Israel kills scores in Gaza as Syria's UN envoy warns 'conflict not over yet'

The New Arab's liveblog on the war in Gaza and developments in Syria has now ended, and will resume at 0900 GMT.

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Airstrikes hit Yemen's capital Sanaa and Hodeidah governorate on early Thursday, reported Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen. 

The Israeli military said on Thursday that sirens sounded in numerous areas in central Israel after a missile was launched from Yemen.

The missile was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory, it added. There were no reports of casualties,

Earlier this week, Yemen's Houthi militants said they fired a ballistic missile at a military target in Jaffa, a city in central Israel.

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 Turkey has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar al-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 Islamic State group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.

At least six Palestinians were killed and others were injured following Israeli aircraft bombing of a home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

The bombings come hours after Israeli forces attacked a home there, killing four people, including Palestinian doctor Abdullah Habib.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday said world powers should remove the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group which seized power in Syria from their terror watchlist.

"I think it is time for the international community starting from UN... to remove their name from the terrorism list," Fidan told broadcaster Al Jazeera.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he remained hopeful of reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and promised to use his remaining month in office to achieve it.

Blinken, however, declined to predict success after repeated disappointments in his government's efforts to end 14 months of brutal war in the Palestinian territory.

"Look, I'm hopeful. You have to be. We're going to use every minute of every day of every week that we have left to try to get this done," said Blinken, who leaves office on January 20.

"But I don't want to hazard a guess as to what the probability is," he said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It should happen. It needs to happen. We need to get people home," he said, referring to the release of hostages under a ceasefire deal.

Turkey's foreign minister said on Wednesday there would be no reason for his country to launch an offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria if its new rulers "properly" addressed the issue of the groups, whom Ankara brands "terrorists".

"There is a new administration in Damascus now. I think, this is primarily their concern now," minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with broadcaster Al Jazeera.

"So, I think if they are going to, if they address this issue properly, so there would be no reason for us to intervene."

CNN is acknowledging that a gripping story it aired last week depicting a Syrian man being let free from a Damascus prison after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad's regime was not what it seemed.

The network said that it has since found out that the man shown in correspondent Clarissa Ward's report, which initially aired on December 11, apparently gave a false identity.

"This moment captures the complexity of the situation in Syria," CNN's Jake Tapper said on Tuesday.

In the report, Ward was being escorted by a Syrian rebel through a prison that had been run by the Syrian Air Force intelligence services and emptied since the Assad government fell. That's what they thought, at least — until they came upon a padlocked door.

The rebel guard shot the lock to open the door to a cell, where they found a man hiding under a blanket. He then said "oh, God, there is light!" when led outdoors and hugged the guard when told of the change in power.

He told Ward that his name was Adel Ghurbal from the city of Homs, and that he was a civilian who had been arrested three months ago and spent time in three different prisons.

But a few days later, a Syrian fact-checking site , Verify-Sy, said that the man was really Salama Mohammad Salama, and that he was a former intelligence officer for the Assad government. CNN obtained a photo of Salama and, through facial recognition software, found that it was a better than 99 percent chance that was the same man from their report, the network said.

A CNN spokeswoman said that no one outside of the network knew ahead of time of the plans to visit the prison. CNN reported the scene as it unfolded, the network said.

At least 10 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, medics told Reuters

Turkey on Wednesday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump's claim that the rebel ouster of Syrian strongman Bashar al-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."

The brother of an Israeli man held captive in the Gaza Strip by Hamas criticiced the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for inaction and urged it to "send a resonating message that terror will never prevail."

Michael Levy's brother Or was taken hostage and Or's wife was killed when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Levy was the first person from a hostage family to brief the 15-member Security Council, which has met dozens of times on the war aged by Israel in Gaza in the past 14 months.

"Your silence is deafening, your inaction is suffocating. For everyday this council fails to act, the message to the world is clear - that some lives are worth saving and others are not," he said. "I refuse to accept a world where my brother's life can be used as a bargaining chip and be forgotten."

The Security Council has repeatedly demanded - in four resolutions - the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and other groups. 

A Syria war monitor said 21 pro-Turkey 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.

"At least 21 members of pro-Turkey factions were killed and others wounded by fire from the Manbij Military Council after pro-Turkey factions attacked" a position at the Tishreen Dam, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the town of Manbij, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Manbij Military Council is affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

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 the now-toppled Bashar al-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 removed from power last week by the Islamist 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 labour 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.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkey and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad by opposition rebels.

"A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbors of Syria," Erdogan told a news conference, alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

"The stability of Syria means the stability of the region," he said, adding that reconstruction of the war-ravaged country on their borders would be their priority.

Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the rebels reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.

The ousting of Assad sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, and has prompted many refugees to begin returning home.

