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Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.The United States, which is close allies with Israel and has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria, said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, and urged “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Sweida that would bring a halt to military operations there, after clashes that a war monitor said had left more than 350 people dead since Sunday.The Syrian army “has begun withdrawing from the city of Sweida in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement, after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups”, a defence ministry statement said.The statement did not mention any withdrawal of other government security forces, which had deployed to the city on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a previous truce agreed with Druze community leaders following days of deadly fighting with local Bedouin tribes.That ceasefire appeared to have little effect, however, with witnesses reporting that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province had left more than 350 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in “summary executions”.The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the “heinous acts” in Sweida and to punish “all those proven to be involved”.- Damascus strikes -Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.Following the fall of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria.After carrying out air strikes in Sweida province earlier this week in what it said was defence of the Druze, Israel launched a series of attacks on the capital Damascus on Wednesday.AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence ministry complex in ruins after one strike, as smoke billowed over the area.Israel said it had also struck a “military target” in the area of the presidential palace, while a Syrian interior ministry source reported strikes outside the capital in “the vicinity of the Mazzeh (military) airport”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to “leave the Druze in Sweida alone”, and threatened to unleash “painful blows” until government forces pulled back.Syria’s foreign ministry slammed the attacks as a “dangerous escalation”, while Israel’s military chief insisted his forces were “acting with responsibility, restraint and sound judgment”.The Syrian health ministry said that at least three people were killed and 34 wounded in the strikes on Damascus.- Halt to Sweida operations -Announcing the new ceasefire on Wednesday, Syria’s interior ministry said there would be a “total and immediate halt to all military operations”, as well as the formation of a committee comprising government representatives and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation.An AFP correspondent in Sweida, however, reported hearing gunfire in the city even after the announcement.In a video carried by state television, Sheikh Youssef Jarboua, one of Syria’s main Druze spiritual leaders, read out the 10 points of the accord, which also includes “the full integration of the province” of Sweida into the Syrian state.Until now, Druze areas have been controlled by fighters from the minority community.The latest fighting was the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.The clashes between the Bedouin and the Druze that first prompted the government deployment were triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, according to the Observatory. The two groups have been at loggerheads for decades.The Islamist authorities have had strained relations with Syria’s patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities, and have been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to protect them.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on Wednesday about the Israeli bombings, adding “we want it to stop”.A State Department spokesperson said Washington was also asking Syria to “withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate”.Rubio later announced on X that all sides had “agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end”.”This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,” he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.burs/ami/smw/gv/aks

Wall Street stocks finished higher Wednesday, overcoming a mid-session swoon after US President Donald Trump denied plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.Major equity indices had moved suddenly negative following reports that a dismissal could be imminent, but they recovered quickly once Trump ruled out firing Powell — for now.Trump, who has bitterly attacked …

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A crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, with the site’s operator blaming “Hamas operatives” within the crowd and the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.It was the first time that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, acknowledged deaths at one of its distribution sites after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations.AFP footage showed lifeless bodies taken to a nearby hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, with some placed on the floor and others on already-bloodied beds.Abdullah Alian, a witness, said that mayhem unfolded as the crowd of aid-seekers was hit with stun grenades and pepper spray.”When they saw people starting to die on the ground and people on top of each other suffocating, they opened the gate and people started climbing on top of each other.”It was not clear whether he was referring to US contractors securing GHF sites, Israeli forces or another party.Paramedic Ziad Farhat said that after more than 21 months of devastating war, “there are not enough hospitals for the injured or the martyrs”.”Enough of the tragedies that we are living.”The latest deaths came as indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas were ongoing, aiming to seal a deal for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza and the unfettered flow of much-needed aid into the territory.Hamas has accused Israel of wanting to retain long-term military control of Gaza — a key sticking point in the talks, which are now in their second week in Qatar.- ‘Stampede’ -The GHF said that 19 of those killed on Wednesday “were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”.Spokesman Chapin Fay later told a briefing that the deadly incident was “instigated by armed Hamas operatives who infiltrated a civilian crowd and deliberately incited chaos”. He denied the use of tear gas or that shots were fired into the crowd.”Limited use of pepper spray was deployed only to protect against additional loss of life,” Fay said, adding that “warning shots were fired into the air at one point when GHF personnel identified that a child was being trampled”.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in the incident, blaming it on fire from Israeli troops.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that thousands had gathered at the site when “Israeli forces opened fire and used (tear) gas, causing panic and a stampede after aid centre guards closed the main gates in front of the hungry crowd”.The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.The GHF, an officially private effort, began operations on May 26 as Israel eased a two-month aid blockade that had sparked warnings of famine.On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”.Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that “most of the injuries are gunshot injuries”.The GHF — accused by aid organisations of catering to Israeli military needs — has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points, and the Israeli army has accused Hamas of firing at civilians, though witnesses have blamed the military.- ‘No progress’ -Speaking in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel’s army chief Eyal Zamir said that “in the coming days, we will know whether or not we have an agreement” in the ongoing truce negotiations, according to a military statement.A Palestinian source close to the negotiations earlier told AFP there had been “no progress so far”.If a deal is not reached, Israel will “intensify and expand combat operations as much as possible, beyond what we are currently doing”, Zamir said.The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

