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Syrian Authorities Release Prisoners in Presidential Amnesty

A picture from above shows the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a mosque in Idlib, northwest Syria (AFP)
A picture from above shows the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a mosque in Idlib, northwest Syria (AFP)
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Syrian Authorities Release Prisoners in Presidential Amnesty

A picture from above shows the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a mosque in Idlib, northwest Syria (AFP)
A picture from above shows the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a mosque in Idlib, northwest Syria (AFP)

Dozens of prisoners were released in Syria on Monday under the general amnesty issued on the eve of Eid al-Fitr.

A presidential decree called for “granting a general amnesty for terrorist crimes committed by Syrians” before April 30, 2022, “except for those leading to the death of a person,” the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

The new amnesty is considered the widest since the start of the conflict in the country in 2011, according to SANA.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Monday that around 60 detainees, some of whom have been detained for 10 years, have been released across Syria.

According to the new decree, “tens of thousands of detainees” are expected to be released, many of whom are accused of “terrorism offences,” which director of SOHR Rami Abdel Rahman described as “a loose label used to convict those who are arbitrarily arrested.”

SOHR data shows that more than 105,000 detainees have been killed under torture in regime prisons since 2011.

Sources reported the return of a number of detainees to their families on the morning of the first day of Eid al-Fitr, as well as the release of dozens of prisoners from several Syrian governorates, including detainees in Sednaya Military Prison, which is one of the most dangerous detention centers inspired by the Soviet architectural style.

Among the released were people who have been sentenced to death, including a detainee from the town of Al-Otaiba in Eastern Ghouta. Others had been detained for more than ten years while their relatives did not have any information about their fate.

President Bashar al-Assad has previously issued several amnesty decrees, the last of which was in May last year, weeks before his re-election as president for a fourth tenure.

Half a million people have entered regime prisons and detention centers since 2011, with around 100,000 dying under torture or as a result of horrific detention conditions, according to SOHR.

Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, accuse the Syrian regime of exploiting anti-terror laws to “condemn peaceful activists.” The Syrian regime is also accused of torturing inmates to death, of rape, sexual assaults and extrajudicial executions.

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Arab World

Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
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Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man Sunday as he attempted to enter Jerusalem by climbing over a barrier separating the city from the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah identified the man as Imad Haroun Ashtiyeh, 26, saying he was killed by Israeli gunfire near the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem.

Ashtiyeh, a construction worker from the village of Salem near Nablus, had attempted to climb the barrier at Al-Ram along with a few other men to make his way to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for work, said Omer, a relative who gave only his first name.

"But then he was shot while attempting to climb over," Omer told AFP.

An AFP journalist saw Ashtiyeh's corpse shrouded in a Palestinian flag at the Ramallah medical complex, his relatives weeping over his body.

The Palestinian Authority's press office wrote on X that "Israeli occupation forces killed a Palestinian man seeking work while crossing the annexation and apartheid wall".

Al-Ram, located near the Qalandiya checkpoint, is separated from Jerusalem by a section of the barrier reinforced with barbed wire.

The Israeli military and police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli security officials say a significant number of Palestinians from the West Bank attempt to enter Israel illegally, often by climbing over the barrier.

They are driven largely by economic hardship and the loss of work permits since the Hamas assault that sparked the Gaza war in October 2023, Palestinian officials say.

Most of them are arrested, while some have died or been injured fleeing from Israeli forces, Palestinian officials say.

Ashtiyeh is the fifth Palestinian killed trying to cross into Israel this year, and the 52nd since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.

Israel began building the barrier at the height of the second Palestinian intifada that erupted in 2002, saying it was needed to maintain security amid suicide bombings in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

The barrier cuts into many parts of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and Palestinians see it as a land grab and de facto border illegal under international law.

Israel maintains tight restrictions on the movement of the West Bank's roughly three million residents, who require special permits to cross checkpoints into east Jerusalem and Israel.

Violence has sharply escalated in the Palestinian territory since the Gaza war began.

At least 1,075 Palestinians -- both militants and civilians -- have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 2023, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian health ministry data.

In the same period, at least 46 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, Israeli official figures show.

Arab World

France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister said Sunday, AFP reported.

"I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognize Israel's right, like that of all countries, to self-defense... nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory," Jean-Noel Barrot said on the BFMTV channel.

On Sunday, Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century.

The capture of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, came after days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages where Israeli troops fought Hezbollah members in the rugged area.

Israel has since launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.

 

 

 

Arab World

Netanyahu Orders Deeper Israeli Incursion into Lebanon to Hit Hezbollah

Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
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Netanyahu Orders Deeper Israeli Incursion into Lebanon to Hit Hezbollah

Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, despite a ceasefire announced more than six weeks ago.

The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel to back its ally Iran.

The incursion has so far killed more than 3,370 people, according to the Lebanese government. Israel says 24 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period. Tens of thousands of Israelis in the country's north have also been displaced by Hezbollah rockets and drones.

In the latest advance, Israeli troops seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said, a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.

"I instructed the (military) to expand its ground manoeuvre in Lebanon," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire since the mid-April ceasefire, with Hezbollah resorting to the use of cheap, easy-to-assemble kamikaze drones that are hard for air defences to thwart and that have killed several Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military already controlled territory up to the Litani River in Lebanon, but troops are now pushing to the Zaharani River, around 10 km north.

Netanyahu said his aim is to "deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah's control".

Naftali Bennett, a key challenger to Netanyahu in an upcoming election, said he seeks stronger action in Lebanon, including hitting suburbs of Beirut.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said soldiers will retain Beaufort as part of Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon.

"The campaign is not over yet," he said. "We are all determined to crush Hezbollah's power."

Talal Atrissi, a sociology professor at the Lebanese University and an analyst who is close to Hezbollah, said the Israeli army is managing to achieve its goals in Lebanon.

Israeli troops were also operating near Nabatieh, a major Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, the military said.