An Israeli strike early Sunday in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed at least 30 people, a hospital director says

Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli strike early Sunday in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed at least 30 people, a hospital director says.

Latest stories

  • Assad’s family ‘flees’ to Russia – but Kremlin won’t come to Syrian leader’s rescue

    Bashar al-Assad’s family fled to Russia in the days after rebel forces launched a shock offensive that captured swathes of territory across northern Syria, it has been revealed.

  • In Syria, a ruthless dictator is under siege. Will anyone step up to save him?

    Across northern and central Syria this week, families who've been torn apart by more than a decade of civil war have been holding joyous reunions."I didn't believe it, it was very emotional," said Ismail Alabullah, a volunteer with the Syrian NGO the White Helmets, as he described returning to the city of Aleppo for the first time since 2013 and reuniting with his sister."I couldn't believe I was seeing her again," he told CBC News from northern Syria. "I lost my brother, my mother and father ov

  • How Syria’s rebel leader went from radical jihadist to a blazer-wearing ‘revolutionary’

    Jolani replaced his jihadist camo attire for a Western-style blazer, established a semi-technocratic government in Idlib and promoted himself as a viable partner in Western efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the Middle East.

  • Hezbollah sent 'supervising' forces to Syria's Homs, sources say

    Lebanese armed group Hezbollah sent a small number of "supervising forces" from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing the strategic city of Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources said on Friday. "Homs must not fall," one of the sources told Reuters, adding that senior officers deployed overnight to oversee some Hezbollah fighters who had been in Syria near the border with Lebanon for years.

  • US-backed Syrian Kurds seize eastern city of Deir el-Zor, sources say

    HASAKEH, Syria (Reuters) -A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured the main city in eastern Syria and the main border crossing with Iraq on Friday, taking effective control of Syria's vast eastern desert in two rapid moves. Two security sources based in eastern Syria said that by Friday afternoon the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had taken full control of the city of Deir el-Zor, the third city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad's control in a week.

  • Strikes on key bridge linking Syria's Homs, Hama: war monitor

    Air strikes targeted a bridge on the highway linking the Syrian cities of Homs and Hama, a war monitor said Friday, as government forces scramble to secure Homs after Islamist-led rebels captured Hama and commercial hub Aleppo."Fighter jets executed several airstrikes, targeting Al-Rastan bridge on (the) Homs-Hama highway... as well as attacking positions around the bridge, attempting to cut off the road between Hama and Homs and secure Homs," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right

  • Middle East latest: Syria's President Assad reportedly leaves country as insurgents enter Damascus

    Syrian opposition fighters say they have entered Damascus following a stunning advance across the country as the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location. Rami Abdurrahman said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government.

  • Thousands flee as Syrian insurgents advance to the doorstep of the country's third-largest city

    Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs, the country’s third largest, as insurgents seized two towns on the outskirts Friday, positioning themselves for an assault on a potentially major prize in their march against President Bashar Assad. The move, reported by pro-government media and an opposition war monitor, was the latest in the stunning advances by opposition fighters over the past week that have so far met little resistance from Assad’s forces. A day earlier, fighters captured the central city of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest, after the army said it withdrew to avoid fighting inside the city and spare the lives of civilians.

  • Syrian president leaves Damascus on plane as army says his rule ends - reports

    The Syrian president has fled Damascus on a plane for an unknown destination. Syria's army command has now notified officers that President Bashar al Assad's rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters. Hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained complete control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting.

  • Baloch separatists becoming as big a national security threat as Pakistani Taliban, says think tank

    A Baloch separatist group is becoming as big a threat to Pakistan's national security as the Pakistani Taliban, according to a think tank. Last month, the Baloch Liberation Army killed dozens of people in the restive southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan. The BLA wants independence from the federal government, which last month launched an operation against armed groups operating in the province.

