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Syrian soldiers injured in Israeli airstrikes on Aleppo and Idlib

US defense secretary talks to new Israeli counterpart for first time

Nov 9, 2024 05:18 97

Syrian soldiers injured in Israeli airstrikes on Aleppo and Idlib  - 1

Syrian state news agency SANA reported a "known number" ; wounded soldiers in Israeli airstrikes in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib shortly after midnight today, AFP and Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.

A number of objects were affected. Material damage was also caused as a result of the aggression, SANA added, citing a Syrian military official.

According to the non-governmental monitoring organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the targets of the attack were military facilities.

The Israeli army has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment.

After the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in the neighboring country, targeting the Syrian army, Iranian interests and Tehran-backed groups, including the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. These attacks have become more frequent in recent weeks, notes AFP.

American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke for the first time by phone with his new Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA, citing the Pentagon.

The two discussed the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Katz, who previously served as Israel's foreign minister, took over the defense ministry from Yoav Galant, who was fired over differences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the way the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement "Hamas" was being waged. He was sworn into his new post last night.

Katz, like Galant, is from the right-wing party "Likud" of Netanyahu.

Austin reaffirmed a US commitment to reach agreements that would allow for a cessation of hostilities, the release of hostages held by "Hamas" and the return of people forced from their homes in northern Israel and South Lebanon. The head of the Pentagon also stressed the "need to improve the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza".

Earlier, the United States gave Israel 30 days to deliver humanitarian aid to the northern part of the Strip, warning that it could cut military aid to it otherwise. The ultimatum, set on October 13, expires in a matter of days.

UN experts, meanwhile, would warn that "there is a high probability" that the people in Northern Gaza are threatened with starvation in the near future, DPA reported.

A spokesman for the administration of US President Joe Biden said, quoted by Reuters, that Washington had asked Qatar to expel the leaders of "Hamas" based on its territory, after the Palestinian Islamist movement rejected the latest American proposal for a cease-fire. in Gaza and the release of the hostages.