Egypt, Qatar officials intensify truce talks on Gaza
Gaza cease-fire mediators are ramping up efforts to overcome obstacles hindering indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, an Egyptian media report says.
The state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel, citing unnamed sources, said Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani as part of Egypt’s broader push to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.
The timing and location of the meeting were not disclosed. Rashad has held a series of discussions with both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, the sources added.
Israel welcomes Syria’s participation in EU-Middle East meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has welcomed the presence of his Syrian counterpart in Brussels. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani is attending the gathering.
“We welcome the participation of the Syrian minister. We will be together in the same meeting. Let’s see what will happen,” Saar said.
The comments come hours after the Israeli army said it attacked tanks in southern Syria.
Israel says Syria strikes were 'a clear warning to the regime'
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the recent strikes in southern Syria were “a clear warning to the Syrian regime,” aiming to prevent government forces from seizing a Druze village, AFP reports.
The Israeli strikes targeted an area where deadly clashes had erupted between Druze fighters and Bedouins. “The strikes were a message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime. We will not allow harm to come to the Druze in Syria. Israel will not stand idly by,” Katz said on the X platform.
Iran rules out talks with Washington if uranium enrichment is off the table
Iran will not engage in any discussions with the United States about its nuclear program if Washington demands an end to uranium enrichment, a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader said, according to AFP.
“If negotiations are conditioned on halting enrichment, such talks will not take place,” said Ali Velayati, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Trump says could have Gaza update ‘fairly soon’
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed optimism about a deal to halt Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera.
“We’re doing pretty well on Gaza, Steve Witkoff is here, and I think we could have something fairly soon to talk about,” Trump told a news conference at the White House.
Trump said in late June that Israel agreed to the conditions for a 60-day cease-fire, and negotiations have been ongoing in Qatar to carve out a path to finally end Israel’s 21-month war on Gaza.
Hamas reportedly wants a U.S. guarantee that Israeli air attacks and ground assaults, which have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, will not resume even if a cease-fire ends without a permanent end to the war.
South Lebanon
An Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb near a shepherd in Maroun al-Ras, in the Bint Jbeil district, our correspondent reports.
Israeli army says it will not allow any 'military threat' in Southern Syria
The Israeli army stated it will not tolerate any military presence in southern Syria, where it recently struck several tanks near the city of Sweida. The area has seen clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters, resulting in dozens of deaths.
“The presence of these tanks in southern Syria could pose a threat to the State of Israel. The Israeli army will not allow the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will act accordingly,” the army warned in a statement shared with AFP.
Syria
Syrian government forces took control Monday afternoon of a village on the outskirts of the majority-Druze city of Sweida, towards which they are advancing, an AFP correspondent reported from the scene.
The deployment follows clashes between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes that have left 89 people dead since Sunday. The AFP correspondent saw Defense Ministry forces deployed in the Druze village of Al-Mazraa.
“Defense Ministry forces are heading toward Sweida,” one of the commanders, Ezzeddine al-Shamayer, told AFP.
12,000 in need of medical evacuation from Gaza — WHO & MSF
The World Health Organization and Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) say that around 12,000 people and their families in Gaza urgently need to be evacuated to receive vital medical treatment outside the Strip.
Both organizations are calling for the urgent establishment of a clear and predictable medical evacuation system — one that prevents family separations and ensures that Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza after receiving care.
Gaza truce: Mediators work to bridge 'differences' in negotiations
Mediators involved in efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza are working to overcome differences between the Israeli and Hamas delegations, following a week of indirect talks in Qatar, a source familiar with the negotiations told AFP.
“Mediators are actively working to explore innovative mechanisms to help bridge the remaining gaps and keep the momentum going,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Israeli army and Shin Bet say they killed 'terrorist' who held freed hostage in Gaza
The Israeli army and security agency Shin Bet announced they had killed a "terrorist" who had held a former Israeli-British hostage captive before her release.
In a joint statement, they said Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, a member of Hamas's military intelligence, had held Emily Damari in his home at the start of the war. He was killed in a strike in Gaza City, according to the statement.
