BEIRUT: Airstrikes from unidentified drones killed three pro-Iran fighters in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border, a Britain-based war monitor said on Wednesday.
The drones late on Tuesday targeted trucks of the Iraqi paramilitary network Hashd Al-Shaabi after they had crossed the border into the Syrian border district of Albu Kamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Three were killed and several severely wounded, the monitoring group said.
A source within the Hashd in Iraq however said that “the strikes destroyed four vehicles, but no one was killed.”
“The site targeted was near a border post of the factions on the Iraqi-Syrian border,” the source said. The Fatah alliance, the political wing of the Hashd, condemned an “abject attack” on its forces on the frontier.
It called on Iraq’s government and parliament to “determine the countries responsible” and confront them.
Iran-backed groups, including the Hashd, are present near the Iraqi border in Syria’s far east.
The strikes on Albu Kamal come after a drone attack late on Saturday against the Irbil international airport, which includes an airbase of the US-led coalition that has been fighting Daesh.
There were no casualties in the attack on the base in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Attacks of this kind, normally targeting US troops or US interests in Iraq, have become common in recent months.
Although no one claims responsibility for them, Washington blames pro-Iranian forces in Iraq.
The US has twice conducted deadly strikes against the Hashd in eastern Syria since President Joe Biden took office, in February and June this year.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory, targeting regime positions as well as allied pro-Iran forces since the start of the decade-old Syrian war.
Meanwhile, the sole survivor of the jihadist cell that killed 130 people in Paris six years ago on Wednesday claimed France “knew the risks” of attacking jihadist targets in Syria, as he spoke out again one week into the trial into France’s worst postwar atrocity.
“We attacked France, targeted its population, civilians, but there was nothing personal,” said Salah Abdeslam.
“(President) Francois Hollande knew the risks he was taking in attacking the Islamic State (Daesh) in Syria,” he said, referring to the decision of the French president at the time to authorize strikes against the jihadist extremist group in Syria.
His calm statements contrasted sharply with outbursts he made during the first few days of the trial that opened last week, where 19 others are also accused in the biggest trial in modern French legal history.
This was the first time in the trial Abdeslam addressed the court with the judges’ permission.
Many in the audience, including families of the dead and the roughly 350 people physically injured, cried or hugged one another as Abdeslam spoke, the day of his 32nd birthday.
He insisted that he and his co-accused were not “terrorists, jihadists, extremists” but “Muslims” — “It’s about authentic Islam,” he said.
“They say often that I’m being provocative, but it’s not true, I want to be sincere,” Abdeslam said. “My goal is not to hurt anyone.”
Abdeslam was one of 10 jihadists deployed to sow terror in Paris on the night of Nov. 13, 2015, using suicide bombings and mass shootings.
The group struck first at the Stade de France stadium north of Paris, where three men blew themselves up.
Shortly afterward, another team attacked bars and restaurants in the heart of the capital while three others stormed the Bataclan concert hall.
Nine attackers blew themselves up or were shot dead by police.
Abdeslam, who dumped his defective explosives vest in a public bin, was captured four months later after a shootout with police in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, where he grew up.
The marathon trial will last until May 2022, with 145 days of scheduled hearings involving about 330 lawyers and 300 victims.
Drone strikes in Syria kill three, severely wound several pro-Iran fighters: Monitor
https://arab.news/zrnpm
Drone strikes in Syria kill three, severely wound several pro-Iran fighters: Monitor
- Trucks of Iraqi paramilitary network Hashd Al-Shaabi were hit after they crossed border into Syrian district of Abu Kamal
UN atomic chief urges Iran to take ‘concrete’ steps for cooperation
- Grossi said a March 2023 deal with Iran was “still valid” but required more “substance”
ISFAHAN: UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, visiting Iran on Tuesday, urged the country to adopt “concrete” measures to bolster cooperation on its nuclear program and address the international community’s concerns.
At a news conference in the city of Isfahan, Grossi said he had proposed in talks with Iranian officials that they “focus on the very concrete, very practical and tangible measures that can be implemented in order to accelerate” cooperation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency director-general held talks with senior Iranian officials including Atomic Energy Organization’s head Mohammad Eslami.
Grossi insisted on the need to “settle differences” on the nuclear issue while the Middle East was going through “difficult times,” particularly with the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Sometimes, political conditions pose obstacles to full-fledged cooperation” between Iran and the international community, he said.
To overcome these obstacles, he said, “we need to come up with concrete steps that are going to be helpful in bringing us closer to these solutions that we all need.”
Grossi said a March 2023 deal with Iran was “still valid” but required more “substance.”
The agreement was reached during Grossi’s last visit to Iran and outlined basic cooperation measures including on safeguards and monitoring. The IAEA chief said, however, that there had been a “slowdown” in the agreement’s implementation including the number of inspections being reduced and the accreditation of a group of IAEA experts being withdrawn
by Iran.
