Israeli Defense Forces launch attack on Syria's military headquarters
Syrian state media has reported loud explosions in the city.
It's the third day in a row that Israel has launched strikes on Syrian government forces, with strikes over the last few days targeting forces heading towards the southern city of Sweida.
Sectarian violence had erupted there between local Bedouin clans and militia from the Druze community.
The Israeli government says it is protecting the local Druze population — a religious minority living in the south of Syria, with ties to the Druze community in Israel.
The new Syrian regime, led by former militant leader Ahmed al-Sharaa had condemned Israel's behaviour, describing it as a calculated attempt to fuel chaos across Syria.
Israel's military has operated inside Syria since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad late last year, with troops and tanks crossing over the border from the Israeli occupied Golan Heights into southern Syria hours after the previous regime was toppled by rebel forces.
There had been speculation in recent weeks that President al-Sharaa could strike some sort of peace deal with the Israeli government, normalising ties between the two countries.
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ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
UN says 6,000 trucks worth of aid ready to enter Gaza
The commissioner of the UN's aid agency has said 6,000 trucks carrying food and aid are waiting to enter Gaza, amid growing calls for action to prevent further deaths from starvation. Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine, has spoken out amid growing calls for more aid to enter the Strip. In the last month, 48 people have died from starvation, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said. More than 100 aid organisations and dozens of governments including Australia this week called for Israel to increase the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave, as local health authorities warn of growing rates of malnourishment and starvation. In a post on social media platform X, Mr Lazzarini said a colleague described people in Gaza as "neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses". "When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold,"he said. Mr Lazzarini said his organisation's workers were themselves only surviving on one meal a day, and "most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at risk of dying". He said the UNRWA had the equivalent of 6,000 trucks waiting to enter Gaza carrying food and medical supplies. "Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted [and] uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza." The Israeli government has defended its handling of humanitarian aid, accusing Hamas of stealing aid and arguing the distribution of food and medicine in a war zone is complex. Israel has also previously accused UNRWA of harbouring Hamas fighters, an allegation it denies. Hamas has denied it is looting aid supplies. It comes an Israeli team preparing to negotiate a potential ceasefire with Hamas left talks on Thursday, leading the militant group to accuse Israel of "stalling" progress. Amid growing global pressure for an end to the war, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday its team of mediators would return to Israel. They had been negotiating with the militant group Hamas in Qatar, but Mr Netanyahu's office said they were returning for "further consultation" on Hamas's response to ceasefire proposals. Earlier, Israel said Hamas's latest response to the proposed ceasefire deal was "workable". Two sources familiar with the negotiations in Qatar told Reuters Israel's decision to bring its delegation back home did not necessarily indicate a crisis in the talks. A senior Hamas source told Reuters that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling. The source said Hamas' response included requesting a clause that would prevent Israel from resuming the war if an agreement was not reached within the 60-day truce period. A senior Israeli official was quoted by local media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with. However, Israel's Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during any truce. Israel is facing international and domestic pressure to find a way to end the war. Numerous news organisations, including the ABC, have reported that journalists they rely on to report on events inside Gaza are struggling to find food. The Israeli government has not allowed the ABC to enter Gaza and report from there directly. The conflict began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage. In response, Israel's campaign against Hamas has killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities. Millions more people have been displaced, and at least 113 people have died of starvation since the conflict began. One local doctor in Gaza City told the ABC earlier this week that deaths from starvation were beginning to increase. Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces had killed at least 40 people since dawn on Thursday, including six waiting for aid. Israel's military said Hamas militants targeted a food distribution site in the south of the territory on Wednesday. The militants, though, claimed they had shelled "an enemy command and control site". Five of those killed on Thursday were in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah. Through 21 months of fighting, both sides have clung to long-held positions, preventing two short-lived truces from being converted into a lasting ceasefire. In Khan Younis, in the south, Umm al-Abd Nassar urged Hamas to secure a truce after her son was killed in an air strike on a camp for the displaced. "They need to do something. Enough with this destruction and people dying," she told AFP. Meanwhile, eight Israeli soldiers were wounded on Thursday local time when a driver deliberately rammed his car into a bus stop, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Police have described the incident as a "terror attack". "The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified," it said in a statement. The army said two soldiers were "moderately injured" and six "lightly injured" in the attack at the Beit Lid junction near Kfar Yona in central Israel. "The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified," the IDF said in a statement. ABC/Reuters/AFP
