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The live blog is now over and will be back tomorrow at 9am GMT. You can read °®Âþµº's Coverage of a post-Assad Syria here, and Israel's war on Gaza here.

The Qatari government "strongly condemns" Israel's plan to double the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied Golan Heights.

Statement | Qatar Strongly Condemns Israeli Occupation Government's Approval of a Plan to Expand Settlements in the Occupied Golan Heights

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN)

The Biden administration has asked Israel to approve military assistance to the Palestinian Authority for conducting military operations in the occupied West Bank against Palestinian militants, according to Axios.

A special Russian air force flight from the Khmeimim air base in Syria evacuated some of the Russian diplomatic personnel in Damascus as well as Belarus and North Korean diplomats, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday.

"The work of the Russian Embassy in Damascus continues," the crisis situation department of the Russian foreign ministry said on its Telegram messaging channel.

Russia's RIA state news agency reported, citing the Belarusian foreign ministry, that all Belarusian diplomats have been evacuated out of Syria.

(Reuters)

A Syria war monitor said early Monday that Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in Syria's coastal Tartus region, calling them "the heaviest strikes" in the area in more than a decade.

"Israeli warplanes launched strikes" targeting a series of sites including air defence units and "surface-to-surface missile depots", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what it said were "the heaviest strikes in Syria's coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012".

The Syrian Islamist leader whose group led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad met on Sunday with UN envoy Geir Pedersen, who was visiting Damascus, a statement on the rebels' Telegram channel said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, discussed with Pedersen "the changes that have occurred on the political scene which make it necessary to update" a 2015 UN Security Council resolution that set out a roadmap for a political settlement in Syria, "to suit the new reality", the statement said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told British foreign minister David Lammy on Sunday that Washington will back "an accountable and representative" government in Syria, the State Department said after their call on Sunday.

"The Secretary underscored US support for an accountable and representative Syrian government chosen by the Syrian people," the State Department said in a statement.

(Reuters)

At least 15 Palestinians were killed and others injured in a strike on a shelter for the displaced in Gaza's Khan Younis, medics said on Sunday.

(Reuters)

The British government said it will release 50 million pounds ($63 million) of humanitarian aid for "the most vulnerable" Syrians in Syria and in neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

"We're committed to supporting the Syrian people as they chart a new course," Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement.

The funds, which for the most part will be sent to UN agencies, "will enable an urgent scale-up of humanitarian assistance when needs are at their highest, and support delivery of essential public services in Syria."

Lammy said Britain will also work "diplomatically to help secure better governance in Syria's future", adding that "it is vital that the future Syrian government brings together all groups to establish the stability and respect the Syrian people deserve."

Separately, Britain said it will give 120,000 pounds to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its work in Syria.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera condemned the Sunday killing of one of its journalists in an Israeli strike on Gaza, calling the death a "targeted killing".

"Al Jazeera Media Network condemns in the strongest terms the killing of its cameraman, Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, by the Israeli occupation forces. He was brutally killed in an air strike that targeted a Civil Defence post in the market area of Al-Nuseirat Camp, central Gaza Strip," the network said in a statement.

Russia's foreign ministry said it has evacuated some of its diplomatic staff from Syria Sunday, a week after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

"On December 15, the withdrawal of part of the personnel of the Russian (diplomatic) representation in Damascus was carried out by a special flight of the Russian Air Force from the Hmeimim airbase" in Syria, the ministry's crisis situations department said on Telegram.

The ministry said the flight arrived at an airport near Moscow, without specifying how many people were aboard.

The flight also carried members from the diplomatic missions of Belarus, North Korea and Abkhazia, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Georgia, the department said.

"The Russian embassy in Damascus continues to function", said the press release published on Telegram.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned as "sabotage" of Syria an Israeli plan to double the population of the occupied and annexed Golan Heights.

In a statement, Riyadh's foreign ministry expressed "condemnation and denunciation" of the plan, which it called part of "continued sabotage of opportunities to restore security and stability in Syria" after Islamist-led rebels overthrew president Bashar al-Assad one week ago.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) has announced that the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group has entered the Middle East.

"The Strike Group is deployed to ensure regional stability and security," CENTCOM added.

On Dec. 14, the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG) consisting of the flagship USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75); Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1 with nine embarked aviation squadrons; Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28; the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, USS Gettysburg…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM)

Britain has had diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power last week, British foreign minister David Lammy said on Sunday.

"HTS remains a proscribed organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect," Lammy told broadcasters.

"Using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to."

