Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon

A couple cross on a motorcycle a bridge, damaged in an Israeli strike near the Syrian village of Tall al-Nabi Mando, in the countryside of Qusayr on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
A couple cross on a motorcycle a bridge, damaged in an Israeli strike near the Syrian village of Tall al-Nabi Mando, in the countryside of Qusayr on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 26 November 2024
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Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon

Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon
  • The defense ministry said “the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting crossing points that it had previously hit” between the two countries

DAMASUS: Syrian state television reported Israeli strikes on several bridges in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border on Monday, with the defense ministry reporting two civilians injured in the attacks.
Israel’s military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since its conflict with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into full-scale war in late September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the bridges of Al-Jubaniyeh, Al-Daf, Arjoun, and the Al-Nizariyeh Gate in the Qusayr area,” state television said, with official news agency SANA reporting damage in the attacks.
The defense ministry said “the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting crossing points that it had previously hit” between the two countries.
The attacks “injured two civilians and caused material losses,” it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, based in Britain, said the attacks had “killed two Syrians working with Hezbollah and injured five others,” giving a preliminary toll.
Earlier, the monitor with a network of sources in Syria had said the “Israeli strikes targeted” an official land border crossing in the Qusayr area and six bridges on the Orontes River near the border with Lebanon.
Since September, Israel has bombed land crossings between Lebanon and Syria, putting them out of service. It accuses Hezbollah of using the routes, key for people fleeing the war in Lebanon, to transfer weapons from Syria.

 

 


Lebanese boy chokes to death at school attempting viral TikTok ‘one-bite challenge’

Lebanese boy chokes to death at school attempting viral TikTok ‘one-bite challenge’
Updated 19 sec ago
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Lebanese boy chokes to death at school attempting viral TikTok ‘one-bite challenge’

Lebanese boy chokes to death at school attempting viral TikTok ‘one-bite challenge’
  • 12-year old dies trying to eat croissant in a single bite, inspired by online videos of people eating various types of food in one go
  • He attempted the challenge at Jannat Al-Atfal School

BEIRUT: A Lebanese schoolboy choked to death at school while attempting a food challenge that has gone viral on video-hosting platform TikTok.
Lebanese media reported on Friday that 12-year-old Joe Skaff died as he tried to eat a croissant in a single bite. He was said to have been inspired by the online “one-bite challenge” in which people post videos of themselves cramming various foods into their mouths to eat them in one go.
He attempted the challenge at Jannat Al-Atfal School in Keserwan, north of Beirut but began to choke on the pastry and was unable to breathe.
The school said: “With hearts filled with grief and sorrow, we mourn the death of our dear son and sixth-grader Joe Skaff. Today, during the first break, Joe was exposed to a sudden tragic accident where he suffocated while eating.”
Teachers and a licensed school nurse tried to help the youngster and clear the blockage before an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital but “attempts to save him were unsuccessful.”
The school added: “Joe was a special child with a bright personality and great kindness, and he was loved by his peers and all members of our school community.”


Aid agencies: Will take $80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip

Aid agencies: Will take $80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip
Updated 17 January 2025
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Aid agencies: Will take $80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip

Aid agencies: Will take $80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip

Rebuilding homes and infrastructure after Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza could take 40 years and cost more than $80 billion, aid agencies said on Friday.

The war has transformed the enclave into a rubble-strewn wasteland with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris. Major roads have been plowed up. Critical water and electricity infrastructure is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer function.
The full extent of the damage will be known only when the fighting ends on Sunday and inspectors have full access. The most heavily destroyed part of Gaza, in the north, has been sealed off and largely depopulated by Israeli forces in an operation that began last October.
Using satellite data, the UN estimates that 70 percent of structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including over 245,000 homes.

Before anything can be rebuilt, the rubble must be removed — a staggering task in itself.
The war has littered Gaza with over 50 million tonnes of rubble, about 12 times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. With over 100 trucks working full time, it would take 15 years to clear.

“I can’t think of any parallel, in terms of the severity of damage, for an enclave or a country or a people,” said Corey Scher of the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The first target for aid is the health sector, with more than 80 percent of Gaza’s health facilities damaged or destroyed.

