Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will end unless Hamas returns more hostages by noon on Saturday. “The military will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” he said in a video statement. The ceasefire has been called into question amid Hamas claims Israel violated key provisions, prompting it to cancel the …

A ceasefire deal has been reached in Gaza. The US and Qatar confirmed an agreement had been made between Israel and Hamas to pause the 15-month-long war in Gaza, and release dozens of Israeli hostages. Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will also be freed. The deal will take effect on Sunday, January 19, and include three phases. This is what we …

Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun will visit Saudi Arabia at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Lebanese Presidency said on Saturday. The Saudi crown prince invited Mr Aoun to visit the kingdom during a phone call with the new president, the Lebanese Presidency said on X. No date was given for the visit. Lebanese lawmakers elected Mr Aoun as head of …

Lebanon and Syria will work together to secure their land borders, as well as to delineate both land and sea borders, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said during a visit to Damascus on Saturday. “It is among the priorities to draw up the land and sea borders between Lebanon and Syria,” Mr Mikati said at a joint press conference in the Syrian …

Residents of Idlib in north-west Syria still talk of the time when Bashar Al Assad’s father, Hafez, visited the city soon after seizing power in the 1970s. Instead of receiving a hero’s welcome, he was pelted with shoes and vegetables. Locals claim it was these events that led to the marginalisation of Idlib long before the province became the final redoubt for rebels seeking to …

Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa has said holding elections in Syria could take as long as four years. This is the first time he has commented on a possible electoral timetable since Bashar al-Assad was removed earlier this month . Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Sharaa said in an interview with the Saudi state-owned …

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s ousted president, has denied claims that he fled the country amid the collapse of his regime, according to a statement posted Monday on the Syrian Presidency’s Telegram account. The authenticity of the statement remains unclear, as Assad has not publicly commented since his regime’s fall earlier this month. The post alleges that Assad left Damascus for Russia’s …

The EU will not lift sanctions on Syria before its new rulers ensure minorities are not persecuted and women’s rights are protected within a unified government that disavows religious extremism, the EU’s top diplomat said. An EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday, which had Syria on the agenda, would not discuss expanding financial support to the country beyond …

Riyad Avlar spent 20 years languishing in Syria’s jails, including a decade in the infamous Saydnaya prison, the scene of some of the Bashar Al Assad government’s most brutal abuses. Those long years behind bars have left him with one obsession: documenting and healing the atrocities committed inside the prison where he himself was locked up. <cs-card “=”” class=”card-outer card-full-size …

Tensions have emerged between Syria’s new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) rulers and other rebels, sources told The National on Thursday. The cracks could undermine a transition to a new government after the rebels brought down the dictatorship of Bashar Al Assad. The Assad regime, which was dominated by the Alawite minority who ruled Sunni-majority Syria for six decades, collapsed after HTS swept through Syria’s main urban centres on …