GENEVA: Israel has intensified airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, inflicting civilian casualties on at least three occasions, an independent UN commission said Tuesday.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a year ago, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes in different parts of Syria. Iran blamed Israel for the April airstrike on Iranian consular offices in Damascus that killed seven people including two Iranian generals, and Tehran responded with an unprecedented attack against Israel almost two weeks later.
Regional tensions remain high after Iran vowed to retaliate for the July 31 killing of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, believed to be carried out by Israel.
The commission is made up of independent experts mandated by the UN’s top human rights body. It said it continues to investigate airstrikes, including Sunday’s strike in Syria’s central province of Hamas that killed 18 people, making it one of the deadliest in years.
The report comes as the UN-backed Human Rights Council on Monday began its five-week autumn session.
Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria where thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed. Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that since the war in Gaza started Oct. 7 with a Hamas attack, Israel carried out 76 airstrikes in different parts of the country. It said 287 Iranian-linked fighters and Syrian troops and 27 civilians, including two children, died in the strikes.
The commission said groups affiliated with Iran have attacked bases housing US troops in east Syria more than 100 times, most recently last month. US forces responded with counterattacks.
The commission also warned that Syria is falling deeper into an alarming humanitarian crisis that threatens to spiral out of control.
“Only a quarter of this year’s humanitarian needs are funded,” the commission said in a statement, adding that the needs are at their highest since the start of the conflict 13 years ago.
It added that 13 million Syrians face acute food insecurity and over 650,000 children show signs of stunting from severe malnutrition.
UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations have for years struggled with shrinking budgets, further worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and conflicts elsewhere. The war in Gaza as well as those in Ukraine and Sudan are the focus of the world’s attention.
Syria’s civil conflict, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, has long remained largely frozen.
Israel intensified airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria
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Israel intensified airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria
- It said it continues to investigate airstrikes, including Sunday’s strike in Syria’s central province of Hamas that killed 18 people, making it one of the deadliest in years
- The report comes as the UN-backed Human Rights Council on Monday began its five-week autumn session
Netanyahu’s approval rating deteriorates at home and abroad
- Netanyahu has failed to negotiate a ceasefire and many Israelis now accuse him of sabotaging talks
- 74 percent of Jews in the UK view Israel’s overall situation in a negative light
LONDON: Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval rating has fallen — in Israel and abroad — with British Jews showing “significant disapproval” of the current Israeli leadership.
More than 11 months into the war in Gaza, the death toll among Palestinians is more than 41,000. Farther north, there has been almost daily cross-border fire between Israeli forces and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, raising fears of an all-out Middle East war.
Meanwhile, there are 101 people still being held hostage by Hamas. At least six others are believed to have been killed by airstrikes on the besieged enclave.
Netanyahu has failed to negotiate a ceasefire and many Israelis now accuse him of sabotaging talks.
A new report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research determined it is failures like these that have contributed to British Jews’ disapproval of the Israeli leadership.
Based on the most recent data, 80 percent either strongly or somewhat disapprove of Netanyahu, while only 12 percent strongly or somewhat approve.
In addition, 74 percent of Jews in the UK view Israel’s overall situation in a negative light, a figure nearly 10 percent higher than Israelis’ view of their country.
This is significantly worse than a year previously, reflecting the crisis of Oct. 7, the extended captivity of the hostages, and the ongoing war in Gaza.
The strictly orthodox, men, and people who voted for right-wing parties in the previous UK election were the most likely groups to view Israeli government policies more positively.
JPR’s executive director, Dr. Jonathan Boyd, said: ‘The Jewish community in the UK holds strong ties and attachments to Israel, and the events of the past year have affected British Jews very deeply.
“In many respects, we can see that they feel closer to Israel now than they did before October 7.
“Still, as this report demonstrates, we are also seeing high levels of disapproval for Netanyahu and even higher levels for the hard-right members of his coalition, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“As much as Israel matters to British Jews, many are expressing clear concern about its current political leadership.”