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has had direct contact with HTS

A Qatari delegation has arrived in Syria and met with officials in the country's transitional government following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels, the Gulf emirate said Sunday.

The diplomatic delegation "arrived in Damascus to complete the necessary procedures for the opening of Qatar's embassy" Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said in a statement, adding the Qataris met with the interim government, and reiterated Doha's "full commitment to supporting the brotherly Syrian people".

A Qatari delegation arrived in Damascus to pave the way for the re-opening of Qatar's embassy in Syria, the Gulf country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Qatar's embassy in Damascus has been shut since July 2011 when it withdrew its ambassador from Damascus after a series of deadly crackdowns by Bashar al-Assad's regime on street protesters - violence that led to the 13-year-long civil war. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is not interested in a confrontation with Syria, days after he ordered troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone between the two countries' forces on the Golan Heights.

"We have no interest in confronting Syria. Israel's policy toward Syria will be determined by the evolving reality on the ground," Netanyahu said in a video statement, one week after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

An Israeli strike on Gaza killed an Al Jazeera journalist on Sunday, the Qatar-based channel reported amid ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas.

"Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed today, Sunday, in an Israeli bombardment," the network's Arabic-language website reported, adding the strike targeted the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

A Palestinian teenager was shot and wounded on Sunday following an Israeli military incursion into the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus, according to local and security sources, as cited by Wafa.

Sources said that the Israeli army accompanied by a bulldozer, stormed Nablus through the Beit Furik military checkpoint before raiding the Balata camp.

During the raid, a 16-year-old boy was struck in the head with bullet shrapnel and was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment.

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, voiced hope on Sunday that upheaval in Syria will lead to freedom for her son.

Debra Tice said news that Missouri resident Travis Timmerman had been freed from a Syrian prison by rebels felt "like a rehearsal." Her children woke her up when images of Timmerman began circulating on social media misidentifying him as Tice.

Asked if Timmerman's misidentification was a moment of false hope, Debra Tice instead characterized it as a moment of joy to be shared. Timmerman has said he had traveled into Syria for a spiritual mission earlier this year and was arrested for entering the country illegally.

"It was almost like having a rehearsal ... an inkling of what it's really going to feel like when it is Austin walking free," she told NBC television's "Meet the Press".

Tice is the focus of a massive search following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week after 13 years of civil war. Rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have released thousands of people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents, ordinary civilians and foreigners.

Israel agreed on Sunday to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago.

"Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, annexing it in 1981.

"The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat - despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present," Defence Minister Israel Katz told officials examining Israel's defence budget, according to a statement.

Netanyahu's office said the government unanimously approved a more than 40-million-shekel ($11 million) plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan.

It said Netanyahu submitted the plan to the government "in light of the war and the new front facing Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan".

The EU will not lift sanctions on Syria before its new rulers ensure minorities are not persecuted and women's rights are protected within a unified government that disavows religious extremism, the EU's top diplomat said.

An EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, which had Syria on the agenda, would not discuss expanding financial support to the country beyond that already provided by the EU through United Nations agencies, the European Union's new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said.

"One of the questions is whether we are able to, in the future, look at the adaptation of the sanctions regime. But this clearly is not the question of today, but rather in the future where we have seen that the steps go in the right direction," Kallas told Reuters in an interview.

While the EU has in place a tough sanctions regime against Syria, the rebel group that led the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - has also been under sanctions for years, complicating matters for the international community.

The EU was already the biggest donor of humanitarian aid to Syria, Kallas said.

"We need to discuss what more can we do. But as I say, it can't come as a blank cheque," Kallas added.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Sunday said Israel's decision to close its embassy in Dublin was "deeply regrettable".

"This is a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government. I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law," he said in a post on X.

"Ireland wants a two state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that."

France will send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation, the foreign ministry said, without specifying whom they would meet.

Most EU governments welcomed Bashar al-Assad's fall but are considering whether they can work with the rebels who ousted him, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group that is designated a terrorist organisation by the EU.

"A team of French diplomats will travel to Syria this Tuesday to mark France's willingness to support the Syrian people," the ministry said, adding that they would report back to the foreign minister after a series of contacts there.

Since cutting ties with Assad in 2012, France has not sought to normalise ties with Syria's government and has backed a broadly secular exiled opposition and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

French officials have met representatives of such groups and Paris has said a political transition in Syria must be credible and inclusive, in line with a framework set out by the United Nations.

Israel's foreign ministry announced on Sunday that it was closing its embassy in Ireland, citing the Dublin government's "extreme anti-Israeli policies," further straining tense relations between the two nations.

