IRGC senior commander killed in Syria, Islamist opposition-forces take control of Aleppo, as Assad’s supporters proved significantly weakened, A fragile ceasefire for Israel and Hezbollah, Israel violates ceasefire terms several times since it took hold, Southern villagers return to what is left of their homes despite Israel-imposed restrictions, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announces parliamentary session for presidential election on January 9, Hezbollah’s Naim Qassem says cease-fire with Israel a great victory that surpasses that of July 2006, Thousands visit site of Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination, Qaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon reopens, Gaza death toll nears 45 thousand, as more aid workers are killed by Israel, Devastating consequences from Israel’s ban on UNRWA, 4 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on Jenin, Yemen’s Houthis target Israel with hypersonic missile, First humanitarian cargo flight with essential medical supplies for children lands in Blue Nile state after 19 months of conflict in Sudan
The time elapsed between the tentative hint of a ceasefire on the Lebanese-Israeli front, and that of a new regional upheaval, in neighboring Syria, did not even reach the day. Upon receiving the news that another IRGC commander, Kioumars Pour Hashemi, known as Haji Hashem, had been assassinated, in the early hours of last Wednesday, one’s first thoughts turned to Israel, which has been carrying out targeted assassinations of senior Iranian generals in the region for almost 14 months, in parallel with the indiscriminate genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the destruction of entire villages in southern Lebanon. The same goes for the techniques of weakening Assad’s army, surprised on Friday by a chain of explosions of walkie-talkie devices, similar to the one that undermined the Lebanese Hezbollah’s communication system in mid-September, a few days before the military escalation that devastated Lebanon for two long months broke out: and from which it is only now cautiously recovering.
But the actors in the field in north-west Syria are different, as is the history of the affected territories: divided by opposing narratives of occupation and liberation, but undoubtedly in the crosshairs of a new, worrying violence.
In the same hours when residents of southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and the gutted southern suburbs of Beirut were returning to their homes, waving Hezbollah flags and posters of former leader Hassan Nasrallah in celebration, if not declared victory – when the only thing to celebrate, if there’s any, is survival – and Zionist flags were being thrown down in villages along the southern border occupied by Israeli troops, the reconquest in Aleppo took on a different colou: it is the face of Bashar al-Assad that is defaced, his posters burned. And it is the flags of the Arab Republic of Syria that are replaced by those of the 2011 revolution: restoring the same colors of the united country before 1963, the year of the Ba’ath party coup.
A brave yet imprudent act, considering that those same posters, those same flags, in the areas controlled by the regime and its allies, could, until a few days ago, barely be questioned.
What is undoubted is that the responsibility for such a rapid fall – it took only three days to recapture Aleppo, after Syria’s second-largest city had remained in the regime’s hands since 2016 after four years of intense fighting, flanked by Russia and partly by Iran – is the weakening of the regime’s support chain, its main allies being engaged on other fronts: the Kremlin in Ukraine, and the Islamic Republic in neighboring Lebanon, as well as inside its disquiet territory.
And benefiting from the Israeli successes, if not in the invasion of Lebanon, at least from the damage inflicted on the ‘party of God’; from the approval of the Turkish ally – which denies any direct involvement of Ankara, though it certainly benefits from the outcome of the offensive: as you could see from the Turkish flags raised above the walls of the citadelle of Aleppo – as well as from the alleged Ukrainian military support, which would have made available to the opposition groups an arsenal of drones never before used by the so-called ‘rebels’ – the galaxy of Islamist movements opposed to the Assad regime, under the leadership of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), succeeded, surprisingly enough, in the impossible. Opening a rift in the almost decade-long control of a city with a Sunni majority, from which tens of thousands of opponents had been expelled in convoys of buses, and are now returning in tanks: freeing dozens of political prisoners from the regime’s jails – some of whom had already taken refuge in Lebanon and been arrested upon repatriation – and welcomed by the apparent support of local communities, despite not having been popular, especially among people in Idlib, who’ve been demonstrating against it for months. Yet encountering the enthusiasm of those who want to be rid of Assad and his foreign backers, and to return to their homes.
Leaving, however, two questions open: the governability of the reconquered territories, and the threat of imminent retaliation, which has already begun.
