Over 500 killed in violence in Syria's Sweida
The monitor counted 79 Druze fighters and 154 civilians from Sweida among the dead, including 83 people "who were summarily executed by members of the defence and interior ministries".
Some 243 government personnel were also killed, as well as 18 Bedouin fighters, in addition to three members of Bedouin tribes "who were summarily executed by Druze fighters".
Fifteen government personnel were also killed in Israeli air strikes.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
37 minutes ago
- Gulf Today
Eight injured in suspected car-ramming attack in Israel
Kfar Yona, Israel: Eight people were taken to hospital after a car ploughed into a bus stop in central Israel on Thursday in a suspected car-ramming attack, emergency services said. Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona. A man and woman in their 20s were said to be in a "moderate condition, with injuries to the chest and limbs", the MDA said. Three others were in a "mild-moderate condition, with injuries to the head and limbs", it added. Three people were described as having "mild" injuries. "The vehicle hit several people and fled the scene," police spokesman Aryeh Doron said. The car was abandoned and later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added. The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, an AFP photographer said. The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, an AFP photographer said. There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the militants' attack on October 7, 2023. A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel. At least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks in Israel by Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 958 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures. At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed. Agence France-Presse
Gulf Today
an hour ago
- Gulf Today
Access denied
Israel has refused to renew visas for the directors of three United Nations Agencies operating in Gaza where they provide aid and care for 2.3 million Palestinians. Visas have been denied to Jonathan Whittall who heads Palestine mission of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, and to Ajith Sunghay, the representative in Palestine for the organisation for Human Rights, OHCHR. UNRWA's commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini had already been barred from travelling to Gaza. UN Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told the Security Council that the UN's mission is to provide aid, report on events witnessed by staff on the ground, and press for adherence to international law. He stated, 'Each time we report on what we see, we face threats of further reduced access to the civilians we are trying to serve. Nowhere today is the tension between our advocacy mandate and delivering aid greater than in Gaza.' He added, 'Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration by Israel, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians.' UNRWA has long been an Israeli target. Israel's Knesset adopted two laws last October which prohibited Israeli authorities from having contact with the agency and banned it from operating East Jerusalem. In November Israel began implementing these measures, claiming without providing evidence the agency has Hamas staff members who were involved in the Oct.7, 2023, attack when the movement killed 1,200 and abducted 250. In January, the agency's international staff in East Jerusalem were compelled to relocate to Amman in Jordan while local staff remained in place. If fully applied, the latest measures could violate the mandate of UNRWA, which was created in 1949 and in 1950 began providing shelter, food, medical care, education, and welfare services for most of the 750,000 Palestinians rendered stateless and homeless by the emergence of Israel by war in 1948. UNRWA currently cares for almost six million Palestinian refugees living in Israel, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Israel has called for the dissolution of UNRWA and for Palestinian refugees to settle in host countries, despite their objections. On the permanent settlement issue UNRWA was not only not mandated to care for the refugees but effect the ultimate resolution of the 'Palestinian refugee problem.' This was laid down in the General Assembly's December 1949 resolution 194, paragraph 11, which called for a return of Palestinian refugees to their homes as soon as 'practicable' and compensation for their losses. For Israel, return was never 'practicable' and compensation was refused. Consequently Palestinian refugees remain in limbo and UNRWA has become their quasi-state. The plan for a Jewish state in Palestine was adopted by General Assembly partition resolution 181 of November 1947. The Zionists welcomed the resolution which awarded 55 per cent of Palestine to a Jewish state and 45 per cent to an Arab (Palestinian) state and provided for international administration for Jerusalem. But the Zionists had no intention of abiding by the terms of the resolution. Once the Zionist pre-state army Haganah received a large consignment of weapons in March 1948, it began a coordinated offensive to conquer the whole of Palestine by attacking the areas allocated to the Arab state and Jerusalem. By May 14-15 when the British mandate expired and the Jewish state was proclaimed, the Israelis had already expelled 200,000 of the 750,000 Palestinians ultimately made homeless. The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq only intervened after mid-May and could not contain the Haganah which had seized 78 per cent of Palestine before the truce was signed in March 1950. Jordan assumed control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt of Gaza. Alarmed by the Israeli onslaught, land grab, and flood of refugees, the UN appointed as mediator Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, who was responsible for rescuing 15,000 people, many of them Jewish, from Nazi concentration camps during World War II. As he was critical of Israel's actions and put forward a peace plan rejected by the Zionists, Bernadotte was assassinated in September 1848 by the Israeli Stern Gang headed by Yitzak Shamir (who was prime minister in 1983-1984 and 1986-1992). The UN retaliated by adopting resolution 194 which Israel had no intention of respecting. From its creation 77 years ago until now, Israel has seen the UN as an organisation intent on frustrating its ambitions and depriving it of conquests although the UN has abided by its 1945 Charter, which bans the acquisition of territory by force. On Oct.29, 1956, Israel invaded and occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Gaza and on November 5th, Britain and France – which had plotted with Israel – attacked Egypt to topple President Gamal Abdel Nasser who had nationalised the Suez Canal. However, an angry US President Dwight Eisenhower ordered an end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Egyptian territory. He had little choice, because the Suez war coincided with Russia's invasion of Hungary which had rebelled against Soviet rule. The UN responded to the conflict by establishing the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) force to stabilise the Israel-Egypt border. As tensions peaked between Egypt and Israel in May 1967, Cairo ordered UNEF to evacuate. This was partially completed when Israel launched its third war against the Arabs on June 5 during which Israel completed its conquest of Palestine by occupying East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel conquered the Golan Heights of Syria and resumed its occupation of Sinai. In November 1967, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 242 which called for Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied that June. Israel ignored the resolution and built settlements. In October 1973, Egypt and Syria mounted the first Arab war against Israel by invading Sinai and the Golan. After Israel reconquered these territories, the Security Council passed resolutions 338, 339, and 340 calling for an end to the war and implementation of 242. Israel only pulled out of Sinai in 1979 after signing a peace treaty with Egypt. Israel evacuated its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but retained control by air, land and sea. Israel invaded south Lebanon in 1978 to halt attacks from Palestinian forces and in 1982 occupied Lebanon from the southern border to Beirut. The UN called for total Israeli withdrawal. Israel pulled back to a wide border zone which it held until Hezbollah drove Israeli forces from the area in May 2000. If Israel had acted on UN resolutions, 18 years of violence could have been avoided. Photo: AP
Gulf Today
an hour ago
- Gulf Today
More than 100 aid, rights groups call for action as hunger spreads in Gaza
More than 100 largely aid and rights groups on Wednesday called for governments to take action as hunger spreads in Gaza, including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid. In a statement signed by 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, the groups warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave even as tons of food, clean water, medical supplies and other items sit untouched just outside Gaza as humanitarian organizations are blocked from accessing or delivering them. "As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes," the organisations said. "The Government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death." Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City on Wednesday. Reuters The organisations called for governments to demand that all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions be lifted, all land crossings be opened, access to everyone across Gaza to be ensured and for the rejection of military-controlled distribution and a restoration of a "principled, UN-led humanitarian response." "States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition." Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food. More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers. The foundation, backed by the United States, has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality. Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in airstrikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza. For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger. Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks were completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisations accused Israel of paralysing its work. Reuters
