Israel Launches New Gaza Strikes after Weekend Attack Kills Scores in Safe Zone

Palestinians gather near damages after an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians gather near damages after an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Israel Launches New Gaza Strikes after Weekend Attack Kills Scores in Safe Zone

Palestinians gather near damages after an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians gather near damages after an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Israel struck the southern and central Gaza Strip on Monday to put more pressure on Hamas, following a weekend strike targeting the group's leadership which killed scores of Palestinians camped in a designated "safe zone".
Two days after the Israeli strike turned a crowded swathe of Mawasi near the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland littered with burning cars and mangled bodies, displaced survivors said they had no idea where they should go next, said Reuters.
"Those moments as the ground shook underneath my feet and the dust and sand rose to the sky and I saw dismembered bodies - was like nothing I have seen in my life," said Aya Mohammad, 30, a market seller in Mawasi, reached by mobile text message.
"Where to go is what everybody asks, and no one has the answer."
Mawasi on the western outskirts of Khan Younis has been sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled to the area after Israel declared it a safe zone. Israel said its strike there on Saturday targeted Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, an architect of the Oct. 7 assault on Israeli towns and villages that triggered the Gaza war.
Palestinian officials say at least 90 people were killed on Saturday and many hundreds wounded. Reuters journalists at the scene filmed carnage, with residents carrying the wounded and dead amid flames and smoke.
Further south in Rafah, main focus of Israel's advance since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. Israeli forces in western and central parts of the city blew up several homes, they said. Medical officials said they recovered 10 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in eastern areas of the city, some of which had already begun to decompose.
The military also stepped up aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi historic refugee camps. Health officials said five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Maghazi camp.
The Israeli military said the air forces struck dozens of Palestinian military targets across Gaza, killing many gunmen. It said forces killed gunmen in Rafah and central Gaza, sometimes in close combat.
A statement from the Al-Quds brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad militant group, said its fighters were engaged in fierce battles in the Yabna camp in Rafah.
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Saturday's carnage in Mawasi, one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the war, has overshadowed negotiations that both sides had previously described as the closest yet to a lasting ceasefire. A senior Hamas official said on Sunday the group had not walked out of the talks despite the Mawasi strike.
Israel says another senior commander was killed in the strike but it has not yet confirmed the fate of Deif. Hamas officials have denied Deif was killed.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military offensive since Oct. 7. It does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but officials say most of the dead throughout the war have been civilians.
Israel says it has lost 326 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters.
The war began after a Hamas-led attack inside Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 250 hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.



EU Cautiously Agrees Roadmap to Ease Sanctions on Syria in Wake of Assad’s Downfall

 People walk in front of the historic Hejaz train station in Damascus on January 26, 2025. (AFP)
People walk in front of the historic Hejaz train station in Damascus on January 26, 2025. (AFP)
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EU Cautiously Agrees Roadmap to Ease Sanctions on Syria in Wake of Assad’s Downfall

 People walk in front of the historic Hejaz train station in Damascus on January 26, 2025. (AFP)
People walk in front of the historic Hejaz train station in Damascus on January 26, 2025. (AFP)

European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to begin lifting sanctions on Syria, while insisting that the measures should be reimposed if they see any abuses by the country’s new rulers.

The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials and organizations in 2011 in response to Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protesters, which festered into a civil war.

The 27-nation bloc targeted 316 people and 86 entities accused of backing Syria’s former ruler. It is keen to lift those measures if Syria’s new leaders set the country on the path to a peaceful political future involving all minority groups and in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ministers had agreed on a “roadmap” for easing sanctions. Speaking after chairing the meeting, she said, the aim was to lift those measures “that are most hindering the early buildup of the country and to move from there.”

She underlined that the ministers had only reached “a political agreement” - not one to start easing the measures immediately - and that “there are also technical issues to be solved” in the weeks ahead before any sanctions can be lifted.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani welcomed on Monday the EU's decision to lift sanctions, describing it as a “positive step” in a post on X.

Kallas said that an easing of sanctions “could give a boost to the Syrian economy and help the country get back on its feet.” But she added: “While we aim to move fast, we also are ready to reverse the course if the situation worsens.”

The ministers favor on a “snap back” mechanism to reimpose sanctions if they believe that Syria's new leaders are heading in the wrong direction.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said the aim would be to lift restrictions on things like Syria’s infrastructure and energy sector “so that the country can develop itself again.” He said that “certain sanctions will stay in place, such as (on) weapons exports.”

Since Damascus fell on Dec. 8 and Assad fled to Moscow, Syria’s transition has appeared promising, but the new leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how the country will be governed.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group – a former al-Qaeda affiliate that the EU and UN consider to be a terrorist organization – has established itself as Syria’s de facto rulers after coordinating with the southern fighters during the offensive late last year.

Veldkamp said that the restrictions on HTS itself would not be eased initially. “They’re the new ones in power. We want to see how their words are translated into actions,” he told reporters.