Israel Far-right Minister Warns Beirut Suburb Faces Devastation Like Gazahttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5247914-israel-far-right-minister-warns-beirut-suburb-faces-devastation-gaza
Israel Far-right Minister Warns Beirut Suburb Faces Devastation Like Gaza
Fires erupt from buildings damaged in an early morning Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Thursday that a southern Beirut suburb, a stronghold of Hezbollah, will face devastation similar to Gaza after the Israeli military told residents to evacuate.
"Very soon Dahiyeh will resemble Khan Yunis," Smotrich said, referring to a southern Gaza city which has been heavily damaged by Israeli bombardments during the two-year war with Hamas, AFP reported.
"Hezbollah made a mistake, and it will pay a heavy price. We are striking at the head of the octopus in Iran, and at the same time we will sever Hezbollah's arm," he said in a video statement as he visited Israel's northern border.
Iraq Faces Delayed Showdown with Factions Rejecting State Arms Controlhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5280298-iraq-faces-delayed-showdown-factions-rejecting-state-arms-control
Iraq Faces Delayed Showdown with Factions Rejecting State Arms Control
Members of Asaib Ahl al-Haq take part in a Quds Day march in Baghdad on July 1, 2016. (AP)
Observers in Baghdad say a long-delayed confrontation may be looming with factions that reject the principle of “placing arms under state control,” a move announced by political groups and welcomed by the Iraqi government and the United States.
The warnings come as reports suggest the US-backed government of Ali al-Zaidi could approve military appointments inside the Popular Mobilization Forces as part of a plan to restructure the powerful paramilitary body.
Within one week, the Sadrist movement, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and Kataib Imam Ali announced they were breaking away from the Popular Mobilization Forces.
The factions had overseen about seven brigades inside the body, but their fighters no longer appear to take orders from political and party leaders.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi agreed with delegations from Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali to form a joint committee to implement measures to place arms under state control within the next two days.
In a statement, al-Zaidi said Iraq was undergoing an important transition after major gains in security, making the current phase one of construction, reconstruction and broad development.
Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan on Wednesday urged resistance factions to “join their brothers and lay down their arms.” He thanked Sadrist leader Muqtada al-Sadr, Asaib Ahl al-Haq Secretary General Qais al-Khazali and Kataib Imam Ali Secretary General Shibl al-Zaidi for backing state control over arms.
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, meanwhile, renewed its rejection of “disarmament” and its commitment to “resistance.” In a statement, the movement said: “al-Nujaba remains steadfast and has not, and will not, change its position on the sacred and disciplined weapon that exists to defend Iraq, its holy sites and its people.”
Its leader, Akram al-Kaabi, had accused Israel in a post on X of “inciting the US Embassy chargé d’affaires in Iraq to speak about the weapons of the resistance.” He said he regretted that “a small number of Iraqis have become mouthpieces for them,” and urged armed factions to “reject the very idea of discussing this matter.”
Many remain skeptical of what has become known as “placing arms under state control,” citing the absence of clear technical mechanisms for implementation and Iran’s silence over the weapons held by its proxies in Baghdad.
Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba are the most prominent factions to have openly rejected “state control over arms” and affirmed their commitment to the “option of resistance.” An unknown faction calling itself Ashab Ahl al-Kahf has threatened to resume operations against Israel.
Support among Iraqi factions for “placing arms under state control” is accelerating, amid US satisfaction that Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has secured a political mandate to “consolidate stability in the country.”
The Coordination Framework authorized al-Zaidi to take the decisions and measures needed to protect the country’s higher interests. It also backed “placing arms under state control and severing the Popular Mobilization Forces’ links to political and party frameworks.”
US Embassy chargé d’affaires Joshua Harris described the Coordination Framework’s mandate for al-Zaidi as a qualitative step toward consolidating independence and sovereignty for Iraq’s promising future, and affirmed Washington’s support for government measures to place arms under state control.
The confrontation
Political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that political leaders and government officials are closely watching the groups resisting state control over arms under national understandings.
They said, “The door to confrontation will remain open, whether between the Iraqi government and the rebellious factions, or between Washington and Tehran, which has neither endorsed nor opposed the announcement by other factions of their intention to hand over their weapons.”
Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s envoy to Iraq and Syria, had congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on the start of efforts to place arms under state control, calling the latest steps important progress toward consolidating stability and restoring sovereignty.
In a post on X, Barrack said the move represented the first building block of renewed Iraqi governance based on self-administration.
