Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strike on northern Gaza's Jabalia, medics say

Update Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strike on northern Gaza's Jabalia, medics say
Above, Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Nov. 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 10 November 2024
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Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strike on northern Gaza's Jabalia, medics say

Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strike on northern Gaza's Jabalia, medics say
  • The first strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza killed ‘at least 25’ people

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Dozens of people were killed and wounded in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip at dawn on Sunday, Palestinian medics said.
Footage circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed about a dozen bodies wrapped in blankets and laid to the ground at a hospital. Residents said the building that was hit had housed at least 30 people.
The Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media put the number of people killed at 32. There was no immediate confirmation of the tally by the territory’s health ministry.
The Civil Emergency Service says its operations have been halted by an ongoing Israeli raid into two towns and a refugee camp in northern Gaza that began on Oct 5. It also could not provide a figure for those killed in the attack.
Israel says it sent forces into Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the north of the enclave to fight Hamas militants waging attacks from there and to prevent them from regrouping. It says its troops have killed hundreds of militants in those areas since the new offensive began.
In Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Sabra neighborhood killed Wael Al-Khour, an official at the Welfare Ministry, and seven other members of his family including his wife and children on Sunday, medics and relatives said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports on the strike in Jabalia and in the Sabra neighborhood.


Qatar urges open dialogue on Syria’s future

Qatar urges open dialogue on Syria’s future
Updated 14 sec ago
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Qatar urges open dialogue on Syria’s future

Qatar urges open dialogue on Syria’s future

DUBAI: Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has reiterated its commitment to engaging with all parties in Syria to shape the country’s future.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari emphasized that “all doors and channels of communication” are open, highlighting the importance of collaborative efforts to achieve progress.

Al-Ansari described the situation as “historic days for the region,” and that it was a “ray of hope” for the Syrian people to fulfill their aspirations amid ongoing challenges.

He criticized Israel’s actions in Syria, stating it was unacceptable for Tel Aviv to “exploit” the current circumstances and violate that nation’s sovereignty.


Mohamed Al-Bashir named Caretaker PM of Syrian transitional government

Mohamed Al-Bashir named Caretaker PM of Syrian transitional government
Updated 19 min 45 sec ago
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Mohamed Al-Bashir named Caretaker PM of Syrian transitional government

Mohamed Al-Bashir named Caretaker PM of Syrian transitional government

In a televised statement, Mohamed Al-Bashir announced on Tuesday his appointment as the Caretaker Prime Minister of Syria’s transitional government.

Bashir will hold the position until March 1, 2025.

Al-Bashir's leadership comes during a critical period for Syria as efforts continue to navigate the country’s complex political and humanitarian challenges.

Further details about his plans for the transitional period are expected in the coming days.


Jordanian man returns home after 38 years in Syria’s prisons

Jordanian man returns home after 38 years in Syria’s prisons
Updated 10 December 2024
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Jordanian man returns home after 38 years in Syria’s prisons

Jordanian man returns home after 38 years in Syria’s prisons
  • Kodat said the man’s relatives reported his disappearance in 1986, when he was just 18, and that he had been in jail ever since

AMMAN: A Jordanian man has returned to his home country after spending 38 years in Syrian jails, an official said on Tuesday, after the fall of president Bashar Assad ended an agonizing wait for his family.
The man, named as Osama Bashir Hassan Al-Bataynah, was found in Syria “unconscious and suffering from memory loss,” Jordanian Foreign Ministry Soufian Al-Kodat told AFP.
Kodat said the man’s relatives reported his disappearance in 1986, when he was just 18, and that he had been in jail ever since.
“He was transferred from Damascus to the Jaber border crossing (with Jordan) where he was handed over to border guards,” added Kodat, saying the man had been reunited with his family on Tuesday morning.
The oposition forces who swept Assad from power on Sunday also opened the prisons and released thousands of detainees.
Civil society groups had long accused Assad of presiding over a brutal regime of arbitrary arrests, torture and murder in prisons.
Many foreigners were being held, including Suheil Hamawi from Lebanon who returned to his country on Monday after being locked up for 33 years.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan said Tuesday there were still 236 Jordanians detained in Syria.
Amnesty International has documented thousands of killings at Saydnaya prison, whose name has become synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad’s rule, and dubbed it a “human slaughterhouse.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated in 2022 that more than 100,000 people had died in the jails since the start of an uprising in 2011 that led to the civil war.


