English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 23/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus said: Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/01-11/:'Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’]

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 22-23/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: No Allies for Occupying Forces in Lebanon: Only Mercenaries, Iscariots, Trojan Horses, and Opportunists/December 22, 2024
Katz: IDF will ‘crush Hezbollah’s head’ if violates Lebanon truce
Katz threatens to 'crush Hezbollah's head' if it violates ceasefire
Jumblat meets with al-Jolani in Damascus
Lebanese Army takes control of Palestinian military post in Zahle
Beirut's Basta remains in ruins: Residents await post-war relief amid delayed reconstruction efforts
Lebanon receives Kuwaiti Air Force plane with medical aid
Lebanese Red Cross receives seven detainees released by Israel
LBCI sources: Israeli army releases abducted Lebanese citizen
Regional dynamics: Israel confronts growing security concerns in light of multi-front challenges
Kataeb Party Welcomes Syria's Shift Toward Balanced Relations
Israel Hands Over Seven Lebanese to Red Cross via UNIFIL
Rai: Lebanon Needs a President Capable of Navigating This Exceptional Historical Moment
Archbishop Aoudi called for humility and work to get out of the dark tunnel where chaos and retreat to a reliable, strong and just authority that preserves Lebanon's sovereignty, freedom and independence.
Jumblatt's Post-Assad Visit to Damascus: A Push for Diplomatic Renewal and Accountability
Mikati Discusses Humanitarian Aid and Southern Tensions with UN Delegates
Syria's de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader
Prominent Lebanese figure meets Syrian insurgent who led Assad's ouster, seeking better relations
Lebanon and Syria, the Tangled Web/Dr. Charles Elias Chartouni/December 22, 2024
2024 Year in Review: Can Lebanon recover from the depredations of Israel-Hezbollah war?/NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/December 22, 2024
Lebanon should not be a security threat for the new Syria/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/December 22, 2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 22-23/2024
Bashar al-Assad's wife files for divorce, seeks to move to UK - report
A blow to Iran: New Syrian government bans Iranians from flying over the country
Syria’s new rulers name defence, foreign ministers as interim cabinet takes shape
Turkey says it believes Kurdish fighters will be forced out of all Syrian territory
Turkish FM Calls For Removal of Sanctions Imposed on Syria
Saudi delegation led by Royal Court advisor meets with Syria’s Al-Sharaa
Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House's Sullivan says
Iran's supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government
Women-Only Flight Lands in Iranian Holy City for First Time
Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strikes Kill 28
Netanyahu says Israel will continue to act against the Houthis
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 28 people, Palestinian rescuers say
US strikes Houthi targets in Yemen, hours after rebels hit Israel
16 hurt as Houthi missile from Yemen hits Tel Aviv
US jet downed by ‘friendly fire’ during attack on Yemen’s Houthis
Israeli expert urges justice for both Israeli, Palestinian victims of sexual violence
Houthis take credit for downing American plane after CENTCOM alleges friendly fire
2 US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says
Pope Again Condemns 'Cruelty' of Israeli Strikes on Gaza
Russia Claims Capture of Two More East Ukraine Villages
Qatar vows to stop EU gas sales if fined under due diligence law, FT reports
Germans mourn the 5 killed and 200 injured in the apparent attack on a Christmas market

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on December 22-23/2024
With overthrow of Assad regime, Syrian Canadian recalls 20 years of 'torment' inside its prisons/CBC/December 22, 2024
‘Girls May Be Snatched from Public Spaces at Any Time’: The Muslim Persecution of Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 22/2024
AINA: Future Uncertain for Christians in Syria: Assyrian Leader in Syria/Ferran Barber/AINA/December 22/2024
What lessons have we learned from the 2004 tsunami?/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/December 22, 2024
Syria… These Are the Facts/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/December 22, 2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 21-22/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: No Allies for Occupying Forces in Lebanon: Only Mercenaries, Iscariots, Trojan Horses, and Opportunists
Elias Bejjani – December 22, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/138233/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSs80S8LAH8&t=606s
Modern Lebanese history is rife with examples embodying treachery, Trojan horse tactics, submissiveness, political opportunism, sectarian exploitation, and trading official positions at the expense of the nation’s interest, identity, sovereignty, independence, and the dignity and rights of its people. These chameleon-like figures, stripped of any sense of self-respect, values, honor, fear of God, or the Day of Judgment, have consistently exploited crises, occupations, and foreign interventions due to their ingratitude and moral bankruptcy. They have always been a poisoned and cancerous dagger in the hands of Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian occupiers. They were never genuine allies to these forces or convinced by their projects, schemes, and policies. Rather, they were traitors, self-serving narcissists motivated by personal gains and temporary rewards.
Since the entry of Palestinian, Arabist, and leftist terrorist organizations into Lebanon, committing atrocities against the Lebanese and seeking to establish an alternative Palestinian homeland, whose memory still lingers among the Lebanese, to the occupation of Lebanon by the brutal and criminal Assad regime, and finally to Hezbollah's Iranian occupation, these forces never found genuine allies among the Lebanese. Instead, they relied on local tools: mercenaries and hypocrites adept at changing their stances, loyalties, and colors to suit political winds, driven solely by notions of personal profit and loss.
In this context, following the resounding defeat Hezbollah suffered at the hands of Israel and the death of most of its terrorist leaders, who have no connection to Lebanon, coupled with the collapse of Assad's criminal regime, the erosion of its influence in the region, and the exposure of its atrocities, prisons, and human slaughterhouses, these tools—politicians, clergymen, and political activists in Lebanon—began changing their stances blatantly. As we say colloquially, they “turned 180 degrees” and swapped their hats without shame or hesitation.
Examples of Hypocritical Chameleons
Walid Jumblatt is the undisputed master of chameleons in changing stances, alliances, and turnarounds. His record is unparalleled, making him the king of moments of abandonment and epiphany, sitting by riverbanks waiting for the corpses of his enemies to float by.
Meanwhile, Ex-Minister Wiam Wahhab is a living example of this hypocrisy. Wahhab, who was a loud, street-level mouthpiece and media thug for the Assad regime and Hezbollah, as well as the leading cheerleader for the defunct “resistance axis” in its hostility toward Israel, recently began adopting entirely contradictory positions. He called on Lebanese Shiites to recognize the state of Israel. Those familiar with this opportunist and deceptive demagogue were not surprised by his U-turn but had long anticipated it.
The Sunni minister Faisal Karami, filled with hatred, resentment, and stupidity, presents yet another example of political opportunism and duplicity. Until recently, he was praising the Assad regime and Hezbollah, but he has recently turned against the Syrian Assad regime, claiming that it had fought against his father, Omar Karami, and his uncle, Rashid Karami, for years. We remind this hypocrite and those of his ilk with their duplicitous culture that Hezbollah, in one of the cabinet formations, ceded a ministerial position allocated to the Shiite sect and gave it to Faisal Karami to infiltrate the Sunni community through its leaders. MP, Faisal, whose actions continue to be driven by hatred and ignorance, still accuses Dr. Samir Geagea of assassinating his uncle, Prime Minister Rashid Karami, despite his full knowledge and the clear evidence that the Assad regime is the true culprit behind that crime.
Sheikh Hassan Mrad is another example of this opportunistic culture. After praising and glorifying Hezbollah and its false resistance, he has now turned against his stances, justifying his reversal with flimsy and childish excuses. This is the same sheikh accused of forging his academic certificates, with his credibility amounting to zero.
Then there is Mr. Elie Ferzli, a man of the corrupt Assad regime, who is now, renouncing his pro-Assad past and claiming yesterday that his allegiance and support were for the Syrian state, not the regime.
However, the most despicable and vile of all opportunists and traitors who aligned themselves with Hezbollah and the Assad regime are Michel Aoun, his corrupt son-in-law Gebran Bassil, and their cohort of fraudsters, merchants, and opportunists. Aoun, Bassil, and their group have betrayed every stance, slogan, promise, and commitment since signing the 2006 Mar Mikhael Agreement. Bassil and his uncle, former President Michel Aoun, epitomize political opportunism, exploiting Hezbollah, the Assad regime, and the Iranian mullahs' system to achieve personal and political gains. Through this disgraceful alliance, they secured parliamentary and ministerial seats and influential positions in the Lebanese state. In return, they sold out sovereignty and independence, sacrificing Lebanon’s national interests on the altar of their personal ambitions. Today, after Hezbollah’s defeat and the Assad regime's collapse, they shamelessly and brazenly change their loyalties, denying their masters – Hezbollah, Iran, and the Assad regime.
The political hypocrisy of the Aoun-Bassil approach did not stop there. After Hezbollah's humiliating defeat against Israel and the loss of most of its terrorist leaders, Bassil has begun publicly distancing himself from his former ally, attempting to restore his tarnished image among the Lebanese people. Suddenly, he is once again raising the slogans of sovereignty and independence in a desperate attempt to regain the popular support he lost due to his submission to Hezbollah and his association with Iran’s expansionist project.
This blatant political flip-flopping, characteristic of Bassil and Aoun's chameleon-like nature, is a scandalous example of opportunism and hypocrisy. It demonstrates their readiness to change positions, colors, and even their skins to serve their interests, even at the expense of destroying the nation, undermining its principles, and enslaving and humiliating its citizens.
In conclusion,There are no allies for occupying forces in Lebanon, but only mercenaries, Iscariots, Trojan Horses, and Opportunists

Katz: IDF will ‘crush Hezbollah’s head’ if violates Lebanon truce
Israel Today Staff /Dec 22, 2024
Defense Minister Israel Katz visits an IDF post in Southern Lebanon, Dec. 22, 2024. Photo by Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense. We will ensure the “restoration of security to allow the residents of the north to return safely to their homes,” said the Israeli defense minister. The Israeli military will “crush Hezbollah’s head” if the Iranian-backed terrorist group violates the ceasefire agreement, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday during a visit to an IDF position in Southern Lebanon. “We defanged the snake, and if Hezbollah does not withdraw beyond the Litani [River] and tries to violate the ceasefire, we will crush its head,” Katz said in a statement. “We will not allow Hezbollah to return to the southern [Lebanese] villages to reestablish the terror infrastructure that poses a threat to the northern [Israeli] communities,” he added. “We will ensure the restoration of security to allow the residents of the north to return safely to their homes,” he said. The IDF continues to destroy Hezbollah terrorist assets in Southern Lebanon, including an underground command and control facility on Wednesday night. Engineering troops from the 91st Division’s 188th Brigade located a tunnel dozens of meters long that led to the command center, which according to the military was used by the Iranian proxy to plan attacks and direct rocket fire at Israeli communities in the Galilee over the past year. Weapons, surveillance systems and additional military equipment were confiscated during the operation. Nearby, several weapons storage facilities were located, including one embedded inside a mosque, where hundreds of explosives, rifles, grenades and additional military equipment were being stored. The IDF emphasized that 188th Brigade troops “continue to act to remove threats in Southern Lebanon in accordance with the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and the conditions of the ceasefire.”A day earlier, an Israeli aircraft carried out a strike on a Hezbollah terrorist in Southern Lebanon after the army detected a man loading weapons into a car. The aircraft attacked the vehicle “to remove the threat,” the IDF said in a statement, stressing that the terrorist group’s presence in the area “violated the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”Under the terms of the ceasefire deal reached with Beirut on Nov. 26, Israeli forces are to withdraw gradually from the country over a 60-day period. Hezbollah must retreat north of the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border, while the Lebanese Armed Forces deploy along the 75-mile frontier, along with monitors from the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). On Monday, the IDF announced that after three months in Lebanon, its 98th Division was redeploying to the Gaza Strip. The division dismantled more than 300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, the army added. Israeli ground forces entered Southern Lebanon in early October after a year of incessant Hezbollah rocket, suicide drone and missile attacks.

Katz threatens to 'crush Hezbollah's head' if it violates ceasefire
Naharnet/December 22, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, during a visit to an Israeli military position in southern Lebanon, threatened Sunday to “crush Hezbollah’s head” if the group violates the ceasefire agreement. “We defanged the snake, and if Hezbollah does not withdraw beyond the Litani (River) and tries to violate the ceasefire, we will crush its head,” Katz said in remarks released by his office. “We will not allow Hezbollah operatives to return to the southern villages and reestablish the terror infrastructure that will pose a threat to the northern communities,” he continued.“We will ensure the removal of the threat and the restoration of security to allow the residents of the north to return safely to their homes,” Katz added.

Jumblat meets with al-Jolani in Damascus
Agence France Presse/Dec 22, 2024
Druze leader Walid Jumblat and an accompanying delegation on Sunday met in Damascus with Syrian rebel leader-turned-interim political leader Abou Mohammad al-Jolani, who now prefers to be called by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa. "We salute the Syrian people over their major victories and we salute you over the battle that you staged to get rid of oppression and tyranny," Jumblat told al-Sharaa. "The path is long and both you and us are suffering from Israeli expansionism and I will submit a memo about Lebanese-Syrian relations," Jumblat added. He also hoped ties between the two countries will return to normal, calling for accountability and fair trials for those who committed crimes against the Lebanese and Syrian peoples. Al-Sharaa for his part said the new Syria would not negatively interfere in Lebanon and would respect its neighbor's sovereignty. Syria will not exert "negative interference in Lebanon at all -- it respects Lebanon's sovereignty, the unity of its territories, the independence of its decisions and its security stability," Sharaa told Walid and Taymour Jumblat.

Lebanese Army takes control of Palestinian military post in Zahle
LBCI/December 22, 2024
As part of ongoing efforts to reclaim military positions previously held by Palestinian factions within Lebanese territory, a unit of the Lebanese Army assumed control of the Jbailet Ain el Baida post in the town of Kfar Zabad, Zahle. The Popular Front formerly operated the post for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – General Command. The army seized a significant cache of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment during the operation. This initiative is part of a broader campaign aimed at maintaining security and stability and asserting state authority across all regions of Lebanon.

Beirut's Basta remains in ruins: Residents await post-war relief amid delayed reconstruction efforts
LBCI/December 22, 2024
Two months after the devastation and nearly a month after the ceasefire, the scene in Beirut's Basta neighborhood remains unchanged. The rubble of destroyed homes and infrastructure tells a story of waiting—waiting for aid, waiting for rebuilding and waiting for answers. Residents are left in despair across numerous areas of the city, hopeful for assistance to restore their homes but finding none so far. The first line of aid, the High Relief Commission, has yet to deliver. Speaking to LBCI, the Commission's newly appointed chief, Brigadier General Bassam Naboulsi, confirmed that no donor country has provided reconstruction assistance to date. He emphasized that clearing rubble must be transparent to garner international support. Naboulsi explained that two terms of reference for debris removal had been issued by the Cabinet and finalized by the Public Procurement Authority. However, the opening of tenders has been delayed. The commission and the Council for South Lebanon await modifications from the Ministries of Public Works and Environment. An announcement for the tender is expected this week through the Public Procurement website. The wait is painful. For the displaced residents of Basta and other ravaged areas, the absence of homes and infrastructure adds to their suffering. MPs representing Beirut have been slow to act. While some appeared initially, their presence was fleeting, leaving their constituents to face the aftermath alone. Today, Basta remains a disaster zone, emblematic of many other devastated regions in Lebanon. Ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the tragedy, losing their homes, life savings, and sense of security. They wait for a promise of hope yet to be fulfilled.

