Israel kills three Palestinians, including children, in Gaza as US-Iran tensions rise

Syria's government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday extended their truce by 15 days, with Damascus saying it was to support the US transfer of Islamic State group detainees from Syria to Iraq.

Several sources had earlier told AFP the truce would be prolonged, with a Syrian official in Damascus citing the same reason.

In a statement, the Syrian defence ministry said the 15-day extension would take effect at 11pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday.

"The extension of the ceasefire comes in support of the American operation to transfer Islamic State detainees from SDF prisons to Iraq," the statement added, referring to the SDF,

The SDF also confirmed the extension, saying it was reached "through international mediation, while dialogue with Damascus continues".

"Our forces affirm their commitment to the agreement and their dedication to respecting it, which contributes to de-escalation, the protection of civilians, and the creation of the necessary conditions for stability," it said in a statement.

Syria's government freed at least 126 children being held in a northern prison on Saturday, state media reported, after taking over the facility from Kurdish forces as part of an agreement.

Footage on state television showed crowds gathered to welcome the released minors, while Syria's official SANA news agency published the names of the remaining detainees, allowing people to look for them online.

State television reported "the release... of 126 detainees under the age of 18 from Al-Aqtan prison" in Raqqa province, which has been used to hold Islamic State group detainees.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under military pressure from Damascus, which is seeking to extend its control across the country, the SDF has relinquished swathes of territory in recent days and withdrawn to parts of Hasakeh province in the far northeast.

The son of Iran's president, who is also a government adviser, called on Saturday for internet connectivity to be restored, warning the more than two-week blackout there would exacerbate anti-government sentiment.

Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father Masoud was elected president in 2024, said "keeping the internet shut will create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government".

"This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied will be added to the list of the dissatisfied," he wrote in a Telegram post that was later picked up by the official IRNA news agency.

Such a risk, he said, was greater than that of a return to protests if connectivity were restored.

Iran's more than 90 million people have been largely cut off from the internet since authorities imposed a blackout on January 8 amid major protests sweeping the country.

Lebanon will need some sort of international force after the withdrawal of the United Nations's Unifil mission scheduled for 2027, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said during a visit to Paris Saturday.

Some 10,800 UN peacekeepers have manned a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon since March 1978, but they will have one year to leave Lebanon starting 31 December, under a resolution passed last August under pressure from the United States and Israel.

"We will always need an international presence in the south, and preferably a UN presence, given the impartiality and neutrality that only the UN can provide," Nawaf Salam said the day after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The force would need a mix of observers and peacekeepers, largely because of a "history of hostility" with Israel, he added.

UN peacekeepers current operate in southern Lebanon in cooperation with the Lebanese army, part of a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah armed group in place since November 2024.

While Israel was supposed to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, it has continued to occupy five points it considers strategic.

A four-day ceasefire between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lapsed on Saturday evening, with no official announcement on its extension from either side.

Multiple sources had earlier told AFP the truce would be prolonged, with one saying the main reason was to allow for the US transfer of jihadist detainees from previously Kurdish-run prisons in Syria to neighbouring Iraq.

But minutes before the truce was due to officially expire at 8pm (1700 GMT), Syrian state television cited a foreign ministry source as saying an extension had not yet occurred.

No official announcement has come from Damascus or the SDF, but Syria's state-run SANA news agency quoted a government source as saying Damascus was "studying its options" after the truce lapsed.

Damascus and the SDF had agreed to the four-day ceasefire on Tuesday after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government troops, who also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast.

A diplomatic source in Damascus told AFP earlier on Saturday that the ceasefire would be extended "for a period of up to one month at most".

An SDF-linked source close to the negotiations also said "the ceasefire has been extended until a mutually acceptable political solution is reached".

A Syrian official in Damascus said the "agreement is likely to be extended for one month", citing the transfer of Islamic State group detainees to Iraq, later adding the extension might be announced in the evening.

All sources requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

After the SDF lost large areas to government forces, Washington said it would transfer 7,000 IS detainees to prisons in Iraq.

Israeli police have arrested the former mayor of Kafr Yasif amid a protest in the northern Arab town over the authorities' inaction of violence gripping the marginalised community.

Shadi Shweiry, a prominent figure in the left-wing Hadash party, was arrested in a violation of his "right to protest," onlookers said.

Israeli police claimed that Shweiry was arrested for "assaulting" law enforcement officers. 

United States President Donald Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have arrived in Israel, where they will hold talks on Gaza's future, a US official told reporters on Saturday.

Kushner and Witkoff were due to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said, and were working to "determine what are the right next steps, so that we can keep the ceasefire and turn it into a long and enduring peace in Gaza".

Israeli forces assaulted a number of foreign activists on Saturday at the Bedouin community of Khallet al-Sedra near the village of Mekhmas, northeast of Jerusalem, and forcibly expelled them from the site.

The Jerusalem Governorate said the soldiers forced the activists at Khallet al-Sedra to evacuate the community under coercion.

It added that more than twenty Israeli settlers gathered near Khallet al-Sedra at the same time as the evacuation of the activists, raising fears among residents of a repeat of the recent attack on the community.

