
The Take: Why is Israel escalating its strikes against Syria?
In this episode:
Osama Bin Javaid (@osamabinjavaid), Al Jazeera correspondent
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Amy Walters and Tamara Khandaker, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Duha Mosaad, Melanie Marich, Marya Khan, Kisaa Zehra and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. It was edited by Sarí el-Khalili and Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
27 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says he wants all Middle Eastern countries to have formal Israel ties
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has called on all countries in the Middle East to forge formal relations with Israel despite the ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza, citing the US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities in June. Trump's call on Thursday comes amid a growing international push to recognise a Palestinian state. 'Now that the nuclear arsenal being 'created' by Iran has been totally OBLITERATED, it is very important to me that all Middle Eastern Countries join the Abraham Accords,' the US president wrote. 'This will insure [sic] PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Trump's administration has not presented evidence that Iran was weaponising its nuclear programme or building a nuclear arsenal, as the president has claimed. During his first term in 2020, Trump secured a series of deals, known as the Abraham Accords, to establish official diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. But US efforts to expand the agreements – with focus on Saudi Arabia – over the past years have failed. The kingdom's top officials have repeatedly stressed that Riyadh is committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions recognising Israel on establishing a Palestinian state. The war on Gaza, which Riyadh has decried as a genocide, further complicated the push to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But Trump appeared to link Arab-Israeli relations to the Iranian nuclear programme and the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, which saw the US military strike Iran's nuclear sites. Arab countries had condemned Israel's attacks on Iran in June, which killed top military officials and nuclear scientists as well as hundreds of civilians. When he visited the Gulf region in May, Trump appeared to de-emphasise Arab-Israeli normalisation. He said it is his 'dream' for Saudi Arabia to establish official ties with Israel, but he wants the kingdom to do it on its 'own time'. While the so-called Abraham Accords fostered trade and security ties between the countries involved, they failed to end or mitigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has continued to build and expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and it has destroyed most of Gaza, killing more than 61,000 people as it imposes a starvation crisis on the territory. It's not clear what sparked Trump's renewed call for Arab-Israeli normalisation. But his statement coincides with an Arab-backed international push to recognise the state of Palestine, which Washington has rejected. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that he would not block Israel's plan to expand its ground military operations to all of Gaza – a move that could compound the suffering of Palestinians who have been repeatedly displaced throughout the war. 'That's going to be pretty much up to Israel,' the US president said when asked about the Israeli plan. Washington provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually, assistance that significantly increased following the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.


Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Netanyahu says Israel intends to take control of Gaza in interview
In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel intends to take control of the entire Strip, but does not want to govern it. His comments came on Thursday shortly before Israel's cabinet meets to consider his proposal to take over the Strip. 'We intend to [take over] in order to ensure our security, remove Hamas [from] there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,' he said. He said in the interview that Israel does wants a security perimeter, and that they want to hand it over to the armed forces to govern Gaza. 'We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body.' More to come.


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Settlements ‘annex the West Bank into Israel'
Settlements 'annex the West Bank into Israel' Quotable Video Duration 01 minutes 08 seconds 01:08 Video Duration 01 minutes 03 seconds 01:03 Video Duration 01 minutes 00 seconds 01:00 Video Duration 00 minutes 45 seconds 00:45 Video Duration 00 minutes 53 seconds 00:53 Video Duration 01 minutes 14 seconds 01:14 Video Duration 01 minutes 34 seconds 01:34