Lebanon receives Kuwaiti Air Force plane with medical aid
LBCI/December 22, 2024
Caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin received a Kuwaiti Air Force plane carrying medical supplies from Kuwait. The aid was organized by the Lebanese community in Kuwait in coordination with the Lebanese Embassy and supervised by Ambassador Ahmad Arafa. The reception was attended by representatives from the Kuwaiti Embassy in Lebanon, including its advisor and team, along with officials from the Public Health Ministry and the Higher Relief Council. Minister Yassin, speaking on behalf of the Lebanese government and the Prime Minister, extended gratitude to Kuwait for its solidarity with Lebanon during the ongoing crisis caused by the Israeli aggression.

Lebanese Red Cross receives seven detainees released by Israel
LBCI/December 22, 2024
The Lebanese Red Cross, in coordination with UNIFIL, has taken custody of seven Lebanese individuals who were detained by Israel following the ceasefire.
The detainees, apprehended from the areas of Wazzani and Tayr Harfa, are being transported to the Lebanese Canadian Hospital for medical evaluation.

LBCI sources: Israeli army releases abducted Lebanese citizen
LBCI/December 22, 2024
According to LBCI sources, the Israeli army has released Mahdi Shamout, who was abducted two days ago from Wadi al-Hujair. Shamout was handed over to the Red Cross and UNIFIL near the Abbad site on the outskirts of Houla in southern Lebanon. He is now in the custody of Lebanese Army Intelligence.

Regional dynamics: Israel confronts growing security concerns in light of multi-front challenges
LBCI/December 22, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued sharp warnings to Lebanon in response to mounting complaints over repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement. These violations include daily incidents of gunfire targeting civilians and the arrest of Lebanese individuals without explanation or clarity regarding their fate. On Sunday morning, Katz visited a military outpost overlooking Maroun El Ras and other southern Lebanese towns to assess the security situation following a field tour. From the site, he warned of a "strong response" against Lebanon should Hezbollah breach the ceasefire or fail to withdraw beyond the Litani River. These threats preceded a high-level security meeting convened by Israel's security cabinet in the northern command headquarters. Attended by senior military and intelligence officials, the meeting reviewed weapons seized during Operation Northern Arrows from Hezbollah sites and stockpiles in southern Lebanon. The discussions extended to developments in Syria, focusing on Israel's strategic plans to secure a broad presence along the ceasefire line. Officials decided to maintain the Israeli Navy's current deployment as it continues operations to dismantle what remains of Syria's maritime arsenal. The Navy showcased images of its successes deep within Syrian waters to bolster its narrative of operational achievements. While tensions remain high on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts, Yemen also emerged as a topic of significant concern during Sunday's assessment. Israeli officials acknowledged the challenges posed by the Houthis' advanced missile capabilities, tying them to Iran. Military advisors recommended integrating the Houthi matter into broader strategies against Tehran, proposing a comprehensive attack plan targeting Iranian infrastructure. Concurrently, voices within the cabinet advocated for expanding the list of potential targets to include Yemen's national infrastructure, not just Houthi-controlled sites. Israel now faces challenges across four active fronts. However, in Gaza, intensified military actions coincide with efforts to finalize a prisoner exchange deal. As for the West Bank, it has become a growing source of concern. Security experts warn that it could soon eclipse other threats, evolving into Israel's primary security and military challenge 14 months after the Al-Aqsa Flood war.

Kataeb Party Welcomes Syria's Shift Toward Balanced Relations
This is Beirut/December 22, 2024
The Kataeb Party issued a statement on Sunday welcoming recent remarks by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the General Commander of Syria’s new administration, about Lebanese-Syrian relations. The party described the remarks as a “positive turning point” and a crucial step toward “balanced relations that respect the sovereignty and independence of both nations.” The statement highlighted Syria's acknowledgment of the assassinations carried out by the Assad regime against Lebanese leaders, particularly the martyr President Bachir Gemayel. “We commend Syria's recognition of these tragic events and its forward-looking perspective that transcends political and sectarian divisions,” the party said. It further praised the Syrian government’s willingness to address the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons, calling it a “positive step” toward resolving one of the most pressing humanitarian issues between the two nations. The party urged the Lebanese government to take immediate action, calling for the assignment of an appropriate body to communicate with Syria.“We urge the Lebanese government to provide comprehensive and accurate lists of all Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons, including Kataeb Political Bureau member Boutros Khawand,” the statement added. “Time is of the essence, and every day of delay adds to the suffering of the detainees' families.”In addition, it called on the Syrian authorities to apprehend those responsible for the political assassinations in Lebanon, including fugitive Habib Chartouni, who killed President Bachir Gemayel, and to hand them over to Lebanon to serve their sentence. “We urge the Syrian government to take responsibility for those proven to be involved in these heinous acts,” the statement emphasized. While congratulating the Syrian people on the “end of a dark chapter in their history,” the party expressed hope that these recent actions and statements would mark the beginning of a new phase in Lebanese-Syrian relations, based on “mutual respect and shared interests.”

Israel Hands Over Seven Lebanese to Red Cross via UNIFIL
This is Beirut/December 22, 2024
The Israeli army transferred on Sunday seven Lebanese detainees to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at the Ras al-Naqoura crossing point.
These individuals were arrested in the southern villages of Wazzani and Tayr Harfa following the ceasefire implementation on November 27. The detainees – Ahmed Haidar, Jaafar Haidar, Qassem Haidar, Rifaat al-Mustapha, Youssef al-Mustapha, Jamal al-Ahmad and Jaafar al-Mustapha – were handed over to the Lebanese Red Cross. They were transported to Tyre, where the Lebanese Army took them into custody for questioning. Israeli military activity has continued along the border. Two military vehicles took positions at the Ain Arab junction while soldiers searched six vacant homes in the village of Rihana. Additionally, Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of the Hanine village, destroying several homes, as reported by the National News Agency (NNA). In parallel, Israel issued new warnings against Hezbollah. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that Israel “will not hesitate to use overwhelming force against Hezbollah if it violates the ceasefire or fails to withdraw north of the Litani River.” Katz emphasized, “If Hezbollah does not retreat beyond the Litani and breaches the ceasefire, we will crush it. We will not allow its fighters to re-enter southern Lebanese villages or rebuild threatening infrastructure near northern Israeli towns and settlements.”Simultaneously, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson, announced on his X account the destruction of a Hezbollah paramilitary complex in southern Lebanon without disclosing its exact location.“During operations, forces from the 188th Brigade uncovered a vast military complex comprising eight aboveground and underground weapons depots linked by an extensive tunnel network,” Adraee wrote. He also noted the discovery of communication equipment, anti-tank missiles, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and computers. Additionally, Adraee revealed that Israeli forces found a missile launchpad aimed at northern Israeli towns and an associated arms depot, though no further details about the location were provided.

Rai: Lebanon Needs a President Capable of Navigating This Exceptional Historical Moment
This is Beirut/December 22, 2024
Ahead of the presidential election session scheduled for January 9, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai expressed hope that a president capable of navigating this exceptional historical period would be elected. “The country needs a president who enjoys both domestic and international trust, one who believes in institutions and revitalizes them, who can revive the economy and rebuild homes destroyed in various Lebanese regions,” he stated in his Sunday homily. He also emphasized the need for the future president to “reform infrastructure and institutional frameworks while strengthening unity among citizens.”Additionally, the patriarch urged authorities to disclose the fate of the two Antonine priests abducted from the Qalaa Monastery in Beit Mery on October 14, 1990, during the Syrian invasion, especially in light of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Archbishop Aoudi called for humility and work to get out of the dark tunnel where chaos and retreat to a reliable, strong and just authority that preserves Lebanon's sovereignty, freedom and independence.
NNA/December 22/2024
The Metropolitan of Beirut and its Greek Orthodox dependencies, Archbishop Elias Aoudi presided over the service of the Mass at St. George's Cathedral, in the presence of a crowd of believers. After the Gospel he gave a sermon in which he said: Our invitation today is to seek holiness without despair, since Christ came incarnate from a human seed revealed to us in today's Gospel, and this seed contains many sinners who have been sanctified and become our examples. May the coming feast be an occasion for voluntary liberation from sins and closeness to Christ. In these blessed days, invite us to live the meaning of Christmas in depth, to abandon earthly connections and temporary interests in order to obtain heavenly rewards. The disconnection from the communion of holiness with the Creator, the separation from the life-giving divine grace, They are the reason why evil exists in the world. After Adam's disobedience, God said to him, "The earth is cursed because of you" (Gen 3:17), and since then humanity has entered into "the darkness and shadows of death." This is the reality of human history, where the logic of power and the survival of the strongest prevailed, and the powerful now control the destinies of human beings, thinking that by force and oppression they continue. But force, injustice, stubbornness, hatred, wars and all the evils of the world have not saved man from his torments, nor have they prevented death from him, nor brokenness and disappointment. Only true light saves man from the bondage of evil and sin, and the descent into the lowest realm of loss, corruption and sin. The prophet Isaiah said, "The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. Those who sit in the land of the shadow of death have a light shining upon them" (9:2). He concluded: "With the birth of the Savior, the sun of justice has risen, and the way of salvation has been opened. Let us abandon our old man, who is full of sins, and follow the undying light. In Lebanon, let everyone abandon their whims, desires and interests and work sincerely for the salvation of the country. Everyone must humble themselves and work together to get out of the dark tunnel of chaos and regression, to a reliable, strong and just authority that preserves Lebanon's sovereignty, freedom and independence, and the interest, security and stability of the Lebanese. The Apostle Paul says, "Life is Christ to me, and death is gain" (Philippians1:21) and we say: Death is for selfishness, interest, power and exclusivity is a gain for the homeland."


Jumblatt's Post-Assad Visit to Damascus: A Push for Diplomatic Renewal and Accountability
This is BeirutDecember 22, 2024
Thirteen years later, former Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Jumblatt made a landmark visit to Damascus, leading a delegation from the "Democratic Gathering" parliamentary bloc. He was accompanied by Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna, Sheikh Aql of the Druze community, and other Druze elders, to meet with Ahmad al-Sharaa, the General Commander of the Syrian Administration. Jumblatt's visit marked the first by a Lebanese official to Syria following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna proposed a unifying initiative during the meeting, which was broadcast live on national TV. "I take the liberty of proposing the idea of holding a spiritual summit that brings together religious leaders from both countries to promote a sense of reassurance and unity. The people of Syria deserve peace and prosperity because Syria is the beating heart of Arabism," he said. Jumblatt, in his address, announced that he had submitted a memorandum on behalf of the "Democratic Gathering" regarding Lebanese-Syrian relations. "We hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations will return to their natural course through diplomatic channels," he said. "We also hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese people will be held accountable and that fair trials will be established for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people." He added, "Some detention centers should be preserved as museums for history, to serve as a reminder of past atrocities." "We salute the Syrian people for their great victories, and we salute you for the battle you fought to rid yourselves of oppression and tyranny," Jumblatt stated. "The road ahead is long, and we, like you, suffer from Israeli expansionism." Ahmad al-Sharaa, in his speech, acknowledged the Syrian regime's role in assassinations, including those of Bashir Gemayel, Kamal Jumblatt, and Rafic Hariri. He also criticized the former Syrian regime for its negative interference in Lebanese affairs and its alliance with Iranian militias, which deepened divisions among Syrians. "Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative. The previous regime worked with Iranian militias to sow division among the Syrians," he said. "Our battle saved the region from a major regional war and possibly a world war," Al-Sharaa asserted, underscoring the significance of recent developments for both nations.
Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna proposed a unifying initiative during the meeting, which was broadcast live on national TV. "I take the liberty of proposing the idea of holding a spiritual summit that brings together religious leaders from both countries to promote a sense of reassurance and unity. The people of Syria deserve peace and prosperity because ...

Mikati Discusses Humanitarian Aid and Southern Tensions with UN Delegates
This is BeirutDecember 22, 2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati received the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Janine Hennis-Plasschaert, at his residence. The discussions focused on current developments, particularly the situation in southern Lebanon and the ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
The Prime Minister also met with Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, in the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza; Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Beirut, Christine Knudsen; and the Prime Minister’s advisor, Ziad Mikati. During the meeting, the Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the United Nations for its continued attention to Lebanon and its humanitarian efforts in supporting those affected by Israeli aggression. He also praised Tom Fletcher's longstanding dedication to Lebanon, dating back to his tenure as ambassador in Beirut several years ago. For his part, Fletcher briefed Mikati on the humanitarian aid provided to Lebanon. The discussions also covered cooperation between the Lebanese government and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as well as future projects aimed at addressing Lebanon's social and economic challenges.

