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Netanyahu Says Israel Committed to Wartime Objectives, Fighting Resumes

HANDOUT - 29 November 2023, Israel, Sderot: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) talks with police officers during a visit to the Demolished Sderot Police Station. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO/dpa
HANDOUT - 29 November 2023, Israel, Sderot: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) talks with police officers during a visit to the Demolished Sderot Police Station. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO/dpa
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Netanyahu Says Israel Committed to Wartime Objectives, Fighting Resumes

HANDOUT - 29 November 2023, Israel, Sderot: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) talks with police officers during a visit to the Demolished Sderot Police Station. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO/dpa
HANDOUT - 29 November 2023, Israel, Sderot: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) talks with police officers during a visit to the Demolished Sderot Police Station. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO/dpa

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Hamas did not agree to release further hostages, infringing on terms of a truce, and that Israel remained committed to achieving its objectives as fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas did not release all women hostages as agreed and also launched rockets at Israel, Netanyahu's office said.

"With the resumption of fighting we emphasize: The Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war - to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel," it said.

Heavy fighting was reported in Gaza on Friday as Israel's military resumed combat operations against Hamas.

The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.

In the hour before the truce was set to end at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas or claim of responsibility for the launches.

Palestinian media reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the truce expired, including in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

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Arab World

Israeli Military Says It Struck Hezbollah Sites in Southern Lebanon

Smoke billows over the village of Aaichiyeh after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, October 20, 2025. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
Smoke billows over the village of Aaichiyeh after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, October 20, 2025. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hezbollah Sites in Southern Lebanon

Smoke billows over the village of Aaichiyeh after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, October 20, 2025. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
Smoke billows over the village of Aaichiyeh after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, October 20, 2025. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it struck infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in several areas in southern Lebanon, including what it described as a training compound used by the armed group's Radwan forces.

Military structures and a launch site belonging to Hezbollah were also hit in the attacks, the military added in a statement.

The strikes come less than a week after Israel and Lebanon both sent civilian envoys to a military committee monitoring their ceasefire, a step towards a months-old US demand that the two countries broaden talks in line with President Donald Trump's Middle East peace agenda.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 that ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Since then, they have traded accusations over violations.

Lebanon's state news agency, NNA, reported that Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes targeting several places in the south.

Arab World

Sharaa Vows Transitional Justice in Syria, Will Work to Prevent Repeat of Violations

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, greets people as he attends celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, greets people as he attends celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
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Sharaa Vows Transitional Justice in Syria, Will Work to Prevent Repeat of Violations

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, greets people as he attends celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, greets people as he attends celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed on Monday that his country will work on ensuring no repeat of violations against the Syrian people.

In a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, he also renewed his pledge to achieve transitional justice.

“We congratulate all Syrians on liberating Syria from oppression and dictatorship,” he added.

“The ousted regime tried for decades to drag Syria away from its historic depth. The era of the regime was a dark chapter in Syria’s history,” he continued.

“We want a strong Syria that would regain its position in its Arab and regional environment,” Sharaa stressed.

Moreover, he said the Assad regime was built on lawlessness and “deliberately stoked strife, fear and terror between the Syrians.”

The new Syrian administration, however, is “extending bridges of fraternity,” he stated. “People no longer look at Syria with pity, but with pride.”

He continued: “The people have entrusted us with a responsibility and we have kicked off efforts to rebuild.” He also reiterated the government’s vow to tirelessly work on finding people who have been disappeared by the ousted regime.

Syrians marked the first anniversary of the overthrow of Assad and his iron-fisted rule on Monday with jubilant celebrations in major cities, as the fractured nation struggles to find stability and recover after years of war.

Assad fled Syria for Russia a year ago as Sharaa's opposition fighters seized Damascus following an eight-day blitz through the country, ending his rule more than 13 years after an uprising had spiraled into bitter civil war.

Sharaa began Monday with dawn prayers at Damascus' Umayyad Mosque, dressed in the military fatigues he wore as head of opposition fighters, a uniform he has since switched for the somber suits of presidential office.

Arab World

US Congress Moves Toward Repeal of Tough ‘Caesar’ Sanctions on Syria 

People fill Clock Square to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime. in Homs, western Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.(AP)
People fill Clock Square to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime. in Homs, western Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.(AP)
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US Congress Moves Toward Repeal of Tough ‘Caesar’ Sanctions on Syria 

People fill Clock Square to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime. in Homs, western Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.(AP)
People fill Clock Square to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime. in Homs, western Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.(AP)

A set of tough US sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar al-Assad could be lifted within weeks, after their repeal was included in a sweeping defense policy bill unveiled during the weekend and due for votes in Congress within days.

The Senate and House of Representatives included repeal of the so-called Caesar sanctions, a move seen as key to Syria's economic recovery, in a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a sweeping annual defense policy bill that was unveiled late on Sunday.

The provision in the 3,000-page defense bill repeals the 2019 Caesar Act and requires regular reports from the White House certifying that Syria's government is fighting ISIS militants, upholding religious and ethnic minority rights within the country and not taking unilateral, unprovoked military action against its neighbors, including Israel.

The NDAA is expected to pass by the end of this year and be signed into law by President Donald Trump, whose fellow Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate and lead the committees that wrote the bill.

Lifting the sanctions is considered a key to the success of Syria's new government. Several firms are planning billion-dollar investments in the country as part of a drive to support the country's recovery. The US sanctions have been a significant obstacle to Syria's economic revival.

Trump announced plans to lift all sanctions on Syria during a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in May, and his administration has suspended them temporarily. However, the Caesar sanctions, the most stringent restrictions, can only be removed permanently by an act of Congress.

The 2019 Caesar Act imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Syria targeting individuals, companies and institutions linked to Assad, who was the president of Syria from 2000 until his ouster in 2024 by opposition forces led by Sharaa.

Syrian central bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh told Reuters last week that the country's economy was growing faster than had been expected. He described the repeal of many US sanctions as "a miracle."

The sanctions are named after a Syrian military photographer, code-named "Caesar," who smuggled out thousands of gruesome photos documenting torture and war crimes by Assad's government.