Israeli troops to remain in 5 Lebanese positions after Tuesday deadline

Israeli army forces patrol in the village of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon on February 17, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli army forces patrol in the village of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon on February 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 21 February 2025
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Israeli troops to remain in 5 Lebanese positions after Tuesday deadline

Israeli army forces patrol in the village of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon on February 17, 2025. (AFP)
  • President calls on ceasefire brokers to ‘fulfill responsibilities’ and ensure total withdrawal
  • Drone strike kills Hamas military commander in south Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president on Monday voiced concern that Israel may fail to withdraw its forces from the country by the Tuesday ceasefire deadline.

Joseph Aoun’s comments followed an Israeli drone strike in south Lebanon that killed a Hamas commander and pledges from some Israeli officials to keep troops in 5 strategic positions across south Lebanon.

The president is “following up on contacts at various levels to push Israel to abide by the ceasefire agreement, withdraw on the specified date and return the hostages,” his office said.

He called on the brokers of the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire to “fulfill their responsibilities and assist us.”

During his meeting with the head of the UNIFIL mission, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, Aoun renewed his condemnation of last week’s attack on a peacekeeping convoy.

He reiterated his support for investigations into the incident.

Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa joined Aoun in a meeting of the envoys of the five countries monitoring Lebanese developments.

Moussa confirmed the commitment of the five countries to push Israel to withdraw on the scheduled date.

He said that the quintet is communicating with all parties to achieve the withdrawal.

Lebanon has not received any assurances confirming that it will be completed on time, presidential spokesperson Najat Charafeddine said.

Israeli troops have been stationed in Lebanon’s southern border area since last October.

Israeli officials have said the army will maintain control over five strategic hills along the Lebanese border even after Feb. 18.

Several conflicting Israeli statements were issued regarding the complete withdrawal.

The Israeli Army Channel announced on Monday afternoon that Israel “will withdraw tomorrow from Lebanon, except five strategic positions, where it will remain indefinitely.”

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed that the Lebanese state “did not adhere to the ceasefire agreement, as Hezbollah is rearming itself,” adding: “The army should not be withdrawn from Lebanon.”

Citing an Israeli official, some Israeli media outlets said that troops “will withdraw on time,” while other outlets reported “direct threats to bomb Lebanon and Hezbollah’s strongholds anywhere.”

On Monday noon, Israel intensified its air and land ceasefire violations by targeting a Hamas leader in Saida.

More raids were also launched deep inside Lebanese territory on Sunday night.

Bulldozing operations and burning of facilities were carried out in several towns on Monday.

On Monday morning, an Israeli drone targeted a car on Sidon’s coastal road that was heading toward Beirut, killing its driver, later identified as Hamas military official Mohammed Shahin.

Shahin was head of Hamas’ operations directorate in Lebanon, said Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee, adding that the operation was a joint effort between the Israeli army and Shin Bet.

Adraee said that Shanin was “an important and experienced Hamas operative, and was involved in carrying out various attacks during the war, including launching rockets at Israel’s home front.”

He had recently been working to promote plans “under Iranian direction and funding from Lebanese territory,” the spokesperson claimed.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left his trial session to approve the assassination.

An Israeli drone dropped a grenade in the town square of Kfarchouba to intimidate residents who were monitoring an Israeli incursion into the center of the town despite the deployment of the Lebanese army on its outskirts.

Israeli forces also set fire to several homes in the town of Odaisseh and carried out an explosion in Yaroun.

Israeli jets conducted airstrikes on locations in northern Bekaa on Sunday evening, claiming that the sites were linked to Hezbollah.

The airstrikes coincided with a speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem in which he warned the Israeli army that Hezbollah would regard “the presence of the Israeli army at any location as an occupation.”

Qassem said: “There is no justification for Israel to refrain from withdrawal, nor to remain at five points or any other details.

“While we will not specify how to deal with the occupier, it is well understood by all how such situations are typically addressed.”

In a related development, Air France and Emirates Airlines announced the cancellation of their flights to Lebanon on Feb. 23.

The date coincides with the funeral of former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine.


Turkiye’s operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria continuing, official says

Turkiye’s operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria continuing, official says
Updated 57 min 32 sec ago
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Turkiye’s operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria continuing, official says

Turkiye’s operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria continuing, official says
  • The statement comes after a deal was made between the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the new government in Damascus

ANKARA: Operations by Turkiye’s armed forces against Kurdish militants in northern Syria are continuing, including on Tuesday, a Turkish Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday, following a deal between the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the new government in Damascus.
The official did not provide details on the location of the operations. Ankara views the SDF, which controls much of northeast Syria, as terrorists linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, and has carried out several cross-border incursions against them.