Syria's de facto ruler reassures minorities, meets Lebanese Druze leader
Reuters/Sun, December 22, 2024
Syria's de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa hosted Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Sunday in another effort to reassure minorities they will be protected after Islamist rebels led the ouster of Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago. Sharaa said no sects would be excluded in Syria in what he described as "a new era far removed from sectarianism". Sharaa heads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main group that forced Assad out on Dec. 8. Some Syrians and foreign powers have worried he may impose strict Islamic governance on a country with numerous minority groups such as Druze, Kurds, Christians and Alawites. "We take pride in our culture, our religion and our Islam. Being part of the Islamic environment does not mean the exclusion of other sects. On the contrary, it is our duty to protect them," he said during the meeting with Jumblatt, in comments broadcast by Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed.
Jumblatt, a veteran politician and prominent Druze leader, said at the meeting that Assad's ouster should usher in new constructive relations between Lebanon and Syria. Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam. Sharaa, dressed in a suit and tie rather than the military fatigues he favoured in his rebel days, also said he would send a government delegation to the southwestern Druze city of Sweida, pledging to provide services to its community and highlighting Syria's "rich diversity of sects".
Seeking to allay worries about the future of Syria, Sharaa has hosted numerous foreign visitors in recent days, and has vowed to prioritise rebuilding Syria, devastated by 13 years of civil war.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Prominent Lebanese figure meets Syrian insurgent who led Assad's ouster, seeking better relations
Sally Abou Aljoud/BEIRUT (AP)/December 22, 2024
A prominent Lebanese politician held talks on Sunday with the insurgent who led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family’s 54-year rule ended two weeks ago. Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former leader Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father. He held talks with Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist rebels who swept into Damascus earlier this month and forced the younger Assad from power. Now wearing a suit and tie, al-Sharaa has been meeting with diplomats and others from around the region and beyond as Assad's fall reshapes alliances and gives many long-stifled Syrians hope after more than 13 years of civil war and international sanctions.
“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt, a key figure in Lebanon’s Druze minority. He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. “Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he added. Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.
Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating that assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others. “We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.
Iran's leader predicts trouble for new Syrian rulers
Separately, Iran's supreme leader asserted that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after Assad's ouster, as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country. Iran provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Hezbollah. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall. “What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. He also accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources. Iran and its militant allies in the region have suffered major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month. Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their beliefs. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.
Preserving evidence of crimes
The head of a U.N.-backed team investigating crimes committed during the civil war said they are working with the country’s new authorities in hopes of preserving evidence uncovered after Assad’s ouster. “We welcome the fact that we were invited to come and to engage with the authorities,” Robert Petit said Sunday, describing the meeting as “constructive.”As journalists, researchers and the public stream into former detention centers and mass grave sites, many express fears that evidence is taken or destroyed. Wafa Mustafa, a Syrian activist whose father, Ali, disappeared in 2013 in Damascus, said that "no one gets to tell the families what happened without evidence, without search, without work, without effort.”
Returning Syrians search for shattered homes
Syria's civil war created millions of refugees, and thousands have begun returning. In a gray field of rubble outside Damascus, returnee Alaa Badawi worked with a shovel, looking for traces of his home. His community, Qaboun, was an anti-government center and many of its buildings were flattened under Assad's administration. “Which is our house? Which is our alley? There is nothing visible,” Badawi said. He and others decided to dig a little here and there to look for the house's distinctive tiles. “We finally discovered that this is our house,” he said. "I do not know by then if I was happy to have located the house amid the rubble or upset because the house did not exist.”
**Ziad Al-Hilli, one of the many people freed from prison as Assad fled to Russia, could not find his house, or his family.
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Lebanon and Syria, the Tangled Web
Dr. Charles Elias Chartouni/December 22, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/138260/
The political evolutions in both countries are quite ambivalent since they usher in a new political era beset by the pitfalls and the dirty arcanes of domestic and regional power politics. The downfall of Hezbollah and the Assad regime is dawning a new chapter in the life of both Lebanon and Syria, notwithstanding their societal and political idiosyncrasies. The transformative dynamic of the Israeli counteroffensive has elicited unconventional political expectations unknown to the region and questioned the political and military foreclosures that have prevented the reformist and reconciliation narratives from taking over and blunted all undertakings from materializing and initiating alternative courses.
The trite ideological doxas that prevailed were able to survive as long as the ongoing power relationships kept hovering over Arab societies and minds. The projected end of Iranian imperialism and the implosion of the Syrian regime have sounded the eclipse of the ideological mantras (Arabism, Islamism, and Third World outdated rhetorics) that have preempted political and social change from taking its due course in the region. The debacle is far from being restricted to the military realm; it challenges the political scripts and the evidence that have kept this area at bay from the political and societal upheavals caused by the democratic and liberal waves that succeeded the end of the communist dystopia and its geo-strategic and political configurations. One wonders why Arab and Muslim societies were kept aside and why their reformist agendas were systematically obliterated.
The ongoing unraveling of the Iranian power projections, the annihilation of their operational platforms, and the deconstruction of their ideological scheme account largely for the emerging political dynamics and the rise of the reformist political agendas based on democratic and liberalizing political agendas, reasserted national sovereignty, and readiness to engage a conflict resolution course based on moral reciprocity, negotiations, and political accommodation. However critical the current situation is, it opens up new horizons and gives rise to alternative political prospects.
Nonetheless, this looming horizon is still a possibility and a mere longing as long as the imperial agendas of Islamists of whichever stripe and autocratic proclivities are still hobbling political life. The Iranian regime, after losing its ideological and military platforms in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, is trying to outmaneuver the transformative dynamics while its faltering credentials and abilities are at their pinnacle. Change is inevitable, and there is no need to dwell on the need for oppositions to seize the rising opportunities to outdo the hypothecations and enforce a new political course.
The defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria should lead to its eradication from political life and undermine its strategy to win in politics what it has lost in war. The outcomes of the domination strategy led by Iran throughout the Near East were destructive enough to challenge its status, credentials, and effective stature. The strategy of the integrated military platforms has led to the destruction of two countries (Lebanon and Syria), the Gaza district, Iraq, and Yemen and their transformation into wastelands instrumented by terrorism and organized criminality. The Iranian regime, like al-Qaïda and ISIS, is located along the same ideological and strategic continuum, aside from its specific institutional and political positioning.
Lebanon has no chance of rebuilding itself as long as Shiite fascism is still determined to challenge the consociational and liberal political culture, instrumentalize state institutions, and pursue the sabotaging strategy and the cycles of nihilistic violence. The truce concluded a month ago does not seem to yield positive outcomes insofar as surrendering arsenals, dismantling military infrastructures, and renouncing subversive politics. Its siding with the defunct Syrian regime, attempt at enlisting HTS support, and blatant intent on pursuing the war with Israel are quite indicative of the unwillingness to change the narrative and the political course.
The takeover of the Syrian regime by HTS and its shrouded ambiguities raise legitimate questions in regard to its impending political projections, Islamist imperialism, and ideological hubris. The peaceful takeover and the festive atmosphere of the ongoing process match perfectly with the political statements made by its leader, who distanced himself from ideological pronouncements and emphasized the priority of the national reconciliation and the national convention to decide over the strategic choices that should guide the post-war reconstruction in Syria, the reintegration of the international community, the transitional justice, and the abolition of the sanctions regime.
This declaration of intent is quite reassuring as long as it endures the reality check and validates its premises. The Christmas trees in major Syrian cities are resolutely indicative of the normalization demeanor. Nonetheless, the hazards of transition range between the Islamic radicalism, the Turkish, Qatari, and Saudi power politics; the failure of political dialogue between the ethno-religious great; the resumption of political violence and civil instability; and the breakdown of governance. The takeover seems of good omen and needs to be closely monitored and shepherded since it might lay the foundation of an all-encompassing and long-awaited political, societal, and cultural metamorphosis.

2024 Year in Review: Can Lebanon recover from the depredations of Israel-Hezbollah war?
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/December 22, 2024
BEIRUT: On the first day of 2024, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah received an Israeli ultimatum. If it did not immediately retreat from the Israeli-Lebanese border and cease its rocket attacks, a full-scale war was imminent. It was the threat that preceded the storm. The following day, Israeli fire, previously confined to cross-border exchanges initiated by Hezbollah on Oct. 8, 2023, with the stated aim of supporting Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, was turned on the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time. An Israeli drone targeted a Hamas office in Haret Hreik, killing the group’s third-ranking leader, Saleh Al-Arouri. Simultaneously, the killings of Hezbollah leaders in southern Lebanon increased exponentially.
The war that Hezbollah launched against northern Israel compounded Lebanon’s existing crises. Already burdened by the financial collapse of 2019, Lebanon entered 2024 grappling with worsening economic and social turmoil.
A political crisis deepened the chaos, as a failure to appoint a president — caused by sharp divisions between Hezbollah and its allies on one side and their opponents on the other — has left the government paralyzed since October 2022.
The flare-up on the border initially displaced 80,000 people from their villages, further straining the country’s economy and increasing poverty. In mid-December 2023, donor countries informed Lebanon of plans to reduce aid for social protection at the start of 2024. Military confrontations escalated quickly. Hezbollah maintained its “linked fronts” strategy, insisting it would continue its attacks until Israel withdrew from Gaza, while Israel insisted Hezbollah comply with Resolution 1701 and withdraw its forces north of the Litani River.
Between Oct. 8, 2023, and September 2024, Hezbollah launched 1,900 cross-border military attacks, while Israel responded with 8,300 attacks on southern Lebanon. These hostilities caused hundreds of fatalities and displaced entire communities in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Despite intensive diplomatic efforts — primarily by France and the US — no ceasefire was reached during this period. The confrontations intensified, with the Israeli army expanding its targets to the Baalbek region, while Hezbollah extended its strikes to deep Israeli military positions.
Daily clashes revealed Hezbollah’s entrenched military presence in southern Lebanon, including arms depots, artillery emplacements and tunnels, despite the monitoring role of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon under Resolution 1701.
Resolution 1701 mandates the establishment of a weapons-free zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River, except for Lebanese government and international forces. It also prohibits the unauthorized sale or supply of arms to Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah, the slain secretary-general of Hezbollah, asserted in 2021 that the group’s fighting force was 100,000 strong.
Funded by Iran and trained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah boasted a significant arsenal, predominantly Iranian-made and locally manufactured weapons. After monopolizing resistance operations in the 1980s, Hezbollah morphed into what many analysts considered an Iranian proxy beyond the control of the Lebanese state. This year’s confrontations broke traditional rules of engagement, imposing new dynamics. UNIFIL troops in forward positions were not spared from the crossfire, with incidents escalating after Israeli forces entered UNIFIL’s operational zones. By mid-July, Western embassies in Lebanon were urging their nationals to leave, aware of Israel’s threat to expand the conflict into an all-out war on Lebanon.
Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s leadership intensified, culminating in the July killing of Radwan Division commander Fouad Shukr in southern Beirut. The following day, Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was targeted in Tehran, heightening tensions between Israel and Iran.
Israeli airstrikes deepened across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, while Hezbollah extended its attacks to Kiryat Shmona, Meron and the outskirts of Haifa and Safed. Then, on Sept. 17-18, Israel mounted a coordinated attack on thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, causing explosions that resulted in 42 deaths and more than 3,500 injuries. Although Israel has not claimed responsibility, the attack marked a significant escalation. By Sept. 27, the killing of Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah figures in Haret Hreik signaled the start of a wider war. Israeli forces used precision concussion rockets to strike deep into buildings and bunkers, killing Hezbollah commanders and forcing mass evacuations from Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The war that Hezbollah launched against northern Israel compounded Lebanon’s existing crises. (AFP)
In response, Hezbollah reaffirmed its commitment to linking any ceasefire in Lebanon to one in Gaza. However, by Oct. 1, Israel had intensified its raids, leveling residential buildings and even threatening archaeological sites in Tyre and Baalbek.
The Israeli army also initiated a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, destroying border villages and severing land crossings with Syria to disrupt Hezbollah’s supply lines. Satellite imagery revealed the total destruction of towns like Ayta Al-Shaab and Aitaroun, rendering them uninhabitable. The devastation affected not only Hezbollah but also Lebanon’s Shiite community, which had invested heavily in the group over decades. On Nov. 26, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, with US mediation, finalized a ceasefire agreement. However, the deal was preceded by a massive Israeli escalation in Beirut.
As the ceasefire came into effect, questions arose in Hezbollah strongholds about its decision to separate the Lebanon and Gaza peace tracks. Critics also questioned its commitment to dismantling military installations and cooperating with US-led monitoring efforts.Despite the ceasefire, violations continued. Meanwhile, the war’s economic toll was becoming apparent. Amin Salam, Lebanon’s minister of economy, estimated initial losses at $15-20 billion, with 500,000 jobs lost, widespread business closures, and agricultural devastation affecting 900,000 dunams of farmland.
Farmers, industrialists and displaced communities were left without support, deepening Lebanon’s economic paralysis. Municipalities began assessing damages, while Hezbollah sought to distribute Iranian-funded aid to those affected.
Although its leadership and its once mighty arsenal have been badly diminished, and the war in Gaza continues, the fact that Hezbollah has survived the past year of conflict is being projected by the group as a victory in itself.
Lebanon now faces an unprecedented challenge, recovering from a conflict it was ill-equipped to withstand. (AFP). What is certain is that Lebanon now faces an unprecedented challenge, recovering from a conflict it was ill-equipped to withstand and watching a friendly government in neighboring Syria crumble under an onslaught by opposition forces. By the same token, now may be the moment many Lebanese had been eagerly waiting for, when the state is in a position to assert its control over internal and external security.

Lebanon should not be a security threat for the new Syria
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/December 22, 2024
Lebanese social media was busy last week discussing the presence of figures from the former Syrian regime in Lebanon. While the Lebanese authorities deny any such connections, the corrupt Lebanese system had strong relations with the Assad regime for decades. The two security apparatuses were intertwined.
However, Lebanon needs a clear break from Assad’s regime to build healthy and fruitful relations with the new Syria.
Ali Mamlouk, the notorious Assad chief spy, is known to have reached Iraq via Beirut — he left Lebanon from Beirut airport.
The Lebanese government could have been excused from responsibility for his presence in Lebanon. His arrival in Lebanon could have been explained due to an illegal crossing, hence without the knowledge or approval of the Lebanese state.
Nevertheless, he left the country via the airport. The Lebanese state cannot claim it did not know. It did know. Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi denied that Mamlouk had entered the country. However, several witnesses spotted Mamlouk in a five-star hotel in Beirut.
The story gets even darker. Aside from the many crimes he committed in Syria, Mamlouk was under a death sentence in Lebanon. He was found guilty by the Lebanese judiciary of blowing up two mosques in the northern part of the country: the Taqwa Mosque and the Al-Salam Mosque. How was he able to leave the country and pass through passport control? The answer is simple — he could not have left the country unless he had connections with the Lebanese state.
Syrian media has said that several figures close to the ousted regime entered Lebanon on the day Assad fled the country. They also reported that the former security chief, Abbas Ibrahim, facilitated this by replacing an officer at the Lebanese-Syrian crossing.
The day that Assad left the country, all the important regime figures also disappeared. This is a big problem for the new system in Syria. They know that officers of the former regime will create problems. Those who have the blood of the Syrian people on their hands know that if they are caught, they will be prosecuted. Chances are they will go underground and conduct operations to destabilize the new Syria.
The Lebanese state and Lebanese people should make sure that Hezbollah or other figures do not offer any help to the remnants of the ousted regime.
They do not want to see a stable and prosperous Syria. To conduct destructive operations, they need support from their friends. Already they have started such activities. A group of men vandalized a church in Mahardah, a Christian town in Hama. They pretended to belong to the new authorities, but when caught it turned out that they belonged to the former regime and were seeking to create sectarian tensions.
The Assad regime has no better friend than the corrupt configuration in Lebanon. After the Taif agreement, the Assad regime was able to exert influence in Lebanon. This is the period that the Lebanese despise and call the period of Syrian “tutelage.” Prime Minister Rafik Hariri tried to break the control of the Assad regime — he was quietly working to secure the withdrawal of Assad forces from Lebanon. It did not end well for him; he was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005. Afterwards, due to international pressure and mass protests, Assad forces left the country. But though the soldiers and the tanks left, the Lebanese security apparatus remained hostage to the criminal regime.
The Assad regime also has political allies in Lebanon — Hezbollah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement — as well as several less significant political personalities such as the Druze politicians Wiam Wahhab and Talal Arslan. Figures in the Hezbollah circle, such as the infamous journalist Hussein Murtada, who filmed himself with the Assad airforce as they dropped barrel bombs on civilians, has said that Syria will experience problems and fighting. Is that an analysis, wishful thinking, or a threat?
The Lebanese state and Lebanese people should make sure that Hezbollah or other figures do not offer any help to the remnants of the regime. Strict laws and enforcement should be applied. This is imperative if Lebanon is to have a good start with the new free Syria. Lebanon should support Syria’s transition to a free, democratic, and prosperous system. It should not create a security threat to the new Syria.
The new Syrian authorities face massive challenges. Assad left behind a decimated country that has no source of income. Assad relied on extortion, the Captagon trade, and donations from Iran. Israel has destroyed the capabilities of the army and Syria has little ability to secure its borders. In addition to the current challenges, the last thing the country needs is interference from remnants of the former regime.
The Lebanese complained about the coercive relations with Syria during Assad’s rule. Now they are hoping to have friendly relations based on mutual respect and common interests. They expect the new regime in Syria to treat Lebanon like a sovereign, not vassal, state. If they want this type of relationship, they need to make sure that Lebanon does not constitute a security threat to Syria. They have to make sure that Lebanon and Lebanese figures do not offer any help to the remnants of the regime. If they do not, they will be inviting the new regime in Syria to interfere in their affairs.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 22-23/2024
Bashar al-Assad's wife files for divorce, seeks to move to UK - report
Jerusalem Post/December 22/2024
Asma al-Assad moved to Syria in 2000 and married Assad in the same year at the age of 25. The British wife of Syria’s deposed president Bashar al-Assad, Asma al-Assad, has filed for divorce after expressing dissatisfaction with her life in Moscow, Turkish and Arab media reported Sunday. She reportedly seeks to move to London. Asma applied to the Russian court and requested special permission to leave Moscow. Her application is reportedly currently being evaluated by Russian authorities.  Asma is a dual British-Syrian national who was born and raised in London by Syrian parents, the BBC reported. Asma moved to Syria in 2000 and married Assad in the same year at the age of 25.  Although his asylum request was accepted, Bashar al-Assad is still reportedly subject to severe restrictions. He is not permitted to leave Moscow or engage in any political activities.  Russian authorities have also frozen his assets and money. His assets include 270 kilograms of gold, $2 billion, and 18 apartments in Moscow. Assad's family. Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, has not been granted asylum in Russia, and his request is still under review, according to the Saudi and Turkish reports. Maher and his family are under house arrest in Russia.  Assad was overthrown in early December during an offensive by rebel forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Although HTS is a registered terrorist organization by the United States, the US has decided to lift the $10 million bounty on HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani’s head. The Baath regime was in power for 61 years before Assad was ousted this month.

