As Tensions Soar, Hezbollah Reduces Number of Operations against Israel 

Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

As Tensions Soar, Hezbollah Reduces Number of Operations against Israel 

Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah reduced the number of its military operations against Israel on Sunday and Monday as tensions continued in wake of the strike that killed 12 people in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights over the weekend.

Hezbollah has strongly denied its involvement in the attack. Israel, meanwhile, continued to make threats that it will strike Lebanon in retaliation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Majdal Shams on Monday, vowing a strong response.

Offering his condolences to the families of the victims, he said: “These are our children. The state of Israel will not let this pass; it cannot.”

Some residents staged protests against his visit.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah “will pay a price” for the attack. “We will let actions, not words, do the talking,” he added.

A military spokesman said the response will be “clear and forceful. Hezbollah will be targeted.”

“We insist on driving it away from our borders. This is our ultimate goal,” he added.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the intensity of the operations dropped noticeably over the past two days. Hezbollah declared on Sunday that it had carried out no more than two operations and only three on Monday.

The figures are much lower than what the border regions had grown accustomed to over the past two weeks where the party had staged an average of eight operations a day, they added.

The drop in attacks did not lead to a halt in Israeli operations. Israeli drones flew heavily at low and medium altitudes, reaching the regions of Nabatiyeh, Jezzine, Sidon and al-Zahrani, they noted.

Israel killed two Hezbollah members on Monday.

A drone strike targeted a car and motorcycle in the towns of Shakra and Mays al-Jabal. Two people were killed and four wounded, including a 12-year-old boy.

Hezbollah acknowledged in a statement the death of two members in the attack.

In the evening, a drone strike targeted a car in the town of Kounin near Bint Jbeil.

Israeli jets also struck Houla and Kfar Hamam and artillery hit the towns of Aitaroun, Mays al-Jabal, Kfar Kila and Deir Mimas.

Hezbollah later announced that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the al-Baghdadi position in response to the Shakra attack.

It also fired rockets against Israeli soldiers in the Raheb area and a surveillance system that was recently set up in the Malikiya area.



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)
TT
20

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.