Closing summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
All references to Syria’s former ruling Ba’ath party will be removed from the country’s education system, the country’s new education minister said. Speaking to Reuters, Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri added that the country’s new leaders will not change school curricula or restrict the right of girls to learn, saying, “Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water… The right to education is not limited to one specific gender. ... There may be more girls in our schools than boys.”
The UK government has said any new Syrian government needs to build a “secure and peaceful” Syria weeks after its president Bashar al-Assad fled the country. Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said British officials had met with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus and the UK was giving Syria £61m in aid.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Thursday in northeast Syria in support of a US-backed, Kurdish-led force that for weeks has been pushing back against Turkey-backed fighters, an AFP correspondent said. The show of support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comes after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Israel launched strikes against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen on Thursday and threatened more attacks against them. As Israeli jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv.
An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the central Gaza Strip, killing five people including a boy and two women and injuring seven others early Thursday morning. Those killed and injured at the Maghazi refugee camp were transferred to Aqsa hospital, where officials confirmed the number of fatalities. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report documenting the 14-month conflict published on Thursday. The report documents 41 attacks on MSF staff including airstrikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys, AFP reported. The NGO said it was forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres on 17 occasions.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there. Putin said he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice.
Updated
Bulgaria is attempting to force out Syrian asylum seekers after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, according to an ecxlusive Guardian report.
The Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo and Ashifa Kassam report:
No Name Kitchen (NNK), a humanitarian organisation working with refugees in the Balkans, has collected evidence of increased harassment of Syrian people on European borders since the Syrian opposition armed forces ousted the Assad family, ending a 54-year bloody regime.
NNK’s report, reviewed by the Guardian, includes testimonies, pictures and documents on how Bulgaria is trying to repatriate hundreds of Syrian asylum seekers, subjecting them to extensive interrogations about their perspectives on Syria to justify rejecting their claims.
Speaking at the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation in Cairo, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has historically supported al-Assad’s opposition, called for the restoration of Syria’s “territorial intgrity and unity.”
Erdogan added that he hoped for the “establishment of a Syria free of terorrism” where “all religious sects and ethnic groups live side by side in peace.”
Meanwhile, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian whose country has historically backed Assad said that it was a “religious, legal and human duty to prevent further harm” to the populations of Syria, as well as Gaza and Lebanon.
All references to Syria’s former ruling Baath party will be removed from the country’s education system, the country’s new education minister said.
Speaking to Reuters, Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri added that the country’s new leaders will not change school curricula or restrict the right of girls to learn, saying, “Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water… The right to education is not limited to one specific gender. ... There may be more girls in our schools than boys.”
“After primary school, there were always schools for females and schools for males. We won’t change that,” Qadri said.
He went on to say that students will not be tested on the mandatory “nationalist studies” course which was previously used to promote Baathism and the Assad family history.
Dodds went on to tell MPs that more than 16 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“That’s why, on Saturday, the government announced a new package of international aid to help the most vulnerable Syrians, including in Jordan and Lebanon, coming on top of that announced by the prime minister on 9 December,” she said.
“The UK’s £61m in aid will help provide emergency healthcare and nutrition, and support displaced Syrian children. We call on more of our partners to join us in committing greater humanitarian support.”
The UK government has said any new Syrian government needs to build a “secure and peaceful” Syria weeks after its president Bashar al-Assad fled the country.
Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said British officials had met with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus and the UK was giving Syria £61m in aid.
Dodds said:
The UK Government remains committed to the people of Syria. We support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition process, based on the principles of UN security council resolution 2254, leading to an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government.
We are hopeful that anyone seeking a role in governing Syria will demonstrate a commitment to the protection of human rights, including for women and girls, to unfettered access for humanitarian aid, to safe destruction of chemical weapon stockpiles and to combating terrorism and extremism.
The UK urges the transitional government to adhere to these principles, to build a more hopeful, secure and peaceful Syria.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 Palestinians at two shelters housing displaced families and wounded several other people in eastern Gaza City, medics told Reuters on Thursday.
Thousands of people demonstrate in northeast Syria in support of Syrian Democratic Forces
Thousands of people demonstrated on Thursday in northeast Syria in support of a US-backed, Kurdish-led force that for weeks has been pushing back against Turkey-backed fighters, an AFP correspondent said.
The show of support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comes after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
A Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday that Ankara would push ahead with military preparations until Kurdish fighters “disarm”.
Demonstrators in Qamishli for the first time raised the three-starred flag adopted by Syria’s new authorities, symbolic of the uprising against Assad’s rule that began in 2011, the correspondent said.
