NEW YORK: Two teams of investigators from the global chemical weapons watchdog are due to arrive in Syria on Thursday and Friday to look into an alleged deadly attack in the Syrian town of Douma, Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters.
“These two groups will arrive separately to Syria on Thursday, today, as well as tomorrow on Friday,” he said. “We’re ready to escort them to where they want, whenever they want, anytime they want.”
“The OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) sent four passports to the Syrian embassy in Brussels. The visas were granted immediately,” said Ja’afari, adding that Syria was also prepared to grant visas for inspectors at the Syrian border with Lebanon.
The OPCW has not confirmed the travel plans for the investigators.
Syria UN envoy says OPCW investigators to arrive Thursday, Friday
Syria UN envoy says OPCW investigators to arrive Thursday, Friday
The West Bank soccer field slated for demolition by Israel
- The move is likely to eliminate one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play
BETHLEHEM: Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, eliminating one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play.
“If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field, the camp does not have spaces,” said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls’ soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The Israeli military issued a demolition order for the soccer field on December 31, saying it was built illegally in an area that abuts the concrete barrier wall that Israel built in the West Bank.
“Along the security fence, a seizure order and a construction prohibition order are in effect; therefore, the construction in the area was carried out unlawfully,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Mohammad Abu Srour, an administrator at Aida Youth Center, which manages the field, said the military gave them seven days to demolish the field.
The Israeli military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves. If they do not act, the military steps in to destroy the structure in question and then sends the Palestinians a bill for the costs.
According to Abu Srour, Israel’s military told residents when delivering the demolition order that the soccer field represented a threat to the separation wall and to Israelis.
“I do not know how this is possible,” he said.
Israeli demolitions have drawn widespread international criticism and coincide with heightened fears among Palestinians of an organized effort by Israel to formally annex the West Bank, the area seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel accelerated demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps in early 2025, leading to the displacement of 32,000 residents of camps in the central and northern West Bank. Human Rights Watch has called the demolitions a war crime. Israel has said they are intended to disrupt militant activity.