Syrians flee sectarian killing into Lebanon

Syrians flee sectarian killing into Lebanon
Updated 12 March 2025
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Syrians flee sectarian killing into Lebanon

Syrians flee sectarian killing into Lebanon
  • More than 350 families had made the same journey into Lebanon in recent days, according to local Lebanese authorities, fleeing the violence in which the UN human rights office said entire families including women and children had been killed

MASOUDIYEH, Lebanon: Fearing for their lives, Syrian men, women and children waded through a river to safety in Lebanon on Tuesday, among hundreds of people who have fled to the neighboring country to escape sectarian killing targeting their Alawite community.
A woman who made the crossing on Sunday said she’d seen the bodies of seven slain people in her village. Another said she’d spent three days trapped at home by heavy gunfire. A man said militants had threatened to kill all the people in his village because they are members of the minority Alawite community.
Days after the killing began in Syria’s coastal region, the steady stream of refugees continued: Reuters reporters saw more than 50 cross the knee-high waters of the Nahr El Kabir River into Lebanon during a half-hour period on Tuesday, carrying children and whatever possessions they could gather.
Nada Mohammed, who crossed into Lebanon on Sunday, said her village near the border, Karto, was woken up by a phone call at 4 a.m. from relatives telling her the militants had arrived in the village and she should pack her things.
“We saw seven people they slaughtered,” she said.
Her daughter, Sally Rajab Abboud, described bearded foreigners with long hair who spoke formal Arabic rather than Syrian dialect.
More than 350 families had made the same journey into Lebanon in recent days, according to local Lebanese authorities, fleeing the violence in which the UN human rights office said entire families including women and children had been killed.
Violence began to spread through the coastal region, home to many Alawites, on Thursday, when Syria’s Sunni Islamist-led government said its forces were attacked by remnants of the regime of Syria’s ousted leader Bashar Assad, an Alawite.
Security forces poured into the region to crush the insurrection, while mosques in areas loyal to the government issued calls for jihad, or holy struggle. During violence that followed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 1,200 civilians were killed, the vast majority of them Alawites.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Monday promised to punish those responsible, including his own allies if necessary. Sharaa said he could not yet say whether forces from the defense ministry — which has merged former rebels into one structure — were involved in the sectarian killings.
Abou Jaafar Sakkour, who fled to Lebanon from the village of Khirbet Al-Hamam near the Lebanese border, said militants had threatened to slaughter its residents because they are Alawites, whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Some of the militants were Syrian while others were foreign, he said. The attackers had ordered the women to leave the village, and declared that it belonged to them.
“What are we guilty of? We want international protection, whether it’s Israel, Russia, from France. Anything that will protect us,” Sakkour said.
Lebanese from nearby Alawite villages assisted the Syrian refugees as they crossed the river into Lebanon on Tuesday.
Lebanon received more than a million Syrian refugees after the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011 as people fled Assad’s rule.
Crossing the river with her two children on Tuesday, a woman said she had fled her home in the city of Tartous after being trapped indoors for three days by heavy gunfire.
“We didn’t go out, we didn’t even stand in front of the windows, we shut the curtains, and we didn’t go out at all, all the doors were locked, but we haven’t slept for three nights,” she said, declining to give her name.
“There’s fear.”

 


Yemen rebels say will resume attacks on Israeli shipping over blocked Gaza aid

Yemen rebels say will resume attacks on Israeli shipping over blocked Gaza aid
Updated 12 March 2025
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Yemen rebels say will resume attacks on Israeli shipping over blocked Gaza aid

Yemen rebels say will resume attacks on Israeli shipping over blocked Gaza aid
  • The attacks will continue until Israel allows aid deliveries in Gaza, the Houthis say

SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Tuesday said they would resume attacks on Israeli shipping after their deadline for the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza expired.
The Houthis said they were “resuming the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships” in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Baba Al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden after Israel failed to meet the four-day deadline the rebels set on Friday for the suspended aid deliveries to be restarted.
Israel blocked all aid into the war-battered territory just over a week ago in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages it took in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
An increasingly fragile truce was then further hit on Sunday when Israel announced it would cut off the electricity supply to a water desalination plant in Gaza, although Hamas announced on Tuesday that a fresh round of ceasefire talks had begun in Qatar.
The Houthis, who control much of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, fired scores of drones and missiles at Israeli-linked and other shipping in the Red Sea during the Gaza war, until calling a halt when a ceasefire started in January.
The rebels said on Tuesday that the ban on Israeli shipping would “take effect from the time this statement is issued” and that “any Israeli ship attempting to violate this ban shall be targeted in the declared zone of operations.”
The attacks will continue until Israel allows aid deliveries in Gaza, the Houthis said.