A blow to Iran: New Syrian government bans Iranians from flying over the country
Jerusalem Post/December 22/2024
Why is there growing concern in the security establishment about the new regime in Syria if it's blocking Iranian weapons shipments? The rebel regime in Syria, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has decided in recent days to prevent Iranians from flying over Syrian skies, Walla learned on Sunday. Initially, the decision included flights for military missions such as the transfer of weapons or the withdrawal of forces from Syria, and now the decision includes any passage of Iranian aircraft over the country's skies. According to security sources, this is the deepest expression of the change from the 'Axis of Evil' to the regime that is emerging in Syria with the encouragement and support of Turkey and Qatar and the implications that it will have in the foreseeable future on foreign policy - not only towards Iran but towards the entire 'Axis of Evil' that includes Shiite forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Security sources also said that the rebels' decision will make it very difficult for Hezbollah to restore its military capabilities. Restricting the movement of Iranians. The decision will make it difficult for the Iranians to move freely in the Middle East, transporting weapons, ammunition, and operatives from the Revolutionary Guards and Shiite militias. This process joins the Air Force's effort to prevent the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon through smuggling routes on the border Syria-Lebanon. There is also growing concern in the security establishment that the new regime emerging in Syria has not yet formulated a clear position towards Israel. This issue will be discussed between Israel and the US in the coming days in order to understand the meaning of the decision to remove the $10 million bounty from the rebel leader's head and whether it is related to the commitment to hold elections in Syria, which will ultimately elect a new president for the country.

Syria’s new rulers name defence, foreign ministers as interim cabinet takes shape
Reuters/December 22, 2024
The key defence and foreign affairs portfolios in Syria's transitional government go to prominent figures in the insurgency that overthrew Bashar al-Assad nearly two weeks ago, tasked with restructing the country's army and establishing "international relations that bring peace and stability".Syria's new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defence minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday. Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria's revolution, the source said. Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed "the form of the military institution in the new Syria" during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported. Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed. Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defence ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad's army.Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.'

Turkey says it believes Kurdish fighters will be forced out of all Syrian territory
Reuters/December 22, 2024
Turkey believes Syria's new rulers, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive Kurdish YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in northeastern Syria, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday. Turkey regards the Syrian YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and are deemed terrorists by Ankara, Washington, and the European Union.
The YPG spearheads an alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is backed by the United States and controls territory in northeastern Syria. Since the fall of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, Turkey and Syrian groups it backs have fought against the SDF, seizing the city of Manbij.
"We believe that the new leadership in Syria and the Syrian National Army, which is an important part of its army, along with the Syrian people, will free all territories occupied by terrorist organisations," Guler said during a visit to Turkish troops on the Syrian border with military commanders. "We will also take every necessary measure with the same determination until all terrorist elements beyond our borders are cleared," he said in a video released by his ministry. Ankara has demanded the Syrian Kurdish fighters disband, and has called on Washington to withdraw its support. The U.S. military acknowledged last week it has 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria, twice as many as it had said previously. On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey would do "whatever it takes" to ensure its security if Syria's new administration was unable to address its concerns.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Peter Graff)

Turkish FM Calls For Removal of Sanctions Imposed on Syria
This is Beirut/With AFP/December 22, 2024
International sanctions on Damascus must be lifted "as soon as possible" to allow Syria to get back on its feet and refugees to return home, Turkey's top diplomat said Sunday. "The sanctions imposed on the previous regime need to be lifted as soon as possible," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on a visit to Damascus. "The international community needs to mobilise to help Syria get back on its feet and for the displaced people to return."Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan had met with Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, according to Ankara's foreign ministry. A video released by the Anadolu state news agency showed the two men greeting each other. No details of where the meeting took place in the Syrian capital were released by the ministry. Fidan had announced on Friday that he planned to travel to Damascus to meet Syria's new leaders, who ousted Syria's strongman Bashar al-Assad after a lightning offensive. Turkey's spy chief Ibrahim Kalin had earlier visited the city on December 12, just a few days after Assad's fall. Kalin was filmed leaving the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, surrounded by bodyguards, as broadcast by the private Turkish channel NTV. Turkey has been a key backer of the opposition to Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011. Besides supporting various rebel groups, it has welcomed Syrian dissenters and millions of refugees. However, Fidan has rejected claims by US president-elect Donald Trump that the rebels' victory in Syria constituted an "unfriendly takeover" of the country by Turkey.

Saudi delegation led by Royal Court advisor meets with Syria’s Al-Sharaa
Arab News/December 23, 2024
RIYADH: A Saudi delegation headed by an advisor from the Royal Court met with the head of the new Syrian administration, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, at the People’s Palace in Syria on Sunday, according to an Al Arabiya report. Earlier this week, Al-Sharaa praised progress made by Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf countries in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat. “We admire the development in Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia’s bold plans and vision, and we aspire to achieve similar progress for Syria,” he told the newspaper’s Bissane El-Cheikh during an interview the the Presidential Palace in Damascus. “There are many opportunities for cooperation, especially in economic and developmental areas, where we can align our goals,” he added.

Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House's Sullivan says
Reuters/December 22, 2024
The Biden administration is concerned that a weakened Iran could decide to build a nuclear weapon, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, adding that he was briefing incoming President-elect Donald Trump's team on the risk. Iran is reeling from setbacks to its regional influence after Israel's assaults on its allies, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, followed by the fall of Syrian Iran-aligned President Bashar al-Assad. Tehran's "conventional capabilities" have also been reduced, Sullivan told CNN, a reference to recent Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defences. "It's no wonder there are voices (in Iran) saying 'Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now... Maybe we have to revisit our nuclear doctrine'," Sullivan told CNN. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but has expanded uranium enrichment since Trump in his first term as president pulled out of a deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Sullivan said there is now a "real risk" that Iran will revise its position that "we're not going for a nuke.""It's a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It's a risk that I'm personally briefing the incoming team on," Sullivan said, adding that he had also consulted with U.S. ally Israel on the issue. Trump, who takes power on Jan. 20, is likely to step up sanctions on Iran's oil industry despite calls to return to negotiations from critics who see diplomacy as a more effective long-term policy.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Mark Porter)

Iran's supreme leader says Syrian youth will resist incoming government
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)/December 22, 2024
Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country. Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall. “What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.” He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.” Iran and its militant allies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month. Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that the Islamic Republic did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.

Women-Only Flight Lands in Iranian Holy City for First Time
This is Beirut/With AFP/December 22, 2024
An Iranian airline conducted a rare women-only flight on Sunday, landing for the first time in the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast, state media reported. The Aseman Airlines flight by Shahrzad Shams -- one of Iran's pioneering women pilots -- carried 110 passengers on board, according to the official IRNA news agency. Dubbed the "Iran Banoo" (Iran Lady) flight, the plane touched down at Hasheminejad International Airport in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city and home to the revered shrine of Imam Reza, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites. "This is the first time a women-only flight, with both female passengers and crew, lands in Mashhad," the official IRNA news agency said, without specifying the flight's departure point. The trip to Mashhad coincided with the anniversary of the birth of Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed, according to IRNA. Iran's aviation industry has seen some women become pilots in recent years, though it remains uncommon. In October 2019, pilot Neshat Jahandari and co-pilot Forouz Firouzi became the first women to fly a passenger flight in the Islamic republic's history, according to local media.

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strikes Kill 28
This is Beirut/With AFP/December 22, 2024
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school building the Israeli military said was used by Hamas. On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family. Hours after the strike, an AFP photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage. In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the floor. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City. Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" overnight, targeting Hamas militants operating there. A military statement said that a Hamas "command and control center... was embedded inside" the school compound in the city's east, adding that it was used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks" against Israeli forces. AFP images showed the damaged school building where mangled concrete slabs and iron beams lay strewn amid patches of blood. Contacted by AFP, an Israeli military spokesperson said they were unable to comment on other reported strikes elsewhere in Gaza. Bassal said in a statement that an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.And a drone strike early on Sunday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.

Netanyahu says Israel will continue to act against the Houthis
Reuters/December 22, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel would continue acting against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, whom he accused of threatening world shipping and the international order, and called on Israelis to be steadfast. "Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran's axis of evil, so we will act against the Houthis," he said in a video statement a day after a missile fired from Yemen fell in the Tel Aviv area, causing a number of mild injuries. On Thursday, Israeli jets launched a series of strikes against energy and port infrastructure in Yemen in a move officials said was a response to hundreds of missile and drone attacks launched by the Houthis since the start of the Gaza war 14 months ago. On Saturday, the U.S. military said it conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by Houthis in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Netanyahu, strengthened at home by the Israeli military's campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army's strategic weapons, said Israel would act with the United States. "Therefore, we will act with strength, determination and sophistication. I tell you that even if it takes time, the result will be the same," he said. The Houthis have launched repeated attacks on international shipping in waters near Yemen since November 2023, in support of the Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas.

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 28 people, Palestinian rescuers say
NEWS WIRES/(AFP)/December 22, 2024
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 28 people, according to Palestinian medical officials. Rescuers said four children were killed in a strike on a school that the Israeli military said was used by Hamas militants.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school building the military said was used by Hamas. There was no let-up in the violence in the Gaza Strip more than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, even as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was "closer than ever". Civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City. Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" overnight targeting Hamas militants operating there. A military statement said that a Hamas "command and control centre... was embedded inside" the school compound in the city's east, adding that it was used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks" against Israeli forces.

US strikes Houthi targets in Yemen, hours after rebels hit Israel
Agence France Presse/December 22, 2024
The United States said it struck targets in Yemen's rebel-held capital, hours after a Houthi rebel missile wounded people in Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv. The missile, which wounded 16 people, was the second such attack in two days. Among the targets of U.S. forces was a rebel missile storage center and a "command-and-control facility," the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. American forces also shot down multiple Huthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea, it said, shortly after the rebels' Al-Masirah TV channel reported that an "aggression" had targeted the Attan district of Sanaa, blaming Western forces. American and British forces have repeatedly struck rebel targets in Yemen this year in response to Houthi attacks on shipping in Red Sea-area waters vital to global trade. Israel has also previously struck back, including against ports and energy facilities, after rebel attacks against its territory. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels had claimed responsibility for the Saturday strike on Israel, saying they directed a ballistic missile at "a military target of the Israeli enemy." The Israeli military said it failed to intercept the missile, forcing many residents to leave their homes in the early hours.
Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago. Most of them have been intercepted. "One projectile launched from Yemen was identified and unsuccessful interception attempts were made," after alert sirens sounded, the Israeli military said on its Telegram channel. In a later statement, the military said Israeli civilians had been "deliberately targeted." It stressed the country's "aerial defense is not hermetic" so Israelis should follow security instructions. "I was at home and heard a loud explosion. I immediately went to the scene and saw significant blast damage to nearby buildings," medic Yosef Kourdi was quoted as saying in a statement released by Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA). "MDA teams provided medical care to 16 individuals who were mildly injured by glass shards from shattered windows in nearby buildings due to the impact of the strike," the statement said.
'Very lucky'
Ido Barnea, an IT manager whose apartment was damaged, told AFP a missile alert had sounded just before 4:00 am (0200 GMT). "Then there was a big ball of fire in the sky," he said. "I didn't even manage to get up and get dressed to go out."An AFP photographer reported that many residents in the vicinity of the strike had to leave their homes, carrying only the essentials. AFP images showed a large crater where the missile hit, and debris in the bedroom of a nearby house that was damaged. Police swiftly cordoned off the neighborhood. Noa Mosseri, whose apartment was also damaged, told AFP she, too, heard the missile alert. "We were very lucky because we didn't have time to get to a safe place. Within seconds there was a boom. We managed to get out and so we were not hurt," she said. In their statement on Saturday, the Houthi rebels pledged to continue their attacks against Israel "until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted." The attack came two days after the rebels fired a missile that damaged an Israeli school. The military said that missile had been intercepted but only partially, and its warhead "exploded and damaged the school." In response, Israel struck several Huthi targets in Yemen, including in Sanaa -- the first such strike on the rebel-held capital. Rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi said nine civilians were killed in the strikes.
Warning
Hours after the Houthi attack on Saturday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a drone over southern Israel, which had approached from the east. It did not specify the origin of the drone, but similar attacks have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group, also pro-Iran, since the Gaza war broke out. Soon after retaliating for Thursday's attack by the Houthis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the rebels of severe repercussions if there were any repetition. "After Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran's axis of evil," Netanyahu said. "The Houthis are learning and will learn the hard way, that those who strike Israel will pay a very heavy price for it."On December 9, a drone claimed by the Huthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties. And in July, a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the rebel-held port of Hodeida.
 
