Author: Bethan Mckernan
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A road trip through the new Syria
Amid the rubble of Saraqib, some of the wall graffiti dating back to its time as a centre of the the 2011 Arab spring uprising remains. “The revolution will go on,” one reads. “Tomorrow the sun rises,” says another. A week after the astonishing rout of Bashar al-Assad by rebel forces led by the Islamist…
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Netanyahu ‘committed’ to Trump’s plan to take over Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he is “committed” to Donald Trump’s plan to take over and develop the Gaza Strip, amid uncertainty over whether Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to discuss the second stage of the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas. In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said:…
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Five Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli strike on van in Gaza
Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in central Gaza, their employer has said, while Israel has also struck several areas in Houthi rebel-controlled Yemen in air raids. Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Lada’a were sleeping in their broadcasting truck, marked as press,…
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‘Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo
Abu Obeida, the commander of the Northern Storm Brigade, left his mud-camouflaged Toyota running as he got out to inspect the dirt road running through the no man’s land that separated his rural base north west of Aleppo from a Hezbollah position 200 metres away. A month ago, this front against the Lebanese group was…
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Inside Aleppo, the city Assad left to rot as a lesson in the price of rising up
Bashar al-Assad’s face has been ripped away from posters at the abandoned checkpoint that separates Sheikh Maqsoud, a neighbourhood in the north of Aleppo, from the rest of the city. No cars dare use the wide boulevard any more because the road is still watched by Kurdish snipers allied to the regime. The units retreated…
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Unrwa suspends aid deliveries through main Gaza route after armed gangs attack convoy
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has suspended aid deliveries through the main lifeline for the Gaza Strip after a fresh attack by armed gangs on a humanitarian convoy, amid a severe food crisis caused by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas. In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head…
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What would a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah entail and would it be successful?
A ceasefire to pause the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday evening by the US president, Joe Biden, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and come into effect sometime on Wednesday. The Biden administration, wary of regional escalation that could draw in Hezbollah’s major…