Israel Closes Crossing to Gazans after Rocket Attacks

File Photo: A truck carrying goods arrives at Kerem Shalom crossing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, August 15, 2018. (Reuters)
File Photo: A truck carrying goods arrives at Kerem Shalom crossing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, August 15, 2018. (Reuters)
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Israel Closes Crossing to Gazans after Rocket Attacks

File Photo: A truck carrying goods arrives at Kerem Shalom crossing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, August 15, 2018. (Reuters)
File Photo: A truck carrying goods arrives at Kerem Shalom crossing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, August 15, 2018. (Reuters)

Israel said it will close its only crossing from the Gaza Strip for workers on Sunday after fighters in the Palestinian enclave fired three rockets at the Jewish state.

"Following the rockets fired toward Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip last night, it was decided that crossings into Israel for Gazan merchants and workers through the Erez Crossing will not be permitted this upcoming Sunday," COGAT, a unit of the defense ministry responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said in a statement on Saturday.

On Friday night, two rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, with one hitting the Jewish state and the other falling short and striking near a residential building in northern Gaza, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

Early Saturday, a third rocket was fired at Israel, the army said, with no air raid sirens activated for any of the launches.

The rockets, which follow similar attacks on Wednesday and Thursday, come as Israeli police have been clashing with Palestinian protesters at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in recent days.

Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes following the earlier rocket attacks, but in an apparent desire to prevent further violence, shifted its response this time to the painful economic measure of closing Erez, implying that further rockets would extend the penalty.

"The re-opening of the crossing will be decided in accordance with a security situational assessment," COGAT added in its statement.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.