NIRIM, Israel: Tearful crowds gathered on Wednesday for the funerals of hostages whose bodies were recovered this week from war-torn Gaza, with some mourners voicing anger that they were not saved.
“In what world must families beg, scream and cry for the return of their loved ones, alive or murdered? Bring them all back,” Esther Buchshtab said while standing in front of her son Yagev’s grave.
The Israeli military on Tuesday announced it had retrieved the remains of Yagev, 34, and five other hostages from a tunnel in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis after a battle with Palestinian militants.
They were among 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack which triggered the war.
Of those, 105 are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the military says are dead.
Yagev’s widow, Rimon Kirscht, also spoke during Wednesday’s ceremony in Nirim, standing in front of his coffin draped in an Israeli flag.
“My life, I just want to say sorry. You deserved so much better,” she said.
“Thank you for teaching me. I am yours. I am here.”
The crowd quickly dispersed to attend the funeral of Avraham Munder, 79, another hostage whose body was recovered on Tuesday, in the nearby Nir Oz kibbutz.
Nir Oz was the site of one of the worst massacres on October 7 and more than 70 of its residents were taken captive.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett and at least two ministers from the current government attended the funeral in Nir Oz, where speeches were interspersed with songs in Hebrew to honor Munder — a music lover and amateur singer.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Many who came to pay their respects to the dead Israeli hostages on Wednesday lamented the fact that months of negotiations have yet to yield a deal releasing the rest.
“We were promised efforts to reach an agreement,” said Nissan Kalderon, 56, whose brother Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli, is still held captive in Gaza.
“We really hope that the agreement will be concluded immediately, so that we can save those who are still alive and bring back the dead to bury them, because every day that passes, they die. This is the proof,” said Kalderon, wearing a T-shirt with his brother’s photograph.
Nir Oz resident Adriana Adar, whose nephew Tamir Adar’s body is still in Gaza, said she felt “despair” above anything else.
“I haven’t stopped crying for days,” she said.
“This week, we’ve been going from one funeral to another. This could have been avoided. All those who are buried now could have come back alive, and the fact that they are buried here, is not enough to comfort us.”
Anger, despair as Israelis bury hostages who died in captivity
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Anger, despair as Israelis bury hostages who died in captivity
- The Israeli military on Tuesday announced it had retrieved the remains of Yagev, 34, and five other hostages from a tunnel in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis after a battle with Palestinian militants
Airstrikes target Yemen’s Sanaa after Houthi attack targets Israel
DUBAI: A series of intense airstrikes shook Yemen’s Houthi-held capital early Thursday, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.
It wasn’t immediately clear who launched the strikes on Sanaa, which the Houthis have held for over a decade.
American forces have launched a series of strikes on the Houthis over nearly a year due to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. US military officials did not acknowledge a request for comment.
The strikes happened just after the Israeli military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it entered the country’s territory.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling debris from the interception,” the Israeli military said.
Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said sirens sounded across central Israel as it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Thursday.
The Israeli Air Force “intercepted one missile that was launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory,” said a statement from the army, adding that there could be “falling debris from the interception.”
Blinken says Syria’s HTS should learn from Taliban isolation
- Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group
NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Syria’s triumphant HTS rebels to follow through on promises of inclusion, saying it can learn a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The Islamist movement rooted in Al-Qaeda and supported by Turkiye has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar Assad this month following years of stalemate.
“The Taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world,” Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
After some initial overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law that includes barring women and girls from secondary school and university.
“So if you’re the emerging group in Syria,” Blinken said, “if you don’t want that isolation, then there’s certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward.”
Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken said that HTS can also learn lessons from Assad on the need to reach a political settlement with other groups.
“Assad’s utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall,” Blinken said.HTS
UN humanitarian chief urges massive aid boost for Syria: AFP interview
- “Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria
DAMASCUS: Visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Wednesday for a massive aid boost for Syria to respond to “this moment of hope” after the ouster of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
“Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria.
“I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity,” he said.
“The Syrian people are trying to come home when it’s safe to do so, to rebuild their country, to rebuild their communities and their lives.
“We have to get behind them and to respond to this moment of hope. And if we don’t do that quickly, then I fear that this window will close.”
Half of Syria’s population were forced from their homes during nearly 14 years of civil war, with millions finding refuge abroad.
UN officials have said a $4 billion appeal for Syria aid is less than a third funded.
“There are massive humanitarian needs... water, food, shelter... There are needs in terms of government services, health, education, and then there are longer term rebuilding needs, development needs,” Fletcher said.
“We’ve got to be ambitious in our ask of donors.
“The Syrian people demand that we deliver, and they’re right to demand that we deliver,” he said. “The world hasn’t delivered for the Syrian people for more than a decade.”
As part of his visit, Fletcher met representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad, including its leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and interim prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir.
Fletcher said he received “the strongest possible reassurances” from Syria’s new administration that aid workers would have the necessary access on the ground.
“We need unhindered, unfettered access to the people that we’re here to serve. We need the crossings open so we can get massive amounts of aid through... We need to ensure that humanitarian workers can go where they need to go without restriction, with protection,” he said.
“I received the strongest possible reassurances from the top of that caretaker administration that they will give us that support that we need. Let’s test that now in the period ahead.”
Assad’s government had long imposed restrictions on humanitarian organizations and on aid distribution in areas of the country outside its control.
Fletcher said that the coming period would be “a test for the UN, which hasn’t been able to deliver what we wanted to over a decade now... Can we scale up? Can we gain people’s trust?
“But it’s also a test for the new administration,” he added. “Can they guarantee us a more permissive environment than we had under the Assad regime?
“I believe that we can work in that partnership, but it’s a huge test for all of us.”
Turkish FM rejects Trump claim of Ankara ‘takeover’ in Syria
ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Wednesday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that the rebel ouster of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad was an “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara.
“We wouldn’t call it a takeover, because it would be a grave mistake to present what’s been happening in Syria” in those terms, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told broadcaster Al Jazeera in an interview.
“For Syrian people, it is not a takeover. I think if there is any takeover, it’s the will of the Syrian people which is taking over now.”
Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the rebels reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.
On Monday, Trump said “the people that went in (to Syria) are controlled by Turkiye and that’s ok.”
“Turkiye did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost,” the billionaire businessman told reporters.
Since the early days of the anti-Assad revolt that erupted in 2011, Turkiye has been seen as a key backer of the opposition to his rule.
It has hosted political dissenters as well as millions of refugees and also backed rebel groups fighting the army.
Fidan said it would be incorrect to characterise Turkiye as the power that would rule Syria in the end.
“I think that would be the last thing that we want to see, because we are drawing huge lessons from what’s been happening in our region, because the culture of domination itself has destroyed our region,” he said.
“Therefore, it is not Turkish domination, not Iranian domination, not Arab domination, but cooperation should be essential,” he added.
“Our solidarity with Syrian people shouldn’t be characterised or defined today as if we are actually ruling Syria. I think that would be wrong.”
In the same interview Fidan warned Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of Kurdish forces in the country, whom Ankara brands “terrorists.”
“There is a new administration in Damascus now. I think, this is primarily their concern now,” minister Hakan Fidan said.
“So, I think if they are going to, if they address this issue properly, so there would be no reason for us to intervene.”
Fidan was responding to a question amid growing rumors that Turkiye could launch an offensive on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab.
Local witnesses told AFP there has been an increase in the number of soldiers patrolling on the Turkish side of the border but no “unusual military activity.”
Ankara has staged multiple operations against Kurdish forces since 2016, and Turkish-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in the north in recent weeks.