A Syrian man barely escaped a wave of sectarian killings. His brothers did not

A Syrian man barely escaped a wave of sectarian killings. His brothers did not
Updated 12 March 2025
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A Syrian man barely escaped a wave of sectarian killings. His brothers did not

A Syrian man barely escaped a wave of sectarian killings. His brothers did not
  • Of the roughly 1,000 civilians killed, nearly 200 were in Baniyas, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor
  • Government reinforcements — which residents said did not intervene during the height of the killings — were eventually sent to restore order, and calm appeared to hold by late Monday

BEIRUT: The Haydar family huddled in their apartment while gunmen stalked their hometown of Baniyas, hunting for members of Syria’s minority Alawite sect like them. After 24 terrifying hours, a friend helped Samir Haydar, his wife and two sons escape — just in time.
Minutes later, the gunmen, who were Sunni Muslim, broke into his building and killed the Alawites still there, Haydar said. Down the street, gunmen took Haydar’s two older brothers and a nephew out of their homes and killed them, too.
“If I had stayed five minutes longer, I with my entire family would have been killed,” Haydar, 67, said.

This undated photo provided by Samir Haydar shows his brother Iskander Haydar, 69, who was shot and killed by gunmen on the rooftop of his house last week, in his hometown of Baniyas, in Syria's coastal region. (AP)

This past weekend’s sectarian violence was possibly among the bloodiest 72 hours in Syria’s modern history, including the 14 years of civil war from which the country is now emerging — and it threatens to open an endless cycle of vengeance. From early Friday to Sunday night, attackers rampaged through coastal provinces heavily populated by Alawites, as well as the nearby provinces of Hama and Homs, killing people, sometimes entire families, on streets, in homes, on rooftops.
Of the roughly 1,000 civilians killed, nearly 200 were in Baniyas, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The toll could not be independently confirmed.
Among the attackers, witnesses say, were hard-line Sunni Islamists, including Syria-based jihadi foreign fighters, who came from nearby provinces. Some had been allied to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the disbanded insurgent group that in December led the overthrow of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad and whose members dominate the interim government now running the country.
But many were local Sunnis, unleashing hatreds pent-up over past atrocities blamed on Alawites loyal to Assad.
Survivors say some of the attackers in Baniyas were Syrians from surrounding villages seeking vengeance over a 2013 massacre in the nearby town of Beyda, where paramilitaries killed several hundred Sunnis. It was one of several mass killings under then-President Assad, whose attempts to crush protests helped foment an armed insurgency.
Assad, who is Alawite, filled his security agencies and paramilitaries with members of the sect. Some Sunnis blame the entire community for Assad’s brutal crackdowns, though Alawites say they also suffered under his rule.
“We have a lot of injustices. Many were waiting for the chance to let it out,” Haydar said from his hiding place after fleeing home. “Instead of the pain teaching them mercy and making them against killings, they translated it into more killings.”
Government reinforcements — which residents said did not intervene during the height of the killings — were eventually sent to restore order, and calm appeared to hold by late Monday. The government declared an independent committee appointed by the president will investigate the attacks. But the bloodshed has deeply tainted attempts by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to convince Syria’s minorities that he wants to include them as equals.
Blood and plunder
The bloodshed began after reports Thursday night of seemingly coordinated attacks by Assad loyalists on government security forces near the city of Latakia and elsewhere along the coast.
The Associated Press spoke to nine residents from villages and towns hit by the violence. Some refused to give their names out of fear for their security.
Haydar said that around daybreak Friday, hordes of armed Sunnis descended on Baniyas and surrounding villages in vans and pickup trucks, and waving guns. Another resident said she heard the gunmen shouting, “God is great,” and threatening and cursing the Alawite residents.
Images and videos soon surfaced online, mostly posted by the perpetrators. Some show fighters in military fatigues pushing residents out of homes into the streets, beating some with rifles and forcing them to bark like dogs, in humiliation. Some show fighters firing on civilians. The hundreds of videos posted could not be immediately verified.
Looting and theft were rampant. Haydar said armed men went into the building of one of his elder brothers, 74-year-old Rafik, stole his valuables and left.
Hiding in his home, Haydar said he saw fighters shoot a neighbor at the entrance of a nearby building. One fighter turned the body over to ensure he was dead.
Shot on the roof
Around noon Friday, Haydar got a call from the wife of his other brother, Iskander. She screamed that fighters had stormed their building and taken away Iskander and their son, Mourad.
Later, Mourad told his mother what happened. The fighters dragged them to the roof and made him, his father and five other men lie down. Then they sprayed them with bullets. Miraculously, Mourad was uninjured. His father and the rest of the men were killed.
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of the same neighborhood, said five of his neighbors were shot in the street, including two doctors and their two children. The gunmen prevented anyone from coming to remove their bodies for hours. Acting fast, Sheha secured a van. He, his wife, three children and other families squeezed in and fled.
That night, the village where they took refuge also came under attack. Sheha said he and hundreds of others fled again, sleeping for two nights outside among olive and pine trees.
By Saturday afternoon, Sheha said he knew of at least 20 people killed, including three cousins and two of their children with special needs, gunned down in their food stall.
When fighters entered his nephew’s house, they asked if his wife was Sunni, because she wore a headscarf. They checked her ID and let her go. His sister, living in a building with many Christians, said the gunmen spared them and her husband, in his 80s.
Haydar and his family escaped with help from a Sunni friend who negotiated for hours with the gunmen, explaining that Haydar had once been imprisoned by Assad’s security forces.
The friend, declining to give his name for fear of retribution, said the gunmen shoved and hit him, criticizing him for harboring Alawites.
During the weekend’s violence, the friend sheltered 15 Alawites in his home, he said by phone from Baniyas.
In Tuwaym, an Alawite village in the Sunni-majority Hama province in central Syria, a resident said gunmen summoned the men, beat them with rifles and shot some. By the time they left, they had killed 25 members of her family, including her father and nine children between the ages of four and 15.
“I carried the children with my own hands. Some had their bones coming out of the gaping wounds,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety.
Aftermath
In Baniyas and elsewhere, bodies were left lying in streets, cars and apartment buildings, civil rescue teams said as they began to collect the dead. Families put out lists online of their slain loved ones. Haydar buried his brothers Sunday.
Sheha said that as of Tuesday evening, he and hundreds of others remained in the forests outside Baniyas, too afraid to return home. At night, when it gets cold, they shelter in a nearby village.
Sheha, who had been part of a group of Alawite civilians that sought to build bridges with the new government, said the Alawites can’t be blamed for the crimes of Assad’s forces. Most Alawites were impoverished under Assad, abused by his top aides and forced to show loyalty and serve in the army, he said.
Instead of seeing inclusion and transitional justice, the community is targeted in revenge, he said.
“Now people are not just afraid, they’re terrified,” he said. “They have no trust, even in the government security that are present ... We’re terrified of anyone we see with a mask on.”
 

