DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have opened an investigation and vowed no leniency after a detainee died in Homs, state media reported on Saturday, less than two months after rebels ousted Bashar Assad.
The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons,” the SANA news agency said, citing the head of the General Security department in the central Syrian city.
Without identifying the security chief by name, SANA said Tayara had been a member of the National Defense, a militia affiliated with the former government, in Homs.
The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested.
Tayara was transferred to a detention center but “some security personnel assigned with transporting him” carried out “violations,” leading to his death, the news agency reported.
“An official investigation was opened” and “all personnel responsible were arrested and referred to the military judiciary,” it said.
SANA cited the security official as saying that the incident “is being dealt with in all seriousness, and there will be no leniency.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tayara had been “hit in the head with a sharp object.”
Since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad on December 8, Syria’s new authorities have sought to provide assurances that will be no revenge for Assad-era brutality.
However, they have also begun operations against “regime remnants,” amid reports of violence including extra-judicial killings.
Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist, and his bloody crackdown down on anti-government protests in 2011 sparked a war that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
The new authorities have also sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities that they will not be harmed, with members of Assad’s Alawite sect in particular fearing a backlash.
Civil Peace Group, a civil society organization, called Tayara’s death a “crime” and an “attack on human values and dignity and the right to life.”
In a statement, it described the incident as a “threat to stability in the city.”
SANA reported the official as saying that “General Security affirms its full commitment to protecting citizens’ rights... and all legal measures will be taken to guarantee justice and transparency.”
“Justice will take its compete course, irrespective of the identity of the person concerned or their previous affiliation,” it said, adding that the results of the investigation would be announced promptly.
The Observatory said on Saturday that it had documented 10 deaths in custody in Homs province since Tuesday, including Tayara.
It also said that gunmen on Friday killed 10 people in a “massacre” in an Alawite village in Hama province, north of Homs.
Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media
https://arab.news/v225t
Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media
- The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons“
- The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested
Trump to meet Syria’s president before heading to Qatar on his Middle East tour
- Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups
- Trump said he agreed to meet with Al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The White House said Trump has agreed to “say hello” to Al-Sharaa before the US leader wraps up his stay in Saudi Arabia and heads to Qatar, where Trump is to be honored with a state visit. His Mideast tour also will take him to the United Arab Emirates.
Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Trump said he agreed to meet with Al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president also pledged to lift yearslong sanctions on Syria.
“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump said in a wide-ranging foreign policy address Tuesday in which he announced he was lifting the sanctions that have been in place in Syria since 2011. “That’s what we want to see in Syria.”
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, Al-Sharaa joined the ranks of Al-Qaeda insurgents battling US forces in Iraq after the US-led invasion and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq. The US once offered $10 million for information about his whereabouts because of his links to Al-Qaeda.
Al-Sharaa came back to his home country of Syria after the conflict began in 2011 and led Al-Qaeda’s branch that used to be known as the Nusra Front. He later changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and cut links with Al-Qaeda.
The sanctions go back to the rule of Bashar Assad, who was ousted in December, and were intended to inflict major pain on his economy.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations had left the sanctions in place after Assad’s fall as they sought to take the measure of Al-Sharaa, who has renounced his past affiliation with Al-Qaeda.
Trump is also set to attend a meeting Wednesday of the Gulf Cooperation Council, made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, before setting off for Qatar, the second stop in his Mideast tour.
Qatar served as host of the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban that led to America’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar is home to Al-Udeid Air Base, a sprawling facility that hosts the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.
Israeli army says intercepts missile from Yemen
- A missile fired by the group struck the airport in early May, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people
- The Israeli military issued a warning on Sunday for Yemenis to leave three Houthi-controlled ports,
JERUSALEM : Israel’s army said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen Wednesday, where Iran-backed Houthi militants have kept up attacks on Israel since soon after the Gaza war began in 2023.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
AFP correspondents in Jerusalem heard explosions, probably from the interception of the missile.
It was the second time in less than 24 hours that Israeli air defenses had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
On Tuesday, the military said it intercepted a missile launched that the Houthis said targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
A missile fired by the group struck the airport in early May, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people, in a rare penetration of Israeli air defenses.
Israel retaliated against the Houthis by striking the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.
The Israeli military issued a warning on Sunday for Yemenis to leave three Houthi-controlled ports, but no strikes have been reported since.
The United States, which launched a bombing campaign in response to Houthi threats to renew their attacks on shipping, last week reached a ceasefire agreement with the rebels ending weeks of intense US strikes on Yemen.
UK and European allies urge Israel to lift Gaza aid blockade, warn against annexation
- In joint statement delivered at UN Security Council, group said Israeli government’s ongoing obstruction of aid deliveries was “unacceptable”
NEW YORK CITY: The UK and four European allies on Tuesday issued a joint appeal to Israel to immediately lift its blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza, warning that continued restrictions are placing millions of Palestinian civilians at risk of starvation and undermining prospects for peace
In a joint statement delivered at the United Nations, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia said the Israeli government’s ongoing obstruction of aid deliveries, now entering its third month, was “unacceptable” and risked compounding what UN agencies have described as a looming famine.