Iran suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers a year after the US in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
“We have this legal right to reduce our commitments when the other parties do not adhere to their obligations,” Eslami said during the joint news conference.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, and EU-mediated efforts have so far failed both to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
The agency has in recent months criticized Iran for a lack of cooperation on issues including the expansion of its nuclear work, the barring of inspectors and deactivating the agency’s monitoring devices at its nuclear facilities.
Why Israel’s military operation in Rafah will lead to ‘inevitable catastrophe’ in Gaza
- Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing and ordered 100,000 Palestinians to “evacuate immediately”
- Full-scale assault on Rafah would intensify humanitarian emergency throughout Gaza, aid agencies warn
LONDON: Palestinians in Gaza’s southern governorate of Rafah face a desperate situation as the Israeli military proceeds with its long-planned assault on the area, capturing the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt and ordering displaced families to move yet again.
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday morning that its 401st Brigade had taken “operational control” of the Rafah border crossing after advancing into the eastern part during the night as part of its mission to dislodge Hamas.
Earlier on Monday, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians in eastern Rafah to “evacuate immediately” to Al-Mawasi, a coastal town near Khan Younis that humanitarian organizations said was “completely uninhabitable.”
Mercy Corps said Palestinians in eastern Rafah were confronted with two impossible choices: Face death under bombardment or attempt a perilous journey to an unlivable area with no access to essential aid.
Bushra Khalidi, advocacy director for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories, says civilians fleeing Rafah have been left with nowhere to go.
She told Arab News that people in Rafah “are worried of even leaving their homes” because they fear they will not find anywhere in the middle area or in Al-Mawasi.
According to the AFP news agency, more than 74 percent of the infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed since Oct. 7 when Israel launched its bombing campaign in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Al-Mawasi, which Israel had dubbed a “humanitarian zone,” is “already overpopulated and filled with makeshift tents,” said Khalidi. “There is no infrastructure, there (are) no services, and no facilities to host this number of (internally displaced people).”
Moreover, this narrow coastal strip, measuring just 1 km wide and 14 km long, already hosts an estimated 250,000 displaced Gazans, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Ahmed Bayram, media adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Middle East, stressed that “there is not a corner or a street in Gaza where people can go expecting safety.”
He told Arab News: “Al-Mawasi, which is one of the areas Israel has asked people to go to, is full to the very brim. There is no free spot left in that narrow stretch of land, which is not equipped for such high demand.”
According to Mercy Corps, Al-Mawasi is already a sea of makeshift tents, with little in the way of humanitarian relief, electricity, or water.
It also remains unclear whether Palestinians can flee to neighboring countries through the Rafah crossing now that it is under Israeli control, said Ruth James, Oxfam’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
She told Arab News: “Many Palestinians in Gaza currently do not have the recognized right to return to their original homes. Given this context, Egypt, or any other state, should be cautious of inadvertently abetting any potential efforts by Israel, or any other party, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population of Gaza.”
Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, slammed Israel’s evacuation order as “inhumane,” warning that such an action could amount to a war crime, Reuters reported.
Oxfam’s Khalidi also warned that if a Rafah-wide incursion happens, which is the worst-case scenario, it would “entail mass carnage and a complete bloodbath.”
She explained that this is due to “how small” Rafah is and “because of how congested and overpopulated it is.”
Echoing her colleague’s fears, James said: “It’s hard to imagine the scale of need caused by a Rafah invasion. Simply put, this invasion can’t happen. There must be an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”
She added: “The alternative is an avoidable, massive loss of civilian life.”
Despite repeated public objections, even US President Joe Biden’s appeals against the Rafah offensive have gone unheeded.
According to the Associated Press, Biden urgently warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday against invading Rafah, stressing it would only lead to more deaths and exacerbate the despair in the embattled enclave.
The Israeli military said its operation in Rafah is designed to eliminate fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, according to Reuters.
Israel’s overnight strikes across Rafah killed at least 23 people, including five children, according to local health officials.
Prior to that, Israeli warplanes pounded homes in Rafah, killing at least 27 Palestinians, including two babies, according to Gaza’s health authority.
This is despite Hamas accepting the terms of a Qatari-Egyptian ceasefire proposal on Monday.
Humanitarian organizations concur that the impact of Israel’s operation in Rafah will extend beyond the eastern area, affecting more than 1.4 million people who have been sheltering in the southern governorate — and the entirety of Gaza’s remaining population.
“While the initial ‘evacuation orders’ and operations announced in the east of Rafah are directly impacting 100,000 people, over 1.4 million are sheltering in Rafah, half of which are children, and are at direct risk of any escalated military operations across the area,” Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Gaza, told Arab News.
“The extended impact will be far-reaching to include all the 2.2 million residents of Gaza.”
