By The Associated Press
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children and a woman, hours after the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
One of the strikes overnight and into Thursday flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
Two other strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys. The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
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UN food agency faces challenges in Syria
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. food agency is trying to deal with massive needs in Syria not only from escalating war-related food insecurity and an upsurge in displaced people fleeing Lebanon but also the dramatically new environment following the ouster of Bashar Assad, a senior U.N. official says.
“It’s a triple crisis and the needs are going to be massive,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, in an interview with The Associated Press late Wednesday.
The WFP estimated that 3 million people in Syria were “acutely food insecure” and very hungry. However, that estimate was made before the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon pushed many Syrian refugees back to their home country, plus the instability caused by the overthrow of Assad. Due to funding cuts, the WFP had been targeting only 2 million of those people, he said.
Because WFP has been working in Syria during the 13-year civil war, he said, it has pre-positioned food in the country. It has 500 staff in seven offices nationwide and has operated across conflict lines, across borders, and with all different parties, he said.
Skau said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel group now in control of Syria, has promised to provide security for WFP warehouses. Humanitarian aid supplies had been looted at U.N. warehouses in the disorder after Assad fell.
“We’re not really up and running in Damascus because of the continued kind of uncertainty there,” he said. WFP initially thought of relocating non-essential staff but the situation in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been “quite calm and orderly,” he said.
In the short term, Skau said, “what we’re seeing is that markets are disrupted, the value of the currency dropped dramatically, food prices are going up, transport lines don’t work,” and it’s unclear who will stamp required papers for imports and exports.
This means that a bigger humanitarian response is needed initially, he said, but in the next phase, the U,N. will be looking at contributing to Syria’s recovery, and ultimately the country will need reconstruction.
Skau said he expects a new funding appeal for Syria and urged donors to be generous.
A top US official says the truce in Lebanon may help seal a Gaza ceasefire deal
JERUSALEM — President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters in Jerusalem on Thursday that Israel’s ceasefire in Lebanon has helped clear the way for another deal to end the war in Gaza.
He plans to travel next to Qatar and Egypt — key mediators in the ceasefire talks — as the Biden administration makes a final push on negotiations before Donald Trump is inaugurated.
Sullivan said “Hamas’ posture at the negotiating table did adapt” after Israel decimated the leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and reached a ceasefire there.
“We believe it puts us in a position to close this negotiation,” he said.
Sullivan dismissed speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for Trump to take office to finalize a deal. He the U.S. believes there are three American hostages still alive in Gaza, but it’s hard to know for sure.
He also said “the balance of power in the Middle East has changed significantly” since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, especially with the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of Hezbollah and Iran.
“We are now faced with a dramatically reshaped Middle East in which Israel is stronger, Iran is weaker, its proxies decimated, and a ceasefire that is new and will be lasting in Lebanon that ensures Israel’s security over the long term,” he said.
Israel launches deadly strike on a Lebanese border town just hours after withdrawing troops
KHIAM, Lebanon — An Israeli strike killed at least one person Thursday in the Lebanese border town of Khiam, the state news agency said, less than a day after Israeli troops handed the hilltop village back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers,
Khiam is the first Lebanese town Israel has pull out of since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, and marks an important test of the fragile truce.
Lebanon’s news agency did not provide details on who was killed, and the Israeli army said it was looking into reports about the strike.
Lebanese troops deployed in the northern section of the town on Thursday morning and were coordinating with U.N. peacekeepers to finalize Israel’s withdrawal before fully entering into other neighborhoods.
An Associated Press reporter who visited Khiam on Thursday observed widespread destruction, with most houses reduced to rubble. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, with collapsed walls and debris scattered across the streets.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, sharply criticized Israel for striking the town less than 24 hours after the Lebanese army returned, saying it was “a violation of the pledges made by the parties that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, who must act to curb Israeli aggression.” The truce was brokered by the U.S. and France.
Israel has previously said the ceasefire deal allows it to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Thursday’s strike was among near-daily attacks by Israel during the ceasefire, mostly in southern Lebanon, which have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27 others.
Khiam, which sits on a ridge less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war.
The Lebanese army was clearing debris and reopening roads in the northern section of the town. Civilian access to other areas remained challenging as the army clears roads and works alongside the U.N. peacekeepers to ensure the area is free of unexploded ordnance.
Blinken urges the many players in Syria to avoid taking any steps that could lead to violence
AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging the many players in Syria to avoid taking any steps that could lead to further violence.
Blinken spoke to reporters in Jordan on Thursday shortly after meeting King Abdullah II as he opened a trip in the region to discuss Syria’s future after former President Bashar Assad’s ouster. Blinken will next visit Turkey, a NATO ally and a main backer of Syrian rebel groups.
Blinken called this “a time of both real promise but also peril for Syria and for its neighbors.”
He said he was focused on coordinating efforts in the region “to support the Syrian people as they transition away from Assad’s brutal dictatorship” and establish a government that isn’t dominated by one religion or ethnic group or outside power.
Blinken was asked about Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone that had been demilitarized for the past half century. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the move is temporary and defensive, but also indicated Israel will remain in the area for a long time.
Blinken declined to say whether the U.S. supports the move, but said the U.S. would be speaking to Israel and other partners in the region.
“I think, across the board, when it comes to any actors who have real interests in Syria, it’s also really important at this time that, we all try to make sure that we’re not sparking any additional conflicts,” he said.
Turkish spy chief makes symbolic visit to pray in Damascus after Assad’s fall
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, arrived in Damascus on Thursday, according to Turkish media reports.
Kalin was seen arriving at the Umayyad Mosque to pray, surrounded by a large crowd, according to video shown on Turkish television.
The visit is highly symbolic.
Turkish officials, who supported the opposition against Syria’s government, had predicted at the start of the civil war in 2011 that President Bashar Assad’s government would fall, allowing them to pray at the Umayyad Mosque.
Paraguay reopens embassy in Jerusalem in diplomatic victory for Netanyahu
JERUSALEM — Paraguay reopened its embassy in Jerusalem Thursday, becoming one of a small handful of nations to recognize the city as Israel’s capital and marking a diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s international isolation has increased as the war in Gaza drags on, and Paraguay was the first country to move its embassy to Jerusalem since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that kickstarted the war.
The United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea are among the few countries with Jerusalem embassies. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn’t recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv.
Spirits were high at the ceremony marking the embassy’s inauguration Thursday, with Netanyahu and Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar lavishing praise on Paraguayan President Santiago Pena.
“My good friend Santiago,” said Netanyahu, addressing Pena. “We’re a small nation. You’re a small nation. We suffered horrible things but we overcame the odds of history…we can win and we are winning.”
Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion.
Saar said Israel and Paraguay shared a “friendship based not only on interests but also values and principles.” He and the Paraguayan foreign minister, RubĂ©n RamĂrez Lezcano, signed a series of bilateral agreements and Saar said he would soon visit AsunciĂłn with a delegation from the Israeli private sector.
“Israel is going to win and the countries we are standing next to Israel, we are going to win,” Pena said.
US Secretary of State Blinken renews calls for inclusion, stability in Syria in Mideast visit
AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is renewing calls for Syria’s new leadership to respect women and minority rights, prevent extremists from gaining new footholds in the country and keeping suspected chemical weapons stocks secure as he makes his first visit to the Mideast since the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Making his 12th trip to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war erupted lasted year but amid fresh concerns about security following the upheaval in Syria, Blinken emphasized Thursday to Jordan’s King Abdullah II U.S. “support for an inclusive transition that can lead to an accountable and representative Syrian government chosen by the Syrian people,” the State Department said.
Blinken also repeated the importance the outgoing Biden administration puts on respect for human rights and international law, the protection of civilians and stopping terrorist groups from reconstituting.
Blinken met with the monarch and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Aqaba before traveling to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Syria and the urgency of securing a long-elusive deal to release hostages and end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory since October 2023.
Abdullah told Blinken that “the first step to reach comprehensive regional calm is to end the Israeli war on Gaza.”
UN envoy urges authorities to collect evidence from Syrian detention centers
GENEVA — The U.N. envoy for Syria is calling on authorities to save evidence from detention centers that were a hub of “unimaginable barbarity” that Syrians have faced for many years and cooperate with international investigators looking into such crimes.
Geir Pederson referred to new images from the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of the capital, Damascus, after President Bashar Assad fled Syria as armed groups stormed in to overthrow his government over the weekend.
“The images from Saydnaya and other detention facilities starkly underscore the unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured and reported for years,” Pedersen said in a statement.
Documentation and testimonies “only scratch the surface of the carceral system’s horrors,” he added.
Pedersen urged authorities to cooperate with U.N. bodies like an independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which was created in 2011, and an independent group known as the IIIM that was set up five years later to also compile evidence of crimes.
G7 leaders say they support an inclusive political transition in Syria
ROME — Leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations offered their full support for an inclusive political transition in Syria and invited all parties to preserve the country’s territorial integrity.
In a message released by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office, the leaders said they were ready to support a transition that “leads to a credible government, inclusive and not sectarian, that guarantees respect for the state of law, universal human rights, including rights for women, (and) the protection of all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities.”
The leaders also underlined the importance that ousted President Bashar Assad’s government is held responsible for crimes, citing “decades of atrocities.”
They said they would also cooperate with groups working to prohibit chemical weapons “to secure, declare and destroy” remaining chemical arms in Syria.
Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G-7, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Israel’s military says it hit Hamas militants in two locations in southern Gaza
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it struck Hamas militants in two locations in the southern Gaza Strip who planned to hijack aid convoys.
Palestinian Health officials had earlier said that the two strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid deliveries. The committees have been organized in cooperation with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza.
It was not possible to independently confirm either account of the strikes, which occurred overnight into Thursday.
Israel has long accused Hamas of hijacking humanitarian aid deliveries, while U.N. officials have said there is no systemic diversion of aid.
