Gaza rescuers: 12 dead in Israeli strike on school shelter

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People inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school, housing displaced Palestinians, in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (AFP)

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People react to the damage after an Israeli strike on a school, housing displaced Palestinians, in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (AFP)

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A woman reacts after an Israeli strike on a school, housing displaced Palestinians, in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (AFP)

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Palestinians carry their children as they flee after an Israeli strike on a school, housing displaced Palestinians, in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City on August 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (AFP)

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Updated 20 August 2024

AFP

August 20, 2024 12:45

Gaza rescuers: 12 dead in Israeli strike on school shelter

Israeli military said school was targeted because it housed Hamas command-and-control center

Updated 20 August 2024

AFP

August 20, 2024 12:45

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 12 people on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command center.
“Our crews retrieved 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz school, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation west of Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought refuge in the school, he said, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said the school was targeted because it housed a command-and-control center.
“Hamas terrorists used the command-and-control center to plan and execute attacks against IDF (Israeli army) troops and the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
It said it carried out a “precise strike on terrorists who were operating” inside the school.
Bassal had earlier given a toll of seven dead and 15 wounded in the strike, which he said had hit the second floor of the school building.
The latest death toll figure could not be independently verified.
AFP photos showed the school reduced to rubble, with scores of Palestinian men and women, many holding children, fleeing the site after the strike.
In recent weeks, the Israeli military has struck several schools across Gaza, primarily in Gaza City, accusing them of housing Hamas command centers, which the Islamist group denies.
Earlier this month, the military had struck the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City, which according to the civil defense agency killed 93 Palestinians, while the military said 31 militants died.
Tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in schools since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 after Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 105 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive against Hamas has killed at least 40,173 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Most of the dead in Gaza are women and children, according to the UN human rights office.

Five killed in airstrike on house in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, medics say

Updated 10 sec ago

December 21, 2024 19:00

Five killed in airstrike on house in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, medics say

Updated 10 sec ago

December 21, 2024 19:00

GAZA: Five people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza strip, medics told Reuters on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry said there was ongoing intense and heavy bombing of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which it said was occurring in an “unprecedented manner” and without prior warning.
The hospital is one of only three barely operational medical facilities on the northern edge of the enclave, where the Israeli army has been operating since October.
“The bombing is being conducted with explosives and tank fire, directly targeting us while we are present inside the hospital departments,” the ministry said.

When Damascus traffic cops fled, volunteers stepped in

Syrian volunteers help police regulate traffic in Damascus on December 19, 2024. (AFP)

Updated 55 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 22:39

When Damascus traffic cops fled, volunteers stepped in

In Damascus it is now routine to see recent-model cars, registered in Idlib or another northwestern region, Aleppo, which were partially controlled by the rebels and isolated from the capital

Updated 55 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 22:39

DAMASCUS: At a Damascus intersection, young volunteers act as unofficial traffic cops after police assigned to the duty deserted their posts when president Bashar Assad fell to a rapid rebel advance.
Some traffic officers abandoned their uniforms and motorbikes in the street on December 8, the day the rebels took Damascus.
Traffic jams resulted, especially where signals weren’t working or crowds gathered to mark the end to more than half a century of paranoid and brutal rule by the Assad clan.
A local organization took action. It deployed more than 50 volunteers wearing orange vests labelled “Police.”
“We like our country and we wanted to contribute voluntarily to manage the traffic. The country is ours, when before it belonged to one person,” said Baraa Kardazli, 24, one of the volunteers.

