On the second day of a massive military operation ordered by Israel’s defense minister, Israeli forces made numerous arrests and forced dozens of families from their homes in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces secluded the entrances to Qabatiya while questioning and arraigning dozens of residents on Saturday. According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, they displaced their occupants by turning a number of homes into military interrogation centers.
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According to Israeli Army Radio, the town is “full curfew-free.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued an order to “act forcefully” against the village of Qabatiya, where he claims a Palestinian who is accused of waging a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel is alleged to have been.
Israel’s military said in a statement on Friday that it had sent troops from various divisions to Qabatiya, along with border patrol agents, and members of the Shin Bet security service. According to the statement, authorities had gone inside the suspect’s home and were preparing to destroy it.
Palestinians who are accused of attacking Israelis have long been condemned by human rights organizations for their ongoing use of demolition of their homes.
Israel’s military alleged that it would “work to arrest wanted individuals and locate weapons” and “scan additional locations in the village.”
One resident told Al Jazeera, “There is a sense of fear in the town.” Israeli threats and incitement are present.
According to Wafa, the Israeli military operations on Saturday extended to other areas of the occupied West Bank, including several villages close to Ramallah and Hebron. According to the news agency, Israeli forces attacked and detained eight people near Hebron in Dura, Abda, and Imreish.
During Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, Israeli military incursions and attacks across the occupied West Bank have occurred almost daily.
Nearly 21, 000 Palestinians have been taken into custody by Israeli authorities as of October 7, 2023. More than a third of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were unarmed as of December 1; approximately 9,300 were there.
A member of Syria’s own security forces ambushed a joint US-Syrian patrol on December 13 near Palmyra, a city in central Syria that was once under the control of the ISIL (ISIS) organization.
Before Syrian forces killed the shooter, two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed along with four other people.
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US and Syrian officials made a connection between the attacker and ISIL, which once held vast areas of Syria and Iraq, and made a promise to retaliate following the attack.
The incident highlights the US and Syria’s growing cooperation with ISIL, particularly since Damascus joined the US-backed coalition in November.
Analysts claim that the two nations’ cooperation is strong and expanding, though it’s still unclear whether the attacker was an ISIL member or a group opposed to US-Syrian relations.
According to Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of international security at King’s College London, “The Syrian government is responding very strongly to ISIL [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham] had a long-term policy of fighting ISIL,” referring to former Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s group.
This is more of a continuation of the strategy that it HTS used in Idlib to crack down on insurgents and cells.
Noureddine al-Baba, a spokesman for Syria’s interior ministry, claimed that the gunman was not a member of the force responsible for escorting the US forces and that there was no direct chain of command over him within Syria’s internal security forces. He continued, looking into whether he had any direct ties to ISIL or embraced violent ideology.
Down ISIL attacks
ISIL dissolved the former Syrian government’s city of Palmyra in May 2015.
The city bounced between regime forces and ISIL before being expelled in 2017. It is best known for its Greco-Roman ruins.
ISIL had declared Raqqa, the country’s capital, the three-year-old caliphate, the US-led coalition had also forced the organization to leave in May 2017.
In northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Roj camps, which are run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), many of the ISIL fighters still alive were housed there. Other people have occasionally launched attacks from the Syrian desert around Palmyra.
Analysts claimed that ISIL fighters regrouped after the Syrian president’s regime was overthrown on December 8, 2024, and that they used the chaos to attack various cities across the nation. At least 25 people were killed when the group launched an attack on a church in Damascus in June.
According to recent estimates, ISIL’s fighter numbers in Iraq and Syria range between 3 000 and 5 000, according to Samy Akil, a fellow researcher at the Tahrir Institute.
However, experts told Al Jazeera that Damascus and Washington have improved over the past year, and that Syrian security forces have prevented several ISIL attacks thanks to US-provided intelligence.
In contrast to the Assad administration, al-Sharaa’s new government consistently receives tip-offs from US intelligence and probably other forms of US support, according to the new government. That combination is quite powerful, according to Aron Lund, a research fellow at Century International with a focus on Syria.
