Iran 'won't surrender', and ruins of Hezbollah strongholds
On today's episode of Trending Middle East:
Israel says no calm in Beirut until Hezbollah is disarmed
This episode features Thomas Helm, Jerusalem Correspondent, and Jamie Prentis, Beirut Correspondent.
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The National
26 minutes ago
- The National
Syria announces 'halt' to Sweida offensive after Israel bombs Damascus
Syria has announced an 'immediate and complete halt' to its offensive against the Druze minority, after Israel attacked key symbols of power in Damascus. The Syrian government said it had agreed to the ceasefire with some but not all representatives of the Druze community, after Israeli strikes were launched to protect the religious sect. A previous truce failed to hold during days of brutal urban warfare in the Druze heartland of Sweida. Israel widened its aerial campaign in Syria with a series of strikes on the main military compounds in Damascus on Wednesday. A Syrian military official told The National that the Army General Command and Defence Ministry, both adjacent to the city's Ummayad Square, "took several strikes and were badly damaged". Israel, which says it is acting to defend Syria's Druze minority following clashes with Bedouin tribes that prompted Syrian government intervention, also said it attacked "a military target in the area of the Syrian regime's presidential palace". Three people was reported killed and 34 injured, as Israel said its army would be "reinforced with additional troops" near Syria's border. Gulf countries called for calm after days of unrest, some of the worst since Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara came to power in a rebel offensive last year. The UAE condemned the "dangerous escalation" and Israeli attacks, rejecting any breach of Syria's sovereignty or threats to its security and stability. An aide to Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, who has led the resistance to government forces in Sweida, said he was not part of the ceasefire deal but will speak after the city is 'liberated'. Israel strikes Damascus - in pictures The ceasefire deal was reached with the House of the Druze Unifiers, not specifically with the Druze triumvirate headed by Sheikh Al Hijri. But it stipulates that 'all parties will cease military escalation" and provides for an "immediate and complete halt" to government military operations. The agreement also signalled that Syrian security forces deployed in Sweida province will from now be drawn only from its residents, a main Druze demand. 'Painful blows' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said "painful blows have begun", as he posted footage of a Syrian TV anchor in panic at an explosion behind her while reading a report on air. An Israeli statement said its army is monitoring the "regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria" and is striking in the area, and "remains prepared for various scenarios". Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said "murder and pogroms" were taking place against minorities in Syria. Sources in Jordan said Israel struck the Syrian army in Keswa on the outskirts of Damascus and in the southern governorate of Deraa, killing three security commanders. The Israeli attacks could undermine a US push to end hostilities between Syria and Israel, with the new authorities in Damascus having reportedly engaged in talks with Israel, although the contents of the talks have not been disclosed. Residents of Sweida contacted by The National said they were afraid for their lives, not just from shelling but also from government snipers and the storming of houses by regular troops and militias allied with Damascus. "My neighbour was shot dead by a sniper, right there in the street. He had just stepped outside," said one resident. The man had been trying to escape Sweida to a village on the outskirts before he was shot, they added. Widening offensive The Israeli attacks came as Syrian troops and their militia allies widened an offensive against the mostly Druze governorate of Sweida, deploying snipers and firing rockets on residential areas, witnesses said. However, they were facing resistance as Israel mounted its raids in support of the sect. Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, said Washington "condemns violence against civilians in Sweida", without assigning blame. "All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue," he said. The Syrian government offensive, in its fourth day, aims to spread government control over the province, where many Druze have resisted the post- Bashar Al Assad order, which is led by former members of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a splinter group from Al Qaeda. Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the Druze spiritual leader, has criticised the HTS government as extremist and anti-democratic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored Druze in Israeli-controlled areas near south Syria not to cross into Syria to support their co-religionists. 'You are risking your lives; you can be murdered, you can be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the Israeli Defence Forces," Mr Netanyahu said. Syrian militias forcibly shave men's moustaches in Druze heartland A Druze politician close to Mr Al Hijri told The National that the 82nd Division of the Syrian army entered Sweida city overnight in an attempt to secure the area, the epicentre of the government attacks. 'About half of Sweida has fallen,' he said, adding that snipers from the 82nd Division had been deployed on Qanawat Road, a commercial thoroughfare. Pitched battles were continuing in many neighbourhoods, he said, including in the centre of city. A witness in Sweida said government forces fired Grad rockets on the city on Wednesday, in addition to pounding it with artillery rounds since Sunday. 'We have not left our houses. We do not feel secure because the shelling is random,' said the witness, who is a member of Sweida's Christian clergy. The city of 140,000 is overwhelmingly Druze but has a minority of Christian and Sunni inhabitants. Sources in Jordan say that government forces and allied militias have killed more than 150 Druze, including civilians, since Sunday. Among them are at least a dozen men who were executed after the loyalist forces stormed buildings in Sweida. The Syrian authorities said 26 of its troops were killed. Sweida is home to most of Syria's registered 800,000 Druze. But many have emigrated, particularly during the country's 13-year civil war, with an estimated 270,000 Druze remaining in the province. Rima Fleihan, a Druze civil figure who was a leading peaceful opponent of the Assad regime, said that the government's siege is endangering Sweida's hospitals, and that at least one doctor was killed by government snipers. 'The military forces are indiscriminately shelling civilian neighbourhoods,' Ms Fleihan said, adding that 'numerous individuals' affiliated with the government have 'carried out field executions of civilians, and have detained others in clear violation of international humanitarian law'. The Druze follow an offshoot of Islam and are also present in Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. Israel intervened militarily in April to halt attacks by government militias on the sect in which dozens of Druze were killed in Damascus and Sweida.