  • By running Aleppo, Syrian rebels seek to show they are alternative to Assad

    A week after Islamist rebels seized Syria's second-largest city, in a surprise advance deep into government-held territory, Aleppo is slowly coming back to life. Traffic police wave cars through intersections and internet coverage has improved as a rebel-linked telecoms network has expanded its reach, according to half a dozen residents and Reuters footage. These measures are part of an effort by the rebel alliance spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda affiliate formerly known as the Nusra Front, to show Syrians - and the West - that it is a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad, analysts say.

  • Syrian rebels say they have entered Damascus as Assad regime’s defense crumbles

    Less than two weeks after launching an offensive, rebels have entered the capital city

  • What the Syrian rebellion could mean for the balance of power in the Middle East

    Western and Arab states, as well as Israel, would like to see Iran’s influence in Syria curtailed, but none wish for a radical Islamist regime to replace Assad.

  • Chinese embassy in Syria urges citizens to evacuate immediately as civil war reignites

    The Chinese embassy in Syria urged its citizens to leave the Middle Eastern nation "as soon as possible", with the revival of its decade-long civil war and the capture of more cities by anti-government militants. "At present, the war in northwestern Syria is growing tense, and the security situation in Syria is further deteriorating," the embassy said on Thursday. "The embassy in Syria suggests that Chinese citizens in Syria take advantage of the fact that commercial flights are still in operati

  • Syria govt loses control of key city Daraa

    Syrian government forces have lost control of Daraa city, a war monitor said, in another stunning blow for President Bashar al-Assad's rule after rebels wrested other key cities from his grip.Never in the war had Assad's forces lost control of so many key cities in such a short space of time.

  • Syrian Kurds say they've taken Deir el-Zor, as rebels advance

    STORY: :: U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters say they have full control of Deir el-Zor as rebels advance across the country ::December 7, 2024:: Deir el-Zor, Syria:: Khaled Hassan, Syrian Kurdish fighter"We, the forces of the Deir el-Zor Military Council, entered the city of Deir el-Zor today in al-Qusour neighborhood and we released the prisoners. Now Deir el-Zor is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces. We are the sons of Deir el-Zor and we liberated our city from the Syrian regime, the Damascus government, and the Iranian and affiliated militias."SDF forces were seen patrolling the streets of Deir el-Zor on the banks of the Euphrates river, armed and driving in pick up trucks, one day after seizing the eastern Syrian city. The SDF advance came as Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, entered suburbs of the key city of Homs on Saturday, sources said, pressing a lightning fast advance as government forces battle to save President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule.The rebels had already taken the northern city of Aleppo last week and the city of Hama earlier this week, dealing the biggest blows to Assad in years.

  • Two distant wars changed Syria’s fortune. What comes next is impossible to know

    The swiftly changing fate of Bashar al-Assad was not really made in Syria, but in southern Beirut and Donetsk.

  • Situation in Syria creating new weakness for Hezbollah, Iran, says US envoy Hochstein

    U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said the situation in Syria, where rebels are pressing a rapid advance that is threatening President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power, was creating a new weakness for militant Lebanese group Hezbollah and for Iran. The U.S. envoy, who negotiated a U.S-brokered ceasefire agreement in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Nov. 27, said he believed Hezbollah was not yet eliminated but it was rather weakened. Iran has been a backer of Assad in Syria's long civil war, sending allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militias to bolster the Syrian military.

  • Syrian prime minister says he is ready to hand over the government to the opposition

    Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said early Sunday that the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government. BEIRUT (AP) — The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said early Sunday that President Bashar Assad left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus after a stunning advance across the country. The events suggested that the end of Assad's regime could be imminent after his bloody 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country fragmented.

  • Melbourne synagogue fire an act of 'terrorism': Australian PM

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday called a deliberately lit fire in a Melbourne synagogue an act of "terrorism" and warned about the "worrying rise in anti-Semitism" in Australia. "There has been a worrying rise in anti-Semitism," the prime minister told reporters, adding that he would continue to "call it out".