Hundred killed by Israel while waiting to collect water in Gaza
Gaza's government media office says Israel has killed more than 700 people in attacks on queues for water stations, Al Jazeera reports. The exact timeframe in which these deaths have occurred was not specified.
The Israeli army has targeted 112 freshwater filling points and destroyed 720 water wells, putting them out of service, depriving more than 1.25 million people of access to clean water, the office said in a statement.
Yesterday, at least eight children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a water distribution center.
On March 9, Israel cut off the last power line feeding the last water desalination plant in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, halting the production of large quantities of drinking water and further deepening the enclave’s water crisis.
Red Sea sunken ship survivors arrive in Saudi Arabia
Ten mariners rescued after Houthi militants sank a Greek ship last week have arrived in Saudi Arabia, maritime security sources told Reuters today, after rescuers ended their search for the remaining crew.
The rescue mission began on Wednesday when the Houthis sank the Liberia-flagged Eternity C cargo ship, with 22 crew and three armed guards on board, as part of its campaign targeting Israel-bound commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Eight crew members and two security guards were rescued. All the crew were Filipino, except for one Russian.
On Sunday, maritime risk management firm Diaplous and British security firm Ambrey said in a joint statement that the vessel's owner had decided to end the privately run search for the remaining crew.
Death toll from Sweida clashes rises
At least 89 people have been killed in ongoing clashes between Syrian Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes in southern Syria's Sweida province, a Syria war monitor has announced, as security forces deploy in an attempt to quell the violence.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, cited by AFP, said that "46 Druze fighters, four civilians from Sweida, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel, and seven unidentified individuals in military uniform were among the dead."
Reuters earlier cited a security source as saying that at least six members of Syrian security forces had been killed since the army began its intervention.
A handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showing Syrian army and security forces deploying in Sweida in southern Syria on July 14, 2025 following clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters. (Credit: SANA/via AFP
A handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showing Syrian army and security forces deploying in Sweida in southern Syria on July 14, 2025 following clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters. (Credit: SANA/via AFP
Israeli army announces bombing of southern Syria
The Israeli army released a statement saying it had carried out a strike against tanks located near the village of Sami, in southern Syria's Sweida district, Israeli media reports.
The army said it would release further details soon about the attack, of which kind there have been very few since the last outbreak of violence in the Druze area in April.
Six members of Syria's security forces were killed in the predominantly Syrian village of Sweida today, a security source told Reuters, after state forces intervened in the violence that had erupted there over the weekend.
Israeli officials have said they want to completely demilitarize southern Syria, imposing a ban on weapons in the area that would even include those of the new Syrian government.
Israeli ultra-Orthodox parties to leave coalition this week if draft exemption law not submitted in coming hours
Sources in Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties have told Haaretz that if a draft law exempting Haredi men from mandatory army service is not submitted in the coming hours, they will withdraw from Netanyahu's fragile coalition and the government this week.
Marathon discussions have been taking place this morning, the sources say, at the homes of the ultra-Orthodox leaders on their course of action.
Netanyahu's departure for Washington last week was delayed by several hours as Haredi parties demanded an amendment to a proposed conscription bill and said they would block all Knesset bills going forward if they weren't satisfied.
Former Israeli PM calls 'humanitarian city' plans 'concentration camps' for Palestinians
The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert told the Guardian.
Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” he said, when asked about the plans laid out by Israel Katz last week. Once inside, according to Katz, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries.
Palestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on July 13, 2025. (Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP)
Netanyahu and minister reject 'humanitarian city' plan, saying too expensive, too long
Netanyahu and several other ministers criticized the Israeli army's plan to establish a controversial "humanitarian city" in Rafah during a security Cabinet discussion yesterday, a source told Haaretz.
According to said source, Netanyahu and the ministers argued that the army's timeline for setting up the area was "unreasonable." They noted that the plan, which observers have warned would be a "concentration camp for Palestinians," under which establishing the area could take up to a year, would not fit into the army's schedule.
The source added that the Israeli army had estimated the cost would reach billions of shekels, which Netanyahu and the ministers said was too expensive.
