DAMASCUS: Syria said on Sunday it had detained a group behind recent rocket attacks on the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus, with investigators tracing the weapons to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The interior ministry said security units arrested all members of the group, which it said had carried out several strikes on the airport in recent months, after surveillance of suspected launch sites in several areas of the capital.
The weapons used in the attacks originated from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of former President Bashar Assad that once had a large military presence across Syria supporting Assad’s army, the ministry said.
Hezbollah denied the allegations and said it had no activity or ties with any group inside Syria. Authorities said they also seized a number of drones the group was preparing to use in further operations.
The ministry said only that the detainees had links to unidentified “foreign entities,” without mentioning Hezbollah or Iran.
Reuters reported in November that Washington was planning to establish a military presence at an air base in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel. The government denied the report.
Security sources say Hezbollah left behind weapons stockpiles, including drones, in parts of Syria after withdrawing its forces following the collapse of Assad’s rule.
Syria arrests group behind Mezzeh airport attacks, weapons traced to Hezbollah
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Syria arrests group behind Mezzeh airport attacks, weapons traced to Hezbollah
- Authorities seized a number of drones the group was preparing to use in further operations
Fledgling radio station aims to be ‘voice of the people’ in Gaza
- The electricity crisis is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip, says Shereen Khalifa Broadcaster
DEIR EL-BALAH: From a small studio in the central city of Deir El-Balah, Sylvia Hassan’s voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory’s first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.
Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station “Here Gaza,” delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck. “This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep,” Hassan said.
“It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience.”
Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.
“The radio station’s goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war,” said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.
“There are many issues that people need to voice.” Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people were displaced at least once during the gruelling war.
Many still live in tents with little or no sanitation.
The war also decimated Gaza’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, compounding the challenges in reviving the territory’s local media landscape. “The electricity problem is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip,” said Khalifa.
“We have solar power, but sometimes it doesn’t work well, so we have to rely on an external generator,” she added.
The station’s launch is funded by the EU and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organization that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media center at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
The station plans to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and for longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.
Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now broadcasting uninterrupted audio.
The Gaza Strip, a tiny territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, has been under Israeli blockade even before the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strictly control the entry of all goods and people to the territory.
“Under the siege, it is natural that modern equipment necessary for radio broadcasting cannot enter, so we have made the most of what is available,” she said.
