As Israeli aggression in Gaza, Lebanon, and Post-Assad Syria deepens human suffering and regional instability, and amid growing international calls for ceasefires and de-escalation, Ahram Online coveres the latest developments in the Middle East as they unfold on Wednesday, 18 December.
21:55 The Syrian war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 21 pro-Turkey fighters were killed on Wednesday following their attack on a Kurdish-held position near a flashpoint northern town, Agence France-Presse reports.
“At least 21 members of pro-Turkey factions were killed and others wounded by fire from the Manbij Military Council after pro-Turkey factions attacked” a position at the Tishreen Dam, approximately 25 kilometres from Manbij, according to SOHR.
20:40 The visiting UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told Agence France-Presse that there is a need for a significant aid boost across Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.
“Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher said, adding, “I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity.”
He also said, “The Syrian people are trying to come home when it’s safe to do so, to rebuild their country, to rebuild their communities and their lives… We have to get behind them and to respond to this moment of hope. And if we don’t do that quickly, then I fear that this window will close.”
Fletcher also called for the “strongest possible reassurances” from Syria’s new administration that aid workers would be granted access across the country.
“We need unhindered, unfettered access to the people that we’re here to serve. We need the crossings open so we can get massive amounts of aid through... We need to ensure that humanitarian workers can go where they need to go without restriction, with protection,” he said.
20:20 Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said his country and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
“A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbours of Syria,” Erdoğan told a news conference alongside Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
“The stability of Syria means the stability of the region,” he said, adding that reconstruction of Syria on their borders would be their priority as the Syrian interim leadership look to rebuild infrastructure after 14 years of conflict and crippling sanctions.
Erdogan said yesterday that he expected the EU to support the return home of Syrians who left the country during the civil war. Millions of Syrians fled to Turkey to seek refuge, with the majority living in Istanbul, Gaziantep or Sanliurfa. Lebanon is also home to a large number of Syrian refugees.
To rebuild Syria, Erdoğan told journalists earlier today: “This is a critical period in which we need to act with unity, solidarity and mutual reconciliation.” The toppling of Assad has vindicated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s approach on Syria at home in Turkey, granted Ankara new opportunities in a power struggle across Kurdish areas in the north-east and afforded it fresh influence as Syria rebuilds, writes my colleague Ruth Michaelson, in this analysis piece about how the Turkish leader’s balancing act in Syria has seemingly paid off for now.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Photo courtesy of Turkish Presidential website.
20:15 France is working to find an arrangement between Turkey and Kurds in northeastern Syria, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, adding that the Kurds had to be part of any political transition process. “We are convinced that it is possible to find an arrangement that satisfies the interests of everyone. We are working on it,” Jean-Noel Barrot said.
8:25 Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani discussed developments in Syria at a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Sudani’s office said. Sudani emphasised “Iraq’s keenness on the unity of Syria, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the free will of the Syrians,” his office said.
17:15 German diplomats, led by the country’s Middle East commissioner Tobias Tunkel, held talks on Tuesday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) leader, Ahmed Al-Sharia, and members of the Syrian government.
Germany’s foreign office said the two sides discussed the political transition in Syria and human rights in Damascus. The German delegation spoke with civil society and religious organisations and inspected Germany’s embassy building in Damascus.
On Wednesday, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said the delegation meeting with members of the Syrian interim government was a good opportunity to contact the country’s new de facto rulers.
“This was the first good opportunity to get in touch with HTS and the de facto guardians in Damascus,” the spokesperson said, referring to HTS, the Islamist group left in charge following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.

(R) Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani), head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) , meeting with German Middle East envoy Tobias Tunkel in Damascus. AFP
15:59 Hamas has agreed to forego a complete Israeli withdrawal during the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire agreement, Al-Arabiya reported, citing sources.
The group also agreed to release sick, elderly, and female Israeli captives it holds. Additionally, it has consented to deport senior Palestinian prisoners to Turkey and Qatar.
In the second phase of the agreement, all remaining Israeli military captives, whether alive or deceased, including senior officers, will be exchanged for an as-yet undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners, sources told Al Sharq news.
This group will include between 100 and 150 prisoners serving long-term sentences in Israeli prisons.
Sources have indicated that, at this stage, the list does not include prominent Palestinian prisoner leaders such as Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Nael Barghouti, and others.
15:10 The Israeli occupation army ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and Hamas appeared to inch closer to a ceasefire in the 14-month war.
The order included four residential block areas in the urban refugee camp of Bureij.
The army asked the residents to move to what Israel claimed to be a “humanitarian zone” in the Muwasi area, which was under severe Israeli attacks in recent days.
The Israeli army has issued frequent evacuation orders for different parts of Gaza throughout the war, displacing more than 90 percent of the population, most of them multiple times, before striking that so-called safe area.
15:00 The head of Iran’s Strategic Council for Foreign Relations warned of the potential spread of insecurity from Syria into Iraq.
In a statement, Kamal Kharrazi cautioned against the risk of Syria's partition due to competing foreign interests.
Kharrazi also emphasized that Israel is exploiting the security vacuum in Syria to violate its sovereignty and destroy its infrastructure.