Explosion at residential building in Iran's Qom city, initial reports say caused by gas leak
An explosion at a residential building injured seven people in the Pardisan neighbourhood of Qom city, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing an unnamed source saying it was not the result of any Israeli attack.
"Four residential units were damaged in the blast," the director of Qom's fire department told Fars, Reuters reports. "Initial assessments show that the cause of the incident was a gas leak, and follow-ups are continuing in this regard."
The agency said the building's residents were ordinary citizens.
Iran's regional arch-rival Israel has a record of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, whom it considers part of a program that directly threatens Israel. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
"People should not worry about rumors [of Israeli attacks]," the unnamed official said." If a hostile action occurs in the country, the news will immediately reach the people and alarm bells will simultaneously be activated in the Occupied Territories."
Members of Syria's security forces stand guard next to their vehicles in the capital Damascus on April 29, 2025, following overnight sectarian clashes that left nine people including six Druze fighters dead. (Credit: Bakr Alkasem/AFP)
Syrian authorities to intervene in Sweida clashes
More than 30 people were killed and 100 injured in armed clashes in Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the Syrian interior ministry said early this morning, in the latest bout of sectarian clashes.
According to a Reuters reports, witness said the violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
The clashes involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias were centered in Maqwas neighborhood east of Sweida, which is inhabited by Bedouin tribes, and was encircled by armed Druze groups and later seized.
The Syrian ministry of interior said that its forces will begin direct intervention in Sweida to resolve the conflict, calling on local parties in the Druze city to cooperate with the security forces.
Syria's Kurds reiterate call for decentralization
Syria's Kurdish authorities called again yesterday for a system of government that preserves a measure of their de facto autonomy, days after Damascus rejected "any form" of decentralization, AFP reports.
Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the Kurdish administration's de facto army — and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa first struck an accord in March to integrate Kurdish institutions into the state, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
In a statement Sunday, the Kurdish administration called "for a pluralistic democratic system, social justice, gender equality, and a constitution that guarantees the rights of all components" of society.
Netanyahu promised Smotrich war would resume after truce
Netanyahu reportedly promised his coalition partner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, that Israel would resume its military onslaught against Gaza after the proposed 60-day truce, Times of Israel reports, citing Channel 12.
According to the outlet's sources, Netanyahu told Smotrich that after the pause, Israel would "transfer the population in the Strip southward and impose a siege on northern Gaza.” Smotrich has been a vocal opponent of any cessation of hostilities against Palestinians.
In the closed-door meetings, Netanyahu framed Israel’s plan to separate the Gazan civilian population from Hamas and hold them in a strip of land in southern Gaza as a humanitarian necessity to allow the conflict to continue following the temporary truce, according to Channel 12.
Sources say Netanyahu deliberately dragging out truce talks
As Trump expressed hope at truce talk progress, sources told Times of Israel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was deliberately dragging out the negotiations.
Last week, both U.S. and Israeli officials were optimistic about the chances for an imminent agreement, but negotiations have been stuck for the past four days over the scope of Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza, according an Arab diplomat and another source involved in mediation efforts.
The latter source claimed Netanyahu was preventing a breakthrough from being reached before the Knesset recess, which runs from July 27 until Oct. 19, as it is more difficult to dissolve parliament during that period.
Trump hopes for Gaza cease-fire this week
U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that he hoped talks for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would be "straightened out" this week, Reuters reports.
The U.S. is backing a 60-day cease-fire with a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and talks to end the conflict. Netanyahu was just in Washington last week, where several scheduled and secret meetings — reportedly long and intense — took place on the topic, as Trump increases the pressure on his Israeli counterpart to bring an end to what he called a "tragedy."
On Sunday, Trump told reporters, "We are talking and hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week."
Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of events in the region, notably the ongoing Israeli onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza as Netanyahu reportedly drags out cease-fire talks, which are currently stalled on the issue of Israeli troop withdrawal.
In Syria, violence erupted for the first time in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, killing more than 30 people. The government's forces have announced they will intervene in an attempt to cool the aggressions.
