Israel says nabbed Syrian spy working for Iran

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 03 November 2024
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Israel says nabbed Syrian spy working for Iran

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon.
  • The military named the “Iranian terror network operative” as Ali Soleiman Al-Assi, a Syrian citizen living in the area of the southern village of Saida

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Sunday it had captured a Syrian spy for Iran in recent months, thwarting a planned attack by what it described as Iranian terror networks.
The military named the “Iranian terror network operative” as Ali Soleiman Al-Assi, a Syrian citizen living in the area of the southern village of Saida.
“His activities included gathering intelligence on IDF (Israeli military) troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network,” it said in a statement.
The military said the operation took place “in recent months,” adding that the Syrian citizen “was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel.”
The operation “prevented a future attack and led to the exposure of the operational methods of Iranian terror networks located near the (occupied) Golan Heights.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, had previously reported that Israel had seized a Syrian man on July 19.
“Israeli forces detained a citizen who worked as a driver to transport milk to the capital Damascus,” the war monitor said in July.
It added that the Syrian was detained in the village of Al-Razatiya, in a southern province bordering the Golan Heights annexed by Israel.
“An Israeli military force of three cars and an armored vehicle crossed the border, entered the village and took the man to the occupied Golan Heights,” the observatory said.
Since late September Israel has been engaged in full-scale war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah began launching cross-border attacks last year, saying it was acting in support of Palestinian militants Hamas, whose unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria have also been drawn into the fighting, and Iran and Israel have themselves attacked each other, heightening fears of even wider conflict.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664

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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664
The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours

GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday that at least 44,664 people have been killed in nearly 14 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 105,976 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israeli military says it struck ‘Hezbollah fighter’ threatening troops in southern Lebanon

Israeli military says it struck ‘Hezbollah fighter’ threatening troops in southern Lebanon
Updated 7 min 1 sec ago
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Israeli military says it struck ‘Hezbollah fighter’ threatening troops in southern Lebanon

Israeli military says it struck ‘Hezbollah fighter’ threatening troops in southern Lebanon
  • The “Hezbollah fighter” posed a threat to Israeli troops

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Saturday it struck a “Hezbollah fighter” in southern Lebanon who posed a threat to its troops, adding it was operating within ceasefire agreements while remaining deployed to address threats to Israel and its citizens.


Moroccan rail operator seeks $8.8 bln funding for expansion plan

Moroccan rail operator seeks $8.8 bln funding for expansion plan
Updated 18 min 52 sec ago
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Moroccan rail operator seeks $8.8 bln funding for expansion plan

Moroccan rail operator seeks $8.8 bln funding for expansion plan
  • Morocco plans to extend its high-speed train network to Marrakech before the 2030 World Cup

RABAT: Morocco’s state-owned rail operator, ONCF, is seeking $8.8 billion from investors to finance its expansion plan, the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has said.
He told reporters late on Friday after a three-day Africa Investment Forum in Rabat that investors were ready to extend ONCF more than the required amount, with financing offers totalling over $13 billion.
AfDB partners with other banks and financial institutions for some large-scale development projects it finances across the continent.
During the closed-door event, the bank could garner a total financing worth $29.2 billion for African development projects including water supply, energy, transport, private equity, tourism, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals.
Morocco plans to extend its high-speed train network to Marrakech before the 2030 World Cup, and further south to Agadir.
The operator also aims to stretch its network to double the number of cities it serves to 43, or 87 percent of the Moroccan population, by 2040.
ONCF was not immediately available to comment.


Qatar PM says ‘momentum is coming back’ to Gaza talks after US election

Qatar PM says ‘momentum is coming back’ to Gaza talks after US election
Updated 07 December 2024
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Qatar PM says ‘momentum is coming back’ to Gaza talks after US election

Qatar PM says ‘momentum is coming back’ to Gaza talks after US election
  • The Gulf emirate, along with the United States and Egypt, had been involved in months of unsuccessful negotiations for a Gaza truce

DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday that momentum had returned to talks aimed at cementing a truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza following the election of Donald Trump as US president.

