JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah’s slain leader, as Israel expanded its ground offensive against the Iran-backed group with a fourth army division deployed into south Lebanon.
Netanyahu spoke in a video released by his office hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah, which is reeling after a spate of killings of senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes, left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated.” It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement.”
Later, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel knew Safieddine was in Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters when fighter jets bombed it last week and Safieddine’s status was “being checked and when we know, we will inform the public.”
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since that airstrike, part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah. The group is the most formidably armed of Iran’s proxy forces across the Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that heavy air strikes against underground Hezbollah installations in southern Lebanon over the prior 24 hours killed at least 50 fighters including six sector commanders and regional officials.
The heightened regional tensions kindled a year ago by Palestinian armed group Hamas’ attack from Gaza on southern Israel have escalated in recent weeks to engulf Lebanon.
Israel says it has killed slain Hezbollah leader’s successors
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Israel says it has killed slain Hezbollah leader’s successors
- “We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said
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.
What we know of the latest talks for a Gaza ceasefire
JERUSALEM: Efforts to strike a Gaza truce and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks, but recent negotiations have raised hope of an agreement.
On Tuesday, Washington expressed “cautious optimism” on the possibility of an “imminent deal.”
This comes following reported indirect negotiations mediated by Qatar along with Egypt and the United States.
Diplomatic sources told AFP that US President-elect Donald Trump’s recent declaration that a deal should be struck before his return to office on January 20 had an impact on the latest round of talks.
One diplomatic source said that Hamas, isolated after the weakening of its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and the overthrow of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, is keen to reach a deal before the end of the year.
“A lot of people see (a deal) as the perfect Christmas gift,” the source said.
Another noted that since Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s death, Hamas leaders abroad, known as more pragmatic than the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, have been conducting negotiations.
A high-ranking Hamas official told AFP on Tuesday that the talks were at the “final details” stage and that Qatar and Egypt would announce the agreement once negotiations end.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer declined to comment on the proposed deal at a media briefing on Wednesday, stating “the less said the better.”
During their attack on Israel on October 7 last year, Palestinian militants led by Hamas seized 251 hostages.
Ninety-six of them are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas officials told AFP that the current framework for a deal would see the implementation of a ceasefire and the gradual release of hostages over three phases.
In the first, six-week phase, Israeli civilian hostages and female soldiers would be released in exchange for “hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”
The source close to Hamas said that during this phase, Israel would withdraw its forces “from west of the Rafah crossing” on the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Israeli forces would also “partly withdraw” from the Netzarim Corridor, another, wider strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel that splits the territory in two just south of Gaza City, and gradually leave Palestinian refugee camps.
Lastly, the first phase would see the gradual return of displaced residents to Gaza City and the north via the coastal highway under Israeli army monitoring.
The second phase would see the release of Israeli male soldiers in exchange for “a number” of Palestinian prisoners, “including at least 100 with long-term sentences.”
During this phase, Israel would complete its military withdrawal but would maintain forces on the eastern and northern border areas with Israel.
Under the last phase of the proposed deal, “the war will be officially declared over” and reconstruction efforts will begin in the territory where the UN satellite agency said that 66 percent of all structures have been damaged.
Lastly, the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border would be jointly managed by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, in coordination with Egypt and the European Union.
Despite numerous rounds of indirect talks, Israel and Hamas have agreed just one week-long truce at the end of 2023.
Negotiations between Hamas and Israel have faced multiple challenges since then, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also repeatedly stated that he does not want to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor.
One of the diplomatic sources AFP spoke to said Israel would “never” exit the border strip, and at most would leave the small border crossing for others to manage.
Another unresolved issue is the governance of post-war Gaza.
It remains a highly contentious issue, including within the Palestinian leadership.
Israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow Hamas to run the territory ever again.
And while a Hamas official told AFP on Wednesday that “Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye, the United Nations and the United States will guarantee the implementation of the agreement,” none of them have confirmed that.
Germany jails Syrian for 10 years for Assad-era war crimes
- Berlin has warned that Assad’s supporters will continue to face justice in Germany for crimes they committed
- Germany, in 2022, jailed former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan for life in the first international trial over state-sponsored torture in Syrian prisons
BERLIN: A German court handed a 10-year jail term to a Syrian former militia leader on Wednesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed under former president Bashar Assad.
