www.washingtonpost.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
104.102.37.243
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/05/israel-hamas-war-news-gaza-lebanon-syria/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=...
Submission: On December 05 via api from BE — Scanned from IL
Submission: On December 05 via api from BE — Scanned from IL
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
<form class="wpds-c-gRPFSl wpds-c-gRPFSl-jGNYrR-isSlim-false">
<div class="transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out"><button type="submit" data-qa="sc-newsletter-signup-button" class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-uTUwn-variant-primary wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-density-default wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-icon-left">Sign
up</button></div>
</form>Text Content
Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in Democracy Dies in Darkness Middle East conflictLive updatesIsrael-Lebanon strikesHezbollah explainedRemaining hostages Middle East conflictLive updatesIsrael-Lebanon strikesHezbollah explainedRemaining hostages LIVE BRIEFING SYRIAN REBELS TAKE NEW CITY AS ARMY ANNOUNCES WITHDRAWAL FROM HAMA Updated December 5, 2024 at 11:58 a.m. EST1 hour ago Rebel advance drives Syrians to flee Aleppo countryside 1:06 Hundreds of Syrians who fled the rebel offensive that overran Aleppo on Nov. 30 found refuge in the central Syrian town of Tabqa in early December. (Video: Reuters) 3 min A Syrian Islamist rebel group said Thursday it has entered neighborhoods in the central city of Hama, dealing another blow to President Bashar al-Assad after a startling insurgent offensive that began last week captured the northern city of Aleppo. The rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which had been pressing on Hama from the northern countryside, released a statement Thursday afternoon saying it has extended “its control over new neighborhoods inside Hama city.” The city sits 115 miles north of Damascus, the Syrian capital. The Syrian army, in a statement, appeared to concede its loss of Hama. It said that “military units stationed there have redeployed and repositioned outside the city” in order to “preserve the lives of civilians.” Updates continue below advertisement HTS also said it entered Hama’s Central Prison, in the east of the city, and freed inmates. Advertisement “Hafez al-Assad entered Hama with tanks and robbed from its people,” the group said, referring to events in 1982, when Bashar al-Assad’s father brutally crushed a rebellion in the city. “Today we entered it with tanks and are returning it to its people.” HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani described the rebel sweep into Hama as cleansing “the wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years,” calling it a conquest of mercy and affection. The group also called on the people of Homs, the next closest city and the gateway to the rest of Syria, to revolt against the government. HERE ARE OTHER KEY DEVELOPMENTS * Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem accused Israel of violated the terms of the ceasefire in Lebanon dozens of times in televised remarks Thursday, and he called on the Lebanese government to bring those concerns to the arbiters of the agreement. Israel has similarly accused Hezbollah of violating the terms of the deal. * An Israeli military investigation into the deaths of six hostages, whose bodies were discovered in Gaza in August, concluded they had probably been killed by their captors in February, when an Israeli airstrike hit near the area where they were being held, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday. Separately, the IDF said it has recovered the body of Itay Svirsky, taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed in captivity in January. * At least 44,580 people have been killed in Gaza during the war and 105,739 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. At least 4,047 people have been killed and 16,638 injured in Lebanon, its Health Ministry said at a news conference on Wednesday. Neither agency distinguishes between civilians and combatants. * Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including more than 300 soldiers. It says 380 soldiers have been killed in its military operation in Gaza and at least 77 in its war with Hezbollah. 