Middle East latest: Assad says he wanted to stay in Syria but Russia evacuated him

Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it came under attack.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. The comments posted to his Facebook on Monday are the first by Assad since he was overthrown on Dec. 8 by jihadi-led Syrian rebels, who are now working to establish security and start a political transition.

Israel has been pounding what it says are military sites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defenses and most of the arsenal of the Syrian army. Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.

Here is the latest:

Israeli attack in Gaza kills a Palestinian man whose final embrace of his granddaughter became an iconic moment of the war

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli artillery attack on Monday in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed the Palestinian grandfather Khaled Nabhan, according to hospital officials, a year after a video of him cradling his young granddaughter’s lifeless body became an iconic scene of the war.

In a video widely shared on social media, Nabhan can be seen hugging 3-year-old Reem and calling her “soul of my soul” in a final goodbye before her body is prepared for burial. She was killed alongside her infant brother Tarek by Israeli strikes in November 2023.

Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat confirmed Nabhan’s death to The Associated Press on Monday. Videos shared on social media by local journalists showed Nabhan’s corpse lying on a hospital bed, his salt-and-pepper beard matted with blood.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack, but blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying militants often operate in residential areas.

Israeli defense minister is optimistic about Gaza ceasefire progress

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday he believed negotiators were closer to a ceasefire deal in Gaza than at any time since a weeklong truce in November 2023.

“We all estimate that an opportunity is being created following Hamas’s need to become more flexible, and I really hope we can advance to a practical stage in this process,” he said ahead of a closed-door session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire late last month, removing a key ally of Hamas from the battlefield.

There has been only one ceasefire in Gaza since the Hamas attack that triggered the war. In November 2023, 105 hostages — mainly women, children, and Thai foreign nationals — were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

UK will send a delegation to meet with Syria’s new rebel leaders

LONDON — The British government says it is sending a delegation to Syria to meet with the rebels who toppled President Bashar Assad, as well as to meet civil society groups.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters that the U.K. would support an “inclusive transitional political process that is Syrian-led and Syrian-owned.”

Britain, along with the U.S. and other countries, classifies Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the main rebel group and a former al-Qaida affiliate — as a terrorist organization. U.K. officials have suggested they may reconsider that designation, but have not given a timeline. They say British officials can still talk to HST in the meantime.

The U.K. said Sunday pledged 50 million pounds ($63 million) in funding to provide food, shelter, medical care and other emergency services for vulnerable Syrians as part of efforts to stabilize the country.

US says it struck the Islamic State group in Syria, killing 12 people

WASHINGTON — U.S. forces conducted another round of airstrikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Monday, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

The strikes targeted IS camps and operatives in Syria, killing 12 people, U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to X.

The strikes are aimed at “preventing the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek opportunities to reconstitute in central Syria,” Central Command said.

The U.S. has kept troops in Syria for the last decade, and Syrian government’s unexpected collapse after a rebel offensive has raised fears of an IS resurgence.

Trump says he had ‘a very good talk’ with Israel’s Netanyahu

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he “had a very good talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I gave warning that if these hostages aren’t home by that date all hell’s going to break out,” Trump said, repeating his threat on social media about releasing the Israeli captives in Gaza by the time he takes office next month.

Appearing before the news media at his Florida estate on Monday, Trump deflected a question about conversations he may have had with Russia Vladimir Putin since winning the election in November. Instead, he said he would talk about Netanyahu.

“It was a recap call more than anything else,” Trump added. He did not say when he spoke with Netanyahu.

On Monday, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister met with Adam Boehler, Trump’s special envoy for the hostages, during a private visit by Boehler to Israel.

UN envoy to Syria meets with rebel leaders and visits notorious prison

DAMASCUS — The U.N. envoy to Syria was in Damascus on Monday, holding meetings with the country’s new rebel leaders and meeting with families whose loved ones disappeared into an notorious prison during the rule of ousted President Bashar Assad.

Geir Pedersen reaffirmed the U.N.’s commitment to supporting the Syrian people in the wake of Assad’s sudden overthrow by jihadi-led rebels.

Pedersen met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the main insurgent group, and Mohammed Bashir, Syria’s interim prime minister who previously led the government in rebel-held territory.

The post-Assad transition has been surprisingly smooth. Reports of reprisals, revenge killings and sectarian violence have been minimal. Still, Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, and many of them fear the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over.