16 hurt as Houthi missile from Yemen hits Tel Aviv
Israel Today Staff /Dec 22, 2024
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the missile hit following “unsuccessful interception attempts.” Sixteen were lightly wounded overnight on Friday when a ballistic missile fired by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen struck a residential area in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa neighborhood at 3:44 a.m. The impact created a crater in a playground. Magen David Adom paramedics treated at least 14 people hurt, mainly by shards of glass created by the impact. They were evacuated to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) in Tel Aviv. Another 14 people were injured on the way to a protected area and seven others suffered from anxiety. Millions of residents in the greater Tel Aviv area entered protected spaces after hearing air-raid sirens. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the missile hit following “unsuccessful interception attempts.”The Israeli Air Force struck terror targets in Yemen before dawn on Thursday, after a Houthi missile hit an elementary school in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv. The IDF said that there was only “a partial interception of the missile launched from Yemen and that the warhead [likely] exploded and damaged the school.” The IAF and Home Front Command were conducting a more in-depth probe. The Israeli strikes against the Houthis were carried out in two waves by 14 fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, which were already en route to Yemen when the enemy fired its ballistic missile at Ramat Gan around 2:35 a.m. on Thursday. The first IAF strikes hit at 3:15 a.m., targeting the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea, as well as the Hodeidah and Salif ports. Eight tugboats, used for guiding ships into the ports, were also destroyed. At 4:30 a.m., the second wave targeted the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, hitting the Haziz and D’Habban power stations, according to reports. “Over the past year, the Houthi terrorist regime has been operating with the direction and funding of Iran, and in cooperation with Iraqi militias, in order to attack the State of Israel and Israeli civilians,” the IDF said following the IAF operation. “The conducted strikes degrade the Houthi terrorist regime, preventing it from exploiting the targets for military and terrorist purposes, including the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the region,” the statement continued. “The IDF is determined to continue operating against all threats posed to the citizens of the State of Israel, wherever necessary.”
On Monday, a Houthi missile triggered air-raid sirens in the greater Tel Aviv area. Earlier, an Israeli Navy ship intercepted a Houthi drone over the Red Sea before it crossed into Israeli territory.
On Dec. 9, a Houthi drone hit a residential high-rise building in the central Israeli city of Yavne, northeast of Ashdod. On Dec. 1, a ballistic missile launched from Yemen triggered sirens in the Judean Foothills (the Shfela region).
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in support of Hamas since the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.In July, a Houthi drone killed a civilian in central Tel Aviv. In response, Israel struck Yemen’s Hodeidah Port.
On Sept. 29, the Israeli Air Force carried out dozens of strikes in the area of Hodeidah. The targets included “power plants and a seaport, which were used by the Houthis to transfer Iranian weapons to the region, in addition to military supplies and oil,” the IDF said.
(JNS)

US jet downed by ‘friendly fire’ during attack on Yemen’s Houthis
Israel Today Staff /Dec 22, 2024
One of the pilots sustained minor injuries during the incident, which occurred over the Red Sea. Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down overnight Saturday by friendly fire while American forces were conducting strikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). One of the pilots sustained minor injuries during the incident, which occurred over the Red Sea. “The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman,” CENTCOM said in a statement. The incident came as U.S. forces conducted precision airstrikes against Houthi missile storage and command-and-control facilities in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. “CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden,” according to CENTCOM. “During the operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea. The operation involved U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy assets, including F/A-18s. “The strike reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping,” CENTCOMM said. Last week, American forces carried out an airstrike against a Houthi command and control center in Yemen. Overnight Friday, sixteen Israelis were lightly wounded when a ballistic missile fired by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen struck a residential area in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa neighborhood at 3:44 a.m. Two days earlier, the Israeli Air Force struck terror targets in Yemen before dawn on Thursday, after a Houthi missile hit an elementary school in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv.

Israeli expert urges justice for both Israeli, Palestinian victims of sexual violence
Dylan Robertson/The Canadian Press/December 22, 2024
OTTAWA — The Israeli expert leading a civilian commission into sexual violence by Hamas is calling for global bodies to recognize "a new crime against humanity," involving violence targeted at families. Cochav Elkayam-Levy said the world should take a stance against the destruction of families as a specific, identifiable weapon of war, aimed at terrorizing one's kin. She is proposing the crime be called "kinocide."In an interview, she also said Canadians can demand Hamas be brought to justice while also seeking accountability when Israeli troops commit sexual violence against Palestinians, without drawing a false equivalence. "We have to see Canada's leadership in addressing the lack of moral clarity of international institutions," Elkayam-Levy said in an interview during a visit to Ottawa last month. Elkayam-Levy is an international-law professor at Hebrew University who chairs Israel's Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes Against Women and Children. That non-governmental body originally set out to document patterns in sexualized violence by Hamas and its affiliates during the 2023 attack and against hostages it took into the Gaza Strip. The aim wasn't to come up with a tally of assaults, but to instead document systemic factors in how women were raped, tortured and mutilated. The idea was to have an understanding that could help victims and their descendants cope with intergenerational trauma, and to create an archive for researchers and prosecutors to use for possible investigations. Elkayam-Levy's team reviewed hours of footage featuring "very extreme forms of violence" from closed-circuit cameras and what militants themselves recorded. They started to notice six patterns of violence involving among the circumstances of more than 140 families.
These include using victims' social media to broadcast that person being tortured to their friends and family, including hostages and those killed. Another involved murdering parents in front of their children or vice versa, while another is the destruction of family homes. "We started understanding that there is something here, a unique form of violence," she said. "The abuse of familial relations to intensify harm, to intensify suffering."Elkayam-Levy said she developed the term with the help of experts, including Canadians like former attorney general Irwin Cotler. The rules undergirding the International Criminal Court only mention families in procedural contexts, but not as a factor in war crimes, she noted. "It's a crime without a name," she said, arguing that impedes victims' healing. She said experts in past conflicts have agreed with her, saying kinocide should have been a factor in how the world understood and sought justice for atrocities on various continents, such as how Islamic State militants targeted Yazidi families from 2014 to 2017. "Justice begins with this recognition; healing begins with recognition," she said. Elkayam-Levy noted "gender-based violence" existed for centuries before the United Nations officially recognized the term in 1992. She's also taken aim at "the silence of many international organizations, and the lack of moral clarity," in calling out sexual violence by Hamas, which Ottawa deems a terrorist group. In particular, UN Women did not condemn Hamas' sexual violence until nearly two months after that attack, a move Elkayam-Levy said sets a bad precedent for upholding global norms. "They have fuelled denial of the sexual atrocities," she said, adding that a constant demand for physical evidence pervades social media "in a very antisemitic way." Israeli police have said forensic evidence was not preserved in the chaos of the attack, and people believed to be victims of sexual assault were often killed and immediately buried. Acts of sexual violence were not part of 43-minute video that Israel's foreign ministry has screened for journalists, including The Canadian Press, which was sourced from security footage and videos filmed by militants during their October 2023 attack.
In March, a UN envoy said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe Hamas committed rape and "sexualized torture" during the attack, "including rape and gang rape," despite the group's denials. That same month, released hostage Amit Soussana went public about her captors gropping her and forcing "a sexual act" that she asked not be specified. As part of its avowed feminist foreign policy, Canada funds initiatives abroad to prevent sexual violence and support victims. Yet the Conservatives have lambasted the Liberals for not condemning Hamas' sexual violence until five months after the attack.
In March, Ottawa came under fire for pledging both $1 million for groups supporting Israeli victims of Hamas sexual violence and $1 million for Palestinian women facing "sexual and gender-based violence" from unspecified actors.
Global Affairs did not say whether that referred to domestic abuse or sexual violence by Israeli officials, drawing a rebuke from a senior Israeli envoy. Human-rights groups have long accused Israeli officials of sexually assaulting Palestinian detainees in the West Bank. In July, those concerns escalated when Israeli soldiers were accused of perpetuating the filmed gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip. Far-right Israeli cabinet ministers voiced support for mobs attempting to free soldiers under investigation. Elkayam-Levy said Canadians can call out the patterns of sexual violence by Hamas against Israelis, while still demanding the Israeli state investigate and prosecute its soldiers who undertake individuals acts of sexual violence. "The fact that (Western leaders) are trying to to make the right political decision, instead of the right moral decision, is creating confusion, is creating moral blur — instead of making space for all victims to be heard for what they have endured," she said. To her, there is a "false parallel" being made between individual cases of sexual assault from soldiers who should be held to account, and a group using patterns of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Elkayam-Levy said people should uphold the principles of international law instead of what she deems to be weaponizing global institutions against Israel. She is aware that many have instead argued that Israel's military campaign has broken international law and undermined the systems meant to uphold human rights. Elkayam-Levy has been critical of the Israeli government, arguing before the war that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought anti-democratic reforms to the country's judiciary. She has been critical of his war cabinet for lacking any women, and has highlighted extensive media reports that female military personnel had detected Hamas was planning a large attack only to be dismissed by male leaders. She said the world needs to condemn Hamas' violence against families and try prosecuting those responsible. Otherwise, she fears combatants in other countries will take up its brutal tactics. Otherwise, "we are going to see an international system that will not last for long," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2024.

Houthis take credit for downing American plane after CENTCOM alleges friendly fire
Adam Schrader/(UPI)/December 22, 2024
Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, has taken credit for downing an American military plane after the U.S. Central Command claimed it was shot in a friendly fire incident. Two pilots with the U.S. Navy ejected from a fighter jet flying off from the USS Harry S. Truman over the Red Sea on Sunday when the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg "mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18," NBC News reported citing a Central Command statement. American officials reportedly said one of the pilots may have sustained minor injuries and that an investigation into the incident was underway. The statement came after Central Command said it conducted "precision" airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia Muslim armed movement and participant in Yemen's multi-faction civil war. The Houthis, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and its allies, have exchanged missile fire with Israel and have attacked shipping vessels in the Red Sea to support Palestinians amid Israel's war in Gaza, leading to military action against them by the United States, Israel's ally. American authorities did not make clear if those airstrikes were tied to the alleged friendly fire incident. But American authorities boasted of shooting down multiple one-way drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea in an operation involving F/A-18s. Houthi Brigadier General Yahya Qasim Sare'e said in a statement posted on Telegram and reviewed by UPI that the Yemeni militia had succeeded in thwarting a joint American-British attack on the country by targeting the American ships on Saturday evening as the airstrikes were being carried out. Sare'e said the Houthi operation was carried out with eight cruise missiles and 17 drones that led to the downing of the fighter jet and "the failure of the hostile attack on Yemeni territory.""The American attacks on Yemen are condemned and illegal terrorist attacks that support the terrorism of the temporary Israeli entity to continue the genocide and siege of the people of Gaza," Mohammed al-Houthi said in a statement. "The American terrorist attacks confirm the lawless rampage and criminality in the region. The reckless terrorist actions against Yemen do not stop the support operations for Gaza."Al-Houthi alleged that the U.S. Central Command would not disclose the truth about the crash of the plane "to prevent further collapse of the morale of its soldiers."

2 US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says
JON GAMBRELL/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/December 22, 2024
Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one suffering minor injuries. But the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become, with ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite U.S. and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time of the friendly fire incident, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what the pilots' mission was and did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.
The F/A-18 shot down had just flown off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, Central Command said. On Dec. 15, Central Command acknowledged the Truman had entered the Mideast, but hadn't specified that the carrier and its battle group was in the Red Sea. “The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18,” Central Command said in a statement.
From the military's description, the aircraft shot down was a two-seat F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet assigned to the “Red Rippers” of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.
It wasn't immediately clear how the Gettysburg could mistake an F/A-18 for an enemy aircraft or missile, particularly as ships in a battle group remain linked by both radar and radio communication. However, Central Command said that warships and aircraft earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the rebels. Incoming hostile fire from the Houthis has given sailors just seconds to make decisions in the past. Since the Truman's arrival, the U.S. has stepped up its airstrikes targeting the Houthis and their missile fire into the Red Sea and the surrounding area. However, the presence of an American warship group may spark renewed attacks from the rebels, like what the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower saw earlier this year. That deployment marked what the Navy described as its most intense combat since World War II. On Saturday night and early Sunday, U.S. warplanes conducted airstrikes that shook Sanaa, the capital of Yemen which the Houthis have held since 2014. Central Command described the strikes as targeting a “missile storage facility” and a “command-and-control facility,” without elaborating.
Houthi-controlled media reported strikes in both Sanaa and around the port city of Hodeida, without offering any casualty or damage information. In Sanaa, strikes appeared particularly targeted at a mountainside known to be home to military installations. However, there were no images or information released regarding the strikes — which has happened previously when airstrikes hit vital facilities for the rebels. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, released a prerecorded statement hours later in which he claimed the rebels launched eight drones and 17 cruise missiles in their attack. He also claimed without offering any evidence that the Houthis shot down the F/A-18, likely following a pattern of him making exaggerated claims. During the Eisenhower's deployment, he repeatedly falsely claimed the carrier had been struck by Houthi fire. The Houthis have targeted about 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023 after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel’s grinding offensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, local health officials say. The tally doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. The Houthis have seized one vessel and sunk two in a campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by separate U.S.- and European-led coalitions in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included Western military vessels. The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. The Houthis also have increasingly targeted Israel itself with drones and missiles, resulting in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would act “forcefully” against the Houthis, as it has against other allies of Iran, “only in this case, we are not acting alone.”

Pope Again Condemns 'Cruelty' of Israeli Strikes on Gaza
This is Beirut/With AFP/December 22, 2024
Pope Francis doubled down Sunday on his condemnation of Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip, denouncing their "cruelty" for the second time in as many days. "And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty," the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer. It comes a day after the 88-year-old Argentine lamented an Israeli airstrike that killed seven children from one family on Friday, according to Gaza's rescue agency. "Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war," the pope told members of the government of the Holy See. His remarks on Saturday prompted a sharp response from Israel. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman described Francis's intervention as "particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel's fight against jihadist terrorism, a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.""Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people," he added. "Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them," the Israeli statement said. At least 45,259 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory military campaign in the Palestinian territory, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Gaza. Those figures are taken as reliable by the United Nations.

Russia Claims Capture of Two More East Ukraine Villages
This is Beirut/With AFP/December 22, 2024Russia said Sunday it had captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow's advancing army. The defense ministry said on Telegram that its troops had "liberated" the villages of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye, called Sontsivka in Ukraine. The latter is close to the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize for Moscow's attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region. Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January. The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal. Moscow's army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.