Turkey and Lebanon are home to a large number of Syrian refugees.

To rebuild Syria, Erdogan said: "This is a critical period in which we need to act with unity, solidarity and mutual reconciliation."

Visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called for a massive aid boost for Syria Wednesday to respond to "this moment of hope" after the ouster of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad.

"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," Fletcher told AFP, adding: "We have to get behind (the Syrian people) and to respond to this moment of hope. And if we don't do that quickly, then I fear that this window will close."

Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, industrial-scale manufacturing facilities of Captagon have been uncovered around the country, which experts say helped flourish a $10 billion annual global trade in the highly addictive drug.

Among the locations used for manufacturing the drug were the Mazzeh air base in Damascus, a car-trading company in Latakia and a former potato chips factory on the outskirts of Damascus.

The factory that once produced the crunchy snack in the suburb of Douma under the name, Captain Corn, was seized by government forces in 2018.

“Assad’s collaborators controlled this place. After the regime fell... I came here and found it on fire,” Firas al-Toot, the original owner of the factory, told The Associated Press. “They came at night and lit the drugs on fire but couldn’t burn everything.”

“From here, Captagon pills emerged to kill our people,” said Abu Zihab, an activist with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main group now ruling the country, as his group gave access to journalists to the site.

Syria's nearly 14-year-old civil war fragmented the country, crumbled the economy and created fertile ground for the production of the drug. Militias, warlords and the Assad government transformed Captagon from a small-scale operation run by small criminal groups into a billion-dollar industrial revenue stream.

A potential Israeli ban on all UNRWA operations in Gaza and the West Bank would not alter the legal status of Palestinian refugees, the agency has stated.

“UNRWA as a structure in the life of Palestine refugees is irreplaceable,” agency spokesperson Tamara Alrifai told Al Jazeera.

“Having said that, if UNRWA were forced to shut down its schools, health centres, and all its services tomorrow, Palestine refugees remain Palestine refugees. This is a legal status.

Even if implemented, the Israeli ban on UNRWA’s operations in #Gaza and the #WestBank would not affect the legal status of #PalestineRefugees.

"If UNRWA were forced to shut down its schools, health centres, and all its services tomorrow - Palestine Refugees remain Palestine… pic.twitter.com/dGFL4eqATF

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 18, 2024

The Israeli military has issued mandatory evacuation orders for several neighborhoods in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee shared a map of the areas to be cleared, alleging that rockets were launched at Israel from this location, necessitating a military response. “For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone,” Adraee stated.

However, local and international organizations have emphasized that there are no truly safe zones within the Gaza Strip.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani discussed developments in Syria at a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Sudani's office said.

Sudani emphasised "Iraq's keenness on the unity of Syria, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the free will of the Syrians," his office said. 

Video footage shared on social media by Palestinian sources shows injured children arriving at al-Ahli Arab Hospital following an Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip.

The footage depicts children, some wrapped in bandages and others with IV drips, being hurried into the hospital for urgent treatment.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by يحيى العوضية (@yahya_alawadiah2)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed France's decision to send diplomats to Damascus after the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in a phone call with President Emmanuel Macron, the presidency said Wednesday.

A French delegation arrived Tuesday at the country's embassy in Damascus, the first visit of diplomats from France since rebels forced Assad to flee the country.

Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday and is constant touch with Syria's new rulers.

Erdogan told French President Emmanuel Macron that "he was pleased" with Paris's decision to send a diplomatic mission to Syria, his office said.

Erdogan also said efforts had begun for the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

The international community had to cooperate to create sustainable conditions that will enable Syrians to stay there, he added.

Turkey, home to nearly 3 million refugees, is hoping the shift in power in Damascus will allow many of them to return to Syria.

The leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has proposed the formation of a demilitarised zone around Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, in northern Syria, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the recently occupied Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

 Israel has launched at least 800 strikes on Syria in the space of a week.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi made the proposal in a post on X on Tuesday evening, where he reiterated his group's commitment to a ceasefire and said they were ready to have the "redeployment of security forces under US supervision and presence".

Read more below.

Israeli soldiers removed a small far-right group of Israeli civilians who had crossed into Lebanon, appearing to put up a tent settlement, in what the military said on Wednesday was a serious incident now under investigation.

The Times of Israel reported 10 days ago that the group, advocating the annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon, said they had crossed the border and established an outpost.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said they had been promptly removed.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that the civilians indeed crossed the blue line by a few metres, and after being identified by IDF forces, they were removed from the area," said a statement by the IDF, Israel's military.

"Any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese territory without coordination poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the IDF's ability to operate in the area and carry out its mission," the statement said.

Israeli settlers from the far-right organisation, Uri Tzafon, crossed the border into southern Lebanon, breaching the blue line into Maroun al-Ras, and set up tents.

