Curfew lifts in Damascus, Syrians return to work after fall of regime
Many Syrians got back to work on Wednesday as life in the capital is slowly returning to normal after the overthrow of former president Bashar Al-Assad and subsequent Israeli strikes that pummelled Syria in one of the most intense campaigns on the country in years.
In a statement, Syrian rebel groups said a previously imposed curfew of 4 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time has officially been lifted. They encouraged residents to return to their jobs.
Assad fled the country over the weekend and has been granted political asylum in Russia.
Private banks in Damascus reopened Tuesday on instructions from the central bank, said Sadi Ahmad, who runs a branch in the upscale Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood. He said all his employees returned to work.
Shops also reopened in the city’s ancient Hamidiyeh market, where armed men and civilians could be seen buying perfume and ice cream. A clothing shop owner, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said he hoped vendors would no longer have to pay bribes to security officials.
At Bakdash, a famous ice cream shop, a poster outside read: “Welcome to the rebels of free Syria. Long live free Syria.”
Syrians across the city celebrated the fall of Assad, and hoped for an end to the relentless bribery demands that governed much of life.
“Damascus is more beautiful now,” said Maysoun Qurabi, who was shopping in the market. “It has a soul, and people feel at ease and secure.” Under Assad, she said, “people were hungry and scared. The regime was strong.”
Shortly after the regime’s collapse, Israel carried out nearly 500 air raids in Syria, saying it hit “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles.”
Israel said its forces had destroyed Syria’s navy and acknowledged pushing into a buffer zone inside Syria following Assad’s overthrow. But it remained unclear if Israeli soldiers had gone beyond that area, which was established more than 50 years ago, and denied it was advancing on Damascus.
But there were also signs of disorder. The United Nations said it is still receiving reports that humanitarian aid supplies were looted at UN warehouses and warehouses belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, including around Damascus.
Insurgents set fire to Hafez Al-Assad’s tomb: war monitor
Insurgents have set the tomb of Syria’s former president Hafez Al-Assad in his hometown on fire, a war monitor and a local journalist said Wednesday.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian journalist Qusay Noor told The Associated Press the tomb was set on fire Wednesday in the town of Qardaha, in Latakia province.
Hafez Al-Assad ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, when his son Bashar succeeded him.
Both ruled Syria with an iron fist and were blamed for crackdowns that left tens of thousands dead, mainly in the central city of Hama in 1982, and in much of the country since the civil war in 2011.
After decades in power, the Assad regime has fallen to Syrian rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Andrew Chang breaks down the two weeks of intense fighting that led to this seismic breakthrough for rebel forces.
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The world will be watching closely to see whether Syria’s new rulers can avert revenge attacks following civil war and decades of repression, often along sectarian and ethnic lines.
In his first brief address on state TV, new interim prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir appeared in front of two flags: the green, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war alongside a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing, typically flown by Sunni Islamist fighters.
Security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken over the airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital and from one of the country’s three international airports.
“Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive that led to the fall of Assad, told The Associated Press, calling it “the passage for Syria to breathe.”
Al-Shami said security was restored at the international airport nearly 12 hours after the fall of Damascus. The factions entered the capital before dawn, and security members of the rebel alliance took charge before sunset on Sunday. He said he hoped the airport would be operational in less than a week.
Anyone involved in torture, killing will be pursued
The main commander of the fighters who toppled Bashar Al-Assad said on Wednesday that anyone involved in the torture or killing of detainees during the Assads’ rule would be hunted down, and pardons were out of the question.
“We will pursue them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who fled, so we can achieve justice,” Abu Mohammed Al-Golani said in a statement published on the Syrian state TV’s Telegram channel.
During five decades of Assad family rule, Syria ran one of the most oppressive police states in the Middle East. Al-Golani, whose former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is now the country’s most powerful force, must balance demands for justice from victims with the need to prevent violence and secure international aid.
The new government has told business leaders it will adopt a free-market model and integrate into the global financial system after decades of state control, the head of the Damascus Chambers of Commerce, Bassel Hamwi, told Reuters.
UN chief sees ‘signs of hope’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there were signs of hope in Syria following the overthrow of Assad by rebel forces over the weekend.
“As we speak, we are witnessing the reshaping of the Middle East…. We also see some signs of hope … coming from the end of the Syrian dictatorship,” Guterres said during a visit to South Africa on Wednesday.
Guterres said the UN was committed to a smooth transition of power in Syria.
“It’s our duty to do everything to support different Syrian leaders in order to make sure that they come together, they are able to guarantee a smooth transition, an inclusive transition in which all Syrians can feel that they belong,” Guterres told reporters. “The alternative doesn’t make any sense.”
Foreign officials are warily engaging with the former rebels, although HTS is still designated an international terrorist organization by the UN, the U.S., the EU and others.
In addition to terrorism bans in place against the former rebels, Syria also remains under U.S., European and other financial sanctions imposed against Damascus under Bashar Al-Assad.
Published at Sat, 07 Dec 2024 15:44:10 +0000
‘My father was 95 … what did he do?’: Family mourns after Israeli airstrike hits house in Nuseirat
Israeli strikes in the northern and central Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed at least 38 Palestinians, most of them in Beit Lahiya town in the north of the enclave, medics said.
Health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Beit Lahiya killed at least 22 people, including women and children. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said at least 30 people were living in the multi-storey building before it was struck, adding that several members of the family remained missing as rescue operations continued through morning hours.
The Israeli military told Reuters it had launched a strike targeting Hamas militants near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is located between Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, towns on the northern edge of Gaza under Israeli siege for two months.
It said it was continuing to examine the incident but described the number of fatalities reported by Palestinian
medics and media as “inaccurate” and not aligning with the army’s information.
Palestinians were searching the rubble of a destroyed building on Wednesday after a deadly Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza. ‘We were sleeping peacefully and suddenly we found rubble and stones falling above us,’ said one survivor.
In nearby Beit Hanoun town in northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli forces have operated since October, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under the rubble of a house.
Journalist killed, along with husband and 3 children
Earlier on Wednesday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, medics told Reuters.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service and medics said nine other people were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on two houses and a crowd in Gaza City, including journalist Eman Al-Shanti, her husband, and three of their children. She was the 193rd journalist killed by Israel since the start of the war, the Palestinian Union of Journalists said.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that in separate airstrikes over the last two weeks, it killed two senior, armed Hamas commanders who had taken a leading role in the Oct 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that two rockets were fired from the central Gaza Strip into Israel, but fell in open areas and caused no injuries. It signalled Gaza militants’ ability to continue to stage rocket attacks despite 14 months of devastating Israeli aerial and military offensives.
Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, the nearby town of Beit Lahiya, and the Jabalia refugee camp since Oct. 5, fighting Hamas militants waging attacks from those areas and preventing them from regrouping.
Palestinian officials and residents accuse Israel of depopulating the two towns and refugee camp on the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone, something Israel denies.
Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says that Israel’s military campaign since then has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and injured countless others. The Palestinian civil emergency service estimates that the bodies of 10,000 people may be trapped under the rubble, which would take the reported death toll to more than 50,000.
Published at Wed, 11 Dec 2024 10:42:50 +0000