Asma Assad: From ‘rose in the desert’ to international pariah

Asma Assad: From ‘rose in the desert’ to international pariah
Updated 10 December 2024
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Asma Assad: From ‘rose in the desert’ to international pariah

Asma Assad: From ‘rose in the desert’ to international pariah
  • Vogue published gushing profile of Syria’s ex-first lady weeks before Arab Spring
  • She and her husband now in exile in Moscow after fall of regime in Damascus

LONDON: The transformation of Asma Assad from a vaunted English “rose in the desert” to international pariah is the subject of fresh media scrutiny after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

A gushing March 2011 Vogue profile of former President Bashar Assad’s wife, published weeks before the Arab Spring and later deleted, highlights the destruction of her reputation, the Daily Mail reported.

The “Power Issue” profile described the London-born computer science graduate as “on a mission to create a beacon of culture and secularism” in the Middle East.

“The first impression of Asma Assad is movement: A determined swath cut through space with a flash of red soles,” it said.

The “thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind who dresses with cunning understatement” reportedly wanted Syria’s youth to spearhead modernization by becoming “active citizens.”

But soon after the profile was published, she and her husband became the public face of a brutal crackdown on popular protests that culminated in Syria’s 13-year civil war, leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of millions.

Asma Assad turned to London law firm Carter Ruck as the civil war broke out. Newspapers who covered the family’s affairs received threatening letters, but nothing could prevent her and her husband from becoming international pariahs after regime forces carried out a series of chemical weapons attacks against civilians.

Vogue removed the “rose in the desert” profile as a WikiLeaks email hack revealed that she had spent $318,000 on luxury furniture during the first year of the civil war. US estimates put the Assad family’s wealth at $2 billion.

Asma Assad was placed under US sanctions in 2020 and described as one of Syria’s “most notorious war profiteers.”

The former first lady owns at least 18 luxury apartments in Moscow’s skyscraper district, where she is set to begin a new life in exile with her husband.


Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says

Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says
Updated 10 December 2024
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Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says

Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says
  • Parliament meets on Jan. 9 to decide on president
  • Hezbollah weakened after war with Israel

PARIS: Iran-backed Hezbollah needs to focus on domestic issues in Lebanon and not the wider region, senior Lebanese Maronite politician Gebran Bassil said on Tuesday, adding that he was against the head of the army running for the presidency.
A year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, which culminated in a tentative ceasefire brokered by the United States and France in November, saw more than 4,000 killed, thousands displaced and the powerful Shiite group considerably weakened militarily with many of its leaders dead.
“It’s a process whereby Hezbollah accepts that they are part of the Lebanese state and are not parallel to the state,” Bassil, a Maronite Christian, who is one of Lebanon’s most influential politicians, told Reuters in an interview in Paris.
“We don’t want their end. We want them to be partners in the Lebanese nation, equal to us in abiding by the rules and preserving the sovereignty of Lebanon. We agree with them on defending Lebanon and supporting the Palestinian cause, but politically and diplomatically, not militarily.”
Bassil, who said the group should distance itself from the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance,” is head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a Christian party founded by former President Michel Aoun, his father-in-law, that has been aligned with Hezbollah.
He was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for alleged corruption and material support to Hezbollah. He denies the accusations.
He was in Paris meeting French officials. He declined to say whether he met Donald Trump’s regional envoy and fellow Maronite Massad Boulos, who accompanied the US president-elect to France last weekend.
Since the truce, Paris has increased efforts to discuss with the myriad key actors in Lebanon over how to break a political impasse after two years without a president or permanent government.
The presidential post is reserved for Christians, but part of the standoff reflects rivalries among the community as well as crucial political and religious balances in the country.
Authorities finally announced that the parliament would meet on Jan. 9 to elect a new president.
Bassil, who has enough lawmakers to block a Maronite candidate, said he was against the candidacy of Joseph Aoun, the head of the army, who diplomats say both the United States and France consider as a serious candidate.
He said Aoun’s appointment would be against the constitution and that he did not have consensus among all the Lebanese factions.
“We are against him because we don’t see him as being fit for the presidency,” Bassil said. “We need candidates who can bring the Lebanese together,” he said declining to name one.