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SvennoJ on 25 February 2025
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Main events from February 25th

  • Hamas said an agreement has been reached with Israel over the delayed release of 620 Palestinian prisoners, and they will be freed “simultaneously” with the bodies of four Israeli captives.
  • Israeli forces bombed sites near the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least two people, as Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz declared, “We will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
  • Israeli forces killed two others in attacks on eastern Lebanon, according to local media, with Israel’s military saying it attacked a Hezbollah site used for the “production and storage of strategic weapons”.
  • Medical officials said at least six infants have died from hypothermia during a severe two-week cold spell in Gaza, as UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called on Israel to lift restrictions on the entry of temporary housing into the enclave.
  • Israeli former captive Noa Argamani told the UN Security Council that the ceasefire “must go on in full… in all the stages” to save those remaining in Gaza.
  • Human Rights Watch said Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank have killed more than 50 Palestinians, including seven children, since January 21, as part of its escalating assault on the Palestinian territory.

What we know about Israel’s deadly attacks on Syria

  • Israeli forces bombed the town of Kisweh, approximately 20km (12 miles) south of the capital, Damascus, as well as a town in the province of Deraa, late on Tuesday, according to the Reuters news agency.
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said at least two people were killed in the Israeli attacks.
  • Israel said it attacked military targets in southern Syria, including “headquarters and sites containing weapons”. It also said that “the presence of military means and forces in the southern part of Syria pose a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel”.
  • Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said the attacks are part of a policy of “pacifying southern Syria” and said: “We will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
  • The attacks came as Syria wrapped up a national dialogue summit and issued a statement condemning Israeli incursions into its territory and called on it to immediately withdraw.

How does Israel’s attacks impact Syria’s political transition?

Qutaiba Idlbi, a resident senior fellow for Syria at the Atlantic Council, says that Israel’s latest attacks complicate efforts by the new Syrian administration to reunite the country.

Idlbi noted that the attacks took place as Syrians held a national dialogue summit on the country’s political transition.

“The National Dialogue Conference has already been facing its own challenges in terms of coming together before a deal has been reached, especially with the Druze, the religious community in the south, and with the leadership of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“The strikes on Damascus are only going to serve to delay such agreement, as the powers in northeast and southern Syria will feel more empowered to try to find a deal and perhaps some military support from actors outside Syria that would perhaps increase their leverage and power on the negotiating table with Damascus.”