The organisation has been advocating for annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon.

Settler-colonialism. pic.twitter.com/JopHbHVP41

— Naks Bilal (@NaksBilal) December 18, 2024

The first flight since the ouster of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country's north, AFP journalists saw. 43 people including journalists were on board the Syrian Air plane.

Earlier this week, airport staff painted the three-star independence flag on planes, a symbol of the 2011 uprising now adopted by the transitional authorities. In the terminal, the new flag also replaced the one linked to Assad's era.

An airport official told AFP on condition of anonymity that international flights would resume on December 24, following maintenance work.

Syrian Air has a fleet of 12 planes, but only two - both Airbus 320s - are operational, said maintenance official Samer Radi, citing missing spare parts due to international sanctions.

VIDEO: First flight takes off from Damascus airport since fall of Assad.

The first flight since the ouster of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad takes off from Damascus airport heading to Aleppo in the country's north. Forty-three people, including journalists, were on board the… pic.twitter.com/xbPQeNF9MA

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 18, 2024

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition that grouped opponents of Bashar al-Assad during the civil war, said on Wednesday Syria's transitional government should be credible and not exclude any Syrian party or be based on sectarianism.

Representatives of the Syrian National Coalition had not met Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, but had communications with the caretaker government and parties close to him, al-Bahra said during a press conference in Istanbul.

The Syrian National Coalition would return to Syria and set up headquarters there, former Syrian opposition leader al-Bahra said, adding that he intended to return as well.

"Logistics should be worked out and freedom of speech should be guaranteed," he added.

The UN envoy to Syria called on Wednesday for "free and fair" elections after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad, as he voiced hope for a political solution for Kurdish-held areas.

Addressing reporters in Damascus, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said "there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria".

"A new Syria that... will adopt a new constitution... and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period," he said.

Calling for immediate humanitarian assistance, he also said he hoped to see an end to international sanctions levied against Syria over Assad's abuses.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 45,097 people have been killed during more than 14 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes 38 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 107,244 people have been wounded.

A U.N. refugee agency official said on Tuesday that some 1 million Syrian refugees are expected to return to the country in the first six months of 2025, asking states to refrain from forcing them to do so.

"Now we have forecasted that we hope to see somewhere in the order of 1 million Syrians returning between January and June next year so we shared this plan with donors, asking for their support," said Rema Jamous Imseis, UNHCR Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"We have massive humanitarian needs on a scale that hasn't in any way diminished," she added.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has criticised the potential ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, calling it a “serious error,” according to Israeli media.

“Hamas is at its lowest point since the beginning of the war, and this is not the time to give it a lifeline,” Smotrich told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama, as reported by the Ynet News site.

The minister argued that the proposed deal would not serve Israel’s interests or secure the release of captives, stating, “because in the end it’s a partial deal.” However, Smotrich stopped short of threatening to withdraw from the governing coalition if the agreement goes forward.

His remarks come amid renewed efforts to reach an agreement in recent weeks. Hamas officials have reportedly shown greater “flexibility” regarding the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz remarked on Monday that “a deal is closer than ever.”

Although optimism has grown after months of stalemate, officials on all sides have cautioned that significant details remain unresolved

Palestinian families sued the U.S. State Department on Tuesday over Washington's support for Israel's military amid its war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, a court filing showed.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that the State Department under Secretary of State Antony Blinken has deliberately circumvented a U.S. human rights law to continue funding and supporting Israeli military units accused of atrocities in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Leahy Laws prohibit providing U.S. military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights and have not been brought to justice. Both South Africa at the World Court and Amnesty International have accused Israel of committing genocide and war crimes. Israel has denied the charges.

Washington faces criticism from human rights groups for maintaining its support for Israel with no major policy changes.

"The State Department's calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli gross violations of human rights since the Gaza War erupted on October 7, 2023," the lawsuit said.

The military chief of HTS said the Islamist group would be "the first" to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces.

"All military units must be integrated into this institution," Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview with AFP.

He added that Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country's new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism and that "Syria will not be divided".

Abu Qasra also called on the international community to "find a solution" to repeated Israeli strikes and an "incursion" into Syrian territory.

"We view the Israeli strikes on military sites and the incursion into southern Syria as injust... we call on the international community to find a solution to this matter," he said.

A UN envoy has warned that Syria's protracted conflict "has not ended yet", even as victorious Islamist-led rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah.

Assad fled Syria just over a week ago following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.

However, the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday "there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered".

"I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation. Such an escalation could be catastrophic," said Pedersen, referring to fighting between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed groups who have captured several Kurdish towns in recent weeks.

Washington later announced it had brokered an extension to the ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Ankara.

The Manbij truce "is extended through the end of the week and we will, obviously, look to see that ceasefire extended as far as possible into the future", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.