RSS
Syrian Rebels Enter Suburbs of Key City of Homs, Sources Say
Rebel fighters pass a tank in Homs countryside, after Syrian rebels pressed their lightning advance on Saturday, saying they had seized most of the south, as government forces dug in to defend the key central city of Homs to try to save President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule, in Syria December 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano
Syrian rebels entered suburbs of the key city of Homs on Saturday, sources said, pressing a lightning week-long advance as front lines collapse across the country and government forces battle to save President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule.
A Homs resident, and army and rebel sources said the insurgents had breached government defenses from the north and east of the city. The Syrian military did not immediately comment on the reports.
Fighting had raged around the north of strategically-vital Homs since late on Friday with government forces reinforcing and using intense airstrikes to hammer the rebels.
Insurgents also seized almost the entire southwest within 24 hours and advanced to within 30 km (20 miles) of Damascus as government forces fell back to more defensible positions, rebels said.
Underscoring the possibility of a renewed uprising in the capital itself, protesters in a Damascus suburb tore down a statue of Assad’s father, residents said, with video showing them tearing it to pieces.
Assad remains in Damascus, Syria’s state news agency said.
Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defenses have crumbled at dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the rebellion had long seemed over.
Besides capturing Aleppo in the north, Hama in the center and Deir al-Zor in the east, rebels said they have taken southern Quneitra, Deraa and Suweida.
The twin threats to strategically-vital Homs and the capital Damascus now pose an existential threat to Assad’s decades of rule in Syria and the continued influence there of his main regional backer Iran.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighboring states.
Assad had long relied on allies to subdue the rebels, with bombing by Russian warplanes while Iran sent allied forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to bolster the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own grueling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
RUSSIA, IRAN, TURKEY
The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and the main rebels’ backer Turkey met on Saturday and agreed on the importance of Syria’s territorial integrity and on restarting a political process, they said.
But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour.
Russia has a naval base and airbase in Syria that have not only been important for its support of Assad, but also for its ability to project influence in the Mediterranean and Africa.
Moscow has been supporting government forces with intense air strikes but it was not clear if it could easily step up this campaign.
Iran has said it would consider sending forces to Syria, but any immediate extra assistance would likely depend on Hezbollah and Iraqi militias.
The Lebanese group sent some “supervising forces” to Homs on Friday but any significant deployment would risk exposure to Israeli airstrikes, Western officials said.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias are on high alert, with thousands of heavily-armed fighters ready to deploy to Syria, many of them amassed near the border. Iraq does not seek military intervention in Syria, a government spokesman said on Friday.
A top Iranian official, Ali Larijani, met Assad in Damascus on Friday, an Iranian news agency reported a lawmaker as saying. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said “no specific decisions have been made regarding a horizon for Syria’s future”.
BATTLE FOR HOMS
The Homs resident said he had seen the rebels advance past a Syrian Air Force base in the north of the city that was considered a major defensive area.
An opposition figure in touch with rebel command and a Syrian army source both also said the insurgents were inside the city.
Airstrikes had pummeled rebel positions north of Homs after the insurgents reached the city outskirts late on Friday, both sides said.
Seizing Homs, an important crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and from Russia’s air and naval base.
“Homs is the key. It will be very hard for Assad to make a stand but if Homs should fall, the main highway from Damascus to Tartus and the coast will be closed, cutting the capital off from the Alawite Mountains,” said Jonathan Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma.
In the south, the fall of Deraa and Suweida on Friday, followed by Quneitra on Saturday, could allow a concerted assault on the capital, the seat of Assad’s power.
The Syrian military pulled back as far as Saasa 30 km (20 miles) from Damascus to regroup, a Syrian army officer said. Jarmana, where protesters pulled down a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the current president’s father, is in the city’s southern suburbs.
Deraa, which had a population of more than 100,000 before the civil war began, holds symbolic importance as the cradle of the uprising. It is the capital of a province of about one million people, bordering Jordan.
In the east, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the government’s main foothold in the vast desert, on Friday, three Syrian sources told Reuters, jeopardizing Assad’s land connection to allies in Iraq.
In a sign of government forces’ collapse in the east, around 2,000 Syrian soldiers crossed the border into Iraq to seek sanctuary, the mayor of Iraqi border town al-Qaem said.
The post Syrian Rebels Enter Suburbs of Key City of Homs, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
The Media Reports Hamas Propaganda, and Hamas Still Implicitly Threatens Them
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Western media outlets simply ignores that everything that comes out of Gaza is pre-approved by Hamas, and anyone who breaks their rules is threatened.
All of the information that the media is reporting from Gaza this week is what Hamas wants them to say. The only source for the death toll counts and the allegation that most of the dead are women and children come from Hamas and no one else.
One Telegram message from the Al Qassam Brigades makes this explicit.
Although Israeli airstrikes targeted some Hamas leaders, the terror group warned journalists not to report on their names until they get permission:
Urgent Directive and Warning:
We call on activists and media professionals to stop circulating the names of individuals involved in the attacks carried out by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, and to adhere to the statements issued by official authorities.
When a group that wears ski masks and carries weapons gives a directive, it is a threat, not a suggestion.
The main reason that the media doesn’t report on Hamas’ complete control of the media is exactly because it is a threat, not a suggestion. They do not want to appear cowardly or to admit that they are following Hamas rules, so they simply do not report on things like this.
That means that the truth is withheld from readers, and that false information is provided as fact — as a means to damage Israel and advance Hamas’ agenda.
The post The Media Reports Hamas Propaganda, and Hamas Still Implicitly Threatens Them first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Moderate’ Palestinian Authority Tells Its People That Jews Poison the Water
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has once again used medieval blood libels of Jews, saying that Jews poison the wells. Such libels are meant to justify hatred and terror against Jews, just as they did in Europe in the Middle Ages.