Barrack’s praise for the Shiite groups that decided to return all weapons to the Iraqi state was notable. He described their decision as an essential step toward strengthening order and stability and building state institutions.
The Iraqi government, by contrast, has so far limited itself to welcoming the positions of armed factions without disclosing its practical plan to place arms under state control. It remains unclear which government body would receive the weapons.
Security observers say Washington is focused on removing strategic weapons such as suicide drones, cruise missiles and anti-armor launchers. No accurate data is available on how many such weapons the factions hold.
Security reports indicate that part of the plan involves “reorganizing and restructuring the Popular Mobilization Forces through some changes in the current leadership and involving military commanders with experience in managing the infrastructure of the body’s fighters.”
The struggle for influence
Observers are tracking shifts in the “struggle for influence” between Washington and Tehran in Iraq.
Ihsan al-Shammari, head of the Political Thinking Center, told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the United States will no longer need to share influence with Tehran in Iraq after the new balance of power in the region.”
On the factions loyal to Iran, al-Shammari said “the announcement by four or five factions that they will hand over their weapons” was not enough to convince Washington that the complex file had been closed, especially as Kataib Hezbollah, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and al-Nujaba “possess the most dangerous arsenal and still refuse to hand it over.”
Al-Shammari said, “The US decision is that Iraq should be free of weapons in the hands of Iran’s allies, and that their system should be dismantled at all military, political and economic levels.”
Researcher Abbas Abboud Salem said the process of placing arms under state control would, in practice, distinguish between groups engaged in political life through parliamentary representation and government work, and those ideologically and politically tied to Iran.
He said the latter “see their existence and the continuation of their weapons as part of a regional function of confrontation with the United States.”
The disarmament plan
Asharq Al-Awsat reported on May 9, 2026, that an Iraqi committee, including Prime Minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, was working to complete an “executive project” to disarm armed factions before presenting it to Washington, amid mounting US pressure to keep militias away from the new government and state institutions.
The committee had presented militia leaders with “ideas on how to disarm,” but some meetings “did not pass calmly,” according to informed sources.
The plan includes removing heavy and medium weapons and restructuring the Popular Mobilization Forces, alongside expected changes to sensitive security agencies, including the intelligence service.
But political sources questioned the government’s ability to implement the project, saying it may be aimed at “buying time.” Prominent factions, including Kataib Hezbollah and al-Nujaba, have said they will not hand over their weapons “whatever the cost.”
Tunnels or Voiceprints: Why Israel Is Killing Qassam Leaders Fasterhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5280200-tunnels-or-voiceprints-why-israel-killing-qassam-leaders-faster
From right, Qassam Brigades leaders assassinated by Israel in separate attacks: Mohammad Odeh, Rafe Salama, Abu Obeida, and Mohammad Deif, in a photo released by the Israeli military. (Israeli military)
Tunnels or Voiceprints: Why Israel Is Killing Qassam Leaders Faster
From right, Qassam Brigades leaders assassinated by Israel in separate attacks: Mohammad Odeh, Rafe Salama, Abu Obeida, and Mohammad Deif, in a photo released by the Israeli military. (Israeli military)
Throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, from October 2023 until a fragile ceasefire was announced two years later in October 2025, Israel’s pursuit of the leaders of Hamas and its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, was neither quick nor easy.
That changed in recent weeks.
A wave of faster, more concentrated assassinations peaked on May 15 with the killing of Qassam commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad after decades on the run. Less than two weeks later, Israel assassinated his successor, Mohammad Odeh.
The killings also reached one of the Qassam’s most prominent commanders, Imad Islim, who was targeted alongside the commander of the northern brigade, though the latter survived.
The campaign did not stop with commanders. It also hit prominent field operatives, most of them involved in the October 7, 2023, attack, as well as officials responsible for military manufacturing.
The pace of the killings has raised questions inside and outside Hamas over why Israel has been able to move so quickly. Some sources pointed to the growth of Israeli intelligence work in Gaza. Others cited Israel’s assault on Hamas tunnels and the security gap left by their destruction.
Hamas field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that every assassination is investigated by specialists seeking to trace security leads or identify specific breaches.
08 June 2025, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Israeli soldiers stand guard at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, where the Israeli military discovered a tunnel believed to be the site of Hamas military chief Mohammad Sinwar's death last month. (dpa)
Tunnels and the decision to leave them
Four field sources said Israel’s intensified campaign against the tunnels was among the reasons behind the faster pace of assassinations. The campaign, they said, destroyed “very large numbers” of tunnels during and after the war.