News.com.au
14 hours ago
- News.com.au
International media groups urge Israel to allow access to Gaza
International news agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters as well as the BBC on Thursday called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, which is subject to a strict blockade. "We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families," the media groups said in a joint statement. They added that "journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them." "We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there," they concluded. With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by Palestinian reporters to international news agencies such as AFP. International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that "mass starvation" is spreading. Since the war started following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, a small number of journalists have been able to enter Gaza only with the Israeli army and under strict military censorship rules. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began. - Evacuations - AFP news agency has published accounts of life inside Gaza from its reporters this week. It has said it is concerned about "the appalling situation" they face due to a daily struggle to find food. "We have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food," said Omar al-Qattaa, a 35-year-old AFP photographer shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. "Obtaining food in Gaza is extremely difficult. Even when it is available, prices are multiplied by 100," video journalist Youssef Hassouna said. Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed in and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid. The World Health Organization's chief warned on Wednesday of widespread starvation in Gaza, saying food deliveries into the territory were "far below what is needed for the survival of the population". Witnesses and Gaza's civil defence agency have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers. The UN said the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May. AFP succeeded in evacuating eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024, after months of effort. - 'Starving' - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media freedom group, said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel was "starving Gazan journalists into silence". "They are not just reporters, they are frontline witnesses, abandoned as international media were pulled out and denied entry," CPJ regional director Sara Qudah was quoted as saying. Many Palestinian journalists have spoken out or posted about their exhaustion, with Sally Thabet, a correspondent for Al-Kofiya satellite channel, fainting after a live broadcast this week, the CPJ said. Doha-based Al Jazeera, the most influential Arabic media group, also called for global action to protect Gaza's journalists on Tuesday. The channel, which has been banned in Israel, has had five of its reporters killed since the start of the conflict in what it says is a deliberate targeting campaign by Israel. In some cases, Israel has accused reporters of being "terror operatives", such as when it killed a Gaza-based Al Jazeera staff journalist and freelancer last year -- allegations condemned by the Qatari news network. "We know that probably most journalists inside Gaza are operating under the auspices of Hamas, and until Hamas is destroyed, they will not be allowed to report freely," Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference last December. adp/jj
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
The hunger crisis inside Gaza will affect the news you see about the war
It was Friday afternoon and my phone lit up. One of our ABC Middle East team members was messaging the group WhatsApp chat. That group is usually pinging around the clock — sometimes incessantly, given the pace of news in this region. But the message which came through was chilling. "He told me he does not have the strength to hold a camera anymore," our producer Cherine Yazbeck told the group. "He has already lost 34 kilos. "He can hardly talk on the phone." We've heard for many, many months now about the severe shortages of food and other supplies across war-ravaged Gaza, as Israeli restrictions on deliveries have been in force. The ABC has brought you the scenes of babies lying silently in hospital beds, too weak to cry out as their mothers hover over them, feeling helpless because they're unable to breastfeed. We've broadcast accounts of aid seekers, scrambling for whatever food they can grab for their families and communities. And we've brought you reports of Palestinians protesting against Hamas for prolonging the war. These stories have been possible to publish because of the work of our network of talented and brave journalists and videographers who we work with on the ground — doing the legwork for us within Gaza's borders, given Israel's ban on foreign media entering the strip, something which is unprecedented in war coverage. And now one of our dedicated colleagues was telling us he was struggling to do that work. He was sharing that he was suffering in the same way as hundreds of thousands of other Palestinian men, women and children. And his story is not isolated. Other members of our team have also spoken of their hunger. These are Gazans, reporting on Gazans, and experiencing what Gazans are being subjected to as the war in the strip drags on. There's an old adage in the media about journalists not wanting to become the story. But in this instance, the journalist and the story are intrinsically linked in a battle for survival. And it could seriously impact how we can tell the broader story of the Gaza war. Major news outlets have voiced serious concern about their staff operating in Gaza. One of the world's largest news agencies, Agence France-Presse (AFP), appealed to the French government for help evacuating its staff. "Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner," the