☕ Read our Morning Brief to catch up on everything you need to know going into today. 👈
Egypt, Qatar officials intensify truce talks on Gaza
Gaza cease-fire mediators are ramping up efforts to overcome obstacles hindering indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, an Egyptian media report says.
The state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel, citing unnamed sources, said Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani as part of Egypt’s broader push to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.
The timing and location of the meeting were not disclosed. Rashad has held a series of discussions with both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, the sources added.
Israel welcomes Syria’s participation in EU-Middle East meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has welcomed the presence of his Syrian counterpart in Brussels. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani is attending the gathering.
“We welcome the participation of the Syrian minister. We will be together in the same meeting. Let’s see what will happen,” Saar said.
The comments come hours after the Israeli army said it attacked tanks in southern Syria.
Israel says Syria strikes were 'a clear warning to the regime'
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the recent strikes in southern Syria were “a clear warning to the Syrian regime,” aiming to prevent government forces from seizing a Druze village, AFP reports.
The Israeli strikes targeted an area where deadly clashes had erupted between Druze fighters and Bedouins. “The strikes were a message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime. We will not allow harm to come to the Druze in Syria. Israel will not stand idly by,” Katz said on the X platform.
Iran rules out talks with Washington if uranium enrichment is off the table
Iran will not engage in any discussions with the United States about its nuclear program if Washington demands an end to uranium enrichment, a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader said, according to AFP.
“If negotiations are conditioned on halting enrichment, such talks will not take place,” said Ali Velayati, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Trump says could have Gaza update ‘fairly soon’
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed optimism about a deal to halt Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera.
“We’re doing pretty well on Gaza, Steve Witkoff is here, and I think we could have something fairly soon to talk about,” Trump told a news conference at the White House.
Trump said in late June that Israel agreed to the conditions for a 60-day cease-fire, and negotiations have been ongoing in Qatar to carve out a path to finally end Israel’s 21-month war on Gaza.
Hamas reportedly wants a U.S. guarantee that Israeli air attacks and ground assaults, which have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, will not resume even if a cease-fire ends without a permanent end to the war.
South Lebanon
An Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb near a shepherd in Maroun al-Ras, in the Bint Jbeil district, our correspondent reports.
Israeli army says it will not allow any 'military threat' in Southern Syria
The Israeli army stated it will not tolerate any military presence in southern Syria, where it recently struck several tanks near the city of Sweida. The area has seen clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters, resulting in dozens of deaths.
“The presence of these tanks in southern Syria could pose a threat to the State of Israel. The Israeli army will not allow the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will act accordingly,” the army warned in a statement shared with AFP.
Syria
Syrian government forces took control Monday afternoon of a village on the outskirts of the majority-Druze city of Sweida, towards which they are advancing, an AFP correspondent reported from the scene.
The deployment follows clashes between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes that have left 89 people dead since Sunday. The AFP correspondent saw Defense Ministry forces deployed in the Druze village of Al-Mazraa.
“Defense Ministry forces are heading toward Sweida,” one of the commanders, Ezzeddine al-Shamayer, told AFP.
12,000 in need of medical evacuation from Gaza — WHO & MSF
The World Health Organization and Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) say that around 12,000 people and their families in Gaza urgently need to be evacuated to receive vital medical treatment outside the Strip.
Both organizations are calling for the urgent establishment of a clear and predictable medical evacuation system — one that prevents family separations and ensures that Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza after receiving care.
Gaza truce: Mediators work to bridge 'differences' in negotiations
Mediators involved in efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza are working to overcome differences between the Israeli and Hamas delegations, following a week of indirect talks in Qatar, a source familiar with the negotiations told AFP.
“Mediators are actively working to explore innovative mechanisms to help bridge the remaining gaps and keep the momentum going,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Israeli army and Shin Bet say they killed 'terrorist' who held freed hostage in Gaza
The Israeli army and security agency Shin Bet announced they had killed a "terrorist" who had held a former Israeli-British hostage captive before her release.
In a joint statement, they said Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, a member of Hamas's military intelligence, had held Emily Damari in his home at the start of the war. He was killed in a strike in Gaza City, according to the statement.
