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Druze Israeli Killed in Hezbollah Strike as Tensions Escalate on Lebanon Border
Firefighters work at the site where a rocket landed after a lethal rocket strike on Israel, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, at a factory in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, March 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
A 25-year-old Druze Israeli was killed during a massive rocket attack by Hezbollah on northern Israel on Wednesday, the latest casualty amid escalating tensions between Israel and the powerful Lebanese terrorist group.
Zahar Saleh Bashara was working at a paper factory in Kiryat Shmona, which sits on the border with Lebanon, when Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and wields significant influence in Lebanon, fired more than 40 rockets into northern Israel.
“Zahar was the soul of the factory — he did everything, helped everyone, loved everyone. It’s a loss,” one of his coworkers who survived the attack told Israeli media.
“Unfortunately, we lost the wonderful Zahar while he was working,” a cousin of Bashara added. “He was a truck driver in a paper factory. It was hard to accept the shocking news that he had been killed … Seven years ago his father died and Zahar became the backbone of the family. He worked hard to support his family. Everyone trusted him and he was a father, brother, and son to them.”
The cousin added: “Zahar built his house, prepared it completely, and was supposed to get married soon and make the whole family happy, but unfortunately he passed away before he could fulfill his dream. Everyone loved him. Zahar always helped people without hesitation. He was a responsible and honorable person and smiled, and everyone always said beautiful and good things about him.”
The attack started at around 8 am local time, with rocket sirens lighting up the Galilee region. Hezbollah soon claimed responsibility for the onslaught.
First responders pulled Bashara’s body from the rubble, declaring him dead at the scene, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency response service.
Bashara was a resident of the Druze village of Ein Qiniyye in the Golan Heights.
While the Druze community has largely been critical of Israel’s war effort, the Druze serve in high numbers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), achieving positions of power within the army.
Beyond the military, several Druze serve at high levels of Israel’s government, including in the judiciary.
A notable soldier of Druze background was Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, a 33-year-old commander from the 188th Armored Brigade’s 53rd Battalion who was killed fighting Hamas in Gaza in November. When he died, Habaka was the highest-ranking Israeli soldier to fall in Gaza since the current war began. He left behind a wife and two-year-old son.
Habaka’s story made the rounds in Israel due to his heroism on Oct. 7, when he was one of the first soldiers to enter Kibbutz Be’eri and fight to free the community, which was attacked by Hamas terrorists.
In Israel’s north, Hezbollah terrorists have been firing rockets at Israel daily since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, leading Israeli forces to strike back. Tensions have been escalating between both sides, fueling concerns that the conflict in Gaza — the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas, another Iran-backed Islamist terrorist group, to Israel’s south — could escalate into a regional conflict.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to flee their homes in northern Israel due to constant Hezbollah attacks.
The IDF said earlier this month that it had targeted more than 4,500 Hezbollah targets since the outbreak of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, including weapons shipments and production facilities used to manufacture rockets and other munitions. Hezbollah has identified more than 240 of its members killed by Israel since Oct. 8, but the IDF puts that number at over 300, including senior operatives. Israeli strikes have also targeted Hezbollah operatives in Syria as well as members of other terror groups, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The post Druze Israeli Killed in Hezbollah Strike as Tensions Escalate on Lebanon Border first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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