Qatar vows to stop EU gas sales if fined under due diligence law, FT reports
Reuters/December 22, 2024
Qatar will stop shipping gas to the EU if member states strictly enforce a new law cracking down on forced labour and environmental damage, Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, approved this year, requires larger companies operating in the European Union to check whether their supply chains use forced labour or cause environmental damage and to take action if they do. Penalties include fines of up to 5% of global turnover. "If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated revenue by going to Europe, I will not go to Europe. I’m not bluffing, Kaabi told the newspaper, adding that "5% of generated revenue of QatarEnergy means 5% of generated revenue of the Qatar state. This is the people's money, so I cannot lose that kind of money - and nobody would accept losing that kind of money."
Kaabi, the chief executive of state-owned QatarEnergy, has said the EU should thoroughly review the due diligence law. He has also said that his Gulf country has no concerns about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's promise to lift a cap on liquefied natural gas exports.Qatar, among the world's top LNG exporters, is seeking to play a larger role in Asia and Europe as competition from top supplier the United Sates increases. It plans to expand its liquefaction capacity to 142 million tons per year by 2027 from 77 million.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)

Germans mourn the 5 killed and 200 injured in the apparent attack on a Christmas market
Associated Press/December 22, 2024
Germans have mourned the victims of an apparent attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor Christmas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others and shaking the public's sense of security at what would otherwise be a time of joy. The alleged attack Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people badly enough that authorities warned the death toll could rise. Magdeburg marked the tragedy Saturday with the tolling church bells at 7:04 p.m., the exact time of the attack in the city of roughly 240,000 people. The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He's being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said at a news conference. Among other things, investigators are looking into whether the attack could have been motivated by the suspect's dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees, Nopens said. "There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market," Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. "What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality."
More on the suspect police arrested
Although Nopens mentioned the treatment of Saudi immigrants angle, authorities said Saturday that they still didn't know why the suspect drove his black BMW into the crowded market. Police haven't publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, sharing dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who had left the faith. He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the "Islamification of Europe."
Magdeburg is shaken
The violence shocked Germany and Magdeburg, which is the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring the centuries-old German tradition of Christmas markets. It led several other communities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg's loss. Berlin kept its many markets open but increased its police presence at them. Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August. Friday's attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy. Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg, where a memorial service took place Saturday. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country. Although many people went to the site with candles to mourn the victims, several hundred far-right protesters gathered in a central square in Magdeburg with a banner that read "remigration," German news agency dpa reported.
A witness recounts the horrifying attack
Verified bystander footage distributed by dpa showed the suspect's arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs that she thought were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car. Shaking as she described what she had witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested. The number of injured people was overwhelming. "My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn't have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said. The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red and white tape and police vans, as armed officers guarded at every entrance. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on December 22-23/2024
With overthrow of Assad regime, Syrian Canadian recalls 20 years of 'torment' inside its prisons
CBC/December 22, 2024
Nabil Hawara spent two decades as a political prisoner in Syrian prisons under the regime of Hafez al-Assad, facing torture every day. Now living in Montreal, he was released in 1995 and applied for asylum in Canada after the Syrian revolution to oust Bashar al-Assad broke out in 2011. Nabil Hawara painfully remembers the endless cycle of torture that he endured in one of Syria's most notorious prisons.
For 20 years, from 1975 to 1995, he says he lived in constant fear of death and torment — from being beaten with iron bars and whips each day to guards urinating in food bowls or jumping on his back, ultimately rupturing a lung.
Hawara, who didn't know if he would ever make it out alive from the four walls of his cell in Tadmur Military Prison in Palmyra, in the deserts of eastern Syria, ultimately fled the country for Canada as a refugee. The prison, which held mass executions and what Hawara calls an around-the-clock "torture program," was mere metres away from a high school and a playground — and children were too afraid to say anything or even look at the facility. ISIS, militants fighting to establish an Islamist state, blew up the prison in May 2015 when it was empty, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, although there are varying reports on how much damage was caused. Unlike many of the Syrian regime's other prisons and detention facilities, Tadmur's walled-off military complex was built into the ancient city, where it was in plain sight, visible to everyone. When detainees were being tortured at the hands of prison guards, they would hear the adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, from the mosque nearby, or at times children walking by or playing, Hawara said. "Every day was a journey of torment. We didn't know if we would survive to see the next day," Hawara, now 70, told CBC News in an interview. In 2015, a Syrian opposition activist from Palmyra told The Associated Press that people would pass by the prison, but no one dared look inside. Syria's vast network of prisons and detention facilities continues to unravel following the fall of the deposed Assad regime on Dec. 8, nearly 14 years after Syrians took to the streets in peaceful protests against a government that met them with violence. Prisoners who had been arbitrarily detained were released after years or even decades, but hundreds of thousands remain missing, bringing to light how former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his father, who began the family's half-century rule, governed the country with an iron fist — through forcibly disappearing, torturing and executing anyone accused of opposing the government or even offering humanitarian aid to Syrians.
5 minutes becomes 20 years
After the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, Hawara, fearing persecution, applied for asylum in Canada in 2013, eventually settling in Montreal with his wife and three children — a twin son and daughter, 27, and a 25-year-old son. They are now Canadian citizens.
He remembers the night he was detained like it was yesterday. On July 7, 1975, Hawara was studying for an exam as a second-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Damascus. That night, military secret police came to his family's home in Damascus, the Syrian capital, detained him and searched the premises. "They told me they just needed to speak to me for five minutes and I could go back," said Hawara, who was detained at the age of 20 and released at 40. "I thought to myself, 'They must have made a mistake in names. In the morning they will release me so I can go do my exam.'"
He said he was accused of being involved in the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that wanted to topple the regime, but noted that officers later told him they were aware he had no part in the group and even declined an invitation to join by another university student.
After that night, Hawara went on to be transferred to three different prisons, briefly being released for a month after three years behind bars, before he was detained again — spending 15 of the 20 years he was imprisoned in Tadmur.
This picture released on Thursday, May 21, 2015 by the website of Islamic State militants, shows the Tadmur prison in the Syrian town of Palmyra that was captured by the Islamic State militants after a battle with the Syrian government forces, Syria. Activist and officials say members of the Islamic State group are conducting search operations in the ancient town of Palmyra where they have detained and killed dozens of people.
This picture released on Thursday, May 21, 2015 by the website of Islamic State militants, shows the Tadmur prison in the Syrian town of Palmyra that was captured by the Islamic State militants after a battle with the Syrian government forces, Syria. Activist and officials say members of the Islamic State group are conducting search operations in the ancient town of Palmyra where they have detained and killed dozens of people. This photo, released on the website of ISIS militants on May 21, 2015, shows the notorious Tadmur Military Prison in the Syrian town of Palmyra, where Hawara spent 15 of his 20 years locked up. It was captured by ISIS after a battle with Syrian government forces and no longer operates. For 15 years, his family was unaware if he was dead or alive and had no information on his whereabouts. Family members also died while he was detained.
Hawara said he recalls the first day he entered Tadmur in 1980 and being introduced to what were dubbed "welcome parties" — where inmates were brought into the prison courtyard together and underwent severe torture before being taken to their dormitories or group cells. The cells held anywhere from 75 to 200 inmates, who all shared one bathroom and slept either sitting or lying head to toe because of the cramped space. Each morning and evening, prison guards would take the inmates, blindfolded and with their hands tied, and chase them around the courtyard and beat them one by one, he said. "Until the day I was released, torture did not stop once, not even for a day," Hawara said. "Torture was constant, and death was daily."
Prison designed to inflict 'maximum suffering': report
A 2001 Amnesty International report, titled Syria: Torture, Despair and Dehumanization in Tadmur Military Prison, documented routine abuses against prisoners, including the use of iron bars, whips and cables. The report said the major prison complex appears to have been designed to "inflict the maximum suffering, humiliation and fear on prisoners and to keep them under the strictest control by breaking their spirit."Human Rights Watch also found evidence of widespread torture, starvation, beatings and disease in the government's detention facilities.
For food, each prisoner received pita bread, several olives and a teaspoon of marmalade a day, and would usually have to split one egg among five people, Hawara said. At times, he said, prisoners peering through a small crack between the door and the wall would see guards urinate in the food outside of the cell before it was given to inmates, who would then refuse to eat it. After eating, the prisoners would be taken out by guards for "breathing," he said. The inmates had to face the ground any time they were outside of their cell or with an officer. "We are always kneeling down, with our eyes closed," Hawara said, adding that the guards' goal was to break the inmates down physically and psychologically. That's when the torture would resume once again, he said, and inmates would be chased by guards, who would pull and beat them.
Mass executions every month
Guards would also sometimes hit prisoners with a stick that had a wooden ball at the end covered in nails. "They would scream, 'Watermelon is red,' before hitting us in the head with them, making us bleed," Hawara said.
Other days, guards would use belts made from tires with metal inside to beat detainees. "It's very rough, and inside there's metal," he said. "So they would hit you and your body would turn blue. And when they would pull the tracks, the flesh would open up and bleed out."At night, using the toilet was not allowed, Hawara said, but inmates would sometimes manage to sneak in and use it without notice — only adding to the suffering they would experience. Hawara, 70, is shown in his home. Fearing persecution in Syria, he applied for asylum in Canada in 2013, eventually settling in Montreal with his wife and three children — a twin son and daughter, 27, and a 25-year-old son. They are now Canadian citizens.  Hawara said inmates who didn't die by execution would die of torture, diseases, no access to appropriate medication or lack of food. "Every single day, we're prone to breaking a part of our body or to death or to tuberculosis or to a lack of medicine," he said. "If we manage to avoid the physical torture, we would experience torture from the sounds [of others] or from threats."The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), an independent monitoring group based in Britain, said that as of August this year, 15,102 people had been tortured to death by the Assad regime after the onset of the Syrian revolution, between March 2011 and July 2024. Mass executions of about 100 to 150 people took place monthly, Hawara said. He could hear the sound of bulldozers outside of the prison at night, hours before the names of those who would be executed that day were announced — either by gunshot or hanging. Hawara said that while others from different religions or sects were also detained, Sunni Muslims like himself, who comprise a majority of Syria's population, were a majority in Tadmur prison. The rebels who overthrew the Syrian regime earlier this month are Sunnis, while the Assad family are Alawite, a minority sect that made up most of the regime's military and political elite.
'Either you execute me or you release me'
In 1995, after spending half his life at that point locked up and tortured, Hawara said he faced a committee of prison officials who asked him whether he should be released. "Either you execute me or you release me, I'm not going back to prison," he recalled saying, kneeling down with his eyes shut. Several months later, he was released and allowed to return to his family. When he was first imprisoned, 50 other men were detained along with him. When he was released, he was one of just five who emerged alive. Although Hawara was set free after spending 20 years in prison, he describes being psychologically imprisoned in the years that followed — fearing he would be taken back by military police, or worse, that his family would face the same fate. To this day, Hawara says he still feels the effects of the torture he endured in prison, with deteriorating health issues and torture marks on his back. After his release in 1995, he eventually enrolled in a private school, where he was able to finish his mechanical engineering degree. In addition to being under surveillance by intelligence officers and having to report back to regime authorities every month, he had no right to work, to marry or to have children for several years after.
"People were afraid of me, and no one would want to talk to me out of fear," he said. To this day, Hawara said he still feels the effects of the torture he endured in prison, with deteriorating health issues and torture marks on his back. He said he's unable to sleep on his back or stomach and has lung issues due to cracks in his back and chest, after he was ordered to lie on the ground as a soldier stood on top of him, jumping on his back in military boots. Almost every Syrian (including this reporter) has either direct experience or knows of a friend or relative who spent time in prison under the Assad regime.
Between March 2011 and August 2024, at least 113,218 people were forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime, and more than 157,000 have been arbitrarily detained, according to SNHR data. Data on decades before the Syrian revolution, or under Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, is not available.
After his release, Hawara eventually enrolled in a private school, where he was able to finish his mechanical engineering degree. Following the ouster of Assad two weeks ago, Hawara said he now feels there is hope for Syria, adding that security, dignity and freedom are three of the most important elements of justice after decades of oppression endured by Syrians. "The Syrian people who came out, every single one of them has experienced having a father or a mother or siblings or a whole family imprisoned," he said. "This is a population that has been oppressed."