They received some quick training under the supervision of the victorious Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham rebels, who have experience running their bastion in Idlib, in Syria’s northwest.
HTS, which dominated the rebel coalition, gave them whistles and batons.
The volunteers, working from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm, were able to resolve much of the traffic problem in just two days, said Omar Merhi, one of the organizers.
Mohammed Mouaffaq Al-Awa, signalling cars to stop or keep moving, is keeping up the effort near a park where the traffic lights haven’t worked for a week because of power cuts.
Further along, around a central square, children sell petrol directly to motorists.
Others wander among the traffic, waving the independence-era flag adopted by Syria’s new rulers.
In Damascus it is now routine to see recent-model cars, registered in Idlib or another northwestern region, Aleppo, which were partially controlled by the rebels and isolated from the capital.
They contrast with the largely dilapidated vehicles that proliferated during Assad’s 24-year rule because of exorbitant import taxes.
Awa, who has a degree in business management, said he never expected to be managing traffic flow.
But he can’t hide his joy.
“I am proud to contribute, even modestly, to help get the country back on its feet,” he said.
“It’s essential that we unite, whatever the extent of our contribution.”

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister

Updated 8 min 44 sec ago

Reuters

December 21, 2024 18:34

Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister

Updated 8 min 44 sec ago

Reuters

December 21, 2024 18:34

Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of Al-Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying Al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.

Topics: Fall of Assad

How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall

Updated 57 min 50 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 18:13

How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall

“He left with his secretary and his treasurer” — an Assad insider

Updated 57 min 50 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 18:13

CAIRO: A lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard.
President Bashar Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighboring countries.
According to two sources, the ousted president, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants.
Among them were his closet ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam, as well as his economic adviser Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma.
“He left with his secretary and his treasurer,” an insider who requested anonymity said, mockingly.
Bashar’s brother, Maher Assad, commander of the elite Fourth Division tasked with defending Damascus, did not know about his sibling’s plans.
Leaving his men stranded, Maher took a separate route, fleeing by helicopter to Iraq before traveling to Russia, according to a Syrian military source.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that Maher arrived in Iraq by plane on December 7 and stayed there for five days.
Maher’s wife, Manal Al-Jadaan and his son briefly entered Lebanon before departing through Beirut airport, said Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, without disclosing their final destination.
Another Assad government heavyweight, Ali Mamlouk, the former chief of Syria’s security apparatus, fled to Russia via Iraq, said a Syrian military source.
His son passed through Lebanon before leaving for another destination, according to a Lebanese security source.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied on Monday the presence of either Maher Assad or Mamlouk in Iraq.
Both are wanted men.
Maher — and Bashar Assad — are wanted by France for alleged complicity in war crimes over chemical attacks in Syria in August 2013.
The French courts have already sentenced Mamlouk and Jamil Hassan, former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, in absentia to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On Friday, the Lebanese authorities received an Interpol alert relaying a US request to arrest Hassan and hand him over to the US authorities, should he enter the country.
The United States accuses Hassan of “war crimes,” including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.
A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that they had no confirmation of Hassan’s presence in Lebanon, but assured that he would be detained if found.
Other prominent figures also made hasty escapes.
Bouthaina Shaaban, former translator for Hafez Assad — Bashar’s father who founded the brutal system of government his son inherited — fled to Lebanon on the night of December 7-8.
Shaaban, Bashar Assad’s long-time political adviser, then traveled to Abu Dhabi, according to a friend in Beirut.
Kifah Mujahid, head of the Baath Brigades — the military wing of Syria’s former ruling party — escaped to Lebanon by boat, a party source told AFP.
Other officials took refuge in their hometowns in Alawite regions, some of them told AFP. Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority.
Not all escape attempts were successful.
Ihab Makhlouf, Bashar Assad’s cousin and a prominent businessman, was killed on December 7 while trying to flee Damascus.
His twin brother, Iyad, was injured in the same incident, said a military official from the former government.
Their elder sibling, Rami Makhlouf, once considered Syria’s richest man and a symbol of the regime’s corruption, managed to survive.
Several other figures close to Assad’s government crossed into Lebanon, according to a security source and a source in the business world. These included Ghassan Belal, head of Maher’s office, and businessmen Mohammed Hamsho, Khalid Qaddur, Samer Debs and Samir Hassan.
A former Lebanese minister with close ties to Syria said that several senior Syrian military officers were granted safe passage by the Russians to the Hmeimim air base.
They were rewarded for instructing their troops not to resist the rebel offensive in order to avoid further bloodshed, he said.