“We have sensed, after the election, that the momentum is coming back,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told the Doha Forum for political dialogue.

The Qatari prime minister explained that while there were “some differences” in the approach to an agreement by the outgoing and incoming US administrations, “we didn’t see or recognize any disagreement on the goal itself to end the war.”

The Gulf emirate, along with the United States and Egypt, had been involved in months of unsuccessful negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release after 14 months of war.

But in November, Doha announced it had put its mediation on hold, saying it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness.”

Sheikh Mohammed said there had been “a lot of encouragement from the incoming administration in order to achieve a deal, even before the president comes to the office,” adding this had affected the Qatari decision to get talks “back on track” over the last two weeks.

“We hope to get things done as soon as possible. We hope that the willingness of the parties to engage in a good faith continues,” he said.

The prime minister also brushed off the prospect of Qatar facing greater pressure over the status of its political bureau for Hamas, which the Gulf state has hosted since 2012 with the blessing of the United States.

He called the office a “platform to convene between the different parties,” adding that Qatar was not “expected to enforce solutions” on the Palestinian militants.

On Syria, Qatar’s prime minister said Syrian President Bashar Assad failed to engage with his people and address issues like the return of refugees during a period of calm in the country’s war.

“Assad didn’t seize these opportunities to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people, and we didn’t see any serious movement, whether it’s on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said at the Doha Forum for political dialogue.

Qatar — which gave early support to the opposition after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war — remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.

Sheikh Mohammed said the world had been “surprised” by the speed of a recent rapid advance by Islamist-led militants in Syria and cautioned that the situation might become “more and more dangerous,” threatening a return to a more intense level of civil war.

He added such an outcome would “damage and destroy what’s left, if there is not any sense of urgency to start putting (in place) a political framework for what’s happening over there... in order to find a political solution.”


Israeli strikes kill at least 29 at hard-hit Gaza hospital

Israeli strikes kill at least 29 at hard-hit Gaza hospital
Updated 07 December 2024
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Israeli strikes kill at least 29 at hard-hit Gaza hospital

Israeli strikes kill at least 29 at hard-hit Gaza hospital
  • Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya is one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the Gaza’s northernmost province
  • The dead included five children and five women

CAIRO: At least 29 people were killed, including four medical staff, when Israeli strikes pummeled the area around one of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
The situation in and around the Kamal Adwan hospital is “catastrophic,” according to Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the hospital. The dead included five children and five women, according to the hospital casualty list, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya is one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the Gaza’s northernmost province, where Israeli forces are pressing an offensive that has almost completely sealed off the area from humanitarian aid for two months.
Israel’s military denied that its forces had struck the hospital or operated inside it. The army said that in the past few weeks, “coordinated efforts with international organizations have been underway in order to transfer patients, companions, and medical staff to other hospitals.”
An Indonesian medical team which had been assisting in Kamal Adwan for the past week was forced to evacuate on foot after the area was surrounded by Israeli soldiers, according to a statement from the team. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the medical team’s expulsion. Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative in the Palestinian territories, said an Israeli tank approached the hospital at around 4 a.m. Friday. Although no official Israeli evacuation order was issued, “people started to climb the wall to escape, and this panic attracted IDF (Israeli) fire,” he said. He spoke by video from Gaza to journalists in Geneva.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been struck multiple times over the past two months since Israel launched a fierce military operation in northern Gaza against Hamas militants. In October, Israeli forces raided the hospital, saying that militants were sheltering inside and arrested a number of people, including some staff. Hospital officials denied the claim.
Saudi Arabia calls for and end to Gaza war
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has reiterated the kingdom’s call for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan described Israel as acting with “impunity and is getting away without punishment” in its war on Hamas there.
The prince said that any permanent solution requires a two-state solution, with the Palestinians having east Jerusalem as their capital.
“Israel has become an apartheid, colonial and genocidal state,” Prince Turki said. “It is about time for the world to address that issue and take the necessary steps to bring those who are thus charged by the International Criminal Court to justice.”
The Saudis spoke at the International Institute for Security Studies’ Manama Dialogue in Bahrain.