BEIRUT: Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs, the country’s third largest, as insurgents seized two towns on the outskirts Friday, positioning themselves for an assault on a potentially major prize in their march against President Bashar Assad.
The move, reported by pro-government media and an opposition war monitor, was the latest in the stunning advances by opposition fighters over the past week that have so far met little resistance from Assad’s forces. A day earlier, fighters captured the central city of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest, after the army said it withdrew to avoid fighting inside the city and spare the lives of civilians.
The insurgents, led by the jihadi Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, or HTS, have vowed to march to Homs and the capital, Damascus, Assad’s seat of power. Videos circulating online showed a highway jammed with cars full of people fleeing Homs, a city with a large population belonging to Assad’s Alawite sect, seen as his core supporters.
If Assad’s military loses Homs, it could be a crippling blow. The city, parts of which were controlled by insurgents until 2014, stands at an important intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, where Assad enjoys wide support. Homs province is Syria’s largest in size and borders Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.
Pressure on the government intensified from multiple directions.
Opposition protesters stormed security posts and army positions in the southern province of Sweida, opposition activists said. US-backed Kurdish forces who control eastern and northeastern Syria began to encroach on government-held territory.
Offensive leaves Assad reliant on Russia
After years of largely being bottled up in a northwest corner of the country, the insurgents burst out a week ago, captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and have kept advancing since. Government troops have repeatedly fallen back.
The sudden offensive has flipped the tables on a long-entrenched stalemate in Syria’s nearly 14-year-old civil war. Along with HTS, the fighters include forces of an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Turkiye has denied backing the offensive, though experts say insurgents would not have launched it without the country’s consent.
HTS’s leader, Abu Mohammad Al-Golani, told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that Assad’s government was on the path to falling, propped up only by Russia and Iran.
“The seeds of the regime’s defeat have always been within it,” he said. “But the truth remains, this regime is dead.”
A key question about Assad’s ability to fight back is how much top ally Russia — whose troops back Assad’s forces — will throw support his way at a time when it is tied up in the war in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he planned to discuss the developments in Syria with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts at a meeting Friday in the Qatari capital, Doha.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, he said international actors were backing the insurgents’ advances and that he would discuss “the way to cut the channels of financing and arming them.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s embassy in Syria issued a notice reminding Russian citizens that they may use commercial flights to leave the country “in view of the difficult military-political situation.”
The foreign ministers of Iran, Iraq and Syria — three close allies — gathered Friday in Baghdad to consult on the rapidly changing war. Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam Sabbagh said the current developments may pose “a serious threat to the security of the region as a whole.”
Assad opponents move in center, south and east
The insurgent fighters on Friday took over the central towns of Rastan and Talbiseh, putting them 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Homs, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.
“The battle of Homs is the mother of all battles and will decide who will rule Syria,” said Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory’s chief.
Pro-government Sham FM said the insurgents entered Rastan and Talbiseh without facing any resistance. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.
The Observatory said Syrian troops had left Homs. But the military denied that in comments reported by the state news agency SANA, saying troops were reinforcing their positions in the city and were “ready to repel” any assault.
In eastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces coalition said it had moved into the government-held half of the city of Deir Ezzor, apparently without resistance. One of the main cities in the east, Deir Ezzor had long been split between the government on the western side of the Euphrates River and the SDF on the eastern side.
The SDF also said it took control of further parts of the border with Iraq. That appeared to bring it closer to the government-held Boukamal border crossing. The crossing is a vital for the government because it is the gateway to the corridor to Iran, a supply line for Iran-backed fighters, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
At the same time, insurgents seized Syria’s sole crossing to Jordan, according to opposition activists. Jordan announced it was closing its side of the crossing. Lebanon also closed all but one of its border crossings with Syria.
Worsening economy could hurt Assad’s war effort
The opposition assault has struck a blow to Syria’s already decrepit economy. On Friday, the US dollar was selling on Syria’s parallel market for about 18,000 pounds, a 25 percent drop from a week ago. When Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, a dollar was valued at 47 pounds.
The drop further undermines the purchasing power of Syrians at a time when the UN has warned that 90 percent of the population is below the poverty line.
Syria’s economy has been hammered for years by the war, Western sanctions, corruption and an economic meltdown in neighboring Lebanon, Syria’s main gate to the outside world.
Damascus residents told The Associated Press that people are rushing to markets to buy food, fearing further escalation.
The worsening economy could be undermining the ability of Syria’s military to fight, as the value of soldiers’ salaries melts away while the insurgents are flush with cash.
Syria’s military has not appeared to put up a cohesive counteroffensive against the opposition advances. SANA on Friday quoted an unnamed military official as saying the Syrian and Russian air forces were striking insurgents in Hama province, killing dozens of fighters.
Syria’s defense minister said in a televised statement late Thursday that government forces withdrew from Hama as “a temporary tactical measure” and vowed to gain back lost areas.
“We are in a good position on the ground,” Gen. Ali Mahmoud Abbas said, saying troops remained “at the gates of Hama.” He spoke before the opposition advanced further south toward Homs.
He said the insurgents, whom he described as “takfiri” or Muslim extremists, are backed by foreign countries. He did not name the countries but appeared to be referring to Turkiye and the United States.
Thousands flee Homs as Syrian militants push on lightning offensive
https://arab.news/62paf
Thousands flee Homs as Syrian militants push on lightning offensive