“The destruction of Syria as a state supporting resistance is an American and Zionist agenda”, he added.
14:30 Hundreds of Israeli students walked out of school to call for an immediate deal to release the remaining captives held in Gaza as there appears to be progress in ceasefire talks, AP reported.
In many cities, students headed for central junctions, blocking roads and holding signs with the faces of the captives remaining in Gaza after 14 months of war.
In Tel Aviv, high school students chanted: “Their time is up. There’s a deal on the table.”
14:15 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand on the fourth day of testimony in his corruption trials, claiming the accusations against him are “idiotic.”
Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant, is on trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.
Netanyahu was supposed to testify on Tuesday, but it was cancelled after he requested a postponement due to “security reasons.”
13:38 United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen called for "free and fair elections" in Syria and urged humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country.
Addressing reporters in Damascus, Pedersen said: "There is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria," which he expressed hope would also include a "political solution" in the Kurdish-held northeast.
The UN envoy called for "a new Syria that, in line with Security Council Resolution 2254, will adopt a new constitution... and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period."
Resolution 2254, adopted in 2015 at the height of the civil war, set a roadmap for a political settlement in Syria.
Pedersen expressed his hope that the Syrians could rebuild their country and that "the process to end sanctions" imposed under the former government could begin.
"We need immediate humanitarian assistance, but we also need to make sure that Syria can be rebuilt, that we can see economic recovery," he said.
13:51 Israeli soldiers removed a far-right group of Israeli colonialists who had crossed into Lebanon and put up a tent settlement.
As we reported earlier, The Times of Israel reported that the settlers group, advocating the annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon, said they had crossed the border and established an outpost.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that the civilians indeed crossed the blue line by a few meters, and after being identified by IDF forces, they were removed from the area,” said a statement by the Israeli army, according to Reuters.
The statement warned that any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese "without coordination" poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the army's ability to operate in the area.
13:50 Israel has killed at least 38 people and 203 wounded others across Gaza over the latest 24-hour, the Health Ministry said.
The overall death toll has reached at least 45,097 Palestinians killed, mostly children and women, and 107,244 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October last year
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army has issued forced evacuation orders to several neighbourhoods in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp.
13:46 The World Health Organization (WHO) said Israeli restrictions have blocked the urgent deployment of an international medical team at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Hanan Balkhy, condemned the repeated Israeli attacks on the facility, emphasizing the grave conditions.
"The fear endured by the hospital’s staff and patients in recent days is indescribable – and unacceptable," Balkhy wrote on X. The hospital is currently unable to provide surgical or maternal care.
13:00 Israeli forces advanced nine kilometres deep into the countryside of Daraa in southern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The observatory said Israeli forces entered the village of Kouia and the historic Wehda Dam near the Syrian-Jordanian border, stationed in strategic locations, and warned residents to hand over weapons.
"Israeli forces entered Battalion 74 in the vicinity of the village of Saida, located on the administrative border between Quneitra and Daraa provinces, marking a new incursion into southern Syria," the observatory, based in London, added in a press statement.
12:50 CIA Director William Burns is due in Doha for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas on a Gaza ceasefire deal, sources told Reuters.
Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday for talks on the deal US President Joe Biden outlined in May.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters that mediators had narrowed gaps in most of the agreement's clauses.
He said Israel has again introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.
On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo said a Gaza ceasefire and detainees exchange deal could be signed in the coming days.
12:30 Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri and the US envoy Amos Hochstein discussed in a phone call the ongoing Israeli violations that have not ceased despite the ceasefire deal, Al-Arabiya revealed.
Berri complained about Israel's continued violations, including targeting a significant number of civilians.
Berri also emphasized to Hochstein that Israel continues to destroy hundreds of homes, particularly in border towns, the latest of which is Naqoura, where the headquarters of the UNIFIL force has been located since 1978.
The call between Berri and Hochstein took place ahead of the ceasefire oversight committee meeting on Wednesday to implement Resolution 1701. The meeting was chaired by American General Casper Gevers and included officers representing France, the Lebanese and Israeli armies, and the international forces.
According to Al-Arabiya, the Lebanese delegation will focus on a list of Israeli violations in several towns within the 1701 area, south of the Litani River and beyond it to the north, where Israeli forces continue to carry out strikes in multiple locations, "breaching the agreement that was reached."
11:32 The head of the UN migration agency said she was reassured by commitments she heard from Syria’s new caretaker government in meetings in Damascus.
Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said in a phone interview Wednesday that Syria’s new leaders “recognize the job they have ahead of them is enormous and that they need the support of the international community.”
IOM estimates that about 100,000 people — many looking to return to their former homes — have entered Syria from neighbouring countries since 8 December.
“We are also seeing about 85,000 people come out into Lebanon through established border crossing points," she said. “It’s a rough figure: There are certainly people who cross informally, so they’re not counted.”
11:08 Israeli settlers have crossed the border into Lebanon, establishing tents and calling for the expansion of settlements in the area, according to reports by Al Jazeera, citing the Israeli army.
A photo published by Quds News shows the settlers in the area.