U.N. agencies and aid groups say deliveries are held up by Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid and movement within Gaza, as well as the breakdown of law and order more than 14 months into the war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, which maintained internal security before the war.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza, said a U.N. convoy of 70 trucks carrying humanitarian aid in southern Gaza “was involved in a serious incident,” resulting in just one of the trucks reaching its destination.
It did not provide further details on the incident but said the same route had been used successfully two days earlier.
Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, leaving the territory heavily reliant on international food aid.
American who says he crossed into Syria by foot is free after 7 months in detention
DAMASCUS, Syria — An American who turned up in Syria on Thursday says he was detained after crossing into the country by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago.
Travis Timmerman appears to have been among thousands of people released from the country’s notorious prisons after rebels reached Damascus over the weekend, overthrowing President Bashar Assad and ending his family’s 54-year rule.
As video emerged online of Timmerman on Thursday, he was initially mistaken by some for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago.
In the video, Timmerman could be seen lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private house. A group of men in the video said he was being treated well and would be safely returned home.
The Biden administration is working to bring Timmerman home, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Aqaba, Jordan, without offering details, citing privacy.
Timmerman later gave an interview with the Al-Arabiya TV network, saying he had illegally crossed into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle seven months ago, before being detained.
He said he was treated well in detention but could hear other men being tortured.
US Secretary of State Blinken visits Mideast after Assad’s ouster in Syria
AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Jordan on his 12th visit to the Mideast since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year and his first since the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad that has sparked new fears of instability in a region wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
Blinken was meeting in Aqaba with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday before traveling to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials on Friday. The meetings will focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory since October 2023.
Blinken is the latest senior U.S. official to visit the Middle East in the five days since Assad was deposed as the Biden administration navigates more volatility in the region in its last few weeks in office and as President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. should stay out of the Syrian conflict.
Other include national security adviser Jake Sullivan and a top military commander who traveled there as the U.S. and Israel have launched airstrikes to prevent the Islamic State militant group from reconstituting and prevent materiel and suspected chemical weapons stocks from falling into militant hands.
Blinken “will discuss the need for the transition process and new government in Syria to respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance, prevent Syria from being used as a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors, and ensure that chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” the State Department said.
The U.S. would be willing to recognize and fully support a new Syrian government that met those criteria.
U.S. officials say they are not actively reviewing the foreign terrorist organization designation of the main Syrian rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, which was once an al-Qaida affiliate, but stressed they are not barred from speaking to its members.
Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in Syrian buffer zone until border security is guaranteed
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in a Syrian buffer zone until a new force on the other side of the border can guarantee security.
After the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli forces pushed into a buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war. The military says it has seized additional strategic points nearby.
Israeli officials have said the move is temporary, but Netanyahu’s conditions could take months or even years to fulfill as Syria charts its post-Assad future, raising the prospect of an open-ended Israeli presence in the country.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Thursday that Assad’s overthrow by jihadi rebels created a vacuum on the border.
“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks,” it said, referring to Hamas’ 2023 attack out of Gaza, which ignited the war there.
“That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.”
The statement added that “this deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”
The buffer zone is adjacent to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, except for the United States, views the Golan as occupied Syrian territory.
Attacker who fatally shot boy on a bus in the West Bank turns himself in, military says
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Thursday that the attacker who fatally shot a 12-year-old Israeli boy in the occupied West Bank overnight turned himself in to authorities.
The attacker opened fire on a bus near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, critically wounding the boy, who hospital authorities pronounced dead in the early morning. Three others were wounded in the attack, paramedics said.
The shooting took place just outside Jerusalem in an area near major Israeli settlements.
Indonesia evacuates 37 citizens from Syria
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government has evacuated 37 citizens from Syria following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government, officials said Thursday.
The evacuees were taken by land from Damascus to Beirut, where they boarded three commercial flights to Jakarta, said Judha Nugraha, director of citizen protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The Indonesian Embassy in Damascus said all 1,162 Indonesian citizens in Syria were safe.
Indonesian Ambassador to Syria Wajid Fauzi said the situation in Syria has gradually returned to normal.
“I can say that 98% of people’s lives are back to normal, shops are open, public transportation has started running,” Fauzi said, adding that most Indonesian nationals living in Syria had chosen to stay.
Israeli airstrikes kill at least 28 people, including 7 children, Palestinian medical officials say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children and a woman.
One of the strikes overnight and into Thursday flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at the hospital’s morgue.
Two other strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys. The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies and an Associated Press reporter counted them. The hospital said eight were killed in a strike near the southern border town of Rafah and seven others in a strike 30 minutes later near Khan Younis.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, with experts warning of famine.
Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it. The U.N. says Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order after Israel repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, make it extremely difficult to operate in the territory.
UN General Assembly demands ceasefire in Gaza and backs UN agency helping Palestinian refugees
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.
The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions to support the agency known as UNRWA.
The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly.
Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions.