The first, related to the revitalization of the infrastructure, depends on an effective government plan – political analysts say it is the first time in years that Islamist opposition forces have shown such coordination – as well as on Turkey’s decision to intervene directly: if so, Erdogan would be able to change the rules of the conflict in northern Syria before Trump takes office in the White House. It should be remembered that the US still has 900 troops stationed in the Kurdish north-east, although the American presence is not so much linked to the defeat of ISIS as to that of Iranian-backed militias in Syria. At the same time, numerous religious and ethnic minorities – Christian, Yazidi, Kurd – live in the reconquered territories of Idlib and Aleppo, and despite HTS’ leader al-Jawlani having ordered its troops to respect them, water in the besieged Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud has been cut for four days now, .
The second, more urgent and frightening issue, instead, depends on the ability of Russia and Iran to support Assad militarily. Bashar has already stated: “we will defeat the terrorists, force calls force.” And then, indeed – beyond comparisons with the techniques used by Israel to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon – it would be the case that history would repeat itself. But it would be a sadly-known Syrian story.
In this context, according to the National Observatory for Human Rights, more than 400 people have been killed since last Wednesday, 60 of them civilians, including women and children. Testimonies from Aleppo state that water and petrol have been lacking for two days, as has bread. Electricity, from the national grid run by the central government, only arrives for a few hours a day, and a total curfew has been imposed on civilians for three days now.
In the meantime, as HTS groups advance towards Hama and the outskirts of Homs, it appears that the news has given strength to the never dormant political aspirations of opposition factions in southern Syria, who have attacked government positions in Daraa and Suwayda, on the border with Jordan. The government news agency Sana has stopped sending out news, just as numerous media websites and government institutions have been blocked – all indications that lead to a scenario that was unthinkable until a few hours ago, but which many are now predicting: a coup against Bashar al-Assad, who in the meantime has welcomed Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, to Damascus.
Yet, as written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Robin Yassin-Kassab, author of ‘Assad or We Burn the Country’, “this doesn’t mean that the democratic revolution is about to seize power, or that Syria is about to enter paradise. The civil revolution that began in 2011 was largely crushed, its experiments in democracy eliminated, its most grassroots military forces co-opted or gobbled up by more powerful and authoritarian actors. There are no longer hundreds of independent, quasi-democratic local councils to organize civil life. The country is divided, traumatized, cursed by warlords and foreign occupiers. But suddenly it looks as if it may be possible not only to challenge but to end the rule of the monster, which means it may become possible for millions to go home, and therefore for civil society to begin to reconstitute itself. The future can’t start until Assad is gone.”
In Lebanon
A fragile ceasefire: The US-France brokered deal, approved by Israel late Tuesday, November 26, calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance.
However, the security situation remains volatile. Israel says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah should it violate the terms of the deal. After the truce took hold, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said troops arrested four Hezbollah operatives, including a local commander, who had entered what it referred to as a restricted area, while Israeli forces opened fire to push back a number of vehicles that were entering the same area.
The Israeli military in fact warned displaced Lebanese not to return to evacuated villages in southern Lebanon, where troops were still present following their ground invasion in early October: one week after the rapid escalation of relentless bombardments.
In fact, as the pace of the IDF withdrawal and the scheduled return of Lebanese civilians would depend on whether the deal is implemented and enforced, according to Israeli officials, also the Lebanese military asked displaced people returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns until Israeli forces withdraw.
Not over yet: The Israeli forces have been violating the ceasefire terms several times since it took hold, which France has reported amounting to 52. During the first day after the ceasefire, three journalists were shot and wounded by Israeli troops while covering the return of displaced people to the town of Khiam, around six kilometers from the border, which had seen heavy fighting in recent days.
Later on Thursday, then, the Israeli army said the ceasefire was breached after several suspect vehicles and individuals approached areas in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, ‘forcing’ its troops to fire at them – while the state-run NNA had earlier reported that Israeli tanks fired several rounds at six areas in the south, including in Wazzani, Kfarchouba and Khiyam.