Pedersen also toured the cold concrete halls of Saydnaya Prison, long referred to as “the slaughterhouse” under Assad’s rule.

“Hopefully, what we see here is now a closed chapter in Syria’s history,” Pedersen said in a statement, after speaking with people whose relatives were detained or went missing.

Tens of thousands of people came to the prison last week looking for their family members, but only a few dozen detainees were found inside. One relative asked Pedersen on Monday if the U.N. could bring special equipment to help search for chambers hidden beneath the prison.

Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial will resume Wednesday

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not testify Tuesday in his ongoing corruption trial, after his lawyers requested his testimony be cancelled.

He testified in court Sunday and he is expected to return on Wednesday. Netanyahu took the stand for the first time in his long-running corruption trial last week, becoming the only sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant.

Netanyahu will answer to charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Netanyahu, 75, denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule.

The testimony is set to take place six hours a day, three days a week for several weeks, and will take up a significant chunk of Netanyahu’s working hours as he faces Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza as well as developments in Syria and Lebanon.

Israeli military says it intercepted a projectile from Yemen

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen that had triggered sirens across the Tel Aviv metropolitan area on Monday afternoon.

The missile was intercepted outside Israel’s borders, the military said. However, shrapnel fell on the roof of a home in the east Jerusalem, which the military said was likely from one of the Israeli interceptor missiles. There were no reports of casualties or major damage, according to Israel’s emergency services.

The Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, claimed responsibility for firing a hypersonic ballistic missile toward Tel Aviv.

The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of those weapons have been intercepted.

In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including the port city of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for more than a year — attacks they say won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

U.S. forces conducted another round of airstrikes Monday that targeted a Houthi “command and control facility” in the capital Sanaa, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to X.

Assad says he wanted to keep fighting in Syria but his Russian allies evacuated him

DAMASCUS, Syria — Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec. 8 to Russia. “I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

Death toll from Israel-Hamas war tops 45,000

Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has reached 45,028 people.

The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It said more than half of the fatalities were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The Health Ministry also said 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war.

Turkey condemns Israeli plan to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights

ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday the decision marked a “new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation,” adding that Ankara was concerned that the move would harm efforts to establish peace and stability in Syria.

“The international community must show the necessary reaction to Israel and ensure that the illegal activities of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government come to an end,” the statement read.

Qatar also condemned the decision, calling it “a new episode in a series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a blatant violation of international law.”

The Israeli government approved Netanyahu’s plan on Sunday with the aim to encourage population growth in the area.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, though the international community except for the U.S. regards it as occupied. Israeli figures show the remote territory is home to about 50,000 people, about half of them Jewish Israelis and the other half Arab Druze, many of whom still consider themselves Syrians.

Mourners in Gaza gather for funeral of Al Jazeera journalist

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In central Gaza’s Nuseirat urban refugee camp, mourners carried Monday the body of Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, from the hospital through the streets. His blue bulletproof vest rested atop him.

Al-Louh was killed the day before in a strike on a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency and Al Jazeera said had been covering rescue operations of a family wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.

Sunday’s strike also killed three civil defense workers, including the local head of the agency, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.

Israeli strike kills 10 in Gaza City

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The 10 included a family of four, Palestinian medics said Monday, as the Israel-Hamas war raged on for the 14th month in the Gaza Strip.

The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighborhood, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.

US Embassy advises Americans to leave Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria — The U.S. Embassy in Damascus advised Americans to leave Syria, saying the security situation there continues to be volatile and unpredictable with armed conflict and “terrorism throughout the country.”

The embassy, which has been closed since 2012, posted a statement on X, warning U.S. citizens who were unable to leave the country to prepare “contingency plans for emergency situations.” It didn’t give further details.

The statement also said that the U.S. government is unable to provide any routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens and those who need “emergency assistance to depart should contact the U.S. Embassy in the country they plan to enter.”

Sleeper cells of the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for deadly attacks over the past months in different parts of Syria. Despite their defeat in March 2019, the extremists still pose a threat in the war-torn country.

War monitor says Israel targets missile warehouses

DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported early Monday that Israeli airstrikes pounded missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast in the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of the (Israeli) strikes in 2012.”

The Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes.

The observatory said that “violent explosions” were heard in the coastal city of Tartous “as a result of the successive strikes and the flying of ground-to-ground missiles from the warehouses.”