DAMASCUS: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Syria on Tuesday and met with officials including President Bashar Assad, Syrian state media and a Kremlin spokesman reported.
Putin’s visit is the second to the war-torn country, where his troops have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces since 2015.
The visit comes amid heightened tensions between Iran — a key Syrian ally — and the United States, following the killing of a top Iranian general in a US airstrike in neighboring Iraq.
Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s death has sparked calls across Iran for revenge against America.
US troops are based in eastern Syria, making the country a potential site of conflict with Iran.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin visited the Russian command post in Damascus and met President Bashar Assad there. The two leaders were presented with military reports on the situation in different regions of Syria.
In his conversation with Assad, Putin said that “a huge distance has been covered in terms of restoring Syria’s statehood and territorial integrity,” Peskov said.
State news agency SANA gave no further details about Putin’s visit only saying that he met with Assad in a Russian military base in the capital.
The last time Putin visited Syria was in 2017 when he declared that mission for Russian troops has been accomplished. Russia has been a main backer of Assad and has tipped the balance of power in his favor over the past four years with government forces now in control in most of the country.
Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011 has left more than 400,000 people dead.
Last week US warplanes attacked bases of Iran-backed Iraqi fighters in western Iraq and eastern Syria killing 25 and wounding dozens others.
The US government warned ships of an unspecified threat from Iran across all the Mideast’s waterways, crucial routes for global energy supplies.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force launched a drill with 52 fighter jets in Utah, just days after President Donald Trump threatened to hit 52 sites in Iran.
![]()
Vladimir Putin meets Assad on rare trip to Syria
Short Url
https://arab.news/5375b
Vladimir Putin meets Assad on rare trip to Syria
- Putin’s visit is the second to the war-torn country where his forces have propped up Al-Assad
- Putin said that “a huge distance has been covered in terms of restoring Syria’s statehood
Freezing rain floods Gaza camps
- Over the weekend, tents in Khan Younis were soaked, leaving families struggling to stay dry
- At least 12 people have died from hypothermia or building collapses since December 13
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza: Rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding makeshift encampments with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by the two-year war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.
Muddy water soaked blankets and mattresses in tents in a camp in Khan Younis and fragile shelters were propped up with old pieces of wood. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing ill-suited for winter waded through the freezing puddles, which turned dirt roads into rivers. Some people used shovels to try to push the water out of their tents.
Nowhere to escape the rain
“We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, a woman displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”
She showed blankets and the remaining contents of the tent, completely soaked and covered in mud, as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.
“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis, as she pointed to a puddle just outside. “These are the mattresses — they are all completely soaked. My daughters’ belongings were soaked. The water is entering from here and there,” she said, gesturing toward the ceiling and the corners of the tent. Her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and the constant struggle to stay dry in the winter rains.
At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Emergency workers warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse at any moment. But so much of the territory reduced to rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. In July, the United Nations Satellite Center estimated that almost 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Oct. 11, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war has risen to at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
More shelter desperately needed in Gaza as aid falls short
Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks full of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing as part of the winterization efforts. But it refused to elaborate on the number of tents. Humanitarian aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number of tents that have entered.
Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the top UN group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on X.
Netanyahu travels to Washington for talks about second stage of ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida about the second stage of the ceasefire. Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held over the past 2 1/2 months, its progress has slowed. Israel has said it refuses to move on to the next stage of the ceasefire while the remains of the final hostage killed in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Challenges in the next phase of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.
Muddy water soaked blankets and mattresses in tents in a camp in Khan Younis and fragile shelters were propped up with old pieces of wood. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing ill-suited for winter waded through the freezing puddles, which turned dirt roads into rivers. Some people used shovels to try to push the water out of their tents.
Nowhere to escape the rain
“We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, a woman displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”
She showed blankets and the remaining contents of the tent, completely soaked and covered in mud, as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.
“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis, as she pointed to a puddle just outside. “These are the mattresses — they are all completely soaked. My daughters’ belongings were soaked. The water is entering from here and there,” she said, gesturing toward the ceiling and the corners of the tent. Her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and the constant struggle to stay dry in the winter rains.
At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Emergency workers warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse at any moment. But so much of the territory reduced to rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. In July, the United Nations Satellite Center estimated that almost 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Oct. 11, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war has risen to at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
More shelter desperately needed in Gaza as aid falls short
Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks full of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing as part of the winterization efforts. But it refused to elaborate on the number of tents. Humanitarian aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number of tents that have entered.
Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the top UN group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on X.
Netanyahu travels to Washington for talks about second stage of ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida about the second stage of the ceasefire. Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held over the past 2 1/2 months, its progress has slowed. Israel has said it refuses to move on to the next stage of the ceasefire while the remains of the final hostage killed in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Challenges in the next phase of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.