According to a report from consulting firm Karam Shaar Advisory, ISIL attacks have decreased in Syria as a result of this collaboration. According to the report, ISIL launched 63 attacks per month on average in 2024, but that figure dropped to ten in 2025.
Collaboration with the US has become much simpler since HTS arrived in Damascus, according to senior analyst Jerome Drevon of the International Crisis Group.
structural problems
There were concerns about how security would be enforced following the Assad regime’s fall. Security would not be enforced by the few thousand HTS members who had previously only been in charge of northwest Syria’s Idlib.
Tens of thousands of new recruits were recruited by Syria’s security forces as part of a significant recruitment campaign, adding to the number of former opposition battalions that had been incorporated into the new security apparatus of the state.
According to analysts, vetting was a challenging task given the size of the recruitment campaign.
“The Palmyra attack is more of a one-off incident than a one-time incident. Infiltration continues because of the integration of former faction fighters and the rapid growth of new recruits, Nanar Hawash, senior Syria analyst for the International Crisis Group, said.
These factors, together, “flood off early warning signs and open up space for unintended threats, thereby increasing the risk of repeated attacks.”
Analysts predict that the vetting process will get better with time thanks to Syrian security forces. In addition, another attack like the one on December 13 was possible, which could undermine the US’s belief that al-Sharaa’s government could provide security in Syria.
The government will “improve its game and be more thorough to prevent that from happening again,” Drevon said, “because it will have consequences.” “It could happen again due to the sheer numbers of new recruits.
“We should be cautious about generalizing based on one attack, which might be a one-off,” he warned. However, if it occurs again, it might alter how the Syrian government is perceived.
ISIL’s goals are unknown.
Analysts say that since al-Assad’s assassination, ISIL’s priorities have changed.
ISIL is currently attempting to establish boundaries and carry out attacks knowing it cannot gain territorial control, Akil said.
It “aims at staying relevant while destabilizing.”
ISIS cannot overthrow cities or overthrow governments. But that’s not required. Destabilization is what gives it its strength, Hawach said. According to the Palmyra attack, “a single operative with the right access can shake up bilateral relations and endanger three US personnel.”
According to analysts, ISIL could destabilize Syria by attacking state security forces, religious minorities, or any foreigner on Syrian soil, including US soldiers and humanitarian or UN workers, like it did in the June attack at the Damascus church. The SDF and Damascus could use their differences over how to integrate the former into the state’s security apparatus to fuel further development.
The SDF also oversees the northeast of Syria’s al-Hol and Roj prison camps, where many of ISIL’s most skilled fighters and leaders are incarcerated. This could prove to be ISIL’s main target in Syria.
Hawach claimed that “ISIL thrives in those vacuums.”
A year after Israel detained him without charges or trial, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, 52, is still incarcerated in an Israeli prison.
His family and supporters are pressing for his release as his health worsens as a result of rumors about the inhumane conditions in which he is being held.
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Abu Safia, who is renowned for running Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, has become a key player in international discussions about the protection of medical personnel in armed conflicts.
Despite ongoing Israeli attacks on the hospital, he insisted on staying along with several members of the medical staff.
Finally, Israel forced everyone to leave the hospital and eventually encircled it. Since then, Abu Safia has been detained and the hospital has been shut down.
He was repeatedly mistreated while being transferred between Israeli prisons, moving from the notorious Sde Teiman holding facility to Ofer Prison.
Abu Safia is being held in violation of the “unlawful combatant” law, which allows detention without a typical criminal trial and prevents detainees from accessing the evidence against them.
The suffering of a family
Abu Safia is being held in a cruel manner and has lost more than a third of his weight, according to lawyers.
He also has heart problems, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, skin infections, and lacks specialized medical care, which worries his family.
His eldest son, Ilyas, 27, explained to Al Jazeera via Zoom that his father’s only “crime” was being a doctor, adding that his family had fled from Kazakhstan a month ago.
Despite having the opportunity to leave Gaza, especially considering Albina is a Kazakh citizen, Ilyas, his mother Albina, and four siblings remained with his father at Kamal Adwan despite the Israeli attacks.
