°®Âþµº

This live blog has now ended. Thanks for following.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday he had instructed his government to set up supply mechanisms to deliver together with international organisations and partners food to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

"We are ready to assist Syria in preventing a food crisis, particularly through the humanitarian program 'Grain from Ukraine'," Zelensky wrote on X.

"I have instructed the government to establish food supply mechanisms in cooperation with international organisations and partners who can help."

Ukraine has been one of the world's top grain and oilseeds exporters, and has been exporting wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria.

Syria imported food from Russia during the Assad era, but Russian wheat supplies have been suspended amid the uncertainty and payment delays, Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday.

Ukraine's exports were buffeted by Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, which severely reduced shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade and revived exports from its southern ports of Odesa.

An ambush on Saturday killed at least four fighters from a faction in the rebel alliance that overthrew Syria's president, a war monitor said.

It happened in a bastion of support for ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad's stronghold, on the Mediterranean coast.

The rebel coalition now in charge in Damascus said it was sending "considerable reinforcements" to the areas of Latakia, Tartus and Jableh, the main coastal cities in the area.

Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that "at least four fighters" of Faylaq al-Sham - a Sunni Islamist pro-Turkey Syrian group - had been killed in clashes with "loyalist elements of the former regime".

The loyalists ambushed the members of Faylaq al-Sham, said the Observatory, which has a network of sources in Syria.

The shooting occurred near a villa belonging to Wassim al-Assad, a "relative of Bashar al-Assad and a trafficker of captagon", it added.

A source in Faylaq al-Sham confirmed to AFP that the group had come under fire while carrying out a security patrol, killing four of its members.

More Israeli airstrikes were reported across Syria Saturday night, including in the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel targeted sites in the Daraa and Suwayda governorates in the country's south, as well as the Qalamoun mountains, only 15 km away from the Lebanese border.

The monitor said Israeli airstrikes were also bombing tunnels and armories in Mount Qasyoun in Damascus.

Other airstrikes reportedly targeted military depots in Shinshar in the Homs governorate.

Israel fired 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours Saturday evening, the war monitor reported, maintaining a campaign which started after rebel forces toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad a week ago.

Israel claims it is destroying the Syrian army's capabilities and arsenals belonging to Iran-backed militias. 

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday for a deal to release the remaining hostages still held in Gaza after more than 14 months of war in the Palestinian territory.

"We all can agree that we have failed until now and that we can reach an agreement now," Lior Ashkenazi, a prominent Israeli actor, told a crowd gathered in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv.

There has been guarded optimism in recent days that a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza might finally be within reach after months of abortive mediation efforts.

US Security of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Jordan on Saturday: "This is the moment to finally conclude that agreement."

In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on Saturday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East envoy Brett McGurk.

"The meeting addressed efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange in Gaza," Sisi's office said.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called Saturday for Syrians who sought refuge in his country to return home following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The consequences of the Syrian war made Lebanon home to the largest number of refugees per capita, with one-third of our population comprising of Syrian refugees", Mikati said at a Rome political festival.

"The strain on our resources has been substantial, worsening existing economic trouble and creating fierce competition for jobs and services," he said in English.

"Today, and after the political transformation in Syria, the best resolution to this issue is for Syrians to go back to their homeland," he said.

Mikati told a festival held by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party that "the international community, particularly Europe, should assist in the return of Syrians". They should do so "by engaging in early recovery efforts in secure areas with Syria", he said.

Qatar will send its first official delegation to Damascus on Sunday to meet Syria's interim government and discuss reopening the Qatari embassy and enhancing humanitarian aid deliveries, a Qatari official told Reuters on Friday.

"They will take the necessary steps to reopen the embassy and discuss enhancing aid delivery," the official said.

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

Doha in recent years rejected efforts by several Arab countries to mend relations with Assad's government and reestablish diplomatic relations with Syria.

Regional players "do not want to see another Libya in the region," Iraq's foreign minister said on Saturday, in reference to Syria.

The leader of the Islamist-led rebels who seized power in Damascus criticised Israel on Saturday for its incursion into southern Syria this week but said his country was too exhausted for fresh conflict.