Hundred killed by Israel while waiting to collect water in Gaza
Gaza's government media office says Israel has killed more than 700 people in attacks on queues for water stations, Al Jazeera reports. The exact timeframe in which these deaths have occurred was not specified.
The Israeli army has targeted 112 freshwater filling points and destroyed 720 water wells, putting them out of service, depriving more than 1.25 million people of access to clean water, the office said in a statement.
Yesterday, at least eight children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a water distribution center.
On March 9, Israel cut off the last power line feeding the last water desalination plant in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, halting the production of large quantities of drinking water and further deepening the enclave’s water crisis.
Red Sea sunken ship survivors arrive in Saudi Arabia
Ten mariners rescued after Houthi militants sank a Greek ship last week have arrived in Saudi Arabia, maritime security sources told Reuters today, after rescuers ended their search for the remaining crew.
The rescue mission began on Wednesday when the Houthis sank the Liberia-flagged Eternity C cargo ship, with 22 crew and three armed guards on board, as part of its campaign targeting Israel-bound commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Eight crew members and two security guards were rescued. All the crew were Filipino, except for one Russian.
On Sunday, maritime risk management firm Diaplous and British security firm Ambrey said in a joint statement that the vessel's owner had decided to end the privately run search for the remaining crew.
Death toll from Sweida clashes rises
At least 89 people have been killed in ongoing clashes between Syrian Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes in southern Syria's Sweida province, a Syria war monitor has announced, as security forces deploy in an attempt to quell the violence.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, cited by AFP, said that "46 Druze fighters, four civilians from Sweida, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel, and seven unidentified individuals in military uniform were among the dead."
Reuters earlier cited a security source as saying that at least six members of Syrian security forces had been killed since the army began its intervention.
A handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showing Syrian army and security forces deploying in Sweida in southern Syria on July 14, 2025 following clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters. (Credit: SANA/via AFP
A handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showing Syrian army and security forces deploying in Sweida in southern Syria on July 14, 2025 following clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters. (Credit: SANA/via AFP
Israeli army announces bombing of southern Syria
The Israeli army released a statement saying it had carried out a strike against tanks located near the village of Sami, in southern Syria's Sweida district, Israeli media reports.
The army said it would release further details soon about the attack, of which kind there have been very few since the last outbreak of violence in the Druze area in April.
Six members of Syria's security forces were killed in the predominantly Syrian village of Sweida today, a security source told Reuters, after state forces intervened in the violence that had erupted there over the weekend.
Israeli officials have said they want to completely demilitarize southern Syria, imposing a ban on weapons in the area that would even include those of the new Syrian government.
Israeli ultra-Orthodox parties to leave coalition this week if draft exemption law not submitted in coming hours
Sources in Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties have told Haaretz that if a draft law exempting Haredi men from mandatory army service is not submitted in the coming hours, they will withdraw from Netanyahu's fragile coalition and the government this week.
Marathon discussions have been taking place this morning, the sources say, at the homes of the ultra-Orthodox leaders on their course of action.
Netanyahu's departure for Washington last week was delayed by several hours as Haredi parties demanded an amendment to a proposed conscription bill and said they would block all Knesset bills going forward if they weren't satisfied.
Former Israeli PM calls 'humanitarian city' plans 'concentration camps' for Palestinians
The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert told the Guardian.
Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” he said, when asked about the plans laid out by Israel Katz last week. Once inside, according to Katz, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries.
Palestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on July 13, 2025. (Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP)
Netanyahu and minister reject 'humanitarian city' plan, saying too expensive, too long
Netanyahu and several other ministers criticized the Israeli army's plan to establish a controversial "humanitarian city" in Rafah during a security Cabinet discussion yesterday, a source told Haaretz.
According to said source, Netanyahu and the ministers argued that the army's timeline for setting up the area was "unreasonable." They noted that the plan, which observers have warned would be a "concentration camp for Palestinians," under which establishing the area could take up to a year, would not fit into the army's schedule.
The source added that the Israeli army had estimated the cost would reach billions of shekels, which Netanyahu and the ministers said was too expensive.
