Syrian regime collapses in Daraa and east, dozens killed in Gaza strike

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Iran has started evacuating its military commanders and personnel from Syria, including senior Quds Force leaders, according to The New York Times.

Some officials have already fled to Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, with the evacuation still underway.

Israeli strikes across Gaza on Friday killed at least 63 Palestinians, according to medical sources cited by news publication Al Jazeera.

Of the victims, 35 were in northern Gaza, where attacks targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital and displaced thousands from Beit Lahiya in recent days.

Israeli warplanes flew over Beirut and struck a target in southern Lebanon, violating a fragile ceasefire, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).

The strikes targeted an area near the Litani River in Nabatieh district, while additional buildings were destroyed in Odaisseh, Marjayoun district.

Israeli drones also flew at low altitude above Beirut’s southern suburbs.

US citizens in Syria should immediately leave the country "while commercial options remain available," the State Department said Friday, as rebel forces continue their offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's troops.

"The security situation continues to be volatile and unpredictable with active clashes between armed groups throughout the country. The Department urges US citizens to depart Syria now while commercial options remain available," the department said in a security alert posted on social media.

Senator Tom Cotton has introduced a bill to replace the term "West Bank" with "Judea and Samaria" in federal documents, arguing the new terminology aligns with Israel’s historical and biblical claims.

The bill mirrors a House bill proposed earlier this year by Representatives Claudia Tenney, Randy Weber, and Anthony D’Esposito.

Cotton stated, "The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years," calling for the US to stop using the "politically charged" term West Bank.

The Syrian regime lost control Friday of the symbolic southern city of Daraa and most of the eponymous province, which was the cradle of the country's 2011 uprising, a war monitor said.

"Local factions have taken control of more areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city... they now control more than 90 percent of the province, as regime forces successively pulled out," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Palestinian rights activists in Ireland are organising a day of fasting on December 12 to show solidarity with Palestinians suffering from hunger and bombardment in Gaza.

The initiative, called Hunger for Justice, is led by former 1981 Maze Prison Hunger Strikers to highlight the shared experience of forced starvation faced by Palestinians.

The organisers are urging people worldwide to participate in the fast and share their experiences on social media with the hashtag #Fast4Palestine.

In a statement, they condemned Israel’s siege on Gaza, describing it as a "crime against humanity" that has caused widespread hunger. They called for global action, urging people not to stay silent or complicit in the ongoing violence and genocide.

Syrian rebel factions said on Saturday that they took over the southern city of Daraa after they reached a deal with the army to secure its orderly withdrawal, rebel sources said.

They said senior security and army officials serving in the city were given safe passage to Damascus.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed Syria with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday and Fidan said the Syrian government should enter dialogue with the opposition and initiate a political process, a foreign ministry source said.

Fidan said in the phone call that all actors in the region should play a constructive role and that terrorist organisations should not be allowed to benefit from the chaotic environment in Syria, the source said.

Measures should also be taken to prevent chemical weapons possessed by the Syrian government from becoming a risk for the region and that it was important for humanitarian aid to reach the region, Fidan was also cited as saying.

Syrian officials reportedly fled government buildings in Sweida, a predominantly Druze province in southern Syria, as a rebel offensive inflicted significant losses on Damascus.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, stated that the Sweida governor, police and prison chiefs, and the local Baath Party leader vacated their offices as local fighters seized control of several checkpoints.

Footage from Suwayda24 showed staff leaving police headquarters, along with rebels destroying an image of President Bashar al-Assad.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with UN chief Antonio Guterres to discuss efforts to end Israel’s offensive on Gaza and address the humanitarian crisis.

The two officials highlighted the importance of UNRWA and called for an immediate ceasefire.

They also discussed cooperation between Jordan and UN organisations to deliver aid to Gaza.

At least 51 people have died in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources.

Of those killed, 35 were in northern Gaza, where Israel has been conducting heavy bombing operations since October.

An Israeli air strike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp has killed 20 people, including six children and five women, according to the Wafa news agency.

The house had reportedly been evacuated before the attack, but several residents of nearby homes were injured.

Separately, a young girl was killed when Israeli artillery shelled tents sheltering displaced families in western Nuseirat.