ريوند إبراهيم من موقع معهد كايتستون: قائمة بأحداث ووقائع اطهاد المسيحيين خلال شهر تشرين الثانيلعام 2024
‘Girls May Be Snatched from Public Spaces at Any Time’: The Muslim Persecution of Christians,
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 22/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/138266/
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of November 2024.
The Muslim Rape and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls
Pakistan: On Nov. 7, a Muslim man brutally raped a teenage Christian girl. The Muslim, named Ansar Shah, initially went up to Eman Khuram, 18, as she was walking home late in the evening (as the eldest daughter, and since the family’s father had abandoned them, she had been working long hours every day to try to make ends meet). He told her that he had kidnapped her younger brother, and unless she got on his motorcycle and rode with him, he would kill the youth. Terrified, she complied. He drove her around for 30 minutes, during which time he continued issuing threats, until finally stopping at a secluded brick factory. One there, “he dragged me into a room, tore my clothes and raped me,” she said in a shaky voice, with her face veiled, during a later interview. “During this time, he repeatedly slapped and beat me up.” When Eman finally returned home late in the evening—with her clothes torn off and stained with dust and mud—her shocked mother asked what had happened, and Eman disclosed the ordeal she had endured. “Her condition tore my heart,” the mother said. I couldn’t understand what had happened to my innocent daughter.” Eman’s mother and uncle, who later appeared with her in the interview, added that, despite repeated pleas to police, officers have not arrested the suspect, who “was roaming freely without fear of arrest.” Last reported, the rapist’s “relatives were using various tactics to pressure” the Christian family to drop the case.
Separately, another Muslim man raped and tried to forcibly convert a Christian pastor’s 14-year-old daughter. Pastor Aslam Masih of Muridke says that the family first learned their daughter (name withheld) was having problems when she returned from school early one day saying that Suleman, the Muslim, had tried to abduct and force her to convert: “When I confronted Suleman,” her father said, “he threatened me, saying I should do whatever I could to protect my daughter. I did not know then that he had already assaulted her once.” The family later found out from the scared schoolgirl that this was not the first time Suleman had assaulted her:
She couldn’t bear the agony and trauma any longer and broke down into tears. She told us that Suleman and his friends bundled her into a car when she was returning home from school [one day] and took her to a house where Suleman raped her.
Although her father informed police, “Their indifference helped Suleman in obtaining pre-arrest bail, and he has since been threatening us, demanding that we withdraw the case.” Due to the constant threats and harassment, the Christian family abandoned their home and moved to an undisclosed location in Lahore. On learning that they had fled, Suleman attacked their home in Muridke, damaging property and firing gunshots in the air. Soon after, and according to the report, “Pastor Masih again began visiting police, but his pleas for justice fell on deaf ears.” Discussing this case, Aslam Pervez Sahotra, chairman of a charity that aids Christian women, said
We condemn the assault on our daughter as well as the threats being employed to force her to convert to Islam and marry her rapist. The police’s refusal to act against the accused has exacerbated the family’s ordeal, and they are forced to live in hiding away from their home.
Separately, on Nov. 4, a Christian family was reunited with their 18-year-old daughter who went missing four months earlier in June. They learned that Sana Javed had visited a female Muslim friend she met on social media, who took and held the Christian teen hostage. Then, according to her father, Javid Masih,“A cleric was called, and Sana was forced to recite the Kalima [proclamation of conversion to Islam] and marry an elderly Muslim man under threats of violence.” On the same day she disappeared, Javid and other family members filed a missing person report with police; when they returned to the police station three days later, they discovered that police had “misplaced” it, prompting the family to file a new report. Even then, “police officers made no effort to find her,” the father said, and “would instead ask us to provide leads for the investigation, when in fact we neither had the information nor the resources.” They eventually turned to the Christian community, visiting churches and asking various pastors to help inquire about the missing girl, until, and thanks to the aid of a Muslim politician who was contacted by one of these Christians, the whereabouts of the girl were discovered. “When I informed the police about my daughter’s location,” said Javed, “and sought their help, they told me that they would need official permission and resources to travel to another province. I contacted a Christian paralegal group for help, and I’m grateful that they provided us with legal and financial support to help bring Sana back to Lahore.”
Finally, on Nov. 1, in its concluding observations on Pakistan, the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee expressed its concerns
about reports of the persistent practice of abducting girls who belong to religious minorities and forcing them to marry – regardless of their age and the prevailing law – and to convert to Islam under the threat of violence, which results in rape, trafficking and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence against these girls. It is also concerned about reports of the widespread impunity surrounding these cases. It is further concerned that victims are usually not returned to their families during investigations but forced to stay with their abductors, including members of organized criminal groups, or placed in unnecessary and inappropriate alternative care facilities, with little or no regard for child protection standards, exposing victims to further risk of exploitation, abuse and harmful practices (arts. 23, 24 and 26).
Egypt: According to a Nov. 14 report titled, “Egypt’s Disappearing Women,”
Coptic Christians remain a target of persecution; hundreds of young women have been kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and coerced into marriage. While many Western feminists remain focused on domestic issues, they are often silent on the grave threats faced by women abroad…. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi professes to be an advocate of interfaith toleration, yet the Coptic community lacks confidence in the state. Several years ago, a Coptic bishop in Los Angeles said local authorities in Egypt turn a blind eye to persecution. Girls may be snatched from public spaces at any time — on their way home from school, while waiting for the bus, or running errands…. The reality is grim for many Coptic women who do not escape their captors, leaving their families in agony for months, or even years. A culture of impunity ensures that not many return home, and the authorities continue to look the other way. The State Department briefly mentioned the problem of abduction in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, yet it described the Coptic community as grateful to the Egyptian government for helping to find and return several victims. The department’s annual reports on human rights and human trafficking do not mention Coptic women in their sections on Egypt. The next editions of those reports should do better, and the secretary of state should raise the issue directly with Sisi at their next meeting. Under U.S. law, a portion of the $1.3 billion in military aid that Egypt receives each year is contingent on Cairo’s efforts to improve its record on human rights. When the next review of Cairo’s record begins, the safety of Coptic women should be front and center.
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Mozambique: On Sunday, Nov. 3, fighters from Islamic State Mozambique (IS-M) captured what they described as two “infidel Christians,” and slit their throats. Four days later, on Nov. 7, they killed another Christian in a machine gun attack. A fourth Christian was captured and killed two days after that. According to the report,
IS-M has killed thousands of people in northern Mozambique [which is Christian majority] since the beginning of an insurgency in 2017. The terrorist group works closely with Islamic State Central Africa Province (based in north-eastern D.R. Congo), with the activities of both coordinated by an Islamic State command center in Somalia… According to IS, Cabo Delgado is supposed to be integrated into a caliphate to be established along the entire Swahili coast.
Uganda: Muslims murdered a family member for converting to Christianity. According to the Nov. 20 report, Wanjala Hamidu, a Muslim teacher at an Islamic school who became a Christian on Oct. 4, was beaten to death by his own brothers on Oct. 21. The same night he converted, one of his brothers who was present at the same evangelistic event, informed the rest of the family, and his other brothers began to monitor his movements and behavior. On Oct. 21, when news of his conversion became widespread and embarrassing, four of his brothers went to his place of work. Although the head-master had already planned on firing him at the end of the year, his siblings decided to punish him now. The “brothers ordered Hamidu to renounce Christ, but he refused.” So they began to slap and beat him with rods, which “they believed Islam prescribes for apostates,” said local Christians, adding:
We heard a very loud cry, wailing and alarm that required help and attention, so neighbors thronged in large numbers to the scene of the incident. When we arrived, we found Hamidu on the ground held tightly by his three brothers bleeding as the brothers were shouting, ‘Infidel, infidel, shame, shame to our family.’
Although his mother was present and shouting for help, “no one dared to defy the Muslims and their vigilante administration of sharia (Islamic law)… Soon he was dead and lying in a pool of blood. He had deep injuries in the head and chest from a sharp object that hit him.”
Nigeria: Headlines of the “pure genocide” of Christians from the month of November follow:
· Nov. 24-Dec. 1: “At Least 95 Christians Slain in Nigeria’s Benue, Taraba States”
·Nov. 8: “Herdsmen Kill Three Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria”
·Nov. 20: “Fulani Extremists Kill 1 [Christian], Abduct 3 Others in Southern Kaduna”
· Nov. 6: “Women, Children among Christians Kidnapped in Nigeria”
·Nov. 8: “Over 15 Catholic parishes close amid ongoing violence against Christians in Nigeria”
·Nov. 7: “Christians Appeal for Help amid Slaughters in Central Nigeria”
Muslim Attacks in and on Christian Churches
Italy: A Nigerian migrant man savagely beat, punched, and kicked a nun inside a church in Rome. According to the Nov. 5 report, the 27-year-old Nigerian,
had entered the sacred building with his hood up and a cautious attitude. Immediately arousing the suspicions of the nun, who was watching him closely. Worried that he might commit acts of vandalism or steal inside the place of worship [as happens frequently inside Italian churches], the nun approached him and, kindly, asked him to leave. However, the man reacted in an unexpected and violent way, hitting her in the face with a series of punches and slaps. The impact was so strong that the nun lost her balance, falling to the ground, injured and confused. Her screams attracted the attention of some passers-by, who immediately intervened to help her and alerted the police. While the attacker fled.
There were several other church related attacks in Italy, including unknown persons spraying a pungent substance mixed with pepper spray inside a church during service, causing the suffocating worshippers to quickly exit the service. Two Virgin Mary statues in separate regions were desecrated and smashed to pieces. The parish priest where one of these Marian attacks occurred responded by saying “we note and denounce the increasingly frequent acts of vandalism and contempt in our territory.” And a man was caught urinating on a Nativity Scene.
Switzerland: On Nov.16, a 17-year-old Muslim migrant from Afghanistan desecrated a more than 600-year-old and venerated statue of the Virgin Mary in a chapel in the canton of Schwyz. In the midst of worship service, he climbed atop the altar, yanked off the Virgin Mary’s clothes, seized her crown and mockingly placed it atop his head (video here). Although the priests and parishioners apprehended the man, he was not criminally prosecuted but rather sent to a psychiatric ward. The monastery eventually responded to this attack on its website, though without giving any information on the perpetrator. The statement rather talked about an “unfortunate incident” by a “confused person,” and called for “peace and reconciliation.”
A few days later, a Nov. 27 report told of how “a small Swiss town is being terrorized by a small gang of unaccompanied minors who have been causing chaos in the village since July, and due to their young age, authorities can do little to control the mayhem.” Although this “small gang” usually consists of no more than three or four migrant children, they are “sowing terror” in the small village of 433 people. Their many “misdeeds” include,
stealing purses, shooting farmers’ chickens with BB guns, setting fire to a sheep shed with stolen church candles, and desecrating graveyards by kicking over tombstones. The town’s church also reported that the gang of migrant children damaged equipment inside the church including defiling a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“They even defecated under a statue of the Holy Virgin,” added François Goudron, the president of the parish, and have “urinated under a church pew, blackened a tablecloth under the altar, stole and broke candles, and burned religious photos.” After saying that “due to their age, the youths cannot be prosecuted” and police are relatively impotent, the report continues: “Even more menacing is that these “nightmare” children, who are usually spotted wearing hoods, have been spotted in the night roaming around with knives and a “small axe.”
Indonesia: Authorities have allowed two years’ worth of putrid garbage—described as “unhygienic and foul-smelling… bagged, spilling out of broken bags or unbagged”—to pile up next to a church and adjoining Catholic university, according to a Nov. 26 report. Congregation member Susi Sasmita said,
The garbage problem has been around for a long time, since the 1980s, causing disturbing stench during the rainy season, when the garbage mixes with rainwater to become mud. This situation has worsened in the last few years and is very disturbing to the congregation…. In addition to being disturbed by the pungent smell of garbage, churchgoers also find it difficult to park their vehicles on the 75-80 meter stretch of this road.
She went on to wonder: “Imagine if this case happened at a mosque – the situation could be chaotic.”
A priest and lecturer at the nearby Catholic university, the Rev. Andalas Mutiara, staged a protest. Lying in a cross-like position atop a large pile of rubbish near the university, he appealed to authorities: “We don’t want to normalize garbage, let alone embrace a garbage culture.”
Separately, on Nov. 20, a knife-wielding Muslim woman in hijab went into a Catholic church service at 5:30 am and started “babbling incoherently,” according to the report. Before long she also started vomiting. Police later concluded that “the woman had a mental disorder.”
Uganda: On Nov. 7, a Catholic church was damaged (requiring 10 million Ugandan shillings to fix) during an arson attack. According to the report, “valuable religious items including priests’ albs, altar chalices, tablecloths and wine used during mass” were destroyed. Uganda holds a significant Muslim minority, estimated to be at least 15% of the Christian majority population.
General Abuse of and Violence against Christians
Iran: On Nov. 5, a court sentenced Tomaj Aryankia, an Iranian convert to Christianity, to 10 years’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic through promoting Christianity.” He was also accused of collaborating with “hostile governments” and having a “membership in anti-Islamic Republic groups.” According to the report,
Aryankia was first taken into custody in October 2022. During his arrest, plainclothes agents searched his house and confiscated his collection of Bibles and personal items. He was held in solitary confinement for 28 days before being transferred to the general population at Karaj Prison, where he remained for approximately 40 more days. While Iran recognizes Christians as a religious minority, authorities harshly persecute those who convert from Islam to Christianity.
Egypt: On Nov. 5, four Muslim men attacked three Christians inside of a pharmacy; they used machetes and knives, and the Christians sustained multiple stab wounds requiring immediate hospitalization. According to one report, the Christians of Ashruba village, where this attack took place,
report living in a constant state of fear as sectarian tension is high and incidents of intimidation are now a regular occurrence following similar attacks on people and properties in the last year. Following such incidents of sectarian violence, members of the Christian community are generally obliged to accept the ad-hoc outcomes of ‘customary reconciliation sessions’, which tend to deprive victims of justice, preventing them from seeking effective redress via legal means, and thereby contributing to a culture of impunity.
Turkey: Anti-Christian hate crimes against more than doubled between in recent years in the Muslim majority nation, according to Nov. 20 report:
Since 2020, Christians have experienced most of the religious hate crimes committed in Turkey, with 52 occurrences reported. The crimes include property damage, harassment, and violence. … [T]he true number of hate crimes is likely higher than what has been reported due to victims’ fear of ostracization.
The report offers examples of hate crimes from 2023:
In October 2023, a man entered a church, recited an Islamic prayer, and slapped the pastor during a service. In May 2023, two elderly men were hospitalized after being physically assaulted with sticks and stones for their faith… [There were] other incidents of violence and intimidation against Christians. Foreign missionaries have also been the target of harassment in Turkey.
In 2023, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reported that “Turkish authorities increasingly target Christian pastors, missionaries, and their relatives for deportation and permanent re-entry bans.”
Germany: On Nov. 6, police “prevented a catastrophe” from taking place in Schleswig-Holstein: they arrested a 17-year-old Turk with “an Islamist background,” who was planning “to kill people with a truck” by running them over at a local Christmas market. The region’s Interior Minister, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, responded to this latest of many thwarted attacks by saying “We must always be vigilant.”
Pakistan: On Nov. 3, after two Muslim men claimed they saw Zafar Iqbal, a Christian man, burning pages of the Koran in his courtyard, police quickly swept in and arrested the blasphemer. According to human rights activist, Napoleon Qayyum,
As news spread, many Christian families locked their homes and left for safer places, fearing a Jaranwala-type attack [when over 20 churches and dozens of Christian homes were attacked and torched following a similar blasphemy accusation in Aug. 2023]…. However, timely intervention by senior officials and arrest of the suspect helped in placating the religious activists and thwarting any violence against other Christians.
Iqbal was charged under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code, which prescribes life imprisonment for desecrating the Koran:
Iqbal is now in prison on judicial remand, while his family has gone into hiding and are inaccessible. Iqbal is over 40 years old and has three children. He is also said to be suffering from some mental illness. The situation will become clearer when we make contact with his family.
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
**About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in July 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

