Biden's top aides head for talks on Gaza, Syria; Israeli minister sees chance for deal to free all hostages

There was a chance now for a deal to release all the hostages held in Gaza, including US citizens, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Wednesday, said Katz’s office.

Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians on Wednesday, most of them in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, said medics.

Top Biden aides head to Middle East for talks on Syria, Gaza

US President Joe Biden’s top aides were heading to the Middle East on Wednesday seeking to advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and help ensure a smooth transition in Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to visit Jordan and Turkey, while US national security adviser Jake Sullivan planned stops in Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the coming days, said US officials.

The high-level tour could help shape Biden’s legacy in the turbulent Middle East in the final weeks of his term before former President Donald Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20.

Biden administration officials have kept Trump’s aides updated on their diplomatic efforts in the region, though they insist they are not directly coordinating with the incoming administration.

High on the agenda for Biden’s aides will be the future of Syria, where opposition militias overthrew Assad over the weekend, ending a 50-year family dynasty in a shockingly fast takeover after 13 years of civil war.

Blinken, who will visit Aqaba, Jordan and Ankara, Turkey through Friday, will “reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government”, said the State Department.

The Biden administration, along with governments in the region and the West, has been scrambling to find ways to engage with the Syrian rebel groups including the leading rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey and the UN.

Blinken and Sullivan, on separate trips, will also try to make progress toward a deal to end the 14-month war in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages held there by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Such an agreement, which has involved mediation by Qatar and Egypt, has hit one obstacle after another and has yet to materialise.

Chance now for deal to free all hostages, says Israeli defence chief 

There was a chance now for a deal to release all the hostages held in Gaza, including US citizens, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Wednesday, said Katz’s office.

“Minister Katz updated Secretary of Defense Austin on the negotiations for the release of the hostages, and said that there is now a chance for a new deal that will allow the return of all the hostages, including those with American citizenship,” said Katz’s office.

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza, say medics

Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians on Wednesday, most of them in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, said medics.

The Beit Lahiya strike killed at least 22 people, including women and children, said health officials. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media.

More than 30 people were living in the multistorey building before it was struck, and several family members remained missing as rescue operations continued through the morning, said the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The Israeli military told Reuters it had carried out a strike targeting Hamas militants near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is located between Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, towns on the northern fringe of Gaza under Israeli siege for two months.

It said it was continuing to examine the incident but described the number of fatalities reported by Palestinian medics and media as “inaccurate” and at odds with the army’s information.

In nearby Beit Hanoun, also part of the area under siege, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people, without giving an exact toll. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under rubble.

Earlier on Wednesday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medics told Reuters.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service and medics said nine other people were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on two houses and a crowd in Gaza City, including journalist Eman Al-Shanti, her husband, and three of their children.

Al-Shanti was the 193rd journalist killed by Israel since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, said the Palestinian Union of Journalists.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it killed in separate airstrikes two senior, armed Hamas commanders who had taken a leading role in the 7 October 2023 cross-border attack on Israel that triggered the war.

It said one of the two, Fahmi Selmi, was a senior elite unit commander in Hamas whom it said had operated from inside a former school in Gaza City’s Zeitoun suburb at the time of the airstrike, whose timing it did not disclose.

The military said the second man, Salah Dahman, who had served as the head of Hamas’ paragliding unit in the Jabalia area, had been killed in an airstrike last week.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said two rockets had been fired from the central Gaza Strip into Israel but fell in open areas and caused no injuries.

The rocket salvo demonstrated the ability of Gaza militants to continue to stage rocket attacks despite 14 months of devastating Israeli aerial and ground offensives.

Citing rocket launches from the area, the Israeli military ordered residents in the Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza to evacuate. It urged them to head towards a humanitarian-designated zone near the Mediterranean coast.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the widely devastated territory. Israel says harm to civilians is a consequence of Palestinian militants hiding among them, an accusation Hamas denies.

Fighting has focused on the densely urbanised north, where Israeli armoured forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia since 5 October.

Israel says it is fighting to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping and resuming attacks from those areas. Palestinian officials and residents accuse Israel of seeking to depopulate the area to create a buffer zone along the northern end of the coastal territory, which Israel denies.

Israel and Hamas have been waging war since Hamas-led militants carried out a lightning cross-border incursion into southwestern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The attack triggered Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians and displaced most of the 2.3 million population, say Gaza health authorities.

Israel says its airstrikes destroyed most of Syria’s strategic weapons

Israel aimed to impose a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent troop presence, said Defense Minister Katz on Tuesday, as the military said a wave of airstrikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.

Over the past 48 hours, following the collapse of the government of Assad, the military said jets had conducted more than 350 strikes on targets including anti-aircraft batteries, military airfields, weapons production sites, combat aircraft and missiles.

In addition, missile vessels struck the Syrian naval facilities of Al-Bayda port and Latakia port, where 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked.

Israeli officials said the strikes across Syria were aimed at destroying strategic weapons and military infrastructure to prevent them being used by rebel groups that drove Assad from power, some of which grew from movements linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

“We have no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, but we clearly intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I authorised the air force to bomb strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian army, so that they would not fall into the hands of the jihadists.”

Following Assad’s flight on Sunday, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarised zone inside Syria created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.

“We want relations with the new regime in Syria,” Netanyahu said, but added that if Iranian weapons were transferred through Syria to Hezbollah or if Israel were attacked “we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price”. DM

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