Syrian rebels have reached the city limits of Homs, making last call for Syrian forces to defect, rebels said on Telegram.

An Israeli strike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp claimed 14 lives, including three children and two women, Al Jazeera reported.

At least 30 others were injured in the attack.

The occupation forces are committing a new massacre against the club's family in the Nuseirat camp, leaving extensive destruction of homes and property. So far, 17 martyrs and a number of wounded have been registered, rescue teams are still looking for missing under the rubble. pic.twitter.com/Bkra9DOjy0

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) December 6, 2024

 The Supreme Court agreed Friday to settle a years-long legal dispute over whether Palestinian authorities can be sued in US courts by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in the Middle East.

The federal appeals court in New York has repeatedly ruled in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, despite Congress' efforts to allow the victims' lawsuits to be heard.

That court's latest decision, last year, struck down a law enacted in 2019 specifically to allow the lawsuits to move forward. The Supreme Court typically takes on cases in which lower courts have invalidated federal laws.

The question for the justices is whether the 2019 law is unconstitutional, as the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals found, because it denies fair legal process to the PLO and PA. The case probably will be argued in the spring.

Both the victims and the Biden administration had urged the high court to step in.

The attacks occurred in the early 2000s, killing 33 people and wounding hundreds more, and in 2018, when a US -born settler was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant outside a busy mall in the West Bank.

The victims and their families assert that Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals first ruled in 2016 against the victims of the attacks from 20 years ago, tossing out a $654 million jury verdict in their favor.

In that earlier ruling, the appeals court held US courts can’t consider lawsuits against foreign-based groups over random attacks that were not aimed at the United States.

The victims had sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act, signed into law in 1992. The law was passed to open US courts to victims of international terrorism, spurred by the killing of American Leon Klinghoffer during a 1985 terrorist attack aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

The jury found the PLO and Palestinian Authority liable for six attacks and awarded $218 million in damages. The award was automatically tripled under the law.

After the Supreme Court rejected the victims’ appeal in 2018, Congress again amended the law to make clear it did not want to close the courthouse door to the victims.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Iraq, and Syria issued a joint statement on Friday warning that the advance of opposition forces in Syria poses "a serious danger."

Meeting in Baghdad, Iran's Abbas Araghchi, Iraq's Fuad Hussain and Syria's Bassam al-Sabbagh labelled Syrian opposition forces as "terrorists" and called for collective action to counter them.

They also condemned Israeli attacks on Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon.

Issuing a statement, the three called for increased regional coordination to de-escalate tensions and highlighted "the need to mobilize all Arab, regional and international efforts in order to reach peaceful solutions to the challenges facing the region in general and Syria in particular."

An Israeli air strike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located in central Gaza, has claimed the lives of at least five people, including children.

According to the Wafa news agency, the house targeted by Israeli warplanes had been evacuated prior to the attack.

However, the strike resulted in the deaths of five individuals and caused injuries to several others in nearby homes.

Three of the victims were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah for treatment.

Russian and Syrian strikes killed 20 civilians, including five children, near Homs on Friday, a war monitor said, as rebels advanced towards the country's third-largest city in a lightning advance.

"Russian air strikes and Syria air raids and shelling killed 20 people near Homs city, including five people from the same family," said Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim ruling parties and armed groups are weighing the pros and cons of armed intervention in Syria, viewing as a grave threat the advance of Sunni rebels who have taken two Syrian cities and now bear down on a third.

Baghdad has a dark history with Syria-based Sunni fighters, thousands of whom crossed into Iraq after the 2003 US invasion and fuelled years of sectarian killing before returning again in 2013 as Islamic State to conquer a third of the country.

The Syrian rebels currently advancing in Syria, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have disavowed Al Qaeda and IS and say they have no ambitions in Iraq, but the ruling factions in Iraq have little trust in those assertions.

Iraq has amassed on its border with Syria thousands of fighters from its conventional military as well as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a security agency containing many Iran-aligned armed groups that previously fought in Syria.

The orders so far are to defend Iraq's western flank, rather than to intervene to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to an Iraqi Shi'ite politician, a government adviser and an Arab diplomat briefed on the matter.

But the calculation could change, at least for some Iraqi factions, depending on developments, including if the rebels take the major Syrian city of Homs, if Assad falls, or if Shi'ites are persecuted, the sources said.

Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem Al-Awadi said Iraq does not seek military intervention in Syria but described the division of Syria as a "red line" for Iraq, without elaborating.

The country's government, led by moderate Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has tried desperately to avoid being dragged into the spiralling regional conflict that has come with the Gaza war, instead trying to focus on rebuilding after decades of war.

"The Iraqi government's stance from the beginning has been that Iraq is not a side in this crisis," said Falih al-Fayadh, leader of the PMF, in a televised speech on Friday.

"But it is not wise for there to be a fire in your neighbour's house while you sleep, reassured without thinking of what might happen," he said.

Rebel fighters who have taken city after city in a lightning offensive in Syria aim to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, their leader said in an interview published on Friday.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, said the goal of the offensive was to end Assad's rule.

"When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal," Jolani told CNN in an interview.

At least 370,000 people have been displaced in Syria since fighting escalated in Syria last week - the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed.

The figures include 100,000 people who have been displaced more than once, mostly women and children.

"Tens of thousands of people have arrived in north-east Syria," OCHA said.

Iran's top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said Friday that the lightning rebel offensive in Syria against its ally President Bashar al-Assad, posed a threat to the whole Middle East.

"If Syria becomes a safe place for terrorists with the return of ISIS and other terrorist groups, it will create a great threat to the region," Araghchi told reporters in Baghdad, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday his country would continue to support Syria "with whatever is needed" as President Bashar al-Assad's forces face a lightning rebel offensive.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always supported Syria and will continue to do so with all its might and with whatever is needed and requested by the Syrian government," Araghchi said during a visit to Baghdad.

At least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and regime forces in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Friday, two witnesses and a local activist said.

They said anti-government fighters also took control of the main police station and the biggest civilian prison hours after hundreds of people protested in a main square demanding the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"People are seeing what is happening in the rest of Syria as liberation of Syria and a chance to bring down the regime," activist Ryan Marouf, editor of Suwayda 24, a website that covers the province, told Reuters.

(Reuters)

A statue of former President Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current ruler Bashar, was toppled in Hama after rebels overran the country's fourth-largest city, video authenticated by AFP showed.

A machine's long mechanical arm tipped the towering statue over to cheers and cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and "Thank God" from the crowd, along with a deafening sound of celebratory gunfire, the night-time footage published Thursday night on social media showed.

Separate footage from an AFP journalist on Friday showed a small truck pulling the statue's enormous, decapitated head, pockmarked with holes, along a road. The truck moved too fast for men trying to kick the head but others followed on motorbikes.

Syrian local fighters and former rebels overran one of the main army bases in Daraa province, known as Liwa 52, near the town of Herak as fighting spread to the country's southern border with Jordan, two rebel sources told Reuters on Friday.

They also seized parts of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan near the customs section, where dozens of trailers and passenger cars were stranded, sources added.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military on Friday denied reports it had struck or entered the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, claiming it was operating "adjacent" to the facility.

"Contrary to the reports made over the past day, the (military) did not strike the Kamal Adwan hospital or operate within it", it said in a statement. It said it would "continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists" in northern Gaza, including "adjacent to" the hospital.

The collapse of Russia's ally Syria in the face of an assault from rebel groups shows Moscow cannot fight on two fronts, Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Thursday while reiterating denials that Kyiv was involved in the fighting there.

"We can see that Russia cannot fight on two fronts -- this is clear from the events in Syria," ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters at a weekly news conference.

Tykhyi was responding to a question about accusations from Iran, another ally of Assad, that Ukraine was supporting what Tehran called terrorist groups.

"Ukraine categorically and decisively rejects any accusations ... about our supposed involvement in the deteriorating security situation in Syria," the spokesperson said.

(Reuters)

Kurdish-led fighters, who already controlled most of northeastern Syria, said Friday they had moved into eastern areas formerly held by the government as Syrian troops withdrew.

"In order to protect our people, our Deir Ezzor Military Council fighters were deployed in Deir Ezzor city and west of the Euphrates River," the Arab-majority council affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement.

Armed groups in southern Syria seized control of a border crossing with Jordan from government forces on Friday, a war monitor said, while Jordan said it had closed it.