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
French legal group to take EU to court for ‘failing to prevent Gaza genocide'
French and Belgian jurists are due to file a case before the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) on Thursday against the EU Commission and Council for alleged 'failure to prevent genocide' in Gaza. Legal proceedings will come on the back of the failure by EU ministers on Tuesday to agree on suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement. A review of the deal had found that Israel is in breach of the human rights terms associated with the agreement. The EU-Israel agreement provides for preferential trade terms, cooperation on research, culture and security, and a framework for political dialogue. Its human rights clause, Article 2, states that respect for democratic principles and human rights is an essential element of the partnership. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The case, which will be filed in Luxembourg, is the first to challenge the two EU institutions for failing to act against Israel's devastating attack on Gaza. Israel's war on Gaza has been labelled a genocide by several EU members, including Spain, Ireland and Slovenia. The case will be filed by Jurists for the Respect of International Law (Jurdi), a French NGO, which sent formal notices on 12 and 15 May to the Commission and Council. They called for the suspension of cooperation agreements with Israel and for a halt to arms transfers amid the ongoing Israeli campaign, which is confirmed to have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in 21 months. UN's Albanese calls out 'appalling' EU failure to sanction Israel as 32-nation summit in Bogota kicks off Read More » Jurdi is requesting that the CJEU formally acknowledge this failure to act, and order EU institutions to suspend cooperation with Israel, adopt targeted sanctions and fulfil their duty of prevention. Jurdi's president, Patrick Zahnd, told Middle East Eye that the group is also requesting the court issue a binding order for emergency measures. According to Jurdi, the European Commission incurs legal responsibility of EU institutions with respect to Articles 2, 3, 21, 29, and 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the EU–Israel Association Agreement and the peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens). The case argues that the EU violated four principles of international law, including the obligation to prevent genocide, the duty to end impediments to the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, the prohibition on recognition of or assistance to an unlawful situation, such as prolonged occupation, and the obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, particularly in the face of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Tuesday, the EU's 27 foreign ministers in Brussels failed to agree on the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. They also failed to agree on nine other possible measures against Israel put forward after it was found to have breached human rights provisions of the trade agreement. The measures that would have been agreed on Tuesday included full suspension of the agreement, suspension of its preferential trade provisions, an arms embargo, sanctions on Israeli ministers, or imposing a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Crush at Gaza aid site kills at least 20, GHF blames armed agitators
At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in what the US-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators. The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said 19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centres in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd — armed and affiliated with Hamas — deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement. Hamas rejected the GHF allegation as "false and misleading", saying GHF guards and Israeli soldiers sprayed people with pepper gas and opened fire. GHF said Hamas' account was "blatantly false". "At no point was tear gas deployed, nor were shots fired into the crowd. Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life," GHF said in a written response to Reuters via e-mail. "Today's incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF. It is no coincidence that this incident occurred during ceasefire negotiations, where Hamas continues to demand that GHF cease operations." Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence. 'People kept gathering and pressuring each other; when people pushed each who couldn't stand fell under the people and were crushed," said eyewitness Mahmoud Fojo, 21, who was hurt in the stampede. "Some people started jumping over the netted fence and got wounded. We were injured, and God saved us. We were under the people and we said the Shahada (death prayers). We thought we were dying, finished," he added. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Hamas and eyewitness accounts. Palestinian health officials told Reuters that 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza — the majority of them close to GHF distribution points. Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned". The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation. The UN has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards — an allegation GHF has denied. Amjad Al Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF on Wednesday of gross mismanagement. "People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organisation and discipline by the GHF," he told Reuters. The war in Gaza, triggered in October 2023 by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel, has displaced almost all of the territory's population and led to widespread hunger and privation. Israeli army road Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had finished paving a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations. Palestinians see the road, which extends Israeli control, as a way to put pressure on Hamas in ongoing ceasefire talks, which started on July 6 and are being brokered by Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar with the backing of the United States. Palestinian sources close to the negotiations said a breakthrough had not yet been reached on any of the main issues. Hamas said it rejected an Israeli demand to keep at least 40 per cent of Gaza under its control as part of any deal. Hamas also demanded the dismantlement of the GHF and the reinstatement of a UN-led aid delivery mechanism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas is disarmed and removed from Gaza. Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 87 people across the enclave in the past 24 hours. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, by Israeli tallies.