“Long live the SDF resistance,” demonstrators chanted, also yelling, “The Syrian people are one” and “No to war in our region, no to Turkey’s attack” on northeast Syria.
Others raised the flag of northeast Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, and of the SDF, which spearheaded the fight that defeated Islamic State group jihadists in Syria in 2019.
Israel launched strikes against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen on Thursday and threatened more attacks against the Iran-aligned militant group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year.
As Israeli jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv with what a military spokesperson described as falling shrapnel.
The Houthis – who have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war with Hamas – said they had attacked Tel Aviv overnight, launching two ballistic missiles and hitting “precise military targets”.
'Whoever harms Israel will pay a heavy price,' says Netanyahu in statement
A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said:
This morning, the air force attacked strategic targets of the Houthis in the port of Hodeidah and deep into Yemen.
We did this in response to repeated Houthi attacks against civilian targets in Israel. Last night they attacked a school in Ramat Gan.
They are not attacking just us – they are attacking the entire world. They are attacking the international shipping and commercial lanes. Thus, when Israel takes action against the Houthis, it is acting on behalf of the entire international community. The Americans understand this very well, as do many others.
After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last arm of Iran’s axis of evil. They are finding out, and will find out, the hard way that whoever harms Israel – will pay a very heavy price.
An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the central Gaza Strip, killing five people including a boy and two women and injuring seven others early Thursday morning.
Those killed and injured at the Maghazi refugee camp were transferred to Aqsa hospital, where officials confirmed the number of fatalities. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies.
Some gathered at the strike site to pull out those trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed building, with one person only using a shovel.
“No place is safe. Neither the tents nor the houses nor any place in the Gaza Strip is safe. It is all targeted. When we go out, we do not expect that we will return,” said Um Abed Darweesh, a Maghazi resident.
The deaths on Thursday added to a reported death toll of more than 45,000 Palestinians who have now been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants since October 2023. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The day so far
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report documenting the 14-month conflict published on Thursday. The report documents 41 attacks on MSF staff including airstrikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys, AFP reported. The NGO said it was forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres on 17 occasions. “We are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed,” said Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general. Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that its campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.
Israeli jets have launched widespread air raids against Houthi targets in Yemen, killing at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah. According to Israeli media, dozens of combat jets along with fuelling and intelligence aircraft took part in the raids, which came after reports that Israel was planning to hit Yemen with force following a recent increase in Houthi attacks against Israel, including twice in the past week.
Israel’s “long hand” will reach the leaders of Yemen’s Houthi movement, its defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed on Thursday, after unleashing airstrikes on several areas of the country overnight. “I warn the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organisation: Israel’s long hand will reach you as well,” Katz said in a post on X. “Whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off; whoever harms, will be harmed sevenfold.”
Four Palestinians were killed and three severely injured in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday. Israeli military said it conducted a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service in Tulkarm without providing further details.
There is no ceasefire deal between Turkey and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, contrary to a US announcement on the issue, a Turkish defence ministry official said on Thursday. Turkey believes that the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) forces will “liberate” areas occupied by the Kurdish PKK/YPG militia in northern Syria, the official also said.
US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) vowed on Thursday to fight Turkey and groups it supports in the city of Kobani in northern Syria. The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, which Turkey sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) whose militants have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there. Putin said he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice.
US and Arab mediators are working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 13 Palestinians on Thursday. The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, seek to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war in the Hamas-ruled enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on 7 October 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Reuters reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned Israel’s seizure of territories in Syria. He also said he felt that Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria, Reuters reported.
At least 45,129 Palestinians have been killed and 107,338 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Iraq started on Thursday to send Syrian soldiers back to their homeland, state media reported.
Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged. Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there.
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned Israel’s seizure of territories in Syria.
He also said he felt that Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria, Reuters reported.
Four Palestinians were killed and three severely injured in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday.
Israeli military said it conducted a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service in Tulkarm without providing further details.
US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) vowed on Thursday to fight Turkey and groups it supports in the city of Kobani in northern Syria.
The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, which Turkey sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) whose militants have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
At least 45,129 Palestinians have been killed and 107,338 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Updated
Iraq started on Thursday to send Syrian soldiers back to their homeland, state media reported.
MSF accuses Israel of ’ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report documenting the 14-month conflict published on Thursday.
The report documents 41 attacks on MSF staff including airstrikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys, AFP reported. The NGO said it was forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres on 17 occasions.
“We are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed,” said Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general. Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that its campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.
MSF’s report, entitled “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap”, said the siege of the Palestinian territory has drastically reduced humanitarian aid, with only 37 trucks authorised daily in October 2024, compared with 500 before the conflict.