Over two decades, Hamas dug hundreds, by conservative estimates, if not thousands, of tunnels for defense, attack, command and control. Some served as command sites for leaders directing battles.
The sources said Israel destroyed large numbers of tunnels through ground operations and airstrikes, at times killing operatives, commanders and even Israeli abductees held inside.
One source said that “because of the attacks, the leadership of the resistance decided to stop relying on tunnels and to act in a way that would help preserve the lives of commanders and operatives, as well as the abductees, with the aim of exchanging them for Palestinian prisoners.”
The sources said Israel launched a series of strikes on tunnels at the start of the war in October 2023. But because the network was so vast, Hamas decided only to leave tunnels in dangerous areas.
By late March 2024, as airstrikes intensified, especially against tunnels containing operatives and Israeli hostages, an immediate decision was made to move them above ground. Strikes on the tunnels later grew more severe.
A turning point
The sources said the move out of the tunnels “marked a turning point.” Tunnels were then used mainly for movement between locations or for specific attacks. They were no longer used except cautiously and temporarily by leaders or by prominent field operatives as hiding places.
Despite the growing danger, some Hamas and Qassam leaders continued to use them. Hamas political bureau members Rawhi Mushtaha and Sameh al-Sarraj were killed alongside Qassam field commanders in a tunnel in the industrial area south of Gaza City in July 2024.
The late Qassam commander Mohammad Sinwar and Qassam commander Mohammad Shabana were also killed, along with others, in a network of tunnels near the European Hospital in Khan Younis in May 2025.
One field source said: “Many field circumstances pushed political and military leaders at the time to resort to the tunnels and use them as hiding places, amid intensified Israeli pursuit of the movement’s and the brigades’ leaders.”
“The options were narrowing more and more,” they added.
Mourners carry portraits of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the slain chief of the Qassam Brigades, who was killed in an overnight Israeli strike along with his daughter and wife, during their funeral in Gaza City on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
The same source said Haddad was among those who frequently used tunnels to move from place to place at the height of Israeli operations in northern Gaza.
Haddad, he said, survived more than once by remaining underground while Israel operated above him, using tunnels to move from one area to another.
But Haddad and others did not see tunnels as reliable hiding places, the source said.
For long periods during the war and after the ceasefire, they stayed above ground, moving in hiding by different means, without security escorts, and in ways meant to prevent Israel from tracking them. They also communicated through different channels.
Three Hamas field sources said several leaders repeatedly used tunnels, including Mohammad Sinwar and late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in a sudden clash with an Israeli force in October 2024.
Shrinking room to hide
Tunnel destruction was not the only factor. The four Hamas sources said Israel’s expanded control east of the “yellow line”, which covers about 60% to 70% of Gaza, has pushed most of the population west of the line. That has narrowed the space for faction leaders and operatives to find safe or unmonitored locations.
The sources said most leaders and operatives of Palestinian factions are now confined to specific areas, like hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents living in the western parts of the strip after losing their homes and other places assigned to them.
Many stayed with their families or nearby, living in tents and other shelters like many others, making them more exposed to Israeli tracking and surveillance.
Palestinians inspect the site of a destroyed building as smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 15 May 2026. (EPA)
Spy technology and voiceprints
Field sources in Gaza give significant weight to Israeli spy technology in explaining how Israel has reached Hamas and Qassam leaders so quickly.
They agree on the role of spy drones that heavily patrol Gaza’s skies, along with other tools and human intelligence, including informants working with Israel.
One source said Israel has relied heavily on “the technological factor generated by artificial intelligence,” especially through modern Israeli-made drones using advanced cyber programs to track voiceprints, and possibly vital signs, to locate certain leaders in specific places.
The field source, who had reviewed investigations with suspected collaborators, said the drones eavesdrop on calls within specific, defined ranges after jamming them to isolate the voices coming from them or their surroundings. That, they said, may indicate the presence of a person whose voiceprint Israel has obtained through earlier phone recordings or a previous arrest.
The source said some informants working with Israel had managed to “plant various spying devices, some containing cameras and recording equipment, and others the size of an insect,” dropped by drones or planted by ground forces in areas they raided during the war.
One field source said, “Many informants were arrested and executed. A small number were from inside Hamas and the Qassam themselves, while most were from outside it.”
They said: “A person from outside Hamas was arrested after it became clear that he was linked to Haddad’s assassination, after he was spotted at the assassination site and at another location where Haddad had also been present.”
Two sources confirmed the suspect was being interrogated.
“The detainee confessed that he had been tracking Haddad on instructions from an Israeli intelligence officer, who was giving him specific locations where Haddad’s family was present,” said one of the sources.
