Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing
Updated 30 September 2024
AFP
DAMASCUS: In central Damascus, a giant screen aired images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as news of his killing in an Israeli strike reverberated across the city.
Syrians fear Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon could spill into regime-held areas, which have already faced hundreds of Israeli strikes over the years.
“Sayyed Nasrallah’s killing was a great shock and a tragedy for us and Arab nations,” said Ayham Barada, a 30-year-old shop owner.
“We lost a man of great stature.”
Nasrallah was a key ally of President Bashar Assad and backed the Damascus regime’s forces during the Syrian civil war.
His group, alongside Russia and Iran, helped Assad to claw back lost territory.
Assad offered condolences to Nasrallah’s family, saying he “will remain in the memory of Syrians” for heading the group during its fight “alongside Syria in its war against the tools of Israel.”
In Damascus, the group has a presence in the Sayyida Zeinab area south of the capital, home to an important Shiite Muslim shrine that is protected by pro-Iran groups.
Nasrallah’s face adorns walls across the neighborhood, and prayers echo from loudspeakers. Residents say that young men distribute white roses and water to passersby. In other parts of the city, mourners gathered for three days to mark his death.
Fearful of Iranian missiles, many sleep in Israel’s underground train stations
Updated 13 sec ago
“We’re not sleeping because of the anxiety and because of the sirens that are happening during the nights,” said Shraibmen Melech said the scene, with hundreds of people in their pajamas in the train station, reminded her of her grandfather’s stories from World War II
RAMAT GAN, Israel: Aziza Melech felt her body relax for the first time in days when she settled onto her inflatable mattress in an underground station of Israel’s light rail system on a recent evening.
For the next few hours, at least, the 34-year-old event planner wouldn’t need to run every time a siren warning of Iranian missiles sounded.
Since the war began a week ago with Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, families with young kids, foreign workers, and young professionals have brought mattresses and sleeping bags, snacks and pets into the stations each evening.
Repeatedly running for shelter On Wednesday night, in a station that straddles Tel Aviv and neighboring Ramat Gan, parents settled in their kids with stuffed animals, while young people fired up tablets loaded with movies.
Many walked in carrying boxes of pizza. Workers set out snacks and coffee.
It was Melech’s first night sleeping in the brightly lit train station, and she was joined by her friend Sonia Shraibmen.
“We’re not sleeping because of the anxiety and because of the sirens that are happening during the nights,” said Shraibmen. “It’s very scary to run every time to the shelter.”
That morning, Shraibmen fell on the street while rushing to a nearby shelter, and decided to move somewhere where she wouldn’t have to get up and run each time her phone blared.
Melech said the scene, with hundreds of people in their pajamas in the train station, reminded her of her grandfather’s stories from World War II. “Now, we’ll be able to tell our grandkids about this,” she said.
The war between Israel and Iran began on June 13, when Israel launched airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites as well as top generals and nuclear scientists.
More than 600 people, including over 200 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. People in Tehran have also packed into metro stations as strikes boomed overhead.
Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and more than 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Those strikes have killed have killed 24 people and injured hundreds in Israel. Missiles have struck 40 different sites, including apartment buildings, offices and a hospital, according to authorities.
Footage of pancaked buildings or apartment towers with faces sheared off has forced some people to reconsider what they do when a siren blares.
The Tel Aviv light rail, which is not running because of the war, has several underground stations. In addition to the hundreds who sleep in them each night, thousands of others come only when there’s a siren, crowding into every part of the station not taken up by mattresses.
Those living older apartments lack shelter Around half of the nighttime residents at the train station are foreign workers, who often live in older apartment buildings that are often not equipped with adequate shelters.
While new buildings in Israel are required to have reinforced safe rooms meant to withstand rockets, Iran is firing much stronger ballistic missiles. And shelter access is severely lacking in poorer neighborhoods and towns, especially in Arab areas.
Babu Chinabery, a home health aide from India, said he went to the station ”because we are very scared about the missiles because they’re so strong.”
Chinabery, 48, has been in Israel for 10 years, so he is no stranger to the sirens. But the past week has been something different. “It’s very difficult, that’s why we’re coming to sleep here,” he said.
The light rail stations aren’t the only places people have sought shelter.
Around 400 people also sleep in an underground parking garage at one of the city’s biggest malls each night, according to organizers. Mutual aid groups set up more than 100 tents, each one in a parking space, providing a bit more privacy for people who wanted to sleep in a safe area.
Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station — a half-abandoned cement behemoth — also opened its underground atomic shelter to the public for the first time in years.
While likely one of the safest places in Israel during a missile attack, the creepily deserted rat- and cockroach-infested shelter, filled with standing water from leaky pipes, attracted only a handful of curious onlookers during the day and no residents at night.
