BEIRUT: Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Syria smashed the statue of Syria’s late president on Monday as they they marked the 2015 assassination of a prominent anti-government Druze leader.
The protests in the province of Sweida, where the Druze community represents the majority of the population, have entered their third week. The demonstrations were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government.
Monday’s protest took place in the provincial capital, also called Sweida, where angry men and woman called for the downfall of Assad’s government. Some smashed the statue of Assad’s late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad.
Several demonstrators marched up to the building of the local branch of the social security and tore down a giant poster of Bashar Assad, according to videos circulated on social media and opposition activists.
Monday marked the eighth anniversary of the assassination of cleric Sheik Wahid Balous, a prominent critic of Assad. He had called on the youth in Sweida to refuse to serve in the military.
Balous, a strong supporter of rebels trying to topple Assad, died in one of two bomb explosions on Sept. 4, 2015, that also also killed 25 others. Some have blamed the government for the killing.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the protesters initially went into the Swedia municipality building and removed Hafez Assad’s statue from the yard, carried it to a nearby street and smashed it there.
Some demonstrators angrily kicked chunks of the statue as it lay on the ground.
Sweida province has largely stayed out of the fighting in Syria’s 12-year civil war that has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left parts of the country destroyed. The conflict has displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside the country.
A 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Druze make up about 5 percent of Syria’s prewar population, and are split between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad.
In late August, angry protesters raided the local offices of the ruling Baath party in Sweida while others blocked a highway that links the province with the capital of Damascus.
Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader
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Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader
- Protests in Sweida province, where the Druze community represents the majority of the population, entered their third week
Children broken in mind and body by Israeli ‘abomination’ in Gaza
- UN health chief: ‘How much blood is enough?’
- We can’t live like this, say Palestinians
GENEVA: Palestinian children in Gaza are being physically and mentally broken by two months of an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid and incessant pounding by airstrikes, UN health chiefs said on Thursday.
More than 1,000 children had lost limbs, thousands had severe spinal cord and head injuries from which they would never recover and many were psychologically damaged, World Health Organization emergencies chief Mike Ryan said.
“We have to ask ourselves, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are?” he said. “We are watching this unfold before our very eyes, and we’re not doing anything about it.
“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit. As a physician I am angry. It is an abomination.”
Israel has interrupted or blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the war began in October 2023, and imposed a total blockade on March 2. Since then the UN has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine looming, and it said this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children was worsening.
Meanwhile Israel continues to pound civilians in Gaza with daily airstrikes and artillery bombardments. Civil defense chiefs said at least 29 Palestinians were killed on Thursday. They included eight who died in an airstrike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Younis refugee camp, four killed in another strike on Al-Tuffah in Gaza City, and others who died in an attack on a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir Al-Balah.
“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” survivor Ahmed Abu Zarqa said after a deadly strike in Khan Younis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough. We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”
Several countries send firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire
JERUSALEM: Several countries were sending firefighting aircraft to Israel on Thursday as crews battled for a second day to extinguish a wildfire that had shut down a major highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and sent drivers scrambling from their cars.
The fire broke out around midday on Wednesday, fueled by hot, dry conditions and fanned by strong winds that quickly whipped up the flames, burning through a pine forest.
Several communities were evacuated as a precaution as the smoke turned the skies over Jerusalem gray.
The fire has burned about 20 sq. km and is the most significant fire Israel has had in the past decade, according to Tal Volvovitch, a spokesperson for Israel’s fire and rescue authority.
She said the fire has “miraculously” not damaged any homes.
Israel’s fire and rescue authority warned the public to stay away from parks or forests, and to be exceptionally careful while lighting barbecues.
Thursday is Israel’s Independence Day, which is typically marked with large family cookouts in parks and forests.
At least 12 people were treated in hospitals on Wednesday, mainly due to smoke inhalation, while another 10 people were treated in the field, Magen David Adom Ambulance services said.
Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Romania were sending planes to help battle the flames, while several other countries, including North Macedonia and Cyprus, were also sending water-dropping aircraft.
Israeli authorities said 10 firefighting planes were operating on Thursday morning, with another eight aircraft to arrive during the day.
