3 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Combat in Southern Gaza

An Israeli soldier stands guard near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, May 28, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
An Israeli soldier stands guard near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, May 28, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
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3 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Combat in Southern Gaza

An Israeli soldier stands guard near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, May 28, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
An Israeli soldier stands guard near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, May 28, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The Israeli military said three soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, as it pressed ahead with its offensive in Rafah.

Three more soldiers were badly wounded in the same incident, the military said, though it provided no further details. Israel's public broadcaster Kan radio said they were hurt by an explosive device set off in a building in Rafah.

Israel's assault on Rafah, launched May 6, spurred more than 1 million people to flee the city, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. Most were already displaced multiple times in the nearly eight-month war between Israel and Hamas. Families are now scattered across makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.



US and Regional Countries Team Up to Resolve the Issue of ISIS Prisoners in Syria

File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
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US and Regional Countries Team Up to Resolve the Issue of ISIS Prisoners in Syria

File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR

Türkiye, the United States, Syria and Iraq have formed a working group to try to resolve the issue of ISIS group prisoners held in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published Thursday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, control large parts of northeast Syria bordering Türkiye and Iraq and oversee more than a dozen prison camps holding thousands of suspected ISIS fighters and their families.

US President Donald Trump asked the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” for some 9,000 ISIS prisoners when he met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on May 14.

Erdogan said a committee had been formed to work out what to do with the prisoners, particularly women and children held at refugee camps such as Al-Hol in northern Syria. His comments on the presidential website were released as he returned from a trip to Hungary.

“Iraq needs to focus on the issue of the camps,” Erdogan said. “The vast majority of women and children in the Al Hol camp in particular belong to Iraq and Syria. They should do what is necessary for them.”

In 2014, ISIS declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and attracted tens of thousands of supporters from around the world. The extremists were defeated by a US-led coalition in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Tens of thousands of people linked to the group were taken to al-Hol camp close to the Iraqi border.

It is anticipated that the government in Damascus will take control of the prison camps, a move Erdogan said would make it easier to integrate the Kurdish forces in Syria.

Kurdish fighters in Syria have ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which on May 12 agreed to dissolve and lay down its weapons following a four-decade insurgency against Türkiye.

Meanwhile, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday that Türkiye will start exporting natural gas to provide electricity to Syria.

“We will soon start exporting gas that will reach Aleppo and Homs, with an annual contribution of approximately 2 billion cubic meters, or 1,200 to 1,300 megawatts, to the electricity production here,” he said during a joint news conference in Damascus.

Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed Bashir said a gas pipeline coming from Türkiye’s Kilis would become operational in June. The heat from burning gas is used to create electricity by spinning a turbine that in turn powers a generator.

Bayraktar said the increase in gas exports represented a tripling of the present level. He added that Türkiye was helping Syria to exploit its own oil and gas resources as well as “discovering new resources, on both land and sea, and using the economic values ... from these in Syria’s reconstruction and infrastructure.”