Massacre in Gaza's Beit Lahiya amid signs of an imminent ceasefire deal

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza and Syria events concludes for today.

Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the region.
 

Syria's conflict "has not ended" even after the departure of former president Bashar al-Assad, the UN's envoy to the country warned Tuesday, highlighting clashes between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the north.

Geir Pedersen, the UN's special envoy for Syria, also called at the Security Council for Israel to "cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan" and said an end to sanctions would be key to assisting Syria.

"There have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered... A five-day ceasefire has now expired and I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation," he said.

"Such an escalation could be catastrophic."

Pedersen also said he had met with Syria's new de facto leadership following the rebels' lightning takeover, and toured Sednaya prison's "dungeons" and "torture and execution chambers," operated under Assad's government.

He called for "broad support" for Syria and an end to sanctions to allow for reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

"Concrete movement on an inclusive political transition will be key in ensuring Syria receives the economic support it needs," Pedersen said.

United Nations migration agency chief Amy Pope said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people, including religious minorities, had fled Syria after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad.

"Tens of thousands" of people have fled Syria and "we are hearing that especially religious minorities are leaving," Pope told news agency AFP, noting reports that members of the Shiite Muslim community had fled "not because they're actually threatened, but they're concerned about the possible threat".

Israeli airstrikes across Gaza have led to a rise in casualties.

According to Palestinian news agency Wafa:

• Three were killed and several wounded in an attack on al-Tabin school in Gaza City, where displaced families were sheltering.
• Two died in a strike on the Abu al-Jibn family's home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.
• One person was killed and three (including children) injured in an air raid on Khalifa bin Zayed school, also housing displaced families.
• One person was killed and 33 injured in an attack on a vehicle near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered Syrian territory on Tuesday during a security tour of the buffer zone seized by Israel in the past few days since the fall of Bashar Assad.

It was apparently the first time a sitting Israeli leader entered Syrian territory. Israel seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, calling it a buffer zone, in the days after Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted by rebels.

Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed — a move not recognized by most of the international community.

Netanyau and Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the snow-dusted summit of Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the area, which is located inside Syrian territory.

Katz added that Israel will maintain a presence in the Syrian buffer zone “for as long as is required” and had instructed the Israeli military to quickly establish a presence including fortifications, in anticipation of what could be an extended stay in the area.

“The summit of the Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Katz said.

Israeli forces were moving to control a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized buffer zone in Syrian territory. The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the U.N. after the 1973 Mideast war. A U.N. force of about 1,100 troops has patrolled the area since then.

Mount Hermon is divided between the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Lebanon, and Syria. Only the United States recognizes Israel’s control of the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu in Syria pic.twitter.com/xA2B7JTXYN

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 17, 2024

Israeli drones are flying at low altitude over towns near Lebanon’s Tyre, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army announced plans to detonate unexploded Israeli ammunition in Zaghrin, located in eastern Lebanon’s Hermel district.

Concrete movement on an inclusive political transition in Syria will be key in ensuring the country gets the economic support it needs, United Nations special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Tuesday.

"There is a clear international willingness to engage. The needs are immense and could only be addressed with broad support, including a smooth end to sanctions, appropriate action on designations too, and full reconstruction," he said.

The White House has expressed cautious optimism about progress towards a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

In an interview with Fox News, spokesperson John Kirby stated, "We believe – and the Israelis have said this – that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism."

Kirby noted that similar situations in the past had failed to result in a final agreement, highlighting the challenges of securing a deal.

President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that he had a "very good talk" with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the status of the war in Gaza.

Trump described it as a "recap call" ahead of his taking office on January 20.

“We had a very good talk. And we discussed what is going to happen, and I’ll be very available on January 20 and we'll see," Trump said.

 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday rejected criticism of her decision to appoint an ambassador to Syria before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, and she said she was ready to talk to the country's new government.

Italy, which announced the move in July, was the only Group of Seven (G7) member to have reopened its embassy in Damascus since civil war consumed the nation in 2012, Meloni said.

After the Assad regime fell earlier this month, the opposition denounced her July decision as an attempt to re-establish relations with the now-ousted president.

