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Palestinian Reconciliation Sessions Conclude, Avoid Thorny Files

Head of Hamas delegation Saleh Arouri and Fatah leader Azzam Ahmad sign a reconciliation deal in Cairo, Egypt, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Head of Hamas delegation Saleh Arouri and Fatah leader Azzam Ahmad sign a reconciliation deal in Cairo, Egypt, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Palestinian Reconciliation Sessions Conclude, Avoid Thorny Files

Head of Hamas delegation Saleh Arouri and Fatah leader Azzam Ahmad sign a reconciliation deal in Cairo, Egypt, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Head of Hamas delegation Saleh Arouri and Fatah leader Azzam Ahmad sign a reconciliation deal in Cairo, Egypt, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Palestinian factions left Cairo on Thursday, after concluding a session of reconciliation talks with a joint statement on the need to hold general elections by the end of 2018.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Palestinian factions avoided addressing the thorny issues impeding the implementation of the reconciliation agreement, such as controlling security in the Gaza Strip or removing the punitive measures imposed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Hamas.

Fatah and Hamas signed the reconciliation agreement on October 12, when the Palestinian Authority took over ministries and crossings in the Gaza Strip after being under Hamas’ control for 10 years.

After two days of meetings at the Egyptian General Intelligence headquarters, representatives of 13 factions and groups issued a joint statement on Thursday, which included six main items, mainly the recognition of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians and the government exercising its full functions in the Gaza Strip.

Participants agreed to call on the Central Electoral Commission and the concerned parties to complete all preparatory works in order to conduct the presidential and legislative elections and the elections of the National Council concurrently by the end of 2018. It was also agreed to request President Mahmoud Abbas to set the date of the elections after consulting all national forces.

In this regard, Naji Sharrab, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said that the statement of the factions “was vague and general”. He stressed that the joint declaration “showed the great disparity in the concept of empowering the government.”

In earlier remarks to Asharq al-Awsat, sources said that the issue of empowering the government was a major dispute between Fatah and Hamas representatives. While the former wanted to ensure greater authorities for the cabinet at the level of ministries and security services, Hamas said it had offered everything it had in this regard.

In this context, Azzam al-Ahmad, head of the Fatah movement delegation for the reconciliation talks, noted that the majority of ministers faced great difficulties in taking over their duties, adding that there were “real obstacles impeding the work of the government.”

He added that a meeting would be held on the first of December in Cairo to discuss with Hamas the issue of empowering the government and the need for the Palestinian Authority to fully control the Strip.

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Arab World

High-Level Turkish Team to Visit Damascus on Monday for Talks on SDF Integration 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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High-Level Turkish Team to Visit Damascus on Monday for Talks on SDF Integration 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)

A high-level Turkish delegation will visit Damascus on Monday to discuss bilateral ties and the implementation of a deal for integrating the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into Syria's state apparatus, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.

The visit by Türkiye’s foreign and defense ministers and its intelligence chief comes amid efforts by Syrian, Kurdish and US officials to show some progress with the deal. But Ankara accuses the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline.

Türkiye views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes ‌of northeastern Syria, as ‌a terrorist organization and has ‌warned of ⁠military action ‌if the group does not honor the agreement.

Last week Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF but that its patience was running out.

The Foreign Ministry source said Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler and the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, ⁠would attend the talks in Damascus, a year after the fall of ‌former President Bashar al-Assad.

ANKARA SAYS ITS ‍NATIONAL SECURITY IS AT ‍STAKE

The source said the integration deal "closely concerned Türkiye’s national ‍security priorities" and the delegation would discuss its implementation. Türkiye has said integration must ensure that the SDF's chain of command is broken.

Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganizing the group's roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller ⁠brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.

Türkiye sees the SDF as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group and says it too must disarm and dissolve itself, in line with a disarmament process now underway between the Turkish state and the PKK.

Ankara has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past. It accuses the group of wanting to circumvent the integration deal ‌and says this poses a threat to both Türkiye and the unity of Syria.

Arab World

Israel Demolishes Residential Building in East Jerusalem 

Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Demolishes Residential Building in East Jerusalem 

Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli bulldozers tore through a four-storey residential building in east Jerusalem on Monday, displacing scores of Palestinians in what activists said was the largest such demolition in the area this year.

The building, located in the Silwan neighborhood near the Old City, comprised a dozen apartments housing approximately 100 people, many of them women, children and elderly residents.