Ibrahim, the 20-year-old Ilyas’ brother, was killed by Israel on October 26, 2024 while the hospital was shelled.
Ilyas claimed that “the entire medical staff cried in grief for]my father] and Ibrahim.
Dr. Abu Safia’s consumption
The hospital woke up to an Israeli-imposed tightening siege on dawn on December 27, 2024, using quadcopter drones and tanks.
Israeli tanks had been stationed in Kamal Adwan since mid-October 2024, gradually advancing closer, destroying infrastructure like water tanks, until that day, when they were so close that no one could leave.
[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Dr. Walid al-Badi remained with Abu Safia in Kamal Adwan until they were forced to leave.
According to Dr. Walid al-Badi, 29, who remained with Abu Safia until his arrest, and spoke to Al Jazeera at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on December 25 in the emergency reception corridor.
“Dr. Abu Safia asked us to remain calm, but the situation was extremely tense, loudspeakers were urging everyone to leave.” Then the loudspeakers demanded that Dr. Abu Safia enter the tank.
Abu Safia was given the order to enter an armored vehicle. The doctor returned with a sheet of instructions, dishevelled, dusty clothes, and a bruise under his chin, according to al-Badi.
He was informed that he had been assaulted by everyone who rushed to his aid.
According to al-Badi, “Israeli media showed a video where they claimed they treated him with respect, but they didn’t disclose how he was threatened and assaulted in the tank.”
The Israelis instructed Abu Safia to compile a list of all hospital employees, which he did and returned to the armored vehicle where he was told that only 20 of the staff could remain. The rest had to depart.
The Israelis allowed some ambulances to travel to the Indonesian Hospital [about 1 km away], while the medical teams then set off on foot, according to al-Badi, who accounts for the incident around 10 am.
However, the doctors and several patients remained besieged.
I told the doctor to leave, but I promised to stay until the doctor was done.
Dr. Mai Barhouma, the head of the intensive care unit, who spoke to Al Jazeera from the Baptist Hospital, was the only female physician still serving.
Despite being asked to do so by Abu Safia, Barhouma’s conscience prevented her from leaving because she had been working with critical patients who needed medical care and oxygen.
Drs. Barhouma and al-Badi claim that the Israeli army has repeatedly offered him a safe place to leave alone after repeatedly calling Abu Safia for new instructions.
He resisted and vowed to remain on his staff. Around 10 p.m., the quadcopters commanded everyone to line up and leave.
Israel shut off the electricity during this period by shelling and setting fire to the upper floors.
As Dr. Abu Safia led us out, al-Badi said, “We were heartbroken.” As Dr. Abu Safia left the hospital, he was crying and made an incredible effort to stay in.
According to those who spoke on the day, Israeli soldiers allegedly tortured and beat medical staff at al-Fakhoura School in Jabalia during interrogations.
Barhouma and an ICU patient travelled in an ambulance, but the school held the ambulance for hours.
[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Dr. Mai Barhouma, the hospital’s ICU director, steadfastly stayed with Dr. Abu Safia until the hospital’s evacuation.
The soldiers forced us to walk 2 km away from the hospital and bound our hands. Our morning departure colleagues were still being tortured, al-Badi said, adding that they arrived at midnight.
They told us to “strip down” our underwear, tied our hands, and began verbally and physically abusing us with rifle butts and boots.”
While Barhouma was in the ambulance with the critically ill patient, the doctors were interrogated and beat each other for hours while the cold kept coming.
“I started using a manual resuscitation pump because the oxygen ran out.” She said, “I was terrified that the patient would die because my hands swelled from pumping nonstop.”
She described hearing the male medics’ screams being tortured before being ordered by Israeli soldiers to leave the ambulance.
The soldier demanded my ID, had an eye exam, and then told me to leave. I refused, telling him that he had a critical patient who needed to be killed if I left them.
The Israelis eventually ordered the doctors to travel to western Gaza, including the ambulance carrying Barhouma, and took them on an alternative route westward.