A protestor wearing a t-shirt reading “Israel out of the Tour” was arrested on Wednesday after running onto the final straight of the Tour de France 11th stage.The protestor, who was also holding a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, got past security barriers and ran towards the finish line in Toulouse as Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen won a sprint finale.The man was intercepted by a race staff member and arrested, the local prefecture said.Several police officers have been assigned to protecting the Israel-Premier Tech team during the Tour. The team was set up by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, but there are no Israeli riders in this year’s race.With the Gaza war causing international controversy, last year the team said it had asked its riders not to wear jerseys with any reference to Israel while out training as a precaution.The Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Israeli troops on Wednesday sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing into Syrian territory, after deadly sectarian violence prompted Damascus to send government forces to Syria’s south.Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights fired teargas to keep order along the heavily fortified frontier as dozens of people tried to cross over, said an AFP reporter in Majdal Shams, a mainly Druze town in the Israeli-annexed area.Large crowds of men, many of them in the traditional Druze attire of white caps and black tunics, gathered in front of the barbed wire, chanting and waving Druze flags, as Israeli soldiers looked on.”We just want to help our people. We want to help the parents, we want to help our families,” said Faiz Shakir, from the Golan Heights.He said he was “very, very frustrated” after hearing of atrocities against the Druze in Syria.”There’s nothing we can do. Our families are there… my wife is from there, my mother is from there, my uncles are there, my whole family is from there.”The Israeli military said in a statement that “dozens of suspects” had tried to “infiltrate Israeli territory”, with troops and border police “operating to prevent the infiltration and disperse the gathering”.It added that “simultaneously, several Israeli civilians crossed the border fence into Syrian territory in the area of Majdal Shams” and troops were “operating to safely return” them.Tensions have surged after Syria’s government deployed its security forces following unrest between members of the Druze religious minority and Bedouin fighters in the southern province of Sweida, which abuts the Golan Heights.Witnesses, Druze armed groups and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Syrian troops took part in fighting with the Bedouin against the Druze, which Israel has vowed to protect.The Observatory said that 27 Druze civilians had been killed sine Sunday in “summary executions… by members of the defence and interior ministries”.Israel, home to 153,000 Druze citizens, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend the community in Syria, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised and that Israel would not accept the presence of Damascus’s Islamist-led government near its territory.- ‘Very serious’ -In the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967, more than 22,000 Druze hold permanent resident status, and maintain family ties inside Syria.Only around 1,600 have taken up the offer of Israeli citizenship. The remainder maintain their Syrian identity.The minority also accounts for about three percent of Syria’s population and is heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.On Wednesday, Netanyahu described the situation in Sweida as “very serious” and urged concerned Druze not to cross the border.”You are endangering your lives,” he said. “You could be killed, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the (Israeli military).”The Israeli military, which announced the reinforcement of the border with more troops including some from Gaza, said earlier it had struck the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus.Defence Minister Israel Katz said that “the signals to Damascus are over — now come the painful blows”, sharing Syrian television footage of an explosion in Damascus on his X account.He promised that troops would “operate forcefully in Sweida to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal”.photo-video-bur-phz/acc/ami

