WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned Israel on Monday against destabilizing Syria and its new leadership, days after a deadly operation by Israeli forces in the south of the country.
“It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said he was “very satisfied” with Syria’s performance under President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who made a historic visit to the White House in November.
Trump has been pushing for a security pact between Israel and Syria since Sharaa’s coalition overthrew longtime ruler Bashar Assad a year ago.
But tensions have risen over hundreds of strikes by Israel on Syria. In the deadliest so far, Israeli forces killed 13 people on Friday in an operation in southern Syria, saying they targeted an extremist group.
Trump said Sharaa “is working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together.”
He added that the United States was “doing everything within our power to make sure the Government of Syria continues to do what was intended” to rebuild the war-torn country.
Good relations between Syria and Israel would add to his efforts for a wider Middle East peace following the fragile Gaza ceasefire in October, added Trump.
Trump warns Israel not to ‘interfere’ in Syria
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Trump warns Israel not to ‘interfere’ in Syria
- Trump said he was “very satisfied” with Syria’s performance under President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who made a historic visit to the White House in November
UN agency begins clearing huge Gaza City waste dump
- Some Palestinians sifted through the garbage, looking for things to take away, but there was relief that the market space would eventually be cleared
CAIRO, GAZA: The UN Development Programme began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City’s oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk.
Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid-waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave’s main city.
He put the volume of the dump at more than 300,000 cubic meters and 13 meters high.
It formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr Al-Dik area — adjacent to the border with Israel — when the Gaza war began in October 2023.
The area in Juhr Aal-Dik is now under full Israeli control.
Over the next six months, UNDP plans to transfer the waste to a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.
The site covers 75,000 square meters and will also accommodate daily collection, Mrakic said. The project is funded by the Humanitarian Fund and the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
Some Palestinians sifted through the garbage, looking for things to take away, but there was relief that the market space would eventually be cleared.
“It needs to be moved to a site with a complex of old waste, far away from people. There’s no other solution. What will this cause? It will cause us gases, it will cause us diseases, it will cause us germs,” elderly Gazan Abu Issa said near the site.