The World Health Organization said on Friday it would start by bringing prefabricated hospitals into the enclave and medically evacuating over 12,000 patients, a third of them children.


South Sudan declares nighttime curfew after looting in capital

A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
Updated 17 January 2025
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South Sudan declares nighttime curfew after looting in capital

A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
  • The riots followed the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by members of Sudan’s military and allied groups in the city of Wad Madani in Sudan’s Al-Jazira region

JUBA: South Sudan’s police imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Friday after a night of deadly rioting in the capital over the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by the army and allied groups in Sudan.
In a broadcast on state television, police chief Abraham Peter Manyuat said the curfew would continue until further notice from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily to try to restore security and prevent the destruction of property.
“The police will not tolerate any violations,” he said.
The police said in a statement that at least three people had been killed and seven wounded on Thursday night in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, some by bullets and machetes, when youths in several suburbs looted and vandalized shops of Sudanese people.

BACKGROUND

Police said at least three people had been killed and seven wounded on Thursday night in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, some by bullets and machetes, when youths in several suburbs looted and vandalized shops.

In Aweil, near the border with Sudan, three houses belonging to Sudanese people were burned, the police added.
On Friday, shops in many Juba suburbs were closed as police and other security forces tried to relocate Sudanese people to safer areas due to fears rioters could attack them.
The riots followed the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by members of Sudan’s military and allied groups in the city of Wad Madani in Sudan’s Al-Jazira region.
On Tuesday, the Sudanese army condemned what it called “individual violations” in Al-Jazira after human rights groups blamed it and its allies for ethnically targeted attacks against civilians accused of supporting the Rapid Support Forces.
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sudan’s ambassador over the alleged killings earlier this week, and President Salva Kiir Mayardit called for calm.
“We mustn’t allow anger to cloud our judgment or turn against Sudanese traders and refugees currently residing in our country,” his office said in a statement.

 


Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas

Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
Updated 17 January 2025
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Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas

Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
  • “Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed,” Macron said
  • The French president is set to meet with the families of the two Franco-Israeli hostages “very soon“

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages due to be freed by Hamas following a ceasefire with Israel.
Macron’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.
“Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza accord,” Macron said in a social media post.
“We remain mobilized without pause to ensure their return to their families,” he wrote.
The French president is set to meet with the families of the two Franco-Israeli hostages “very soon,” according to his entourage.
Yahalomi, who turned 50 in captivity, was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz.
His 12-year-old son, abducted separately, was released in November 2023 during the first truce.
Kalderon, 54, was kidnapped along with his son and daughter from Nir Oz kibbutz. The two children were released in the November 2023 truce.


UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks

UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks
Updated 17 January 2025
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UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks

UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks
  • The “Sudan conflict (is) taking more dangerous turn for civilians,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said
  • On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan

PORT SUDAN: The United Nations human rights chief warned Friday that the war in Sudan is becoming “more dangerous” for civilians, following reports from rights groups of army-allied militias carrying out ethnic-based attacks on minorities in Al-Jazira state.
The “Sudan conflict (is) taking more dangerous turn for civilians,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said on social media platform X, adding that “there is evidence of... war crimes and other atrocity crimes.”


The Sudanese army, at war with rival paramilitaries since April 2023, led an offensive this week on Al-Jazira state, recapturing its capital Wad Madani from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Rights groups said on Monday that at least 13 people including two children were killed in ethnically-targeted attacks against minority communities in the agricultural state.
Though the RSF has become notorious for alleged ethnic-based violence, reports have also emerged of civilians being targeted on the basis of ethnicity in army-controlled areas.
On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
It came a week after the US also slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, accusing his group of committing genocide.
Responding to recent reports from US officials of the Sudanese army using chemical weapons in Sudan, spokesperson of the UN human rights chief Ravina Shamdasani said Friday that due to limited access, the UN “has not specifically documented” such practices during the war.
At a briefing on Friday, Shamdasani described the reports as “very worrying,” adding that “they do require further investigation.”
She said what the UN has documented is “the use of extremely heavy weaponry in populated areas,” including air strikes on marketplaces.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine, creating what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In its latest reports, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that over 120,000 people have fled the ongoing violence in the southern Sudanese states of Blue Nile, White Nile and Sennar to South Sudan since early December 2024.