The Syrian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement extending “its condolences to the families of the Syrian and American security personnel who were killed in the terrorist attacks that took place in Palmyra and northern Syria.” The statement reiterated Syria’s “firm commitment to fighting the Islamic State.” A US official told CNN that since the December 13 attack, US forces and partner forces have carried out 10 operations that resulted in the killing or arrest of approximately 23 individuals. On December 14, Syria’s Ministry of Interior said that its units carried out an operation in Palmyra to arrest five suspects accused of involvement in the killing of US service members in “coordination with the General Intelligence Directorate and the International Coalition forces.”
Archiv: Israel-US-UK-Germany-European-Union West Asia War Axis / spy alliance / weapons deliveries / bombardements / assassinations / invasions / Palestine / Lebanon / Yemen / Syria / Iran / Qatar
US launches retaliatory strikes in Syria on dozens of ISIS targets
Hegseth said „Operation Hawkeye Strike“ was carried out in Syria „to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on Dec. 13 in Palmyra, Syria.
U.S. Central Command also confirmed in a statement that Jordanian fighter aircraft also participated in Friday’s strikes.
„This is not the beginning of a war — It is a declaration of vengeance,“ said Hegseth.
„Willkommen in der Hölle“
Im Bericht werden einige der in Israel teils seit Jahrzehnten gängigen Folterpraktiken aufgezählt: die Opfer werden oft tage- oder wochenlanger Isolationshaft ausgesetzt, sie werden in käfigähnlichen Einrichtungen festgehalten, über längere Zeit nackt ausgezogen und müssen Windeln tragen. Zudem werden ihre Augen verbunden und der Entzug von Nahrung, Wasser, Schlaf und medizinischer Behandlung sind an der Tagesordnung. Hinzukommt Folter mit elektrischen Schocks, dem Verbrennen mit Zigaretten, mit Waterboarding (simuliertem Ertrinken) und dem Aufhängen an den Händen oder Füßen an der Decke. Die Rede ist außerdem von Hunden, die auf Gefangene losgelassen wurden – und immer wieder auch von sexueller und geschlechtsspezifischer Gewalt. Inzwischen existieren mehrere Berichte, dass Hunde für die sexuelle Folter Gefangener eingesetzt wurden.[4] Anlässlich der Veröffentlichung des Berichts sprach der UN-Menschenrechtsbauftragte Volker Türk, der zugleich auch die palästinensische Autonomiebehörde wegen willkürlicher Verhaftungen, Folter und Misshandlungen kritisierte und bewaffnete palästinensische Gruppen wegen des 7.Oktober verurteilte, von eklatanten Verletzungen der internationalen Menschenrechtsnormen und des humanitären Völkerrechts seitens Israel.
Prisoners’ institutions: 9,300 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli occupation prisons
RAMALLAH, December 16, 2025 (WAFA) – Prisoners’ institutions said on Tuesday that the number of Palestinian detainees and prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons has reached around 9,300, the majority of whom are detainees and administrative detainees.
In a joint statement, the institutions said the figures are based on data provided by prisoners’ institutions and information released by the Israeli Prison Service up to the beginning of the current month of December, noting that the total does not include detainees held in camps run by the Israeli occupation army.
Gaza death toll rises to 70,667 since Oct. 07
Thousands of others are still missing and buried under rubble in the Gaza Strip.
Since the ceasefire was established on October 11, 2025, 393 people have been martyred and 1,074 others have been injured. Also, the bodies of 634 martyrs have been recovered from the rubble during this period.
Two Palestinian Youths Killed in under 24 Hours in Ongoing West Bank Raids
Tuqu Mayor Muhammad al-Badan said that as mourners dispersed following the funeral of 16-year-old Ammar Sabah who was killed on Monday evening, a few youth remained at the northern entrance to the town, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
An illegal settler then got out of his vehicle and opened fire at them, killing Muheeb Ahmed Jibril and seriously wounding another young man, the report added.
US War Department Says ‘No Force Posture Changes’ in Syria After Three Americans Killed
(December 15, 2025)
“Currently, we have no force posture changes to announce,” a War Department official told Antiwar.com when asked if the Trump administration was planning to withdraw from Syria.
The US withdrew a few hundred soldiers from Syria earlier this year, but the comment signals a full withdrawal isn’t on the table. There are currently around 1,000 US troops in the country, a Pentagon official told The New York Times.
3 killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire
December 14, 2025 at 8:07 pm
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The attacks came amid reports that Lebanon had received warnings from Arab and international parties on Israeli preparations to launch a large-scale offensive in Lebanon.