14,000 Gaza amputees will get rapid prosthetic limbs using UK tech
- Program involves UK-based companies Koalaa and Amparo, both of which have developed easy-to-fit sockets for upper and lower limb prosthetics
LONDON: A Jordanian-led initiative to equip thousands of victims of the war in Gaza with prosthetic limbs has started, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
Two mobile clinics entered the war-ravaged territory on Monday with the aim of helping 14,000 amputees. The estimated cost of each fitting is around £1,000 ($1,321).
The program involves UK-based companies Koalaa and Amparo, both of which have developed easy-to-fit sockets for upper and lower limb prosthetics.
Using advanced British-designed technology, the doctors aim to fit a functioning prosthesis every hour.
Each fitting will be registered digitally, allowing for remote follow-up procedures with specialist doctors based in Amman or around the world.
“Medical estimates indicate that over 14,000 people have been injured and lost one or more limbs,” Jordanian Brig. Gen. Mustafa Al-Hiyari told Sky News.
“Our project is distinguished not only by the large number (of prosthetics provided) but also by its speed; as specialists will declare, a prosthetic limb would be installed in less than an hour.
“Those who cannot reach the hospital, the equipped vans will go to them,” the Jordanian Armed Forces member said.
Most of the amputees from the war cannot leave Gaza for treatment elsewhere, and the conflict has displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
The top UN humanitarian official for Gaza told the UN Security Council on Monday that more must be done to protect civilians.
“Time is slipping away as a man-made humanitarian crisis has turned Gaza into the abyss,” Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, said.
Kaag said humanitarian operations are impeded by lawlessness, Israeli evacuation orders, fighting, and operating conditions for aid workers. She cited Israeli denials of access, delays, a lack of safety and security, and “poor logistical infrastructure.”
Hundreds of Hezbollah members wounded in Lebanon when pagers explode, security source says
- A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel
- The security source added that devices were also exploding in the south of Lebanon
BEIRUT: Hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, a security source told Reuters.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.
A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut amid widespread panic. Residents said explosions were taking place even 30 minutes after the initial blasts.
Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded, the Reuters journalist said.
The security source added that devices were also exploding in the south of Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since last October in parallel with the Gaza war.
Dozens of Hezbollah members wounded in Lebanon when pagers exploded, sources and witnesses say
BEIRUT: Dozens of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were seriously wounded on Tuesday in Lebanon's south and the southern suburbs of Beirut when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, security sources told Reuters.
A Reuters journalist saw 10 Hezbollah members bleeding from wounds in the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.
Qatar says Gaza truce mediation efforts ‘ongoing’
- Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to halt the fighting
- Recent mediation in Doha and Cairo has been based on a framework laid out in May by US President Joe Biden
DOHA: Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday efforts to forge a Gaza truce were “ongoing,” after several rounds of talks aimed at ending the now 11-month war ended without a breakthrough.
“The efforts are still ongoing and channels of communication remain open... the goals and visits and meetings are ongoing,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters.
Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to halt the fighting between Hamas and Israel, apart from a one-week truce beginning in late November.
Recent mediation in Doha and Cairo has been based on a framework laid out in May by US President Joe Biden and a “bridging proposal” presented to the warring parties in August.
The US State Department said Monday Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit Egypt this week to “discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire,” his tenth trip to the region since the Gaza Strip war began on October 7.
After in-person talks last month in Egypt and Qatar broke up without a final agreement, Washington indicated that mediators were preparing to present another adapted framework for a ceasefire.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday Washington was working “expeditiously” on a new proposal.
Ansari declined to comment Tuesday on whether any further proposal had been relayed to Israel or Hamas.
“When it comes to the possibility of a deal taking place anytime soon, of course we remain hopeful at every juncture,” he said.
“I can’t comment on the prospects of a deal taking place right now but I can tell you that we remain hopeful and we continue with our efforts.”
Hamas said its delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha last week to discuss a truce and potential hostage and prisoner exchange, again without indicating that any breakthrough had been reached.
Pressure inside Israel for a deal has intensified after authorities announced the deaths of six hostages at the start of September after their bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.
But in the face of the external calls for an agreement, both Israel and Hamas have publicly signalled deeper entrenchment in their negotiating positions.
On Tuesday Israel announced an expansion of its war aims, widening its fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.
The October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
