Israeli strike on Syrian military HQ shown in drone footage
The strikes are considered Israel's most intense in years, occurring amidst deadly clashes between Druze factions and government forces in southern Syria.
Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of a "large-scale escalation", while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was working 'to save our Druze brothers'.
The conflict, which began on Sunday, has reportedly resulted in over 350 fatalities.
Watch the video in full above.
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The Guardian
18 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Spotlight on Keir Starmer's recognition of Palestine
I'm puzzled by the conditions Keir Starmer has set for Israel to meet, failing which he'll recognise Palestine as a state (UK to recognise state of Palestine in September unless Israel holds to a ceasefire, 29 July). Why does recognition depend on Israel's actions? Surely it should depend on Palestine's: commitments to abjure terrorism, disarm Hamas, hold democratic elections and, of course, to release the hostages. As for Israel, UK policy should be to impose draconian sanctions: if Israel continues to act like a pariah state, let it be treated as one. Without sanctions, there would probably still be an apartheid regime in South Africa. The UK must act now, not half-heartedly in September; thousands of children in Gaza can't wait until MaughanDunblane, Perthshire Like so many people in the UK, I thought that my despair and shame over the situation in Gaza could not be deepened. Keir Starmer achieved that. How like this prime minister to obfuscate further and kick any sense of decisiveness into the long grass of contingency. One might think that Britain has some special responsibility for recognising the state of Palestine, whose population it abandoned to the predations of its neighbour in 1948. What will be left of Gaza, the West Bank and its people by September? A genocide? A diaspora? The UK doesn't negotiate with terrorists, just with war Prof Graham MortLancaster University Soon after the atrocities of 7 October 2023 I heard someone on the radio say, with respect to Israel's imminent invasion of Gaza, 'Beware of being goaded by your enemy into doing what your enemy wants you to do.' Nearly two years on, the Israeli government seems hell-bent on creating a moral equivalence between itself and Hamas. If you become like your enemy, then your enemy has won. Thus, despite what it says about recent moves to recognise a Palestinian state, the Israeli government, more than any other, is 'rewarding' Hamas for its terrorist actions. The Rev Rob KelseyBerwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland It is impossible for us to know the depth of despair Palestinians must feel to hear western nations pontificating that we will not recognise them as a nation if their oppressors stop killing them. It seems this is the ultimate acknowledgment that they have no rights except those we deem to give them. We have expelled them from the land in which they lived to ensure that Europe didn't have the problem of resettling the thousands displaced by a European war. They are being attacked in Gaza and the West Bank with weapons supplied by western governments. They are being starved in Gaza to keep their oppressor-in-chief in office. And now our governments are praised for condescending to recognise the fact that they are a nation (that has existed for more than 1,000 years). How can we think we have any integrity left in our dealings with the oppressed?Michael McLoughlinWallington, London What will give greater weight to the call for a two-state solution is outlining the building blocks for establishment of a Palestinian state: for example, Gaza would be placed under UN control to allow for demilitarisation, the physical reconstruction and drawing up a basic law to guide the development of a constitutional WeirCape Town, South Africa Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Nearly 600 Israeli ex-security officials appeal to Trump to end war
Nearly 600 retired Israeli security officials and former intelligence agency heads have written to Donald Trump urging him to put pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza immediately. The Commanders For Israel's Security (CIS) group sent a letter to the US President with 550 signatories, including fomer Mossad director Tamir Pardo, ex-Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, and former deputy Israeli army chief Matan Vilnai. The CIS movement is made up of retired senior defence and foreign service officials, who support a two-state solution to secure Israel's future as 'the strong democratic home of the Jewish people via separation from the Palestinians '. 'It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,' reads the open letter, which was sent on Friday and shared with the media later. 'You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.' 'Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages can't wait.' The appeal comes as videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages in Gaza were released, sparking international condemnation and protests over the weekend. Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Braslavski, 21, were abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and recorded in fragile condition. They are among the 49 hostages believed still in Gaza, of whom 27 are believed to be dead. French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were among the leaders condemning the videos. Protests also erupted in Tel Aviv on Sunday and in front of the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on Monday, calling to end the war and release the hostages. Indirect ceasefire talks have stalled and Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly pushing to expand military operations in Gaza. The letter argued that the IDF has achieved its military objectives - dismantling Hamas' governance and military formations - and that securing the hostages now requires a deal. The letter continued: 'Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering, and forge a regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its vicious ideology.' A UN-backed food security agency warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in the besieged enclave.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Hamas is using images of starving Jewish hostages to destroy ceasefire hopes - and that suits Netanyahu