Two Martyrs in Israeli Airstrikes and Ongoing Escalation in Southern Lebanon
Sunday 14 December 2025 – Time: 14:24
SadaNews – Two Lebanese citizens were martyred and another was injured today, Sunday, in two separate Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon; the first targeted a motorcycle in the town of Yater, and the second hit a car between the towns of Safad al-Batikh and Barashit, marking a new escalation of Israeli assaults on southern regions.
Additionally, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in the town of Joya, with the toll from the attack still unknown; while the Israeli army stated that it targeted three members of Hezbollah in various areas of southern Lebanon.
Gaza death toll reaches 70,654
13 December 2025 11:53 GMT
Gaza‘s health ministry has reported that three bodies were transferred to hospital in the last 24 hours, boosting the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 2023 to 70,654 people.
‘We’re living in terror’: fears in southern Syria over Israel’s growing occupation
(December 9, 2025)
A year after Israeli forces entered southern Syria, crossing into a UN buffer zone and in some cases beyond, its occupation remains and the frequency of the Israeli military raids on towns is increasing. An Israeli incursion in the town of Beit Jinn at the end of November left at least 13 Syrians dead, including two children.
Residents say they have traded the tyranny of Assad for a military occupation. Checkpoints are now operated by Israelis, not Assad officers. Night-time raids and phone searches continue.
US Needs Troops in Syria to Stop ISIS Comeback, CENTCOM Nominee Says
(June 24, 2025)
The U.S. and the SDF stayed clear of Syria’s civil war, which led to the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia.
The country’s new president is Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist rebel group Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that swept to power last December and has vowed to establish a tolerant, multi-ethnic state.
After months of deliberation, the U.S. has thrown its support behind the new Syrian leader. President Trump announced last month that he would lift sanctions on the country, a decision he made with encouragement from Saudi Arabia while Trump was in the Middle East.
US rebuffed Israeli demands to keep more US troops in northeast Syria, sources say
(April 23, 2025)
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East chief at the National Security Council, Eric Trager, rebuffed Israeli and northeast Syrian officials in the last several weeks, saying that the US is transitioning from a “military to political role” in northeast Syria and that the drawdown of US troops would continue, the sources told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions.
“Israel is opposed to the US withdrawing from northeast Syria,” one former US official told MEE. “They want to see the US extract concessions from Turkey on demilitarisation before any American boots leave Syrian soil.”
US military said poised to slash troops in Syria; Israel seeks to limit reduction
(April 16, 2025)
Israel has been kept in the loop about plan that could see US troop presence shrunk from 2,000 to 1,000; Jerusalem fears it will increase Turkey’s ‘appetite’ to control Syria.
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Trump announced a full withdrawal of US troops from Syria during his first term but never followed through completely. Then too, Israel opposed the move, expressing concern that an American withdrawal would create a power vacuum in the region, allowing Tehran to expand its military entrenchment near the Israeli border.
The “Yellow Line”: Approximately 58 percent of the Gaza Strip is still under direct Israeli control
(November 4, 2025)
The so-called “Yellow Line” refers to the demarcation of the deployment line to where Israeli forces withdrew in the Gaza Strip in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed on October 9. Despite the ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza are being prevented from accessing their homes and fields located outside of the Yellow Line, in what amounts to almost 58 percent of the territory of the Strip. Anyone who approaches or crosses the line is at risk of being shot by the Israeli military.
Born vulnerable: the toll of maternal malnutrition and stress in Gaza
This is a summary of what was said by UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today‘s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
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„I have spent many months in Gaza over the past two years, and I see and hear the generational impacts of the conflict on mothers and their infants almost every day; in hospitals, nutrition clinics and family tents. It is less visible than blood or injury, but it is ubiquitous. It is everywhere.
„I have lost count of the number of parents like Fatma who have sobbed while telling me what happened to them, wrecked by how powerless they are to protect their children in the face of indiscriminate destruction and deprivation. Generations of families, including those born into the ceasefire, have been forever altered by what was inflicted upon them.
Gaza’s babies ‘scarred by war before first breath’ by malnutrition
Mothers who’ve been left starving in Gaza are now giving birth to underweight or premature babies who die in intensive care units or struggle to survive as they endure acute malnutrition, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
Speaking from the shattered enclave, UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram said that at least 165 children are reported to have died “painful, preventable deaths” related to malnutrition during the war between Hamas fighters and Israel.
A lesser-known scourge is acute hunger among pregnant and breastfeeding women and “the devastating domino effect” of this lack of a healthy diet on thousands of newborns.
“In Gaza’s hospitals I have met several newborns who weighed less than one kilogramme, their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive,” Ms. Ingram said.
‚Shockingly high‘ number of Gaza children still acutely malnourished after truce, UN says
Thousands of children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza since an October ceasefire that was supposed to enable a major increase in humanitarian aid, the U.N. children‘s agency said on Tuesday.
