Clean-up begins after 4.8 magnitude quake, tremors felt across Jordan and Lebanon
Updated 14 August 2024
Arab News
JEDDAH: Aftershocks struck the city of Hama in western Syria on Tuesday as the clean-up began after a 4.8 magnitude earthquake the night before.
About 65 people were injured as they fled in panic after the quake, nearly 70 received hospital treatment for shock, and the tremors were felt across Jordan and Lebanon.
“My son was sleeping, I don’t know how I grabbed him and got out of the house,” said Nasser Duyub, a state employee in Salamiya, 30 km east of Hama city.
Jordan reported a 3.9 magnitude aftershock less than an hour after the initial quake, and Syria’s National Earthquake Center said monitoring stations recorded 13 tremors east of Hama city until Tuesday morning.
Many people in Syria and Lebanon thought the initial quake was an Israeli airstrike. In Syria, others had flashbacks to February 2023, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 50,000 people — mostly in Turkiye, but thousands also died in northern Syria. That earthquake caused widespread destruction in both countries.
“It was the same sound, as if it was coming out of the earth,” said Umm Hamzah, who lives in Damascus. “I got dizzy just like last time, but the scare was worse because I knew what happened in the previous quake.”
Hamas accuses Israel of ‘slow killing’ of Palestinian prisoners
Updated 40 sec ago
Seven prisoners were transferred to hospitals immediately after their release
GAZA CITY: Hamas accused Israel of adopting a policy it described as the “slow killing” of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails after seven inmates freed on Saturday were admitted to hospital. “The fact that seven prisoners were transferred to hospitals immediately after their release... reflects the systematic assaults and mistreatment of our prisoners by the Israeli prison authorities,” Hamas said in a statement, adding that it was “part of the policy of the extremist Israeli government, which pursues the slow killing of prisoners inside the prisons.”
Kingdom’s security ‘red line’ for Egypt, says Cairo
Updated 11 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
CAIRO: Egypt condemned on Saturday as “irresponsible” statements by Israeli officials suggesting establishing a Palestinian state on Saudi territory, according to a statement by Egypt's foreign ministry.
The foreign ministry said it considered the suggestion a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty”, adding that the Kingdom's security was a “red line for Egypt”.
Head of UN chemical weapons watchdog to meet Syrian leader: authorities
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation
Updated 08 February 2025
AFP
DAMASCUS: The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog will meet Syria’s new leader Saturday, in a first visit since the ouster of Bashar Assad, who was repeatedly accused of using such weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war.
“We will broadcast the President of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad Al-Sharaa and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad Al-Shaibani receiving a delegation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),” an official Syrian Telegram channel said in a statement.
The statement said the delegation was headed by OPCW chief Fernanado Arias.
In 2013, Syria agreed to join the OPCW shortly after a suspected chemical gas attack killed more than 1,000 people near Damascus.
It handed over its declared stockpile for destruction, but the OPCW has always been concerned that the declaration made by Damascus was incomplete and that more weapons remained.
Assad’s government denied using chemical weapons.
But in 2014, the OPCW set up what it called a “fact-finding mission” to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria, subsequently issuing 21 reports covering 74 instances of alleged chemical weapons use.
Investigators concluded that chemical weapons were used or likely used in 20 instances.
Hamas frees three Israeli hostages in fifth Gaza exchange
Bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s Ofer prison has arrived in the occupied West Bank
Updated 16 min 28 sec ago
AFP
DEIR EL-BALAH, Palestinian Territories: Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, the fifth group freed under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with Israel condemning their “cruel” handover and worrying physical appearance.
Israel’s prison service confirmed it had released 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday during the fifth exchange of the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
It said in a statement that “183 terrorists were transferred from several prisons across the country”, before they “were released” to the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
The fifth exchange since the truce took effect last month comes as negotiations are set to begin on a more permanent end to the war.
It came after President Donald Trump floated a proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants, sparking global outrage.
Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were all seized by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the 15-month war, “crossed the border into Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said.
Jubilant crowds in Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv cheered as they watched live footage of the three hostages, flanked by masked gunmen, brought on stage in Deir El-Balah before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But the joy of their release was quickly overtaken by concern for their condition, with all three appearing thin and pale.
The choreographed handover included forced statements from the three on stage, in which they stated support for finalizing the next phases of the Israel-Hamas truce.
Palestinians gather around a stage being prepared ahead of the hand over to the Red Cross of three Israeli hostages by Hamas in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip on Feb. 8, 2025. (AP)
“The disturbing images... serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt – there is no time to waste for the hostages! We must get them all out,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose dejected-looking image appeared on a banner at the Deir El-Balah handover site, said that the images out of Gaza were “shocking.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog denounced the treatment of the hostages who were paraded on stage, calling it “a crime against humanity.”
“The whole world must look directly at Ohad, Or, and Eli – returning after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained – being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers,” Herzog said on X.
Sharabi, 52, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two daughters when militants stormed it.
The armed men shot their dog, before locking the family in their safe room and setting it on fire. The bodies of his wife and two daughters were later identified.
Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli-German citizenship, turned 56 in captivity. He was abducted from his home in Beeri along with his wife, who was released during the war’s first truce in November 2023.
Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife.
Former hostage Yarden Bibas, who was freed last week by Hamas militants in Gaza, on Friday urged Netanyahu to help bring back his wife and two children from the Palestinian territory.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words... bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home,” Bibas said in his first public message following his release.
Hamas previously said his wife Shiri and his two sons Ariel and Kfir – the youngest hostages – were dead, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce, even as Trump’s comments sparked backlash across the Middle East and beyond.
“An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home,” the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.
“Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed – until the very last one,” it added.
Palestinian militants have so far freed 21 hostages in exchange for hundreds of mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.
The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 11 more hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.
Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.
Netanyahu’s office said that after Saturday’s swap, an Israeli delegation will head to Doha for further talks.
The second phase aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war.
During their October 2023 attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-three remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 47,583 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the Gaza ceasefire
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza
Updated 08 February 2025
AFP
GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.
The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.