Giuseppe Provenzano, a lawmaker from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) told Meloni during a debate in parliament that the government had "worked for months to normalise relations with Assad."

Meloni said that keeping an embassy open in Damascus did not amount to a recognition of the Assad regime.

"Our ambassador never presented their credentials (to Assad)... Italy has a role in the stabilisation of certain nations and sensitive regions," Meloni told the lower house of parliament.

She also said Italy was ready to talk to the country's new rulers, who were sending "encouraging" first signals, while adding that caution was still needed.

"Words must be followed by deeds, and on deeds we will judge the new Syrian authorities. A decisive element will be the attitude towards ethnic and religious minorities, and I am thinking in particular of Christians," she said. 

Hamas said a ceasefire and hostages deal in Gaza was possible if Israel stops setting new conditions, according to a statement on Tuesday.

The statement comes after sources briefed on meetings related to the ceasefire talks told news agency Reuters that a deal was expected to be signed in the coming days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on his way to Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza, sources briefed on the meetings said.

The sources said a Gaza ceasefire deal is expected to be signed in coming days.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that two soldiers were killed in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Major Moshiko Maxim Rozenwald, 35, a reservist and combat engineer, and another unnamed soldier were killed in an "incident", the military said in a statement without providing further details.

"The building was not struck by enemy fire but was in a fragile condition before its collapse", the Israeli military radio reported.

According to the military, the deaths bring to 386 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Israel's war on Gaza. 

The death of the two soldiers comes as Israel continues to pound the besieged enclave, levelling entire neighbourhoods and killing scores.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 45,059 Palestinians and wounded over 100,000 others. 

 The French diplomatic mission sent to Damascus met with representatives appointed by Syrian transitional authorities, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday, adding it had called on them to be inclusive in the political transition process.

Paris will also be attentive to collective security issues, notably the fight against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, the foreign ministry said.

Egypt's state-affiliated Al-Qahera news said on Tuesday there were 'extensive' Egyptian-Qatari efforts with all parties to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate a deal to end the more than year-old war on the Gaza Strip. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that nearly 13,000 students have been killed and over 20,900 wounded in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the war began.

The ministry, cited by Palestinian news agency Wafa, stated that most of the casualties occurred in Gaza.

Additionally, 598 teachers and school administrators were killed, with 3,801 others injured.

In the West Bank, at least 538 students and 158 educators were arrested, though data from Gaza remains unclear.

The ministry also reported that 425 government schools, universities, and their buildings, along with 65 UNRWA-affiliated facilities, were bombed by Israeli forces, sustaining partial or total destruction.

Syrian human rights group Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has called on Syria’s new government to cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to identify and destroy all remaining chemical weapons sites in the country

The organisations emphasised that these weapons are a legacy of the Assad regime- which posed a deadly threat to civilians.

SNHR documented 222 attacks since 2012, resulting in 1,514 deaths and over 12,000 injuries.

"The Assad regime was responsible for 98 percent of these attacks, killing 1,514 individuals, including 214 women and 262 children, and injuring over 12,000 others," SNHR added.

The group also stressed the importance of Syria complying with international laws, including the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), international humanitarian law, and UN Security Council resolutions.

SNHR warned that despite Syria’s 2013 ratification of the CWC, the Assad regime continued using chemical weapons.

The group called on the international community to support OPCW’s efforts, ensure transparency, and call for the swift destruction of all chemical weapons in line with Syria’s obligations, as well as establish reparation mechanisms for victims.

The United Nations said Tuesday it expects around one million people to return to Syria in the first half of 2025, following the collapse of president Bashar al-Assad's rule.

"We have forecasted that we hope to see somewhere in the order of one million Syrians returning between January and June of next year," Rema Jamous Imseis, the Middle East and North Africa director for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told a press briefing in Geneva.

Swiss judicial authorities have suggested the trial of the uncle of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad could be shelved due to the defendant's illness and has asked parties to the case for feedback, a spokesperson told news agency Reuters on Tuesday.

Rifaat al-Assad, 87, the uncle of Bashar al-Assad, was due to face trial in Switzerland for alleged crimes committed dating back to his time as a military commander in 1982.