"Local armed factions seized control of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan, as well as nearby checkpoints and towns," Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that at least 12,000 patients in Gaza need medical evacuation.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on X that another medical evacuation of eight patients out of Gaza - 5 to Belgium, 2 to Spain and 1 to Romania. The patients were evacuated by 25 companies.

"At least 12,000 patients across Gaza still need medical evacuation to survive. We urge for the rapid and efficient use of all corridors to allow all patients to receive life-saving care in time," Ghebreyesus wrote.

With thanks to @eu_echo, @WHO led another medical evacuation of 8 patients out of #Gaza — 5 to Belgium, 2 to Spain and 1 to Romania.

The patients were evacuated with 25 companions.

We are grateful to all the partners and receiving governments for their partnership and support.… pic.twitter.com/APegvvg0i3

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 6, 2024

Syrian troops and their Iran-backed allies "suddenly" pulled out of eastern Deiz az-Zour city and its surroundings Friday, a war monitor said, as a rebel offensive dealt the government a series of stunning blows.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said government forces evacuated some checkpoints in the south's Daraa province as local fighters attacked several administrative buildings in one town.

"Syrian regime forces and commanders of Iran-backed allied groups suddenly withdrew from Deir Ezzor city and its countryside with columns of soldiers heading towards the central Palmyra region," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, told AFP.

Jordan has closed its only passenger and commercial border crossing with Syria, the interior ministry said on Friday.

Armed groups have been firing at Syria’s Nassib border crossing with Jordan, a Syrian army source told Reuters.

(Reuters)

Gaza's civil defence agency said 29 people were killed on Friday in Israeli strikes near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia, where Israel is pressing a major offensive.

"At least 29 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip since dawn on Friday as a result of the continuing Israeli shelling around Kamal Adwan hospital," said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

The Israeli military said Friday it was "reinforcing aerial and ground forces" in the occupied Golan Heights in response to sweeping rebel advances in Syria.

In a statement, the military said it was "monitoring developments and is prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike", adding that it "will not tolerate any threat near the Israeli border".

A war monitor said Syrian government troops pulled out of the central city of Homs on Friday in the face of a rebel offensive, but the defence ministry denied the report.

"Syrian soldiers have withdrawn from Homs city towards its outskirts," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. The ministry later said "there is no truth to news... about the army withdrawing from Homs".

The German government on Friday rejected Amnesty International's accusation that Israel is committing "genocide" against Palestinians in its military campaign in Gaza.

Asked for a response to Amnesty's report, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters: "The question of genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognise any such clear intention and therefore I cannot share the conclusions of the report."

"We take the accusations in the report very seriously and are currently analysing them," he said.

"We have repeatedly urged the Israeli government to adjust its military operations in Gaza and better fulfil its obligations to protect civilians," Fischer said.

"However it is still our opinion that Israel is acting in defence against Hamas which sparked this conflict with its terror attacks," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said an arson attack on a synagogue in Australia "cannot be separated" from what he called its government's "anti-Israel sentiment".

In a statement, Netanyahu said that "this heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government," citing Canberra's "outrageous decision" in September to vote for a UN resolution that demanded the end of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, and arguing that "anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism".

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Friday said his country was pressing diplomatic efforts aimed at "containing the crisis in Syria due to its clear impact on Iraqi security".

His remarks came ahead of a meeting between the top diplomats of Baghdad, Damascus and Tehran to discuss developments in Syria, which has been in the throes of a shock offensive that has seen rebel forces capture key cities from the government.

In a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Sudani on Friday affirmed that "Iraq is continuing intensive diplomatic efforts with the aim of containing the crisis in Syria due to its clear impact on Iraqi security".

"Iraq's official, fixed stance is in support of Syria's unity, security and stability," Sudani added, according to a statement from his office.

The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria said Friday he was open to talks with Turkey and the Syrian rebels, whose offensive had created a "new political and military reality".

"We want to de-escalate with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other parties and to solve our problems through dialogue", including with Turkey, Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls swathes of northeast Syria, told reporters. "We were surprised to see the sudden and rapid collapse of Syrian government forces on the frontlines as factions took control of large areas, imposing a new political and military reality," he added.

