SYRIA UPDATES

Inside Israel, on the one hand, you hear the official line from the Israeli military about how many flights there were and how many fighter jets participated in assaults on Syria.

There’s certainly a major assertion that this was the largest air campaign Israel has conducted since its inception, much larger than 1967 when Israel occupied Syrian, Palestinian and Egyptian territory.

You also hear commentary from politicians and analysts about the need not just to go to the buffer zone and occupy it, but to go even further.

It boils down to all these voices in Israel talking about the need for Israel to assert its hegemonic power, that it must destroy the assets of the Syrian army.

They say Israel must indicate to those in power in Syria that they will not have all that strategic strength and in order for them to be secure, they must provide assurances that the border with Israel would stay calm and that they would be amenable to at the very least not launching or allowing any attacks on Israel.

Translation: Scenes from the kitchen of the presidential palace of the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad.

The move marks the first time the IRC has included Syria in its watchlist since 2021.

The global humanitarian aid organisation rated Sudan as the most severe country case, followed by the occupied Palestinian territory, where Israel has been waging an unrelenting war since October 2023, and then Myanmar.

The IRC said the humanitarian situation in Syria remains “highly uncertain” after rebel forces toppled the al-Assad regime.

“Whether the latest shifts in the conflict will allow Syrians to start rebuilding their lives in 2025 or deepen the crisis remains an open question,” it said in a media release.

At least two civilians have been reported killed in the offensive.

Seaports in Latakia and al-Beida were bombed, while the Tiyas airbase as well as Damascus and Qamishli airports were also hit.

The Israeli military estimates it destroyed up to 80 percent of Syria’s military capabilities in what it calls one of the largest offensive operations in its history.

The Israeli military and a Syrian war monitor said the targets included:

• Air defence systems, radars, missile launchers and firing positions
• Fighter jets, military helicopters and hangars at multiple airbases
• At least 15 naval vessels, including ships and missile boats
• Weapons depots, production sites and a variety of missiles
• Scientific research centres linked with Syria’s chemical weapons programme

“People are happy and hopeful but are still fearful of what happens next,” a member of the group present in Damascus said.

“Everywhere you go, basic government services have collapsed as employees have fled or abandoned their posts. Health facilities especially need urgent support,” he added.

Meanwhile, hospitals in the northwestern city of Idlib were “full of wounded casualties and medics are overwhelmed”.

“I saw many hospitals badly damaged, especially in Hama and Damascus,” he added.

Here are the report’s key takeaways:

• The price of bread in Idlib and Aleppo cities has increased by 900 percent between November 27 and December 9.
• Price hikes of other goods have been reported in markets across the country, with the cost of chicken rising 119 percent, severely affecting people’s access to basic food.
• The ongoing hostilities are limiting humanitarian access – especially in Quneitra, Menbij and Deir Az Zor – affecting food aid distribution efforts and farmers’ access to their land as wheat planting season gets under way.
• Extreme exchange rate fluctuation has also resulted in economic instability, causing shop closures and merchants to hoard commodities.
• At least 6,000 families in Tabqa in northeast Syria are in urgent need of food aid, while newly displaced populations arriving in the area are also facing critical gaps in access to cooking facilities.

Here’s a quick look at their comments:

• Physicians for Human Rights said al-Assad’s exit represents a “milestone opportunity for justice, accountability and healing”. It also called on Syria’s new leaders to support survivors of torture and victims’ families.
• CARE Global expressed “joy” at the scenes of Syrians across the world celebrating al-Assad’s fall, but said the “humanitarian need inside Syria remains enormous”. It urged international donors to mobilise flexible emergency funding and scale up the humanitarian response to Syria.
• Save the Children said three in every four children in Syria require urgent support and called for an increase in emergency funding to meet immediate needs.
• Islamic Relief called al-Assad’s removal “a moment of hope and uncertainty” and called for support for public health facilities that are facing “imminent collapse”.
• Welhungerhilfe, a German aid group, said the humanitarian situation in Syria “remains catastrophic” and pledged to increase aid in Aleppo and other areas in northwestern Syria.