It is a rare trial of crimes against humanity in Switzerland and comes amid growing hope for justice for victims after a half-century of Assad family rule ended this month.

"I can confirm to you that due to the state of health of the accused, who would be physically incapable of travelling to Switzerland and psychologically incapable of participating in debates, those responsible for the trial invited the parties to decide on whether to close the case," a spokesperson for the Federal Criminal Court said in response to Reuters' questions.

She added that the court - the highest criminal authority in the country - has not yet taken a decision on whether or not to terminate the case and expected to have input from all parties by mid-January.

The trial's status was first reported by Le Matin Dimanche.

In a statement on March 12 about the case, his lawyers said in a statement: "Mr. Al-Assad has always denied any involvement in the acts of which he is accused in these proceedings."

The Attorney General's office said in March that Rifaat al-Assad had been charged with "ordering homicides, acts of torture, cruel treatments and illegal detentions" in February 1982 when he was in charge of troops in the western city of Hama.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

He lived in exile, mostly in France, from the mid-1980s, after being accused of trying to topple his brother, then-President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father.

The EU is to reopen its mission in Damascus following "constructive" talks with Syria's new leadership after the toppling of ruler Bashar al-Assad, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Tuesday.

"This is a very important step, that we will reopen the delegation in Syria," the EU's Kaja Kallas told the European Parliament.

The EU's top diplomat for Syria visited Damascus on Monday for what Kallas called "constructive first contacts with the new leadership and various other groups, also the civil society".

European nations -- along with other international players -- are jostling for influence in Syria after the end of the Assad family's five-decade domination.

But they are wary of the new authorities spearheaded by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was rooted in Al-Qaeda and is listed as a "terrorist" organisation by some Western governments.

"We can't leave a vacuum in Syria. The EU must be present," Kallas said.

The EU has said it stands ready to ramp up support for Syria -- but has laid out a raft of conditions that new leaders must respect.

Those include protecting minorities, overseeing an inclusive transition and shunning extremism.

Kallas on Monday said the EU would also push those in charge over the presence of Russian military bases in the country, saying Moscow had no place in Syria's future.

Russia propped up Assad with its forces during the civil war and has now provided him with a safe haven after his ouster.

A resurgence of Islamic State extremists in Syria following the ouster of strongman Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to happen, EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

"The risk of a Daesh resurgence... is real. We cannot let this happen," she said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, using an alternative name for Islamic State.

Syria's rebel factions will be "disbanded," the head of the group that led the ouster of Bashar al-Assad has pledged, as tensions flare between separate Turkish-backed rebels and Kurdish forces in the country's northwest.

Assad fled Syria on 8 December, as rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured the capital Damascus, ending decades of brutal dictatorship and years of civil war.

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has sought to reassure minorities at home and governments abroad that the country's interim leaders will protect all Syrians, regardless of sect or ethnicity, as well as state institutions.

To read more on the latest The New Arab report, follow the link below:

The head of a UN investigative body has reached out to Syria's new authorities via their diplomatic missions to express his willingness to engage with them and to travel to Syria to secure evidence, he told a press briefing on Tuesday.

"Our first priority would be to go and try and scope the extent of the issue, see exactly what is available in terms of access and potential evidence, and then see how we could best assist in preserving that," Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, told a Geneva press briefing.

He added that there had been some evidence lost in Syria in recent weeks but that it was too early to know the scale.

This week we had the honor to receive the visit of the new Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism #IIIM Syria, Mr Robert Petit and his legal officer Jörn Eiermann. #Luxembourg is proud to support the Mechanism’s work both politically and financially pic.twitter.com/qbfp1SBtXH

— Luxembourg at the UN🇱🇺🇺🇳 (@LuxembourgUN) November 1, 2024

The health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 45,059 people have been killed during more than 14 months of war.

The toll includes 31 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 107,041 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday began talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a key visit following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

The talks in the capital Ankara come after the EU Commission announced the launch of an "air bridge" operation to deliver an initial 50 tonnes of health supplies to Syria via Turkey.

The items from EU stockpiles in Dubai will be flown to Adana in southern Turkey for distribution in Syria, a commission statement said on Friday, indicating it would start "in the coming days".

