Middle East latest: Israeli strike on home in northern Gaza kills 19 people, Palestinian medics say
Middle East latest: Israeli strike on home in northern Gaza kills 19 people, Palestinian medics say
An Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 19, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed back to the region reeling from the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Kamal Adwan Hospital said it received the bodies after the overnight strike in the town of Beit Lahiya. Hospital records show that a family of eight were among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has waged a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza since early October.
Another strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to al-Awda Hospital. Records show the dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.
Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since Assad’s ouster.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
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Germany says it’s looking for ways to work with Syria’s new rulers
BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday addressed Berlin’s reservations but also willingness to work the Syrian militant group in control of Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.
“Nobody overlooks the origins of HTS in the al-Qaeda ideology. It is therefore clear that we will measure HTS by its actions,” Baerbock told reporters in Berlin. “Any cooperation presupposes that ethnic and religious minorities are protected, women’s rights are respected and acts of revenge are prevented.”
She said that “whether we like it or not, the HTS militia … is one of the decisive actors for the future of Syria.”
“Together with our partners, we are therefore looking for an adequate way of dealing with HTS, with whom many have had no direct contact for good reasons,” she added.
Ahmad al-Sharaa, the insurgent leader also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicted himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance.
Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills 1, state news agency says
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese town of Bin Jbeil killed one person and wounded another, the state news agency reported.
National News Agency said Wednesday’s airstrike hit a home. It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from Israeli military.
More than a dozen people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since a ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27, ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.
Blinken is returning to the Middle East
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Assad’s departure has sparked new fears of instability in the region now wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
Blinken will travel to Jordan and Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the territory since October 2023.
The State Department said Blinken would meet Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II, in the port of Aqaba on Thursday before flying to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials Friday.
Other stops in the region are also possible, officials said.
Blinken “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Insurgents set fire to Hafez Assad’s tomb, a war monitor says
BEIRUT — Insurgents have set on fire the tomb of Syria’s former President Hafez Assad in his hometown in the northwest, a war monitor and a local journalist said Wednesday.
Hafez Assad had ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, when his son, Bashar, succeeded him. Both ruled Syria with an iron fist and were blamed for crackdowns that left tens of thousands dead, mainly in the central city of Hama in 1982, and in much of the country since the civil war in 2011.
Bashar Assad was ousted over the weekend and fled to Russia where he was given political asylum.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian journalist Qusay Noor told The Associated Press that the tomb was set on fire Wednesday in the town of Qardaha in Latakia province.
UN appeals for $4 billion for humanitarian operations in Palestinian territories
JERUSALEM — The United Nations is asking donors for over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also called for the “lifting all impediments to the entry of aid” in its appeal issued Wednesday.
U.N. agencies say aid operations in Gaza are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames the U.N. for not distributing it within the territory.
The appeal for 2025 includes $3.6 billion for Gaza and about $450 million for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has destroyed vast areas of the besieged territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million. Many have been displaced multiple times and are now crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food or other essentials. Most of the population relies on international aid.
Paraguay’s president addresses the Knesset ahead of embassy reopening in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM — The president of Paraguay addressed the Israeli parliament Wednesday ahead of the reopening of the country’s embassy in Jerusalem.
The decision to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel is a diplomatic win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and puts Paraguay in a small group of countries that have taken the move.
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.
“Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is a body without a soul,” President Santiago Peña said in a speech to the Knesset. “So I say here today that without an embassy in Jerusalem, diplomatic relations with Israel do not have a real heart.” He said he hoped the move would inspire other countries to do the same.
The embassy is set to open Thursday.
Pena’s move was welcomed by Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, along with other Israeli leaders.
“Tomorrow we will inaugurate together the embassy of Paraguay in our eternal capital, and that will happen not for the first time, but for the second time,” Netanyahu said.
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.
Israel reopened its embassy in September.
Russia says it’s in touch with new authorities in Syria
MOSCOW — Russia said Wednesday it has maintained contacts with the new authorities in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are monitoring most closely what is happening in Syria.”
“We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
“This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.”
Peskov wouldn’t give details of those contacts, saying only that Russia has contacted “those who are controlling the situation on the ground.”
He wouldn’t give the number of Russian troops in Syria.
Asked to comment about Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone on the border with Syria, Peskov called them destabilizing.
“The strikes and actions in the Golan Heights area, in the buffer zone area, are unlikely to help stabilize the situation in an already destabilized Syria,” he said.
Russia has granted political asylum to ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family after they fled rebels who seized Damascus over the weekend.
Iran’s supreme leader says fall of Syrian government was part of joint plan by US and Israel
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel.
“There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan,” Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday that was broadcast on state TV. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.”
The Supreme leader added: “A neighboring state of Syria has played a clear role in this matter, and it continues to do so. Everyone can see this.”
Khamenei also rejected speculation by analysts who have said that Iran will be weakened by the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
“Those ignorant analysts are unaware of the meaning of resistance. They think that if resistance weakens, Islamic Iran will also weaken. But I say, with the help and power of God — by the will of Almighty Allah — Iran is powerful and it will become even more powerful,” he said.
By The Associated Press