Israeli troops entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights last weekend in a move the United Nations said violated the 1974 armistice agreement.

"The Israelis have clearly crossed the disengagement line in Syria, which threatens a new unjustified escalation in the region," said the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who is now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.

But he added in a statement on the rebels' Telegram channel that "the general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter new conflicts."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the United States has had direct contact with rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the offensive that overthrew Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Blinken, speaking after meeting the foreign ministers of Arab nations and Turkey in Jordan, said a joint communique had been agreed that sets out the principles that other nations want to see followed in Syria's political transition, including inclusivity and respect for minorities.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah head Naim Qassem said on Saturday that the Lebanese armed group had lost its supply route through Syria following the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad nearly a week ago by a sweeping rebel offensive.

Qassem did not mention Assad by name in his televised address, and said the group could not make a judgment on Syria's new ruling power until the country stabilises.

He also said the group should not recognise neighbouring Israel or establish ties with it.

"We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as an enemy and not normalise relations with it."

(Reuters)

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan on Saturday demanded that Israel pull out of a demilitarized zone along the border with Syria.

They were speaking in a joint press conference in Jordan.

(Reuters)

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on the territory killed 17 people on Saturday, including seven at a UN school housing displaced people.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP there were seven killed, including women and children, and at least 10 wounded "when Israeli warplanes targeted the Al-Majida Wasila school west of Gaza City".

The school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees but like many such facilities it has been turned into a makeshift shelter for those displaced by the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

The vast majority of Gaza's population has been displaced by the war, often multiple times.

Bassal said an Israeli strike on the town hall in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza killed mayor Deiab al-Jaro, and nine other people.

The Israeli military said it targeted Jaro in a strike on "the humanitarian area in Deir el-Balah", accusing him of being "an operative in Hamas's military wing".

Arab, Western and Turkish diplomats agreed in talks in Jordan Saturday on the need for an "inclusive" government in Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Blinken told reporters that the talks would issue a joint statement in which "we agreed that the transition process should be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned and produce an inclusive and representative government".

Turkey on Saturday reopened its embassy in Damascus after a 12-year closure, a week after rebels toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an AFP journalist said.

The Turkish flag was raised over the diplomatic mission in the presence of the new charge d'affaires Burhan Koroglu, the journalist said.

Representatives of the rebels' transitional government were present at the ceremony at the embassy in the capital's Rawda district, which also hosts other diplomatic missions.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday that Koroglu and staff had left for Damascus and the embassy would be "operational" the following day.

The Damascus embassy closed on 26 March 2012, a year after Syria's civil war began, due to the deteriorating security situation amid calls by the Turkish government for Assad to step down.

Koroglu was previously Turkey's ambassador to Nouakchott, Mauritania.

It was not immediately clear how long he would hold the post in Damascus.

Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was in Damascus on Thursday, Turkish television channels reported.

A war monitor said Islamic State group jihadists killed six shepherds on Saturday in an area of the Syrian Desert notorious for extremist attacks.

"Six shepherds were killed on Saturday morning by fighters from Islamic State group cells... south of the city of Palmyra," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The jihadists "killed the shepherds and stole their livestock", the Britain-based war monitor added.

The Observatory said it had recorded six IS attacks in the Syrian Desert since Assad's overthrow. They killed 18 civilians and more than 50 Assad troops who had abandoned their posts.

On a regional tour, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkish officials it was "imperative" to work against any IS resurgence in Syria after Assad's fall, and pledged to work with Iraq to ensure the extremist group "cannot re-emerge".

On Thursday, Erdogan assured Blinken Turkey would never ease up in the fight against IS in Syria, despite its operations against US-backed Kurdish fighters seen as key to containing the extremists.

One person was killed in an Israeli strike on south Lebanon's Marjayoun town, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Saturday.

(Reuters)

A senior UAE official said on Saturday that his government had concerns about the Islamist affiliation of the forces that ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"We hear some reasonable, rational language about unity, not imposing a system on all Syrians. On the other hand, the nature of the new forces, the affiliation with the (Muslim) Brotherhood, the affiliation with Al-Qaeda, I think these are all indicators that are quite worrying," said Anwar Gargash, a presidential adviser in the United Arab Emirates, in remarks at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi.