It was the latest in a series of buildings to be torn down as Israeli officials target what they describe as unauthorized structures in annexed east Jerusalem.

"The demolition is a tragedy for all residents," Eid Shawar, who lives in the building, told AFP.

"They broke down the door while we were asleep and told us we could only change our clothes and take essential papers and documents," said the father of five.

With nowhere else to go, Shawar said his seven-member family would have to sleep in his car.

Three bulldozers began ripping into the structure early on Monday as residents looked on, their clothes and belongings scattered across nearby streets, an AFP journalist saw.

Israeli police cordoned off surrounding roads, with security forces deployed across the area and positioned on rooftops of neighboring houses.

Built on privately owned Palestinian land, the building had been slated for demolition for lacking a permit, activists said.

Palestinians face severe obstacles in obtaining building permits due to Israel's restrictive planning policies, according to activists, an issue that has fueled tensions in east Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank for years.

- 'Ongoing policy' -

The building's destruction "is part of a systematic policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinian residents and emptying the city of its original inhabitants", the Jerusalem governorate, affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, said in a statement.

"Any demolition that expels residents from their homes constitutes a clear occupation plan to replace the land's owners with settlers."

The Jerusalem municipality, which administers both west and east Jerusalem, has previously said demolitions are carried out to address illegal construction and to enable the development of infrastructure or green spaces.

In a statement, the municipality said the demolition of the building was based on a 2014 court order, and "the land on which the structure stood is zoned for leisure and sports uses and construction, and not for residential purposes".

Activists, however, accuse Israeli authorities of frequently designating areas in east Jerusalem as national parks or open spaces to advance Israeli settlement interests.

The demolition was "carried out without prior notice, despite the fact that a meeting was scheduled" on Monday to discuss steps to legalize the structure, the Israeli human rights groups Ir Amin and Bimkom said in a statement, calling it the largest demolition of 2025.

"This is part of an ongoing policy. This year alone, around 100 east Jerusalem families have lost their homes," they added.

The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and swiftly annexed the area.

Silwan begins at the foot of the Old City, where hundreds of Israeli settlers live among nearly 50,000 Palestinians.

Arab World

UNHCR Official Expects One Million Syrian Refugees to Return in 2026

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

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UNHCR Official Expects One Million Syrian Refugees to Return in 2026

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi


The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has projected that around one million Syrian refugees are expected to return to their country during 2026, amid what it described as a “gradual recovery” in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024.

Speaking in an interview with Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, UNHCR’s Representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, said that approximately 1.3 million Syrian refugees and nearly two million internally displaced persons have returned to their areas of origin since December 2024.

“This means more than three million Syrians have returned to their homes within a relatively short period of time, in a country exhausted by years of war at the economic, infrastructural, and service levels,” he said.

Vargas Llosa recalled that on December 9, 2024, he and his team traveled to the Lebanese border, where they witnessed thousands of Syrians spontaneously returning home after more than 14 years of forced displacement.

Need for International Support
Concerning future prospects, Llosa said since Assad’s fall, most returnees came to Syria from Türkiye, Lebanon, and Jordan, with smaller numbers returning from Egypt and Iraq.

“UNHCR estimates suggest that more that more than four million Syrians may return within the next two years,” he added.

“This large-scale return is taking place under extremely difficult conditions,” Losa said, stressing that international financial support is an urgent and critical necessity to ensure stability and prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

Active Turkish Role
The UN official praised Türkiye’s role, noting that Ankara’s long-term hosting of refugees and its support for the new Syrian government after December 8, 2024, have helped create a positive climate for recovery.

“Representatives from the Turkish private sector have started visiting Syria to explore investment opportunities,” describing the trend as a sign of a new phase of reconstruction.

End of Isolation
Assessing the current situation, Llosa said Syria is witnessing a complex transition that will require time, given the vast destruction left by 14 years of war.

He noted that Syria’s recovery after a long war will not be immediate.
However, he praised the Syrian government and people for successfully reconnecting the country with the world in a relatively short time.

“This is a positive sign,” he said, stressing that coordinated international support is needed to improve economic conditions.

Key for Recovery
The UNHCR representative noted that lifting sanctions and encouraging private investment will be key to accelerating the reconstruction process.

Llosa noted that the UN agency and its partners are providing direct support to returnees, particularly in re-issuing official documents.

He said one quarter of returnees lack basic documents, including IDs and property papers.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which included the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria under the Caesar Act.