Three Palestinians were injured on Saturday in a violent attack carried out by Israeli settlers near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, according to the Wafa agency.

Sources  told the Palestinian news agency that settlers "severely beat: three residents on the outskirts of the town, including a 70-year-old elderly man. The injured were taken to the Friendship Medical Center in the town for treatment.

Local residents rushed to confront the attack, prompting Israeli forces to intervene and fire stun bombs and tear gas canisters at them.

Hundreds of Islamic State group detainees were being transferred from Syria to Iraq on Saturday, the second batch since the US announced plans to relocate the jihadists there, two Iraqi security officials told AFP.

"The prisoner transfer operation is ongoing, with US forces transporting detainees by land and air," an Iraqi security official said, adding that "up to 1,000 IS detainees are expected to arrive in Iraq today".

Another security source confirmed the transfer was underway, saying the detainees -- who include Iraqis and Europeans -- will be distributed among at least three prisons in Iraq.

The group is the second batch of 7,000 IS suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, that the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.

Europeans were also among the 150 senior IS detainees who were the first to be transferred on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials told AFP Friday.

The transfer is expected to take several days.

The Syrian Petroleum Company has begun extracting oil from recently controlled fields and sending output to the Homs and Baniyas refineries, the state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.

One of those fields, al-Omar oilfield, which is the country's largest, came under government control recently after a lightning offensive against Kurdish forces who had held the site for nearly a decade and used it as a military base. 

The death toll Israel's ongoing war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 71,654 Palestinian, since October 2023, medical sources told Palestinian media.

Four new fatalities were recorded over the past 48 hours, along with 12 new injuries.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party Saturday called for the blockade on the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane in northern Syria to be lifted immediately, warning of a "humanitarian tragedy".

The situation in Kobane had escalated from a crisis into a "deadly catastrophe", the party said, after sending a delegation to visit the area, demanding an immediate end to the siege there and in northern and eastern Syria.

Air France resumed its Dubai service on Saturday after temporarily suspending it the day before due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, the airline said.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened strikes on Iran over the crackdown on the protest movement that recently erupted across the Islamic republic.

The French airline said it was "monitoring developments" in the region "to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security".

Dutch airline KLM, which belongs to the same group as Air France, also halted flights until further notice to cities in the Middle East.

KLM said it would not fly through the airspace of several countries in the region, including Iraq and Iran, according to the Netherlands' state broadcaster.

Trump, on Thursday, said a US "armada" was heading towards the Gulf and that Washington was watching Iran closely, even after downplaying the prospect of imminent military action and saying Tehran appeared interested in talks.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Israel on Saturday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The US on Thursday announced plans for a "New Gaza" rebuilt from scratch, to include residential towers, data centres and seaside resorts, part of President Donald Trump's push to advance an Israel-Hamas ceasefire shaken by repeated violations.

The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a force which was key in putting down recent nationwide protests in a crackdown that left thousands dead, is “more ready than ever, finger on the trigger," its commander said Saturday, as US warships headed toward the Middle East.

Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported on its Telegram channel that the commander, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, warned the United States and Israel “to avoid any miscalculation.”

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief," Nournews quoted Pakpour as saying.

Tension remains high between Iran and the U.S. in the wake of a bloody crackdown on protests that began on 28 December, triggered by the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, and swept the country for about two weeks.

The Syrian government and Kurdish forces have agreed to extend a ceasefire set to expire Saturday, as part of a broader deal on the future of Kurd-majority areas, several sources told AFP.

No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but two sources said the truce is to be extended by one month.

On Tuesday, Damascus and the SDF agreed to a four-day ceasefire after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government forces, which also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast.

A diplomatic source in Damascus told AFP the ceasefire, due to expire on Saturday evening, will be extended "for a period of up to one month at most".

A Kurdish source close to the negotiations confirmed "the ceasefire has been extended until a mutually acceptable political solution is reached".

A Syrian official in Damascus said the "agreement is likely to be extended for one month", adding that one reason is the need to complete the transfer of Islamic State group jihadist detainees from Syria to Iraq.

Israel settlers attacked a Palestinian house in the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, on Saturday.

Local sources told the Wafa agency that settlers from the Shiloh settlement, attacked the Abu Awad family home. No injuries or property damage were reported.

Settler attacks on this family's home have been ongoing recently, aimed at forcibly isolating them.

The US has asked Italy to join the International Stabilization Force for Gaza as a founding member, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. 

The European airlines of Air France and KLM have suspended flights to cities in the Middle East, amid regional tensions.

Air France said it will "temporarily stop service to Dubai as it continues to monitor the “geopolitical situation".

Dutch airline KLM also halted flights until further notice to cities in Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and would not fly through the airspace of several countries in the region, including Iraq and Iran, according to the Netherlands’ state broadcaster NOS.

Iran executed two men for the 2023 bombing of a bus carrying pilgrims, identifying them as linked to Islamic State, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported on Saturday.

The news agency said the attack killed a toddler and injured several others on a bus travelling from Tehran to Ilam, a province in the west that borders Iraq.

The two men were involved in planting the bomb on the bus, Mizan said.