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Israel strikes Syria, continues bombardment of Gaza.
Israel continued its strikes on Syria on Saturday morning as part of a wave of attacks on the country following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strikes targeted a number of sites in Syria including, Scud ballistic missile warehouses in the Qalamun area, as well as an airport in Suweida and research labs in Masyaf.
Syria’s transitional government has issued a complaint to the UN over Israel’s crossing into Syria, violating a 1974 Disengagement Agreement between the two countries, as well as over Israel’s repeated attacks on Syrian territory.
In Gaza, Israeli strikes overnight and into the morning have killed at least seven people, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The agency reported that strikes on Jabalia killed four people, with two others wounded in another strike. Meanwhile, further strikes near Gaza city killed two people, and one person was killed in shelling in Khan Younis.
A UN envoy on Saturday urged foreign powers to work to avoid a collapse of vital Syrian institutions following the downfall of leader Bashar al-Assad, as diplomats gathered in Jordan for a conference on the crisis.
Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, also backed a “credible and inclusive” political process to form the next government as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We need to make sure that state institutions do not collapse, and that we get in humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible,” Pedersen said.
“If we can achieve that, perhaps there is a new opportunity for the Syrian people.”
Top Arab, Turkish, EU and US diplomats are holding talks in the Jordanian Red Sea resort city of Aqaba less than a week after rebels toppled Assad.
Blinken, on a trip in which he has met the leaders of Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, has repeatedly called for an “inclusive” process that reflects all the diverse ethnic and religious communities in Syria.
Meeting Pedersen, Blinken said that the United Nations “plays a critical role” in humanitarian assistance and protecting minorities in Syria.
Security forces from the Palestinian Authority have begun an operation in the Jenin Refugee Camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The agency reported that Palestinian spokesperson for the security forces, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, said the operation was to restore order in the camp against armed groups inside the camp.
A Syria war monitor said Israel launched strikes early Saturday targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.
“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain”, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
The Observatory said several rounds of bombardment targeted “military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army’s capabilities”.
Israel air strikes on Friday targeted “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasyun”, the group said, as well as an airport in southern Sweida province and “defence and research labs in Masyaf”, in Hama province.
A Russian cargo plane departed from Russia’s air base in Latakia for Libya on Saturday, a Syrian security official stationed outside the facility said.
The official stationed at the gate told Reuters that additional Russian departures from the Hmeimim air base in Syria’s coastal Latakia province are expected in the coming days.
On Friday, satellite images showed Russia moving military equipment at Syria’s Hmeimim air base, with two Antonov AN-124 cargo planes visible, following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad by rebels last weekend.
(Reuters)