U.N.: Syrian factions committed ‘widespread and systematic' attacks on civilians in coastal violence
An extensive report released Thursday by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria examined the violence that began with clashes between armed groups aligned with former Syrian President Bashar Assad and the new government's security forces in March. It then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and massacres that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs.
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Protestors go on strike in Israel demanding ceasefire and hostage releases
JERUSALEM (AP) — Protestors in Israel demanding their government make a deal to secure the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza escalated their campaign on Sunday, staging a strike that snarled traffic and shuttered businesses. The action organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum marked a fresh push, weeks after militant groups released videos of hostages and Israel signaled plans for a new Gaza offensive. Protesters fear further fighting could endanger the 50 hostages believed to remain in Gaza, only about 20 of whom are thought to be alive. They chanted, 'We don't win a war over the bodies of hostages' and demanded a deal. Netanyahu's allies oppose any deal that leaves Hamas in power 'Today, we stop everything to save and bring back the hostages and soldiers. Today, we stop everything to remember the supreme value of the sanctity of life,' said Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest. 'Today, we stop everything to join hands — right, left, center and everything in between.' Although Israel's largest labor union, Histadrut, ultimately did not join Sunday's action, strikes of this magnitude are relatively rare in Israel. Many businesses and municipalities decided independently to strike. Still, an end to the conflict does not appear near. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the immediate release of the hostages but is balancing competing pressures, haunted by the potential for mutiny within his coalition. Far-right members of his cabinet insist they won't support any deal that allows Hamas to retain power. The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages, they threatened to topple Netanyahu's government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called the stoppage 'a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas' hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardize its security and future.' Israeli airstrike hits power plant in Yemen Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's capital Sunday, escalating strikes on Iran-backed Houthis, who since the war began have fired missiles at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea. Both the IDF and a Houthi-run television station in Yemen announced the strikes. Al-Masirah Television said they targeted a power plant in the southern district of Sanhan, sparking a fire and knocking it out of service, the Yemeni station said. Israel's military said Sunday's strikes targeted energy infrastructure it claimed was being used by the Houthis, and were launched in response to missiles and drones aimed at Israel. While some projectiles have breached its missile defenses — notably during its war with Iran in June — Israel has intercepted the vast majority of missiles launched from Yemen. More tents sent to Gaza ahead of new displacement order While demonstrators in Israel demanded a ceasefire, Israel began preparing for an invasion of Gaza City and other populated parts of the besieged strip, aimed at destroying Hamas. The military body that coordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza said Sunday that the supply of tents to the territory would resume. COGAT said it would allow the United Nations to resume importing tents and shelter equipment into Gaza ahead of plans to forcibly evacuate peopel from combat zones 'for their protection.' Tents and the majority of assistance has been blocked from entering Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade in March after a ceasefire collapsed. Deliveries have since partially resumed, though aid organizations say the flow is far below what is needed. Some have accused Israel of 'weaponizing aid' through blockades and rules they say turn humanitarian assistance into a tool of its political and military goals. Israel's air and ground war has already killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and displaced most of the population. The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own. ___ Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. AP writer Samy Magdy contributed from Cairo. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Mistrust and fear: The complex story behind strained Syria-Lebanon relations
FILE - In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, left, meets with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the emergency Arab summit at Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP, File) HM BH flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Mistrust and fear: The complex story behind strained Syria-Lebanon relations