Explosion at residential building in Iran's Qom city, initial reports say caused by gas leak
An explosion at a residential building injured seven people in the Pardisan neighbourhood of Qom city, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing an unnamed source saying it was not the result of any Israeli attack.
"Four residential units were damaged in the blast," the director of Qom's fire department told Fars, Reuters reports. "Initial assessments show that the cause of the incident was a gas leak, and follow-ups are continuing in this regard."
The agency said the building's residents were ordinary citizens.
Iran's regional arch-rival Israel has a record of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, whom it considers part of a program that directly threatens Israel. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
"People should not worry about rumors [of Israeli attacks]," the unnamed official said." If a hostile action occurs in the country, the news will immediately reach the people and alarm bells will simultaneously be activated in the Occupied Territories."
Members of Syria's security forces stand guard next to their vehicles in the capital Damascus on April 29, 2025, following overnight sectarian clashes that left nine people including six Druze fighters dead. (Credit: Bakr Alkasem/AFP)
Syrian authorities to intervene in Sweida clashes
More than 30 people were killed and 100 injured in armed clashes in Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the Syrian interior ministry said early this morning, in the latest bout of sectarian clashes.
According to a Reuters reports, witness said the violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
The clashes involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias were centered in Maqwas neighborhood east of Sweida, which is inhabited by Bedouin tribes, and was encircled by armed Druze groups and later seized.
The Syrian ministry of interior said that its forces will begin direct intervention in Sweida to resolve the conflict, calling on local parties in the Druze city to cooperate with the security forces.
Syria's Kurds reiterate call for decentralization
Syria's Kurdish authorities called again yesterday for a system of government that preserves a measure of their de facto autonomy, days after Damascus rejected "any form" of decentralization, AFP reports.
Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the Kurdish administration's de facto army — and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa first struck an accord in March to integrate Kurdish institutions into the state, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
In a statement Sunday, the Kurdish administration called "for a pluralistic democratic system, social justice, gender equality, and a constitution that guarantees the rights of all components" of society.
Netanyahu promised Smotrich war would resume after truce
Netanyahu reportedly promised his coalition partner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, that Israel would resume its military onslaught against Gaza after the proposed 60-day truce, Times of Israel reports, citing Channel 12.
According to the outlet's sources, Netanyahu told Smotrich that after the pause, Israel would "transfer the population in the Strip southward and impose a siege on northern Gaza.” Smotrich has been a vocal opponent of any cessation of hostilities against Palestinians.
In the closed-door meetings, Netanyahu framed Israel’s plan to separate the Gazan civilian population from Hamas and hold them in a strip of land in southern Gaza as a humanitarian necessity to allow the conflict to continue following the temporary truce, according to Channel 12.
Sources say Netanyahu deliberately dragging out truce talks
As Trump expressed hope at truce talk progress, sources told Times of Israel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was deliberately dragging out the negotiations.
Last week, both U.S. and Israeli officials were optimistic about the chances for an imminent agreement, but negotiations have been stuck for the past four days over the scope of Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza, according an Arab diplomat and another source involved in mediation efforts.
The latter source claimed Netanyahu was preventing a breakthrough from being reached before the Knesset recess, which runs from July 27 until Oct. 19, as it is more difficult to dissolve parliament during that period.
Trump hopes for Gaza cease-fire this week
U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that he hoped talks for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would be "straightened out" this week, Reuters reports.
The U.S. is backing a 60-day cease-fire with a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and talks to end the conflict. Netanyahu was just in Washington last week, where several scheduled and secret meetings — reportedly long and intense — took place on the topic, as Trump increases the pressure on his Israeli counterpart to bring an end to what he called a "tragedy."
On Sunday, Trump told reporters, "We are talking and hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week."
Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of events in the region, notably the ongoing Israeli onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza as Netanyahu reportedly drags out cease-fire talks, which are currently stalled on the issue of Israeli troop withdrawal.
In Syria, violence erupted for the first time in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, killing more than 30 people. The government's forces have announced they will intervene in an attempt to cool the aggressions.
☕ Read our Morning Brief to catch up on everything you need to know going into today. 👈
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