The man, named only as Ahmad H., 47, had come to Germany in 2016 at the height of the influx of migrants to Europe.
Assad was toppled last week by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, and Berlin has since warned that his supporters will continue to face justice in Germany for crimes they committed.
Ahmad H. was found guilty of crimes including torture, deprivation of liberty and enslavement, a spokeswoman for the higher regional court in Hamburg told AFP.
Prosecutors said he carried out the crimes between 2012 and 2015 as a local leader of the pro-government “shabiha” militia in Damascus tasked with helping to crush dissent.
The militia operated checkpoints where “people were arrested arbitrarily so that they or their family members could be extorted for money, committed to forced labor or tortured,” they said.
The fighters also plundered the homes of regime opponents, sold the spoils and kept the profits, they added, charging that Ahmad H. took part “personally in the abuse of civilians.”
When Ahmad H. was detained in Germany in July 2023, the Washington-based Syrian Justice & Accountability Center, which tracks human rights abuses in Syria, said its investigations had led to the arrest.
It had launched its probe after a witness told the agency in May 2020 that the suspect was living in Germany.
Europe’s biggest economy, then ruled by chancellor Angela Merkel, granted safe haven to hundreds of thousands of Syrians during the 2015-16 refugee influx.
NGOs warned at the time of the danger that militiamen accused of committing some of the most barbaric atrocities against civilians for Assad’s government were arriving incognito in Europe and obtaining asylum.
Germany has previously used the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the prosecution of certain grave crimes regardless of where they took place, to try Syrians over atrocities committed during the civil war.
In January 2022, Germany jailed former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan for life in the first international trial over state-sponsored torture in Syrian prisons.
Syria war monitor says 21 pro-Turkiye fighters killed near flashpoint northern town
- SDF said that ‘after thwarting the attacks, Manbij Military Council forces initiated a combing operation in the vicinity of the Tishreen Dam and the surrounding area’
- SDF leader Mazloum Abdi on Tuesday proposed a ‘demilitarised zone’ in Kobani
BEIRUT, Lebanon: A Syria war monitor said 21 pro-Turkiye fighters were killed Wednesday after they attacked a Kurdish-held position near a flashpoint northern town despite a US-brokered ceasefire extension in the area.
The fighting between Turkish-backed factions and US-backed Kurdish-led forces comes more than a week after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
“At least 21 members of pro-Turkiye factions were killed and others wounded by fire from the Manbij Military Council after pro-Turkiye factions attacked” a position at the Tishreen Dam, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Manbij, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The United States said on Tuesday it had brokered an extension to a fragile ceasefire in Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Turkiye.
The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said Wednesday’s attack included “support from Turkish reconnaissance aircraft” and was followed by “heavy clashes with heavy and medium weapons.”
The monitor also reported unspecified casualties among the Manbij Military Council, which is affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as among SDF fighters.
The SDF said in a statement that its forces “successfully repelled” the pro-Turkiye fighters and that “after thwarting the attacks, Manbij Military Council forces initiated a combing operation in the vicinity of the Tishreen Dam and the surrounding area.”
Swathes of north and northeast Syria are controlled by a Kurdish administration whose de facto army, the SDF, spearheaded the fight that defeated Daesh group extremists in Syria in 2019.
Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants at home, whom both Washington and Ankara consider a “terrorist” group.
Ankara has staged multiple operations against the SDF since 2016, and Turkish-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in the north in recent weeks.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday that the Manbij truce, which had recently expired, had been “extended through the end of the week, and we will, obviously, look to see that ceasefire extended as far as possible into the future.”
The extension comes amid fears of an assault by Turkiye on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Manbij.
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi on Tuesday proposed a “demilitarised zone” in Kobani.
The military chief of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the Islamist militant group that led the offensive that ousted Assad, said Tuesday that Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country’s new leadership.
While the Kurdish administration has extended a hand to the new authorities, the long-oppressed community fears it could lose hard-won gains it made during the war, including limited self-rule.