"The decision to close Israel's embassy in Dublin was made in light of the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government," the ministry said in a statement, following a series of moves that included formally recognising a Palestinian state and backing an International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli settlers on Sunday seized around 60 dunums of land belonging to Palestinian residents in an area south of Hebron, local sources said, as cited by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Ibrahim al-Tal, said the settlers took control of around 60 dunums of land owned by his three sons. The land is located in the al-Tayaran area near an illegal settlement built in the town of Ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron.

Additionally, Israeli soldiers forced farmers out of their land in the southern Hebron area and prevented them from cultivating the land.

The United Nations envoy to Syria on Sunday urged "increased, immediate" aid to the war-ravaged country as he arrived in its capital Damascus.

"Syria has been through an enormous... humanitarian crisis," said Geir Pedersen. "We need to make sure that Syria receives increased, immediate humanitarian assistance."

Students returned to classrooms in Syria on Sunday after the country's new rulers ordered schools reopened in a potent sign of some normalcy a week after rebels swept into the capital in the dramatic overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

Officials said most schools were opening around the country on Sunday, which is the first day of the working week in most Arab countries. However some parents were not sending their children to class due to uncertainty over the situation.

Pupils waited cheerfully in the courtyard of a boys' high school in Damascus on Sunday morning and applauded as the school secretary, Raed Nasser, hung the flag adopted by the new authorities.

"Everything is good. We are fully equipped. We worked two, three days in order to equip the school with the needed services for the students' safe return to school," Nasser said, adding the Jawdat al-Hashemi school had not been damaged.

In one classroom, a student pasted the new flag on a wall.

"I am optimistic and very happy," said student Salah al-Din Diab. "I used to walk in the street scared that I would get drafted to military service. I used to be afraid when I reach a checkpoint."

The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that at least 44,976 people have been killed in more than 14 months of war in the Palestinian territory. 

The toll includes 46 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 106,759 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7 last year.

The United Nations envoy for Syria arrived in the capital Damascus on Sunday, his spokesperson said, a week after the fall of the country's ruler Bashar al-Assad to Islamist-led rebels.

Special envoy Geir Pedersen "has just arrived" in Damascus and "should be speaking on arrival", she told AFP, declining to give details of the agenda for the visit.

More than 7,600 Syrian migrants crossed the Turkish border to return home in the five days after the fall of Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad, Turkey's interior minister said on Sunday.

In a statement on X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya listed the total number of Syrians "who returned voluntarily from Turkey" each day between December 9 and 13, with the five-day figure totalling 7,621 migrants.

Germany’s foreign minister is warning anyone involved in atrocities for the ousted Syrian government against seeking refuge in her country, saying they would face "the full force of the law".

Germany has been a major destination for Syrian refugees over the past decade, and several hundred thousand Syrian nationals live there . In rulings since 2021, former Syrian secret police officers already have been convicted in Germany for overseeing or facilitating the abuse of detainees.

"To any of (former President Bashar) Assad’s torturers who might be considering fleeing to Germany now, I can only say clearly: We will bring all the regime’s henchmen to account for their terrible crimes with the full force of the law," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Sunday’s edition of the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Baerbock called for international security authorities and intelligence services to work closely together.

The new administration in Syria should be given a chance to govern following their constructive messages, and Turkey stands ready to provide military training if such help is requested, Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said.

"In their first statement, the new administration that toppled Assad announced that it would respect all government institutions, the United Nations and other international organisations," Guler told reporters in Ankara in comments authorised for publication on Sunday.

"We think that we need to see what the new administration will do and to give them a chance."

When asked whether Turkey was considering military cooperation with the new Syrian government, Guler said Ankara already had military cooperation and training agreements with many countries.

"(Turkey) is ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it," he added.

Since 2016, Turkey has mounted four military operations across growing swathes of northern Syria, citing threats to its national security.

Turkey is estimated to maintain a few thousand troops in towns including Afrin, Azez and Jarablus in northwestern Syria and Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad in the northeast.

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly discussed the ongoing situation in Syria, and a potential ceasefire deal and hostage-release in Gaza in a phone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israel media.

No official statement has been released on the matter, however.

Israel has reportedly carried out around 61 airstrikes across Syria overnight into Sunday, one week after Israeli troops invaded the country following its toppling of the Assad regime. 

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, affiliated with the opposition in the country, said targets of the attacks were weapons depots and air defense systems. The monitor added that since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, Israel has struck in Syria 446 times.