🌎 Follow World news Follow LIVE COVERAGE CONTRIBUTORS 18 Scroll to the left Mohamad El Chamaa NihaMasih VivianHo KareemFahim BryanPietsch ClaireParker LiorSoroka MiriamBerger HajarHarb JohnHudson LovedayMorris SarahCahlan JonathanBaran LouisaLoveluck SusannahGeorge SuzanHaidamous MustafaSalim MissyRyan Scroll to the right RENEWED CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE AFTER IDF RECOVERS HOSTAGE’S BODY Return to menu Claire Parker and Lior Soroka CAIRO — Israel’s recovery of the body of another hostage from Gaza underscores that “the time has come to bring all 100 hostages home,” an umbrella group of hostage families said Wednesday, as Egyptian officials tried to rally momentum behind a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire. The body of Itay Svirsky, 38, who was kidnapped by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel and killed in captivity, was retrieved this week and returned to Israel for burial, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency announced in a statement Wednesday. “Returning Itay’s body for proper burial in Israel provides crucial closure for his family. However, families are still waiting for their loved ones after 425 days in captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Wednesday. The announcement came the same day as the findings of an Israeli investigation into the deaths of six hostages in February, which concluded that they were probably shot by their captors right after Israel struck a target nearby. After the retrieval of Svirsky’s body, 100 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 96 whom militants kidnapped last year and four held since 2014. A total of 36 of those hostages are confirmed dead, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. The hostage families’ forum called on the Biden administration and the incoming administration of Donald Trump to “do everything necessary to achieve a deal for the hostages’ return” before Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Egypt has been trying to breathe new life into stalled ceasefire talks in recent weeks and has introduced a fresh proposal for an initial 60-day pause in hostilities. But key sticking points remain, including Hamas’s desire that any cessation of hostilities be permanent, according to a former Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, denied the movement had received such a proposal from Egypt. Cairo also played host in recent days to representatives from rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah in an effort to broker an agreement over postwar governance of Gaza. In a statement Thursday, Hamas said a delegation had concluded its meetings in Cairo and that the movement approved an Egyptian proposal for the formation of a Palestinian committee to govern Gaza after the war. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Malta on Thursday, where they discussed, among other topics, the situation in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Saar emphasized to Blinken that Israel perceives an opportunity to advance a deal for the release of hostages and is committed to moving forward with such an initiative. The Israeli security cabinet is scheduled to convene Thursday to discuss efforts to reach a deal, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Earlier this week, Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, raised the plight of Israeli hostages with Trump over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Hazem Balousha contributed to this report. ISRAELI STRIKE ON DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE IN GAZA KILLS 20 Return to menu Wp logo Miriam Berger , Claire Parker and Hajar Harb An Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in a part of southern Gaza designated by the military as a “humanitarian zone” killed at least 20 and injured dozens more on Wednesday night, a Gaza Civil Defense spokesman said. The dead and injured included women and children, videos and photos showed. At least five children were killed, Mahmoud Basal said. The Israeli military said that the strike targeted “senior Hamas terrorists” and that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians” beforehand. The attack targeted a densely packed tent encampment in al-Mawasi, full of civilians who were told by Israeli forces to relocate there for their safety. It left a “big hole in the ground,” injured people trapped under the rubble and bodies charred from the fires that broke out as a result, according to a medical worker who witnessed the attack and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “The first strike was a big one. A huge fire engulfed the area, and people flew in the air,” the medical worker said. “After about 20 minutes, there was a second strike on the camp next to us … and people caught on fire, and the shrapnel reached our tent, and the people and children were in a state of terror and fear.” The Israeli military said that it launched one strike and that afterward, “secondary explosions were identified, suggesting the presence of weaponry in the area.” The tent camps are full of gas cylinders for cooking that could also cause such explosions. Gaza Civil Defense has been struggling to provide aid and to engage in rescue efforts in humanitarian zones because of the lack of fuel, Muhammad al-Mughair, an official with Gaza’s Civil Defense, said in a statement. International organizations have been refusing to provide fuel out of concern that it could be repurposed to attack Israel, al-Mughair said, which meant that as of Thursday, 13 of the 22 emergency vehicles in southern Gaza were no longer in service because they had no fuel. TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY LAUNCHES EFFORT AT GAZA CEASEFIRE Return to menu John Hudson President-elect Donald Trump’s newly named Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with leaders in Qatar and Israel in late November to revive efforts to conclude a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. Witkoff was named special envoy on Nov. 12. Witkoff’s meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani were the first sign of Trump dispatching personnel to fulfill his long-shot goal of concluding a ceasefire and hostage deal before he takes office on Jan. 20, a timeline many view as unrealistic. The meetings show that the energy-rich state of Qatar has resumed its role as a key mediator in the war after suspending its duties last month when the Biden administration requested that it expel members of the Hamas political office from the Qatari capital of Doha, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic meetings. The meetings were first reported by Reuters. To facilitate a new round of ceasefire talks in Qatar, Hamas negotiators are expected to return to Qatar, but such a move still requires an explicit request from Trump’s team, said a person familiar with the matter. On Wednesday, Thani told Britain’s Sky News: “We are trying to coordinate with them our efforts,” adding that “we are hoping to get over this situation before the president comes to the office.” The Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement REVENGE, FIRE AND DESTRUCTION: A YEAR OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS’ VIDEOS FROM GAZA Return to menu Wp logo Loveday Morris , Sarah Cahlan , Jonathan Baran and Louisa Loveluck As their unit withdrew from northern Gaza late last year, Israeli reservists from the Negev Brigade’s Battalion 9208 blasted what was once a residential area with tank shells and machine gun fire. A soldier from the unit posted a video of the four-minute bombardment to Facebook. “A farewell barrage,” read the Facebook post, accompanied by four fire emojis. “From here on out, anyone who wants to mess with us will understand that this will be the outcome,” warns a voice across the communication system in the video before giving the order to fire. In the 14 months since the Israeli military launched its invasion of Gaza, videos and photographs have repeatedly shown its forces demolishing entire buildings, including homes and schools, as well as looting and torching them. Other visuals have Israeli soldiers posing next to dead bodies and calling for the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians. Running through many of these images is the theme of exacting revenge on Gaza for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the bloodiest day in Israel’s history — with Hamas posting videos of atrocities committed by its fighters in attacks on Israeli civilians. The Washington Post verified more than 120 photos and videos of the war in Gaza posted between October 2023 and October 2024, most of which were recorded by soldiers or shared publicly on their personal social media accounts. This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue readingContinue reading Continue readingContinue reading IRAN IS SENDING REGIONAL FIGHTERS TO SYRIA. CAN THEY SAVE ASSAD AGAIN? Return to menu Wp logo Susannah George , Suzan Haidamous and Mustafa Salim DUBAI — Iran is scrambling to mobilize regional fighters to help prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has deployed members of Hezbollah and Iraq’s Shiite militias to Syria, soldiers and commanders told The Washington Post. They are awaiting orders to fight. Assad’s forces are struggling to hold back a sudden advance by Islamist rebels who have taken over the city of Aleppo and nearby towns and villages. The last time Syria’s civil war threatened Assad’s hold on power, Hezbollah ground forces played a pivotal role in turning the tide in his favor. But with the Lebanese militant group significantly degraded by its war with Israel, it’s unclear if it has the will or ability this time to meaningfully change the direction of the conflict. While Iraqi militias could potentially fill some gaps, analysts say those fighters have less training and inferior munitions. This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue readingContinue reading Continue readingContinue reading Middle East conflict Live updates continue below * Victoria Bisset , Júlia Ledur and Leslie Shapiro Monitoring the status of hostages still in Gaza after Hamas’s attack November 26, 2024 * Kareem Fahim War’s ebb in Lebanon leaves devastation and uncertain future November 27, 2024 * Rebecca Tan , Mohamad El Chamaa , Abbie Cheeseman , Shira Rubin and Karen DeYoung Israel and Hezbollah agree to cease-fire, halting year-long conflict November 26, 2024 View 3 more storiesView 3 more stories AMNESTY SAYS ISRAEL COMMITTING ACTS OF GENOCIDE IN GAZA. HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW. Return to menu Louisa Loveluck and Missy Ryan Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday that Israel is committing acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The declaration by one of the world’s most prominent rights organizations is likely to intensify a debate that has raged for months over how to characterize Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left