AFP journalist union said in a statement. "But none of us can ever remember seeing colleagues die of hunger." Al Jazeera, banned from operating in Israel, echoed those sentiments the following day. "The journalistic community and the world bear an immense responsibility; it is our duty to raise our voices and mobilise all available means to support our colleagues in this noble profession," the network's director-general, Mostefa Souag, said in a statement. "If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories." One of their own journalists, Anas Al Sharif, broke down live on air as a woman collapsed outside a hospital behind him. In the video other Palestinians can be heard telling him: "Go on, Anas. Continue the coverage. You are our voice." On Wednesday more than 100 international humanitarian organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam and Save the Children, signed a statement to sound the alarm Gaza was on the brink of "mass starvation". Israel consistently rejects allegations it is fuelling the hunger crisis in Gaza — instead blaming Hamas for the situation and describing accounts of such conditions inside as propaganda. Yet in dismissing the reports emerging from the strip, it does not allow international media into Gaza to independently gather and verify information. Since the beginning of the war, access to Gaza has been almost non-existent. The Israeli government has argued that for the safety of journalists, it is "keeping them out". The only times journalists have been allowed to enter have been while under the direct supervision of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — tightly controlled and choreographed visits, where the media are not generally allowed to interact with the local population. While the journalistic merit of such visits can be questioned, the ABC has made a number of requests to join one of those so-called "embeds" — but has not been afforded that opportunity, while major American and European media outlets are given spots. Those embeds have become even less regular since the last ceasefire — the last was believed to be when the IDF took a group of journalists to the European Hospital complex in Khan Younis in early June. Compare this to the situation in eastern Europe, where international journalists are able to operate inside most of Ukraine. The Foreign Press Association, representing international media operating in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, is trying to challenge those IDF restrictions in the country's Supreme Court — a process that has been repeatedly bogged down in delays and adjournments. All of that said, the foreign media is therefore reliant on Palestinian journalists inside Gaza to help tell the story of this war. And if they are now struggling to get out of bed every day, unable to pick up their cameras and microphones — quite aside from dealing with the severe connectivity issues in the strip that are hampering them getting images and video out to the world — that is deeply problematic. Notwithstanding the incredibly high number who have been killed in air strikes during the war, which the Committee to Protect Journalists puts at 186 since October 2023. There is no denying Hamas plays a role here. While tensions and trauma in Gaza have existed for decades, the current conflict — now in its 21st month — began when Hamas launched its deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage by Hamas. 50 remain captive, 20 of whom are still believed to be alive. Israel's stated goal is the return of those hostages, and it is demanding that the militant group release them. Although there is no guarantee that would end the war, given the rhetoric from Israeli leaders in recent months about the total destruction of Hamas. Ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain stalled, and Hamas has been accused of using scenes of starvation to help it win international support. But it is Israel that holds the keys to aid deliveries. Israel imposed a total humanitarian aid blockade on the strip in March, stopping all trucks going into the occupied territory for almost three months as it tried to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages. While continuing to insist there were sufficient supplies for the population, it was forced to allow a partial easing of that blockade for essential items including flour and baby formula. It developed a new private aid delivery model, installing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as the distributor of food and other items, and announcing it would bypass established UN channels, which it said had been hijacked by Hamas. Gaza's health ministry and the United Nations say more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in shootings near GHF sites and truck convoys — figures GHF and the IDF deny are accurate, although Israeli authorities do not produce their own data on casualties at these sites. Late on Tuesday, the IDF's international spokesman published video on social platform X that it said showed 950 truckloads of aid sitting inside Gaza's borders waiting for the UN to pick it up and distribute it. The same account posted video purportedly showing Hamas fighters enjoying fresh bananas in subterranean tunnels, while Palestinians starved above. Aid agencies have not denied supplies are sitting inside the border, but they accuse Israeli forces of making it dangerously difficult to deliver them through the strip and refusing to guarantee safe passage for convoys to move through. GHF has offered its own security to help escort those convoys — something the United Nations and aid agencies would likely baulk at, given the idea of having armed escorts is typically seen as undermining the principle of humanitarian aid. There is also the issue of what role GHF has to play in that process, given it has regularly said it is only responsible for what happens inside the perimeters of its few distribution sites. The crisis that has ensued as a result of all this, and 21 months of bombing and shelling, is one of the biggest and most important stories in the world. But it will soon be more difficult to tell, as our colleagues struggle to help us tell it.