At the height of the war in Gaza, Palestinians were executed by members of Palestinian factions after being arrested at Israeli attack sites. The Qassam described the proceedings against them as “revolutionary courts.”
They included one person from inside Hamas and another from outside it. Both were accused of “providing information that led to reaching Qassam commander Mohammad Deif, who was assassinated in July 2024.”
Syrians Mourn a Former Chess Champion as Her Death Is Confirmed 13 Years Laterhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5280185-syrians-mourn-former-chess-champion-her-death-confirmed-13-years-later
People attend a protest in memory of dentist and former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi, her husband, and their children, after National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP) reports confirmed that her children were killed in Syrian government detention facilities during the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, in Damascus, Syria, June 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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Syrians Mourn a Former Chess Champion as Her Death Is Confirmed 13 Years Later
People attend a protest in memory of dentist and former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi, her husband, and their children, after National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP) reports confirmed that her children were killed in Syrian government detention facilities during the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, in Damascus, Syria, June 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Hundreds of people flocked to a tent in Damascus on Wednesday to mourn a former national chess champion who went missing 13 years ago along with her husband and six children, after their deaths in Syria's civil war were finally confirmed.
Surviving relatives of Rania al-Abbasi announced Sunday that they had seen evidence that the family had been killed by pro-government gunmen shortly after they were detained in 2013, and that they would set up a giant tent in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday to receive condolences.
“We had hope. We’ve been looking for them for 13 years in every way possible,” Rana's brother Wael al-Abbasi said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Then we got the horrible news that they were killed the same day they were arrested.”
The case of Rania al-Abbasi, who also was a dentist and who had been accused of funding the opposition, was well-known in Syria, and this week's revelations have received wide coverage in the country's news media. Photos of the family have been all over social media. Many people have said the killers should be sentenced to death.
Mohammad Shukri, Syrian minister of religious affairs, visited the tent in the Rukneddine neighborhood and said the country's new government is making sure that the culprits are held accountable. “They must get their punishment,” he said.
More than 100,000 people went missing in areas once controlled by forces loyal to now-ousted President Bashar Assad and many are believed to have died under torture run by the country’s powerful security agencies. The number could be higher, because many Syrians were too scared to complain under Assad, now in self-exile in Russia. Some people are now coming forward requesting information about missing loved ones.
During the early years of Syria’s conflict, which started with peaceful pro-democracy protests and later became a civil war after a brutal regime crackdown, many people were killed, and the fate of many remains unknown. The conflict left nearly half a million people dead.
People attend a protest in memory of dentist and former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi, her husband, and their children, after National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP) reports confirmed that her children were killed in Syrian government detention facilities during the rule of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, in Damascus, Syria, June 1, 2026. (Reuters)
The fate of the al-Abassi family was revealed following the arrest of an ex-intelligence officer, who allegedly was involved in the killings, surviving family members said. Amjad Yousef had appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades fatally shooting dozens of people during the war.
Al-Abbasi’s family was shown another video that was not made public showing the children dead after apparently being strangled or beaten to death.
Wael al-Abbasi said that his brother-in-law, Abdul-Rahman al-Yassin, was detained on March 9, 2013 while his wife and children were detained four days later.
“We were holding on to hope to find one or two of the kids (alive),” he said.
Yousef, the ex-intelligence officer, was arrested by Syria's new authorities in April in the central province in Hama where he had been hiding. He has been undergoing questioning since then.
Wael al-Abbasi said he and other relatives saw a video in which Yousef was talking and pointing the camera at the children in a dark room that may have been part of a detention center.
“He was filming the kids and naming each one of them. Those were our kids, there was no room for doubt that it’s them, they were even wearing the same clothes,” he said.
The children’s ages were from 1 1/2 to 14. They were identified as Ahmad, Dema, Najah, Intisar, Alaa and Layan. He said a couple of them had their faces bloodied.
The brother said he hoped that Yousef and others involved in the killings would go on trial and be hanged. “They’re criminals and we have proof of that through videos. We want the whole chain, all the way up to Bashar Assad. We want them all to hanged.”
Since the fall of Assad, several top officials in his government and security agencies have been detained and some have been put on trial.
Al-Abbasi’s cousin, Doa’a al-Abbasi, said that the family had been worried that the children might have been trafficked, but now they know the truth.
“What is this brutality? What is this hatred? They waited for them to come home from school so he can kill them,” she said, referring to the children. “There are many people like Amjad Yousef and we hope they will all be held accountable."
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