The Israeli army carried out several attacks in southern Lebanon also on Friday, on the third day of the ceasefire. Artillery bombardment struck the villages of Markaba, Tallousa and Khiyam while four Israeli tanks moved into the western part of Khiyam and the town square of Markaba. The Israeli army also fired on civilians in the nearby village of Bint Jbeil, wounding two people, opened fire at a funeral in the southern border town of Khiam, and shelled a house in Nabatieh. Moreover, on the same day, four Israeli tanks and two bulldozers entered neighborhoods of Khiam, where troops were not present prior to the truce, local media outlets said, saying the Israeli army was bulldozing, blocking roads and uprooting olive trees.
On Saturday, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed that the Israeli army carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon to thwart what it defined as a “terrorist activity and the movement of a Hezbollah mobile missile platform.” On the same day, in the early morning, Israeli army bulldozers advanced in southern Lebanese villages and Israeli artillery shelling was reported on those close to the border. “The Israeli army is deployed in southern Lebanon and is working to remove threats that threaten Israel and violate the cease-fire agreement,” Adraee announced. Two civilians were killed in a drone attack on the village of Rab el-Thalathine.
For five days in a row, moreover, the Israeli army has issued a statement forbidding any movement south of the Litani River between 5 pm and 7 am. “Those south of the Litani River must remain where they are,” the statement posted on its Arabic-language spokesperson’s X account reads. “For your safety, you must adhere to these instructions.”
Lebanese authorities reported scattered incidents of Israeli mortar attacks, strikes and shots fired that wounded several civilians trying to return to border villages, as the army accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire several times by conducting strikes on Lebanon with “various weapons” and continuing to patrol and survey Lebanese skies with warplanes and drones. The army stated it was “following up on these violations in coordination with the relevant authorities,” without elaborating.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese military is setting up temporary checkpoints and detonating unexploded ordnance in hopes of helping displaced civilians return to their homes.
Not much to return to: Meanwhile, villagers of southern towns have been going back to what is left of their homes. Already in the early hours of Wednesday, as the ceasefire took hold, thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war returned home, driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to avoid some areas.
Not only Hezbollah was impacted by the war: destroyed homes, collapsed water towers and downed power lines are proof of the price civilians have had to pay as a result of the war. In Lebanon, Israeli raids have destroyed at least 37 villages. A World Bank report has estimated the cost of damage at 2.8 billion dollars, with more than 99,000 houses partially or fully destroyed.
Evidence of the conflict is visible everywhere. From Beirut, drivers heading south passed through Dahieh’s thick smoke, the remnants of a night of heavy Israeli bombing just before the ceasefire began. The UN has denounced patterns of destruction in Lebanon similar to those seen in Gaza, where civilians “pay the ultimate price.” “We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza, the same means and methods of warfare being used,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN’s human rights commissioner, said last month. Also in November, UN peacekeepers deployed along the Israeli-Lebanon border said they had witnessed the “shocking” destruction of border Lebanese villages.
Back from Syria: Meanwhile, around 4,000 people, including many Lebanese who fled the bombings, were ready to cross the border between Lebanon and Syria on Sunday, after the Qaa crossing between Lebanon and Syria has been reopened nearly a month after an Israeli airstrike targeted the Syrian side of the crossing.
On October 25, an Israeli airstrike targeting the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon cut off a border crossing between the two countries. The strike targeted a bridge in the area known as Jousseh, the name used in Syria to designate the Qaa crossing, and destroyed a cemetery near the target. The area has been bombed several times, including four times on November 23.
The crater caused by the strike has been filled, and displaced Lebanese people have started returning home. Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh visited the site for the reopening in the morning of Sunday.
Spontaneous memorial: In Dahieh, where shoppers started going back to clear their shop from the destruction’s rubbles, and former residents checked whether their houses were still standing, on the night of Saturday, November 30, thousands gathered to visit the site of former Hezbollah’s leader’s assassination.
It was the first time the group allowed access to the area for a public memorial. The massive crater left by the Israeli strike in Haret Hreik, on September 27, was lit up in red and festooned with Hezbollah flags. At its center, torches projected light beams into the night sky. Men, women and children wept at the sight of the crater, while the crowd chanted “At your service, Nasrallah” – a common rallying cry among Hezbollah supporters.