A rapid rebel advance in northwest Syria poses risks for the United States, which was "caught unaware", and other countries, including Turkey, Russia and Iran, former US ambassador James Jeffrey told Reuters.

Jeffrey, former US Ambassador to the Coalition to Defeat Islamic State under the previous Trump Administration, said President-elect Donald Trump was likely to ramp up pressure on Syria's ally Iran both there and across the region.

"Such a dramatic change in the balance of power in Syria makes everybody nervous because everybody has a chunk of Syria," said Jeffrey, a former envoy to both Turkey and Iraq who chairs the Washington-based Wilson Center's Middle East Program.

"We were caught unaware. You only have so much in terms of intelligence assets... and we basically prioritise," he said of the U.S. in a telephone interview late on Thursday.

(Reuters)

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said he wished the rebel advance in Syria would "continue without incident", believing that their objective is the capital Damascus.

"So far Idleb, Hama and Homs and of course the objective, Damascus: the advance of the opponents continues. We wish this advance to continue without incident," said Erdogan.

Russia's embassy in Syria has urged Russian nationals to leave the country on commercial flights after the Syrian rebel offensive, Russia's TASS state news agency reported on Friday. 

(Reuters)

Assad's troops and their Iran-backed allies "suddenly" pulled out of eastern Deiz az-Zour city and its surroundings Friday, a war monitor said, as a rebel offensive dealt the government a series of stunning blows.

"Syrian regime forces and commanders of Iran-backed allied groups suddenly withdrew from Deir Ezzor city and its countryside with columns of soldiers heading towards the central Palmyra region," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, told AFP.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran will hold talks on Syria in Qatar on 7 December, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday, the TASS state news agency reported.

(Reuters)

Up to 1.5 million people could be forced to flee a surge in fighting in Syria, a senior UN official said on Friday, as rebels pressed on with their lightning offensive against government forces.

The violence has already displaced 280,000 people since it erupted in late November, Samer AbdelJaber, the World Food Programme's Director for Emergency Coordination, Strategic Analysis and Humanitarian Diplomacy, told reporters in Geneva.

"If the situation continues evolving (at the same) ... pace, we're expecting collectively around 1.5 million people that will be displaced and will be requiring our support," he added.

(Reuters)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped Syrian rebels will continue their advances against President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria.

Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers, Erdogan said he had still not received a positive response from Assad to a call he made earlier this year to meet and normalise ties.

"The advances of the opposition are continuing as of now... Our hope is that this walk in Syria continues without any issues," he said.

(Reuters)

Turkey confirmed Friday that it would meet Russian and Iranian foreign ministers for talks on the escalating civil war in Syria in Qatar on Saturday.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan "will meet with the Russian and Iranian ministers... for a meeting under the Astana process" on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, a foreign ministry source said.

The so-called Astana process involving the three countries was launched by Kazakhstan in 2017 in a bid to find a political solution to the civil war in Syria, which has flared again after a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels over the past week.

Iranian state media had reported earlier that a meeting was expected on the forum's sidelines between Turkey, which supports some of the rebels, and Damascus allies Iran and Russia.

Qatar, which gave early support to the rebels after President Bashar al-Assad's government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, remains a fierce critic of Assad but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.

Turkey shares a border of more than 900 kilometres (560 miles) with Syria and currently is home to around three million Syrian refugees.

Iran aims to send missiles and drones to Syria and increase the number of its military advisers there to support President Bashar al-Assad in his battle against rebels, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.

"It is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria ... Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"Now, Tehran is providing intelligence and satellite support to Syria."

(Reuters)

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah sent a small number of "supervising forces" from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing the strategic city of Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

A Syrian military officer and two regional officials close to Tehran also told Reuters that elite forces from Iran-backed Hezbollah had crossed over from Lebanon overnight and took up positions in Homs.

(Reuters)

The head of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish force said on Friday that the Islamic State group had taken control over some areas in eastern Syria.

"Due to the recent developments, there is increased movement by Islamic State mercenaries in the Syrian desert, in the south and west of Deir Al-Zor and the countryside of al-Raqqa," Mazloum Abdi said in a press conference, referring to areas in the east of the country.

(Reuters)

The United Nations health agency has no indication that a warning was issued before Israel's bombing early on Thursday of Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, the World Health Organisation's regional representative said.