Elaborating, Oweis added: “Rafah is the main hub of all humanitarian response, and any impact on the already struggling aid delivery and humanitarian response will hamper the efforts across Gaza.”
Rafah is the last population center in the Gaza Strip after the seven-month Israeli assault obliterated three-quarters of the besieged enclave, killing at least 34,700 Palestinians according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displacing 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million people.
Israel’s evacuation orders in eastern Rafah, coupled with unceasing airstrikes across Gaza’s south, have instilled panic among the war-weary residents, triggering an exodus of thousands of Palestinians who have nowhere to seek refuge.
Describing the situation across the Gaza Strip as “a state of despair, chaos and confusion” as Israel carries out its assault on Rafah, NRC’s Bayram said that “by issuing its orders, Israel has again pushed over 1 million people into the unknown.”
He added: “Let’s not forget, while the orders cover an area with 100,000 people east of Rafah, the rest of the population in central and western areas will think they are next to be forcibly transferred, and so they will try to get out while they can.”
Tahani Mustafa, a senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, foresees a “horrific” humanitarian situation if the Rafah hostilities do not stop.
“All movement of people and goods has been closed off, at a time where famine is already in the north and was very much on the verge in the south,” she told Arab News.
“There’s been no contingency plan in place, and all foreign aid delegations have been evacuated. If this goes ahead as Israel states, it will be a massacre.”
As Israel has blocked aid through the Rafah border crossing, aid groups are concerned about the impact on much-needed humanitarian assistance across the Gaza Strip. This concern is exacerbated by the suspension of aid deliveries to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing following a nearby Hamas rocket attack.
Oxfam’s James cautioned that “even one day of closure (of crossing points) means that additional lives are likely to be lost to hunger and illness.”
She called on Israel to “adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure civilian populations are provided with the most essential aid in sufficient quantities.”
Khalidi pointed out that aid organizations “are already facing huge obstructions” in delivering aid across Gaza.
“Often aid is not making it even past Khan Younis,” she said. “And hence the descent to hell, into starvation, that we have seen over the last course of months in the north, but also across the strip.”
Stressing the need to open “all crossings” to meet the immense and deep humanitarian needs in Gaza, Khalidi said: “We’re hearing that maybe other crossings will open, but the problem is that we already had two crossings open, and that was not enough.”
The World Food Programme warned on Saturday that northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine,” which is “moving its way south.”
Bayram of the NRC also warned that “the entire aid system is at the point of collapse.”
He said: “Closing down the Rafah crossing means cutting off the only viable lifeline currently available for aid workers,” highlighting that the NRC relies on the Rafah crossing to bring in essential aid.
“Fuel is running low already and the existing stocks will not be able to sustain increasing demand,” he added, stressing that “Israel must reverse its plans so we can avoid an inevitable catastrophe.”
UNICEF’s Oweis emphasized that “any interruption to the already limited aid access will have a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation as a whole.”
He added: “With no fuel coming in, all the basic services will be in jeopardy of a total halt, including aid delivery and what’s left of healthcare.
“Not having food entering the strip means that more children will fall into malnutrition and disease, and will be put at heightened risk of death.”
Gaza’s health authority reported on April 25 that since February, at least 28 children, most of them no older than 12 months, had died of malnutrition and dehydration.
Oweis stressed that “the only hope for a way out of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe is simple, and it’s an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire.”
He added: “Meanwhile, safe and consistent access for humanitarian organizations and personnel to reach children and their families with lifesaving aid, wherever they are in the Gaza Strip, is crucial.”
Israel’s incursion into Rafah putting 1.5m people in danger: WHO director
- Hospitals in Rafah must be protected and provided with the supplies they need to keep providing care to the thousands of sick and injured civilians, Balkhy said
LONDON: Israel’s military incursion into the Gazan city of Rafah is putting 1.5 million people, including 600,000 children, in “grave danger,” a World Health Organization official warned on Tuesday.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy, regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said on X that lives were hanging in the balance as the health system in the Gaza Strip struggled to remain functional.
The WHO and its partners were committed to providing assistance and delivering aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip, she said, but that required unimpeded access through the Rafah border crossing.
She called for the urgent reopening of the crossing and said any further escalation would push an already fragile humanitarian operation “to a breaking point.”
Hospitals in Rafah must be protected and provided with the supplies they need to keep providing care to the thousands of sick and injured civilians who were the victims of Israeli military operations, Balkhy said.
She called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its military operation, which is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Rafah.
“An urgent ceasefire in Gaza is needed now, for humanity’s sake,” she said.
Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza on Tuesday, shutting down a vital aid route into the Palestinian enclave that was already on the brink of famine.