“Blocking aid as a ‘pressure lever’ is unacceptable,” the five nations said.
“Palestinian civilians, including children, face starvation… Without an urgent lifting of the aid block, more Palestinians are at risk of dying. Deaths that could easily be avoided.”
The group, which called the emergency Security Council meeting on Gaza, also warned that any Israeli move to annex parts of the territory would breach international law and deepen instability in the region.
“Any attempt by Israel to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable and violate international law,” the statement read. “Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.”
The intervention follows the Israeli Security Cabinet’s recent approval of plans to expand its military operations in Gaza, a move the European countries said would only add to Palestinian suffering while doing little to secure the return of hostages still held by Hamas.
“We strongly oppose both these actions,” the statement said, referring to the blockade and the expansion of military activity. “They do nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region — nor to secure the safe return of the hostages.”
The five governments welcomed the recent release of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American hostage held by Hamas since October 7, but reiterated demands for the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining captives.
“Their suffering must end,” they said. “Hamas must have no future role in Gaza or be in a position to threaten Israel.”
The joint statement also expressed concern over proposals to create a new aid delivery mechanism in Gaza that, according to the UN, would fail to meet established humanitarian principles.
“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or military tactic,” the countries warned. “Any model for distributing humanitarian aid must be independent, impartial and neutral, and in line with international law.”
They emphasized that international humanitarian law obliged Israel to allow “safe, rapid and unimpeded” access for humanitarian assistance, adding: “Gaza is not an exception.”
The group condemned recent attacks on humanitarian personnel, including the killing of Palestinian Red Crescent workers and a strike on a UN compound on March 19, which they called “outrageous.”
“At least 418 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began,” the statement noted. “That is at least 418 too many.”
The countries urged Israel to complete and publish the findings of its investigation into the UN compound incident and to “take concrete action to ensure this can never happen again.”
Looking ahead, the five nations reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and renewed efforts toward a two-state solution, backing France and Saudi Arabia’s plans to host an international conference on the issue in New York next month.
“This is the only way to achieve long-term peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis,” the statement concluded.
WHO warns of permanent impact of hunger on a generation of Gazans
GENEVA: Malnutrition rates are rising in Gaza, emergency treatments to counter it are running out and hunger could have a lasting impact on “an entire generation,” a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday.
Israel has blockaded supplies into the enclave since early March, when it resumed its devastating military campaign against Hamas, and a global hunger monitor on Monday warned that half a million people there faced starvation.
WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Rik Peeperkorn said he had seen children who looked years younger than their age and visited a north Gaza hospital where over 20 percent of children screened suffered from acute malnutrition.
“What we see is an increasing trend in generalized acute malnutrition,” Peeperkorn told a press briefing by video link from Deir Al-Balah. “I’ve seen a child that’s five years old, and you would say it was two-and-a-half.”
“Without enough nutritious food, clean water and access to health care, an entire generation will be permanently affected,” he said, warning of stunting and impaired cognitive development.
The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency Philippe Lazzarini told the BBC that he thought Israel was denying food and aid to civilians as a weapon of war.
The WHO criticized it in a statement late on Monday as “grossly inadequate” to meet the population’s immediate needs.
Due to the blockade, WHO only has enough stocks to treat 500 children with acute malnutrition, which is only a fraction of what is needed, Peeperkorn said.
Already, 55 children have died of acute malnutrition, he said.
UN aid chief slams Israel’s Gaza aid plan as ‘cynical sideshow’
- “We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access,” said Fletcher
- No aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday said an Israeli plan aid distribution in the Gaza Strip was a “cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in the enclave.
He told the UN Security Council that no food, medicine, water or tents have entered the war-torn Palestinian enclave for more than 10 weeks.
“We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians,” said Fletcher.
No aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2. Israel has said it would not allow the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza until Palestinian militant group Hamas releases all remaining hostages.
At the end of last month the UN World Food Programme said it had run out of food stocks in Gaza, and US President Donald Trump said that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the delivery of food and medicine.
Fletcher said the UN has met more than a dozen times with Israeli authorities to discuss their proposed aid distribution model “to find a way to make it possible,” stressing the minimum conditions needed for UN involvement. Those included the ability to deliver aid to all those in need wherever they are.
“The Israeli-designed distribution modality is not the answer,” he told the 15-member council.
“It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm ... It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip,” Fletcher said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, met with UN agencies and international aid groups in early April and proposed “a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism.”
“The mechanism is designed to support aid organizations, enhance oversight and accountability, and ensure that assistance reaches the civilian population in need, rather than being diverted and stolen by Hamas,” COGAT posted on X on April 3.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 52,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
