Category World News

13 people were killed in an airstrike in Damascus on Tuesday evening, according to Syrian officials who blame Israel.

Israel has admitted to carrying out hundreds of raids on targets in Syria despite not praising every attack.

Here’s a quick explanation of the Syrian-Israeli conflict from the past year:

Why was this not mentioned?

As Israel’s military continues its war on Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Yemen, the attacks on Syria have flown somewhat under the radar.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October, Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been ostensibly silent, likely as an ally of the Iranian regime and a member of the larger “axis of resistance.”

Despite this, Israel has repeatedly attacked Syrian territory in the past year.

Israel bombed Syria twice in the past year, how many times?

More than 220 times since last October, according to NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), which aggregates conflict data.

Air raids and artillery attacks were carried out during the attacks.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 104 of those attacks, which have resulted in the deaths of at least 296 people, have occurred since January.

Israel has hit weapons depots, vehicles, and Iran-backed groups ‘ headquarters.

In April, Israeli fighter jets hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a fatal attack.

Two generals who led the elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon were among the dead.

How did Syria respond?

Israeli attacks have been denounced by the Syrian government.

Some rockets have been fired at Israel from Syria, which Israel claims are mostly by Iranian-backed groups.

Israeli forces attacked Syrian military targets in October 2023, but they did not accuse them of firing rockets.

As Israel expanded its war into Lebanon, and resistance groups from Iraq and Yemen got involved, Syria largely remained quiet.

The international community has little to no action in response to these attacks, despite the fact that they are a clear violation of a nation’s sovereignty.

Arab countries have condemned Israel’s attacks on Syria’s sovereignty in international fora, as has the League of Arab States.

Russia has also condemned the attacks, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying Tuesday’s attack was a “gross violation of Syria’s sovereignty”, adding: “It is outrageous that such actions have become a routine practice applied to Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip”.

China has also condemned Israel’s attack on Iran’s consular building, which under international law violates the sovereignty of two countries.

Beijing’s statement said: “The security of diplomatic institutions cannot be violated”.

How can Israel violate another country’s sovereignty like this?

Israel claims that it is attacking Iranian or Iranian-linked targets in Syria in a unilateral manner, which it appears to be taking for granted.

Furthermore, the United States has also attacked locations in Syria over the years, claiming to be targeting a range of “Iran-linked” places and people.

Based on its own assessment of who it considers to be an “enemy,” Israel has made statements in which it vows to continue attacking nations and groups in the area.

Did these attacks start in 2023?

No. Syria has seen a significant increase in Israeli military targets since 2011 as a result of decades of Israeli military action.

In 2017, Israel further escalated its attacks on Syria, with the latest, most notable escalation coming after October 7, 2023.

The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize reaffirmed the need for the abolition of nuclear weapons by warning that conflicts raging all over the world, including in Gaza, are raising the possibility of a nuclear war.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, won the prize on Friday for its “efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.

Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the American bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 and co-leader of the group, stated on Saturday that the “international situation is getting worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons.”

“I fear that we as humankind are on the path to self-destruction. The only way to stop that is to abolish nuclear”, the resident of Nagasaki told reporters.

Nagasaki was the second Japanese city that was hit by a US nuclear bomb on August 9, 1945, killing at least 74, 000 people. Three days earlier, the US bombing of Hiroshima had killed 140, 000 people.

Residents of Hiroshima expressed hope that the world will never forget 1945’s bombings, especially now.

Susumu Ogawa, age 84, was five when Hiroshima was almost completely destroyed by the bomb 79 years ago, and many of his relatives were among the tens of thousands of people killed.

“My mother, my aunt, my grandfather, and my grandmother all died”, Ogawa told the AFP news agency.

“All nuclear weapons in the world have to be abandoned”, Ogawa said. “We know the horror of nuclear weapons, because we know what happened in Hiroshima”.

He is saddened by what is happening right now in the Middle East, including Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran.

If the US and its allies permit Ukraine to launch long-range Western missiles into Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a signal in September that Moscow would consider using nuclear weapons to counteract.

“Why do people fight each other? … Hurting each other won’t bring anything good”, Ogawa said.

At the well-preserved Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Saturday, Japanese demonstrators gathered to support Palestinians in Gaza.

The group’s co-chief and a Hiroshima bombing survivor, Toshiyuki Mimaki, stated on Friday that the situation for children in Gaza was comparable to that in Japan at the end of World War II.

“In Gaza, bleeding children are being held]by their parents]. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago”, Mimaki told a news conference in Tokyo.

Nihon Hidankyo was formed in 1956, tasked with telling the stories of hibakusha, as the survivors are known, and pressing for a world without nuclear weapons.

According to residents, it is crucial that young people are still taught about what happened because the average age of the roughly 105, 000 hibakusha is 85.

Kiyoharu Bajo, 69, who was present at the Hiroshima memorial, expressed his hope that the Nobel Prize would “further spread the experiences of atomic bomb survivors around the world” and encourage others to visit.