 


Trump’s hostage envoy visited Iraq to push to free kidnapped Princeton researcher, sources say

Trump’s hostage envoy visited Iraq to push to free kidnapped Princeton researcher, sources say
Updated 12 March 2025
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Trump’s hostage envoy visited Iraq to push to free kidnapped Princeton researcher, sources say

Trump’s hostage envoy visited Iraq to push to free kidnapped Princeton researcher, sources say
  • “The United States cannot tolerate hostage-taking of US nationals or those of our partners such as Israel

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler traveled to Iraq last month to push for the release of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Since taking office, Boehler has stepped up efforts to secure the release of Tsurkov, a Princeton University student who went missing in Iraq during a research trip in March 2023, publicly urging the Iraqi government to help her get home.
“The Trump Administration has done more in just a few weeks than the previous administration did in almost two years,” Emma Tsurkov, sister of Elizabeth told Reuters in a statement.
“I am especially grateful to SPEHA (Special Envoy) Boehler for going directly to meet with Prime Minister (Mohammed Shia Al-)Sudani in Baghdad. His engagement with Sudani makes it clear that the US holds Sudani responsible for finding a way to get my sister home.”
An Iraqi official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters confirmed Boehler had visited in February to discuss the Tsurkov case but did not provide further details.
Tsurkov is being held in Iraq by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran, according to Israeli officials.
Boehler is trying to negotiate a deal under which Tsurkov will be released in exchange for six members of Iran-aligned Lebanese militia Hezbollah, one of the sources, adding that there was a whole of government effort to bring her back.
“The United States cannot tolerate hostage-taking of US nationals or those of our partners such as Israel. We have and will continue to underscore with the Iraqi government the urgency of securing Elizabeth Tsurkov’s release,” a State Department spokesperson at Boehler’s office said.
In a February 5 post on social media platform X, Boehler advocated for Tsurkov’s release.
“Elizabeth Tsurkov is a Princeton student held hostage in Iraq! The @IraqiPMO consistently made false promises to the prior administration about releasing her. BUT NOW @realDonaldTrump IS ON TO YOU,” Boehler said, tagging the official handle of Sudani’s office.
He said if Tsurkov does not come home, then the Iraqi prime minister’s office is “either incapable and should be FiRED or worse COMPLICIT. Bring Elizabeth home now!“
Under the previous administration of former President Joe Biden, Tsurkov’s family struggled to get Washington to throw its weight behind the efforts to secure her release. US officials then said there was little they could do because she is not an American citizen.
“March 21 will be the two year anniversary of my sister’s kidnapping. Hopefully she will not endure March 21 in their custody,” Emma Tsurkov said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on the phone on February 25 with Sudani. While a State Department statement on the conversation did not mention a discussion on Tsurkov, one of the sources said Rubio pushed the Iraqi prime minister on her case.