Topics: Fall of Assad

Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah

Updated 21 December 2024

NAJIA HOUSSARI

December 21, 2024 21:05

Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah

Israeli forces continue violations of ceasefire agreement, carrying out demolition operations in Naqoura

Updated 21 December 2024

NAJIA HOUSSARI

December 21, 2024 21:05

BEIRUT: On Saturday, the Lebanese army took control of several strategic sites previously held by Palestinian factions.

The factions had been affiliated with Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime, which fell 13 days ago, and subsequently with Hezbollah, and had posed a threat to Lebanon’s eastern sector.

The army took over the Sultan Yaacoub site in western Bekaa from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the General Command and the Halwa camp from Fatah Al-Intifada, and the Hechmech site, located between Qousaya and Deir El Ghazal in central Bekaa, from both factions.

Army command said the forces took over the sites in addition to “seizing quantities of weapons and ammunition and military gear.”

It added that the army “continues to take control of positions previously occupied by Palestinian groups within Lebanon as part of efforts to maintain security and stability and enforce state authority in various areas.”

The camps had remained outside of the Lebanese state’s control for around 40 years, refusing to surrender their weapons under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which stated that all weapons should be surrendered to the Lebanese State, except for firearms in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which were considered Syrian-protected areas.

Hisham Debsi, director of the independent Palestinian center Tatweer for Strategic Studies and Human Development, told Arab News: “The Syrian regime had launched 13 Palestinian organizations, forming its own system that subsequently served its own policies and those of Hezbollah. With the collapse of Hezbollah, these organizations, which are located in Bekaa, became unprotected, and with the collapse of the Assad regime, the last shield for these organizations — who can be called mercenaries — has fallen.

“They were a disgrace to the Palestinian cause because they would speak in its name when, in fact, they were tools used by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah,” he continued.
These Palestinian factions aimed to “marginalize Fatah and abolish independent Palestinian decision-making,” said Debsi, adding that the Lebanese army taking control of these sites restored “normalcy.”

Regarding the fate of Palestinian militants affiliated with these factions, he said: “As individuals, if they have families in the Lebanese camps, they can join them. However, most of them are Palestinian refugees from Syria, and they can go wherever they wish in Syria.”

Debsi claimed that most Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon during the 2011 protests had since left for Europe, with only a small number remaining in Lebanon’s camps.

In the recent conflict in Lebanon, Israel did not directly target sites associated with Palestinian factions, which were bombarded in the 2006 war. For years, reports have alleged that these sites housed weaponry, but there has never been concrete evidence to support such claims.

In line with security measures enforcing UN Resolution 1701, the Lebanese army reported on Saturday that its intelligence unit had arrested six individuals and seized weapons during raids on three Palestinian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley.

In southern Lebanon, invading Israeli forces continued their violations of the ceasefire agreement, carrying out further demolition operations in the town of Naqoura. They also set up a permanent military checkpoint in place of a Lebanese army post near the town’s fishing harbor and razed citrus groves near the UNIFIL headquarters.

An Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the border, an area that residents of the south are prohibited from approaching or traversing.

In the southern suburb of Beirut, the General Directorate of Civil Defense released a statement saying that search and rescue teams had successfully recovered the bodies of four victims from the rubble of the Ayoub building in the Haret Hreik area, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the residence of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.

The bodies will undergo DNA testing to confirm their identities, along with three other bodies discovered on Friday in the same area, the statement added.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Lebanon Syria Israel Palestine

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Gaza rescuers: 12 dead in Israeli strike on school shelter

Gaza rescuers: 12 dead in Israeli strike on school shelter

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