UNICEF, the biggest provider of malnutrition treatment in Gaza, said that 9,300 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition in October, when the first phase of an agreement to end the two-year Israel-Hamas war came into effect.
Israeli surveillance targets US and allies at joint base planning Gaza aid and security, say sources
(today)
The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”.
Staff and visitors from other countries have also raised concerns about Israel recording inside the CMCC. Some have been told to avoid sharing sensitive information because of the risk it could be collected and exploited.
The US military declined to comment when asked about Israeli surveillance activities. The Israeli military declined to comment on Frank’s demand to halt recording and noted that conversations inside the CMCC are unclassified.
UNRWA Commissioner-General on occupied West Bank: Israeli Authorities Forcibly Enter UN Premises in East Jerusalem
Israel is party to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN. The Convention makes UN premises inviolable – in other words, immune from search and/or seizure – and makes UN property and assets immune from legal process.
The International Court of Justice has also underscored that Israel is obliged to cooperate with UNRWA and other UN agencies.
There can be no exceptions. To allow this represents a new challenge to international law, one that creates a dangerous precedent anywhere else the UN is present across the world.
Israeli police raid UN refugee agency UNRWA‘s East Jerusalem compound
Israeli authorities entered the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency‘s East Jerusalem offices on Monday and raised Israel‘s flag, in a raid they said was ordered over unpaid taxes but was condemned by the agency as a challenge to international law.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been accused of bias by Israel, has not used the building since the start of this year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises and cease its operations.
Death toll in Gaza rises to 70,365
At least five new names were added to the death toll, three of whom were killed by Israeli forces over the past 24 hours, and two whose bodies were recovered from under rubble.
Since the ceasefire agreement on 11 October, at least 376 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and 981 wounded. A further 626 bodies have been recovered.
Israel, Russia, and the United States Are Testing the Boundaries of Global Order
(September 12, 2025)
As I’ve discussed at length recently, we have already witnessed the death of the global trading system as we have known it. But this slide away from the rules-based system isn’t limited to trade. It is evident in the use of military force as well.
Three examples of unilateral military action over the past couple weeks are particularly instructive:
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That is the real Hobbesian peril. Each of these actions can be seen as an isolated instance, but if one or two or three countries take kinetic action unilaterally, it risks creating a permission structure where others feel there are no guardrails to constrain them.
Touring the Strip, IDF chief Zamir says Gaza ceasefire line ‘a new border’
(today)
“We will not allow Hamas to reestablish itself. We control large parts of the Gaza Strip and stand along [strategic] lines. The Yellow Line is a new border line, a forward defensive line for the communities and an offensive line,” Zamir said during a tour of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, in remarks provided by the IDF.
Netanyahu and Merz hold expanded meeting with Israeli ministers, senior officials
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are holding an expanded meeting with senior officials at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, following their one-on-one meeting this morning, the PMO says in a statement.
Gaza death toll rises to 70,360 since start of Israeli genocide in October 2023
Over the past 24 hours, six new fatalities and 17 injuries were recorded in Gaza, the sources added. Since the ceasefire agreement on October 11, 2025, the total number of fatalities and injuries stands at 373 and 970, respectively, with 624 bodies recovered.
Israeli attacks kill at least seven people across northern Gaza
(December 6, 2025)
At least seven people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City and northern areas of the strip, Al Jazeera reported, as Israel continues attacks across the so-called „yellow line“ demarcating the buffer zone.
A 70-year-old woman was among those gunned down by drone strikes in Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Zeitoun in northern Gaza, health officials said.
Ein bisschen peinlich
Klingbeil zeigt sich am Mittwoch abend in der ARD zwar »wirklich dankbar«, wie »verantwortungsvoll« die Linke sich verhalte. Es gehe dennoch darum, »eine eigene Mehrheit zu organisieren«. In den kommenden dreieinhalb Jahren werde man sehr viele Entscheidungen zu treffen haben, »und wir können nicht immer davon ausgehen, dass die Linken oder dass die Grünen uns da zur Seite springen«, so Klingbeil. Das kann man offenbar schon, wie sich gerade wieder zeigt – aber natürlich ist das auf Dauer für alle Beteiligten ein bisschen peinlich.
It’s not just Gaza. From the West Bank to Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s onslaught continues
(December 1, 2025)
Broken ceasefires, bombing, ground incursions and mounting deaths: Israeli imperialism is now expanding across the region
Israeli forces penetrate Quneitra countryside
This comes a day after a similar incursion into the village of al-Samdaniyah al-Gharbiyah, where Israeli forces set up a checkpoint at the crossroads leading to the villages of al-Mushairifeh, al-Sa‘aydah, and Rweihinah, south of Quneitra, according to the same sources.
These daily Israeli movements continue without any response from the Syrian Transitional Government.