In Syria’s Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions.”A lot of my friends were killed, including a doctor who was going to hospital,” said Osama, 32, by telephone on Wednesday, adding he was in the centre of the southern city.”There were summary executions in the streets,” he told AFP crying, declining to provide his surname.”If they reach here, I’m dead,” he said, adding: “I fear massacres similar to those on the coast.”In early March, hundreds of civilians mostly from Syria’s Alawite minority were massacred in the community’s coastal heartland after attacks on the security forces. Security personnel, allied armed groups and foreign jihadists were accused of committing the atrocities.Paramedic Munzer, 43, said he was stuck at home in Sweida unable to respond to calls for help.”Entire families have been decimated. I know a family of four who were killed in their home,” he said.”The bombardment didn’t stop all night,” said Munzer, also declining to provide his surname.”We have nothing left to eat in the fridge, just some dry biscuits, and some fruit and vegetables that have gone bad because the power has been cut off for 48 hours,” he said.”I have four children but I don’t know how to protect them.”- ‘Catastrophic situation’ -But the hardest thing, according to Munzer, is being unable to do his job as a paramedic.He said he had received more than 50 calls for help and was worried about the “catastrophic situation” in the city’s main hospital where he usually works.An AFP correspondent in the city saw men wearing defence ministry uniforms, some with their faces covered, launching mortars and crying out “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest, in Arabic) near the bodies of two Druze fighters, as other combatants went house to house carrying out searches.The city of some 150,000 residents was deserted and shops were closed.Another AFP correspondent saw on Wednesday some 30 bodies on the ground, including government forces and fighters in civilian clothes whose affiliation was not immediately clear.According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, more than 300 people have been killed since fighting erupted on Sunday between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes, sparking government intervention, and Israeli strikes in support of the Druze.Most of the dead are fighters but they also include 40 civilians, 27 of them summarily executed by security force personnel, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.The Syrian presidency on Wednesday condemned “heinous acts” and vowed to punish those responsible.A committee tasked to investigate the coastal massacres in March was supposed to issue its findings earlier this month but no report has been announced.

Israel bombed the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the country’s Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community’s southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes.Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders following days of fighting with local Bedouin tribes.However, witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province since Sunday had left more than 300 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in “summary executions… by members of the defence and interior ministries”.The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the “heinous acts” in Sweida and to punish “all those proven to be involved”.On Wednesday, state media said a fresh ceasefire had been agreed, announcing “the deployment of security checkpoints” in Sweida city. A previous truce declared on Tuesday appeared to have had little effect on the ground.The fighting was the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.The Islamist-led authorities have had strained relations with Syria’s patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities since they toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December.Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.Following Assad’s fall, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria.Syrian state TV reported several Israeli strikes on Wednesday near the army and defence ministry headquarters in central Damascus, with Israel’s army saying it had “struck the entrance of the Syrian regime’s military headquarters”.AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence complex in ruins after the strike as smoke billowed over the area.Israel said it had also struck a “military target” in the area of the presidential palace in Damascus.The Syrian health ministry said that at least one person was killed and 18 others wounded in the strikes on Damascus.- ‘Existential battle’ -Turkey, which has backed Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s administration, said “Israel’s attacks on Damascus… constitute an act of sabotage against Syria’s efforts to secure peace, stability and security”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to “leave the Druze in Sweida alone”, later threatening to unleash “painful blows” to “eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal” from Syria’s south.Israel said it was sending more troops to the armistice line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-controlled territory.A military official said some troops would be redeployed there from the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s war against Hamas was in its 22nd month.Dozens of people were crossing the heavily fortified Golan frontier, according to an AFP correspondent in Majdal Shams, a mainly Druze town in the Israeli-annexed area.A military statement said Israeli forces were “operating to prevent the infiltration” from Syrian territory and to “safely return the civilians who crossed the border” from the Israeli-controlled side.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of forces of the Islamist-led government near territory it controls.The head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, called the situation “an existential battle for the Druze community”.- Abuses ‘must stop’ -Sporadic gunfire continued to ring out in Sweida on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported before the latest ceasefire was announced.The correspondent counted the bodies of around 30 combatants, some in plain clothes and some in military uniform.The Observatory, witnesses and Druze armed groups have said government forces took part in fighting alongside the Bedouin against the Druze.The Syrian defence ministry accused “outlaw groups” of attacking its forces inside the city, saying they are now “continuing to respond to the sources of fire”.The Bedouin and the Druze have been at loggerheads for decades, with the latest violence triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, the Observatory said.Since they toppled Assad in December, Syria’s Islamist authorities and their allies have been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to protect the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.The United States, a close ally of Israel, was “talking to both sides, all the relevant sides on this and hopefully we can bring it to a conclusion, but we’re very concerned”, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.France said that “the abuses targeting civilians, which we strongly condemn, must stop”, while the European Union urged “all external actors” to “fully respect Syria’s sovereignty”.burs/ami/smw

