Erdogan accuses Israel of using the Druze as a pretext to expand into Syria
"Israel, using the Druze as an excuse, has been expanding its banditry into neighbouring Syria over the past two days," Erdogan said in a televised speech after the weekly cabinet meeting.
AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nahar Net
35 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Germany says will only back Syria govt if prevents persecution
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 July 2025, 17:07 Germany warned Syria's government Friday it needed to protect citizens of all religions and ethnicities to have Berlin's support, after accusations Syrian forces committed abuses against the Druze minority. "This Syrian transitional government will only have our support if it commits to an inclusive process in Syria, if it protects people, and if it does not allow individuals to be persecuted because of their particular religious or ethnic affiliation, nor, worse yet, killed," Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.
Nahar Net
35 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Israel refuses to renew visas for heads of at least 3 UN agencies in Gaza
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 July 2025, 17:05 Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza, which the U.N. humanitarian chief blames on their work trying to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory. Visas for the local leaders of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA; the human rights agency OHCHR; and the agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, have not been renewed in recent months, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed. Tom Fletcher, U.N. head of humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the U.N.'s humanitarian mandate is not just to provide aid to civilians in need and report what its staff witnesses but to advocate for international humanitarian law. "Each time we report on what we see, we face threats of further reduced access to the civilians we are trying to serve," he said. "Nowhere today is the tension between our advocacy mandate and delivering aid greater than in Gaza." Fletcher said, "Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration by Israel, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians." Israel's U.N. Mission said it is looking into the issue. Israel has been sharply critical of UNRWA, even before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel — accusing the agency of colluding with Hamas and teaching anti-Israel hatred, which UNRWA vehemently denies. Since then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies have claimed that UNRWA is deeply infiltrated by Hamas and that its staffers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israel formally banned UNRWA from operating in its territory, and its commissioner general, Swiss-Italian humanitarian Philippe Lazzarini, already has been barred from entering Gaza. The U.N. identified the other two local leaders affected as Jonathan Whittall, a South African humanitarian expert for OCHA, and Ajith Sunghay, a British-educated international lawyer for OHCHR. At Wednesday's Security Council meeting, Fletcher called conditions in Gaza "beyond vocabulary," with food running out and Palestinians seeking something to eat being shot. He said Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, is failing in its obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide for civilian needs. In response, Israel accused OCHA of continuing "to abandon all semblance of neutrality and impartiality in its statements and actions, despite claiming otherwise." Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, political coordinator at Israel's U.N. Mission, told the Security Council that some of its 15 members seem to forget that the Oct. 7 attacks killed about 1,200 people and some 250 were taken hostage, triggering the war in Gaza and the humanitarian situation. "Instead, we're presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendant's chair, while Hamas, the very cause of this conflict and the very instigator of suffering of Israelis but also of Palestinians, goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation," she said. More than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half were women and children. Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokesperson for the Geneva-based U.N. human rights body, confirmed Thursday that the head of its office in the occupied Palestinian territories "has been denied entry into Gaza." "The last time he tried to enter was in February 2025 and since then, he has been denied entry," she told The Associated Press. "Unfortunately, this is not unusual. Aid workers, U.N. staff, journalists and others have been denied access to Gaza." Israel has accused a U.N.-backed commission probing abuses in Gaza, whose three members just resigned, and the Human Rights Council's independent investigator Francesca Albanese of antisemitism. Albanese has accused Israel of "genocide" in Gaza, which it and its ally the U.S. vehemently deny. The Trump administration recently issued sanctions against Albanese. Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, told the Security Council that Israel also is not granting "security clearances" for staff to enter Gaza to continue their work and that U.N. humanitarian partners are increasingly being denied entry as well. He noted that "56% of the entries denied into Gaza in 2025 were for emergency medical teams — frontline responders who save lives." "Hundreds of aid workers have been killed; and those who continue to work endure hunger, danger and loss, like everyone else in the Gaza Strip," Fletcher said.
Nahar Net
36 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Clashes at West Bank march against settler outpost
Palestinians and the Israeli army clashed on Friday during a march in a village in the northern occupied West Bank against a newly established Israeli settlement outpost. "We came to this area to express our protest and say: 'this land is ours, not yours'", Ghassan Bazour, head of Raba's village council, told AFP. While all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, only outposts such as the one established overnight in Raba are also prohibited under Israeli law. An AFP journalist at the scene reported that a group of men holding Palestinian flags and those of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party walked from Raba towards a nearby hill on top of which settlers had established the outpost. After conducting the Muslim Friday prayer at the base of the hill, people continued towards the outpost, until Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene and dispersed the crowd with tear gas, the journalist said. The army did not respond to an AFP request for comment on Friday's events in Raba. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its teams had provided support to 13 people suffering from tear gas inhalation. Village council chief Bazour said that settlers had originally taken over the hill's high ground to establish an outpost and deny Palestinians access to nearby agricultural lands. "There is now a settler outpost here (which) will continue to devour the land and empty these areas", Muayad Shaaban, head of the Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, told AFP. Despite it being dispersed by the army, Shaaban was enthusiastic about Friday's march, given that violence in recent years has made all protests against settlers dangerous for Palestinians. "This model of resistance must be applied throughout the West Bank. I call for massive marches... to stop this aggression, this terrorism", he said. Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 2023 triggered the Gaza war. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 956 Palestinians, including many militants, according to health ministry figures. Over the same period, at least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official figures.