Gaza's Ministry of Health has announced that 55 people have been killed and a further 170 injured in the last 24 hours in Israeli attacks on the enclave.

The ministry added that the death toll has risen to 44,930 killed and 106,624 injured since the war began.

At least one person was killed as Palestinian security forces clashed with Palestinian militants and set up checkpoints on Saturday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, residents and medics said.

Gunshots and explosions could be heard in the city, where friction has risen in recent days between militant and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following raids by the PA.

Residents identified the man who was killed as a militant though none of the factions immediately confirmed his affiliation.

The PA's security branch said in a statement that its forces were undertaking a security operation to restore law and order to Jenin's historic refugee camp suburb, a stronghold of Palestinian militants alienated from the Palestinian leadership.

Hamas, which has been fighting Israeli forces in Gaza for more than a year, condemned the PA for the Jenin operation and its allied group Islamic Jihad called for a day of protests.

Jenin has also been a hotbed of conflict between the Palestinian militant groups and the Israeli military in recent years. Since March 2022, Jenin and outlying areas in the north of the West Bank have drawn intensified Israeli raids after a spate of Palestinian street attacks.

(Reuters)

At least seven Palestinians were killed and 12 wounded after an Israeli strike on a former school that was sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, the civil emergency service said on Saturday.

The Israeli military is looking into the report, a spokesperson said.

Earlier on Saturday the Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas militants who were operating within a school compound in Gaza City and that it had taken measures to reduce harm to civilians.

The dead include a woman and her baby, according to medics. It was unclear whether the other fatalities were Hamas fighters.

Hamas denies embedding its fighters among civilians in Gaza.

(Reuters)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed with visiting US officials on Saturday efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostages-for prisoners deal in the Palestinian enclave, Sisi's office said.

The officials who met Sisi in Cairo included US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, it said.

(Reuters)

The Syrian currency has strengthened to between 11,500 and 12,500 pounds to one US dollar, Damascus currency exchangers said on Saturday.

(Reuters)

A UN envoy on Saturday urged foreign powers to work to avoid a collapse of vital Syrian institutions following the downfall of leader Bashar al-Assad, as diplomats gathered in Jordan for a conference on the crisis.

Geir Pedersen, the UN's special envoy for Syria, also backed a "credible and inclusive" political process to form the next government as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"We need to make sure that state institutions do not collapse, and that we get in humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible," Pedersen said.

"If we can achieve that, perhaps there is a new opportunity for the Syrian people."

Top Arab, Turkish, EU and US diplomats are holding talks in the Jordanian Red Sea resort city of Aqaba less than a week after rebels toppled Assad.

Blinken, on a trip in which he has met the leaders of Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, has repeatedly called for an "inclusive" process that reflects all the diverse ethnic and religious communities in Syria.

Meeting Pedersen, Blinken said that the United Nations "plays a critical role" in humanitarian assistance and protecting minorities in Syria.

Security forces from the Palestinian Authority have begun an operation in the Jenin Refugee Camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The agency reported that Palestinian spokesperson for the security forces, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, said the operation was to restore order in the camp against armed groups inside the camp.

A Syria war monitor said Israel launched strikes early Saturday targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.

"Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute" and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a "military airport" in the capital's countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Strikes also targeted "Scud ballistic missile warehouses" and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as "rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain", according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

The Observatory said several rounds of bombardment targeted "military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army's capabilities".

Israel air strikes on Friday targeted "a missile base at the top of Damascus's Mount Qasyun", the group said, as well as an airport in southern Sweida province and "defence and research labs in Masyaf", in Hama province.

A Russian cargo plane departed from Russia's air base in Latakia for Libya on Saturday, a Syrian security official stationed outside the facility said.

The official stationed at the gate told Reuters that additional Russian departures from the Hmeimim air base in Syria's coastal Latakia province are expected in the coming days.

On Friday, satellite images showed Russia moving military equipment at Syria's Hmeimim air base, with two Antonov AN-124 cargo planes visible, following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad by rebels last weekend.

(Reuters)