AINA: Future Uncertain for Christians in Syria: Assyrian Leader in Syria
Ferran Barber/AINA/December 22/2024
Syria.(AINA) -- On December 10, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo published a long report on the situation of the Assyrians in Syria that included a few brief statements by the Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Gabriel Moshe. These statements were only a small portion of the long interview that the Spanish reporter Ferran Barber conducted with Gabriel Moshe. Here is the entire interview, translated from Arabic to English.
What has the relationship with the Kurdish administration been like in recent years.
The relationship with some forces and parties involved in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria was good, and among these parties that have collaborated with DAANES are the Syrian Union Party and the Assyrian Democratic Party. As for the Assyrian Democratic Organization, its presence in the official opposition bodies made the Autonomous Administration consider it loyal to Turkey, and it was bothered by its criticism of the administration regarding the issues of detentions and the issue of human rights violations, and the imposition of educational programs that are not officially recognized, as well as the issue of forced recruitment, in addition to some violations that occurred on private property, and even bringing groups of displaced persons and housing them in the Assyrian villages of Khabur, which poses a threat of demographic change in this region. More importantly, DAANES imposed a state of militarization on society, which previously could be understood in the context of fighting terrorist organizations such as ISIS and imposing a kind of stability. However, the transfer of the conflict with Turkey to the region created instability and had an impact on various aspects of life. In general, the churches adopted the same criticisms, but this did not prevent communication and dialogue at times between the organization and the Autonomous Administration and its institutions, either directly or through the Syrian-Assyrian parties present in the ranks of the Autonomous Administration.
The Assyrians have often complained about the treatment meted out to them by the Kurdish administration. On the other hand, the Kurds say that the Assyrians have never enjoyed the same degree of freedoms as they enjoy under their rule. Do you think that political life in Rojava is a true democracy?
It is fair to acknowledge the existence of some freedoms under the rule of the Autonomous Administration that did not exist under other de facto authorities, including the Assad regime. As to whether political life in the northern and eastern regions of Syria can be described as a true democracy, this is a great exaggeration. The administration is ruled by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) (affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has the power to make decisions on everything from military and economic decisions and others, and around it there is a group of parties or forces and figures whose role is sometimes limited and formal. The administration's dealings with its opponents and forces outside it were neither democratic nor tolerant, and the most prominent example of this is the tense relationship with the Kurdish National Council, whose cadres and leaders were arrested and whose offices were burned and vandalized. The region also witnessed protests and armed clashes in Deir ez-Zor and elsewhere. If there is a democratic state, why do people leave these areas and migrate abroad, especially from some areas such as Ain al-Arab (Kobani) and risk their lives to reach Europe through various routes?
Many of the churches and Christians in Qamishli lived in the Assad-controlled neighborhood. What happened there? Did the Kurds occupy it? Was there any kind of persecution against any Christians who cooperated with the regime?
No, the Kurds did not attack the churches or Christian neighborhoods in Qamishli or anywhere else after the fall of the Assad regime. What did occur was the control of the headquarters of the security services and government buildings located in the security square and the rest of the government buildings and headquarters in the city. Also, no Christians or other loyalists of the former regime were persecuted or targeted.
Is it true that Christian clerics often cooperated with the regime?
Christian clerics are figures who work in churches affiliated with officially state-recognized sects, unlike our nationalist parties. It is natural for churches and their official representatives to work within official state policy, and this is not limited to Christians alone, but includes all other sects and religions, including Sunni Muslim clerics.
It is an ancient system that was inherited from the Ottoman era. However, we do not deny that some Christian clerics went overboard in showing their loyalty to the regime and following its policies. This provoked many who know the dictatorial and oppressive nature of the former regime.
Do you think that Turkey and the Syrian National Army mercenaries are capable of continuing to advance towards Raqqa and Kobane? And how does this affect the Christian population?
The term Syrian National Army mercenaries is an expression used by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) considering that its factions are linked and loyal to Turkey. Despite my criticism of some of the practices of these factions, I prefer to use the name as it is, without any other description.
According to our information, after the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces from Manbij, armed clashes broke out in villages near Raqqa, and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) and the villages surrounding it increases the possibility that they will head towards Kobani, and there are several reports indicating this. I believe that the American forces alone can stop and prevent this, either through military force or through dialogue with Turkey. As for the effects of this on Christians, the repercussions of the displacement that may result from this will not be limited to Christians alone, but will include all components of the region, primarily the Kurds and to a lesser extent the Arabs.
I have seen Christians celebrating the fall of the Assad dictatorship. However, the new owners of the country have a jihadist past. Are you concerned that the Syriac/Christian community will be treated as second-class citizens?
It is natural for Christians, like other Syrians, to rejoice and celebrate the fall of the Assad family regime that ruled Syria for more than half a century. They experienced various forms of oppression, persecution, fear and humiliation, which led many Christians to emigrate and become displaced persons in countries around the world. They are more aware than others that this regime was not a protector of minorities, but used them to gain approval and silence from Western countries regarding its oppressive practices and rights violations.
Of course, joy at the fall of the regime was mixed among many Christians and even most Syrians of different religions and nationalities with some anxiety and fear of the new authority, although this anxiety is perhaps greater among Christians due to the extremist religious orientations of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which led, along with other factions, the process of getting rid of Bashar al-Assad. But at the same time, they realize that the main obstacle to the process of change, which is the Assad regime, has been removed and therefore no party can impose its program on the diverse and varied Syrian society. During the process of removing Assad, which developed at a speed that surprised everyone, some positive indicators emerged, as no civilians or minorities were attacked, no blood was shed and property and infrastructure were preserved. In addition, the international community closely followed all stages of the process. In general, Christians look to the future with caution and will not agree to return as dhimmis in any way, and they do not simply want protection, but to be citizens equal to their partners, enjoying full constitutional rights in a secular, decentralized democratic state based on the rule of law and institutions, and guaranteeing constitutional recognition of the existence and national identity of the Assyrian Syrians and ensuring all their rights on an equal basis with the rest of the national components of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and others.
Do you think that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham will implement Sharia law?
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham is not alone in the arena, militarily there are other factions, and politically there are many political movements and parties that differ with it in their political vision. In my opinion, the model with which Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham ruled the city of Idlib, which has a religiously conservative society, cannot be imposed on the whole of Syria, as even in Idlib there were widespread protests against it. I believe that Syrians of all religious and national affiliations will resist this approach, and therefore I rule out that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham will succeed in imposing its agenda due to the rejection of the majority of Syrians on the one hand, and on the other hand, the rejection of many regional and important countries to the establishment of a regime similar to the Taliban model or the model of the Guardianship of the Jurist in Iran because they all have an interest in the stability of Syria in a region exhausted by wars and conflicts.
Do you know what the situation is in Damascus or elsewhere?
The situation in Damascus, Aleppo and the rest of the areas controlled by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham is relatively calm, and there is satisfaction with some of the measures being taken, such as: the release of detainees, the protection of civilians, the return of employees to their jobs, the opening of departments, institutions and banks, and the stabilization of the value of the Syrian pound. In addition, many civil society organizations and aid organizations have entered Damascus and the rest of the cities and have started to provide services to citizens.
There have been no attacks on Christians, and there have been some property seizures.
The Assyrians publicly welcomed the new regime. But what do they really talk about at home? What is the deep feeling in their hearts? After all, Syria was liberated not by a group of democrats, but by bearded men who until recently belonged to Al Qaeda.
The joy of the Assyrians and my personal joy was greater with the fall of the regime than with the welcome of the new regime, the features of which have not yet appeared. And because the most important step was taken after a long suffering that lasted more than thirteen years. There are still days left for Bashar al-Assad to escape, and after people were freed from the prolonged feeling of fear, people began to speak out loudly, not only at home, and began to publicly express their opinions, positions and even their fears about Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and the demonstrations and extremist religious thought that it represents. In our opinion, things in Syria are not resolved for any of the parties or forces, and the transition phase may be long until the Syrians agree on the form of the next regime and a new constitution that meets the interests of all.
Do you think that the Syrian National Army and Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham have different agendas? There is certainly a big difference between the Syrian National Army and Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.
The Syrian National Army has no political agenda and was formed from elements that defected from the regime army when the revolution turned into an armed conflict, and also includes fighters from areas that were attacked by the regime army. It is affiliated with the provisional government that administers the areas of northwestern Syria and the National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which is considered to this day the official framework of the Syrian opposition. The National Army, after the end of the transitional phase and the beginning of the permanent phase, will be dissolved and will leave its members with the choice of whether to return to the new army or to the police forces, and those who do not wish to do so will return to civilian life. As for Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, its agenda is different politically and militarily, despite the spread of leaks to the media that the organization will itself be dissolved and integrated politically and militarily into the new institutions that will be established in the future. Finally, I would like to thank you for your efforts to convey the voice of the Assyrians and Christians.

What lessons have we learned from the 2004 tsunami?
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/December 22, 2024
Christmas holidays tend to be a time of joy for many families around the world. However, this year’s festivities will also be tinged with great sadness for many as the world on Thursday (Dec. 26) marks the 20th anniversary of the devastating Boxing Day Tsunami.
Two decades on from the deadly waves, caused by a massive earthquake, that caused devastation in countries with Indian Ocean coastlines, scientific advances have improved our ability to forecast and provide warnings of dangerous tsunamis.
However, the economic and wider human costs of such natural catastrophes can never be completely eliminated. This was illustrated, for example, by the concern caused by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake this month about 55 miles off the coast of Eureka in California. The effects were felt from San Francisco to southern Oregon, sparking a tsunami warning affecting millions of residents. The alert was later canceled.
Tsunami warnings are relatively rare on the US West Coast but still more common than elsewhere in the country. However, some scientists predict the area might be overdue for a massive quake, and resulting tsunami, in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an 1,100 km offshore fault that runs from northern California to southern British Columbia, and/or the San Andreas fault, which runs for 1,200 km through California. Some scientists refer to this potentially huge natural disaster as “The Big One,” defined as an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or higher on the Richter scale. Such an event could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage, and tens of thousands of deaths and injuries at the very least. But even a disaster of that magnitude might still be dwarfed by the devastation caused by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. According to the EM-DAT global disaster database, it killed a total of 226,408 people in more than a dozen countries, and more than 1.5 million people were displaced. The magnitude 9.1 earthquake that caused the tsunami was one of the biggest the world had seen since 1900. The epicenter was off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was the longest fault line rupture ever observed, as the ocean floor opened up along a distance of at least 1,200 km between the India plate and Burma microplate.
The earthquake triggered the largest tsunami in the Indian Ocean for more than 700 years. The amount of energy it released was estimated to be equivalent to about 23,000 Hiroshima bombs. The huge waves it created, some more than 30 meters high, swept into several coastal nations, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
Twenty years on, the silver lining amid the sadness of the upcoming anniversary is that our understanding of tsunami risks is now better. This means better forecasting, more effective warnings, and improved disaster-resistant construction techniques for more-resilient infrastructure.
In terms of warning systems, there were none in place in the Indian Ocean region in 2004. The picture has changed since then, with a regional system in place as part of an approximately 1,400-strong network around the world that generally reduces the delay in issuing a warning after a tsunami forms to just minutes. The human cost of terrifying natural hazards such as tsunamis can never be eliminated, even with increasingly resilient infrastructure.
Even with such improved warning systems, some communities still might not receive the alert in time. Indeed, had the present-day Indian Ocean warning system been in place in 2004, it is not certain it would have helped many of those among the first hit by the tsunami, especially in poorer communities lacking the benefit of modern digital technologies.
In part, this is why a significant proportion of tsunami casualties tend to happen before any official or technically based warnings can be delivered. This differs from some other natural hazards, such as hurricanes, which can be predicted further in advance and tend to cause fewer casualties.
However, for people more distant from the origin point of a tsunami, warnings can be very effective, including those transmitted through community communications. These can save many lives, with a key factor in success being the distribution of data rapidly, transparently, and hyper-locally, so that it is available in the best form, in the right place and as quickly as possible.
As warning systems improve, there are continuing debates about the enhanced exchange of data. This places an increasing amount of weight on improved forecasts. Such methods of predicting earthquakes in advance were once thought to be impossible, owing to the difficulty of calculating the motion of rocky mantle flows beneath the earth’s crust. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated algorithms, however, it might now be possible to model this underground activity in more effective ways by creating a model of fault lines, consisting of millions of underground grid points, to ascertain where the underground stresses are strongest. This is a potential indicator of key earthquake trigger points.
However, even if forecasting technology and early warnings can fulfill their full longer-term potential, there is still a need for increasingly resilient infrastructure, given the devastation tsunamis can cause to physical geography.
Take the example of the province of Aceh in Indonesia, one of the areas worst-hit by the 2004 tsunami. Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed and about 3,000 hectares of land were washed away, destroying infrastructure such as roads, ports, and bridges. More than 100,000 houses have been rebuilt there, according to the Indonesian government. In this context, a key goal for engineers and community planners is to build increasingly tsunami-proof structures and plan more-resilient communities. As global warming intensifies, these calculations must also factor in the growing risk from rising sea levels, a threat that is increasing three times faster in tropical seas — including central portions of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and much of the Indian Ocean — where tsunami risks tend to be greatest.
All of this underlines the further potential for improved forecasting and earlier warnings of future tsunamis to help make the world a safer place for many people. However, the economic and wider human cost of such terrifying natural hazards can never be eliminated, even with increasingly resilient infrastructure.
*Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Syria… These Are the Facts
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/December 22, 2024
A flood of criticism and demands has been directed at the new rulers of Syria, specifically Ahmed al-Sharaa, since Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8. This isn't a question of whether these criticisms are pertinent, most of them have no basis in fact. I will discuss some of these criticisms here, but I can only cover the tip of the iceberg. For instance, it was said that there is no military solution to the problems of Syria. Yet, military action pushed Assad out in 12 days, despite the presence of Russian and Iranian forces. President Putin claims that his country helped evacuate 4,000 Iranian fighters. Now, it is said that Syria’s communities, particularly minorities, must be reassured after the regimes of the father and son had committed crimes against the majority for five decades. The new administration is being asked to meet several conditions, including those laid out in the Aqaba statement.
Meanwhile, Assad made no commitment to anything during his 24 years in power. When some Arabs tried to persuade him to distance himself from Iran, Assad exploited their efforts in the worst way. Lying is inherent to his politics, and he gave all his time to Russia until the moment he fled.
We have also heard the new Syria must reassure Lebanon, even though Assad the father had ruled and abused Lebanon. Bashar relied on assassinations and repression, disrupting all of Lebanon’s institutions. Most of those who are now demanding reassurances in Lebanon used to make pilgrimage in Assad’s Damascus! It is said that the new administration must secure its borders, especially with Iraq, even though the world knows that Syria has been a gateway for weapons and militias (through the Iraqi Al-Bukamal crossing) since Saddam Hussein’s fall. It is said there is fear of militias in Syria, while there are militias that operate in Iraq, specifically the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Some people have stressed the need to preserve the Syrian army. However, old footage on YouTube featuring Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat shows that it was a sectarian army. The army collapsed due to defections following the revolution in 2011; Militias from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Hezbollah have replaced the army. On top of that, some now fear the division of Syria. It has been divided since 2011 among the Americans, Russians, Iranians, Turks, and Kurds, and before them, the Israelis. Some Syrians claim that the attempt to bring Assad back into the Arab fold had divided the Syrian opposition before his fall. This is not true. What divided the opposition was the Astana agreement sponsored by Russia, Iran, and Türkiye. The Arabs had nothing to do with it.
Why doesn't the new Syria retaliate to Israel’s attacks, some ask? Meanwhile, Assad's regime never fired a bullet at the Israelis. In fact, Assad was the one who entrenched the phrase "respond at the right time," and the right time never came.
Hezbollah accepted a ceasefire agreement that grants Israel the right to strike the party abroad and inside Lebanon. The militias have not fired a bullet at the Israelis from Syrian territory despite all of Israel’s attacks on them in Syria.
It is said that Sharaa is classified as a "terrorist" by America. Assad was put in the same category under the Caesar Act. It is said that Türkiye controls Syria, and it is a basic principle of politics that every vacuum gets filled; politics "hates a vacuum." Those who are not helping Damascus are the problem.
Accordingly, that was an overview of the facts, and the list goes on.