DAMASCUS: Syrian Arab Republic authorities have detained two senior members of the Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, which took part in the October 2023 attacks on Israel from Gaza, the group’s armed wing and a Syrian official said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Al Quds Brigades said Khaled Khaled, who heads Islamic Jihad’s operations in Syria, and Yasser Al-Zafari, who heads its organizational committee, had been in Syrian custody for five days.
The group said the men had been detained “without any explanation of the reasons” and “in a manner we would not have hoped to see from brothers,” and called for their release.
An official from Syria’s interior ministry confirmed the detentions, but did not respond to follow-up questions on why the pair had been arrested. A Palestinian source in Damascus also confirmed the arrests.
Islamic Jihad joined its ally Hamas, Gaza’s ruling group, in the attack on Israel in 2023. It is a recipient of Iranian funding and know-how, and has long had foreign headquarters in Syria and Lebanon.
But its allies in both countries have recently suffered devastating blows: an Israeli air and ground offensive last year severely weakened the Lebanese Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, and Syria’s leader Bashar Assad, closely allied to Tehran, was ousted by a rebel offensive last year.
The new Islamist leadership in Damascus has cut diplomatic ties with Iran and is hoping to rebuild Syria’s regional and international backing, not least to eliminate sanctions and fund reconstruction after a brutal 14-year civil war.
The US has given Syria a list of conditions to fulfill in exchange for partial sanctions relief, Reuters reported last month. Sources said one of the conditions was keeping Iran-backed Palestinian groups at a distance.
Israel has carried out strikes against Islamic Jihad in Syria for years. Last month, it said it struck a building on the outskirts of Damascus that it said Islamic Jihad was using as a command center, an assertion denied by the group.
Syria detains two leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad
https://arab.news/gr9xs
Syria detains two leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad
- The group said the men had been detained “without any explanation of the reasons“
- An official from Syria’s interior ministry confirmed the detentions
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