• Banks and shops reopened in the Syrian capital, three days after al-Assad’s fall, and the country’s new police chief has pledged to restore “full security and order”.
• A commander with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a ceasefire with the Turkiye-backed Syrian National Army after days of fighting around the northern city of Manbij.
• The HTS-led opposition forces say their offensive in eastern Deir Az Zor province is continuing after the capture of the city of Deir Az Zor from al-Assad’s forces and Iran-backed militias. The east of the governorate is controlled by Kurdish forces.
• Amnesty International has condemned European countries that suspended processing asylum applications from Syrian refugees while Human Rights Watch says those seeking refuge should not be forcefully returned.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone calls with counterparts in Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the UAE as part of Washington’s push for the formation of an inclusive government in Syria, as NBC News reported that the Biden administration is mulling removing HTS from its list of “terror” groups.

Eve Geddie, the director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office, said the “safety and agency” of refugees and asylum seekers should be prioritised over “rabid, anti-refugee politics currently gripping Europe”.

“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile. Five decades of brutality and repression cannot be undone overnight. But European governments have wasted no time halting asylum applications of Syrians,” Geddie said.

“At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity,” she added.

Amnesty’s call echoes that of Human Rights Watch, which said in a Wednesday statement that “no government” should be sending or planning to send Syrian refugees back to the country “involuntarily” after al-Assad’s fall.

On Tuesday, the new administration appointed a former opposition commander as the country’s new police chief.

Fouad al-Shami spoke to Al Jazeera earlier in the day.

“Our fighters are deployed to patrol across Damascus,” he said. “We will not rest until full security and order are established in every part of the country.”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described finding Tice as a “top priority of this administration”.

“The FBI and State Department have offered up to $11m in reward to anyone who can provide information. We do not know where he is located. We do not know. But we continue to hope that he is alive,” she said.

Jean-Pierre added that while there is “no indication that he’s not alive”, US officials have no indication “about his location or his condition”.

Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist, was 31 when he was abducted in Damascus in August 2012 while reporting on the uprising against then-President Bashar al-Assad.

But on the third day after the regime’s collapse, banks and bazaars have reopened and life has begun to return to normal.

The historic Hamidiyah Bazaar, which was closed for two days, is now bustling with people again.

Waseem Anan, who runs a shoe shop there, welcomed the return to normalcy.

“I was hesitant to open my shop in the first two days, but then I felt a sense of relief. Now, all the shops in Bazaar are open. Under the regime, we were so isolated from the world. Now, we feel reconnected,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Every citizen has the right to return to their home country, safe or not. But because one refugee chooses to repatriate is no justification to forcibly return another who remains fearful, as many Syrian refugees do, especially given the country’s unstable and possibly dangerous conditions,” the group said in a statement.

The call comes after Austria said it was preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme as it reviews all cases in which asylum has been granted to Syrian refugees.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also called on Syrian refugees in Denmark to return to the country now that conditions have changed.

“This approach carries real risks, especially given how keen some European states are to declare Syria safe and begin returns,” HRW said, adding that the situation in Syria remains “inherently volatile”.

Several European governments – including the United Kingdom, Greece, Germany, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands – have announced they will suspend processing new asylum applications from Syrian refugees.

They have said, however, that they will delay making a decision on repatriating those already granted refugee status until the situation in Syria becomes clearer.

The agency cited two US officials and a congressional aide briefed on the matter.

The anonymous sources declined to say whether the messages were being sent directly or via an intermediary, but said the communications were conducted in coordinated with the US’s allies in the Middle East, including Turkey.

The US designates HTS, a group formerly allied with al-Qaeda, as a “terrorist” organization.

Washington sent the message that it believes the transitional government should represent the desires of the Syrian people and would not support HTS taking control without a formal selection process for new leaders, according to the officials.

The White House is also in touch with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team about the situation in Syria, one of the officials added.

Here’s what to know about the interim leader:

• Al-Bashir was born in Idlib province, in northwestern Syria, in 1983.
• In January this year, he was named head of the so-called Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in rebel-held Idlib.
• Before this appointment, al-Bashir was the SSG’s minister of development and humanitarian affairs from 2022 to 2023.
• A former staff member of the Syrian Gas Company, he holds degrees in engineering, law as well as Islamic law.

During the call with Safadi, Blinken “underscored the United States’ support for an accountable and representative Syrian government chosen by the Syrian people”, according to a readout by the State Department.

“[Blinken] reiterated the importance of protecting civilians, facilitating the flow of humanitarian assistance, preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours, and ensuring that any chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” it said.

Blinken also emphasised to Safadi that the US is there to support stability among Syria’s neighbours, including Jordan, “during this period of transition”.