BEIRUT (AP) — A lot has happened in just a year on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border. A lightning offensive by Islamist insurgents in Syria toppled longtime autocrat Bashar Assad and brought a new government in place in Damascus. In Lebanon, a bruising war with Israel dealt a serious blow to Hezbollah — the Iran-backed and Assad-allied Shiite Lebanese militant group that had until recently been a powerful force in the Middle East — and a U.S.-negotiated deal has brought a fragile ceasefire. Still, even after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule, relations between Beirut and Damascus remain tense — as they have been for decades past, with Syria long failing to treat its smaller neighbor as a sovereign nation. Recent skirmishes along the border have killed and wounded several people, both fighters and civilians, including a four-year-old Lebanese girl. Beirut and Damascus have somewhat coordinated on border security, but attempts to reset political relations have been slow. Despite visits to Syria by two heads of Lebanon's government, no Syrian official has visited Lebanon. Here is what's behind the complicated relations. A coldness that goes way back Many Syrians have resented Hezbollah for wading into Syria's civil war in defense of Assad's government. Assad's fall sent them home, but many Lebanese now fear cross-border attacks by Syria's Islamic militants. There are new restrictions on Lebanese entering Syria, and Lebanon has maintained tough restrictions on Syrians entering Lebanon. The Lebanese also fear that Damascus could try to bring Lebanon under a new Syrian tutelage. Syrians have long seen Lebanon as a staging ground for anti-Syria activities, including hosting opposition figures before Hafez Assad — Bashar Assad's father — ascended to power in a bloodless 1970 coup. In 1976, Assad senior sent his troops to Lebanon, allegedly to bring peace as Lebanon was hurtling into a civil war that lasted until 1990. Once that ended, Syrian forces — much like a colonial power — remained in Lebanon for another 15 years. A signature of the Assad family rule, Syria's dreaded security agents disappeared and tortured dissidents to keep the country under their control. They did the same in Lebanon. 'Syrians feel that Lebanon is the main gateway for conspiracies against them,' says Lebanese political analyst Ali Hamadeh. Turbulent times It took until 2008 for the two countries to agree to open diplomatic missions, marking Syria's first official recognition of Lebanon as an independent state since it gained independence from France in 1943. The move came after the 2005 truck-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that many blamed on Damascus. Two months later, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon under international pressure, ending 29 years of near-complete domination of its neighbor. When Syria's own civil war erupted in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled across the border, making crisis-hit Lebanon the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world. Once in Lebanon, the refugees complained about discrimination, including curfews for Syrian citizens in some areas. Hezbollah, meanwhile, rushed thousands of its fighters into Syria in 2013 to shore up Assad, worried that its supply lines from Iran could dry up. And as much as the Lebanese are divided over their country's internal politics, Syria's war divided them further into those supporting Assad's government and those opposing it. Distrust and deadlock A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus is asking Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials say Beirut won't release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately. In July, family members of the detainees rallied along a border crossing, demanding their relatives be freed. The protest came amid reports that Syrian troops could deploy foreign fighters in Lebanon, which Damascus officials denied. Another obstacle is Lebanon's demand that Syrian refugees go back home now that Assad is gone. About 716,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the U.N. refugee agency, while hundreds of thousands more are unregistered in Lebanon, which has a population of about 5 million. Syria is also demanding the return of billions of dollars worth of deposits of Syrians trapped in Lebanese banks since Lebanon's historic financial meltdown in 2019. The worst post-Assad border skirmishes came in mid-March, when Syrian authorities said Hezbollah members crossed the border and kidnapped and killed three Syrian soldiers. The Lebanese government and army said the clash was between smugglers and that Hezbollah wasn't involved. Days later, Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers flew to Saudi Arabia and signed an agreement on border demarcation and boosting their coordination. In July, rumors spread in Lebanon, claiming the northern city of Tripoli would be given to Syria in return for Syria giving up the Golan Heights to Israel. And though officials dismissed the rumors, they illustrate the level of distrust between the neighbors. Beirut was also angered by Syria's appointment this year of a Lebanese army officer — Abdullah Shehadeh, who defected in 2014 from Lebanon to join Syrian insurgents — as the head of security in Syria's central province of Homs that borders northeastern Lebanon. In Syria, few were aware of Shehadeh's real name — he was simply known by his nom de guerre, Abu Youssef the Lebanese. Syrian security officials confirmed the appointment. What's ahead Analysts say an important step would be for the two neighbors to work jointly to boost security against cross-border smuggling. A U.S.-backed plan that was recently adopted by the Lebanese government calls for moving toward full demarcation of the border. Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, says the best way forward would be for Syria and Lebanon to address each problem between them individually — not as a package deal. That way, tensions would be reduced gradually, he said and downplayed recent comments by prominent Syrian anti-Assad figures who claimed Lebanon is part of Syria and should return to it. 'These are individual voices that do not represent the Syrian state,' Zaideh said. ___ Associated Press writer Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