The Israeli army has acknowledged that a group of settlers entered southern Lebanon earlier this month after initial claims that the settlers had only set up camp near the border.
The Times of Israel, citing the occupation army, reported that the settlers "did indeed cross the Blue Line by several metres, and after being identified by [Israeli] troops, they were dispersed.”
This move is part of a broader escalation as Israel continues its violations, including breaching the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon and the ongoing confiscation of Syrian territories.
10:46 Israeli forces bombed and destroyed two houses in the town of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon in violation of a ceasefire agreed upon last month, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
10:30 Seven Palestinians were killed and others injured in Israeli airstrikes on various areas of the Gaza Strip since this morning, Al Jazeera reported.
Additionally, the Israeli naval forces detained two Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Deir Al-Balah.
The occupation forces have continued their aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza by air, land, and sea since 7 October 2023, killing 45,059 Palestinians and injuring 107,041 others, according to preliminary figures, with thousands of bodies still under the rubble.
10:15 The Israeli forces targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, causing a fire to break out inside its intensive care unit, WAFA news agency reported.
The hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safieh, said: "We were surprised when the machinery and bulldozers entered the hospital's vicinity, preceded by terrifying attacks on nearby residential homes. We could hear gunfire and shelling without being able to do anything."
"We miraculously evacuated the patients who were on ventilators in the ICU, but a fire broke out inside it."
He pointed out that this is the only ICU in northern Gaza.
Abu Safieh described the situation in the hospital, particularly in the ICU, as "extremely catastrophic and still dangerous."
The occupation forces have targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital daily.
On Monday, drones bombed the hospital’s generators, causing power outages and damage to the ICU.
10:02 AFP journalists saw that The first flight since the ouster of Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country's north.
According to AFP, thirty-two people, including journalists, were on board the plane.
10:00 Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 12 people overnight in Gaza, the majority of whom are displaced Palestinians taking shelter in a house in the north.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 10 Palestinians were killed when an Israeli strike at dawn hit a house in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, where several displaced families had sought refuge.
Bassal said a child was killed and several others wounded in a separate strike that hit a house in nearby Jabalia, where Israeli forces have focused their operations in recent months.
Overnight, a tent in an Israeli-designated safe zone in the southern Gaza Strip was hit, killing one Palestinian.
09:42 Egyptian footballer and Rio Ave player Ahmed "Koka" Hassan paid tribute to Palestinian martyr Sheikh Khaled Nabhan by wearing a shirt featuring his image alongside that of his granddaughter Reem, whom Nabhan once described as the "soul of his soul."

09:39 Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris expressed regret over Israel's decision to close its embassy in Dublin, calling it "the diplomacy of distraction."
Harris reaffirmed Ireland's unwavering stance, emphasizing that "nobody is going to silence Ireland" in speaking out against Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. He also questioned Israel’s attacks, asserting that Ireland will continue to voice its position.
09:33 UN warned that Israel had violated a 50-year-old ceasefire with Syria when it occupied a demilitarized buffer zone along the border with Syria.
"The presence of the Israeli Defense Forces in the buffer zone is a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The agreement “needs to be respected, and occupation is occupation — whether it lasts a week, a month or a year, it remains occupation.”
Israeli leaders announced plans earlier Tuesday to keep troops in the buffer zone for the foreseeable future.
09:20 Two members of the Syrian internal security forces were killed and two others injured in an attack by ISIS cells targeting a checkpoint south of Raqqa city in northern Syria, Sky News Arabiya reported.
In a statement, the internal security forces said: "In a cowardly terrorist act, four members of ISIS sleeper cells riding motorcycles targeted the Al-Jami'a checkpoint in the Kasrat area, south of Raqqa city, at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, December 17."
09:07 The UN Security Council called for an "inclusive and Syrian-led" political process to be implemented after Bashar Al-Assad's ouster, saying the country's people must be allowed to determine their future.
"This political process should meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians, protect all of them and enable them to peacefully, independently and democratically determine their own futures," the statement said.
In a press statement, the council "reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and called on all States to respect these principles."
Finally, the council "underlined the need for Syria and its neighbours to mutually refrain from any action or interference that could undermine each other's security."
09:00 Five Palestinian families sued the State Department over Washington's billions in military aid to Israel, demanding the enforcement of US rules to curb arms flows due to accusations of human rights abuses in Gaza.
The complaint, filed on Tuesday and to which the State Department has 60 days to respond, calls for implementing the Leahy Law, which Israel has been illegally exempted from.
The law prohibits providing security assistance to units facing credible accusations of human rights abuses.
Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, the United States has enacted legislation to provide more than $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Tel Aviv. At the same time, Israel has killed at least 45,059 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
Two former State Department staffers told journalists that US authorities apply an informal "Israel exception" when assessing the country's military actions, according to AFP.
"The reality is that Israel operates under a different set of rules. The State Department has created this unique, burdensome, high-level process for determining (that) applies only to Israel," said Charles Blaha, a former State Department official who worked on such determinations.
Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department last year in protest of US policy on Gaza, offered a similar assessment.
Earlier this month, rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of "committing genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICJ) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes.