RSS
40% of Syrians Support Signing a Peace Treaty With Israel: Poll
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
Forty percent of Syrians support signing a peace treaty with Israel, according to a recent poll conducted by the Syrian Center for Public Opinion Studies.
A 46 percent plurality of Syrians oppose a peace deal with Israel, while a smaller but still substantial portion of 39.88 support signing such a treaty, according to the poll, which was taken of 2,550 Syrians across all governorates last month. Another 13.76 percent said they were indifferent.
Those who are Kurdish had the highest level of support for a peace agreement, and the heavily Druze governorates of As-Suwayda and Qunaitra showed higher than average levels of support for a peace agreement with Israel.
The higher support in the two Druze governates was due to “the escalation of Israeli rhetoric protecting the Druze minority in the post-Assad era, and the burden borne by the residents of Quneitra Governorate, given their direct contact with Israeli forces, which carry out military incursions without any deterrent at the local, regional, or international levels,” according to the report.
Additionally, the survey found that “the majority of Syrians linked stability and economic prosperity in Syria to normalization with Israel, with more than 70 percent of them believing that normalization would lead to ‘Arab and international investment flowing into Syria,’ thus improving the economic situation.”
At the same time, a clear majority of Syrians (59.25 percent) said they oppose an Israeli embassy in Damascus or a Syrian embassy in Israel, while 23.73 percent support it. Meanwhile, 76 percent responded agreed that Israel is the largest threat to Syria, and 62% said they believe normalization will lead to Israel occupying more Syrian territory.
The survey comes as momentum grows for long-time foes Syria and Israel to normalize relations. US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack called for a non-aggression pact between the two countries during a high-profile visit to Damascus on Thursday.
Barrack’s visit came after about two weeks after US President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, urged him to normalize relations with Israel, and announced in a surprising turn that the US would lift all sanctions on the Syrian government.
Sharaa became Syria’s president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted long-time Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war, with an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al Qaeda affiliate. Though previously designated as a terrorist organization by the US, HTS has since rebranded itself as a national force concerned with Syria’s wellbeing.
Following Assad’s fall, Israel conducted military strikes against much of Syria’s weapons arsenals and deployed ground troops to the buffer zone along their border to prevent its northern neighbor from becoming a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israeli communities.
The post 40% of Syrians Support Signing a Peace Treaty With Israel: Poll first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.