Gaps narrow in Gaza ceasefire deal talks, say officials; Jordan ‘ready to help Syria rebuild’

Jordan stood ready to help Syria rebuild, its foreign minister said after meeting Syria’s new de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, the highest-level contact by an Arab state with Syria’s new Islamist-led administration.

Syrian church leaders are advising Christians to scale back Christmas celebrations this year, despite assurances from the Islamists who have just taken power that they are free to practise their religion.

Gaps have narrowed in elusive Gaza ceasefire deal, say sides 

Gaps between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials’ remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved.

A fresh bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the US to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has yet been reported.

A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said while some sticking points had been resolved, the identity of some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return for hostages had yet to be agreed, along with the precise deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.

His remarks corresponded with comments by the Israeli diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli, who said both issues were still being negotiated. Nonetheless, he said, the sides were far closer to reaching agreement than they had been for months.

“This ceasefire can last six months or it can last 10 years, it depends on the dynamics that will form on the ground,” Chikli told Israel’s Kan radio. Much hinged on what powers would be running and rehabilitating Gaza once fighting stopped, he said.

The duration of the ceasefire has been a fundamental sticking point throughout several rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas wants an end to the war, while Israel wants an end to Hamas’ rule of Gaza first.

“The issue of ending the war completely hasn’t yet been resolved,” said the Palestinian official.

Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security Cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio that the aim was to find an agreed framework that would resolve that difference during a second stage of the ceasefire deal.

Chikli said the first stage would be a humanitarian phase that would last 42 days and include a hostage release.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

At least 11 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, said medics.

One of Gaza’s few still partially functioning hospitals, on its northern edge, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months, sought urgent help after being hit by Israeli fire.

“We are facing a continuous daily threat,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. “The bombing continues from all directions, affecting the building, the departments and the staff.”

The Israeli military did not immediately comment. On Sunday it said it was supplying fuel and food to the hospital and helping evacuate some patients and staff to safer areas.

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

Israel says its operation around the three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia — is targeting Hamas militants.

On Monday, the United Nations’ aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver much-needed aid in northern Gaza.

“North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the spectre of famine,” he said. “South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, creating horrific living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in.”

Jordan offers Syria support in meeting with new leader

Jordan stood ready to help Syria rebuild, its foreign minister said after meeting Syria’s new de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, the highest-level contact by an Arab state with Syria’s new Islamist-led administration.

Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, also arrived in Damascus on Monday for meetings aboard the first Qatar Airways flight to land in the Syrian capital since former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled, said the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson on X.

The meetings further widened the diplomatic contacts of the new administration established after Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former Al Qaeda affiliate, led a decisive rebel offensive that overthrew Assad after more than 13 years of war.

The end of Assad’s rule has upended the geopolitics of the Middle East, dealing a major blow to his ally Iran and paving the way for other states to build new ties to a country at the crossroads of the region.

Turkey, which long backed the Syrian opposition, was the first state to send its foreign minister to Damascus.

Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, wore a suit and tie during the meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi, photos posted on social media by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry showed.

“Our talks were clear that we in the kingdom are ready to provide support,” he said after the meeting, adding that the new Syrian administration must have the opportunity to develop its plans. “I focused on reconstruction efforts and Jordan will provide aid,” Safadi added.

Syria’s stability is a key security concern for Jordan, a US-allied Arab state which borders the country to the south.

Safadi said he agreed with Sharaa on cooperating to counter the smuggling of drugs and weapons from Syria to Jordan — a problem for years under Assad.

Safadi also noted that Islamic State, with which Sharaa’s group clashed earlier in the Syrian war, remained a threat.

“Our brothers in Syria also realise that this is a threat. God willing, we will all cooperate, not just Jordan and Syria, but all Arab countries and the international community, in fighting this scourge that poses a threat to everyone,” he said.

There was no immediate statement from the Syrian side on the meeting.

Sharaa, who met senior US diplomats last week, severed ties with Al Qaeda in 2016. He has said his primary focus was on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he was not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.

Syria’s Christians fearful of new Islamist leaders as Christmas approaches

Syrian church leaders are advising Christians to scale back Christmas celebrations this year, despite assurances from the Islamists who have just taken power that they are free to practise their religion.

The self-imposed constraints highlight one of the main challenges for Syria’s new Islamist rulers: establishing mutual trust among a myriad of minorities, all scarred by decades of brutal dictatorship and 13 years of pitiless civil war.

De facto ruler Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in Syria run by his HTS.

Although himself a former leader of the Sunni Muslim Islamist group, which sees Christians as infidels, Sharaa has quickly shed his jihadist uniform for business suits.

He has told the Western officials visiting him that HTS will neither seek revenge against the former regime of Bashar al-Assad, drawn mostly from the Alawite sect, nor repress any other religious minority.

But many Christians have yet to be convinced.

On 18 December, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a Greek Orthodox church in the city of Hama, entering the compound and attempting to destroy a cross, and smashing headstones in a cemetery, said the church.

Reuters reporters saw several SUVs driving through Bab Touma, a predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Damascus, unnerving residents by pointedly blasting jihadist songs from their speakers.

A photo has circulated on social media showing an armoured vehicle moving through a Christian quarter with a message written on the front window: “Your day is coming, Oh worshippers of the cross.”

Christian Bishop Andrew Bahhi of St George’s Syriac Orthodox Church said the incident was very worrying.

But he also said that, when it was reported to HTS, they had acted swiftly, forcing the driver to remove the sign and apologise. The Greek Orthodox Church also said police had rapidly announced the arrest of the vandals in Hama.

“The community is watching to see if the groups currently in power are genuinely committed to establishing a civil society that offers equal opportunities for all,” Bahhi said.

HTS officials were not available for comment.

For now, Bahhi said he was telling young people to make sure women dressed modestly, to keep images of Father Christmas or St Nicholas inside church premises, and to avoid the customary distributing of sweets on the street.

Yet the sight of many bearded armed men patrolling the streets of Damascus does little to evoke trust among Christians scarred by Syria’s recent past.

Syria’s historic ethnic and religious minorities also include Muslim Kurds and Shi’ites — who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life — as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.

Kremlin rejects Turkish media reports about Assad and wife

The Kremlin on Monday rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of  Assad, wanted a divorce and to leave Russia.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Assad had been confined to Moscow and had his property assets frozen.

Asked on a conference call if the reports corresponded to reality, Peskov said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”

Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma al-Assad had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family were granted asylum this month after rebels took control of Damascus following a lightning advance. DM

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