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Intense Shelling in Southern Syria Brings Back Opposition to Negotiating Table

Displaced Syrians from Deir Ezzor walk at a camp for internally displaced people in Ain Issa on October 21, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
Displaced Syrians from Deir Ezzor walk at a camp for internally displaced people in Ain Issa on October 21, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
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Intense Shelling in Southern Syria Brings Back Opposition to Negotiating Table

Displaced Syrians from Deir Ezzor walk at a camp for internally displaced people in Ain Issa on October 21, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
Displaced Syrians from Deir Ezzor walk at a camp for internally displaced people in Ain Issa on October 21, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP

In the most intensive military campaign yet unleashed two weeks ago in southern Syria, regime forces and their ally Russia launched in 22 hours 2,300 air and ground strikes on opposition-held areas of Daraa province.

A spokesperson of opposition forces said the Jordanian mediation succeeded Thursday to bring back opposition negotiators to the same table of Russian officers to discuss a final agreement concerning southern Syria.

The two sides were expected to hold talks on Thursday night in the city of Basra al-Sham, where four rounds of talks were held since last Saturday, without reaching any deal.

The return of the opposition representatives to the negotiation table came following the Syrian regime’s intense bombing campaign on Thursday.

A day earlier, negotiations between representatives of Syrian opposition factions and Russian officers failed to end the offensive in Daraa, which has killed dozens and forced tens of thousands from their homes.

“About 2,300 air and ground strikes targeted Daraa in 22 hours of insane shelling as regime forces expand their scope of control to more than 60 percent of the province,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Meanwhile, sources in Tel Aviv said Israel was holding extensive talks with Damascus, having Russia as an intermediary, to establish weapons-free safe zones in southern Syria to host residents escaping from Daraa.

The sources said the negotiations were held in the presence of representatives from the UN Disengagement and Observer Force (UNDOF).

Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday blocked the UN Security Council from adopting a statement on the situation in southwestern Syria, diplomats said after an urgent meeting requested by Sweden and Kuwait.

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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.