Hezbollah carries out drone, artillery attacks on Israeli forces, equipment
- Group claims it ‘killed, wounded’ soldiers in strike on Yiftah barracks
- Lebanese Foreign Ministry warns of risk of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Rafah
BEIRUT: Hezbollah on Tuesday carried out a series of drone and artillery attacks on Israeli forces and other targets under the blanket slogan of “Supporting the Gaza Resistance.”
The group said it targeted “officers and soldiers while they were in the courtyard of the Yiftah barracks” and that its strikes were successful in “killing and wounding them.”
It also “targeted with other drones one of the Iron Dome platforms located south of the Ramot Naftali barracks, which was directly hit and damaged.”
A third target was “spy equipment at the Al-Sammaqa site in the Kafr Shuba hills,” while a fourth was “Israeli soldiers as they were moving inside a bulwark at the Israeli Al-Rahib military site,” on which it “achieved a direct hit.”
Israeli media said that “six explosive-rigged drones were launched from Lebanon, five of which exploded in the Upper Galilee, causing damage.”
Officials at the Kiryat Shmona settlement asked residents there to “stay in shelters due to fears of drone infiltration.”
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Hezbollah’s operations included “launching rockets and drones toward border areas in the Upper Galilee” and that an Israeli warplane dropped heat balloons over the area where the drones entered.
Explosions were heard in Yiftah and Ramot Naftali, it said.
Israeli Channel 12 said air defenses intercepted a drone launched from southern Lebanon toward Galilee, while another exploded without causing any damage.
According to the Israeli Army channel: “During April, four Israelis were killed by Hezbollah fire on the northern border and 33 others were injured, including five who sustained serious injuries.”
The Israeli military responded to Hezbollah’s actions by conducting raids and using artillery to shell Lebanese border towns, particularly Aita al-Shaab.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry warned against “any escalation by the Israeli occupation forces against the city of Rafah,” which it said would cause a “severe humanitarian disaster for more than 1 million Palestinians who have been displaced to this area as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for seven months.”
UK marine agency reports two explosions in Gulf of Aden
- The Houthi militia that controls the most populous parts of Yemen and is aligned with Iran have staged attacks on ships in the waters off the country for months
AL-MUKALLA: The UK Maritime Trade Operations reported on Tuesday two explosions near a ship in the Gulf of Aden as international marine task forces in the Red Sea shot down drones fired by the Yemeni Houthi militia.
The skipper of a ship transiting the gulf notified the UK maritime agency of two explosions “in close proximity to” the ship 82 nautical miles south of Yemen’s southern city of Aden, and that the ship and crew were unharmed.
The incident prompted the UKMTO to encourage ships traveling in the Gulf of Aden to be cautious and to report “any suspicious activity.”
This comes as the US military and the EU naval operation in the Red Sea said they shot down Houthi drones in the previous 24 hours.
US Central Command announced in a statement on Tuesday that its forces destroyed on Monday one uncrewed aerial system fired by the Houthis from Yemeni territory under their control, targeting foreign commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea.
“It was determined the UAS presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” USCENTCOM said.
The EU mission in the Red Sea, known as Eunavfor Aspides, said an Italian frigate shot down one drone on Monday while responding to a strike conducted by the Houthis from regions under their control in Yemen.
Until Tuesday afternoon, the Houthis had not claimed responsibility for new strikes on commercial or navy ships in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk another, and launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles against vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and, most recently, the Indian Ocean in support of the Palestinians against Israel’s war in Gaza.
On Friday, the Houthis said they will expand their campaign against Israel to the Mediterranean, targeting Israel-linked ships there and any place within range of their drones and missiles.
Meanwhile, the Houthis claimed on Monday to have uncovered an “espionage” network working for the US and Israel.
Houthi media broadcast images and videos of 10 individuals from the western province of Hodeidah who admitted to being recruited by Yemeni military officers at military locations under government control.
They claimed that these individuals were given the task of gathering information about the locations of missile and drone launchers, boats, weapons storage facilities, trenches, and movements of the Houthi forces, and that their information assisted US and UK strikes at those locations.
The Houthis accused Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a former intelligence official and brother of Tareq Saleh, a member of the country’s presidential council, of running the dismantled network from a military base on the country’s western coast.
In 2022, a Houthi court in Sanaa sentenced Ammar Saleh to death in absentia for allegedly damaging Yemeni military missiles and air-defense systems while serving as the deputy director of the National Security Bureau.
Yemen’s Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani described the Houthi claims as “fabricated lies,” accusing them of torturing “innocent” people who appeared on the footage to convince them to admit to crimes they did not commit.
He added that the Houthis were using Israel’s war in Gaza to lay the groundwork for a new military operation against the Yemeni government.
“The terrorist Houthi militia’s scapegoating of innocent inhabitants of Tehama (Hodeidah), dictating them these lines as depicted in the false scenes it disseminated, and forcing them to make unfounded confessions through torture, pressure, and coercion,” Al-Eryani said on X.