much of Gaza in ruins. Israel’s government says it is fighting a war of self-defense following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and dragged another 250 hostages back to Gaza. This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue readingContinue reading Continue readingContinue reading Advertisement Updates continue below advertisement Share MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT The Israel-Gaza war has gone on for over a year, and tensions have spilled into the surrounding Middle East region. The war: On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking civilian hostages. We’re tracking how many hostages remain in Gaza. Israel declared war on Hamas in response, launching a ground invasion that fueled the biggest displacement in the region since Israel’s creation in 1948. In July 2024, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack Hamas has blamed on Israel. Cease-fire: Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire deal in November 2024, bringing a tenuous halt to more than a year of hostilities. Here’s what to know about the deal’s terms and how it will be enforced. Hezbollah: Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, a militant organization backed by Iran, have escalated over the past year, leading to an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Israel’s airstrikes into Lebanon have grown more intense and deadly, killing over 1,400 people including Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader. The Israel-Lebanon border has a history of violence that dates back to Israel’s founding. Gaza crisis: In the Gaza Strip, Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars, killing tens of thousands and plunging at least half of the population into “famine-like conditions.” For months, Israel has resisted pressure from Western allies to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave. U.S. involvement: Despite tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some U.S. politicians, including President Biden, the United States supports Israel with weapons, funds aid packages, and has vetoed or abstained from the United Nations’ cease-fire resolutions. Show more Middle East conflict HAND CURATED * Victoria Bisset , Júlia Ledur and Leslie Shapiro Monitoring the status of hostages still in Gaza after Hamas’s attack November 26, 2024 * Kareem Fahim War’s ebb in Lebanon leaves devastation and uncertain future November 27, 2024 * Rebecca Tan , Mohamad El Chamaa , Abbie Cheeseman , Shira Rubin and Karen DeYoung Israel and Hezbollah agree to cease-fire, halting year-long conflict November 26, 2024 View 3 more storiesView 3 more stories NewsletterAs news breaks World News Alerts Breaking news email alerts for major happenings around the world. Sign up Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Company About The Post Newsroom Policies & Standards Diversity & Inclusion Careers Media & Community Relations WP Creative Group Accessibility Statement Sections Trending Politics Elections Opinions National World Style Sports Business Climate Well+Being D.C., Md., & Va. Obituaries Weather Arts & Entertainments Recipes Get The Post Manage Your Subscription Become a Subscriber Gift Subscriptions Mobile & Apps Newsletters & Alerts Washington Post Live Reprints & Permissions Post Store Books & E-Books Print Special Editions Store Print Archives (Subscribers Only) Today’s Paper Public Notices Contact Us Contact the Newsroom Contact Customer Care Contact the Opinions Team Advertise Licensing & Syndication Request a Correction Send a News Tip Report a Vulnerability Terms of Use Digital Products Terms of Sale Print Products Terms of Sale Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cookie Settings Submissions & Discussion Policy RSS Terms of Service Sitemap Ad Choices washingtonpost.com © 1996-2024 The Washington Post COMPANY CHEVRON ICON Diversity & Inclusion Careers Media & Community Relations WP Creative Group Accessibility Statement SECTIONS CHEVRON ICON Trending Politics Elections Opinions National World Style Sports Business Climate Well+Being D.C., Md., & Va. Obituaries Weather Arts & Entertainments Recipes GET THE POST CHEVRON ICON Manage Your Subscription Become a Subscriber Gift Subscriptions Mobile & Apps Newsletters & Alerts Washington Post Live Reprints & Permissions Post Store Books & E-Books Print Special Editions Store Print Archives (Subscribers Only) Today’s Paper Public Notices CONTACT US CHEVRON ICON Contact the Newsroom Contact Customer Care Contact the Opinions Team Advertise Licensing & Syndication Request a Correction Send a News Tip Report a Vulnerability Download the Washington Post App * About The Post * Policies & Standards * Digital Products Terms of Sale * Print Products Terms of Sale * Terms of Service * Privacy Policy * Cookie Settings * Submissions & Discussion Policy * RSS Terms of Service * Sitemap * Ad Choices * washingtonpost.com * © 1996-2024 The Washington Post 5.31.2 Close REAL NEWS, REAL TIME. 24/7 coverage from 1,000+ journalists. Subscriber-exclusive events. Unmatched political and international coverage. See offersCancel anytime.