The UN's OCHA humanitarian agency says more than a million people, mostly women and children, have been newly displaced since Assad was toppled by forces backed by Ankara.

Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday and pledged to work with the new transitional government.

The country, which shares a long border with Syria, has become home to about three million Syrian refugees since the start of the civil war in 2011.

Their presence has sparked growing dissent in Turkey, becoming a political headache which hurt Erdogan in last year's presidential elections.

Under a 2016 deal with the EU, Turkey agreed to take back Syrian refugees in exchange for financial aid and other incentives.

But Erdogan has often threatened Brussels with reopening the gates unless it provided additional support.

During a visit in 2021, Von der Leyen found herself left without a chair during talks with Erdogan in Ankara in what came to be known as the 'sofagate scandal'.

As the first woman president of the EU Commission, she blamed sexism saying at the time: "It happened because I am a woman".

Israel's Knesset is reportedly considering a bill to permit Israeli citizens to re-enter the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.

This move comes as coalition lawmakers push to legalise further settlement construction on Palestinian land.

The bill, introduced by Likud MP Avichay Boaron, challenges the 2005 "disengagement law" that evacuated Jewish residents from Gaza and the northern West Bank and ended Israel's military presence in those areas.

The proposal describes the entry ban as evoking "dark periods in Jewish history," referencing the Holocaust.

The legislation argues that Israelis should regain "full freedom of presence and movement" in Gaza and calls for the war to end with the "total loss of Islamist control" over the territory.

In support of this initiative, a group of coalition lawmakers is planning a tour of the Gaza border to advocate for Jewish resettlement in the region.

 The Israeli military said on Tuesday that two soldiers were killed during combat in southern Gaza.

The Yemeni Houthi military claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Israel on Monday.

According to a spokesperson, the Houthi forces launched a hypersonic ballistic missile targeting a military site in the coastal city of Jaffa.

The group stated the operation was successful and vowed to continue such actions until the "aggression on Gaza ends" and the "siege is lifted."

The Israeli military confirmed on X that a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted before reaching its target.

Alerts were activated to warn of falling debris.

Later on Monday, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported that Israel was considering a "significant response" against the Houthi forces.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas in the enclave. 

Visiting French special envoy for Syria Jean-Francois Guillaume said his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period after Bashar al-Assad's ouster by rebels this month.

"France is preparing to be with Syrians" during the transitional period "which we hope will be peaceful", Guillaume told journalists, adding that his delegation had come to "make contact with the de facto authorities in Damascus."

According to news agency AFP, the French flag was raised in the embassy's entrance hall for the first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012.

Germany plans talks with representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, joining the United States and Britain in establishing contact with the Syrian group after it led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

German diplomats' first talks with representatives of the HTS-appointed interim government will focus on a transitional process for Syria and the protection of minorities, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said.

"The possibilities of a diplomatic presence in Damascus are also being explored there," the spokesperson added in a statement, reiterating that Berlin was monitoring HTS closely in light of its roots in al Qaeda ideology.

"As far as one can tell, they have acted prudently so far," the spokesperson said of the group, whose rebels led the ouster of Assad earlier this month, ending 13 years of war.

The conflict triggered the movement of some one million Syrian refugees to Germany.

Its end has stoked debate in the country on asylum procedures, now paused for Syrians pending an assessment of the situation in their home country.

Germany is liaising closely with its partners, including the US, France and Britain, as well as Arab states, on Syria, the German ministry spokesperson said. 

The US-brokered truce between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in the Manbij and Kobane regions has come to an end.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the two sides failed to establish a lasting ceasefire, with the SNA refusing to permit the evacuation of Manbij Military Council fighters linked to the SDF from the city to safe zones.

The SOHR also highlighted a significant Turkish military build-up near Kobane (Ain al-Arab) on the border.

The SNA's offensive against the SDF aligns with a broader campaign by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group that recently dismantled the former Syrian regime.

On Monday, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Mohammed al-Jolani, outlined plans to monitor developments in Raqqa, Hasaka, and Deir al-Zour—regions predominantly under SDF control—until "freedom" is achieved.