealed Thursday that the US had doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight IS before Assad’s fall. The US also has significantly stepped up airstrikes against IS targets over concern that a power vacuum would allow the militant group to reconstitute itself.
The diplomats’ visit to Damascus will not result in the immediate reopening of the US embassy, which is under the protection of the Czech government, according to US officials, who said decisions on diplomatic recognition will be made when the new Syrian authorities make their intentions clear.
UN human rights office to send team to Syria next week
- Under Assad, the UN human rights team has not been allowed in Syria for years
- Large-scale refugee returns could overwhelm Syria, UN migration agency chief warns
GENEVA: The UN human rights office will send a small team of human rights officers to Syria next week for the first time in years following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad, UN spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told a press briefing on Friday.
As part of the takeover, rebels have flung open prisons and government offices and raising fresh hopes for accountability for crimes committed during Syria’s more than 13-year civil war.
Under Assad, the UN human rights team has not been allowed in Syria for years, Al-Kheetan said, and has been monitoring abuses remotely.
He said that the team would support human rights issues and help ensure that any power transition is “inclusive and within the framework of international law.” “It is important for us to start establishing a presence,” he said. A UN investigative body also hopes to travel to Syria to secure evidence that could implicate top officials of the former government.
Earlier on Friday, the head of the UN migration agency warned that large-scale returns of refugees to Syria could overwhelm the country and even stoke conflict at a fragile moment with the fall of Assad regime.
The UN refugee agency has estimated that 1 million people will return to Syria in the first six months of 2025. Some European countries have already frozen asylum applications for Syrians.
“We believe that millions of people returning would create conflict within an already fragile society,” Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration, told a Geneva press briefing after a trip to Syria.
“We are not promoting large-scale returns. The communities, frankly, are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced,” she said, calling for support from donors to help stabilize and rebuild the country.
Pope said she was urging governments to “slow down on any plans to sent people back.”
She said some communities could yet flee because of uncertainties about life under the new authorities, led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group which once had ties to Al-Qaeda.
“We heard from communities, for example, the Christian community, who hasn’t yet left, but are very much worried about the next several months and want to make sure that they don’t become the targets of attack,” Pope said.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
The United States, other Western powers and many Syrians welcomed Assad’s fall, but it is not clear whether HTS will impose strict Islamic rule or show flexibility.
There is widespread apprehension among Syrians that the new administration will gravitate toward hard-line religious rule, marginalizing minority communities and excluding women from public life.