There were many atom bomb survivors around me because I was born ten years after the atomic bomb was dropped. He claimed that he felt the incident as being “funny.”

At the Jaba checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers kidnapped me on November 28 and stopped my car there. I was imprisoned for 253 days without being charged, and I never learned what was happening.

I couldn’t delay an English language exam that I needed to take as part of my application for an MA program at a British university because my wife and my three-month-old son were battling the flu that morning.

I called my wife to let her know that I was returning home and bringing food as I was making my way back. My son’s crying was playing in the background. For the next eight months, I’ve been thinking about his cries.

I was handcuffed, blindfolded, and forced to kneel for five hours inside a military camp at the checkpoint by Israeli soldiers who had just arrived. I was moved from camp to camp until I was eventually moved to a detention facility in Hebron, a Jew-occupied settlement.

Despite my persistent requests, I was not able to get in touch with a lawyer or my family. Only after two months of detention did I finally have access to a lawyer and learn that I had not been charged. I was in the custody of an administrative detentionist, a law that allows the Israeli occupation forces to hold anyone they want indefinitely.

Since October 7, 2023, this measure has been extensively used as yet another collective punishment for Palestinians. More than 3,300 Palestinians are still imprisoned in Israeli prisons as of this month, without trial or charge.

I spent my time in inhumane prison conditions designed to bring maximum suffering, just like the rest of the 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

For over eight months, I was starved, humiliated, insulted and beaten by Israeli forces. In a tiny concrete cell designed for five, 11 other detainees were interrogated. We were suffocated alive, as if we were being kept in a mass grave. It was hell on Earth.

The guards frequently slammed against us with sticks, hands, and feet while carrying heavy protective gear. To terrorize us, they would release large police dogs. Without bringing us a moment of tranquility, they would bang their batons nonstop on the metal bars of the cells or other metal objects. They would insult us constantly, cursing the women in our lives, degrading our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives, and referring to the detainees as subhuman. In an effort to denigrate Palestinians’ very identity, they would insult and denigrate national symbols like Palestinian leaders, slogans, and our flag.

Except for the brief moment when we were given access to the restroom and for the first six months, we were denied shave. The amount of food provided was lower than what was required for an adult’s survival. I lost more than 20 kilogrammes while in detention.

Without even knowing why we were there, we were observing how our bodies changed and kept ourselves afloat. The only source of information was from the arrival of new detainees. This psychological torture included this isolation.

If I could hardly recognise myself, how would I recognise my son when I get out, I wondered. Without my presence and holding him, I kept seeing him grow and accomplish milestones. I was concerned about my elderly father, who I had spent the last few years caring for but was ill. When he had seizures, I kept wondering who was taking him care and whether he was getting appointments in the hospital.

When Israelis release us, if they ever do so, we are a shell of who we were, humiliated, and broken, as it became clear to me as they spent time in Israeli prison. The release of detainees who hardly look like themselves any more, starved and unshaven, suffering from physical illnesses and psychological disorders, is meant to serve as a message to the rest of the Palestinian population, to break their will, resilience, and hopes for liberation, a dignified life and a bright future.

But this sinister strategy is meeting resistance. Even if our concrete cells had been crowded, we would still have a smile to show. Our weapon against the Israeli guards’ brutality was a smile. Hope was our shield.

I had hope when I thought of my baby boy. I imagined staring into his eyes while reuniting with him.

I couldn’t control myself and the tears started to pour as I was called my wife and the camera was pointed at my son. I kept repeating, “I am your baba, I am your baba”.

One of my life’s most beautiful moments was when I saw my son when I was home. I embraced him and looked at him, examining his eyes, his mouth, his hair, his feet. In order to correct the image I had of him in my mind over the previous 253 days, I was trying to memorize every detail quickly. He surpasses the most exquisite picture I had in mind.

Israel tried to derail my spirit, but I emerged from this challenging situation stronger and tougher. Although I will still be in prison, my mission will continue to be with me.

Prior to my arrest, I had worked for the Aida Youth Center as its executive director. For years, this organization has provided essential assistance to the Bethlehem residents of the Aida refugee camp. Our educational program, music and sports classes, and our youth programs have all had positive effects, while the general public has received medical and humanitarian aid in times of crisis.

As a parent and community leader, I am more determined than ever to work with Palestinian children and youth to ensure that they realize their potential and prepare for a brighter future now that I am back at the center.

I am aware that the Palestinian people face radicalization, racial oppression, and a lack of opportunity for a dignified, prosperous life under the control of our youth.

I think working with young people, offering them guidance, encouraging them to develop as individuals, and promoting social inclusion can counteract this brutal Israeli strategy and contribute to the construction of the Palestine I long for.

Being the father of a one-year-old who is taking his first steps and saying his first words, I am more determined than ever to ensure his better future after having gone through the horrors of the occupation. To ensure that he never experiences the fate of Israeli political prisoners held by Palestinians because of their Palestinian identity. To ensure that he is able to develop confidence, resilience, and pride. For that will I continue to fight.