A great victory: On Friday afternoon, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered a speech for the first time since the cease-fire with Israel. During the speech – mostly dedicated to honoring and thanking all those who contributed to the current resolution of the war, and paying tribute to Hezbollah officials who were killed by Israeli strikes in this and previous conflicts – Qassem claimed the end of the war against Israel was “a great victory, surpassing that of July 2006 in its duration, the ardor of the fighting, the sacrifices, and the foreign and American support the enemy had.” “We prevented them from eliminating Hezbollah, we prevented them from neutralizing the Resistance,” he added, stating that “we don’t want war, but we were able to stop it with our strength and fire.”
Qassem also saluted the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense, who lost personnel during the war, and expressed gratitude to the displaced populations who endured the fighting. He even extended his thanks to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the army’s top command, medical workers, and the media.
Commenting on the cease-fire agreement, Hezbollah’s new Secretary General described it as “a framework for implementing UN Resolution 1701,” adding that “the agreement’s scope includes the area south of the Litani River, from which the Israeli army must withdraw.” Also, he reiterated that the front’s support for Palestine remains steadfast, saying that “we consider the liberation of Jerusalem a goal that can be achieved through other means.”
Concluding his speech, Qassem addressed several points regarding the reconstruction of areas bombed by Israel, the future of Lebanon’s institutions – including the presidential elections on January 9, and Hezbollah’s cooperation with the army moving forward.
Towards the presidential elections: Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, has announced that a session will be held on January 9, 2025, for the election of Lebanon’s new President of the Republic. The announcement to elect a head of state after more than two years of presidential vacuum coincides with a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which the Israeli army said was being breached in the south.
Commenting on the presidential session, Berri said that “it will be fruitful, and we have given a one-month period to reach consensus among us.” He noted that he will invite foreign ambassadors to attend the upcoming session.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since President Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022; the country has been run since by a caretaker government with limited powers. This vacuum in governance has paralyzed many state institutions, including the parliament, and has worsened the country’s already dire economic and social situation. Since then, the deeply divided parliament has held 12 sessions to elect a head of state that all ended in failure.
In The Region
IRGC commander killed: A commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed on Thursday in clashes between Islamist-opposition forces and the Syrian army supported by Iran, IRGC-affiliated media reported, with the clashes having killed at least 153 fighters.
“Brigadier General Kioumars Pour Hashemi, known as Haji Hashem, one of the senior Iranian advisors, was martyred in Aleppo a few minutes ago in an attack by terrorist Takfiri mercenaries,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, said on Thursday.
Rebel forces spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a major attack on Aleppo’s western countryside on Wednesday and reached within ten kilometers of Aleppo city, taking government positions and Syrian army bases along the way. The clashes have left at least 153 fighters dead – 99 rebels and 54 regime forces – according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
A new front: A group of Islamist-opposition forces led by HTS on Thursday opened another front and launched an attack towards Saraqib city in eastern Idlib province, taking control of several villages along the way. Russia, the top ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, stepped in and carried out airstrikes against the advancing insurgents, according to the Observatory, striking civilian neighborhoods. The Kremlin said in fact that it considered the attack an encroachment on Syria’s sovereignty and that it supported the quickest possible establishment of constitutional order in the region.
HTS, the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, is the prominent force among dozens of opposition factions in the northwest. The group controls large swathes of Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces. A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey has been in place in northwest Syria since March 2020, but violence has recently flared in the area.
Insurgents also breached Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, on Friday, according to a war monitor and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing on the city’s edge and added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars. Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since they were ousted from eastern neighborhoods in 2016, following a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups. But this time, there was no sign of a significant pushback from government forces or their allies. Instead, reports emerged of government forces melting away in the face of advances, and insurgents posted messages on social media calling on troops to surrender.
The attack, which used drone technology – a new weapon for the insurgents’ forces – injected new violence into a region experiencing dual wars in Gaza and Lebanon involving Israel, and other conflicts, including the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.
Ankara’s role: The attack on Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.
Turkish security officials said Thursday that Syrian opposition groups initially launched a long-planned “limited” offensive toward Aleppo, where attacks targeting civilians originated. However, the offensive expanded as Syrian government forces began retreating from their positions, the officials said. The aim of the offensive was to reestablish the boundaries of the de-escalation zone, according to Turkish officials.