The Hamas images of starving Jews, held hostage in tunnels below Gaza, digging their own graves or unable to even stand, provoked the condemnation that the militant group must surely have expected. Along with its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hamas is now trying to trade food and medical help for Evyatar David, 24, and 22-year-old Rom Braslavski - along with 18 other living hostages - for an end to Israeli air strikes, and the opening of humanitarian corridors for Gaza 's 2.2 million people facing starvation. They will not get what they want – and neither will Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister - because both are locked into mutually destructive strategies that punish the innocent while they pursue the conflict neither really wants to end. David is 24, he's had two birthdays since he was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. A musician who planned to tour internationally, he was filmed in a Hamas tunnel digging a hole in the sand at his feet. 'Every day that passes, my body gets weaker and thinner,' he is recorded saying in the second of two videos released by Hamas. 'It seems to me I am on the way to my own death. I am digging the grave in which I will be buried.' He then collapses, holding the shovel, his head bowed. Braslavski, a soldier working at the Nova festival close to the border with Gaza when Hamas led an operation that killed nearly 1,200 and in which over 250 people were kidnapped, was being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A video was also released of him at the weekend. 'I can't stand I can't walk to the bathroom, I've run out of food and water,' he is filmed saying through tears. After this latest video, Hamas said it had lost contact with the PIJ. In the footage which has been widely condemned, both men are clearly badly emaciated. An assement by expert doctors from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum led by professor Ronit Endervelt said: 'Evyatar's current weight is estimated at approximately 40-45kg, a decrease of about 41 per cent from his original body weight of around 76kg, defined by the World Health Organization as severe thinness. 'Rom began captivity with a body mass at the lower limit and a weight of about 65kg and is therefore at high risk from weight loss. His current weight is estimated at around 37-47 kg, a decrease of approximately 31 per cent.' The hostages' supporters have long been critical of the Israeli government and Netanyahu for what they say has been the pursuit of the war with Hamas rather than focus on the release of hostages. 'I pray that Rom hasn't given up and still believes he's coming home. I pray that Rom hasn't accepted the devastating reality that maybe no one will come to rescue him and that he might die there,' his mother, Tami, said in a statement sent to The Independent. Both men speak of how little they have been able to eat and drink. It is assumed that Hamas is highlighting the starvation of Jewish Israelis held in Gaza to show the wider plight of the whole enclave, where aid organizations and the United Nations have said Israel is starving the population. In its latest assessment of Gaza's population, the UN's World Food Programme said that more than one in three people in Gaza are now 'going days at a time without eating'. It added: 'More than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza's population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger.' On Sunday, some 80 Gazans were killed, many trying to reach 'aid hubs' run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began, according to Reuters. But Hamas is more likely to have calculated that it has no real interest in a ceasefire with Israel. While the conflict rages it has meaning and does not have to face a reckoning for the crimes of October 7 and for the inevitable Israeli response that the murder spree caused. Israel had faced international condemnation for the humanitarian horrors it has caused in Gaza and its leaders, including Netanyahu, face indictments on war crimes by the Internation Criminal Court. Even staunch ally Donald Trump had been struck by the images of starving Palestinian children that emerged from the largely razed Mediterranean ghetto. Netanyahu came under increasing pressure to end Israel's campaign and open the gates of Gaza to food and other aid. That would have been a relief for Gazans but terrible for Hamas. Historically, the group has favoured terror attacks over diplomacy - literally blowing up any signs of rapprochement between other Palestinian groups and Israel with bus bombs and market attacks. A ceasefire and, worse still for Hamas, a commitment (as called for by Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) for renewed focus on a two-state solution, dividing the land from the river Jordan to the sea between Israel and Palestinians, would have been a disaster. Hamas wants the end of Israel – not a share of the land. So releasing images of starving Jews that recall Belsen was sure to scupper any attempts at dragging Netanyahu towards a ceasefire. On Monday he said he would call his security cabinet to meet to 'continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel'. He has pledged to - one day - annex the Israeli occupied West Bank. Several of his cabinet colleagues have called for the mass evacuation of Gaza's population and its resettlement by Israelis. He is facing bribery charges in court. The Israeli prime minister doesn't want peace now because he would soon face an inquiry into how, or why, he ignored the intelligence warnings of Hamas preparations for the October 7 attack. A ceasefire in Gaza now would expose Netanyahu, and Hamas, to political and personal risks they don't ever want to ever face.