At least 20 people were killed in a chaotic crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza on Wednesday, with the site’s operator blaming “agitators” within the crowd and the territory’s civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.It was the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) first acknowledgement of deaths at one of its aid centres after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations. The latest deaths came as Hamas accused Israel of wanting to retain long-term military control of Gaza — a key sticking point in ongoing negotiations aiming to seal a deal for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of hostages and the unfettered flow of much-needed aid.A Palestinian source close to the negotiations told AFP there had been “no progress so far” in the indirect talks, which are now in their second week in Doha.In Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, the GHF said it understood that 19 of those killed on Wednesday “were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”.It said the crush was “driven by agitators”, adding: “We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd — armed and affiliated with Hamas — deliberately fomented the unrest”.Gaza’s civil defence agency confirmed at least 20 people were killed in the incident, but blamed it on fire from Israeli troops.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that thousands had gathered at the scene when “Israeli forces opened fire and used (tear) gas, causing panic and a stampede after aid centre guards closed the main gates in front of the hungry crowd”. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.- ‘Climbing on top of each other’ -AFP footage showed lifeless bodies being taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, with some placed on the floor and others on already-bloodied beds. “They fired stun grenades at us and sprayed us with pepper spray,” said Abdullah Alian, who witnessed the crush.”When they saw people starting to die on the ground and people on top of each other suffocating, they opened the gate and people started climbing on top of each other.”Paramedic Ziad Farhat told AFP that after 21 months of devastating war, “there are not enough hospitals for the injured or the martyrs, and there is not enough land for the cemeteries”.”Enough of what is happening, enough of the tragedies that we are living,” he said.The GHF, an officially private effort, began operations on May 26 after Israel had blocked supplies from entering the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”, since late May.Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that “most of the injuries are gunshot injuries”.The GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points, and the Israeli army has accused Hamas of firing at civilians, though witnesses have blamed the military.- ‘No progress’ -Hamas is seeking a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the truce negotiations, and last week rejected an Israeli proposal that it said would have kept troops in more than 40 percent of the territory.Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Wednesday quoted a foreign official it did not identify as saying that work was ongoing to revise Israeli pullback maps.But Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP: “(Israel) has not yet delivered any new or revised maps regarding military withdrawals”.”What is happening on the ground confirms (Israel’s) intentions and plans to maintain and prolong military control within the Gaza Strip for the long term,” he added. A Palestinian source close to the negotiations told AFP there had been “no progress so far”.”We hope the mediators will succeed in pressuring Israel to offer an acceptable withdrawal map that ensures an actual withdrawal — not merely a redeployment of Israeli military forces — and the entry of aid into the Strip,” the source said.Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the war in Gaza, and resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.A total of 251 hostages were taken that day, of whom 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

At a leather boot shop in the Indonesian city of Bandung, workers handle an order from Texas but owner Etnawati Melani says she fears such business will dwindle when Donald Trump’s tariffs hit exports.The United States is Indonesia’s biggest market for footwear exports and the American president announced Tuesday he would impose a 19 percent …

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