After Israeli police helped return a flock of sheep stolen from Israelis by Palestinians, a PA official said the following on television:
Advisor to Head of The Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Ayed Morrar: “There was an attack on the village of Ras Al-Auja, and they [settlers] took all the livestock they could find, between 800-1,500. Some claim that a total of 1,500 animals were stolen … Moreover, they poisoned the water to kill the Palestinians’ livestock.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 9, 2025]
Ayed Morrar has a history of antisemitism. Just three months ago, he spread the libel that Jews are only in the Land of Israel because it is good for them financially and they would do anything for money.
Official PA television regularly features officials and reporters repeating the well-poisoning libel, such as when a columnist said that Israel was “liable to poison the water” and a reporter said that Jewish rabbis “permit poisoning water wells.”
This recurring libel is patently false because both Israelis and the Arabs of Judea and Samaria drink water from the same Mountain Aquifer.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post ‘Moderate’ Palestinian Authority Tells Its People That Jews Poison the Water first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Gal Gadot Gets Emotional Becoming First Israeli to Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Actor Gal Gadot gestures during the unveiling ceremony for her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, US, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Israeli actress Gal Gadot received a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday, and its unveiling was attended by her family and close friends, including “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins and her “Fast & Furious” costar Vin Diesel.
Gadot, 39, is the first Israeli actress and the 2,804th person to be honored with a star on the Walk of Fame, which is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Her star is located on 6840 Hollywood Boulevard adjacent to the El Capitan Theatre. The actress, who was born in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, and stars in Disney’s new “Snow White” remake as the Evil Queen, attended the unveiling ceremony with her husband, Yaron Varsano, and four daughters – Alma, Maya, Daniella, and Ori.
“This is very surreal, and I feel like I’m the luckiest woman. I feel very humbled and grateful,” Gadot said on stage at the event while getting visibly emotional.
“I’m just a girl from a town in Israel,” she continued, garnering loud applause from the audience. “And I could never imagine such a moment. I never dreamt of becoming an actress and I never knew that these things are possible. To me it’s even more than any award because we can share it with the world. I’m not taking it home. This is for everybody. This star will remind me that with hard work and passion and some faith anything is possible.”
Gadot thanked her fans for their love and support and told them: “If a girl from Rosh can get a star on the Hollywood [Walk of Fame], anything is possible.” She also shared a message in Hebrew with her friends and family watching the event being live streamed from Israel. Gadot looked into the camera and said in Hebrew she loves them and even though they are far away, they will always be close to her heart.
The actress concluded by thanking her husband and her children. She told her daughters in part: “Everything I do, I do for you. Being your ima [mother] is my greatest, greatest privilege and the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done. Thank you for being a part of the circus. You allow me to fulfill my dreams, and I hope that you know you can do the same. You inspire me every day to strive to be a better person – strong and kind and brave, just the way that you are — and I hope that you’re proud.”
Diesel spoke on stage at the unveiling about his close relationship with Gadot, whom he starred alongside in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise. Diesel cast her to play Gisele Yashar in 2009’s “Fast & Furious” and it was Gadot’s first film role. She went on to reprise the role in “Fast Five,” “Fast & Furious 6,” and “Fast X.”
Diesel praised Gadot as an “incredible actress” and also called her family, saying that she was in his life when he became a father and is now known as “Auntie Gal” to his children. The actor also talked about the support Gadot gave him after the death of his friend and “Fast & Furious” costar Paul Walker in 2013.
“After Paul left, Gal was the first one at my house to wipe my tears,” Diesel said. “I just love her so much.”
Gadot thanked Diesel for her big movie break during her own speech. “Vin, you took a chance on a complete unknown and invited me to the ‘Fast & Furious’ family. Talk about starting big,” she told him on stage. “It was my first movie ever and your faith in me completely changed the course of my life. Thank you so much for your trust, for showing up, and your love. I love you and we’re always family.”
Jenkins – who directed Gadot in 2017’s “Wonder Woman” and also the 2020 action film “Wonder Woman 1984” – described Gadot as a “movie star” and her “best friend forever on set.” She shared some of her fondest memories with Gadot, which included them living together during the COVID-19 pandemic, and listed some of her favorite things about the Israeli star.
“[Gal] never stops from giving powerful performances, somehow always being the happiest, kindest, most loving, most heroic person on the set,” Jenkins said. “You never complain and … she is Wonder Woman. She is the most wonderful, kind, gracious person, [and] what a gift to have somebody like that embody a hero that I care so much about. There are so many reasons to be in this industry [and] I’m so honored to walk through this with someone who’s really here to make the world a better place. And it’s a much better place with you in it.”
Gadot called Jenkins “my Wonder Woman behind the camera.” She added: “I’m so grateful that the world has brought us together. Working with you has taught me to trust myself and my powers as an actress and it was only after our movie [‘Wonder Woman’] that I finally started to call myself an actress. Thank you for your inspiration and for being such a friend.”
Others who attended the unveiling of Gadot’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame include Israeli actress Shira Haas, “Snow White” director Mark Webb, and the film’s producer Marc Platt. “Snow White” lead actress Rachel Ziegler did not attend.
“Being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a testament to Gadot’s incredible talent, dedication, and impact on the entertainment industry,” said Ana Martinez, Walk of Fame producer. “It is a recognition of her hard work and contributions to the world of entertainment that will forever be immortalized on Hollywood’s iconic sidewalk. Gal Gadot is well deserving of this honor.”
The post Gal Gadot Gets Emotional Becoming First Israeli to Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame first appeared on Algemeiner.com.