- Militants have captured two major cities so far and are now thrusting toward Homs
- Seizing Homs would cut off Damascus from the coast, a longtime redoubt of Bashar Assad
Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

- “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it,” Trump said
- He said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice
MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip: New details and growing shock over emaciated hostages renewed pressure Sunday on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a fragile Gaza ceasefire beyond the first phase, even as US President Donald Trump repeated his pledge that the US would take control of the Palestinian enclave.
Talks on the second phase, meant to see more hostages released and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, were due to start Feb. 3. But Israel and Hamas appear to have made little progress, even as Israeli forces withdrew Sunday from a Gaza corridor in the latest commitment to the truce.
Netanyahu sent a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator, but it included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough. Netanyahu, who returned after a US visit to meet with Trump, is expected to convene security Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.
Trump weighs in on Gaza again
Speaking on Sunday, Trump repeated his pledge to take control of the Gaza Strip.
“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished,” he told reporters onboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Super Bowl.
Trump said Arab nations would agree to take in Palestinians after speaking with him and insisted Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice.
“They don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area — the only reason they’re talking about returning to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza.”
Trump also suggested he was losing patience with the deal after seeing the emaciated hostages released this week.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said.
Israel has expressed openness to the idea of resettling Gaza’s population — ”a revolutionary, creative vision,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday — while Hamas, the Palestinians and much of the world have rejected it.
Egypt said it will host an emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss the “new and dangerous developments.”
Trump’s proposal has moral, legal and practical obstacles. It may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic to pressure Hamas or an opening gambit in discussions aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia condemned Netanyahu’s recent comment that Palestinians could create their state there, saying it aimed to divert attention from crimes committed by “the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”
Qatar called Netanyahu’s comment “provocative” and a blatant violation of international law.
Hostage families say time is running out
Families of remaining hostages said time is running out as some survivors described being barefoot and in chains.
“We cannot let the hostages remain there. There is no other way. I am appealing to the cabinet,” said Ella Ben Ami, daughter of a hostage released Saturday, adding she now understands the toll of captivity is much worse than imagined.
The father of a remaining hostage, Kobi Ohel, told Israel’s Channel 13 the newly released men said his son, Alon, and others “live off half a pita to a full pita a day. These are not human conditions.” Ohel’s mother, Idit, sobbed as she told Channel 12 her son has been chained for over a year.
Michael Levy said his brother, the newly released Or Levy, had been barefoot and hungry for 16 months. “The decision-makers knew exactly what his condition was and what everyone else’s condition was, and they did not do enough to bring him back with the urgency that was needed,” he said.
On Saturday, as Israelis reeled, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said on social media that the deterioration in hostages’ conditions was something “Israel has known about for some time.”
The ceasefire’s extension is not guaranteed
The ceasefire that began on Jan. 19 has held, raising hopes that the 16-month war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.
The latest step was Israel forces’ withdrawal from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, which was used as a military zone. No troops were seen in the vicinity Sunday. As the ceasefire began last month, Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to cross Netzarim and return to the north.
But the deal remains fragile. On Sunday, civil defense first responders in Gaza said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. Israel’s military noted “several hits” after firing warning shots and warned Palestinians against approaching its forces.
Cars piled with belongings headed north. Under the deal, Israel should allow cars to cross Netzarim uninspected. Troops remain along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the troops’ withdrawal showed the militant group had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands” and thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”
Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops.
During the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel has said Hamas confirmed that eight of the 33 are dead.
Families of the hostages gathered in Tel Aviv to urge Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire, but he is also under pressure from far-right political allies to resume the war. Trump’s proposal for the US to take control of the Gaza Strip may also complicate the situation.
“They are dying there, so we need to finish this deal in a hurry,” said Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, who died in captivity.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Much of the territory has been obliterated.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank during the war and intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation against Palestinian militants in the territory’s north.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli gunfire killed two women, one of them, Sundus Shalabi, eight months pregnant. It said Rahaf Al-Ashqar, 21, was also killed. The shooting occurred in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations.
Israel’s military said its police had opened an investigation.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday announced the expansion of the operation that started in Jenin several weeks ago. He said it was meant to prevent Iran — allied with Hamas — from establishing a foothold in the West Bank.
Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’

- Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary,” following his return to Israel from Washington.
Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday, during a week-long visit by the Israeli premier to the United States, that Washington should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.
On his return to Israel, addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said the two allies agreed on war aims set out by Israel at the start of its 15-month war against Hamas including “ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel — a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing” the Israeli prime minister said, referring to the president’s Gaza plan.
“He is very determined to implement it and I believe it opens up many, many possibilities for us,” Netanyahu added.
Despite criticisms from international allies and Arab states in particular, Trump on Thursday doubled down on the plan, saying the “Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
“No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!” he wrote in social media post.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz later on Thursday ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.
“This visit, and the discussions we had with President Trump, carry with them tremendous achievements that could ensure Israel’s security for generations,” Netanyahu said.
Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel.
The State Department signed off on the sale of $6.75 billion in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660 million in Hellfire missiles, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Israel launched a hugely destructive offensive against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Palestinian militant groups October 7 attack.
The war has devastated much of the Gaza Strip — a narrow coastal territory on the eastern Mediterranean — but a ceasefire has been in effect since last month that has brought a halt to the deadly conflict and provides for the release of hostages seized by Hamas.
UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government

- New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres has welcomed the formation of a new government in Lebanon, affirming the international body’s commitment to that country’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence,” a spokesman said Sunday.
“The United Nations looks forward to working in close partnership with the new government on its priorities, including the consolidation of the cessation of hostilities,” said a statement from spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric was referring to a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed on November 27, with Beirut’s military due to deploy in the country’s south alongside UN peacekeepers as Israel withdraws from those areas over 60 days.
Fighting between Israeli forces and long-dominant Hezbollah since October 2023 has weakened the group, helping bring a new Lebanese government to power after almost two years of caretaker authorities being in charge.
New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country.
Salam said Saturday that he hoped to head a “government of reform and salvation,” pledging to rebuild trust with the international community after years of economic collapse blamed on corruption and mismanagement.
Long the dominant force in Lebanese politics, Hezbollah suffered staggering losses in a war with Israel that saw its leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in a massive air strike in September.
Hezbollah suffered another seismic blow with the ouster on December 8 of Bashar Assad in Syria, which it had long used as its weapons lifeline from Iran.
After more than two years of political stalemate, the weakening of Hezbollah allowed former army chief Joseph Aoun, widely believed to be Washington’s preferred candidate, to be elected president and Salam approved as his premier.
Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed

- “Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day
JERUSALEM: Freed Israeli hostage Or Levy suffered the “hardest blow” upon his release from Gaza when he learned that his wife was killed by Hamas militants in the 2023 attack in which he was abducted, his brother said Sunday.
On Saturday, Hamas militants released Levy along with two other hostages, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, as part of an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.
“The hardest blow awaited Or when he was freed — his greatest fear was confirmed,” Michael Levy told journalists at a hospital where his brother is being treated.
“Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day. For 491 days, he held on to the hope that he would return to her. For 491 days, he didn’t know she was no longer alive,” Michael Levy added.
Or and Einav Levy had attended the Nova music festival when Hamas militants stormed it during their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
They had left their son Almog, two years old at the time, with his grandparents.
The usually inseparable couple, who met at school, tried to hide from the attackers along Route 232, the only path away from the festival.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, Einav was killed in the attack while Or was abducted along with other young men.
Until now, it had been unclear whether Or knew of his wife’s fate.
“He only found out yesterday,” said Michael Levy.
“Or is alive. He is here. But this happiness is mixed with an immense sadness, a pain that cannot be described.”
“After everything he went through, he finally met Mogi, his little son. A three-year-old boy who hadn’t seen his father for 16 months!” the brother added.
Palestinians say Israeli forces kill 3 in West Bank raid

- A pregnant woman was dead when she arrived at a local hospital
- At least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in 2025
TULKAREM: The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people on Sunday, including a woman who was eight months pregnant.
Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said 23-year-old Sundus Jamal Muhammad Shalabi was killed in a pre-dawn incident, with her husband Yazan Abu Shola critically injured.
The mother-to-be was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.
“Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.
When asked by AFP about the shooting of the pregnant woman in Nur Shams, the Israeli military said “following the incident an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division."
Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple was “trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces,” accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting defenseless civilians.”
The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah Al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.
A source in the camp’s popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house.”
And late on Sunday the health ministry announced that a third Palestinian, Iyas Adli Fakhri Al-Akhras, 20, had been killed “after being shot by Israeli forces” in the camp.
AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.
The Israeli military earlier said its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria,” using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area.”
The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year.
Violence there has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 887 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.
At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.