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UN Considers Response to Israeli Move to Build a Military Compound on Site of Relief Agency

The front gate of the east Jerusalem compound of UNRWA is seen in east Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. (AP)
The front gate of the east Jerusalem compound of UNRWA is seen in east Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. (AP)
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UN Considers Response to Israeli Move to Build a Military Compound on Site of Relief Agency

The front gate of the east Jerusalem compound of UNRWA is seen in east Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. (AP)
The front gate of the east Jerusalem compound of UNRWA is seen in east Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. (AP)

The United Nations is considering how to respond to Israel's announcement that it will build a military complex on the former headquarters of the UN relief agency for Palestinians in east Jerusalem, an official said Tuesday.

Israel at the weekend announced the government's approval for a defense ministry complex at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ’s compound in Sheikh Jarrah, including a museum and enlistment office.

“The matter is currently under consideration at the level of the legal council, the highest legal authority of the United Nations in New York,” UNRWA Deputy Commissioner General Natalie Boucly told The Associated Press during a visit to Syria.

“These are UN premises and, at a minimum, this is a breach of the 1946 UN Convention on privileges and immunities,” she said.

Israel bulldozed part of the UNRWA compound in January, capping off a decades-long campaign against the agency, which became acute following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel has accused the UN agency of harboring staff members affiliated with Hamas, accusing some of taking part in the attacks. UNRWA leaders have said they took swift action against the employees accused of taking part in the 2023 attacks, and have denied allegations that the agency tolerates or collaborates with Hamas.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said the plan to build a defense complex on the former UNRWA headquarters was “a decision of sovereignty, Zionism and security.”

“In a place where an organization that became part of the terror and incitement mechanism against Israel operated, institutions will be established that will strengthen Jerusalem, the (Israeli army), and the State of Israel,” Katz said in a statement on Sunday.

The decision came on Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel considers the entire city of Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state.

The UNRWA compound was shut down in May 2025 after far-right protesters, including at least one member of parliament, overran its gate in view of the police.

UNRWA’s mandate is to provide aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Its operations were curtailed last year when Israel’s Knesset passed legislation severing ties and banning it from functioning in what it defines as Israel — including east Jerusalem.

Boucly said the humanitarian situation in Gaza “remains absolutely dire.” While UNRWA international staff have been barred by Israel from entering Gaza, about 10,000 local staff continue to work in the enclave, including teachers, health workers and sanitation workers, she said.

Despite a tenuous ceasefire, “there are issues with insufficient aid coming in,” she said. “It is not coming in at scale and reconstruction is not starting fast enough for the people to see a real change on the ground.”

Boucly spoke to the AP from Syria's Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, where the situation is somewhat more hopeful as former residents who fled during the country's 14-year civil war have been gradually returning.

Taken over by a series of armed groups then bombarded by the military of then President Bashar al-Assad, the camp was all but abandoned after 2018. The buildings that were not destroyed by bombs were demolished by the government or stripped by thieves.

After Assad's ouster in 2024, former residents began to trickle back and repair their damaged homes. As of April, some 60,000 people had returned to the camp, of which 80% are Palestinian refugees, Boucly said.

Assistance to those returning to the camp has been limited, she acknowledged. UNRWA has received donor aid to rehabilitate schools and health centers, but has been unable to provide more than minor assistance to people needing to repair their damaged homes, she said.

Despite anxieties about shrinking funding, she said, “I think there is a situation of hope for Palestine refugees” in Syria.

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Arab World

Türkiye Rejects Israeli Claims After Strike on Syria Air Base

The Abu al-Duhur base following Israeli strikes, Syria, August 18, 2026. (Reuters)
The Abu al-Duhur base following Israeli strikes, Syria, August 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Rejects Israeli Claims After Strike on Syria Air Base

The Abu al-Duhur base following Israeli strikes, Syria, August 18, 2026. (Reuters)
The Abu al-Duhur base following Israeli strikes, Syria, August 18, 2026. (Reuters)

Türkiye rejected on Wednesday Israeli allegations that it posed a threat by preparing to send troops to a base in Syria, which was hit in a strike that the United States blamed on Israel.

The strike marked extraordinary defiance by Israel of the United States, which has sought to support Syria's new government.

"Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement after a day of official silence by Israel.

"Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel's security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings," said the statement, which stopped short of acknowledging Israeli responsibility.

Türkiye is a NATO ally of the United States. But Israel has tense relations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has vociferously denounced Israel, especially over its devastating offensive in Gaza.

The Turkish government slammed Israel's remarks in a statement on Wednesday quoted by the Anadolu state news agency.

"The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister's office aim to legitimize Israel's unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said.

US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said earlier Tuesday it was confirmed that Israel carried out the strikes on the Abu al-Duhur air base in Idlib province.

The attacks "constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability", Barrack, a business friend of President Donald Trump who is also ambassador to Türkiye, wrote on X.

"We encourage all parties to prioritize logical discourse over further military incidents," he said.

- Expansion of fight against Türkiye -

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad by opposition forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who enjoys support from Türkiye.

It has also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974, and carries out regular incursions deeper inside Syrian territory.

But the strike goes much further into Syria than the so-called security zone.

Israel has been seen as seeking to press its advantage at a weak moment for historic adversary Syria, which welcomed Russian forces during Assad's reign.

Syrian state media, quoting a military source, said that Israeli aircraft targeted the runway of the base with eight strikes, damaging infrastructure but without causing casualties.

The facility has been out of service since 2012 and is protected by Syrian defense ministry forces, a security source told AFP.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, the strikes came after "a visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield in recent days as part of efforts to reactivate it".

The relationship between Netanyahu and Erdogan has become increasingly poisoned.

A billboard for Netanyahu's Likud party ahead of October elections in Israel pictured the Turkish leader alongside figures including Naim Qassem, head of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, boasting that they want Netanyahu to lose.

Syria's foreign ministry condemned "in the strongest terms the Israeli airstrikes" targeting the base, calling them "an unjustified act of aggression" and urging action by the UN Security Council.

The attacks come as Syria "has exercised restraint and worked to consolidate stability and avoid escalation", it added.

Despite tensions between the neighbors, Israel and Syria's new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and have agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Last month, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani demanded an unconditional withdrawal by Israel, warning that "the unlawful occupation of our land beyond the 1974 line is a direct threat to the security of the region".

But last week Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that his country planned to keep troops in Syria.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on a visit to Damascus last month said that "violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable and must cease," adding that "the Golan Heights are Syrian territory."

Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.

Arab World

Houthis Target Mokha to Halt Port’s Growing Role

Dozens of Houthi missiles and drones targeted Yemen’s Mokha port (AFP)
Dozens of Houthi missiles and drones targeted Yemen’s Mokha port (AFP)
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Houthis Target Mokha to Halt Port’s Growing Role

Dozens of Houthi missiles and drones targeted Yemen’s Mokha port (AFP)
Dozens of Houthi missiles and drones targeted Yemen’s Mokha port (AFP)

For more than a week, Iran-backed Houthis have pounded Yemen’s city of Mokha, its port and nearby harbors close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones.

The sweeping escalation in Mokha has knocked the port out of service and caused heavy damage to infrastructure, facilities and docked vessels.

The Houthis say they are targeting military-linked sites and vessels, but those claims have not been verified.

Government and informed sources say the scale and pattern of the attacks point to broader aims, including possible military shifts along the western coast and Houthi fears that Mokha could emerge as a commercial rival to the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah.

Government forces on the western coast say the Houthis have fired 46 ballistic missiles and 55 drones at the commercial port and nearby harbors, while also using explosive-laden boats.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis fear a surprise government offensive but remain uncertain about where any operation could begin.

That concern, the sources said, has driven attacks on positions held by elite Yemeni army units now ready to take part in any potential battle launched from Marib province.

The Houthis have sharply intensified strikes on Mokha port and nearby facilities in an apparent effort to disrupt its expanding role as a Red Sea commercial hub, just as development and rehabilitation work is nearing completion to allow the port to receive container ships and boost import and export activity.

The unprecedented bombardment has halted port operations and stopped ships carrying food, electrical goods, and other cargo from arriving from the opposite shore of the Red Sea, at a time when the port had been preparing for a new phase of commercial activity.

Informed sources say the scale of the attacks reflects Mokha’s growing importance to importers and traders, especially those moving goods to northern Yemen through Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port, where commercial sources say they face multiple levies and fees.

The targets struck by missiles and drones also point to Houthi fears that Mokha could become an alternative commercial and maritime hub, drawing on its location near Bab al-Mandab and its ability to serve large areas including Taiz, Ibb, and parts of Lahj, Hodeidah, and al-Dhale.

But the Houthis’ calculations go beyond trade, according to the sources. The group also sees Mokha as a possible launch point for military operations against other areas it controls in Hodeidah province, placing the city and its port within a wider military equation.

Civilian facilities hit

The scale of the damage underlines the breadth of the attacks.

In the first days of the bombardment, three commercial vessels docked at the port were destroyed, including a wooden ship carrying goods for several traders and agencies. Unloading operations later stopped after workers were evacuated and rented cranes were put out of service.

The initial strikes killed seven people inside the port, including three civilians — a cook, a laborer, and an administrative employee — and four members of the facilities security force.

The attacks also hit the quay, logistics workshops, and the central hangar, as well as equipment and marine craft used to service vessels, crippling key parts of the port’s operations.

In the following days, the Houthis struck the Tihama, a commercial vessel that carried food and passengers between Yemeni ports, the Horn of Africa, and the Socotra archipelago.

Four crew members were killed, along with two Yemeni rescuers who were trying to save the crew and the vessel, according to local sources.

In the latest attack, the group fired four missiles at a locally owned commercial vessel docked at al-Ardi harbor in the Bab al-Mandab area. The ship, owned by a local contractor, had been under maintenance for several months after unloading its cargo.

Maritime sources said Yemeni contractor Bilal al-Shumairi had bought the vessel, named Amir Khan, from an Indian trader in Indonesia for use in his maritime and commercial activities.

The sources said the crew was Yemeni and had fully evacuated the ship during the previous week, preventing any casualties among its members.

Houthi losses mount

The escalation around Mokha comes as the Houthis suffer battlefield losses along front lines with government forces, particularly south of Hodeidah.

More than 180 Houthi fighters have been killed there, according to government sources, without the group making gains or capturing new positions.

The sources said the losses come as the Houthis seek to reinforce their military presence along western coast fronts while intensifying strikes on Mokha and the Bab al-Mandab area.

They said the pattern suggests an effort to complicate the battlefield and pressure government forces ahead of any possible military move.

The Houthis have also suffered losses on other fronts, including the killing of Hussein al-Hatfi, commander of the guard detail protecting Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi, brother of the group’s leader and commander of what the Houthis call the “Central Military Region.”

Al-Hatfi was killed in a drone strike carried out by government forces as part of a series of attacks on Houthi positions and gatherings, according to the sources.

Government sources said al-Hatfi was from the Majz area of Saada province and was the fourth of his brothers to be killed while fighting in Houthi ranks since the war began.

Arab World

Hezbollah Threat to Mobilize the Street: Venting Anger or a Pressure Tactic?

Hezbollah supporters wave the flags of the group and Iran in Beirut’s southern suburbs during a ceremony held last month to coincide with the funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters wave the flags of the group and Iran in Beirut’s southern suburbs during a ceremony held last month to coincide with the funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (EPA)
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Hezbollah Threat to Mobilize the Street: Venting Anger or a Pressure Tactic?

Hezbollah supporters wave the flags of the group and Iran in Beirut’s southern suburbs during a ceremony held last month to coincide with the funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters wave the flags of the group and Iran in Beirut’s southern suburbs during a ceremony held last month to coincide with the funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (EPA)

“You have the right to be angry. But we ask you to hold that anger inside and be ready to use it when the time comes to achieve your goals and demands.” With those words, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem addressed supporters in his latest appearance last week.

He then went further: “This anger has its time, and it can erupt,” warning in advance that responsibility for the fallout from any such eruption would lie with those who “do not know how to do their job” or who “try to work against the resistance and its people.”

The remarks have raised a broader question in Lebanon: Is Hezbollah preparing its supporters for a stage in which it moves from containing anger in the street to mobilizing it?

The question comes as southern Lebanon and its residents face severe hardship, mounting losses, and growing political and military pressure.

No decision to take to the streets

For now, there is still a gap between anger and a decision to mobilize.

Qassem Qassir, a political writer close to Hezbollah, said the anger Qassem referred to “is real and present within the resistance’s support base, particularly in the south, which is facing Israeli killings, destruction and massacres, which the Lebanese authorities have been unable to stop despite ongoing negotiations with Israel.”

But Qassir said there was “no information so far indicating any change in Hezbollah and the Amal Movement’s decision not to take to the streets.” Amal, led by parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is a close ally to the Iran-backed party.

Qassir said some groups occasionally stage spontaneous protests, while anger is also expressed through statements and comments on social media.

Still, he said Qassem’s remarks could be “a signal for steps to come,” particularly amid what he described as “psychological preparations” for possible action if the situation moves toward further escalation.

“Hezbollah’s popular base is ready to mobilize,” he said, pointing to large turnouts whenever supporters are called to an event or funeral.

Protest vs. uprising

Political writer and academic Mona Fayyad drew a sharper distinction between anger inside Hezbollah’s support base and the ability to turn it into collective action.

“The main question is whether there is anger among Hezbollah’s supporters that could lead to an explosion, and whether the secretary-general is capable of turning that anger into actual mobilization,” Fayyad told Asharq Al-Awsat.

She said anger was unsurprising given displacement and the difficult social and living conditions facing Hezbollah’s supporters. But, she added, that did not mean it would become a popular uprising.

Collective action, she said, requires several conditions: a shared sense of threat, confidence in the leadership calling for action, and a belief that mobilization can produce results.

She also warned that a leader who identifies his supporters’ anger while asking them to delay expressing it risks widening the gap between the leadership and its base.

Qassem’s limited charisma “does not help him manage Hezbollah’s relationship with its supporters or turn anger into popular mobilization,” she went on to say.

‘Operating on the margins’

Lawyer and university professor Ali Mourad was more critical.

He said Qassem’s latest speech, particularly his effort to place responsibility for the consequences of the war on the state, reflected “a major illusion” and “a continued attempt to evade responsibility by shifting it onto the state.”

“The situation in the south is extremely difficult, and Jabal Amel is facing one of its most dangerous political and social moments after the people of the south were uprooted from their land,” Mourad told Asharq Al-Awsat.

But he questioned where Qassem’s threatened “eruption” would be directed.

“Against whom would this explosion be, and for what purpose?” he asked. “Would it be against the state, which is now dealing with the consequences of a war it was not part of?”

“The current phase is not one of anger or explosion,” Mourad said. “It is a phase of reassessment, limiting losses and dealing with their consequences.”

He said Hezbollah was “incapable of taking serious steps in this direction” and was instead “operating on the margins to escape its responsibility.”

The people of the south understand that the state is not responsible for what happened and that responsibility for the choices that led to the war lies with Hezbollah, he stressed.

Mourad said the “anger, wounds, and sorrow” felt by southerners should instead be translated into politics by ending the existing duality and moving toward a clearer equation based on “land in exchange for weapons,” rather than “fueling the battle or reproducing it.”

“The tragedy of the people of the south now goes beyond the political dispute between Hezbollah and its opponents,” he said. “Everyone must come under the authority of the state as the only available option.”

Mourad ended with a pointed question: What is the value of calling people into the streets to protest when many are already living there after losing their homes and property?