19:15 The kingdom of Bahrain sent a message to Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the insurgency that toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying it is “fully prepared to consult with you continuously and to provide support in regional and international organizations to achieve what is in the interest of the brotherly Syrian people.”
It added: “We look forward to Syria regaining its authentic role in the Arab League.” Bahrain is the current head of the Arab Summit.
Syria was readmitted to the Arab League last year after 12 years of ostracization. It is still unclear how the international community will deal officially with the new interim government in Syria.
17:40 Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), condemned the situation in the Israeli war on Gaza during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
Lazzarini described the reports from his staff as “absolutely harrowing,” citing accounts of extreme hunger.
“Hunger is a real reality,” Lazzarini added, stressing that the agency’s capacity to reach more people dwindles as the situation worsens.
“In September, we couldn't reach 1 million people, 1.4 million people in October, 1.7 million people in November. Hunger is deepening,” he warned.
Lazzarini also explained that Israel’s targeting of UNRWA was politically motivated, not due to alleged Hamas infiltration.
“The real reason why they want — Israel wants UNRWA to be eliminated is because of political reason. We keep hearing by the author of the bills that this is an opportunity in one generation to put an end to victimhood and to put an end to the refugee statute. It all trickled down to the refugee statute and the right of return,” he said.
16:00 The death toll in the Israeli airstrike on a residential block in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Thursday evening rose to 40.
Residents and emergency workers were retrieving bodies of the dead and wounded from under the rubble in the afternoon hours of Friday.
Meanwhile, five Palestinians were reported killed and several others wounded due to an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential building in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City.
15:00 Hundreds of thousands of Syrians streamed into city streets and squares across Syria to celebrate the overthrow of President Bashar Al-Assad after attending the first Friday prayers since his ouster.
Men, women and children gathered to celebrate were seen waving opposition flags and chanting just outside Damascus's famed Umayyad Mosque in scenes reminiscent of the early days of the 2011 uprising against Bashar.
"We are gathering because we're happy Syria has been freed, we're happy to have been liberated from the prison in which we lived," Nour Thi al-Ghina, 38, told AFP.
"This is the first time we have converged in such big numbers and the first time we are seeing such an event," she said, beaming with joy.
"We never expected this to happen."
A child sitting on the shoulders of a man holds an independence-era Syrian flag as worshippers arrive for the first weekly Muslim Friday prayers since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad at the 8th-century Umayyad mosque in the old city of Damascus on 13 December 2024. AFP
Exhilarated crowds chanted "One, one, one, the Syrian people is one!" on Friday.
Some held the Syrian independence flag, which was used by the opposition since the uprising began.
Dozens of street vendors around the mosque were selling the three-star flags — which none would dare to raise in government-held areas during Assad's iron-fisted rule.
Dozens of pictures of people who were disappeared or detained in Assad's prisons hung on the mosque's outer walls, the phone numbers of relatives inscribed on the images.
Earlier Friday, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that took power, Abu Mohamed Al-Jolani -- who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa — called on people to take to the streets to celebrate what he described as "the victory of the revolution."
Omar al-Khaled, 23, said he had rushed from northwest Idlib, cut off from government areas for years, to see the capital for the first time.
"It was my dream to come to Damascus," the tailor said.
"I can't describe my feelings. Our morale is very high and we hope that Syria will head towards a better future," he said, adding: "People were stifled... but now the doors have opened to us."
Amani Zanhur, a 42-year-old professor of computer engineering, said many of her students had disappeared in Assad's prisons and that she was overjoyed to be attending the prayers in the new Syria.
"There can be nothing worse than what was. We cannot fear the situation," she told AFP, expressing support for a state based on Islamic teachings.
Thousands flocked to the nearby Umayyad Square, raising a huge opposition flag on its landmark sword monument and chanting.
"Let's not discuss details that might separate us now and focus only on what brings us together: our hatred for Bashar al-Assad," said Amina Maarawi, 42, an Islamic preacher wearing a white hijab.
Mohammed al-Saad, 32, an HTS political cadre in a smart jacket, had come with colleagues from Idlib province to help set up the new government.
"We've been waiting 13 years for this," he said. "We've come to get work started."
14:00 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he had seen during the last weeks "encouraging signs" of progress towards a ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza, now in its 14th month.
His remarks came after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the second leg of his Syria crisis tour following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government.
"We discussed Gaza, and we discussed I think the opportunity... to get a ceasefire in place. And what we've seen in the last couple of weeks are more encouraging signs that that is possible," Blinken told reporters in Ankara, adding that he appreciates the role Turkey is playing in ceasefire efforts.
Blinken also discussed efforts toward a Gaza ceasefire when he arrived in Jordan on Thursday on what was his 12th visit to the Middle East since the Israeli war on Gaza erupted in October 2023.
His previous trips have ended in disappointment as he sought a ceasefire in Israel's deadliest war on Gaza.
A Palestinian man carrying a child walks past a destroyed building in the Nuseirat refugee in the central Gaza Strip on 13 December 2024. AFP
13:15 The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on a residential block in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday evening has risen to 34, with 84 wounded.
A Palestinian woman mourns her relatives, killed in an Israeli airstrike, ahead of their funeral in the Nuseirat refugee in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
13:00 Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa has told Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohamed Al-Jolani that Bahrain is ready to cooperate with the new authorities, the official BNA news agency reported Friday.
It said that in a letter addressed to Jolani using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the monarch said Bahrain, the current Arab summit president, was ready to "continue consultations and coordination with Syria."
A woman waves the independence-era Syrian flag as people celebrate outside the Ummayad Mosque following Friday prayers in Damascus on 13 December 2024. AFP
12:00 US President-elect Donald Trump, again named Time’s “Person of the Year,” told the magazine on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows he wants the Gaza war to end.
“The Middle East is going to get solved. I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s easier to solve,” Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview.
According to Time Magazine, Trump informed Netanyahu of his stance during phone calls the two held during the US election campaign.
Asked if Netanyahu has given him assurances about ending the Gaza war, Trump declined to respond directly, saying, “I don’t want people from either side killed… whether it’s the Palestinians and the Israelis and all of the different entities that we have in the Middle East.”
When Time asked if he trusted Netanyahu going into the second term, Trump took a second before answering: “I don’t trust anybody.”
The Times of Israel revealed in October that Trump told Netanyahu during a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort that he wants the war wrapped up by the time he enters office.
“The other thing that’s happening are the hostages. Where are the hostages? Why aren’t they back? Well, they could be gone… I think Hamas is probably saying, Wow, the hostages are gone. That’s what they want,” Trump said.
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