Damascus Proposes Settlement in Daraa after ‘Tense Night’

A Syrian opposition flag is erected at the Syrian-Jordanian border at the Nassib crossing in Daraa province in August 2017. (Reuters)
A Syrian opposition flag is erected at the Syrian-Jordanian border at the Nassib crossing in Daraa province in August 2017. (Reuters)
TT
20

Damascus Proposes Settlement in Daraa after ‘Tense Night’

A Syrian opposition flag is erected at the Syrian-Jordanian border at the Nassib crossing in Daraa province in August 2017. (Reuters)
A Syrian opposition flag is erected at the Syrian-Jordanian border at the Nassib crossing in Daraa province in August 2017. (Reuters)

An agreement is imminent in the city of Daraa in southern Syria, after a tense night on Tuesday, especially in Daraa Al-Balad which saw heavy bombardment by the forces of the Fourth Division, following the failure of negotiations and the visit of the Syrian Minister of Defense to the city.

Sources close to the Central Negotiating Committee told Asharq Al-Awsat that Russian officials called the committee in Daraa al-Balad to a negotiating session on Tuesday morning, with the announcement of a 24-hour ceasefire. The Russians called on all parties to submit proposals for a radical solution in the city after Monday’s failed negotiations.

According to the sources, the forces of the Fourth Division bombarded, in an unprecedented manner, the city of Daraa al-Balad at midnight on Tuesday, amid attempts to storm besieged neighborhoods. The attempts were resisted by the locals.

The regime forces also targeted with anti-aircraft weapons the town of Muzayrib and Tafas in the western countryside of Daraa governorate. A number of shells fell in the vicinity of the irrigation point between the towns of Yaduda and Muzayrib, where military forces belonging to the Fourth Division are deployed.

The violent attacks came after the negotiations between the central committees and the Syrian regime forces faltered. The Syrian Defense Minister visited Daraa on Monday and threatened to storm the area if the army’s demands were rejected.

“We will restore the authority of the state over the entire Syrian territory and we will not allow anyone to bear arms outside the state. Either our demands are implemented or we storm the region by force,” Minister Ali Ayoub was quoted as saying.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Russian officers were upset with the statements and asked the minister to return to Damascus, so he left the meeting.

Local fighters attacked military positions of the Syrian regime in the city of Nawa in the western countryside of Daraa, in support of Daraa al-Balad, on Tuesday night, while youths blocked the Damascus-Daraa International Highway, which connects to the Nassib border crossing with Jordan.



Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)

Israel has halted aid supplies to Gaza for two days to prevent them being seized by Hamas, an official said on Thursday after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks whom clan leaders said were protecting aid, not diverting it to the militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz, said late on Wednesday that he had ordered the military to present a plan within two days to prevent Hamas from taking control of aid.

The decision was made after Netanyahu and Katz cited new information indicating that Hamas was seizing aid intended for civilians in northern Gaza. The statement did not disclose the information but a video circulating on Wednesday showed dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most carrying sticks, riding on aid trucks

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that aid deliveries had been temporarily suspended for two days to allow the military time to develop a new plan.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli prime minister's office, the defense ministry or the Israeli military.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in the territory, said that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed "solely through tribal efforts". The commission said that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process.

Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now controls only parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denied any involvement.

Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups and factions - including Hamas' secular political rival Fatah - have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.

Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society.

ACUTE SHORTAGE

Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Palestinian non-governmental organisations, said the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza's two million inhabitants.

Aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, frequently by desperate and starving Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies.

"The clans came ... to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people," Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazan clans, said, referring to Wednesday's operation.

The Wednesday video was shared on X by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who claimed that Hamas had taken control of aid allowed into Gaza by the Israeli government. Bennett is widely seen as the most viable challenger to Netanyahu at the next election.

Netanyahu has also faced pressure from within his right-wing coalition, with some hardline members threatening to quit over ceasefire negotiations and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.

At least 103 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, local health authorities said, including some shot near an aid distribution point, the latest in a series of such incidents. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Twenty hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, while Hamas is also holding the bodies of 30 who have died.