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Syria: Renewed clashes between Bedouin fighters, Druze factions at entrance to Sweida
Clashes broke out on Friday evening at the western entrance to the Syrian city of Sweida between armed Bedouin fighters and Druze factions entrenched in the city, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene, less than two days after the cease-fire supposed to put an end to hostilities in the province.
Some 200 tribal fighters were seen exchanging automatic weapons fire and projectiles with Druze groups positioned inside Sweida. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed fighting in the area, adding that “shelling was targeting parts of the city.”
Mossad chief visits Washington to discuss possible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza
David Barnea, the head of Israeli intelligence, visited Washington this week as Israel reportedly seeks the Trump administration's help in organizing the forced departure of Palestinians from Gaza, Axios reported on Friday, citing two sources close to the matter.
Over 41 Palestinians killed by Israeli army in Gaza today
The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip continues to rise as Israeli attacks across the enclave continue.
According to medical sources quoted by Al Jazeera, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since dawn, including 10 who were attempting to obtain humanitarian aid.
Occupied West Bank: Palestinian child killed by Israeli soldiers near Jenin
A 13-year-old Palestinian child, Amr Ali Qabha, was killed after coming under fire from Israeli forces in the locality of Ya'bad, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition as the teenager walked down the street, preventing ambulances from reaching the scene to provide first aid.
According to Wafa, the boy's father tried to approach his son, but was severely beaten and arrested by Israeli forces. The boy was pronounced dead in the hospital after an ambulance was finally able to transport him.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive against Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, including 204 children, according to a count by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.
Hamas says Israel rejected deal to release all hostages, ready for 'long battle' if negotiations fail
In his first televised speech since March 6, Hamas armed wing spokesperson Abu Obeida warned on Friday that the Palestinian movement may not accept truces in the future if ongoing negotiations fail to produce a cease-fire agreement and an end to the 21-month war in the Gaza Strip.
“We are ready for a long battle with the enemy if no agreement is reached,” he declared, accusing Israel of being “intransigent.”
“We have repeatedly offered to release all hostages held in Gaza as part of a comprehensive agreement to end the war,” he said, while claiming that the Israeli delegation has refused several such offers. These comments by the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades come at a time when indirect talks, previously hesitant, have resumed in Qatar, with no progress to date.
Death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza rises to 35
Medical sources in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 35 Palestinians since Friday morning.
The doctors say that 10 of them were killed on the bangs of aid distributions by the Israeli-US-backed GHF, which has seen daily killings since its inception in early May.
Violence in Syria: Sweida hospital has received over 400 bodies since Monday
The government hospital in Sweida, a predominantly Druze town in southern Syria, has received “more than 400 bodies since Monday morning,” including women and children, doctor Omar Obeid told AFP on Friday.
“There's no more room at the morgue, the bodies are in the street,” in front of the hospital, added Dr. Obeid, president of the Sweida section of the Order of Physicians. Clashes broke out on Sunday evening between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes before the intervention of Syrian government forces, accused of also fighting Druze groups.
According to information from Axios journalist Barak Ravid, "high-ranking diplomats from the E3 countries [France, Germany, UK] and Iran are expected to meet in Europe next week to discuss a possible nuclear deal."
The cities of Vienna and Geneva are being considered as meeting places, he says.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in a telephone call that “no steps should be taken towards the annexation of the West Bank,” a German spokesperson said, according to Reuters.
US intelligence confirms Pezeshkian was injured in Israeli strike in June
U.S. intelligence has confirmed that Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian was wounded in an Israeli strike in June, two sources have told CBS News.
Earlier this week, Iranian media had reported that Pezeshkian was attending a meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council when Israel struck the building, and that the president was wounded in the leg as he fled through an escape tunnel.
In an interview this month with U.S. presenter Tucker Carlson, the Iranian president had also claimed that Israel had tried to assassinate him, without success.
One-year-old girl dies of malnutrition in Deir al-Balah
A one-year-old girl died of malnutrition in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, a medical source at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital confirmed to Al Jazeera.
A total of 69 children have died of malnutrition in the territory since the start of the war in October 2023, according to the Gaza government press office.
Hamas accuses Israel of causing 'mass famine' in Gaza
As the number of starving civilians in Gaza soars, Hamas issued a statement accusing Israel of implementing a "policy of mass starvation," which it called a "crime against humanity," as reported by Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian movement accused Israel of "weaponizing access to food and aid," using the policy to "subjugate a resilient people." Hamas issued a call for action to "end this heinous crime and save the hundreds of thousands of starving and besieged people."
Pope and Netanyahu spoke after Gaza church bombing
Pope Leo XIV and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone a day after an Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church left three dead, the Vatican said.
During this meeting, the American Pope "renewed his call to reinvigorate the negotiations in order to achieve a cease-fire and an end to the war," expressing "his concern about the dramatic humanitarian situation of the population of Gaza, whose heartbreaking price is being paid in particular by children, the elderly and the sick," according to the Vatican statement.
'Hundreds' of people at risk of starvation in Gaza
An "unprecedented number" of Palestinians suffering from "extreme exhaustion and fatigue" are arriving in emergency departments across the Gaza Strip due to malnutrition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
According to the ministry, "hundreds of them are at risk of starving to death," as Israel has imposed a blockade on aid to the Palestinian enclave since March and dozens of Palestinians are killed every day by Israeli gunfire during food distributions by the controversial U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
An Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb near tobacco farmers in Ramieh (Bint Jbeil), according to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.
Israel denies carrying out a strike in southern Syria on Thursday evening
Israel denied reports by Syria's state-run news agency SANA that its army carried out new airstrikes Thursday evening near Sweida.
"The Israeli army is not aware of any nighttime strikes in Syria," a military spokesperson told AFP.