The fact that the attack on the hospital had occurred just a week after Israeli authorities had facilitated the entry of an Indonesian emergency medical team to the hospital was particularly concerning.

"Within one week, they feel forced, scared, whatever, to leave," WHO's Rik Peeperkorn told a U.N. Geneva briefing by video link. "That is extremely concerning and should never happen."

The hospital was currently "minimally functional", he added.

(Reuters)

The director of north Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital said Israel conducted several strikes on Friday that hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in the area.

"There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire," Hossam Abu Safieh said, adding that four staff were killed and no surgeons were left at the site.

Syrian insurgents entered two central towns early Friday just north of the central city of Homs, bringing them closer Syria’s third largest city, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media both reported.

The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran, and Russia will meet in Doha on Saturday to discuss a lightning rebel advance in Syria, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Friday.

Turkey, Russia and Iran have regularly held talks on Syria's future in a trilateral format as part of what is known as the Astana peace process. While NATO member Turkey backs the political and armed opposition, Russia and Iran support Assad.

The source said the three ministers were expected to meet on the sidelines of the Doha Forum on Saturday within the framework of the Astana process, but did not provide further information.

(Reuters)

Assad's forces backed by warplanes, including from ally Russia, were targeting "terrorist vehicles and gatherings" in Hama province on Friday, the defence ministry said, amid a major rebel offensive.

"Our armed forces are targeting terrorist vehicles and gatherings in the north and south of Hama province using artillery, missiles and joint Syrian-Russian warplanes," a ministry statement said, citing a military source.

The escalation in fighting in Syria has displaced around 280,000 people in just over a week, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that numbers could swell to 1.5 million.

"The figure we have in front of us is 280,000 people since November 27," Samer AbdelJaber, head of emergency coordination at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters in Geneva.

"That does not include the figure of people who fled from Lebanon during the recent escalations" in fighting there, he added.

The leader of the rebel alliance driving a lightning offensive in Syria has said the goal of the campaign is to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal," Abu Mohammed al-Jolani told CNN in an interview published Friday.

The Israeli military on Friday said it had conducted air strikes on Hezbollah's "weapon-smuggling routes" on the Syria-Lebanon border, just over a week into a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon.

The Israeli air force "conducted strikes on weapon-smuggling routes and terror infrastructure sites located near the Syrian regime's crossings at the Syrian-Lebanese border", the military said in a statement that included a map identifying the crossing as Al-Arida.

(Reuters)

The Arida border crossing between Syria and Lebanon is out of service due to an Israeli attack early on Friday, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military attacked overnight in Syria weapons transfer hubs and infrastructure that were placed near the border between Syria and Lebanon, spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Friday.

(Reuters)

#عاجل 🔴 جيش الدفاع هاجم في سوريا محاور نقل وسائل قتالية وبنى تحتية ارهابية تم وضعها بالقرب من الحدود بين سوريا ولبنان

🔸شنت طائرات حربية لسلاح الجو خلال الليلة الماضية غارات استهدفت محاور نقل وسائل قتالية وبنى تحتية إرهابية بالقرب من المعابر الحدودية التابعة للنظام السوري بين… pic.twitter.com/vgxevBkgM2

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) December 6, 2024

Israeli strikes early on Friday hit two border crossings linking Lebanon with Syria, Lebanon's transport minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

The strikes hit just across the border on the Syrian side of both the Arida crossing in northern Lebanon and the Jousieh crossing, which links to eastern Lebanon, Hamieh said.

Both crossings are important access points to Syria's Homs province, where anti-regime rebels are seeking to advance against government forces after sweeping through northern Syria.

(Reuters)

Air strikes targeted a bridge on the highway linking the Syrian cities of Homs and Hama, a war monitor said Friday, as government forces scramble to secure Homs after rebels captured Hama and commercial hub Aleppo.

"Fighter jets executed several airstrikes, targeting Al-Rastan bridge on (the) Homs-Hama highway... as well as attacking positions around the bridge, attempting to cut off the road between Hama and Homs and secure Homs," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

To slow the rebel advance, the Observatory said Assad's forces erected soil barriers on the highway north of Homs, Syria's third-largest city which lies just 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Hama.