Israel’s fire and rescue authority lifted the evacuation order on approximately a dozen towns in the Jerusalem hills on Thursday.
Three Catholic religious communities that were forced to evacuate from their properties on Wednesday could also return on Thursday, said Farid Jubran, the spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate.
He said their agricultural lands, including vineyards and olive trees, suffered heavy damage, and some buildings were damaged.
But there were no injuries, and historic churches were not affected.
The main highway linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv was opened again on Thursday, a day after the flames had encroached on the road, forcing drivers to abandon their cars and flee in terror.
On Thursday morning, broad swathes of burned areas were visible from the highway, while pink anti-flame retardant dusted the top of burned trees and bushes.
Smoke and the smell of fire hung heavy in the air.
In 2010, a massive forest fire burned for four days on northern Israel’s Mount Carmel, claiming 44 lives and destroying around 12,000 acres, much of it woodland.
Syrian Druze leader Al-Hijri slams ‘genocidal campaign’, Israel issues warning
- Syrian Druze spiritual leader denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an 'unjustifiable genocidal campaign'
- The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous
DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a “genocidal campaign” against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 101 people dead.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority.
The violence poses a serious challenge to the new Syrian authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, according to rights groups.
It was the worst bloodshed since the ouster of Assad, who is from the minority community.
The government (should) protect its people
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, Druze spiritual leader
Hijri in a statement on Thursday denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign” against the Druze.
He called for immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes.”
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
In a later statement, Katz said: “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”
The fighting involved security forces, allied fighters, and local Druze groups. It resulted in the deaths of 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters, and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.
In the southern province of Sweida, which is the heartland of the Druze minority, 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 of them in an ambush on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.
Blasphemous audio
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording’s authenticity.
Truces was reached in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Sahnaya on Wednesday.
The government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused “outlaw groups” of instigating the clashes.
However, Hijri said he no longer trusts “an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres.”
Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz
“The government (should) protect its people,” he said.
Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists.
On Wednesday, a foreign ministry statement vowed to “protect all components” of Syrian society, including the Druze, and rejected “foreign interference.”
Israeli air strikes
Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival.”
“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.
Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday. Israel said its forces were ordered to hit Syrian government targets “should the violence against Druze communities continue.”
“A stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime — Israel expects them to act to prevent harm to the Druze community,” a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel has attacked hundreds of military sites in Syria since Assad’s overthrow.
It has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights and voiced support for Syria’s Druze.
Israel’s military said Thursday two injured Syrian Druze had been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment.
A United Nations statement urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint” and “uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.”
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill at least 29
- Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee
- Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Thursday Israeli bombardment killed at least 29 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that while the military’s mission was to bring home all the hostages from Gaza, its “supreme goal” was to achieve victory against Hamas.
Israel resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas whose 2023 attack triggered the conflict.
Civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir said Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood, he told AFP.
At least 17 more were killed in other attacks across the Palestinian territory, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir el-Balah, the agency said.
“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” said Ahmed Abu Zarqa after a deadly strike in Khan Yunis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough!
“We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”
At Nasser Hospital
AFP images showed residents digging through rubble in search of bodies, which were carried away on stretchers under blankets.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, rescuers rushed a screaming wounded child out of an ambulance, as a group of women mourned.
“What have the children done wrong? What have we done wrong? Enough is enough. Just drop a nuclear bomb on us,” said Ghada Abu Sahlul as she mourned the death of a relative.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel vows ‘significant force’ if Syria govt fails to protect Druze
- At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s government fails to protect the Druze minority, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus.
“Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze in recent days, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said in an updated toll on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Israel carried out a strike against what it called an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Druze community near Damascus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike on the town of Sahnaya sent a “stern message” to Syria’s new government.
Israel’s armed forces chief later ordered the military to prepare to strike Syrian government targets if the Druze community faced more violence.
Israel’s military said two injured Druze Syrians were evacuated from Syria on Thursday for treatment in Israel, after announcing Wednesday that three had been evacuated.
It did not specify how or where they had been injured.
In its statement on Thursday, it said they were taken for treatment to the town of Safed in northern Israel “after sustaining injuries in Syrian territory.”
“The IDF (military) is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages,” it added.
