Middle East crisis live: People killed in Israeli attack on Damascus, Syrian media says

By Guardian - Martin Belam - Thu 14 Nov 2024 14.29 GMT

Attacks reportedly targeted two buildings which Israeli forces said were linked to Islamic Jihad. People killed in Israeli attack on Damascus, Syrian media says.

Several people have been killed and others injured in Israeli attacks that targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Citing SANA, Reuters reports that one building was located in Damascus suburb of Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, west of the capital.

Israeli army radio said the targets of the attack in Damascus were assets and the headquarters of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israeli territory that sparked the Gaza war.

ShareUpdated at 13.15 GMT24m ago14.29 GMT

Sirens are sounding again in the western Galilee area of Israel. Israel’s military reports that in the last 30 minutes “approximately five projectiles” were fired at the Haifa area, on Israel’s coast. There are no reports of any injuries.

Share26m ago14.27 GMT

Syrian state media has given a death toll of 15 people killed in an Israeli attack on Damascus.

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The conflict in the Middle East continues to destroy countless lives. The scenes since 7 October from Gaza and Israel have haunted millions around the world and the crisis is being felt with an increasing intensity in Lebanon and the West Bank. 

27m ago14.26 GMT

Energy minister Eli Cohen, in an interview with Reuters, has expressed the view that Israel is “closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war” over fighting in Lebanon.

It somewhat contradicts statements earlier in the week by new defense minister Israel Katz who promised there would be “no ceasefire” and “no respite” in the fighting, and that Israel would not “take its foot off the pedal.”

Reuters quotes Cohen saying on Thursday “We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act.”

Earlier this week Hezbollah said it had not been involved in any direct talks. Lebanon’s speaker, Nabih Berri, who negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah, said on Tuesday that “There is no sane person who thinks that we will agree to a settlement or solution that achieves the interest of Israel at the expense of Lebanon and its sovereignty.”

An overnight report in the Washington Post suggested an Israeli official had told it that any deal would be timed so that it appeared as a gift to Donald Trump as he takes over the US presidency.

Israel’s war aim is to return the tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes in northern Israel, and to push Hezbollah back to the line of the Litani river, in accordance with UN security council resolution 1701.

The Litani river is about 18 miles (29km) north of where the UN-drawn blue line currently separates Israel and Lebanon.

Qatar recently announced that it would stop mediating between Hamas and Israel over combat and hostages in Gaza as it believed neither party was acting in good faith in the negotiations.

50m ago14.03 GMT

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has said that as of 3pm local time (1pm GMT), “approximately 25 projectiles” had been fired from Lebanon into Israel. It blamed them on Hezbollah. There were no reports of any casualties.

1h ago13.55 GMT

Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has said Tehran is prepared to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA to clear up “alleged ambiguities about the peaceful nuclear activity of our country”, Iranian state media reported.

1h ago13.38 GMT

France deploys thousands of police for Israel match after Amsterdam violence

Daniel Boffey

Police in Paris are braced for potential violence before Thursday’s France-Israel football match, with police deploying one officer for every five ticket holders at the Stade de France.

The match has been designated “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism in Amsterdam last week when the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax.

Concerns over Thursday’s game were further raised after riot police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday night outside a gala event in Paris where funds were being raised for the Israeli military.

Israel’s controversial far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had been due to speak but subsequently cancelled.

Police pushed against dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags and lighting flares near Saint-Lazare station, with reports suggesting that teargas had been deployed as officers struggled to contain the crowds.

The Uefa Nations League tie between France and Israel, which is due to start at 8.45pm local time (7.45pm UK), is not expected to attract a large crowd, with fewer than 20,000 tickets sold for the 80,000 capacity stadium. Only about 150 Israeli fans are expected.

Despite the low attendance, about 4,000 police officers are expected on the streets along with another 1,500 on public transport routes.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration has been organised at Saint-Denis plaza at 6pm local time to protest against the staging of the match at a time of war in the Middle East.

France deploys thousands of police for Israel match after Amsterdam violenceRead more

1h ago13.29 GMT

More on that attack in Damascus. These images have now appeared on the news wires:

2h ago13.15 GMT

People killed in Israeli attack on Damascus, Syrian media says

Several people have been killed and others injured in Israeli attacks that targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Citing SANA, Reuters reports that one building was located in Damascus suburb of Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, west of the capital.

Israeli army radio said the targets of the attack in Damascus were assets and the headquarters of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israeli territory that sparked the Gaza war.

2h ago12.58 GMT

Dutch authorities have said they are investigating reports of police violence against pro-Palestinian protesters after a banned rally on Wednesday evening had been broken up.

Amsterdam police said on X that they were aware of online footage, which seemed to show police officers beating protesters who had already been released after being taken away from the site of the protest.

A total of 281 protesters were detained as they rallied in central Amsterdam on Wednesday in defiance of a ban imposed after violence stemming from a football match between Ajax and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.

Detained protesters were put on buses and driven to a location on the outskirts of the city, where they were released.

Read more here: Dutch authorities investigate alleged police violence after pro-Palestinian protest

Dutch authorities investigate alleged police violence after pro-Palestinian protestRead more

2h ago12.49 GMT

Iranian news agency Tasnim reports that Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has condemned remarks by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich about Israeli intentions to fully and permanently annex the occupied West Bank.

It reports that Baqaei said the comments were a “clear sign of the racist and expansionist nature and the aggressive approach of a regime that was created and expanded based on grabbing Palestinian territories” and “part of the Israeli genocide and its policy of wiping out Palestine, which have been implemented in the most brutal way possible over the past year.”

Earlier in the week the finance minister Smotrich had welcomed the election of Donald Trump in the US, complaining that Joe Biden’s administration had “unfortunately chosen to intervene in Israeli democracy”, and that the incoming administration would be an “important opportunity” to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” a term used for the West Bank by some Israeli

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