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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)
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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.

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Arab World

Palestinian-American Hoists US Flag on Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers

Palestinian-American dual citizen Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra is besieged by Israeli settlers, poses for a picture next to a US flag on the roof of the building in Qusra on August 18, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian-American dual citizen Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra is besieged by Israeli settlers, poses for a picture next to a US flag on the roof of the building in Qusra on August 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Palestinian-American Hoists US Flag on Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers

Palestinian-American dual citizen Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra is besieged by Israeli settlers, poses for a picture next to a US flag on the roof of the building in Qusra on August 18, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinian-American dual citizen Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra is besieged by Israeli settlers, poses for a picture next to a US flag on the roof of the building in Qusra on August 18, 2026. (AFP)

A Palestinian-American has raised the US flag on his home besieged by Israeli settlers, as the United States renewed criticism of the siege that has generated condemnation around the world.

Louai Abu Ridi, who owns one of three houses in Qusra, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, flew back from his adopted home of Ohio on Monday after settlers trapped residents inside and refused to let in food or other supplies for more than a week.

He was flying the Stars and Stripes outside his home on Tuesday and said he has asked the US embassy to keep raising his case.

"It's my message to all Americans in the United States to see what's going on here in the West Bank, how the settlers put us under siege trying to take my own house in the West Bank," Abu Ridi told AFP reporters inside his home.

Under US pressure, the Israeli military said last week it had given orders to remove the settlers.

Troops took down their tent and detained one Israeli but settlers repeatedly came back by foot or in vehicles.

"The settlers come in freely into my house and they're not doing anything," he said of the soldiers.

"They even shake hands with the settlers. It's like they're friends."

- Rare US criticism -

Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been increasingly harassing and assaulting Palestinian residents in recent months, often with an aim to take their property.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has pushed to support settlements backed by the Jewish right ahead of close-fought October 27 elections.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor who has long supported settlers, has offered rare criticism over the Qusra siege and said he had asked Israel to intervene.

In interviews aired late Tuesday on Israeli television, Huckabee said the United States was committed to defending its own citizens.

"We would like to see severe consequences for people who engage in -- and I'll use the term -- terrorist activity," Huckabee told Channel 13.

"It's not fair to the families who are Palestinian, who own their homes, who have a right to raise their families without fear," said Huckabee, who before becoming ambassador had rejected the term Palestinian.

Of the extremist settlers, Huckabee said, "If this little minority, if they think they're doing their cause a favor, they are making a horrific mistake."

Around 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank on settlements considered illegal under international law, amid three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Arab World

Tunisia: Sousse Turns to Seawater Desalination to Fight Water Shortage

A seawater desalination plant in Tunisia
A seawater desalination plant in Tunisia
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Tunisia: Sousse Turns to Seawater Desalination to Fight Water Shortage

A seawater desalination plant in Tunisia
A seawater desalination plant in Tunisia

The head of the seawater desalination plant project in the coastal Tunisian city of Sousse has said that the facility entered its trial phase at a time when the region and the country are facing a severe water shortage that has sparked protests.

Moncef Ammar, the project director, told Tunisia’s state-run National Radio that the plant is now 100 percent complete and is currently undergoing testing.

The plant has a production capacity of 50,000 cubic meters per day, with the possibility of expansion to reach 100,000 cubic meters per day.

Once officially operational, the facility, which is primarily intended to serve the regions of Sousse, Monastir, and Mahdia, is expected to provide an additional water supply equivalent to about 25 percent of peak consumption levels, according to the official.

Several regions in Tunisia, particularly the Monastir governorate, have been suffering from frequent interruptions in drinking water supplies that last for several hours. These disruptions are caused either by water scarcity or by weak water flow resulting from network failures and delayed maintenance operations.

The outages have led to rising prices for bottled water, an increase in hoarding and profiteering, and angry protests in several cities.

Ammar said that the Tunisian state has pursued non-traditional water resources and turned to seawater desalination, considering it a necessity rather than an option in light of growing water scarcity, despite its high cost.

In April, the World Bank approved financing for two projects under Tunisia’s “Water Security and Resilience Program.”

The country has been suffering from water shortages due to repeated drought seasons and the effects of climate change.

The projects have a total cost of $332.5 million, of which $208.5 million is allocated to sustainably improve drinking water services for around 2.3 million Tunisians.

Lack of water has caused agricultural output to decline over recent years and production costs to rise, threatening the viability of certain crops that require large quantities of water.

To secure the future of Tunisian agriculture and strengthen the resilience of rural areas against mounting environmental challenges, there is an increasing need to expand irrigation technologies, preserve drought-adapted seeds, and establish more sustainable management of water resources.

Tunisia began using desalination technology in 1995 with the construction of a groundwater desalination plant in Gabès, following a modest pilot project on the island of Kerkennah in 1983. The country’s most significant achievement came when the Djerba desalination plant began production in May 2018 at a cost of nearly 200 million Tunisian dinars.

After decades of reluctance to expand desalination projects because of high investment costs and the expense of producing desalinated water, Tunisia’s National Water Distribution and Exploitation Company stated that turning to desalination is now “the only solution to secure new water resources.”

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.