Two of Jerusalem's top Christian officials traveled to Gaza, the day after an Israeli strike hit the only Catholic church in the Palestinian territory and killed three, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.
The Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, are leading an "ecclesiastical delegation" to meet with Christians in Gaza following the attack on the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City, the patriarchate added in a statement.
Clashes are pitting tribal fighters close to the Syrian government against Druze groups on the outskirts of the town of Sweida in southern Syria, from where government forces have withdrawn, an NGO and sources within the warring parties told AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported "clashes west of Sweida between tribal fighters and Bedouins on one side, supported by the authorities, and Druze fighters on the other." Fighters from both sides confirmed exchanges of fire to AFP correspondents.
Interior Ministry says information surrounding preparations for redeployment of government forces in Sweida 'inaccurate'
The Syrian Interior Ministry claimed that reports that it was preparing to redeploy government troops to the southern province of Sweida in response to renewed fighting between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters were inaccurate, according to the state-run SANA news agency.
"We confirm that no official statement has been issued on this matter and we categorically deny the veracity of what has been published," ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba was quoted as saying. Baba stressed that government forces were in a "normal state of readiness" and that there had been no deployment in Sweida so far.
US envoy confirms progress in talks between Israel and Hamas
Trump's special envoy for hostage release, Adam Boehler, claimed that a deal on the potential release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza was "closer than it's ever been" at yesterday's Aspen Security Forum. He claimed that dozens of hostages could be freed, citing Israel's military action against Iran as having created such an opportunity.
Regarding Hamas, Boehler said that it is "very stubborn" and blames the eventual failure of the hostage deal on this stubbornness: "They continue to hold firm ... they still think they have leverage," despite military losses.
Israelis stole and killed dozens of sheep belonging to Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.
Armed settlers also attacked Palestinian tents in the area and assaulted their occupants, according to Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the al-Malih village council, quoted by the Palestinian news agency.
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza has risen to 25 since this morning, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.
The Health Ministry confirmed that last night's strike on Qabrikha killed two people, a man and a woman, who succumbed to their wounds. Four people were killed in Thursday's Israeli strikes, according to the ministry.
Israel to send humanitarian aid to Druze in Syria
Israel will send humanitarian aid to the Druze in Syria, the foreign minister announced, following several days of deadly inter-communal clashes in the southern province of Sweida and Israeli bombardments.
"In the context of the recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the grave humanitarian situation in the region, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region," his ministry said, quoted by AFP. The aid will amount to NIS 2 million (nearly $600,000) and will include food parcels and medical supplies, he added.
Syrian government forces prepare redeployment to Sweida
A Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson said Syrian security forces were preparing to redeploy to Sweida due to ongoing clashes between Bedouin and Druze tribes, just hours after the military withdrew from the area on Thursday. Following the withdrawal, Bedouin fighters reportedly carried out another attack on the Druze community. A Bedouin commander told Reuters that the truce did not apply to them and that the release of Bedouin captured by the Druze in recent days was a top priority.
Man killed with his wife in Qabrikha was Hezbollah member
Hezbollah announced that the man killed last night in Qabrikha (Marjayoun) was a member of its ranks and identified him as Jaafar Ismail Hijazi. He was "martyred on the road to Jerusalem," according to the phrase used by the party since the start of the war in October 2023 to refer to victims of Israeli strikes carried out by the group, was killed along with his wife, Rashida Babari.
Their ten-year-old daughter survived the attack, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.
The funeral will take place at 5 p.m. in the deceased's home village of Qabrikha.
Israel refused to renew visas for officials from at least three UN agencies in Gaza
Israel has refused to renew the visas of officials from at least three U.N. agencies in Gaza, a move the U.N.'s humanitarian chief blamed on their work protecting Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory, according to Reuters.
Visas for local officials from OCHA, the U.N. human rights agency (OHCHR) and the Palestinian aid agency in Gaza (UNRWA) have not been renewed in recent months, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed.
The U.N. mission in Israel said it was looking into the matter.
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Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
Couple killed in Israeli strike in Qabrikha
Shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday evening, an Israeli drone fired two missiles near the cemetery in the village of Qabrikha (Marjayoun), killing a man and his wife, while their 10-year-old daughter barely survived, according to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent.
At dawn on Friday, an Israeli force infiltrated Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), reaching the western neighborhood near a lake, two kilometers from the border. Around 4:30 a.m., Israeli soldiers booby-trapped and detonated two bulldozers used by the Southern Council to clear the rubble of destroyed houses in the western neighborhoods of the village. The Israeli soldiers moved into the area on ATVs without being disturbed. A little later, Israeli artillery targeted the area around the village of Alma al-Shaab (Sour) with three shells.
And this morning, Israeli forces combed the neighborhoods of the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), around 8:30 a.m., with medium machine guns and bombs.
Syrian presidency accuses Druze fighters of violating cease-fire
The Syrian presidency accused Druze fighters in Sweida last night of violating the cease-fire that led to the withdrawal of government forces from the province in the south of the country.
In a statement, the presidency accused the "outlaw forces" – the term used by the government to refer to Sweida's Druze factions – of violating the agreement by engaging in "horrific violence" against civilians, including "crimes that completely contravene mediation obligations, directly threaten civil peace and push towards chaos and the collapse of security."
Israeli strike on the Sweida region
While Israel had threatened on Wednesday to intensify its strikes if Syrian forces did not leave Sweida, where fighting has killed nearly 600 according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the state-run SANA reported on Thursday evening an Israeli strike near Sweida, the first since the Syrian withdrawal.
At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since dawn
According to medical sources in Gaza, at least 10 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli gunfire and airstrikes in Gaza since dawn. Five of them were killed in the shelling of a displacement camp in the south of the enclave, according to sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
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