However, while Turkey’s direct involvement has not been confirmed, the country could benefit from the events by making internal and regional gains. Besides backing opposition forces, in fact, Turkey has also established a military presence in Syria, sending troops into parts of the northwest.
As speculation grows about a potential US withdrawal from Syria under a returning Donald Trump administration – which would affect the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US ally – Turkey may also be seeking to expand its influence in Syrian territories. Such an expansion could weaken the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the dominant force within the SDF, which Ankara views as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – which would disrupt Kurdish efforts to establish an autonomous region. This strategy has gained renewed urgency following a late October bombing near Turkey’s capital, claimed by the PKK, which reignited Ankara’s security concerns even as tentative efforts to open dialogue with Kurdish representatives were underway.
Ongoing genocide: Meanwhile, in Gaza, indiscriminate and brutal violence has never stopped. The Ministry of Health in the besieged enclave stated that Israeli forces committed four massacres only on Saturday, with numerous victims still trapped under rubble and in the streets. Ambulance and rescue crews have been unable to reach many areas due to ongoing attacks.
51 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since Saturday morning, Al-Jazeera reported, citing medical sources, while seven more people were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Shejaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City: in the same area, another attack later killed a young girl and injured several others, all women and children. The Palestinian Information Center also reported seven deaths following an Israeli bombing that struck a vehicle and a group of civilians collecting flour in the Qizan Al-Najjar area, south of Khan Yunis. An Israeli drone was also reported to have dropped bombs near a station in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.
Moreover, three aid workers with the non-governmental organization World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. The workers – Azem Abu Daqqa, Ahed Azmi Qudaih, and Muhammad Adel Al-Namla – were traveling in a vehicle marked with the organization’s logo when it was targeted near Salah al-Din Street, northeast of Khan Yunis. This follows a similar event last April when seven workers from the organization were killed in an Israeli airstrike, which the army later admitted was a mistake.
An impossible end: According to the daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Hamas leadership said that it was “open to discussing all ideas and proposals that will lead to the end of the war, the protection of the Palestinian people, the withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip, the return of displaced persons, the entry of humanitarian aid” and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. However, the Palestinian resistance’s party has not yet received any new proposals, although the organization is ready to consider all those that include a ceasefire and a gradual withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip, “provided that there are international guarantees.”
At the same time, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said that the proposal currently on the table for a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal to release the hostages is irrelevant and that he knows that “the Prime Minister really does not want his party, Otzma Yehudit, to leave the government,” in an interview with Army Radio carried by Haaretz.
He added: “We are currently on the right track in Gaza. Ideas such as colonizing the Gaza Strip are welcome. Conquering Gaza is certainly an idea. But I must admit that this is not enough for me; I also want to encourage migration. I think we should allow Palestinians to leave their country voluntarily.” Ben-Gvir said he was “working hard with the Prime Minister to make this happen, and he was beginning to show some openness on the issue.”
Banning UNRWA: It has been almost a month since the Israeli Knesset voted to bar UNRWA from operating in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli authorities have moved forward with its implementation, despite widespread condemnation from the international community and some of Israel’s allies.
The United Nations itself has denounced the move saying it will have “devastating consequences” as it is the main agency delivering aid to Gaza. While the UNRWA ban will undoubtedly amplify the suffering of Palestinians, it will also elevate the two and a half million Palestine refugees in Gaza and the West Bank to a new level of international protection under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose preferred solution for protracted refugee situations is voluntary repatriation: the right of return. Which is the opposite of what Israel’s far-right cabinet is hoping to achieve.
If the Knesset legislation is implemented and UNRWA is prevented from delivering services, Palestinian refugees – in the absence of a just and lasting solution, which is further away than ever – will then fall under the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951 and the mandate of UNHCR.
Moreover, if UNRWA is banned from operating in the Occupied Territories, it falls exclusively to the occupying power, Israel, to deliver services to Palestinian refugees: particularly egregious at a time when that power is engaged in what the International Court of Justice views as a genocide and its Prime Minister and Defense Minister face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon of war, persecution and other inhumane acts.
Violence in the West Bank: The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that four people have been killed on Sunday morning in an Israeli airstrike in Siir, near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin..