However, there was no end to the relief. When an Israeli officer called to Abu Safia, they were only able to walk a short distance.
Our faces froze, al-Badi claimed. The doctor inquired as to what was wrong. We want you with us in Israel, the officers declared.
Al-Badi and a nurse tried to pull the doctor away, but he rebuked them and instructed them to continue walking.
As I watched the doctor being detained and wearing the white nylon detainees uniform, I was sobbing like a child was being separated from his father.
calls for his release
Abu Safia’s family is pressing for his immediate release through human rights and courts.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts with the prison administration, my father’s lawyers visited him seven times over the course of the past year. [Each visit was permitted] My father’s condition has significantly deteriorated over time, Ilyas reported to Al Jazeera.
Ilyas Abu Safia, the eldest son of Abu Safiya, speaks to Al Jazeera via Zoom from Kazakhstan about the most recent developments regarding his father’s case and detention conditions.
Before his arrest, he had injuries while he was in the hospital, and he has shrapnel in his foot. Additionally, he experiences severe psychological and physical abuse that is inappropriate for his generation. He also has other health issues.
In an area that Israel itself considered a “red zone” at the time, Israel is trying to criminalize my father’s work, his continued service to people, and his efforts to save the wounded and the sick.
The Israeli army’s plan to evict the north of its residents was a major challenge due to my father’s presence and steadfastness inside the hospital.
Ilyas is proud of his father.
“My father is a doctor who will serve as a shining example of medical ethics and bravery,” my father said.
I’m “proud beyond words,” and I’m hoping to see him leave prison in peace and safety.
Debris was burning, according to Wikipedia. Nigerians have spoken out about the US strikes on the town of Jabo, which President Donald Trump claims were aimed at ISIL.
On the eve of a crucial meeting between the United States and Ukrainian leaders, Russia launched drone and missile strikes on Kyiv, killing at least one person and leaving the city without heat in the region, according to local authorities.
Russian ballistic missiles and drones shook Kyiv on Saturday morning, setting a nearly 10 hour airstress.
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According to the mayor and regional governor of Kyiv, the attacks left a 47-year-old woman dead and at least 19 others injured. Two children were among the injured, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City military administration.
As of 10:45 a.m. (08:45 GMT), Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that the attack was “still ongoing” and that 40 missiles and 500 drones had been launched. At 11:20 a.m. local time (09:20 GMT), the capital’s air raid alert came to an end.
[Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Municipal employees and firefighters work on the site of an apartment complex that was struck by Russian drone and missile strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Andrii Sybiha, the country’s foreign minister, claimed that one-third of the capital, where temperatures remained below zero (0 degrees Celsius), was without heat.
According to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk, about 320, 000 households in the wider Kyiv region, which includes the capital but does not include it, also lost power.
upcoming peace negotiations
As Zelenskyy and Donald Trump discuss ending the nearly four-year war in Florida on Sunday, the Russian attack occurred.
The main issues in the negotiations, Zelenskyy said, are security guarantees and questions about pending territorial control.
In order to take complete control of the Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russia has demanded that Ukraine renounce the portions of the eastern Donetsk region that Russian troops have been occupying for almost four years.
Kyiv wants to put an end to the current lines of fighting.
If Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region, the US has proposed creating a free economic zone as a result of a compromise. Zellenskyy stated on Friday that he would seek a stronger position for Ukraine and that he might re-vote the US-backed plan if necessary.
Trump and Zelenskyy both expressed optimism about the meeting, with the Ukrainian leader saying he hopes to finalize a framework on Sunday and that the majority of the US-Ukraine agreement has been ironed out.
Before the New Year’s Eve, Zelenskyy said on Friday on social media that “many things can be decided.”
However, Zelenskyy’s tone was allegedly altered by Saturday’s attack. He claimed in a post that the Russian government “does not want to end the war” and that their drones and missiles “does not want to end the war” and that their “long conversations” were more muted.
Zelenskyy stated that Russia’s leadership intends to “use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even more suffering and put pressure on others around the world.”
The move, which Somaliland has criticized as an “aggression that will never be tolerated,” has been demanded by Somaliland.