Not taking ‘unnecessary risks’ Roi Asraf, 45, has been sleeping at the train station in Ramat Gan for the past few nights with his wife and 3-year-old daughter, even though they have a safe room at home.
“I don’t like to take unnecessary risks,” he said.
They now have the routine down: They give their daughter a bath at home, get everyone in their pajamas, and walk to the train station by 7 p.m. Local volunteers have run a nightly show for kids to help settle them before sleep.
“I hope (the conflict) will be short and quick,” said Asraf, after his daughter, Ariel, bounded off with her mom to catch the show. Despite the difficulties, he supports Israel’s attack on Iran.
“If I have to sleep a week of my life in a train station for everything to be safer, I’m willing to do it,” he said.
Libya objects to Greek tender for hydrocarbon exploration off Crete
Greece opposed the agreement, saying it had no legal basis
Last month Athens invited bidders for hydrocarbon exploration in two blocks south of Crete
Updated 20 min 27 sec ago
Reuters
TRIPOLI: Libya’s internationally recognized government of national unity has objected to Greece’s approval of an international tender for hydrocarbon exploration off the island of Crete, saying some of the blocks infringed upon its own maritime zones.
The two countries have been trying to mend relations strained by an accord signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Greece’s regional rival Turkiye, which mapped out a sea area between them close to the Greek island.
Greece opposed the agreement, saying it had no legal basis as it sought to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkiye’s southern Mediterranean shore to Libya’s northeast coast, ignoring the presence of Crete.
Last month Athens invited bidders for hydrocarbon exploration in two blocks south of Crete following an expression of interest by US major Chevron.
Libya’s Tripoli-based foreign ministry said in a statement late on Thursday that some of the tendered sea blocks off Crete fell within disputed zones and were “a clear violation of Libya’s sovereign rights.”
The ministry objected “to any exploration or drilling activities in these areas without a prior legal understanding that respects the rules of international law,” it said, calling on Greek authorities to prioritize dialogue and negotiation.
Responding to questions at the Greek parliament, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said Greece was willing to discuss with Libya “the delimitation of maritime zones within the framework of international law.”
Gerapetritis is expected to visit Libya in the coming weeks, an official with the Greek foreign ministry told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Israeli defense minister warns Hezbollah against joining conflict with Iran
Hezbollah has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting
Updated 20 June 2025
Reuters
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah to exercise caution on Friday, saying Israel’s patience with “terrorists” who threaten it had worn thin.
The head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called “brutal Israeli-American aggression” against Iran.
In other statements, the group has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting and a Hezbollah official told Reuters last week that the group did not intend to initiate attacks against Israel.
Civil defense official says 26 people killed while gathered near aid distribution center
Updated 20 June 2025
AFP
GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 43 people on Friday, including 26 who had gathered near an aid distribution center, the latest in a string of deadly incidents targeting aid seekers in the Palestinian territory.
“Forty-three martyrs have fallen as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 26 of whom were waiting for humanitarian aid,” Mohammad Al-Mughayyir, director of medical supply at the civil defense agency in Gaza, told AFP.
UN warns of ‘disastrous consequences’ of escalating Sudan fighting
“The recent fighting and grave risk of further aggravation in an already brutal and deadly conflict raise severe protection concerns,” Turk said
“For too long already, the world has witnessed the unbound horrors unfolding in Sudan”
Updated 47 min 38 sec ago
AFP
GENEVA: The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that escalating fighting in Sudan’s west and center risks aggravating harm to civilians and abuses, more than two years into the country’s war.
Turk in a statement warned of “the disastrous consequences stemming from ongoing and escalating hostilities” in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, “where civilian casualties, sexual violence, abductions and looting have been reported in multiple areas.”
“The recent fighting and grave risk of further aggravation in an already brutal and deadly conflict raise severe protection concerns, amid a pervasive culture of impunity for human rights violations,” Turk said.
The war since April 2023 pits Sudan’s army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, with both sides facing repeated accusations of human rights violations.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including four million who fled abroad, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“For too long already, the world has witnessed the unbound horrors unfolding in Sudan and the untold suffering of its people. Civilians must be protected at all costs. Violations and crimes must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be held to account,” Turk said.
He pointed to a paramilitary attack on the long-besieged North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher “following months of increased mobilization of fighters, including the recruitment of children.”
Turk said this mirrors a previous offensive on a nearby displacement camp that “led to hundreds of civilian deaths, widespread sexual violence and a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Turk also said civilians were “trapped” in Dibeibat town in South Kordofan state as the warring sides fight to capture it, while the army-held city of El-Obeid in North Kordofan is “reportedly surrounded” by paramilitary forces.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration on Wednesday said more than 16,000 people had been displaced from areas hit by violence, including South Kordofan and Darfur.