The Israeli army had indicated in the morning that an air force aircraft had carried out “a strike on terrorists” in the Jenin region, without giving further details. Asked again to confirm the toll, it did not respond immediately. According to an AFP journalist at the scene, the army entered the village of Siir around 7am, before withdrawing in the afternoon. He described seeing two destroyed vehicles near a wooded area and traces of blood at the scene.
Last month, the Israeli army launched several raids in Jenin, killing nine people. The Palestinian city has often been subject to Israeli raids over the years, intensifying amid Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. Two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were also killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank village of Yabad on November 24, the Palestinian Authority said. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 780 Palestinians in the West Bank during the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
The Yemeni front: Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile strike on Israel on Sunday morning, Haaretz reported. Sirens sounded across the center of the country in the morning, as Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee said a missile fired from Yemen had been intercepted before entering Israeli airspace. The Houthis claimed that the hypersonic missile had hit a vital target.
In solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the Houthis have targeted Israeli sites, cargo ships or those associated with Tel Aviv with missiles and drones, expressing their determination to continue operations until the end of the onslaught on the enclave.
A coalition led by the US has been conducting airstrikes since the beginning of 2024 that it said are targeting Houthi locations in parts of Yemen in response to attacks by the group on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The counter attacks have been occasionally met with retaliation from the group. With the intervention of Washington and London, the Houthis announced they consider all American and British ships military targets.
The world’s biggest humanitarian crisis: On Monday, November 25, the first cargo flight carrying critical drugs and medical supplies arrived in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis, the first humanitarian flight to the region since the conflict began 19 months ago. The planeload of medical supplies and medicines including antibiotics such as amoxicillin, which is used to treat bacterial infections such as pneumonia, landed at Damazine Airport after government approvals to use three airports in Sudan for aid deliveries.
Sudan is facing the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 11 million people forced from their homes and 25.6 million people – about half of the population – suffering from severe hunger.
A recent surge in fighting in Blue Nile state last week displaced more than 5,400 households, adding to more than 406,121 people who have been displaced since the conflict began and who are in need of humanitarian aid including shelter, food and health care services.
At the same time, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, President Philémon Yang called for urgent collective action to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and stressed the shared responsibility of UN bodies to safeguard global peace and security. He voiced “grave concern” over the increasing use of veto power in the Council since 2022, referencing General Assembly resolution 77/262. That resolution, among others, mandated the General Assembly President to convene a meeting of the 193-member-body to discuss the situation in which the veto was cast.
“This alarming trend highlights, yet again, the urgent need for the General Assembly to take initiative on critical issues of peace and security when the Security Council finds itself paralyzed and unable to fulfil its core mandate,” Yang said. The negative vote by the permanent Council member earlier last month prevented the adoption of a draft resolution that would have strengthened measures to protect civilians and increase humanitarian access across Sudan.
What We’re Reading
Banking crisis in the making: Figures released by the BDL denote once more a significant discrepancy between the dollar-denominated deposits in Lebanese banks and the actual dollar reserves, Maan Barazy analysed, pointing out at how these indicators ring the bell of another banking crisis in the country.
Disabled and displaced: Rodayna Raydan reported on how the war has exacerbated the suffering of people with disabilities in Lebanon, as many had to leave behind their belongings and essential assistive devices such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, oxygen tanks, and other critical supplies; some have sought refuge in shelters ill-equipped to accommodate displaced individuals, while others were left to sleep on the streets.
A manufactured victory: Ramzi Abou Ismail shed light on the contradictory narratives behind the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.
Sea of trash: Valeria Rando interviewed environmental engineer Ziad Abi Chaker for NOW, drawing a timeline of waste mismanagement and the spread of landfills along the coasts of Lebanon.
Lebanon +
Anti-government forces in northwest Syria launched their biggest offensive in years. In the latest episode of Al-Jazeera Inside Story’s podcast, Bernard Smith debated with Qutaiba Idlibi, Senior policy adviser at the American Coalition for Syria, Omer Ozkizilcik, Director of Turkish Studies at the Omran Diraset Research Organization, and Caroline Rose, Director at the New Lines Institute, about the reasons why violence flared up again, and how it could possibly escalate.