In an interview on Saturday, Somalia’s state minister for foreign affairs, Ali Omar, stated in an interview that the government would use all legal means to challenge what it termed “state aggression” and Israeli interference in the country’s internal affairs.
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The immediate condemnation followed Israel’s declaration to be the first country in the world to officially recognize Somaliland, which sparked furious protests in Arab and African countries, and raised questions about whether the remark was intended as part of an alleged Israeli plot to forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Following a brutal civil war, Somaliland split away from Somalia in 1991, but it has never received recognition from any of the United Nations. Although its eastern territories are still up for debate, the self-declared republic has its own currency, flag, and parliament.
Omar remarked that this will never be tolerated or acceptable for our country’s people who are committed to protecting our territorial integrity. The State of Israel is strongly advised by our government to rescind its conflicting policies and abide by international law.
Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, president of Somalia, was making it clear for weeks that an unnamed state would soon grant recognition, even though he had not specified which nation. In recent weeks, billboards had been dotted throughout the capital of Somalia, Hargeisa, to warn residents that recognition was on the way.
Omar claimed that foreign interference and interest were being fueled by the Horn of Africa’s strategic significance. “This region’s significance is not new. He continued, “It is still significant for international trade today.”
Palestinian displacement
Omar claimed that Israel wanted to evict Palestinians from Gaza further by pursuing Somaliland’s recognition. He told Al Jazeera, “One of the motivating factors is the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.” Israel’s position on that matter has been widely known.
The foreign ministry of Palestine supported Somalia, citing Israel’s prior designation of Somaliland as a potential “red line” for forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
The Israeli move was “not directed against any state, nor does it pose a threat to regional peace,” according to Somaliland’s Cirro on Saturday.
Somalia’s prime minister’s office issued a statement a few hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the recognition on Friday, blaming Israel’s actions as a deliberate violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and as an unlawful step, and highlighting the fact that Somaliland is still a significant and “indissociable” part of Somaliland.
Netanyahu said he would support Somaliland’s cause during his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday, and that the diplomatic arrangement with Somaliland was in keeping with the Abraham Accords. Cirro has also been invited to Israel by Netanyahu, which the latter has accepted.
Trump, however, has distanced himself from close ally Netanyahu on the subject, telling The New York Post he would not act in Israel’s place.
Ayub Ismail Yusuf, the prime minister of Somalia, thanked Trump for his support, saying, “Thank you for your support, Mr. President.”
Trump’s statements marked a change from his earlier statements from August, when he stated at a press conference that his administration was working on the Somaliland problem. The US president has frequently attacked the Somali community in recent weeks.
The US has also expressed frustration with Somalia, claiming at a recent UN Security Council meeting that the country’s government had failed to improve security despite receiving billions of dollars in aid and that it will no longer support a pricey peacekeeping mission.
In addition, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the African Union’s president, objected to any initiative that would allow for the recognition of Somaliland as an independent nation, fearing that it would set a dangerous precedent with repercussions apprehensive. The fundamental principle of the continental bloc was cited as a 1964 decision on the intangibility of borders inherited at a nation’s independence.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, also criticized what he termed an Arab and African state’s provocative assault on Israeli territory. He claimed that the recognition of Israel was a flagrant violation of international law.
Despite the international reactions, thousands of people poured onto Hargeisa’s streets on Friday to mark the diplomatic transition that many saw as close to 30 years. Residents of the country applauded the breakthrough, and the Israeli flag was emblazoned on the national museum.
Israel’s prior diplomatic ties to Somalia’s regional rival Ethiopia have contributed to the country’s historically contentious relations with it.
Israel provided military training, weapons, and intelligence to Ethiopia during the Cold War, while Somalia, a country that had ties to Arab nations, was defeated in the Ogaden War in 1977, a setback that contributed to decades of civil unrest.
Following years of persecution under former leader Mohammed Siad Barre, Somalia officially renounced its relationship with Somalia in 1991.
Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel revealed earlier this month that the government of Somalia and the Israeli government had spoken about their shared concerns about Houthi influence in the area.
