Israel Kills Six in Southern Syria, Syrian Ministry Says

People evacuate the town of Kuya in the western countryside on the Syrian border with Israel, after Israeli forces shelled the town, Syria, 25 March 2025. (EPA)
People evacuate the town of Kuya in the western countryside on the Syrian border with Israel, after Israeli forces shelled the town, Syria, 25 March 2025. (EPA)
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Israel Kills Six in Southern Syria, Syrian Ministry Says

People evacuate the town of Kuya in the western countryside on the Syrian border with Israel, after Israeli forces shelled the town, Syria, 25 March 2025. (EPA)
People evacuate the town of Kuya in the western countryside on the Syrian border with Israel, after Israeli forces shelled the town, Syria, 25 March 2025. (EPA)

An Israeli attack killed six people in southern Syria on Tuesday, Syria's foreign ministry said, after the Israeli military said its troops had clashed with gunmen who had opened fire on them.

Israeli troops occupying the area clashed with local residents, Syrian state media and a war monitor reported.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said troops fired back at gunmen who attacked them, before launching a drone attack.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA said several people were wounded, including a woman.

The Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at seven. The observatory and a town resident told The Associated Press that clashes had erupted between Israeli troops and residents when the Israeli troops fired.

The violence in the border area marks increased friction between Israel and Syria, where a new leadership has been installed after opposition factions ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad from power in December.

Israel says it will not tolerate an armed presence in southern Syria and has sent its troops into Syria's border zone. Syria's leadership has said it does not intend to open a front against Israel.

The Israeli military said militants in southern Syria opened fire toward Israeli troops, without specifying whether the Israeli troops were within Syrian territory when they were targeted.

It said its troops returned fire and that an Israeli warplane struck the militants. It gave no details on casualties but said "hits were identified".

Syria's foreign ministry said six people had been killed in the attack on Koya, a town in the southern province of Daraa, adding that the toll was expected to rise due to serious injuries sustained from the attack.

It has called for an international investigation into the Israeli attacks on its territory, describing them as a "blatant violation of its sovereignty".

Earlier, Israel said it had attacked two military bases, Tadmur and T4, in Homs province in central Syria.

Israel spent years carrying out airstrikes on Syria during Assad's rule, targeting Iran-linked military installations and weapons transfers from Tehran intended for the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

That arms route was cut when Assad was toppled but Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Syrian military bases.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned on Tuesday that Israel's strikes into Syria "risk further escalation".

Speaking at a joint press conference with Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar, Kallas said the pair had discussed Israel's actions.

"And we (the EU) feel that these things are unnecessary, because Syria is right now not attacking Israel," Kallas said.

The foreign ministry also urged Syrian people to reject any attempts to displace them or "enforce any new realities on the ground".



Lebanese Officials, Palestinian President Agree on State Monopoly over Arms

This handout picture released by the Palestinian Authority's Press Office (PPO) shows President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam talking as they overlook Beirut on May 22, 2025. (PPO / AFP / Handout)
This handout picture released by the Palestinian Authority's Press Office (PPO) shows President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam talking as they overlook Beirut on May 22, 2025. (PPO / AFP / Handout)
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Lebanese Officials, Palestinian President Agree on State Monopoly over Arms

This handout picture released by the Palestinian Authority's Press Office (PPO) shows President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam talking as they overlook Beirut on May 22, 2025. (PPO / AFP / Handout)
This handout picture released by the Palestinian Authority's Press Office (PPO) shows President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam talking as they overlook Beirut on May 22, 2025. (PPO / AFP / Handout)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continued on Thursday his visit to Lebanon with agreements being reached that only the Lebanese state should have monopoly over the possession of weapons, effectively ending the proliferation of Palestinian arms in the country.

Abbas held separate meetings with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday. The visit, his first to Lebanon since 2017, aims to resolve the issue of Palestinian weapons in refugee camps as the Lebanese state seeks to impose its authority throughout its territories.

The hour-long meeting with Berri tackled the general situation in Lebanon and the region as “Israel continues its aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank,” said a parliament statement. They also covered Lebanese-Palestinian relations.

Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP)

At the government palace, Abbas held a bilateral meeting with Salam, and later a security meeting attended by Lebanese and Palestinian officials.

A statement from Salam’s office said discussions focused on “ongoing efforts to bolster Lebanon’s stability and security and ensure that the sovereignty of the Lebanese state is respected throughout its territories, including in the Palestinian refugee camps.”

Salam and Abbas agreed that the Palestinians in Lebanon “are guests and they should commit to the decisions of the Lebanese state.” They rejected attempts to naturalize the Palestinians, underlining their right to return to their homeland.

They agreed “to end all forms of armed presence outside the authority of the state and completely put an end to the issue of Palestinian weapons outside or inside the camps, so that the state can have monopoly over arms.”

An agreement was reached to form a joint executive committee to implement these agreements, said the statement.

Salam and Abbas also underscored “the importance of joint work to address the rights and social issues related to the Palestinian refugees, so that their humanitarian conditions are improved while state sovereignty is respected.”

On Gaza, they called for an end to Israel’s war and rejected attempts to displace the Palestinian people. They reiterated support to the two-state solution, saying it would fairly and comprehensively resolve the conflict in the region. They urged the implementation of relevant international resolutions and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that would ensure the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Lebanese sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat the formation of the joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee that would handle the issue of Palestinian weapons in Lebanon. It will hold its first meeting on Friday.

The sources said it will be comprised of Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee chief Ramez Dimechkie, Lebanese General Security chief Hassan Choucair, Lebanese Army Intelligence chief Brigadier General Tony Kahwaji, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Azzam al-Ahmed, Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, and Secretary of Fatah and PLO factions in Lebanon Fathi Abu al-Ardat.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) signs a guest book as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon, 21 May 2025. (EPA)

Salam confirmed Friday's meeting in a post on the X platform. He said it will discuss “setting a clear timeframe for the implementation of the mechanism to limit the possession of weapons to the state, including arms inside the camps. It will also discuss the civil rights of Palestinians in Lebanon.”

“These weapons no longer help achieve the rights of the Palestinian people, but they are a danger because they could be used to stir intra-Palestinian or Palestinian-Lebanese strife,” he warned.

“The strength of the Palestinian cause does not lie in the weapons inside the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, but in the rising number of countries that recognize a Palestinian state and hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating across the world in solidarity with the Palestinians and Gaza,” Salam stressed.

Abbas had kicked of his three-day visit to Lebanon on Wednesday with a meeting with President Joseph Aoun.

He had declared to Aoun that the Palestinians in Lebanon “will not operate outside of Lebanese law. They are temporary guests and have no desire, opinion or stance that supports the carrying of weapons.”

Leading member of the Progressive Socialist Party Toufic Sultan described Abbas and Aoun’s meeting as “historic”.

Speaking at a press conference, he added: “We have waited long for the Palestinian presence and their weapons to be put on the table. It has long been a dream for Lebanon to be devoid of weapons. Gone are the days of a state within a state.”