The north of the territory, particularly the Jabalia camp, has been undergoing an “extremely violent” offensive since early October, MSF said.
The NGOs medical teams have carried out more than 27,500 consultations and 7,500 surgical operations in one year. They note a rapid spread of disease in a population that had been 90 percent displaced and living in wretched conditions.
The organisation also denounced the blocking of medical evacuations, with Israel having authorised only 1.6 percent of requests between May and September 2024.
“What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” said Lockyear.
The report calls for an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the siege to allow the massive delivery of humanitarian aid.
MSF also called on “states, particularly Israel’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfil their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza”.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there.
Putin said he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice.
Israel launches deadly air raids against Yemen after missile attack
Israeli jets have launched widespread air raids against Houthi targets in Yemen, killing at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah.
According to Israeli media, dozens of combat jets along with fuelling and intelligence aircraft took part in the raids, which came after reports that Israel was planning to hit Yemen with force following a recent increase in Houthi attacks against Israel, including twice in the past week.
The raids were launched after an overnight missile launch from Yemen towards Israel. The Israeli military said it was investigating whether an incomplete interception by its aerial defences had led to parts of the missile hitting a school in the area of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
The airstrikes, the third time during the current war in the region that Israel has hit the country, came amid warnings that Israel intended to act after more than a year of intermittent drone and missile attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Houthi forces began regularly firing long-range missiles at Israel a year ago in what they said was solidarity for Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Al-Masirah, a Houthi media channel, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and Hodeidah.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebels had targeted “two specific and sensitive military targets” in the occupied Jaffa region near Tel Aviv, with “hypersonic ballistic missiles”, although the claim regarding the type of missile was unverified.
Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions”.
No ceasefire deal between Turkey and US-backed SDF in northern Syria, Turkish official says
There is no ceasefire deal between Turkey and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, contrary to a US announcement on the issue, a Turkish defence ministry official said on Thursday.
Turkey believes that the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) forces will “liberate” areas occupied by the Kurdish PKK/YPG militia in northern Syria, the official also said.
The SDF is an ally in the U.S. coalition against Islamic State militants. It is spearheaded by the YPG, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), whose militant fighters have battled the Turkish state for 40 years.
US and Arab mediators are working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 13 Palestinians on Thursday.
The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, seek to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war in the Hamas-ruled enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on 7 October 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Reuters reported.
Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, the sources said.
In Gaza, medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed overnight in separate Israeli airstrikes, including on two houses in Gaza City and a central camp.
Residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, said forces blew up clusters of houses overnight.
“The longer those talks last, the more destruction and death takes place in Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya are being wiped out, Rafah too,” said Adel, 60, a resident of Jabalia, who is now displaced in Gaza City.
Israel accused of act of genocide over restriction of Gaza water supply
Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there.
It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children.
Israel’s actions have killed many thousands of Palestinians and constitute an act of genocide, HRW argues, citing declarations by ministers in the country’s ruling coalition that Gaza’s water supply would be cut off as evidence of intent.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Middle East crisis live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and developments from the region.
We start with the news that Israel’s “long hand” will reach the leaders of Yemen’s Houthi movement, its defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed on Thursday, after unleashing airstrikes on several areas of the country overnight.
The Israeli airstrikes killed nine people, said Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of the country, seven in the port of Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both located in the western province of Hodeidah. The strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sana’a, it added.
“I warn the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organisation: Israel’s long hand will reach you as well,” Katz said in a post on X. “Whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off; whoever harms, will be harmed sevenfold.”
In a statement, Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a”, adding that the targets struck were used by Houthi forces for military purposes.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November, in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war with Hamas.
We will be bringing you more on this shortly but in other developments today:
The visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told Agence France-Presse that there is a need for a significant aid boost across Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. “Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher said, adding, “I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity.”
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said his country and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. “A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbours of Syria,” Erdoğan told a news conference, alongside Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati.
The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza, even as Israel and Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire agreement. “This is an advance warning ahead of an offensive,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X. The order included four residential block areas in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, where Adraee claimed that Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Israel.
UN special envoy Geir Pedersen has called for “free and fair elections” in Syria and urged humanitarian assistance, AFP reports. Addressing reporters at the end of a visit to Damascus, Pedersen said “there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria”, which he expressed hope would also include a “political solution” in the Kurdish-held northeast.
The US, joined by Arab mediators, is seeking to conclude a long-negotiated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. A Palestinian official told Reuters earlier today that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel, however, had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.
At least 45,097 Palestinian people have been killed and 107,244 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 38 Palestinians were killed and 203 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
